july in pictures

I've had a few girlfriends ask me about the monthly digital scrapbooking. I thought I'd take a minute to document the details.

1.This first link is the link to Cathy Z's page with all the how-to's and what-for's. I use purely digital and I love it. It's fast, my friend. Once you get this down it is possible to plug and chug a months worth of pictures in two hours. No kidding.

2. The templates can be purchased at designer digitals by clicking this link.

3. Now, to learn how to use these digital templates, as well as the basics of photoshop, you really should order Jessica Sprague's Up and Running with Photoshop class. During week three there is a tutorial on how to use digital templates. Watch this, and then watch your scrapbooking life change forever.

4. I print my pages at http://www.scrapbookpictures.com/ I did my first batch in matte, but I MUCH prefer the glossy (my second batch)...they look much more professional. And for the record, they have never been able to process my credit card on this site. They can take my order, but I always have to call the next day during working hours to give them my credit card over the phone. It's a pain. And when they answer the phone it's something like "Hello Instyprints" and so clearly this little printing website is just an offshoot of a local printshop. But the quality of the printing and the price make up for the hassel.

I did my July pictures last night and am finding that some months Rory and I never take pictures of ourselves. It made me smile to think of how this will change when the baby comes, documenting our own little family ALL THE TIME. I also realized how great my blog is for making me take pictures of the ordinary. I really love that I have pics of the orange goo I had to drink for my doctor's appointment. I know the camera was whipped out purely for the blog that day, but now I love that I have that picture. It tells a whole (sicky) story of its own...

my scrapbook solution.

I have been tossing ideas around in my head for what I am going to do scrapbook-wise when the baby comes. Some of the ideas have been very grand. Some of them have been fabulous, but unrealistic. Then I found Cathy Z's templates for "a month in review." I bought the digital templates and in two hours I had made seven pages of layouts, ordered the cardstock version online, and considered my month of April pictures documented. Man, I felt good.

It's basically just cropping pictures. But let me promise you, these are pictures that would have never seen the light of day unless I found a quick solution to get them printed and into albums. I'm just that backlogged. Now that April is done, I'm hopeful to work backwards and see if I can't do pages for all of 2010.

The funny thing about this process, is that it is essentially old-school scrapbooking, when you would print your pictures and place them in an album immediately. There are no embellishments. There isn't even the responsibility of journaling for every single event. I like having one page of journaling at the end...this month it was mostly explaining who we were with for what occasion- not a lot of personality. But again, at least these pictures are compiled, printed and put in an album.

This week I will work on my May layouts. I really think I will be able to keep up with this plan, since two hours of scrapping equals one month of picture documentation. I can do this. By the time baby arrives, I hope to be a well-oiled machine.

documenting seven ordinary days

For years now I have been following Ali Edwards, guru of simple, storytelling scrapbooking. Somehow she makes it all seem less complicated, more doable, and every time her layouts are stunning and relatively uncluttered.

Every year she chooses one week, seven full days, to document the every day happenings in their family. Our scrapbooks often highlight the highs of the year...trips, holidays, special occasions, and this is all great. But in between those highlights are a whole lot more ordinary days that actually are a more accurate depiction of our life.

I've observed this week for three years now, simply by doing that: observing Ali as she does this project. But behold! Something has come over me this year, and I'm in. I didn't participate the past few years because I thought since we don't have kids, there wouldn't really be a whole lot to document in terms of actual things happening. But looking back, had I started this project, I'd have a week of our "normal" life while we lived in Montana, our "normal" when we lived in Minnesota and our "normal" last year in Nebraska. And I'm already bummed I didn't jump on this wagon earlier.

So this year, I'm grabbing my camera and will take pictures of the ordinary: my daily bowl of raisin nut bran that gets me started each day, my husband picking away at his laptop, my work, our church, and all the other ordinary things that given a bit of time and perspective, won't all seem so ordinary.

