A Gift Album and ANOTHER Use for My Digital Studio (with mini tutorial)

Last weekend Tom and I met friends at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, MI.  Kristen brought me the cutest tri-fold shutter album!

The ribbon wraps around and goes under the medallion to close it.

Very pretty on the inside.

It is really long so I had to stand on a chair to get a pic of the whole thing.  There are two tri- fold shutter panels so it has as lot of motion when opened.

I wanted to add pictures of our day together right away so I ran to Meijer and had pictures printed (regular 4 X 6 size).  When I got home though I realized I had a problem as the pictures were too big to fit in the small spaces.  I was trying to think of a solution when I had a "lightbulb moment".   It occurred to me that I could use My Digital Studio to make the pictures the PERFECT size for each space.

Here is how to do it:
1.  Open a New Project - Photo Album - 8.5 X 11 Portrait - Create Your Own - Name your project - Blank page.
2. Measure the area where you want your photo to go and determine the size you want your photo to be.  (I wanted to be able to see the cardstock background so I made my main photos 1/2 inch smaller than the cardstock layer.)
3.  Add a photo box and use the rulers at the edges to make your photo box the correct size.
4.  Continue measuring and adding boxes until you have one for each area of your album. ( I copy and pasted 3 of one size and 2 of the other to get the sizes exactly the same.)

5.  Click and drag photos to the boxes and they will be perfectly sized for your album!
6.  Add mats and stamps if desired and print on photo paper.

I was so happy with how easy this was to do and there was the added bonus of being able to add mats and stamps in coordinating colors!!

There were some one-of-kind cars in the museum that were just incredible.

They have a great old fashioned Shell station.

Kristen and I had a great time talking about stamping (and some about cars, too!)

Many car owners brought their masterpieces to show off.

What a fun way to spend a summer day!

On Point Scallop Square Cards and Gift Box Plus New UStamp Announcement

This is a glimpse of my second project I designed for the Big Shot UStamp session going on right now.  It is a set of four cards and 6 X 6 envelopes that fit inside a box with a matching pen.

The cards are made from various Big Shot dies.  Lots of layers and cool natural colors.

You can join at anytime!

Not only that but the next session of UStamp- Early Summer Edition 2010 has been announced.  And I am happy to say I am returning as a Guest Designer.  Right now you can enter a random drawing to win a FREE PASS to this session by clicking on the banner below and posting a comment on Dawn's blog between now and May 31st.   13 winners will be drawing through a random drawing.  Winners will be announced June 1.

I will have more information on another free pass giveaway at a latter date so be sure to keep checking here for updates!

My Digital Studio - Multiple Pages with one layout

I LOVE taking pictures.  There are boxes and boxes of pictures from my pre-digital days.  There are files upon files on my hard drive (and safely backed up on an off-site external drive) now that everything is digital.  But I have almost none in photo albums or scrapbooks.  Kind of overwhelming.

But I am finding that with My Digital Studio I am getting more pages done so I can have scrapbooks to give my children.

It was sort of a revelation to me that I can make multiple pages using the exact same layout for each of my kids by just changing the pictures.  I am sure this is nothing new to a seasoned digital scrapbooker but it was for me.  I spent some time creating the first page and then the next FIVE pages where done in a matter of minutes!

I started with this sketch:

And made my first page:  (The background papers are from the geometric lines DSP pack - great for outdoorsy type layouts).

Then I inserted a duplicate page, deleted the pictures and in a matter of minutes I changed the pictures from one child to the next:

With just a few journaling changes I had 3 pages done each with unique pictures and details:

Next I inserted a duplicate page but as a mirror image.  I again deleted the pictures, added new ones and rearranged a few things and a page to complement the first was done.

I added  new pictures:

and changed a few words:

Three sets of double pages from one layout!   Maybe there is hope to get some albums done yet.

The Stamping Garden

Wow! Am I excited!  I was asked to be a guest designer for The Stamping Garden online class that Cindy Grantham is doing.  You can learn all details by clicking on the above banner.   It will run from June 21-June 27.   Cindy's blog is filled with wonderful projects!  I love her use of little embellishments that adds the perfect touch to her samples.  Cindy is a gracious host and will make this a FUN class you can be sure.

My Digital Studio Frame Tutorial

Today concludes my three part tutorial for doing four layouts on one page and tips for using overlay stamps.

While making the blue layout  I was experimenting with various frame ideas to go behind the oval picture and really liked the end result.

