Finishing Out Clean & Simple

I've finally finished the last lesson for Clean & Simple, the Cathy Zielski 4 Experts class over at BPC that ended on June 30th.  I purposefully passed on Lesson 11 which was a mini album that I had no present need for - I will keep it in mind for a future project if the need arises.

Lesson 12 was a two page make-it-from-scratch layout that had us creating our own template and then filling it in.  Cathy's was titled "Hello Life" and was really meaningful. I went a little more light-hearted and created this layout about our recent trip to D.C.

Of course, Cathy's layout was backed onto plain kraft cardstock, but you know me and fun grungy papers!

Having successfully completed this entire class (keeping my own intention of "finish what you start") I have to say I LOVED IT! Every assignment (yes, even the one I chose not to do for now) was meaningful and the skills built upon one another. Even though I've been a digi-scrapper for about three years now, I learned new tricks with every lesson.  If you have any interest in hybrid or digital scrapbooking and ever have the opportunity to take this class (I'm assuming BPC will bring it back as a self-paced class), I highly recommend it!  In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that the first four lessons were worth the price of admission and the next eight were just icing on the cake!

Clean & Simple - 9 & 10

I have to say, I'm pretty darned proud of myself at this moment for keeping up with this class and doing ALL of the assignments!!!

Here's week 9:

The assignment called for an 8.5x11 layout with a 4 photo grid of places we love, but after choosing these three, I honestly couldn't come up with a fourth that felt worthy of this group. So I edited the photo grid to change it to 12x12 layout and to allow for a 3 photo grid.  And that Jessica Sprague kraft background paper is still one of my favorite papers of all time!

Week 10 also called for 8.5x11 but since we were learning to create our own template ENTIRELY FROM SCRATCH... well, I just started off with the 12x12 background and went from there.

We learned to create our own photo clipping masks and how to use guides to keep everything lined up. I think I will now feel comfortable creating my own templates. One more thing I want to figure out though is how to put thin white lines between the photos. I know that placing photos all next to each other like this is the latest rage, but I don't love it.  We still have two more weeks to go, so I hope that lesson is coming up!

Clean & Simple - 7 & 8

 Last week Cathy gave us a "no journaling" layout and taught us some tips on creating our own title block. I finally learned how to use a "guide" in PSE. Definitely some new skills coming out of this class!

This week's class also had us creating our own title (with some very close work on lining things up) and our own text box.  Doing this stuff from scratch really makes me appreciate templates even more!!

Clean & Simple #6

Week 6 was an 8.5x11 layout featuring a then/now story.  I did it and was happy with it.  Then I looked at other layouts in the gallery and got some ideas from fellow classmates...

And changed it up to a 12x12 just by adding more paper and borders.  The heart borders are from Krystal Hartley's newest release - Basically Edgy #6.  The papers are from a very old blog train freebie kit by Bohemian Art and I couldn't find that designer online now.

Which version should I print for our album???

More Clean & Simple

Having already used the Week Four assignment for a layout about the relationship between Jay & Sarah, I decided I needed to do this one just about Sarah

and this one just about Jay.  Isn't it amazing how different you can make the same template look?

And then for Week 5 I decided to skip the template Cathy Zielski had created, but used elements from it to create my layout for the assignment which was to document a typical day in the life of...

Well, I chose me... but not a typical day at all - I chose iNSD! :)

And yes, this is a real Project Life plastic page protector and hybrid layout!

And did I mention that I'm also doing LOAD this month???  Of course, all three of these layouts have met LOAD requirements as well.  And I'll be back another day to share what else I've been up to for LOAD!

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!

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!

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!