Scrapbook Saturday 03 | How I Use the History Snapshot Tool In My Creative Process

POSTED ON January 31, 2015 IN Memory Keeping, Scrapbook Saturday

As part of my word OPEN this year, I’m focusing on being more of an open book about why I do what I do when it comes to my creative adventures and design process. So to kick things off, I’ve started a new semi-regular feature called Scrapbook Saturday where each week I’ll share my most recent scrapbooking layouts as well as a little bit of my thought process behind those pages.

This week’s layout is a layout I created for the Sweet Shoppe Designs Bingo challenge. If you haven’t checked out the new Bingo challenge format yet, you totally should! It’s so fun and easy and to be honest, it’s my favorite format we’ve done…ever.

For my layout, I chose the challenge “Make 1/3 of your page a really big title.” I love bold type and typography but it’s not something I often do on my layouts so I thought it would be fun to give it a shot. Not gonna lie, I feel like my design style has been a bit all over the place so far this year but I’m so in love with how this layout turned out that I don’t even care!

Credits: To the Moon and Back by Kristin Cronin-Barrow; Every day: Cherish Hearts by Lauren Grier. Font is Lulo Outline. Photo by Captured Simplicity.

The idea for this layout was heavily inspired by Kristin’s new To the Moon & Back kit. As soon as I saw this kit I just had to use it. I mean, blues, greens and golds? Oh yeah, sign me up.

The design for this layout all started with the title which I took literally from the title of the kit. The large background photo was actually a happy accident. I dragged my black & white photo onto my canvas with the intention of scaling it down to fit within the smaller frame but as soon as I saw it behind the type, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to make it work.

Since I feel like the design process for a layout can sometimes feel a bit magical, like “Poof! Blank page to amazing layout!”, I thought it’d be fun to break down for you how this layout came together courtesy of one of my most used Photoshop tools, the History Snapshot.

If you’ve never used the History Snapshot tool, you can find it in the History panel (Window>History) – it’s the little icon at the bottom of the panel that looks like a camera. When you click on it, it saves a snapshot of your document at that point in time, layers and all.

As I am the type of scrapbooker who likes to tweak and make changes until things are just right, I use the snapshot tool a lot to change things up and then toggle back and forth between snapshots to decide what option I like best.

For this layout I took 19 snapshots, 16 of which are shown here because in the others, the changes were too subtle to show up in the scaled down format.

As you can see I started by playing around with the type and the hearts, adding them on, off and then back on again. There’s a big jump in the second row because I don’t tend to take snapshots when things are flowing and I’m happy with where the layout is headed. I started taking snapshots again when I started playing around with what I wanted to do with the large photo – trying out different blend modes and papers until I had a look I was happy with. Then I added papers and embellishments until I had a design I liked.

If it looks like the bottom row is mostly the same, that’s because the only thing I was changing at that point was the placement of the blue flower and leaf. That’s not unusual for me – often the changes I debate over the most are the small details. On more than one occasion I’ve switched between two snapshots and asked Adam which one he likes better and he’ll ask “What changed?” haha.

After nine years, I’ve accepted this as part of my creative process but if you pride yourself on speed, it’d probably drive you nuts! I think it helps that I’m more focused on the creative side of scrapbooking than I am on scrapbooking all my photos or creating 30+ layouts every month. For me the design process is my favorite part so I’m happy to take the time to get it right.

What about you: are you a fan of the History Snapshot? Do you have any of your own scrapbooking quirks?

Disclaimer: All Sweet Shoppe Designs products were given to me free of charge as part of my Sweet Shoppe Creative Team responsibilities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Want more scrapbooking inspiration? Check out all my Scrapbook Saturday posts here.

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How One Day and 35 Layouts Changed the Way I Scrapbook

POSTED ON January 30, 2015 IN the Faves, The Faves Project

The year was 2009.

After being a child-free digital scrapbooker for three years, I’d reached a point where I was ready for something new with my scrapbooking. A new challenge. A new idea. I loved the layouts I’d created but I felt like my album lacked a cohesive story and at times they didn’t feel like me.

