Clean & Simple #4

This week's assignment involved converting a photo to black and white and converting digi elements to color for use in a hybrid layout.  I went strictly digi again but did get to use all the techniques.

I don't use black and white photos much, but that simple change allows so much more freedom in your color choices and really allows the photo to shine without the competing busyness of the colors. Once I had this photo converted to black and white, I chose soft calm colors to complement it.  Can you imagine how different this layout would look had I gone with the purple and navy colors in Sarah's sweater?

Clean & Simple # 3

These photos of Becca are ten years old, but the story hasn't changed.  The layout came together super quick, but the journaling took me awhile.  And when all was said & done, I couldn't even fill up the available journaling space.  Just not enough to say about Becca and her love of our cats.  But I'm sure I'll use this template again when I have more to say about a single subject!

Just A Quote For Friday

Clean & Simple #2

The week 2 assignment was an 8.5x11 page highlighting our blessings.

The Photoshop Elements lessons included wrapping the text around the numbers (which were png files) and learning how to break apart a word art element (the page title) into separate layers so that you can recolor different parts of it.  I also learned about the color swatch feature of PSE that allows you to save swatches for reuse on a layout (nice when you are recoloring multiple items and don't want to keep trying to "find" the same color each time or jot down the RGB numbers).

For those of you who find the above paragraph to be greek, no worries, ignore it!

I just took Cathy's 8.5x11 template, stuck it on a piece of 12x12 paper and added some embellishments for fun!  For most of the class the template was a white background. I just can't seem to bring myself to leave it alone!

A Simple Moment in April

I missed out on Alexa's "Simply A Moment" in March and found myself wishing I'd made the time.  I've decided to keep these layouts at 8.5 x 11 and keep them altogether in a single binder (as opposed to filing them away in my Library of Memories albums), along with my layouts from Sian's "Pick Your Precious" Story Telling Sundays in a binder. They end up being short essays about life and love and the little things that matter most.  I think it will someday be a very interesting book to read through!

For more Simple Moment stories, check out the links on Alexa's page!

Clean & Simple

I'm taking Cathy Zielski's "Clean and Simple" class over at Big Picture Classes.  For those of you familiar with her style, it is graphic design based, minimal (if any) embellishment, and generally a white background.  She has awesome ideas about where we can go with scrapbooking!

Here is my assignment for Week 1:

Of course, I couldn't leave Cathy's design alone.  I had to change the white background to a pretty patterned paper, a script font for "Me" and the initials, and add a butterfly.  But then, that's what makes me Me!

Just A Quote for Friday