SpeedScraps

Finishing up Project Joy 2011

2012-01-25T18:41:00.082-05:00

Well, my great laid plans didn't go exactly as expected for 'Project Joy' this past year, but I am still extremely happy with the end result and very glad I did it.

My motivation and passions were not in the area of scrapbooking for most of the second half of the year. However, December and the approaching New Year gave me the desire to finish what I had started. Here are my layouts for the second half of 2011.

1 - Sage plays ‘hard to get’ while I take her picture. 2 - Marley chills out in the grass. 3 - Baby birds take over a bush in the landscaping. 4 - The girls hang out with Andrea.. 5 - Regan exploring at the Outdoor discovery center (class field trip). 6 - Celebrating Regan’s birthday with Cam and AJ. 7 - Mima joins the celebration too. 8 - Favorite fireside treat - Smore’s with peanut butter. 9 - Regan’s birthday wish list.

1 - Regan enjoying the fruits of our strawberry picking labor. 2 - The girls ‘maxi mop’ the kitchen floor. (Still too young to know exactly what they had on their feet!) 3 - Regan’s homemade Pippi Longstocking hairstyle. 4 - Celebrating Grandma and Grandpa B’s 50th Wedding Anniversary at Uncle Terry’s cottage. 5 - Taking their first ride on the Grand Haven Trolley 6 - Flying high while daddy bounces the girls on the aqua tramp. 7 - Daddy and Regan take a spin on daddy’s new green machine. 8 - The girls feed some corn to the ducks at Chinook Pier. 9 Comparing ‘small’ ice cream cones at the Fruitport Ice Cream place.

1 - Sage learns to ride her bike while camping in Battle Creek. 2 - Regan holds a huge bullfrog the girls caught at camp. 3 - Sage does pushups to win a water bottle at the air show. 4 - Regan gives Sage a ‘banana’ mask. 5 - Stunt plain from the air show. 6 - Girls make veggie animals for the library flower show - which they both won. 7 - Daddy catches a big one in the pond. 8 - Fantastic fireworks at the Battle Creek Air show. 9 - Hot Air balloons light the sky before the fireworks. 10 - The girls create their own version of the flower show.

1 - Sage loses her first tooth. 2 - The girls play video games on the old Nintendo system before selling it at a garage sale. 3 - Last photo of my original wedding ring before trading it in for a new one. 4 - Girls have fun turning scraps of Grandma’s yarn into God’s eyes. 5 - Mommy gets a banana facial from the girls 6 - Regan enjoys feeding the giraffes at Binder Park Zoo. 7 - Sage and Regan enjoy playing aggravation with Mommy and Daddy. 8 - Regan smiling over her ice cream sundae at her ‘friend’ party. 9 - The girls take a sunset dip at Ludington State Park.

1 - Fresh batch of one of the families favorites - breakfast cookies. 2 - Tent set up on the deck for the girls to sleep in. Regan chickened out and Sage slept out there alone. 3 - Sage helps Regan rollerblade down the driveway 4 - Regan has fun making ‘thumbprint’ animals using a book from the library (skipping the thumbprint and drawing the body instead). 5 - Sage mans the buckets for the girl’s ‘fish farm’. 6 - Today’s harvest - eggs, two types of tomatoes and green and purple beans. 7 - The girls find a stash of costume jewelry at Grandma VanderWall’s. 8 - Some good clean fun with water balloons.

1 - Sage works on a picture of herself at her first day of school. 2 - The girls stuff their jammies with animals and play ‘belly bonk! 3 - Sage’s rides a pony at Tuesinks on her first field trip. 4 - Peaches are in season and we ate and froze two bushels!. 5 - The girls use their garage sale proceeds to buy their much desired fish tank. 6 - The freezer is full of goodness - tortellini soup, venison and various other things. 7 - Regan starting third grade. 8 - Sage starting kindergarten.

1 - Dressed and ready to go trick or treating with Theune’s. 2 - Sitting in the ‘big chair’ at art prize. 3 - Somewhere on this tree is a wooden disc that Regan painted at Girl Scouts for an exhibit at Art Prize. 4 - Apple and pumpkin pies ready to go to the school for a bake off at Harvest Festival. Sage won for her apple pie in the Y5’s/Kindergarten category. 5 - Flowers from Caroline were a pleasant surprise on my 40th birthday. 6 - Pumpkins carved (mostly) by the girls this year!

1 - Marley shivers with anticipation, hoping to get a chance to chase the squirrel that is eating from the bird feeder. 2 - Mommy and the girls at Greenfield Village. 3 - Kodak moment for the girls at Henry Ford Museum. 4 - The elves up to more mischief,, making snow angels with flour. 5 - Sage uses an antique view master at Greenfield Village. 6 - The girls redecorate the house with balloons and streamers the elves used to decorate their bedroom. 7 - First official snow fall always gets the girls excited and outside to play.

1 - Regan paints some sugar cookies with strawberry flavored icing. 2 - Sage loves being my kitchen helper, peeling carrots on this day. 3 - The girls added pictures and stickers and notes to the 25 wrapped Christmas books the elves left. 4 - Marley takes a little ‘cat nap’ on daddy. 5 - Sage hangs out with her buddy Gabi while we wait for Regan’s Christmas concert. 6 - The girls did a great job decorating our feeble tree, 7 - Regan wanted to keep the gingerbread house and men that she made indefinitely.

"Supplies used for above layouts:

Document It Bis Maxi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
Document It Maxi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall
Murano Maxi Kit - Ariadna Wiczling
Unique Roses Midi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
Colors of Spring Midi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
LeChocolatier Maxi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
Bump In The Night Midi Kit - Erica Hite
Christmas Magic Maxi Kit - ariadna Wiczling
Ophelia Collection – Erica Hite
Lacey Borders – Valerie Randall
Bright Side of Life Maxi Kit - - Theresa Kavouras
Sunrise Collection – Jennifer Labre
Fonts: HANDtimes, Ripe

I am so happy to have these 'year in review' pages done for 2011. I had never done these types of pages in the past and love how easy it is to include 'everyday life' in this format. I loved having a simple, repeated page style to use and the fonts predetermined, as this made it very easy to put pages together. By the time I got to the last layouts, I did find I was a bit 'bored' with the layout style and will try to come up with something a wee bit different for this coming year. Lots of fresh ideas rattling around in my head!

What about you? Did you do a 365/52 project last year? Are you doing one this year? I would love to see it or hear about it!!

Blessings! <3

Fracture

2011-10-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

I am always so excited to find businesses that have phenomenal customer service and wanted to give a shout out to one that I dealt with recently. The company is called Fracture. They offer a unique, frameless way to print your snapshots or professional photos.

I heard about Fracture from some friends, but didn't actually give them a try until there was a Groupon available recently. I sent in one of my favorite back to school shots of Sage and was really excited to see how it would turn out.

When my first Fracture arrived, I was really impressed with the product. It was very light, had a classy look to it, but I was very disappointed with the colors on my photo. I contacted customer service to let them know of my concerns and they were very responsive and quick to find a solution and offered to reprint my order.

After a bit of communication back and forth, the staff was able to sort out the color issues and sent me a new, gorgeous fracture with colors that are spot on.

Here is a picture of the before (left) and after (right) products.

They come with an 'easel' to stand them up - or they can be hung on a wall, using a screw and a pre-made hole in the back of the foam core.

The glass front is very thin and lightweight, but not cheap or flimsy in any way.

I am so happy with the final product! I look forward to ordering some more Fractures soon!

Catching Up

2011-06-20T21:08:00.002-04:00

I have finally had the time, motivation and creative mojo to get my 365 project caught back up. Here is the latest.

1 - April Fools Daddy! The girls decorated your car windows. 2 & 3 - Spring Break fun - painting a plate at Your Plate or Mine. 4 - Bald Eagle spotted in the back yard. 5 - More spring break fun - painting freezer paper t-shirts. 6 - Cardinal caught yawning in the tree by the deck. 7 -Finished plate ready for eating! 8 - Regan’s last spring break excitement - getting her ears pierced!

"2011 - April - Part one" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Bump in the Night Collection - Erica Hite
Murana Maxi Kit - Ariadna Wiczling
Happy to Create Gift Paper - Blue Streamers
2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
fonts: HANDtimes, Ripe

1 - The girls look so beautiful and happy in their new Easter clothes. 2 - Dying Easter Eggs. 3 - Shelby adjusts to her new home in the girls bedroom. 4 - No cancer found on my mammogram. 5 - Sage has fun painting my toes. 6 - The duck waits for Marley to come out and play. 7 - Winter decided to reappear. 8 - Eight days after the snow, it’s warm enough out for fishing.

"2011 - April - Part two" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

1 & 2 - The girls have a great time at Kinderplaatz in Holland on Mother’s day. 3 - Regan nominates me as Time magazine ‘Mother of the Year’. 4 - Paul plants my favorite flowers - gerber daisies - in the planters on the porch. 5 - The ornamental pears are such a beautiful sign of spring arriving. 6 - Regan loved the horse rides at celebration day at Jeffers. 7 - Fishing in the pond - another sign spring and warmer weather have arrived. 8 - Bubbles are always sure to bring smiles. 9 - Sage washes the windows in style. 10 - Mommy takes a trip to Atlanta and visits the zoo.

"2011 - May" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
Spring Poesie Maxi Kit - Caroline Kaiser
Happy To Create - Freebie paper
Mari Koegelenberg - Back to School Papers
Fonts: HANDtimes, Ripe
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall

March Part Two and Some Inspiration

2011-05-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy for me. There have been lots of things to be JOYful about, and for that I give thanks. But the JOY has also been clouded with sickness and tears and sadness. The loss of a friend kind of derailed my creativity for a while.

But, alas, I am slowly picking up the pieces and pushing play again...as I know my friend would want me too. I've gotten a bit behind in my project, but that's ok. I'm just going to pick up where I left off! :)

The end of March, which seems like forever and a day ago, was filled with lots of great things. I am thankful to have the pictures to look at and remind me of all the blessings.

1 - Regan adds new quarters to her collection of States. 2 - Sage and I venture outside, ready for some sunshine after a long winter. 3 - Sage author’s her first book. 4 - Family favorite, Cheerio bars. 5 - Regan’s rendition of our new bottles. One of the pieces displayed in her and Sage’s art gallery throughout the house. 6 - Regan, not feeling well, rests in our bed and listens to some ‘Tales2Go’ on the ipad.
7 - Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird come to visit. 8 - Regan’s Pinewood Derby car, take two. (An epoxy mishap rendered the first one immobile.) 9 - First bike ride of the year, up and down the driveway. 10 - Supermoon setting over lake Michigan at Grand Haven Beach. 11 - The girls enjoy a snack outside on the lawn, eager for spring to arrive.

"2011 - March - Part Two" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Document It Collection Large - Caroline Kaiser
2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall
Fonts: Ripe, HANDtimes

And some other pages I have made recently:

"Slime" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Monkeying Around" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Golden Egg" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Five Candles" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Tahquamenon Falls" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Shabby Garden - Jennifer Labre
Scrap By Number: Just Call Me Alli - Stolen Moments
Fonts: Downcome, Pea Carol
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall

"Creative Genius" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Font: Pupcat
Happy To Create - Midi Collection Freebie

I hope your days are filled with everything that brings you great JOY!

More Freebies!

2011-03-21T20:29:00.002-04:00

Good day my friends! I hope it has been a great one for you!

Barbara has kindly reformatted my Templates 1 & 2 to landscape format for you!

Download Landscape Templates 1 & 2 Here

And...while you are downloading freebies...

Be sure to hop over to my dear friend Caroline's new store and grab this beautiful One Page Mini Kit Freebie!!

Have a blessed day!

Landscape Format Templates Freebie

2011-03-19T21:05:00.000-04:00

Do you like to scrap in Landscape format? You are in luck! My friend Barbara Crane does too! She has reformatted my latest layout templates and has kindly given them to me to share with you! :)

Download Landscape Format Templates HERE

Thanks for stopping! Have a JOYous day!

There is JOY in giving {freebies}

2011-03-18T20:34:00.001-04:00

It has been a long time since I have given anything away here at SpeedScraps. So, I guess it's about time to do something about that! I am feeling so amazingly blessed in my life right now, it makes me bubble up and just want to share that JOY!

I started working on some layout templates a while back and have now finally finished them and bundled them up to share with you! Included in this freebie are 12 layered PSD templates, based on layouts I have made in the past.

(Sorry, there are no PNG files in this freebie, only PSD files)

Here are a couple sample layouts the templates are based on:

Download Freebie Templates Here

If you are wondering why these templates are numbered 3-14 it's because numbers 1 and 2 were freebies I gave away in the past. If you missed them, you can find them here and here.

Have an incredible, awesome, JOYful day! Thanks for stopping!

Project Joy 365 - March Part One

2011-03-13T21:24:00.001-04:00

March is half over and we are starting to see glimpses of spring! Yippee!! As we bide our time, waiting for the snow to melt and the mud pits it makes in our yard to disappear, we have found JOY in the simple things of life. There has been lots of reading (March is reading month at our school), building of secret places, cooking, baking and even a mini family vacation.

1 - Sage enjoying the rain outside, despite the cold temps. 2 - The girls playing on the new Ipad. 3 - Enjoying our beautiful Spring Lake library. 4 - Mementos from our family trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. 5 - Regan’s drawing of her (in her favorite outfit) and Marley. 6 - Making a secret hideaway under the stairs, complete with gate so Marley can’t escape. 7 - Regan and Daddy work on her first Pinewood Derby car for Girl Scouts. 8 - Beautiful bottles Mommy purchased for a new rewards system.