Here is the step by step for this layout:
1.  Add the blue flowered DSP as shown in the the first tutorial
2.  Add the overlay stamp from the Vintage Overlay set.  (You need this layer to be at the back so you can work on top of it.
3.  Resize the overlay stamp as shown in the second tutorial.
4. Add a photo box.  Change the shape to oval.
5.  Add a mat using the color picker to choose a dark blue from the flower on the DSP.
6.  Add the swirl stamp from the Simple Friendship set.  Use the color picker to color it a medium dark blue.
7. Copy and paste a second swirl.  Use the "mirror image" button to rotate one swirl.  Position and send backward behind the photo.
8.  Use the square punch to make a rectangle that covers the oval plus a border.
9.  Fill it with the blue DSP.  Double click on it to open the crop box and move it to center the two main blue flowers.
10.  Reduce the opacity to the desired level and send backward behind the swirls.
11.  Add another square punch and resize to cover the DSP plus a small border.  Paper fill with Whisper White and send backward behind the DSP layer.
12.  Add a third square punch and resize to cover the white layer plus a small border.  Use the color picker to choose a green from the DSP.  Send backward behind the white layer.
13.  Add the "Cherish" stamp from Baroque Motifs set and "Every Moment" from the Enjoy Every Moment set.  Use the color picker to change both to a dark blue.

This is the fourth layout:

I did not add a lot to this one as the background is very bold on its own and already had the gray distressing in the upper half.  I simply used the color picker for the mat and stamps.

Using Overlay Stamps Tutorial and other Goodies

Yesterday I posted a tutorial for how to make four layouts on one page.  There are several reasons you might want to do this: cost savings on printing,  you wish to make 6 X 6 pages to fit in an album, or you wish to make A4 size layouts that you can mount on a card or cardstock base.

Today I am going to show a few tips I have discovered as I made these four layouts.  Especially how to use overlay stamps as several have asked me how to work with these tools.

TIP:  When you purchase the Vintage Overlay set they appear in two places.  Both in the "Stamps" section and in the "Designer Kits" under Designer Series Paper.  I prefer to use these as stamps rather than designer paper for several reasons.  First, you can not change the color of the overlays in the DSP section (At least not that I have been able to figure out)  They are a grayish color and you can reduce the opacity but they cover the entire layer behind it.  In other words it blocks out any paper or embellishments behind it unless the opacity is reduced.  Second, you can easily change the size of stamps to fit your layout.

Isn't the background paper just lovely?  It called Summertime Splendor - a just released set of Stampin" UP! digital DSP.  I chose four of the papers to work with for this project. Refer to yesterday's tutorial of how I got to this point.

Step by step for the orange layout:

1.  Add a photo box and photo.  Use the photo effects button to change the photo to sepia.
2. Add a mat.  Using the color picker choose a dark orange from the flower on the DSP.
3. Add the text.  Using the color match button choose a medium orange from the flower.
4.  Browse the stamps for the Define Your Life set.  Use the Choose Color button just above the Browse button- choose the color picker and choose a lighter orange for the stamps.  Add the now colored "because" stamp to the bottom right of the page.
5.  Browse the stamps for the Presto Patterns Overlay stamps. Use the Chose Color button and color picker to choose a medium orange from the background paper.  Double click to add the stamp.  Double click again to bring up the "object settings" screen.

 6. Make sure to keep the "Keep Proportions" button checked.  Change the width to 300 and press return.  This will change the height to the correct size.

TIP: The Overlays are sized for 12 X 12.  So to perfectly fit a 6 X 6 layout reduce the width by 50%.

7. Position overlay on top of layout.  I did not take a screen shot at this point but it would look like this with the other elements already in place.

8. Reduce the opacity to 20% or to desired level.
9.  Using Arrange - Order - Send Backward, send the overlay backward until it is under photo but still on top of the DSP.

This purple layout also uses an overlay stamp:

Step by Step (the DSP is already in place as shown above)
1. Add the photo box and photo.
2. Browse stamps for the Vintage Vogue stamp set.  Use the color picker to change the stamps to a dark purple from the DSP background.  Add the border stamp to the page and grab the corner to resize to fit the photo.  Use "copy and paste" to duplicate and "flip" to turn the border to fit.  Repeat for side borders.
3. Add text in a dark purple.
4. The "Once Upon a Time" stamp is from the stamp set by the same name.
5.  The overlay stamp is from the Presto Patterns Overlays as well.  Reduce size of the stamp by 50% as shown above. I did not reduce the opacity on this layout as I liked the bold effect against the strong background.

Tomorrow I will show you how I made that really cool frame around the photo in the blue layout.

Butterfly Daisy Chain Card Set

Each morning when UStamp in is session I pop over there and check out the days project (or projects).  It is such a fun surprise when my project is posted.  Well, today is my day!  Here is a peek at it.

It is a set of four cards in a little holder.

Of course it features lots of Big Shot dies and even uses My Digital Studio.

For the complete tutorial and lots of other ones too visit UStamp HERE.