On one cold, wintery day in January 2009, my husband Adam and I drove the two hour trek from Colorado Springs to Loveland, CO so he could go skiing while I relaxed in the lodge. Strapping sticks to my feet so I can careen down the hill with snow blowing in my face is not this California-girl’s idea of a good time.

While I was sitting in the lodge, laptop out, Lady Gaga playing in my headphones, I started working on a scrapbooking layout. When I started, I didn’t have a clear picture in mind of what I wanted my story to be so, as I often did at the time, I started playing around with papers and elements until eventually an idea came to me.

“Hmm, what if I use these little paper strips for a top ten list?”

I decided on a quick list of things I loved at the time and titled it “January 2009 Faves.”

I loved it.

I loved that it captured a snapshot of my life.

I loved that the design and colors felt like me.

But most of all I loved how easy it was to put together. As someone who tended to stress about every word of journaling she wrote like she was being graded on an English essay, I loved how easy a top ten list of my favorite things was to write.

I had an idea: what if I did one of these every month for the entire year?

While I wasn’t great at finishing year-long projects, I decided to give it a go. To keep things simple I set a few loose guidelines to follow every month:

My list had to include exactly ten items – no more, no less.
Journaling had to be in list form but numbers were optional.
The title for the layout had to include the month followed by the word FAVES.
Each layout had to include a NEW self-portrait taken during that specific month.

Everything else was entirely up to me – color, design, kit, etc.

In February I scrapbooked my February Faves layout. Then March, April, May and before I knew it was November.

In the rush of the holidays I missed December. But overall it was still a win in my book.

In 2011, I challenged myself to complete the Faves again. And then again in 2013. Each time keeping the rules the same but pushing myself to think outside of my own box with the design.

Thirty-five layouts later, the Faves layouts are still hands-down some of my most favorite layouts ever. They added exactly what my scrapbooking albums needed: a consistent story, a snapshot of my life and a healthy dose of creative design.

What’s more, the Faves remind me time and time again that telling your personal story doesn’t have to be hard.

It’s easy to think you need to reinvent the wheel each time but you don’t. In fact, when you have a clear plan for your layouts, your mind is free to be more creative, not less.

Instead of racking your brain or searching through photos for a new idea each time, you can focus on the fun, creative side of telling your personal story.

And that’s always a fave in my book.

Next week I’m going to be opening the doors for the 2015 edition of the Faves: The Faves Project: Monthly Faves.

If you’re in need of a new creative challenge, want to get more of YOU in your scrapbooks or just feel like you’re unsure what to scrap about and want to know more: get on the exclusive Faves Project list.

You’ll be the first to hear when The Faves Project opens.

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Scrapbook Saturday 02 | How To Use a Template as an Embellishment

POSTED ON January 24, 2015 IN Memory Keeping, Scrapbook Saturday

This week was an interesting week as Adam traveled for work which always means two things: I lose my pre-baby morning work hours and I stay up way too late in the evenings. Thursday night I decided to put my late night adventures to good use by scrapbooking this layout using Ru (Studio Basic Designs) & Krystal’s new kit, Be Mine 4 Ever.

Credits: Be Mine 4 Ever by Studio Basic & Krystal Hartley; Single 81 – I Heart U 7 by Cindy Schneider; Green leaves from Free Spirit by Shawna Clingerman; Straight Line Stitched White No. 2 by Anna Apnes. Photo by Captured Simplicity.

A couple of fun facts about this layout…

1) I used a template again…sort of.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m generally not a big template user outside of my own templates, because my brain follows a certain pattern when I scrapbook and using another designer’s template makes me feel like I’m trying to read someone else’s mind as I scrap.

But as soon as I saw this new template from Cindy, I instantly knew I wanted to scale it down and use it as an accent on my layout rather than the foundation of my layout – and I love how it turned out!

I built the entire design of this layout off the scaled down template. For the photo, I duplicated the paper mat from the template so my photo would be the same size and then centered both on the page. Then because I’m always looking for more ways to add patterned papers to my layout, I used the shape tool and two of my own scallops shapes to create my own super patterned paper background.

I didn’t realize it at the time but the LOVE template was actually made up of a bunch of paper layers (each triangle section is it’s own paper shape) so I could have easily filled it with patterned paper and used a solid background instead. But I’m happy with how this turned out.