"2011 - March - Part One" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Layout Supplies - Christy VanderWall
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall
Fonts: HandTIMES, Ripe

Hope your days have been full of JOY!

Project Joy 365 - February Part Two

2011-03-04T21:20:00.001-05:00

Somehow February flew by and it's already March! Not sure how that happened! :) We ended our Month with a fun family get away and now it's time to get caught back up on this project!

I normally work on my layout as I go, adding a photo to the page almost nightly. I didn't do that this time, and felt like it was a lot harder to put the layout together. Things seem to flow better when I work on it a little bit at a time. I think I will definitely go back to the nightly approach for the next one!

1 - I still enjoy playing with scissors and glue - working on a scripture verse flipbook. 2 - February moon. 3 - Found the girls together reading while they let me sleep in a bit on a snow day. 4 - Valentine’s breakfast for the girls. 5 - My favorite way to start and end the day, a hot cup of tea. 6 - Regan’s valentines for school. 7 - Celebrating Sage’s 5th birthday with ice cream and brownies before bed. 8 - Making paper mache on our snow day. 9 - The girls bust a move on Wii, Just Dance. 10 - The girls and I are loving freeze dried fruit. 11 - ‘Love notes’ passed at bedtime.

"2011 - February - Part Two" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Kindhearted Add-on - Jennifer Labre
Kindhearted - Jennifer Labre
2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
Fonts: HANDTimes, Ripe

How is your 365 project going? I would love to see!!

Inspiration

2011-02-25T15:14:00.003-05:00

Hey my friends! I hope you are all doing well and carving out some time to create! :) Here are some layouts I have worked on recently.

"Snow Jumping" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Heart of Winter - Jennifer Labre
Stamped Alpha - mari koegelenberg
Love Me Do - Jennifer Labre
Doodle-Its: Borders 1 - Jennifer Labre
Project Joy 365 - Quick Starts - Christy VanderWall
font: SS Whimsy

"My Cup of Tea" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"First Snowman" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"The Story" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Shutterbug" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Mother & Daughter Time" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Bowling" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Pedal Cart Racing" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Crazy Hair Day" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Doodle-Its: Borders 3 - Jennifer Labre
She's All That - Jennifer Labre
Color Me Happy - Jennifer Labre
Sweet On You - Jennifer Labre
Quick Start Collages - Set 2 - Christy VanderWall
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
With You - Jennifer Labre

"Four Years Old" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Project Joy 365 - February Part One

2011-02-14T15:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you! I hope you are spoiling your loved one's rotten, and they are spoiling you! :)

We have found JOY in lots of things so far this month:

Snow days
Ice Sun Catchers
Secret JOY missions
Painting projects
Homemade meals
Hot Tea
Surprises in the mail
Playdates
Blanket forts
Wildlife

You can read more of the details at my family blog - Mommy Ramblings.

Here is my first February Layout. Looks like I will probably end up with two spreads this month.

1 - Our first snow sun catcher. Sage’s first impression - “It’s so pretty!!” 2 - ‘Blizzard 2011’ dumps a lot of snow overnight, leaving us stuck at home all day. 3 - The girls and I start working on more sun catchers for our ‘secret mission’ to share them with the neighbors’. 4 - Thankful to have the right snow gear! 5 - Day two of our secret mission, finishing up eleven sun catchers to give away. 6 - Puffy Apple Pancake, it’s what’s for dinner! 7 - A cup a day. New house rule to prevent having to wash a plethora of various cups each day! 8 - Regan spends a relaxing Sunday afternoon painting. 9 - Sage gets her turn to paint while Regan is away at school.

"2011 - February - Part One" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Helping Hand {Charity Collab
2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall
Fonts: HANDtimes, Ripe

EnJOY the rest of your week!! =)

Project Joy 365 - January Part Four

2011-02-02T21:57:00.001-05:00

Can you believe it is already February?? I can't believe how fast January flew by! I am thankful to still be on track with my 365 project. One month down, eleven to go!! :D

Here is my fourth and final layout for January.

1 - My little kitchen helper. 2- Experimenting with balloon powered paper airplanes. 3 - Backwards night. 4 - Visiting with the duck. 5 - First snow fire. 6 - Sunday afternoon photowalk. 7 - The chickens come out to greet us on our photowalk. 8 - Preparing to make winter suncatchers.

"2011 - January - Part Four" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

How are you doing on your project? Have you been able to think of things to take pictures of each day? Here is the list of prompts I used for the the first four weeks of the year (taken from the Project Joy 365 - Tool Kit). Maybe they will give you some ideas for the next month.

Week 1 (January 1 – 7)

New Years morning - house a mess? Have a party?
What brought you joy this week….
Where is the mess right now at your house?
Exercise Shoes
TV
Sign with gas prices

Week 2 (January 8-14)

Kids together (or separate) in same spot - maybe with a measuring stick?
Kids/pets sleeping in bed
Kids/pets napping
Pet(s) - playing, with kids, outside
Who or What are you thankful for today
Self portrait

Week 3 (January 15 – 21)

Kids Winter shoes
What brought you joy this week…
Your purse or bag
House from the outside - winter
Kids Bedroom
Where do you buy groceries/shop

Week 4 (January 22 – 28)

Today, your child could not live without….
Who or What are you thankful for today
What brought you joy this week….
Heirlooms - things passed down in the family
Computer

I didn't get to all of them on the list, but I'm sure I will pick up the missed ones later in the year! Using the handy checklist in my FLIP BOOK will make it so much easier to go back and see which pictures I still want to take!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Project Joy 365 - January Part Three

2011-01-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

We are still deep in the heart of winter at the VanderWall household, but making the best of life in the snow! We are thankful for warm fires, hot drinks, splashes of sunshine, playtime in the snow, fun with icicles and the beauty that abounds in winter.

Here is my layout for January - Part Three

1 - Regan was very excited to teach me how to make ‘slime’ like they made at school. 2 - The girls. 3 - The house. 4 - Celebrating a snow day with snow ice cream for lunch! 5 - Regan preparing for Awana. 6 - Books from the library. Bottom one borrowed. Top three bought for one dollar in the used book room. 7 - I am thankful for a reliable washer and dryer, in a convenient location for keeping up on the laundry. 8 - I’m not much of a purse person, but love having a great bag! This is my current ‘goto’ bag. 9 - One of Regan and my favorite breakfast goodies - Morning Glory Cake. 10 - Making cake mix cookies. 11 - Backyard visitors - two pileated woodpeckers.

"2011 - January - Part Three" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

2011 Project 365 Combo Pack - Elise's Pieces Designs
File Save 2 - Christy VanderWall
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
Fonts: HANDtimes, Ripe

How is your project going? Still plugging away? We have almost one month under out belts now and I am still really enjoying the daily photo taking. For more details of what we have been up to, you can visit Mommy Ramblings.

Have a blessed day!

Project Joy 365 - Layout 2

2011-01-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

I am still having so much fun with this project! It has been a great couple weeks, filled with lots of photos, fun and laughter.

We have found JOY in:

Lincoln Logs
Experimenting in the kitchen
Leaving notes of inspiration
Laughing out loud watching Wipeout
Reading books
Playdates with friends
Balloons
Silly pets
and so much more!

Here is my second layout for January. I have decided to call my spreads 'Part One', 'Part Two', etc., since I don't know how many pages or photos I will end up with each month. My photo numbers do not correspond to dates, but rather just give the reader a match between the journaling and the photos for that spread.

"2011 - January - Part Two" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

I made these pages into some more Quick Start freebies for you! EnJOY!!

Download Freebie Here

Project Joy 365 - Freebie

2011-01-15T18:43:00.002-05:00

I totally forgot yesterday that I have a freebie for you! I made each page of my first spread into a quick start. Regan and I used them tonight to make the first pages of her album. These are her favorites from the photos she took this week.

Download Freebie Here

Blessings!

Project Joy 365 - Week 2

2011-01-14T19:31:00.002-05:00

Week two of the new year is now behind us. It has been a great couple of weeks! We have had a lot of fun at our house and there have been lots of photos taken!! If you enjoy the nitty gritty details of my somewhat boring life, you can always read more about it at Mommy Ramblings.

I finished my first two page spread this week. It includes 12 photos from the first 9 days of January. I'm sure by June I won't be quite this ambitious, but I'm just riding the wave of excitement for now! :) It's all about documenting life, right? No rules, just fun!!

"2011 - January - Part One" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Here are the separate pages:

Journaling reads: 1 - Took the girls bowling at Starlite Lanes in Grand Haven. 2 - Time to ‘De-Christmas the house. 3 - My back and my waistline are thankful to be back at the gym. 4 - You are definitely your father’s child! 5 - As the new snow falls, there is a flurry of activity at the birdfeeder. 6 - af·fin·i·ty: An inherent similarity between persons or things. 7 - First tofu experience, day one of the Daniel Fast. 8 - And then, there was one. 9 - Share the Joy: sending fabric stash to the ‘winners’. 10 - Sewed pillow pets with the girls using all supplies from my stash. 11 - Regan begins her own 2011 photo journal. 12 - Daddy down for the count with a bad cold and a couple cracked ribs.

I also love Maureen's page for week one:

My dear friend Caroline's Page and Collection are very inspiring as well!!

How is your project going? Come on, show it off! I'll be sure to stop by and leave some love!!! <3

Project Joy 365 - Week 1

2011-01-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

Week one of the new year has come to pass. Did you get everything done you wanted to? Are you still keeping your resolutions? Did you take a photo every day?

This week, I have found there is JOY in:

teaching your children to sew
getting back to the gym
trying new foods
hearing God's promptings
Bowling as a family
laughing hysterically with and at your children
finding new homes for unused sewing supplies
observing wildlife in the back yard
teaching your children life lessons
removing the Christmas decorations, but not the spirit that lives in us

Our special activity this week was making pillow pets with the girls. As I cleaned out my sewing stash, I found lots of fleece pieces and three bags of stuffing. A google search turned up this pattern and we were on our way.

The girls were both very excited about doing this project. They aren't quite ready to sew completely on their own yet, but they enjoyed doing what they could and did well with letting me help them with the rest.

Leave it to kids to keep things in perspective too. At one point, I had put some pieces together the wrong way. As I was cutting them apart to be fixed (one of my least favorite parts of sewing - rework), Regan says 'GOODIE!! that means I get to do more sewing!'. LOL!

They turned out a little bit homely, and imperfect, but the girls love them.

My first 365 layout is still a work in progress, but I'll give you a sneak peak! I fell in love with the simple design of Katie's monthly roundup layouts. You can see her post about them here - at the Daily Digi.

I have been wanting to come up with a very simple, minimalist format that I can use for the whole year. I found a lot of inspiration from Katie's pages and here is what I am working on so far.

I 'think' I am going to do at least two, double page spreads for each month of the year. If I am inspired and take more photos, I might do an additional spread for that month. I don't have all the bugs worked out yet, but I'm excited with how it's turning out so far!!

Have you started a page yet? I would love to see it!

Project Joy 365 - Disclaimer

2011-01-06T19:57:00.001-05:00

The first week of the year is coming to an end. How are you doing on your projects? I am so excited to have started, that I have to force myself to not just be snapping 10 photos a day from my list!! LOL! And, I have made the executive decision that it's OK for me to include more than one photo from a given day, even when I'm not playing catch up! :D

I was reading a blog the other day that got me thinking about something. The author was talking about the tendency, in the realm of mommy bloggers, to 'fake it'. The jist of it was that there is a lot of blogging that goes on where people create the impression that they are living perfect little lives on the other side of their monitors. The author was making a plea to other bloggers to be more real and to stop putting on a facade.

It got me thinking about what kind of impression might be left here, as I delve into Project Joy and start making weekly posts. It left me wanting to make a bit of a disclaimer - I am not PERFECT, nor is my family or life! There is whining, complaining, fighting, kicking, hitting, yelling, repeated disobedience, messy floors, dusty dressers - I could go on and on! We don't have it all figured out any more than the rest of you.

At the heart of Project Joy is this:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Phillipians 4:8

I am fully convinced that the more time and energy I focus on the praiseworthy things in my life, the more JOY there will be for myself and for those around me. I also believe it is pleasing to God when I choose to focus on the blessings and give praise, no matter what the circumstances.

I hope you will find JOY in following along this year and celebrating with me and my family and the things, big and small, that fill our lives with JOY. I love sharing with you and also love hearing what you are up to!

I will leave you with a couple photos that brought me joy yesterday. It came to my attention in the last couple of months that both my daughter and my dog have an attachment to blankie bears. They both like to sleep with them, play with them and they both chew the ears on them. Yesterday, I captured them both napping with their little buddies. Aren't they sweet???

Have a blessed day!

Project Joy 365 - Share the Joy - Winners selected

2011-01-05T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I said a little prayer and launched the random number selector at Random.org and the 'winners' of all the fabric giveaways have been selected! I will be emailing each of the winners for their addresses, so please watch your email (or facebook email)!!!

Thanks for playing! Have a great day!

Project Joy 365 - It's time!!

2011-01-01T20:07:00.000-05:00

So, New Years Day is winding down. Did your start your 365 project today? If not, don't sweat it!! Here are a few tips that can help make your project a success:

Keep your flip book (or photo checklist) handy for photo ideas and for checking off things you have already photographed.
Delete as many photos in camera as possible, keeping only the best. This will save uploading and editing time later.
Let go of perfectionist tendencies - if you miss a day, or even a week of photos, don't sweat it, just catch up as necessary. I am viewing this project with a 'big picture' perspective. I see this project as simply documenting the intimate details of our lives in a way that my normal photography and scrapbooking doesn't do. With this in mind, it won't matter if each of my photos was taken on a unique day, or if I take seven photos in one day! In ten years...no one will care!
Start when you can! Today felt like a great day for me to start, but if you can't get going until later, no worries! Just jump in when you can! If you are using the PSD files from the Tool Kit, simply start with the pages that correspond to your start date. The other pages from the beginning of the year will simply be used at the end of your project!

