I recently found a quote from StoryPeople (a great source for journaling a variety of topics) that I’ve been itching to use on a page about my husband and me.  We don’t typically exchange Valentine’s Day gifts, but I thought a simple digital layout with those perfectly sweet words would be a something small my husband would appreciate. 

I had several gorgeous papers and embellishments at my disposal for this page, but I decided to keep the layout simple so that the focus would be on the beautiful photos and heartfelt words. I followed these steps to make my photos sepia. I also added drop shadows to all my layers—a first for me. I have to say, if you stay away from digital because you don’t want your layouts to look quite so flat—reconsider!  Adding drop shadows is a quick and easy way to make digital layouts pop. 

To add a drop shadow in Photoshop (I used a Mac), follow these simple steps: At the top right of the screen, click on the arrow next to Styles and Effects to open the options.  Change the two drop-down menus below to read Layer Styles and Drop Shadows. Then choose a drop shadow style (I used Soft Edge). You can adjust the appearance of your drop shadow by going to your layer in the Layers palette (bottom right of your screen), and double-clicking on the f. 

What crafty gifts do you have planned for your valentine?  Share your thoughts here! And check out our other recent posts for great valentine card inspiration (click here, here, here and here)




Digital Supplies:
Orange paper, frame and clip: Michelle Coleman’s exclusive MM kit, Wild Sorbet, available for FREE here
Green paper and bracket: Katie Pertiet’s Flowering Horizons kit, available exclusively with Paper + Pixels
Font: Beedey, available for free from Scrappin’ Fun

Photos courtesy Jennifer Disney Photography


Kristin

This past weekend my sister Annie came in town to hang out and to tap into my stash of scrapbooking supplies. One of her friends is getting married and a scrapbook is being put together by all of the bride’s friends as a shower gift. Each girl was asked to make 2 pages to put inside the album, and Annie decided to focus her pages on a few high school memories.

Now, Annie is just as creative as the next person, but before Friday, her scrapbooking background consisted of cutting letters and phrases out of magazines like YM and Cosmo…so she felt pretty intimidated when confronted with all the scrapbooking supplies available at the craft store.

To ease her into creating her first official “layout”, I tried to break the process down into steps. First, we looked through her pictures and narrowed it down to the ones she wanted to use, which ended up being 3 photos for each layout. Then, I thought it would be good for her to look through some finished layouts to get a feel for what style she was drawn to, so I pulled out 601 Great Scrapbooking Ideas for her to flip through (can’t get more layouts in one book than that!). I told her to look for three-photo layouts that she liked, which helped her get ideas for how to place the photos on the page. She, like me, favored the simpler designs, and after a few hours Friday night and Saturday morning, we completed two really fun layouts.

I had such a good time getting crafty with my sister and re-introducing her to a hobby that we both loved so much when we were younger. Have you “shared the love” for scrapbooking with anyone recently? Check out our Getting Started section for tips on doing just that...or leave us a comment to share your own ideas!

Eileen

When Kristin mentioned wanting to experiment with wire, I knew I had to get in on the fun. I am a fidgety person, always twiddling something around my finger, so when I picked up a piece of wire, my first instinct was to wrap it around any object in arms reach. The lucky object nearby: a stylus. I started by wrapping the wire around the stylus a few times (see image at right). Then I carefully lifted the coiled piece off the stylus and pulled the ends to separate the coils slightly.


The words were created in a very freehand manner. I made the “be” first, making sure to leave plenty of extra wire after the “e”. Then I took a separate piece of wire and spelled out “mine”, again, making sure to leave plenty of wire at the beginning and end of the word (for adding extra coils!). I combined the two words together by twisting their ends into the heart shape.

The hard part actually came when I tried putting my wire creation onto paper. It just didn’t POP like I wanted it to. I decided to paint the wire white (using acrylic paint), which helped a lot, and then added some strips of cardstock to the background to give the card a little kick. Finally, I attached the wire element using strips of Therm O Web Zips. All in all, it was a fun new material that I'm excited about adding to my craft supplies! For more fun wire ideas, check out projects in Scraptastic!, Collage Lost & Found and Bead on a Wire.

Warning: Also like Kristin, I found this to be highly addictive. The projects are actually quite quick, but you may find it hard to step away from the craft table!

Eileen

Our first Ask the Masters book came out in 2006 and focused on scrapbook solutions for a multitude of topics including journaling, photography and overall design. In 2007, our second installment arrived, uncovering many of the Masters secrets for getting the most out of their scrapbook supplies (see some of our inspired projects here, here and here). Now, we couldn’t just leave you hanging…so we’ve got a 3rd installment to the Ask the Masters series in the works, and this time, we’re drilling the Masters about their tips, tricks and oh so cool solutions for organization!
As I’ve mentioned in some earlier posts, I’m kind of an organizing nut. However, I’m quickly realizing that even I have some stuff to learn in this department. We’ve only just begun to receive work from the Masters, and already I’ve been inspired to go home and make some tweaks in my workspace at home! Unfortunately, it’s still too early to leak any sneak peaks (the book isn’t scheduled to hit shelves until this fall)…but the good news is you can always check in with the current Masters at their blog!!  And, no fear, as the book release date approaches we’ll be sure to keep you posted!

Eileen

With all the buzz about digi/hybrid scrapping this week – I thought I’d share a related post from MM Master (and digi scrapper) Tracie Radtke. Tracie wrote about a super simple digital template for logging all those “photo a day” shots so many of you are trying to capture this year (see photo). So cool – it made me want to start the challenge myself...even if I am a few weeks late getting started. Check out Tracie's entire post here.