2) Where are the ribbons?

One surprise I had as I was creating this layout was when I discovered the Be Mine 4 Ever kit didn’t include any ribbons. No ribbons in a girly Valentine’s day kit? That kind of threw me for a loop. I made it work with a paper strip and some additional stitching but I’m still missing the extra subtle texture that ribbons add to the design. It helps balance all the patterned paper and I feel like I’m missing that here.

Since this is a creative team layout, I did my best to stick with what’s in the kit (which is why I didn’t pull any ribbons from another kit) but I did end up grabbing a green leaf from Shawna’s Free Spirit kit (which I used last week) because the greenery in my photo was standing out like a sore thumb. Once I added the two leaves, the whole layout finally came together – sometimes it’s the details that make the biggest difference.

3) The photo/word strip combo cracks me up.

Do you ever have moments where you don’t notice something about your layout until you’ve uploaded it to a gallery? And then you have that internal debate with yourself whether to fix it and reupload or just go with it?

That’s what happened to me when I noticed the irony between the “happiness starts here” word strip and the look on Ryan’s face. If that’s the look of happiness, I’d hate to see what his unhappy face would look like, haha. To be fair he was cold and a bit unsure about the whole photo taking thing rather than unhappy but the combo of the two together on this layout totally cracks me up.

Well that’s it from me for this second installment of Scrapbook Saturday. What have you been up to this week? Did anything that happened this week surprise you?

Disclaimer: All Sweet Shoppe Designs products were given to me free of charge as part of my Sweet Shoppe Creative Team responsibilities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In need of more scrapbooking inspiration? Find all my Scrapbook Saturday posts here.

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2015 Goal Setting & Thoughts On Last Year (Plus a FREE Printable!)

POSTED ON January 22, 2015 IN Free Stuff, Goal Setting

January may be two-thirds of the way over but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for my favorite part of the new year: creative goal setting!

Last year I decided to try something new: a list of 14 goals to complete in 2014.

I loved it.

For me, it was similar to setting a list of birthday goals but as my husband Adam likes to remind me, now that I’m in my 30s, birthday goal lists tied to my age aren’t terribly practical. So this seemed like the best of both worlds: a finite number of goals to strive for AND a number that seemed more doable.

14 in 2014: The Completed List

2014 was the first year I tried this goal setting system. Was it a success? Well, here’s what I completed in 2014 (and yes I used a blue highlighter to mark them off as I went. I’m nothing is not high-tech.):

~~FINISH ADVENT CALENDAR~~: Done with time to sew a Christmas stocking for Ryan.
~~LAUNCH KICKASS SCRAPBOOKING:~~ DONE as of last March although I’ll likely be making some changes to do this – more details to come in a future post.
~~HANG ADVENTURE WALL~~: Done and our apartment entryway looks all the better for it.
~~MAKE A BABY QUILT~~: Done although we primarily use it for photo shoots since Ryan is only just now growing out of the “spit up on everything” phase.
~~GO ON A BABY MOON~~ : Our babymoon to Dallas for the Rangers Opening Day was so fun!
ORGANIZE DIGITAL PHOTOS: Not done by choice. After Apple announced the end of Aperture, I decided to hold off to see what they have in store first.
~~TURN MASTER BEDROOM INTO A COZY SPACE:~~ 50% done. We painted an accent wall and I’ve chosen all the art – just need to get around to finally hanging it up.
~~MAKE ART FOR OVER THE TV~~: Done although I’m not 100% in love with it.
~~DECORATE OFFICE/NURSERY FOR THE LIL’ DUDE’S ARRIVAL~~: Done and the camping themed nursery turned out adorable.
~~HAVE A BABY.~~ : ) Not only done but somehow he’s 7 months already!
CREATE PROJECT LIFE 6/6: Not done but with being pregnant the first six months of the year and a newborn the last half, I’m not sure this was a terribly practical goal to begin with.
SCRAP 100 LAYOUTS: 38/100. Not even close. But considering pregnancy killed my creativity and I didn’t even open my computer the first three months after Ryan was born, I figure I’m lucky I finished that many. Hopefully 2015 will be better.
~~READ 10 BOOKS~~: 10/10. So done, but only just barely. This one ended up being surprisingly more difficult than I expected. I’m hoping I can make it to 25 this year.
LEARN TO USE MY SILHOUETTE: Not done. I’d planned to do this as part of my Holiday Faves mini album but when I pulled off the cover I realized I had no clue where the cords for it were. Hoping to find them and revisit it later this year.