I won't be doing daily posts of my project and photos, but I will leave you with my favorite from today. :) We took the princesses bowling.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Project Joy 365 - Share the Joy - GIVE AWAY FINISHED!! :)

2010-12-30T14:42:00.002-05:00

ETA: THIS GIVEAWAY IS COMPLETED! :) January 5, 2011

One of the things I want to focus on for Project Joy is 'sharing' joy. That is, being intentional about finding ways to give to others things that might bring them joy! Things like a home cooked meal, a phone call, a random gift, etc. Today, I have some give-aways that I hope will bring someone else JOY!

There was a season in my life when sewing and quilting brought me much joy. Since having children and discovering digital scrapbooking, that season has passed. It is time for several projects from my closet to surface and find a new home, where they will be put to good use and put a smile on someone's face!!

If you would like any of these, simply comment below the photo of the item on facebook by Midnight EST January 4th. (Each photo is clickable and will take you to my facebook page where you can comment) I will draw random 'winners' for each item on January 5th and ship them to their new owners! (Due to the expense of shipping, I need to restrict this to US friends only please!) Comment on as many as you wish!!

I 'think' I set my facebook permissions so that anyone can see and comment on the photos. If you have any troubles, please let me know!!

There is joy in sharing. There is joy in decluttering. There is joy in being able to 'walk' in your walk in storage closet! LOL! Have a blessed day!

Project Joy 365 - Banner Freebie

2010-12-20T14:35:00.002-05:00

Looking for a fun project to work on with your kiddos this week? How about a festive banner? The girls and I made this 'Happy Birthday Jesus' banner over the weekend and hung it up today in our living room. You can download the templates to print and make your own banner at the end of this post.

If you want to make your own banner templates in Photoshop or PSE, it's pretty easy.

Create a blank 8.5"x11" document.

Then, create your banner shape. I used my brush tool, set to a solid round circle (Hard Mechanical) to create an outline for the banner. Turn your grids on (Ctrl + ' ) to make easy work of drawing straight lines. Hold your shift key while you click on intersection points of your grids and photoshop will draw a straight line between the two points.

My finished template looked like this. I made the banner size small enough to fit two on a page and it turned out to be a nice finished size.

I found some great Christmas fonts at this site: The Holiday Spot

I chose 'Kingthings Willow' because I liked all the swirls and stars in the font.

Once I installed the font, I typed the first two letters, each on their own layer, and sized them to fit in the banner templates.

To make the letters outlined, so they could be colored by my kiddos, I used a 10 pt stroke layer style and set the layer fill to 0%.

PSE does not have a stroke layer style. To create the stroke outline in PSE, Ctrl-Click on your letter thumbnail (creating marching ants around the letter). Create a new layer and use 'Edit>Stroke' to create a stroke outline of the letter on it's own layer. Then, turn off the visibility or delete the original letter layer before printing.

Or, if you would like a really quick and easy way to create your own letter outlines, simply open the PSD file labeled 'HBD_Jesus_Banner_template' included in the free download below. Simply select the letter layers and change the font or letter to your liking! The stroke style and 0% Fill are already applied to the layers for you! :)

I would love to see the banners you create! :D Have a great week!

Download 'Happy Birthday Jesus' Banner Templates Here

Inspiration

2010-12-15T19:52:00.001-05:00

Hey my friends! I hope you are doing well and enjoying your Holiday season! :) We have been having so much fun with our North Pole visitors! They sure do keep us in the Holiday spirit!

Here is some recent CT work I have done. I hope you are finding some time to scrap amidst the craziness that Christmas can sometimes bring!!

"Not Ready to Party" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Ellie & Heather" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Life Light Up" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Happiness Is" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Loves Birds" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Let It Snow" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Christmas Tree" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"First Eggs" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Snow Beautiful" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"How to eat a Bagel" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

May your day be blessed! :)

Project Joy 365 - Inspiration

2010-12-07T14:12:00.001-05:00

I can do nothing but laugh in amazement at the inspiration God puts in my path as I embark on this JOY journey. Check out this recent post from a site called 'A Holy Experience'. She has eloquently put into words so much of what has been in my mind and heart as I have been putting together my plans for Project Joy 365.

10 Point Manifesto for Joyful Parenting

May your day be filled with JOY!!

Project Joy 365 - No need to wait

2010-12-06T14:40:00.001-05:00

As I was putting ideas together for this project, I found myself getting so excited about the different activities I want to do with the girls next year! Then, I realized that I didn't have to wait to get started!!

As I was looking online for some Christmas related craft ideas, I stumbled upon the whole 'Elf Magic' idea. I knew immediately that it was a great Project Joy 365 type activity. The whole concept of mischief and magic and leaving small gifts was a perfect example of the spirit of the project.

If you aren't familiar with the Elf Magic Tradition, you can read about it here.

If you are on a limited budget, you can still have the same fun by buying your own elf at a local store. A friend of mine found some poseable one's for just $3 at our supermarket. There are also tons of activities and mischief that your elf can do that cost little to nothing.

Don't think you are creative enough to pull something like this off? Well, no creativity required! There are many generous people out there who have shared their fantastic Elf ideas...all you have to do is be a good copycat!! LOL!

Here are some resources I have found:

Forum section dedicated to Magic Elves

Blog with lots of Magic Elf information

DIY Magic Elf Letter from Santa

Here are a few things our elves have been discovered doing already:

Having their nightly crackers and ice water, under a sprinkling of magic snow.

Hiding in our sunroom, writing in journals they brought for the girls.

Turning daddy's buck into Rudolf and taking a reindeer ride.

Setting up our Christmas tree and turning it into a 'Wunder-wear' tree!

Making themselves a relaxing 'bubble bath' in our sink.

I can't tell you how much fun this has been! Listening to the girls excitement every morning starts my day with such joy! Ending my day by playing a little mischief sends me to bed with a smile on my face too!

If you are thinking about doing this with your kiddos (and it's not too late!) I have put together my list of ideas in a spreadsheet that I am sharing with you. It isn't a beautiful list and contains some details that might not make sense to you, but overall, it should be a great place for you to get started!! Most of these ideas are shamelessly stolen from various resources around the web. :)

You can download the list HERE.

May your days be filled with JOY - 365!!!

Project Joy 365 - The Flipbook

2010-12-02T21:49:00.001-05:00

I am so excited about this little flipbook that I wanted to share a bit more about it!

I thought creating a flipbook, verses printing a photo prompt list on paper, would be a fun tool that would help keep me inspired throughout the coming year. It was fun going through my photos from this past year and creating this mini-album. I made the pages 4"x6" size, figuring this would help keep the final cost down. After finishing the flipbook pages in photoshop, I considered a couple different options for printing and assembling.

One option was to make the flipbook myself, ordering 4x6 prints from Sam's Club for .13 cents a piece ( x 52 pages) = $6.76 (7.17 w/tax). Then, make a chipboard cover and use my Bind-it-All to punch and bind the pages together. For a plain cover, I would probably have about an hour of time invested. If I customized the chipboard cover, it would probably be another 1-2 hours of additional work.

The second option was to use a printing service.

Snapfish.com offers flipbooks, but the maximum number of pages was 45. So that was not an option.

Shutterfly.com offers the Snapbook - I had a $10 off coupon for them so I thought I would check it out. Their price is $9.99 for a 20 page book, plus .50 cents for each additional page. The book comes with a clear, matte-finish cover. With shipping, the total cost for the 52 page book would be $28.48 (not sure if I would be charged sales tax or not. If I was, that would add another $1.71) So, even with my $10 coupon the final price was over $18.

Color Inc - The final place I checked was the lab where I have all my layouts printed - Color Inc. They do a Spiral Bound Photo Book. The base price is $5.50 for the binding and custom cover (made from your photo or layout) plus .23 cents per page for the 4x6 size. Total price for the 52 page book - $17.46 ($18.51 w/tax). Shipping on orders over $15 is free. They also offer the option of having rounded corners.

Once I did the comparison, the decision was simple. I chose to have the book printed at Color Inc. I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable their pricing was compared to Shutterfly (no coupon necessary either). They have also printed all of my scrapbook pages for over a year now and I cannot say enough about their quality and their customer service. (They are also a small, Christian owned company located about 30 miles from me - which wins extra brownie points in my book!)

I could have saved about $11 by assembling the book myself, but I decided my time was worth more than that. I also fell in love with the rounded corners option at Color Inc, as I feel it gives the book a very 'finished' look. Lastly, I knew I could trust Color Inc to be very quick. I uploaded my pages on Thursday, November 18th and on Tuesday, November 23rd, my mail person was delivering them!

I can't wait until January 1st to start putting this beauty to use! In the mean time, it has been fun to watch my girls pour over the pages and enjoy a years worth of photos.

You can buy the Photo Prompt Overlays used in this flipbook as part of the Project Joy 365 - Tool Kit.

Have a great day!

Project Joy 365 - The Tools

2010-12-01T15:27:00.001-05:00

If you are just hopping in on the 'Project Joy 365' conversation, please see the back story and the details first! :)

Now - The Tools!

At the end of 2011, I want to make a bound book of my 365 project. There will be one page for each week of the year. To help me keep up on the pages for the book, I created all the PSD files ahead of time. There are single page layouts for the first and last page and double page spreads for the rest of the weeks. I put guides on each page, to remind me not to put ‘important’ things in the bleed or binding spaces. I also created a text box on each page and put the date range. They probably aren't in the format I will use on the final layouts, but it is at least a start.

The next tool I created was a bunch of 7 photo Quick Start Collages. These collages, combined with the premade PSD files, should make quick work of putting the photobook pages together. I plan to work on these weekly as I go and will share them on the blog.

Here are some different ideas of what the finished pages could look like, using the Quick Start Collages:

"Project Joy 365 - Sample 1" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Project Joy 365 - Quick Starts - Christy VanderWall
CU - Grunged Layer Styles - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Delete Non-Visible - Christy VanderWall

"Project Joy 365 - Sample 2" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Project Joy 365 - Quick Starts - Christy VanderWall
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
Copy & Close - Christy VanderWall
Everyday Wishes Collab - Jennifer Labre
Color Me Happy - Jennifer Labre
She's All That - Jennifer Labre
Sunkissed: Sunrise - Jennifer Labre
Vintage Rose - Jennifer Labre

"Project Joy 365 - Sample 3" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Project Joy 365 - Quick Starts - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Copy & Close - Christy VanderWall

The last tool I created to help me with my 365 project is a 4x6 flip book. I took my list of weekly photo prompts and combined them with photos from 2010 to create this great checklist that I can easily keep with me throughout the year. If I am feeling stuck for photo ideas, I can check the list for that week, or even skip around to other weeks. I included a checkbox next to each item, so I could easily keep an ‘inventory’ of which photos I have already taken.

If you’d like to join me in this journey – or even just the 365 project - I have put all these goodies into a Tool Kit that can be purchased below.

Each Tool Kit contains:

27 – Layered PSD files for creating Project 365 book (2 single page, 25 double page spreads containing white background, margin guides, text box for journaling and weekly date range on each page.)

60 – 7 photo Quick Start Collages (png files)

52 – 4”x6” Photo Prompt Overlays (png files) and Project Joy Cover page for creating your own flipbook

1 – Weekly Photo List, in 8.5"x11" format (PDF and Word Doc – same content as Flipbook overlays, just in a full page format)

Also included – my ‘Activities’ List (Please note: This list is not elaborate. It is more of a rough draft of my ideas. I will expound on the activities more as I do them. I just thought seeing my list might spark others with activities to do with their own families.)

(Download links will be sent to your paypal email within 24 hours of purchase)

I am really excited about this journey and I hope you will be inspired by this project. If you play along or come up with your own 'Project Joy' moments this coming year, I would love to hear about them!

Have a blessed day!

Project Joy 365 - The Details

2010-11-30T15:24:00.000-05:00

So, what is this ‘Project Joy 365’? Well, it is my ‘plan’ for 2011 and a search to find the balance that has seemed to elude me for the past 3 years.

I started by making a list of different activities I want to do with the girls next year. The list contains lots of fun things – like a homemade day spa, and baking together, and a homemade restaurant (like this one), and also other things we as a family have always said we wanted to do – like volunteering at a soup kitchen.

Why do I need a list and a plan for these types of things? Well, for me, it seems things like this stir around in my brain a lot, but never seem to translate into action. Now, they are down on paper and I will pick an activity weekly, put it on the Calendar and make sure it gets done. I also plan to blog about our activities here, in hopes of inspiring others, as well as to have some accountability for myself.

In addition to the weekly activities, I am also working on my daily attitude. I am working on thinking before speaking. I am working on saying 'yes', unless there is a concrete reason to say 'no'. I'm working on not only taking the girls to the pool, but on swimming and playing with them and even being a 'seaweed monster' - despite the fact that I feel completely ridiculous doing it! :D I am working on living a daily life that I will not look back on with any regret. Everyone warns you to cease this time, saying it flies by quickly. I am working on heeding those warnings and trying to find, create and share as much joy as I can in our daily lives.

The other part of this project is the 365 component. I have always wanted to try the photo a day projects in the past, but was afraid of getting stuck in the middle of the year and failing. So, I made a plan for this as well! I spent some time making another list. This one contains photo prompts of things that I want to take pictures of throughout the year. The list contains a bit of everything, from our house during the different seasons, to a monthly photo of the kids to self portraits and so on. One of the bi-weekly prompts is ‘Who or what are you thankful for’ – as I thought it would be great to include a bit of a gratitude journal/photo as part of the project.