All of the details can be found here...it's a lot of digging around to get a feel, but at its core, it's creating a scrapbook of ordinary life, grocery shopping receipts, to-do lists and I'm excited to get started.

Anybody want to do this with me?!! It begins Monday April 19th.

fun and games

template by the great Jessica Sprague and supplies from Crystal Wilkerson

A few Christmas' ago, Stumblebum was introduced to the Groves Family Christmas. Lisa brought it, and I remember the game made for the best pictures. We played again this year, and clearly the picture taking opportunities did not disappoint.

The game is easy. It is your basic game of charades, but before you act out your list of words, you roll two dice. On each die there are different things you have to do while acting out your card such as fingers crossed, hand over eyes, hand on head, eyes closed, hum a song, on one leg etc...

I recommend this game for families that need a full participation game for all ages.

***

I am trying to get my christmas pictures into digital layouts right away. Digital scrapbooking is so quick, and I am beginning to utilize ready-made templates. It means that the Stumblebum layout above took me about 15 minutes to put together...not bad for getting so many pictures showcased on one page.

The template I used is up at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ as a free download. Plus, Jessica has a video tutorial of how to use the template right on that main page (just scroll down). If you have Photoshop or if you have ever wanted to get a better idea of how digital scrapbooking works, I recommend you buzz over to Jessica's website to watch the tutorial. I think you'll be glad you did.

our abc's

I spent a good part of the weekend working on Our Family ABC book. My mom had this fabulous idea to use our family pictures to make an alphabet book for the grandkids for Christmas. It was super fun to put together as it meant I spent a lot of time looking through all of our family pictures. There were letters that proved to be tricky though- I didn't have much for O, X or Z, but I got creative. And thanks to shutterfly and their "each additional book 50% off" deal, it didn't break the bank either.

ABC Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

abc book

My mom had this super fun idea to make an alphabet book for her five grandkids using pictures from our family to show things that begin with each letter. My brother has three kids and my sister has two kids and the five kids span five years of age: Penelope is 1, Sonna is 2, Simon is 3, Mara is 4 and Claire is 5. One, two, three, four, five.

We worked this weekend picking our digital papers and lettering and these are my first two pages. The picture of Simon in the doll bed was a hysterical morning at my parent's last thanksgiving when apparently he got out of his bed and couldn't find it again, but found this doll bed and fell back asleep! I still laugh out loud when I see that picture. And Claire had a similar experience when she (at her own house) fell asleep in Betty-the-dog's bed.

I've got fun pictures that mom has gathered for all 26 letters and I'm so excited to put it all together. I'll keep you posted!

Final shout out for Jessica Sprague!

Once again, if you're looking to learn something new, want to stretch yourself creatively and enjoy gathering stories and memories, BE SURE TO GO OVER TO JessicaSprague and sign up for her FREE Holidays in Hand class.

You do not need to have photoshop for this class. And you do not even need to have time within the next week to complete the class. It is self-paced and the materials are yours forever, so if you don't get to the class until January, you'll be fine. It's free, and it's a beautiful introduction to Jessica, a fantastic teacher who has taught me literally everything I know about digital scrapbooking. Registration ends on Monday night at midnight, so jump on board. It's going to be a good time!

(this is a picture of the book we made last year in her free class. It was a lot of material that we printed off to make this fabulous book that has lists and lists of writing prompts, conversation starters and creative topics for scrapbooking. I am guessing the Holidays in Hand class will be similiar, except with a Thanksgiving and Christmas emphasis...)

A FREE Jessica Sprague Class!!!

I have a friend named Jessica, but she doesn't really even know who I am. But that's okay. This friend has taught me so much about photoshop, digital papers, clipping masks and all sorts of other lovely things all related to digital scrapbooking. But more than those things, I have learned a new sort of empowerment and joy in learning something new. It feels so good to be challenged, to work hard, to grunt at the computer and then to tinker until it does what I want it to do.