So in total: 10/14 which I’m thrilled about! That’s more than I thought I’d accomplish when I made the list at the start of 2014.

My list was heavily baby-weighted and the tasks I completed are as well but honestly, I’m cool with that because 2014 was pretty much the year of the baby. Hopefully this year will see the return of more creative adventures.

MY 15 IN 2015 LIST

So what do I have planned in 2015? Well here’s a look at my 15 in 2015 list:

Go hiking as a family
Find my photo style
Do something creative for 30 days
Make one Friday a month FUN day
Take Ryan on his first camping trip
Lose baby weight for wedding
Stay positive during move : )
Print more photos
Reorganize my scrapbook albums
Send birthday gifts & cards early
Try knitting
Scrap a travel album
Print & cut with my Silhouette (assuming I can find the cords!)
Plan an at home date night
Read 25 books

As you see my list is a mix of personal and creative goals. The breakdown of it looks something like this:

Family (5)
Personal (3)
Creative (3)
Scrapbooking (4)

To me, that’s a pretty good mix. You may notice that I don’t have any business-related goals in my list and that’s because I decided to keep my 15 in 2015 for personal/creative goal-setting instead – you know, the fun stuff. I have a separate system I use for business-related goals.

Tips For Creating Your Own 15 in 2015 List

If you’re interested in doing your own 15 in 2015 goal-setting this year, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Tip #1 | Your list should match your priorities: Take some time to really think about what you want to focus on in 2015 and how those goals will fit into your everyday life. Keep in mind that not right now doesn’t have to mean not ever. Save it for a year when it’s a better fit.

Last year I weighted my list heavily toward home & baby-related items because with our first baby arriving mid-year, it was simply where my mind and momentum was at at the time.

Tip #2 | Short term projects work better than year-long ones: Unless you’re really fantastic at maintaining momentum on year-long projects, I’d shy away from adding too many to your list.

15 goals is plenty and in my experience those ongoing goals are the momentum killers – they hang over your head reminding you all year long of your failure, which is most definitely what we don’t want!

I have one on my list this year (Make one Friday a month FUN day) but it’s both fun AND doable so I’m ok with giving it a go.

Tip #3 | Wants work better than shoulds: We all have those things are our mental to-do lists that we feel like we should do. You’ll recognize them because during your brainstorm because your thought process will go something like “Well, I really should do {insert uninspiring and unexciting goal here}.” For example, “Well, I really should learn to use my Silhouette because I’ve had it two years and it’s currently collecting dust on my desk.”

I can tell you from experience the four goals I didn’t complete last year all fell into the “well I sort of want to do it but more I really should do it” category…which is exactly why they didn’t get done.

While I won’t tell you to avoid these goals completely because sometimes the key to a should getting done is to add it to your list, I would be careful adding too many to your list. You want to be excited and inspired by your list, not reminded of all the things you should do.

Tip #4 | Making your list visible is the key to success: The best thing I did last year, and no doubt the reason for my success, was I printed out a small 4×6-inch card of my 14 in 2014 goals list and tucked it into the pocket of my wall calendar. Every time I walked into my office there it would be, sometimes inspiring me, sometimes mocking me, but always reminding me that “oh yeah, THAT’s what I planned to do this year.”

Free 15 in 2015 Goal Setting Printable

If you’re a creative like me, odds are out of sight=out of mind for you too. So to make making your list easy for you, I’ve put together a free printable 4×6-inch card you can use to keep your list visible all year long.

The download includes 5 files in a single zip file: a layered Photoshop (.PSD) file with an editable text box for adding your list (title is not editable) and two printable PDFs (one with numbers and one without) that you can use to handwrite your list.