My oldest daughter is becoming interested in photography as well, so I am going to ask her if she would like to do the 365 part of the project with me. I think it will be really fun at the end of the year to compare her photos and mine, given the same prompts!! It will also be a great time for us to spend together. It might be hard to do a daily photo when she is in school, but I thought we could just play ‘catch up’ on the weekends.

In addition to the list, I have put together some great ‘tools’ to help me be successful at the 365 part of this project. Wanna hear more about the tools? Come back and visit tomorrow!! :D

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Joy 365 - The Back Story

2010-11-29T20:35:00.001-05:00

“Everyone ends up somewhere, few people end up somewhere on purpose.” - Craig Groeschel

This was the lead in to a message I heard at www.LifeChurch.tv recently. A message that was very timely in my life. I have spent many hours in the last few months contemplating ‘what now God – where do I go from here’ and ‘what am I here for Lord? What is my purpose in all of this?’.

Almost eight years ago, I became a Mommy. We planned and worked and saved and dreamed for 10 years for that day. We arrived there on purpose, with a well executed plan and God’s blessings. Our home was paid for, giving us the financial freedom for me to be a stay at home mom. I left the working world behind and excitedly entered into this next ‘season’ of my life as a Mom.

About three and a half years ago, I discovered digital scrapbooking and soon after purchased a DSLR camera and started exploring photography. In the time since then, I have fallen in love with these hobbies and have discovered creative gifts that stir great passion in me.

I consider both of these things HUGE blessings in my life, each for unique reasons. The problem I've had is trying to find balance between the two. When I am being Mom and devoting myself to my family, I am constantly thinking about and longing for some time to myself to create. When I am spending time alone creating, I am burdened with guilt about what I ‘could’ be spending time on that would better benefit my family.

For the last three years, I feel like I have been riding a pendulum that is constantly swinging from one focus to the other. I have struggled to find a happy medium that allows me to live to my fullest potential in both areas of my life.

After hearing the message at LifeChurch about ‘arriving on purpose’, I set out in prayer about how to remedy my situation. I feel God has answered me and inspired me to embark on a journey for 2011. I am calling this journey ‘Project Joy 365’.

What is Project Joy 365? More details to come…tomorrow.

CU Grunged Layer Styles

2010-11-15T15:20:00.002-05:00

I am a details person. It's often little things on a layout that make a big difference to me. One detail that I love is the impact a little 'grunge' can have on something...particularly text or titles that are right on the background paper.

Here is an example. On the left layout, the title is plain and on the right the title has been 'grunged'. It isn't a huge difference, but I definitely like the one on the right much better.

To get this look, I would typically use a grunge brush to erase or 'mask' parts of the layer. To simplify the grunging process, I finally made myself some layer styles! If you would like to add them to your stash, you can purcahse them below! :)

CT Inspiration and a freebie

2010-11-01T14:31:00.001-04:00

Hello scrappers! I hope life is treating you well and there were no tricks in your life this past weekend! :) Just a quick post today with some recent CT stuff and a fun freebie for you!!

Owl Tree Studio has some fabulous goodies in it's November line-up. Here are the pages I made for this month:

"So You" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Memories" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Jennifer has also been working on some fabulous products. Here is a layout from her most recent collection - Red Red Wine:

"Cherish The Moments" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

And of course, I haven't forgot the freebie!! Jennifer designed a great collection a couple of months ago called Cherish. I made a fun cluster freebie for you from this great collection!!

"Sisters Friends" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Download Freebie Cluster HERE!!!

Enjoy! Have a fantastic day!! :)

Supply Tracking - Part 3

2010-10-26T20:29:00.003-04:00

So, forever ago, I did a couple of posts on Supply tracking and promised a third tutorial about using an excel spreadsheet for keeping track of your supplies and how to use the spreadsheet and Supply Tracker to easily create a credits list. (You can find the first and second posts here and here.)

To follow along with this tutorial you can download a copy of the excel spreadsheet here. (A PDF of these instructions is also included in the download.) The sample spreadsheet has just a few products in it, to show the different fields and what kind of data would be put in them. Once you are finished with the tutorial, you can simply delete the sample products and use the spreadsheet for your own supply tracking!

Keeping track of purchased supplies:

Maybe you have a great memory and know every item that is in your stash, but I have quite often heard the complaint of people buying the same product twice! Keeping a spreadsheet of the products you have purchased can save you from making that mistake. (Provided you look at the spreadsheet, of course! LOL!)

In the spreadsheet provided, there are four simple fields for keeping a list of your supplies.

Column B: Initials/Prefix - Use this field for the designer initials or 'prefix' that the designer uses on their files.

Column C: Designer Name - Use this field for the full name of the designer.

Column D: Product Name - Full name of the product purchased. I find it easiest to copy and paste this from the store where I purchased the product.

Column E: Product Link - Put the full URL or 'link' of the product in this field.

These are the four basic fields that I recommend tracking for supplies - the ones that are necessary for the 'calculated' fields that I will explain below. If desired, you might like to add other columns such as commercial use, price, store name, etc.

When looking at my supply list, I find it easiest to have it sorted by Designer. Sorting an excel spreadsheet is very simple.

Put your cursor somewhere in the column you want to sort. Select the A>Z button on the toolbar and the entire spreadsheet will be sorted, based on the column selected.

To sort by a different column, simply put your cursor in a different column and use the same sort button to resort by the selected field.

To sort by more than one column at a time:
Go to Data>Sort
In the Sort Dialog Window Select the first field you want to sort by. In this sample, I chose 'Initials/Prefix'.

Choose the second field you want to sort by in the 'Then by' field. In this sample, I chose Product Name.

Make sure the 'My list has header row' option is selected.

Click OK.

Using the spreadsheet for website and gallery links:

If you keep track of your supplies in an excel spreadsheet, using the four fields recommended above, it is very simple to use the same spreadsheet to make some calculated fields for posting supply lists to websites, blogs and galleries. The sample spreadsheet provided already has the formulas entered into fields F, H & J. If you put your data in columns B,C,D and E of the spreadsheet, the following fields will be calculated for you.

Column F: Blog/Store/Website format - This column is a calculated field. It uses the data from Columns D & E (Product Name and Product Link) to create a correctly formatted line of code that can be used to insert links in blogs and websites and such.

Column H: Gallery w/Links - This column is another calculated field. It uses the data from Columns D and E to create a line of code for putting linked credits in Galleries.

Column J: Gallery - no Links - This column combines the Product name and Designer name, for listing credits in galleries that do not allow linking.

Columns G & I: These two columns were added to simple give a 'buffer' between the calculated fields. This just makes it a bit easier to distinguish one column from the other.

Using the 'Select' Column:

Here is a trick for using the spreadsheet to it's fullest. If you have created a cleaned up supply list for your layout, as explained in this post, open it along side of your Supply Tracking Spreadsheet. Or, you can work right from your memory, layout in photoshop, or whatever other 'tool' you use for keeping track of which supplies you used on a layout.

For each supply used, place an 'X' (or character of your choice) in the Select column of the corresponding product in the Supply Tracking SpreadSheet.

With your cursor in the Select field, use the A>Z sort button to sort the spreadsheet. This will sort all of the 'selected' products to the top of the spreadsheet.

You can now highlight all of the desired calculated fields.

Press Ctrl-C to copy the data to the clipboard and then use Ctrl-V to paste them to your blog, website or gallery as needed.

If you are posting as list to a blog or website, it is helpful to use the html coding < ul > before your list of links and < / ul > after the list (remove the spaces).

When you are ready to use your Supply Tracking Spreadsheet for another layout, simply remove all the x's from the select column, resort as desired and start over!

Hope this helps speed up your supply tracking and makes giving credit a bit easier! Have a blessed day!

Layout Anatomy - Session 6

2010-10-19T13:48:00.001-04:00

Lord knows my digi-stash is more than plentiful, but when I saw this beautiful collection and read about the story behind it...I couldn't resist buying it!!

Photo Notes: Don't forget to capture the little details! These pictures in the woods behind our house were taken in a matter of minutes, as my daughter was a bit timid about climbing on the log. When I was able to look through them, I was so happy I had snapped a picture of her cute little toes and flip-flops walking on the log.

Layout Notes: Blending a photo into the background of a layout can sometimes be a happy compromise between lots of white space and the desire to make the most of every inch of the page.

I actually really liked this layout without the background photo. The white space really drew the eye to the pops of pink in the photos. However, there was just something about that particular photo and expression that made me want to include it in the layout. Putting it 'full strength' caused the layout to be too busy and left no focal point. By reducing the opacity to 30%, the focus fell back to the photos on the right and the background photo became a more subtle complement to the main photos.

Hope your day is blessed! :)

Fun Stuff

2010-10-07T23:03:00.001-04:00

I have recently joined a second CT team and am so excited about it! I am now part of Owl Tree Studios! Owl Tree is a 'monthly digital kit club'. Each months kit is packed with great products from three 'house' designers and two guest designers. This months club is filled with some great stuff!! You can see it all here!

If you are looking for some fun and prizes, join in the forums there for 'Hootfest' - Going on for the month of October!!

And, finally, a bit of inspiration before you go! :) Here are the pages I made with this months club!!

"Trick Or Treat" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

"Squirt Drink Laugh" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Hope your day is blessed! :)

Quick Start Tips - Photoshop Elements

2010-10-06T16:12:00.001-04:00

OK! As promised, here are some additional tips for using the Quick Start collages in Photoshop Elements.

One way to use them in PSE is very similar to the Photoshop method that I outlined in the previous post - using the 'Paste Into Selection' option. One key difference using this method in PSE vs. Photoshop is that PSE does not create a layer mask when you use this option. No layer mask just means it isn't 'quite' as easy to go back later and change the way a photo appears, but this method is still very useful!!

Here is the 'Paste Into' method in PSE:

Put the collage on your layout.
Put your photo on your layout.
Move/Resize your photo to roughly where you want it to go.

Select your photo layer in the layers palette.
Press Ctrl-A (Cmd-A) to select all.
Press Ctrl-X (Cmd-X) to delete the photo (don't worry, it is still on the clipboard!!)

Note - if for some reason your photo layer is a smart object, you will need to 'simplify' it before Ctrl-X will work. To do this - put your cursor over the photo layer in the layers palette, right click and select 'Simplify Layer'.

Select the collage layer in the layers palette.
Press 'W' to select the magic wand tool.
Use the wand tool to select the part(s) of the collage you want to use.

Select your photo layer (which is empty right now).
Select Edit>Paste Into Selection (or Shift+Ctrl+V) to paste the photo into the selected area. (At this point, your marching ants will change to the shape of your photo instead of your collage selection - that's ok!)

With the marching ants still on, press Ctrl-T (Cmd-T) to transform the selection. This will allow you to change, move, resize how the image is displayed within the area you selected from the collage.
Press Enter to accept the transformation.

Note: At this point, with the marching ants still on, you can do another transformation (Ctrl-T) if you aren't happy with what is showing. Once you are done with this photo and move onto the next one, you will not be able to do this transformation process again. If you wanted to change a photo later, you would simply start the process over for that photo.

Press Ctrl-D (Cmd-D) to remove the marching ants.
Repeat for any additional photos or papers.

Other tips for the Quick Start Collages:

For other ideas on how to combine collage sections or use more than one section at a time, see the last part of the Photoshop tutorial. The same techniques outlined there will work in PSE as well.

Another way to use the Quick Start Collages would be to turn them into a layered template.

To make layers from the different collage sections:

Select the collage layer.
Press 'W' to select the magic wand tool.
Use the Magic Wand Tool to select a part of the collage.
Press Ctrl-J (Cmd-J) to copy the selection to its own layer.
Repeat for the other sections of the collage.

When you are finished, you will have a more traditional 'Layered Template' and can use the individual layers as clipping masks.

And, before you go! Here is some more inspiration, brought to you by my friend Chanell. :)

'Growing Up' by Chanell Rigterink uses:

Falling Leaves Kit by SAS Designs

Template: QuickStarts 2 by Christy VanderWall

Fonts: Porcelain, Carbon Type

'How to Become a Ballerina' by Chanell Rigterink

Digital Kit: Doodle Doo by SAS Designs

Template: QuickStarts 1 by Christy VanderWall

Fonts: Kwekel, Teacher’s Pet

Thanks for stopping by! Hope your day is extremely blessed! :)

Quick Start Tips - Photoshop

2010-10-01T21:01:00.004-04:00

Ok, so you've downloaded the Quick Start pages. Now what? Here are some tips for using them in Photoshop. If you are a PSE user, please don't start crying just yet! You can probably learn a thing or two here and I will do a separate PSE post later, ok?? :)

Like everything in Photoshop, I am sure there are a million and one ways you can use these collages. I am just going to show you a few basic things that I do with them.

My favorite thing to do with the collages is fill the sections with photos and papers. This gives me a huge jump start on my layouts.

Here is how I do that:

Put the collage on your layout.
Open your photo and press Ctrl-A (Cmd A) to select All
Press Ctrl-C (Cmd C) to copy the contents of your photo
Press Ctrl -W (Cmd W) to close your photo (don't worry, the contents are still on the 'clipboard')
Select the Magic Wand Tool (W).
Check the 'Contiguous' box in the tool bar.
Select the collage layer in the layers palette.
Use the Magic wand to select the desired part of the collage - giving marching ants around the selection.

Select Edit>Paste Special>Paste Into (or Alt+Shift+Ctrl+V if you can remember that shortcut! LOL!)

This will put your photo on a new layer on your document, using your selection as a layer mask.

Press Ctrl-T (Cmd T) and transform (resize/move) your photo until it appears as desired.