Jessica Sprague is an online teacher and is so calm and helpful in her video tutorials that I just keep coming back for more. And if you want to jump on this train, I recommend doing it now...
Because, Jessica Sprague is offering a FREE one week class to help get you started. This is an introductory class and you do not need to have photoshop or any sort of computer skills other than the ability to use a printer. My mom and I took a free class last year and we both really enjoyed it. So sign up with us! Registration closes on Sunday and IT'S FREE!!! And you'll love my friend Jessica who has no idea what sort of a one-sided friendship the two of us share...

back from vacation...

Today I left these lovely ladies in Montana, and flew home to the love of my life. It's a good thing I love Rory so much, because leaving these girls was really hard. Mara pointed out many times during my four days there, "I am growing bigger because...my legs are way longer" or "because I can see out my window better in my carseat!"

I soaked up the Flathead Valley, soaked in every moment of sister time, and laughed hard with her strong, opinionated, hysterical girls. Jedd was in Minnesota for most of the time, so it really just was a good ol' girls get together. We built forts, played with glitter glue, played lots of candy land and did a 64 piece strawberry shortcake puzzle close to 64 times, watched little orphan Annie, went out for hot chocolate, played at the park, celebrated Annika's birthday a bit early with a tea party and hung out on a beautiful dock on Flathead Lake.

The good news? Only 49 days until I see these guys again at Christmas!!!

Every day life scrapbooking

This has been a funny scrapbook class because a lot of the layouts were designed for families with kids. So the whole book is ending up VERY Rory and Becca centered. But I have started to embrace this fact, grateful that I can use some of our more random pictures like coffee cups and helium balloons given after my last day of summer camp, into my albums. Usually I am more of a trip-specific scrapbooker, but I think this album will fill in the everydays in between.

Chapter Two: Us.

I am so excited about this week of scrapbooking. All of the assignments have to do with family.

Scanned + Scrapped = Success

I am completing one layout a day in this Jessica Sprague class. I would post more, but this first week the pages were "all about me" and it just feels very vain. But these last two pages were less about me and more about what makes me me. I borrowed the scanner from work and all my mom's photo albums a few weeks ago so I could start scrapbooking with pictures from my childhood. What a joy! I love mixing old pictures in with the current ones. So fun.

These scrapbook pages are set up as templates, so I simply drop the paper and pictures in and play around in photoshop until I'm satisfied. It means that some of the layouts I adore and others I can handle, but don't love. (ie: I adore the "influences" layout, and can handle this layout below. What it really means is that scrapbooking has never been so easy. Ever. I will print these out either as 12x12's or 8x8's (I am thinking 8x8) and throw them in an album and tada! An album made with one layout a day!

Another Jessica Sprague class!

Well, she's my fav. I just started another Jessica Sprague class and hope to post my finished pages here. This class is called Beautiful Evidence and is all about the beautiful evidence of a enjoyed life.

My other fav is Rory, who discontinued our lost sprint card and hooked us up with a home internet service. He actually said it was a blessing in the end because with this new plan we're saving $50 a month on internet. I suppose all is well that ends well, but man, I wonder where that internet card went!

Vintage Baby.

I am taking a Photo Editing class right now and just learned how to vintage hand-tint my pictures. I'll tell you what...not all pictures should be vintage hand-tinted! Rory and I do not look very good washed out with rosie cheeks! But Sonna does. So I'll share this picture from two winters ago.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Miss Sunshine

My new skill from Jessica Sprague is turning pictures Sepia and then bringing back the color in just a few select details. This is my niece Mara. I love everything about this girl...especially her free spirit.

Jessica Sprague Classes!

Yesterday I started my second online class with Jessica Sprague. I cannot tell you how much I LOVE these classes and look forward to them starting. I woke up early on a MONDAY MORNING (and I get up at 6:45 anyway!) just to check my email to find out what our first assignment was. In each lesson we create a digital scrapbooking page through Photoshop and I love my sweet new skills. Here are a few of the pages I have created. If you are at all computer saavy or scrappy, be sure to check out http://www.jessicasprague.com/ Love her.