Since the PDFs are 8.5×11 but the card is intended to be 4×6-inches, both PDFs include crop marks so you know where to trim. But I also included two crop mark free versions in case crop marks scare you and you’d rather guess where to trim or leave your list floating on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. That works too.

Download 15 in 2015 Printable Here

Download includes 5 files in a single zip file:

15 in 2015 4×6 Photoshop (.PSD) template
15 in 2015 Numbered PDF (2 files, one with crop marks, one without)
15 in 2015 Blank PDF (2 files, one with crop marks, one without)

Once you’ve downloaded the file, simply unzip the folder and you’ll have access to all the files.

And hey, if you find this post and/or printable helpful, do your friends a favor and pin it on Pinterest or share it on Facebook to let them know where they can find it.

Now let’s talk creative goal-setting: do you have a system for setting goals for the new year? What do you have on the agenda for 2015?

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Scrapbook Saturday 01 | Welcoming In the New Year

POSTED ON January 17, 2015 IN Memory Keeping, Scrapbook Saturday

As part of my word OPEN this year, I’m focusing on being more of an open book about why I do what I do when it comes to my creative adventures. So to kick that off, I’ve decided to start a new semi-regular feature called Scrapbook Saturday where each week I’ll share my most recent scrapbooking layouts as well as a little bit of my thought process behind those pages.

Since I’m not the most prolific scrapbooker in the world (slow would be a better description, haha), I can’t promise there will be a post every Saturday but I am hoping that sharing more layouts like this will encourage me to scrapbook more. And since a large chunk of the layouts I do are for Sweet Shoppe Designs New Releases, if you check out the post on Saturday, there’s a good chance at least some of the products I use will still be on sale in case there’s something you just have to have.

Ok, let’s get to this first installment of Scrapbook Saturday!

This week I have two layouts for you, both themed around the start of the new year. I admit, I’ve been feeling a little rusty with my scrapbooking so far this year, partly I think because I’m still shaking off the holiday scrapbooking dust and partly because, since having my son Ryan last year, I still haven’t figured out exactly the direction I want to go with my scrapbooking.

What I do find interesting about these two layouts is that they ended up being much more similar than I’d intended. Both feature stock photos (from Death to Stock Photo) and both feature white backgrounds that give them a brighter/fresher more modern look then my usual style. That’s a style I’ve been drawn to a lot lately (thanks to Pinterest) so I’m excited to play around with it more this year.

Layout No. 1 | Thoughts On the New Year

For my first layout of 2015, I decided to scrapbook about my love for the start of the new year. Even though it’s true it’s technically just another day, I love that feeling of starting fresh each year.

When I pictured this layout in my head, I knew I wanted to use the sparkly gold alpha from Lauren Grier but I was feeling a little stuck when it came to the rest of the design until I saw Brook’s ABC’s of Me template and realized I could use the paper blocks from the template as my background.

In general, I’m not a huge template user (outside of my own) but pulling out individual pieces of templates is one of my favorite ways to use digital scrapbooking templates because it saves me time and gives me a jumping off point for the rest of the layout without tying me down to a specific design.

Credits: Happiness Is: New Beginnings by Tickled Pink Studio and Meghan Mullens; All A Glitter Alpha by Lauren Grier; Doubles 01 – ABCs of Me by Brook Magee (paper squares only). Photo from Death to Stock Photo. Font is Proxima Nova.

Layout No. 2 | One Little Word: OPEN

For my second layout I chose to tell the story behind my One Little Word for the year, OPEN.

I initially thought about pulling the text directly from this post, but since it was long and I scrapbook 8×8 it felt like to much to include on one layout. So instead I decided to give a brief overview of why I chose my word and then used the design to reinforce the feeling of “open” by using white space, a white background and a more open font (Lulo Clean Outline) as my title.

The layout itself was feeling a little sparse to me at first so I added some paper triangles (my current geometric love) down one side of the design, because you know, my paper lovin’ self must have patterned papers on the layout. I also added some really subtle white paint underneath the design to add some dimension.

The paint was something I toyed with for quite awhile, trying it on a darker blue background first, then with a gradient to make it less in your face, before finally settling on plain white paint on the white background. This for me is when the History panel in Photoshop always comes into play because I’ll take snapshots of different ideas then cycle through them until I have one that feels right. It’s one of the benefits of digital scrapbooking for sure!