Press Enter to accept/commit the transformation.
Click between the photo and mask in the layers palette to link them - a paper clip will reappear.
Repeat for other photos and papers.

Other tips for this method:

Select more than one box from the collage and use it as a mask for a photo or paper, using the same method as above.

Combine parts of the collage to make a larger area for a photo or paper:

Use the magic want tool to select one of the sections you want to combine.
Press Ctrl-T (Cmd-T) to transform the selection.
Stretch the selected box until the gap between the two parts of the collage is eliminated.
Press Enter to accept the transformation.
Repeat, if necessary.

Use the new combined section as a mask using the steps above.

Hope this gives you some help in making speedy layouts with these collages! Be sure to share your creations with me! :)

Staying Upadated and New Freebies

2010-09-30T18:29:00.002-04:00

Hey my friends! I hope this post finds you happy and well! I wanted to make you aware of something I discovered the other day. Maybe you are all way ahead of me and know this already, but thought I would share for those of us that are in the dark!!

I recently realized that pages I 'liked' on facebook have not been showing up in my news feed. I did some searching around and found out my account, by default, was set to only show 200 friends and 'likes' in my feed! This makes no sense to me? Why would I add a friend or page if I didn't want to see them in my feed? Guess it will be one of those facebook mysteries! The other thing it made me realize is that many of you following the SpeedScraps page may not be getting updates either.

To fix the problem, go to the bottom of your facebook page and click 'edit options' (lower right) and set the 'maximum friends allowed in feed' to a higher number. It appears that 9999 is the max. I think the critical thing is to make sure the number you choose exceeds your number of friends plus the number of pages you 'like'.

Another way for you to make sure you know when there are new blog posts here at SpeedScraps is to add your email address to my 'updates'. You can find this option on the right hand side, at the bottom of the information there. It says 'receive email updates' and has a spot for you to enter your email address. This adds you to a google group I created. As part of that grou you simply get an email each time I make a blog post - nothing more - no spam or anything!!

Before I get to the great freebies I have today, I want to say that this is the last time I will be posting my freebies at DigiScrapDepot. So, if that's how you arrived here, you may want to 'like' SpeedScraps on facebook or add your email address if you want to continue to be notified of what's going on around here. DigiScrapDepot is a wonderful site, I have not had any problems there and it has been a great resource for bringing people to SpeedScraps. I am just in a process of trying to 'simplify' my own life and eliminate the extra work that is involved in bringing you some great freebies.

So, what do I have for you today? Something I think is really fun! I have created something I call 'Quick Starts'. The concept behind these collages is that they are a bit more than a sketch, but not quite a layered template. Each file is a png that can be used to create a very simple, yet stunning layout or can be used as a starting point for a more involved, embellished layout. Each set contains 20 cohesive collages. They can be used individually for a single layout, put two together to make a two page spread, or use the whole set to quickly and easily create a beautiful album!!

Here is Set 1:

And some inspiration:

"Cereal Box Fairies" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Quick Start Collages - Set 1 - Christy VanderWall
Love Is Collection - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Delete Non-Visible - Christy VanderWall

"Play (Little Miss Independent)" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Quick Start Collages - Set 1 - Christy VanderWall
Glory Collection - Jennifer Labre
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Copy & Close - Christy VanderWall
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall

And Set 2:

And some more inspiration:

"Everything Beautiful" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Quick Start Collages - Set 2 - Christy VanderWall
Feelin Krafty Collection - Christy VanderWall
Copy & Close - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall

"Park Play" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Quick Start Collages - Set 2 - Christy VanderWall
Little Bit Black Alpha - Jennifer Labre
Color Me Happy - Jennifer Labre
Glory Collection - Jennifer Labre
She's All That - Jennifer Labre
Vintage Rose - Jennifer Labre
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall

Download Quick Start Collages 1

Download Quick Start Collages 2

Stay tuned in the week to come! I will post some tips and tricks for using these quickly and easily in PS and PSE!!

Have a great day! :) I would love to see what you create with these!

Sharpen Layouts for Web

2010-09-28T15:53:00.001-04:00

A couple months ago, I was reading this post from Aaron at Sir Scrapalot. I was intrigued by the concept of sharpening low-resolution files before posting on the web, something I was not doing. I guess I wasn't quite intrigued enough to try it though, as I didn't give it a shot at the time! LOL!

Fast forward to this week and the same subject was brought up at Owl Tree Studio, referencing a free 'Size for Web' action available at Oscraps. The action includes a step for sharpening layouts as well.

Well, this was enough to get me to actually try it and see what happens. I have to say, I was a bit surprised! I had never felt my layouts were 'fuzzy' in the past, but seeing the before and after has now convinced me to include this step in my workflow.

For this layout, I used Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask with settings of Amount - 85%, Radius - 1.0 and Threshold - 4 (as suggested by Aaron). You can click on the image to see it even larger. Check out the overall clarity difference, especially in the journaling and title.

"Cool Chick" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Have a great day! :)

Metal Rimmed Alpha (CU) and freebie!!!

2010-09-20T21:15:00.005-04:00

Hello scrappin friends! I hope this Monday has been a great one for you! It has been a busy, but great one for me today! I have another fun, versatile product for you! I am really excited about this alpha and can imagine lots of uses for it!

(Download links will be sent to your paypal email within 24 hours of purchase)

Here is a bit of inspiration for you. I have to say that I have been in a 'template' mood lately! I just love layout templates for those days when my scrapping mojo is less than ideal! This great template comes from ChrissyW at Elemental Scraps. I love that her purchased templates are CU products. That way I can use them if I am ever inspired to make some quick pages to sell or give away! ;)

"Puppy Love" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Black and Pewter Alpha Freebie
Love Is Collection - Christy VanderWall
Sample Pack #13 - 12x12 Templates - Chrissy W.
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
Delete Non-Visible - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall

And, I have another great freebie for you! I used the Metal Rimmed Alpha to create the title on this layout and have turned the entire set into a freebie to share! Hope you enjoy it and I would love to see what you create!

Download Freebie Alpha Here

Have a great day! Be sure to say 'hi' before you go! :)

Still time to sign up for Understanding Exposure Class!

2010-09-20T11:04:00.002-04:00

If you haven't signed up for the Understanding Exposure Online Training, there is still time! Class starts Thursday at 9pm EST.

If you have been thinking about coming, but are unsure, listen to this feedback from a past student of the class:

"I have owned a DSLR for close to three years now. Never had I used any other mode than full automatic. Then I went to a scrapbooking convention in October 2009 and so many people were talking about the book “Understanding Exposure.” The first thing I did when I came home was order it. And then it came and I was still as confused and frustrated as ever. Nothing made sense. A few months later Christy offered a class based on this book. I jumped at the opportunity to take this class. I have not taken my camera off of Manual Mode since! My photos look 200% better than they did before and I’m having so much fun! I’ve even started taking photos for friends and now they are referring me to their friends. I’m currently moving into the next phase of my photography by starting up a little photography business. I still have a lot to learn for certain but if it weren’t for Christy and the way she explains this book I would not be where I am today. Thank you Christy for completely changing the way I take photos! You ROCK!" - Shari

Also, I probably will not be teaching this class again until sometime in 2011 - so grab your seat now!!

See ya in class!!

Love Is Freebie

2010-09-16T22:28:00.004-04:00

Hello scrappers! Hope your day has been filled with joy and blessings! I have another 'Love Is' freebie for you! This is some fun word art that coordinates well with the collection.

Here is a fun layout I made with the word art:

Download Freebie Here

If you missed the collection yesterday, you can purchase it below for the great price of $3.00!!!

New Collection and Freebie!

2010-09-15T21:46:00.006-04:00

First, a reminder that there is still time to sign up for the 'Understanding Exposure' - Online Training!! Come join me for this great class designed to get you off Auto and into Manual mode on your DSLR.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I am so thrilled with how this collection turned out! I hope you will be too!!

And finally! A freebie for you! :) This versatile alpha coordinates with the 'Love Is' Collection, but is sure to work with many other kits in your stash.

Download Freebie Alpha Here

Thanks for stopping by! Have a blessed day! :D

Class Information - Layout Anatomy: Session 5 - Freebie

2010-09-09T21:20:00.003-04:00

Class Information:

SpeedScraps is now in session! If you own a DSLR and have never moved the dial off Auto, then this class is for you! Come explore your camera as we work together through the highly acclaimed book 'Understanding Exposure'. For more information and to register, visit this post.

Layout Anatomy:

I just love how the digi-scrapping products evolve with the seasons. It keeps me motivated to sort through last years pictures and get them scrapped! I made this layout for Jennifer Labre's new product at the DigiChick this week - Fall Whimsy.

Photo Notes: As you sort through photos for the 'keepers', it might be tempting to purge the ones where the subjects are out of focus, laughing, making funny faces or have their eyes closed. Take a second look at those 'less than perfect' photos and ask yourself 'what story do they tell?'. In 20 years, you might appreciate the joy you find in looking at photos like this and the memories they evoke.

Layout Notes: Use elements on your page to create movement and draw the readers eye where you want it to go. On this page, the leaves and the string draw your eye across the page to the larger photo.

Freebie: I made this layout into another Layered Template for you! Enjoy! :)

Freebie Download Link: Layout Template #2
Alternate Download Link: Layout Template #2 via 4Shared

Have a blessed day!

SpeedScraps presents - Understanding Exposure Online Training

2010-09-02T19:59:00.003-04:00

This four session class explores the photographic triangle - aperture, shutter speed, ISO - and how to take the guesswork out of shooting great photos. Class materials provide additional insights and learning tools to help you gain a firm understanding of what is presented in the class book – Understanding Exposure.

There will be a private group set up on facebook for students to post their photos, questions and discussions and receive feedback. You are also welcome to email me if you are not a facebook user or want private feedback.

In this class you will:

Get off Auto and into Manual Mode
Learn Creatively Correct vs. Correct Exposures
Explore the Photographic Triangle - Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO
Gain an understanding of the Light Meter
Study how aperture is used to create storytelling vs. single theme photos
Discuss how Shutter Speed affects the motion of a photo
Discover where to take meter readings

Class size is limited to 15, so hurry and register today! (Minimum of 6 participants or class will be cancelled.)

Class requirements:

Participating in this class requires the student to have a copy of the book ‘Understanding Exposure’ by Bryan Peterson. This book must be purchased, separately, by the student. The Revised Edition or 3rd Edition are suitable for this class.

*The contents of this class and book are best suited for users of DSLR or SLR cameras or a point and shoot camera with the ability to adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

SpeedScraps uses a webinar service called GoToMeeting for their Online Classes. Using GoToMeeting allows students to hear me talking as well as see my computer screen.

To use GoToMeeting webinar service you will need:

High Speed Internet Connection
Up to date Web Browser
Speakers or headset to hear the audio portion of the class

To communicate with the Instructor you can use one of the following methods:

Dial in using your telephone (your standard long distance rates will apply)
Use a built in microphone on your computer or headset.
Use the chat feature of GoToMeeting to type your communications.

Class PDFs, facebook group invites and more information regarding GoToMeeting will be sent to students after registering for the class.

Refunds/Cancellations – If you are unable to attend a class due to an emergency, arrangements will be made for you to attend a future session of the same class. If a circumstance arises where the teacher cannot hold a given class, it will be rescheduled.

For any further questions, feel free to email me at SpeedScraps at gmail dot com

CT Stuff and a freebie template!

2010-08-30T19:24:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I joined the CT (creative team) for Jennifer Labre Designs. I love being part of a CT for many reasons. It stretches me to design with collections and things I might not otherwise buy or choose for myself. This keeps my pages and albums interesting and fun and prevents me from making all my layouts look the same. It forces me to keep scrapping layouts for my family and not get totally caught up in the 'work' part of what I do. And, who doesn't love getting free goodies!!

If you have ever considered joining a creative team, I highly encourage you to try it! Even if you have tried and have been turned down, I encourage you to keep trying. I have been told 'no' more than I have been told 'yes', but I am so glad I didn't let it discourage me!

Here is a page I made recently for Jennifer's Cherish Collection. The colors in this collection are soft, yet rich and make some beautiful pages. I have been playing lately with leaving more white space on my pages and trying to use larger drop shadows than I am accustomed to. I am really happy with how it turned out and decided to share it with you as a freebie layout template! (Links available below.)

"Seven" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Freebie Download Link: Layout Template #1
Alternate Download Link: Layout Template #1 via 4Shared

Enjoy! Don't forget to leave some love if you download! ;)

Welcome!!

2010-08-06T07:44:00.002-04:00

A big welcome to anyone new here and those visiting from The Daily Digi or the Paperclipping Digi Show! So glad you stopped by! Feel free to poke around a bit! If you are looking for the Supply Tracker script or any of the other free scripts available here, you can find them by going to 'Download Free Scripts' in the sidebar. --->

Thanks for stopping! Have a great digi-day!!

Paperclipping Digi Show

2010-08-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

If you haven't discovered The Daily Digi and Paperclipping Digi Show, be sure to hop over and check them out!

The Daily Digi is a fantastic resource for so many things related to digi-scrapping. I could spend all day looking through the archives and soaking everything in. The great thing is, each post is short and to the point, so when I don't have a lot of time I can still read one post and absorb something new or simply be inspired by the eye candy.

Paperclipping Digi Show is a fun, roundtable discussion of digi-scrapping related topics. The panelists and topics vary from week to week. This weeks topic is 'Random Terms of Use', regarding giving credit for supplies. This subject is near and dear to my heart and I am so excited to hear them refer to the scripts, Supply Tracker and Copy & Close - available here at SpeedScraps - as a supply tracking solution!

