Project Life® Title Page

Keepin' it simple.  I used cards from the Inspire Edition in my Project Life® app.  I added to the 'about us' card and signed the 'written by' card.  I used Ali's number stickers for the year.  Not sure how far in to 2018 this will go, if at all, so I put the stickers on the page protector in case I needed to edit.  I dig it.  Love the brush script and water color.

A Shout Out to the Engineers of Scrapbooking

Engineer (en- juh neer) : to arrange, manage, or carry through by skillful or artful contrivance

This weekend, I celebrated my son's graduation from high school.  Being a Pinterest-phile, I spent some time strolling the boards looking for decoration ideas.  It is sufficient to say that I got a little overwhelmed.  I mean, come on...there are cookies you can have made in the image of your graduate!  This was a challenge for sure.  

I decided that my love of pictures needed to come to the forefront of the occasion.  I was down on myself, as I have this notion that my son has taken second place to my career for quite some time.  Lots of mama (real or imagined) guilt has been placed in my mind.  Two Master's degrees.  Two National Board certification processes.  Four different schools in which I have taught.  Dealing with my depression, anxiety, OCD (undiagnosed), and workaholism.  This kid has lived through it all. 

When I started going through photos, I realized that, one way or another, I had a LOT of moments captured in the last 8 years that I have been a diehard scrapper.  I realized that a lot of my "work" for this party was already done.  I have a few engineers of scrapbooking to thank for this.  It's time they have their shout outs.

Cathy Zielske

This pin inspired me to use some of my ribbon and my photos as a gallery of sorts.  As I looked for photos and realized many were archived already, I decided to use Cathy's digital templates to create a stairway that was a journey through time.

Looks like a lot of work, eh?  What helped is that I had long ago purchased Cathy's School Album layered template set and had put in photos of my son a while ago, only needing to finish junior and senior year for the party.  I then printed these on cardstock (although you can keep it purely digital if you wanted), and then displayed them on ribbons (Stampin' Up!) going up my stairs.  

I also took a few classes of Cathy's through Big Picture Scrapbooking.  These have resulted in some of my favorite scrapbook pages ever.  I realized that instead of recreating the wheel, I needed to just use the scrapbooks as part of the decor for the party.

I placed a few scrapbooks opened here and there to some favorite pages about my son, and had various other scrapbooks available for guests to peruse if they wished.  Which brings me to the next few engineers of scrapbooking I feel deserve recognition.

Becky Higgins

Project Life changed my entire scrapbook flow.  Boom.  I was able to display a good amount of life that I did not spend that much time doing to get a nice-looking final product.  One of the main displays was this one, where I asked my kiddo to document a week in his life.  

Now, the Project Life app is becoming my favorite, easiest way of documenting life.  I have been a "Lifer" since the beginning of Becky's adventure, having been a fan of hers through Creating Keepsakes.  Her ideas in pocket scrapbooking have helped me get memories saved in a lot less time.  I still obsess, just not as acutely.

Ali Edwards

Story.  That is what is synonymous with Ali Edwards.  While it is important to take the pictures and enjoy the craft, it's not "done" without the words that tell the story.  Ali's designs have been instrumental in my recent scrapbooking adventures.  I have "borrowed" her layout ideas and made them my own.  This little gem documenting prom was a way to pull together all that weekend offered in a timeline form.

Stacy Julian

Oh, how I adored Simple Scrapbooks magazine.  And then, it was no more.  Along came a little site called Big Picture Scrapbooking, where I could take virtual classes with scrapbooking geniuses while I was in the comfort of my own home.  All from the mind of Stacy Julian.  She is simply brilliant.

Thus ends my ode to the Engineers of Scrapbooking.  I have other people who inspire me, but these ladies gave me the outlets to create awesome things in very little time.  I thank them for their innovation and willingness to take chances in an unstable industry.

Kindergarten

A few years ago, Cathy Zielske, after the demise of Simple Scrapbooks (moment of silence...), jumped into the wonderful world of creating digital scrapbooking templates.  I have been what is considered a "hybrid" scrapbooker for several years.  I still love cutting paper and adhering photos and such.  What I have learned, however, about the traditional form of scraopbooking, now that I have had books for a few years:

#1 Pictures printed from my printer, even though it's a photo printer, fade.  I LOVE off-sizes of pictures, so getting the ol' 4 x 6" huge discount processed photos does not mesh with most of my scrapbooking design desires.  I find it limiting.  I believe that I have probably acquired a better printer and better paper over the years, but my earliest self-printed photos are fading.  Sigh.
#2 Embellishments like to come unglued.  Adhesives are not always true to adhering.  Things fall off pages.
#3 Embellishments dislike page protectors (or vice versa?).  Scarpbooks that are bumpy and lumpy do not like to store well.
#4 D-ring scrapbooks, which I love-love-LOVE, are not friends of gravity when they sit on a shelf for a while.  Ever had a binder that just sits on a shelf fora while?  And then you open it and everything's crooked?  Yep.  That's what I mean.
#5 No matter what, my craft storing areas in my house have been merciless.  When it was the basement, it was too humid.  Now it's the loft, and the afternoon sun is brutal.
#6 Traditional scrapbooking always requires lots of room for me to spread out.  I don't always have the time to tidy up after myself.

Enter Designer Digitals,with a HUGE selection of everything digital including designers like Cathy and Ali Edwards.  I would buy a few things, like paper and such, and then still print them out in the end.

A bit ago, I purchased this template after seeing what Cathy did with it.  It was a while ago, and I can't find Cathy's blog posts on it, but as soon as I saw what she created, I bought the template.  I decided that I would  use this to document Max's schooling and perhaps go back and place some of what I can find of Ignatius' schooling in there as well.

So, what do you need to do this digi stuff?  Some sort of photo editing software, such as Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, or, for the budget-consious, Paint.Net (freeware).  You also need a relative comfort level with these or the ability and desire to learn.  Once you know a few simple steps to the programs, you are golden.  No graphic designer degree required...I promise!  Designer Digitals has tutorials, I took a community education class at Heartland Community College, Cathy puts tutorials on her blog, and Jessica Sprague has excellent online classes.

I am still on the fence between digi and traditional.  These few pages were a LOT quicker to produce than would have been so for a traditional scrapbook.  They look great, very clean, very simple, very Cathy.  Some digital elements look JUST like embellishments, such as brads and ribbons, if preferred.  Cathy presented this as a hybrid when she did it.  It could easily be printed for an 8.5 x 11" book if I wanted to go that route.  We shall see.  I have these pages saved as a PDF file.  Please click on the images for a larger view.

DigiMessing

I love "real" scrapbooks.  I love my kids being able to look through a book.  Something tangible.  I loved looking through photo albums as I grew up.  It's like comfort food for my mind.

I must say, though, I really love the ease of digital scrapbooking.  It feeds my need for design... everything looks cute in digital.  With Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), I can make a page in minutes, with the right elements saved on my computer.  The image above I made in maybe 5 minutes, not counting the time for downloading.  It's three layers: background paper and two .png files, all layered in Photoshop.  And it's cute.  And the elements for it were free downloads from Scrapbooks, Etc.  Crazy, right? 

The thing about digi is I need a kick-butt larger printer, like a beautiful Epson (to the tune of $300-$400) to print them out in a fashion is worth the ink.  I can use my 8 1/2 x 11 HP Scanjet, but now that I saw what the Epson can do, I am, yes, coveting it.

For now, I think I am what one would call a hybrid scrapper.  I still like the layered elements in real life.  But digi is quite fun indeed.

CathyZ has gone digi

Check it out:

http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/digital-scrapbooking/

Love her!