Credits: Free Spirit by Shawna Clingerman. Photo from Death to Stock Photo. Fonts are Lulo Clean Outline and Proxima Nova.

And that’s it from me this week! What about you: what have you been working on lately? Have a question? Ask it in the comments below.

Disclaimer: All Sweet Shoppe Designs products were given to me free of charge as part of my Sweet Shoppe Creative Team responsibilities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In need of more scrapbooking inspiration? Find all my Scrapbook Saturday posts here.

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My Word for 2015: OPEN

POSTED ON January 14, 2015 IN One Little Word

You know what I find fascinating about the whole One Little Word® concept? Some years a word will come to me loud and clear and other years my word will show up as quiet whisper. And I’m never quite sure in any year which one will happen.

Last year I skipped OLW because I was pregnant, just barely out of that exhausting first trimester and I just didn’t feel like I needed something else added to my plate. And really, there wasn’t any word that felt like it could capture all that 2014 had in store.

This year it’s the complete opposite. Back in November my OLW for 2015 came to me in a burst of inspiration and it was like YES, THAT IS MY WORD. Love when that happens.

Some of the words I’ve had in the past have been: focus, connect, adventure and determination, with adventure hands down being my favorite of the bunch so far.

So what’s my word for 2015?

OPEN

Why open?

Well I loved that it could be a noun, adjective or verb. I loved that it had a large variety of definitions that could be applied to my life in multiple ways.

But what I love most of all is that it’s a word outside my comfort zone.

Despite being an extroverted-leaning ambivert and running an online scrapbooking design business, I’m actually a pretty private person by nature. I’ve always been that way. I’m not an oversharer. I’m cautious about what I share to the point where I definitely over think it. I talk myself out of sharing things I’m excited about for way too many reason to share here, most of which I’m sure are totally lame.

Being open means being vulnerable and being vulnerable isn’t something I naturally do very well. But I think it’s time to change that.

Back in 2009 when Adam deployed to Afghanistan, I chose the word adventure. At the time I didn’t feel adventurous. I didn’t feel like an adventurer. But I knew it was what I needed to be to make it through that year.

And I loved it.

It pushed me outside my comfort zone in ways I hadn’t expected. I tried new things (like flying an airplane), got out and met new people and it was ultimately that year that gave me the courage to launch NettioDesigns.

It was a word that stuck with me ever since. The quote you find at the bottom of this website is there because of that word. It changed me, became a part of me, and I’m feeling hopeful that this year OPEN will do the same.

As part of that I decided this year instead of taking Ali’s One Little Word class, I would choose three goals/intentions to focus on with my word this year.

Here is my list:

1) OPEN book

At the top of my list for my word this year is to share more. I want to push myself to be an open book, not necessarily to the point of over sharing but I would love to be more open about why I do what I do and what lessons I’ve learned especially when it comes to running a creative business.

I know I’ve learned so much from people who’ve been open with me that it’s high time I return that favor.

2) OPEN to new ideas

This past year felt like a bit of a lost year for me both creatively and with my business. Part of that had to do with having a baby midway through the year and adjusting to motherhood and part of it had to do with me simply ready for something new.

What that new thing is, I don’t know yet, but this year I want to find out. I want to be open to new ideas, move outside my existing bubble and play, experiment, and try new things to see what shakes out.

3) OPEN to new adventures

Our family of three is making a pretty major change mid-year – as of May 2015, we will no longer be a military family. This is something we’ve be thinking about and working towards for several years and with Ryan being so young now feels like the time to go for it. We’re ready to make this leap but it’s still a little nerve wracking to leave behind the only lifestyle you’ve known for the past nine years.

So my goal this year is simply to keep an open mind and be open to whatever comes next. Really that could be the theme for this entire year which is why this word feels so perfect. I’m excited to see how it plays out!

What about you? Have you chosen a word for 2015? I feel like good things happen in years that end in multiples of five so I’m feeling pretty optimistic about 2015.

One Little Word® is a year-long project created by Ali Edwards. You can learn more about it on her site here.