Happy Scrapping! :)

Freebie Time - Layered Chipboard Alpha

2010-08-03T15:54:00.005-04:00

I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are! Boy, the days are just flying by and I can't believe it is August already! I have a fun and versatile Alpha for you today! This a layered template version of the Alpha from my Spring Dress Collection. There will be 100 free downloads available and after that, it can be purchased for $3 using the Buy Now button below. If you aren't already following SpeedScraps on facebook, be sure to join us so you can stay updated!

Here is a fun layout I made using this Alpha for the title:

"Ball" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Layered Chipboard Alpha - Christy VanderWall
Feelin Krafty Collection - Christy VanderWall
File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall
Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall
Font - Pea Breathe Easy

Freebie Download Link: ~~Layered Chipboard Alpha~~

The download limit for this freebie has been reached. It can still be purchased for $3 using the 'Buy Now' button below. Not free, but still a great value for a commercial use Alpha! :)

Layout Anatomy - Session 4

2010-07-22T15:32:00.001-04:00

This photo brings back such happy thoughts from our recent vacation. We drove about 3 miles down this dirt road, looking for a geocache, only to find out it was a dead end. When we turned around to drive back out, there were literally thousands of small yellow butterflies along side of the road. They were not there on our drive in. The girls got out and had fun chasing them and trying to catch them (with no luck).

Photo Notes: A subtle vignette goes a long way in adding depth and focus to a photo.

Here is my photo, using the exact same edits, except the one on the right has a vignette added (in Lightroom). The vignette deepens the color tones in the photo and also helps draw your eye to the subject.

Layout Notes: Use clustering wisely on layouts to create a sense of balance.

A layout is a bit like a teeter totter. If you place too much on one side or part of the layout, it can feel a bit out of balance. On this layout, the cluster in the upper right corner nicely balances the title and photo cluster in the lower left corner.

"Chasing Butterflies" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Feelin Krafty Collection - Christy VanderWall
Digital Scrapbooking Scripts: Copy & Close, File Save 1, Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Freebie Collection and Some Changes

2010-07-16T22:49:00.023-04:00

Hey Scrappers! Hope you had a great week! I have been working hard on something really fun and am so excited to finally share it with you! Here is a preview of my all new 'Feelin Krafty' collection! This fun, versatile collection has 24 papers and over 60 elements!

Download links coming below, but first some changes on the horizon. When I started SpeedScraps, one of my goals for the site was that it be a source of awesome freebies. This is still one of my goals, however, I do need to somehow find a balance. I need to come up with a way to generate some income for myself to compensate for the time spent creating products and writing tutorials. (Or my better half will force me to get a 'real' job, and we really don't want that now, do we?? :D )

I have some ideas on how to achieve that balance and some changes that will be implemented over the next few months. The first change is with this collection. The freebie downloads are set up through YouSendIt, which will be valid for 100 downloads or 7 days - whichever comes first. If the free downloads are no longer available, the collection can be purchased for $3 using the Buy It Now button following the links.

I am so appreciative of everyone that has supported me on this journey. I hope you'll stick around while I work through the changes and try to create a win-win situation for all of us. If all goes as planned, SpeedScraps will still be a source of great freebies, as well as a place to make purchases that are a great value.

Now, before I give you this links, here is a little inspiration using the Feelin Krafty Collection.

"Turtle Crossings" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Feelin Krafty Collection - Christy VanderWall
Digital Scrapbooking Scripts: Copy & Close, File Save 1, Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall

~~Freebie Download links:~~ Freebie download links have been removed, as the 100 download limit has been reached. Want to be the first to know about future freebies and receive special 'fan' promotions? Be sure to 'like' the SpeedScraps page on facebook.

If you would still like this collection, it can be purchased for $3 using the 'Buy Now' button below. Not free, but still a great value for the 24 papers and 60+ unique embellishments in this fun collection!! :)

Please allow 24 hours for download links to be sent after using the Buy Now feature.

Have a blessed day! :)

Layout Anatomy - Session 3

2010-07-07T19:41:00.005-04:00

Hello scrappers! I hope you are all doing well! I have just returned from a fun filled family vacation and am ready to get the creative juices flowing again! I was so happy to see some of you using the Woodland Cottage collection while I was away. If you have made a layout, please share it on the SpeedScraps facebook page...I love seeing what you create!

Now for a bit of layout anatomy. If you are new here, you can find the original Layout Anatomy post here. It tells a bit about my thoughts and purposes of the layout anatomy posts.

This is one of my favorite photos I have ever taken. It is at the beach in Holland Michigan, where I grew up, and contains some subjects that are pretty special to me. :)

Photo Notes: Don't be afraid to get down and get dirty.

When I took this shot, I was crouching down as far as I could go, without sitting or laying down in the sand. When I came home and opened the photo for editing, I realized the silhouette of my husband and daughter was chopped off at the knees because my position was too high. Had I laid down on my stomach, I think it would have changed my perspective enough that most of their legs would have been in the silhouette.

I was able to somewhat rescue their silhouettes by using the dodge tool in Photoshop and slightly lightening the sand behind my husband and daughter.

Layout Notes: When your viewer looks at a layout, they often 'read' it like they would a book. The eye tends to move from the upper left corner of the page then down to the lower right.

With this in mind, I chose to put my title in the upper left corner and my other design element, the date code, in the lower right. As the eye travels from the title to the date code, it now passes right across the subject of my photo.

Have a blessed day!

"First Sunset" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Date Codes - Jennifer Labre Designs
Sunkissed: Sunset - Jennifer Labre Designs
Digital Scrapbooking Scripts: Copy & Close, File Save 1, Supply Tracker - Christy VanderWall

It's here! Woodland Cottage Collection - Freebie!

2010-06-22T14:42:00.002-04:00

A great big HUGE thank you to everyone who has joined us on facebook this past week and especially to those who were so diligent in promoting us to your friends! I am so grateful for each one of you and blessed to call you friends!

So, here is what you have been waiting for!! Karen Chandler's fantastic, beautiful, awesome, HUGE, Woodland Cottage Collection!

If you make something with the collection, please post it to our facebook page so we can ooh and ahh over it.

Woodland Cottage Alpha (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage Embellishments 1 (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage Embellishments 2 (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage Embellishments 3 (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage Papers (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage Solid Papers (4Shared)

Don't forget to leave Karen a nice comment before you go! She has worked hard on this beautiful collection and appreciates your feedback! A little love goes a long way! ;)

Blessings! - Christy

Woodland Cottage - Quick Page 6 Freebie

2010-06-21T15:49:00.006-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! I am so excited to see we are only 14 face book fans away from giving away this awesome collection! If you haven't joined us on facebook yet, please do so!

And while wait just a bit longer, here is another Quick page freebie for you!

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 6 (4Shared)

Have a blessed day!

Woodland Cottage - Quick Page 5 Freebie

2010-06-18T21:21:00.002-04:00

Karen has created another fabulous Quick Page freebie from the Woodland Cottage collection. If this is your first visit, be sure to grab the other 4 Quick Page Freebies and also join our facebook page! We are getting close to giving away the whole collection!

Thanks for stopping!

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 5 (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage - Quick Page 4 Freebie

2010-06-17T18:48:00.002-04:00

Ohhh...I'm getting so excited! We are only 25 people away from giving away the beautiful collection Karen created! I can't wait to see the pages you all create with it!

While we wait, here is another page I created with the collection. It is available as a quick page, via links below. Don't forget to join our facebook page, as we are getting close to the 300 mark when we can give away the fantastic Woodland Cottage collection Karen created! Thanks for stopping!

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 4 (4Shared)

Woodland Cottage - Quick Page 3 Freebie

2010-06-16T22:30:00.001-04:00

We're inching closer to the 300 mark on facebook! :) Here is another Quick Page Freebie for you to enjoy! Have a great day!

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 3 (4Shared)

If you missed the announcement about this collection to come, be sure to view this post.

Another Quick Page Freebie!

2010-06-15T15:32:00.010-04:00

Thank you and WELCOME to the 26 new SpeedScraps fans added since yesterday! I hope you will visit often! :)

Here is another Quick Page Freebie for you while we wait to hit the 300 mark on facebook! Another beautiful page by Karen.

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 2 (4Shared)

If you missed yesterdays announcement about this collection to come and the first quick page freebie, be sure to view this post.

Have a blessed day!

Time for more freebies!

2010-06-14T15:19:00.003-04:00

I am so excited to share this next freebie collection with you! My dear friend Karen Chandler has been working on something really great! This huge Woodland Cottage Collection has 20 papers, patterned and solids, and almost 100 fantastic elements! It is full of realistic flowers and leaves, metal embellishments, a birch bark alpha, just to name a few. The beautiful color palette will suit a variety of scrapping subjects.

This awesome collection will be available once we reach 300 fans on facebook. To help us reach the goal you can send your friends to this site and they can click on 'like' in the facebook badge on the sidebar.

You can also tell your friends about SpeedScraps using the 'Suggest to Friends' feature available on the SpeedScraps fan page. It is found in the upper left-hand corner.

While we wait for your friends to join the party, I have some inspiration and a freebie for you! Here is a beautiful layout Karen made from the Woodland Cottage Collection. After the layout, you will find a download link for an 8x8 Quick Page freebie of this layout.

Woodland Cottage Quickpage Freebie 1 (4Shared)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Layout Anatomy - Session 2

2010-06-09T09:56:00.011-04:00

If you missed my first Layout Anatomy post, you can find it here. It explains a bit about my intentions of these posts! :)

My friend Chanell at the Instinctive Scrapper created a free kit that she is giving away! In honor of her first creation, I thought I would make a layout with it! My favorite part of the collection has to be the great alpha and the word art Chanell made from it. So, I started with that as my inspiration.

The quote she used reminded me of this tiny little bouquet that Regan had made for me earlier in the spring. I had purposely snapped a couple pictures of it to create a layout.

Photo Notes: Break free from the habit of centering all the subjects of your photos. Off center photos can create a more interesting feel. They also leave you with a great place for some journaling or word art when making scrapbooking pages.

Ali Edwards shares shares some great tips for this here.

Layout Notes: For help with placement of items on your layout, turn on your grids. In Photoshop, the shortcut key is Ctrl ' (single quote). In PSE, go to View>Grid.

In each program, you can adjust the number and spacing of the lines that appear in the grid using Edit>Preferences>Guides, Grid & Slices (or just Grid for PSE). In the preferences dialog, there is a field 'Gridline Every'. If you set the value to 33.33 and change the measurement to percent, your grid will give you a great 'rule of thirds' overlay, no matter what your document size.

Where the heavier gridlines intersect, highlighted with black circles here, are the main points of focus for the page. Putting items of interest at or near these intersections is one way to make sure the viewers eye is drawn to the most important part(s) of your page.

For my layout, I placed my flowers at one intersection, or sweet spot, and then followed the same horizontal line to place the top row of my word art.

Have a great day! :)

"Sweet Simple Things" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

Chanell Rigterink - Sweet Simple Things Collection Mini
Zen Textures - Zen Textures
Quick Edge Burn Action - Pioneer Woman
Digital Scrapbooking Scripts: Copy & Close, File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall

Supply Tracking - Part 2

2010-06-07T22:02:00.003-04:00

The first tutorial about supply tracking explained some of the reasons why a digital scrapbooker would want to keep track of supplies used on a layout and also emphasized that the first step in doing so is creating 'meaningful' layer names.

Once you have a layout complete, with layers named according to the products used, the Supply Tracker script can be used to gather them into a list. Supply Tracker puts the list of layer names in a new text layer at the top of your layout.

Supply Tracker also copies the same list of layer names to the 'Metadata' of your layout. Metadata can be seen by going to File>File Info. The list is copied to the 'Description' section of the Metadata.

If you are only tracking supplies for your own purposes, you may find this list of file names is suffice. You can simply turn off the visibility of the 'Credits' layer, or even delete it, since the same info is in the metadata. If you use the File Save (1 or 2) scripts, or use File>Save As, to save a jpg copy of your layout, the metadata will be preserved in those files as well.

NOTE: If you use the 'Save for Web' feature of Photoshop or PSE, the files created will not contain the metadata that is in your psd file.

If you are posting your layout to online galleries, submitting to magazines or listing credits on a blog, etc., your supply list will probably require some editing to make it useful to the readers. The credits and/or Metadata can be edited right in Photoshop/PSE, if desired.

After running Supply Tracker, I prefer to do my edits in Excel. To do this, I first double click on the thumbnail of the credits layer.

This highlights the entire list.

Then, I copy (Ctrl-C) the selection, open Excel, and paste (Ctrl-V) the contents of the credits list in a spreadsheet. I do this step because I find it easier to view and manipulate the data in Excel than in Photoshop.

The next thing I do is clean up the data by deleting any duplicate product names or data that isn't related to supply tracking, leaving only one row for each product I need to give credit to. I also add anything that I may have missed when creating 'meaningful' layer names - like fonts or additional scripts used.

The last step is to 'convert' file names to product names. The column next to the original list makes a great place for this.

Now, the 'cleaned up' supply list can be copied and pasted back to the layout or to your blog or gallery post. To do this, highlight the new list in excel and copy (Ctrl-C) the data.

To paste the new list to the metadata of your layout, go to File>File Info. Highlight all the existing data in the 'Description' field and press Ctrl-P to paste the new data, overwriting the old list.

Lastly, don't forget to save your psd file, to preserve your new, cleaned up supply list! :)

Next time, I will share some additional ideas for using Excel to keep track of supplies that you own and how to use the spreadsheet and Supply Tracker to easily create a credits list.

Til next time! :)

Spring Dress Mini Collection Freebie

2010-06-04T21:00:00.004-04:00

A big THANK YOU to all of you who helped me reach the 200+ fan mark on facebook! As promised, here is the freebie collection for you!

If you make a layout with these products, I would love to see it! Send me a link here or post it on the SpeedScraps wall!

Click on the file name for a direct download. If the direct download is not working, you can use the '4shared' download by clicking the corresponding link.

Spring Dress Papers 1 (4Shared)

Spring Dress Papers 2 (4Shared)

Spring Dress Elements (4Shared)

Spring Dress Alpha (4Shared)

Don't forget to become a fan on facebook before you go! Have a blessed day! :)

New Links and Tell a friend or two!

2010-06-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

Due to the ongoing server issues, I have added 4shared links to each of the free scripts downloads. If you have any trouble with them, please let me know!

And, I have a fun freebie to give away! I am getting so close to the 200 mark on facebook! Will you help me out and tell a friend or two? Here is a peak at what I have to give away when I hit 200! :)

Hope your day is blessed!

More Server Issues

2010-06-02T06:47:00.000-04:00

I am having issues, once again, with the server provider for the direct downloads. Sometime in the next day or two, I will add 4shared download links to the scripts download page, as a backup/alternative.

Thank you for your continued patience!
Christy

Server up again!

2010-05-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

Seems the server issues have been resolved and all downloads should be working again. Thank you for your patience and please let me know if there are any other issues!

Blessings!
Christy

Server Issues

2010-05-25T06:42:00.000-04:00

Just a note to let you guys know that the company I use for the direct downloads is having some technical issues. This is causing some of the scripts to give errors when you try to download them. I have been in contact with them and they are working on the issues. If the issues aren't resolved in the next day or two, I will add some 4shrared download links.

Thanks for your patience! Have a blessed day!

Fixing an Overexposed Photo in Lightroom

2010-05-24T21:48:00.005-04:00

Sometimes there are certain photos of your kids that just stand out to you as ‘yep’ that’s my girl! For me, this is one of those photos. So, needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that it was so overexposed. I really wasn’t sure if it could be saved, but I was determined to try. It was shot in RAW, so I was hoping that would help increase my chances of fixing it.

At first, I thought maybe I could just reduce the exposure. While this did improve the photo, it caused some strange contrasts on the face and cheeks.

I then tried using the recovery slider, but it only accentuated the strange contrasts.

Through trial and error, I discovered that the best solution, for this photo, was to reduce the brightness and increase the blacks quite a bit. I also fixed the white balance at this point, since I could now see what I was working with. (I would normally do this step first.)

And lastly, since my Nikon likes to do wonky things with bright pinks and reds, I made some final Lightroom adjustments to the Red Hue Saturation and Luminance.

After finishing my Lightroom edits, I opened the photo in Photoshop for some slight under-eye touch up and teeth whitening, a bit of eye pop, final sharpening, a curves adjustment to fix some background color issues and a soft light layer for a bit of pop. Here is the final before and after photo.

While the skin is still much brighter than what I would normally edit a photo, I am happy to be able to recover this photo to a usable state. (And also happy that all my photos aren't so horribly exposed and requiring so much help!! LOL!)

Have a blessed day! Thanks for stopping!

Supply Tracking – Part 1

2010-05-20T14:26:00.009-04:00

Tracking digital scrapbooking supplies is almost equivalent to housekeeping. It isn’t something most people enjoy doing, but it is often necessary. In this series of tutorials, you will find some tips and tricks to make your digital ~~housekeeping~~ supply tracking a bit easier.

There are many benefits to keeping an inventory of the supplies you have purchased (or own) as well as keeping track of which supplies you use on a given layout or project. Here are a few that I can think of:

Prevent duplicate purchases

Give proper credit when posting to galleries or blogs

Give proper credit when submitting to magazines or other publications

Give proper credit when creating Digital Scrapbooking Supplies or working on a creative team

Easily determine what product was used on previous layout when you want to use the product again

The first thing I want to talk about is keeping track of supplies used on a layout. Even if you don’t post in online galleries or submit your layouts to magazines, there still may be times when you want to go back to a layout and figure out what products were used.

The first step in keeping track of layout supplies is creating ‘meaningful’ layer names. Instead of the generic ‘Layer 1, Layer 2’ names that Photoshop and PSE provide, use the layer names to note which product was used on that layer. There are many different ways to create meaningful layer names.

Manually rename the layer – In PSE or Photoshop, you can double click on a layer name and manually edit the name. In Photoshop, you can right click and select ‘Layer Properties’ then edit the name in the pop-up box. In PSE, you can right-click and select ‘Rename Layer’, then edit the layer name in the pop-up box.

This option is useful for tracking things like fonts, brushes, styles or actions.

File>Place – Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have the ‘Place’ option, found under the file menu. Using File>Place is an alternative to opening and moving items onto a layout. File>Place allows you to open one file at a time, places it on your layout and uses the file name as the layer name.

This option is handy if you are only adding one item to a layout, but can be slow and cumbersome if you are putting multiple items on a layout.

Rename Layer – To use this script, open a product then run the script. The file name is used to rename the top layer in the file. When the product is moved to a layout, the file name is moved with it.

This option works great for layered PSD files. When you run the script, it only gives the top layer a ‘meaningful’ name, which is adequate for supply tracking purposes. When the multiple layers of the PSD file are moved to the layout the new layer name moves with it.
(More detailed instructions available here)

Copy & Close – This script makes quick work of putting many items on a layout and gives them meaningful names. To use this script, you open multiple jpg or png files, run the script, and the files are all copied to your PSD layout and file names are used as layer names. The jpg or png files are also closed after being copied.

This option is my favorite, by far, for putting items on a layout. You can use any method to open the files – File>Open, Picasa, Bridge, etc. Then run the script and it does the work of putting the items on your layout, renaming the layers and closing the files. (More detailed instructions available here.)

Here is a short video of each of these methods:

(I am just starting to play with a program called Jing for making recordings. So, bear with me while I work through the ins and outs of using it and get better at making quality videos! :) If you want the MPG4 version, you can download it here. It is much clearer than the embedded version here.)

(Click to Play the video)

From

Hope this helps you on your way to neat and tidy supply tracking! Still to come…tips on using Supply Tracker to gather up all your new ‘meaningful’ layer names and how to easily convert the list into useful information.

Help Wanted! Teaching Resources

2010-05-19T14:42:00.001-04:00

This is a call out to all product designers! I need your help!

As I was putting together this blog and searching for digital scrapbooking supplies, I found it a bit overwhelming trying to sort through all the different TOU for each site and designer out there. Most of the personal TOU were very clear about whether products could only be used for personal pages or if scrap for hire is also allowed. What I struggled to find were clear guidelines as to whether the products could be used for teaching purposes, such as blog tutorials or webinar classes.

So, here is what I am looking for. If your personal use products (free or purchased) CAN be used for teaching purposes please post your information in the comments section below. By teaching purposes, I mean tutorials, classes, webinars, etc. that may be offered for free or for purchase. Your products will be used for demonstration only (screenshots, layouts, etc.) and will not in any way be distributed for the 'students' to use on their own. Proper credit will also be given for any products used, typically as a clickable link to your site.

If your products meet this criteria. Please post the following information in the comments section.

Your Real Name
Designer Name (if different from your real name)
Link to your store or blog
Please note if any additional licensing is required to use your products in this manner (i.e. Angel Licensing).

I will then add your information to my 'resources' page, for my own future reference and for others who may find it helpful.

Thanks so much for your help! Hope your day is blessed!

Layout Anatomy

2010-05-12T21:23:00.011-04:00

Anatomy \A*nat"o*my\, noun; pl. {Anatomies}. [F. anatomie, L. anatomia, Gr. ? dissection, fr. ? to cut up; ? + ? to cut.] The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts; analysis;

Welcome to my first session of Layout Anatomy! This feature of the blog will, hopefully, give you some tips and tricks for making layouts that you love. It won't be a complete dissection of every layout, but a brief tip or two about the creation of a given layout. I will also try to include some photography tidbits in these postings as well.

Disclaimer: I am of the mindset that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' when it comes to making layouts. So the things I share here are not 'rules' on how to make a great layout, they are just little glimpses inside my mind as I create a layout. I believe in the sentiment 'do what you love and love what you do'. I have learned, however, that some people know what they love when they see it on other peoples layouts, but struggle when it comes to making their own layouts. So, my hope is to help you in your own journey to making layouts that you love.

Photo Notes: Take notice of not only your subject, but the surroundings and background as well. Sometimes simple changes in your position or zoom can mean less editing later.

When I first started taking photos of my daughter splashing in the puddle, part of our playground area was in the frame of the photo (left). This would have been distracting later, if I had decided to use the uncropped photo on a layout. It could be cropped or cloned out in Photoshop, but instead, I took two steps to the left, changing the angle from which I was shooting, and zoomed in a bit more. This removed the distraction from the rest of the photos (right).

Layout Notes: When picking color schemes or style for a layout, look at photo details for inspiration.

If I had to pick color schemes by simply looking through my supply stash, I don't think I would ever get any layouts done, as I would find myself overwhelmed by the choices. My typical inspiration for colors comes directly from my photos. In this case, the only thing that had a lot of color, besides the greens in the trees, was my daughters rain boots. Not only did they inspire me with their colors, but the whimsy, doodled circles inspired the style of my layout as well.

Happy Scrapping! Hope your day is blessed!

"Jump for Joy" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

The Scrappin Cop - Real Ric Rac

Christy VanderWall - Copy & Close

Christy VanderWall - File Save 1

Christy VanderWall - Supply Tracker

Kevin and Amanda - Highland Perk Font

HG Designs - Arrow Brushes

HG Designs - Doodle Line Brushes

Royanna Fritschmann - Autumn Graces

Royanna Fritschmann - Christmas in July

Royanna Fritschmann - Pajama Party

Christine Mortimer - There & Back Alpha

Welcome to SpeedScraps!!

2010-05-10T13:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the latest adventure in my scrapbooking and photography journey! I am so excited to finally share this with everyone! My mind is spinning like crazy with ideas and exciting things!

I started this blog to have a place where I will share tips and tutorials, give things away (like scripts!), teach classes and workshops and a whole lot more!! My biggest challenges now are finding enough hours in the day and pacing myself!

So, while you are here, feel free to look around and be sure to grab any scripts that are missing from your stash! And don't forget to say 'hello' before you leave! I hope you will come back and visit often! Oh yeah…tell your friends to stop on by too! I’d love to meet them!

Blessings to you!
Christy

P.S. If you are a Mac/PSE user, I could especially use your help with downloading and testing each of the scripts to make sure they run correctly!

Instructions - Scripts: Scatter Things - PSE

2010-04-25T20:28:00.010-04:00

Why: To quickly copy, paste and randomly resize and scatter 3-dimensional items.

What: Scatter things will make up to 100 copies of one or more layers. Each layer will be randomly resized, rotated and scattered, based on some parameters entered into a pop-up window that appears when the script is run.

How: Scatter Things should be run from a new document containing only the layers/items that you want to be scattered.

Using the Script:
Create a new document in the size and shape you want your things scattered.

Add one copy of each ‘thing’ you want to scatter to your document.

If you would like your layers to have a layer style, like a drop shadow, you can add one before running the script and all of the copies will have the same layer style.

At this point, it is a good idea to save your document. Then, if you don’t like the way things are scattered, you can easily return to this point and try the script again. Because everything is random, you will get different results each time, even with the same settings in the pop-up window.

Double check that the only layers on your document are the ones you want to scatter. There should not be any background layers or blank transparent layers, only the layers you want to scatter.

Select one layer from your layers palette. It does not matter which layer you chose, they will all be scattered. Photoshop Elements simply requires one layer to be selected when an action is run, or you will get an error message that says ‘In order to use this effect, a single layer must be selected in the Layers palette.’

Run the script and this pop-up window will appear, giving you some scattering options

Number of Copies: Scatter Things will make up to 100 copies of each layer in the document. If you need more than 100 copies of something, simply run the script again.

If you are running the script for a second time on a document, be mindful of how many layers are currently on
the document and how many copies you want to make the second time. For example, if you start with ten original layers and make ten copies, you will end up with 100 new layers. If you run the script again and select 10 for the number of copies, you would end up with 1000 copies/layers!!

Size Variation: Scatter Things will vary the size of the copied items by up to 100%, larger and smaller, than
the original item. If you want all of the copied and scattered items to stay the same size, enter 0 (zero) in the
Size Variation field.

Angle Variation: Scatter Things will also rotate the copied items from 0 to 360 degrees, left and right. To leave items in their original orientation, enter 0 (zero) in the Angle Variation field.

Once you have your values set in the pop-up window, press OK and watch the script do its magic!

Note: If you ever need to exit the script once it is running, simply press the ESC key to stop it.

When the script is finished, each copy is put on it’s own layer. Having each copy on its own layer allows you to modify the final results to your liking.

All of the original layers are moved to the bottom of the layers palette and the visibility is turned off.

By default, the script allows parts of the layers to be off the edges of the document. If desired, you can quickly resize the layers to fit within the boundaries of your document by selecting all the layers and pressing Ctrl-T(Cmd-T) to transform them. (To quickly select all layers use Select>All Layers, or Select the top layer in the layers palette, hold the Shift and and select the last copied layer in the layers palette.)

Then, drag the transformation handles to resize the whole group to be within the document. Press Enter to accept the transformation.

If you want your ‘Scattered Things’ limited to a certain shape, create a new layer containing the shape that you want to make your scattered things. Place the layer below all o f the scattered layers and above the original, hidden layers and use it as a visual reference.

Press V to select your Move Tool.

Then check the ‘Auto-Select Layer’ option in the toolbar. Now, you can simply click on each layer and move or delete it as desired. For my sample, I moved all the flowers to inside the heart shape, leaving some of them over the edges of the heart.

Then, I deleted my heart layer, leaving a beautiful heart made of random flowers.

Other Ideas for the Scatter Things Script:

The Scatter Things script can also be used to just create a bit of randomness on items too.

Here is a sample of a title made from alphas, with the letters lined up neatly. Each letter is left on its own layer.

Select ONE of the layers in the layers palette and run the script.

If you set the Number of Copies to zero, the script will not make any copies, but will still randomly change the size and angle of the layers selected using the values entered in the Size Variation and Angle Variation fields.

Here is the ‘Scattered’ Title run at 20% Size Variation and 20% Angle Variation.

Photo Collages:
Scatter Things can also be used to make photo collages.

First, put a copy of each photo in a PSD. For this sample, I have 60 photos and simply put them on my page, one on top of the other.

Your photo sizes will probably be quite large, relative to your canvas size, so you will need to reduce them. How small to make them will depend on how many photos you are trying to collage and how big your canvas is. You may have to experiment a bit to get it just right.

To reduce all the photos at once, select all the photo layers. Then press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T) and drag one of the corner transformation handles down to the desired size. It does not matter if the pictures are in the middle of the canvas or not, as the script will scatter them anyway. (This is a great time to save or make a snapshot).

Here are the resized photos on a 12x12 canvas.

Select ONE of the photo layers and run the Scatter Things script with these options:

By choosing ‘1’ copy, the script will make a copy of each photo then resize, rotate and relocate them randomly.

Choosing a 50% size variation gives a variety of photo sizes - up to 50% bigger and smaller than the original. Set this value to ‘0’ (zero) to keep all the photos their original size.

Choosing an angle variation of 30 degrees keeps all the pictures somewhat vertical and right side up. A greater number can be entered if you prefer more variation in the orientation.

The script scatters the pictures randomly, based on the input values. When it is finished, you can add effects like a white stroke and drop shadow to each layer, if desired. You can also move and resize photos, to fill in any gaps and to make any favorites more prominent.

Here is the finished collage!

Instructions - Scripts: Scatter Things - Photoshop

2010-04-23T14:46:00.010-04:00

Why: To quickly copy, paste and randomly resize and scatter items.

What: Scatter things will make up to 100 copies of one or more selected layers. Each layer will be randomly resized, rotated and scattered, based on some parameters entered into a pop-up window that appears when the script is run.

How: Scatter Things can be run from an existing layout or from a new document.

Using the Script:
Open an existing layout or create a new document. Add one copy of each ‘thing’ you want to scatter.

If you would like your layers to have a layer style, like a drop shadow, you can add one before running the script and all of the copies will have the same layer style.

At this point, it is a good idea to create a ‘Snapshot’ of your document. Then, if you don’t like the way things are scattered, you can easily return to this point and try the script again. Because everything is random, you will get different results each time, even with the same settings in the pop-up window.

To create a snapshot, open the History palette using Windows > History. Click the New Snapshot button at the bottom of the History palette. The new snapshot is added to the list of snapshots at the top of the History palette. Clicking on Snapshot 1 in the history palette will return you to this state, should you not like the results after the script is run.

Select the layer or layers that you want scattered. If you are selecting more than one layer, hold the Ctrl key while you select multiple layers.

Run the script and this pop-up window will appear, giving you some scattering options.

Number of Copies: Scatter Things will make up to 100 copies of each layer that is selected. If you need more than 100 copies of something, simply run the script again.

Size Variation: Scatter Things will vary the size of the copied items by up to 100%, larger and smaller, than the original item. If you want all of the copied and scattered items to stay the same size, enter 0 (zero) in the Size Variation field.

Angle Variation: Scatter Things will also rotate the copied items from 0 to 360 degrees, left and right. To leave items in their original orientation, enter 0 (zero) in the Angle Variation field.

Once you have your values set in the pop-up window, press OK and watch the script do its magic!

When the script is finished, each copy is put on it’s own layer in a layer group called ‘Scattered Things’. Having each copy on its own layer allows you to modify the final results to your liking.

All of the original layers are moved to a layer group called ‘Original Things’ and placed at the bottom of the layers palette. The visibility of the layer group is turned off.

By default, the script allows parts of the layers to be off the edges of the document. If desired, you can quickly resize the layers to fit within the boundaries of your document by selecting the ‘Scattered Things’ group layer and pressing Ctrl-T (Cmd-T).

Then, drag the transformation handles to resize the whole group to be within the document.

If you want your ‘Scattered Things’ limited to a certain shape, create a new layer with your shape on it. Place the shape layer below the scattered layers. This will give you a visual reference for moving or deleting things that are outside the desired shape.

Note: The reference layer will be deleted once you are done, so it can really be anything, a shape, a background paper, embellishment, etc., anything that gives you a visual reference for your desired shape.

Press V to select your Move Tool. Then, make sure ‘Layer’ is selected in the ‘Select Group or Layer’ dropdown.

If you check the ‘Auto-Select’ option, you can simply click on each layer and move or delete it as desired. For my sample, I moved all the flowers to inside the heart shape, leaving some of them over the edges of the heart.

Then, I deleted the heart ‘reference’ layer, leaving a beautiful heart made of random flowers.

Other Ideas for the Scatter Things Script:

The Scatter Things script can also be used to just create a bit of randomness on items too.

Here is a sample of a title made from alphas, with the letters lined up neatly. Each letter is left on its own layer.

Select all the layers in the layers palette and run the script.

If you set the Number of Copies to zero, the script will not make any copies, but will still randomly change the size and angle of the layers selected using the values entered in the Size Variation and Angle Variation fields.

Here is the ‘Scattered’ Title run at 20% Size Variation and 20% Angle Variation.

Photo Collages:
Scatter Things can also be used to make photo collages.

First, put a copy of each photo in a PSD. For this sample, I have 60 photos and simply put them on my page, one on top of the other.

16

Your photo sizes will probably be quite large, relative to your canvas size, so you will need to reduce them. How small to make them will depend on how many photos you are trying to collage and how big your canvas is. You may have to experiment a bit to get it just right.

To reduce all the photos at once, select all the photo layers. Then press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T) and drag one of the corner transformation handles down to the desired size. It does not matter if the pictures are in the middle of the canvas or not, as the script will scatter them anyway. (This is a great time to save or make a snapshot).

Here are the resized photos on a 12x12 canvas.

With all the photo layers still selected, run the Scatter Things script with these options:

By choosing ‘1’ copy, the script will make a copy of each photo then resize, rotate and relocate them randomly.

Choosing a 50% size variation gives a variety of photo sizes - up to 50% bigger and smaller than the original. Set this value to ‘0’ (zero) to keep all the photos their original size.

Choosing an angle variation of 30 degrees keeps all the pictures somewhat vertical and right side up. A greater number can be entered if you prefer more variation in the orientation.

The script scatters the pictures randomly, based on the input values. When it is finished, you can add effects like a white stroke and drop shadow to each layer, if desired. You can also move and resize photos, to fill in any gaps and to make any favorites more prominent.

Here is the finished collage!

Instructions - Scripts: Supply Tracker

2010-04-21T19:19:00.019-04:00

Before using the script, it must be installed. See the Instructions Page for detailed information on installing scripts in Photoshop and PSE.

Why: To simplify tracking of supplies used on a layout.

What: Copies layer names from a PSD into a list that can be easily edited and used for tracking supplies. Puts the list into the PSD File Info (Meta Data) and adds a 'Credits' text layer to the PSD.

What Else:
● Gets layer information from groups and nested groups.
● Does not record Group names.
● Sorts collected layer names into alphabetical order, making it easy to find and eliminate duplicates from the list.

How: This script works best when each layer in a PSD has a meaningful name, such as the file name of a product. Layer/Product names can be typed in as you go or File>Place can be used to automatically name the layer. The Rename Layer script also works great for renaming layers of items prior to moving them onto a layout. The Copy and Close script will also add the layer names for you when as it copies items to a PSD.

Using the Script:

When the script is run a dialog box will appear giving you an option to include 'Visible Layers Only'. Leave this box checked if you want only visible layers to be included in the supply list. Remove the check mark and the script will include all visible and non-visible layers in the supply list.

Tips for Using Supply Tracker:
1. Use 'Visible Layers Only' to keep non-visible layers from being listed in the credits.
2. Rename Text layers with the font used to include them in credits list.
3. Layer Groups/Names will not be included in credits list.
4. Using File>Place automatically names the layer for you and creates a smart object.
5. Copy and paste brush, action and style names to layers immediately after using (to prevent forgetting later).
6. If a layer uses a brush and a style or action, simply include both in the layer name and edit the credits list after running the script.

When finished, Supply Tracker creates a new text layer at the top of your PSD called 'Credits' containing the list created from the layer names. This list can easily be edited in Photoshop or copied and pasted to the software of your choice for editing. The same list is also pasted in the Description section of File>File Info.

Additional tip: After using the 'Credits' layer to modify and clean up your supply list, copy and paste the updated version to File>File Info – Description so that the modified list will be saved to any JPG files created from the original.

Supplies used in sample layout from:
Christy VanderWall
Acrylic Rainbow Cooties
Good Times
Rainbows and Sunshine
Actions from Atomic Cupcake

Instructions - Scripts: Rename Layer

2010-04-21T18:39:00.005-04:00

Why: To simplify tracking of supplies used on a layout.

What: Copies the file name of an item to the layer name. When the item is moved onto a layout, the layer name (file name) is copied also.

How: Open a file and run Rename Layer before moving the item to your layout.

Using the Script:

When you open a file in Photoshop, or PSE, the layer name is usually something like 'Layer 0'.

When you move the item to a layout in Photoshop (or PSE), it is given a generic layer name, like 'Layer 1' which is not helpful later when trying to track your supplies.

When you open a file and run Rename Layer, the file name becomes the layer name.

When you move the renamed item to a layout, the layer name moves with it. This makes it easy to track the items used on a layout when the layout is finished.

Tip: If you are using a layered PSD file and want to move it to your layout, you can still run Rename Layer before moving the layers. Rename Layer will only rename the top layer of the multi-layer file.

Instructions - Scripts: File Save 2

2010-04-20T21:11:00.005-04:00

Why - To save various JPG versions of a two-page layered PSD with one click.

What - Allows you to save the PSD, full resolution JPGs and 72 dpi JPGs in one step. File Save 2 has saving options for pages together and pages split apart.

What Else:
● Can specify one 300 dpi version and three 72 dpi versions of the pages together.
● Can specify one 300 dpi version and one 72 dpi version of the pages split apart.
● Original file can be any size or shape. File Save 2 calculates the appropriate height for the various copies based on the width specified.
● File Save 2 provides an option to save square layouts to an 8x10 canvas, ready for printing.
● Metadata is preserved with all copies.

How – File Save 2 has a dialog box that prompts you for which size files to save. You make your selections and/or enter the file sizes and click save to create multiple files in one step.

When the script is run, a dialog box appears. This gives you options for what type of JPGs to save. File Save 2 uses the responses to these check boxes and the values in the 'pixels wide' fields to determine which JPGs to create.

Pages Together:

Original Size: This option defaults to the current size (width, in pixels) of the PSD. You could change it, for example, if you create at a 24x12 size (7200 pixels wide), but wanted to save your full resolution jpg at 16x8 (4800 pixels wide).

Options 1, 2, 3 – 72 dpi: These give you 3 options for saving at 72dpi. The defaults are set to 600, 300, 150 but can be changed, if desired. The size entered will be the final width of the two-page spread.

Pages Split:

Full Size: This option will split the two page spread in half and save a 300 dpi left and right page. It defaults to half the current size (width, in pixels) of the PSD. If this number is 3600, each page, left and right, will be saved at 3600 pixels wide.

Low Res – 72 dpi: This option will split the two page spread in half and save a 72 dpi left and right page. It defaults to 600 px, but can be changed, if desired.. If this number is 600, each page, left and right, will be saved at 600 pixels wide.

8x10 for Printing: This option takes a layout, where each half is square, and puts it on an 8x10 canvas, for printing purposes. The layout is positioned at the top portion of the 8x10. The script uses the current foreground color on the expanded canvas and puts a small solid color border around the top, left and right edges, so that no edge details are lost when printing.

Example:
Starting layout (layered PSD 24”W x 12”H) Note: The layout must have at least one initial save before using the script.

Running the script with all options selected.

Produces these files, in the same folder location as the original PSD. The script uses the original file name and adds '_xxx', where xxx is the width (in pixels) of the file created. (Except the 8x10 version)

Layout Supplies from:

Christy VanderWall
www.ScrappinCop.com
www.atomicCupcake.com
www.zentextures.com

Instructions - Scripts: File Save 1

2010-04-14T15:34:00.012-04:00

Why: This digital scrapbooking script allows you to save various JPG versions of a layered PSD with one click.

What: File Save 1 allows you to save the PSD, full resolution JPGs and 72 dpi JPGs in one step.

What Else:
● Can specify two different size 300 dpi JPGs for saving.
● Can specify three different size 72 dpi JPGs for saving.
● Original file can be any size or shape. File Save 1 calculates the appropriate height for the
various copies based on the width specified.
● File Save 1 provides an option to save square layouts to an 8x10 canvas, ready for printing.
● Metadata is preserved with all copies.

How: File Save 1 has a dialogue box that prompts you for which size files to save. You make your selections and/or enter the file sizes and click save to create multiple files in one step.

When the script is run, a dialog box appears. This gives you options for what type of JPGs to save. File Save 1 uses the responses to these check boxes and the values in the 'pixels wide' fields to determine which JPGs to create.

Saving Options:

Original Size: This option defaults to the current size (width, in pixels) of the PSD. You could change it, for example, if you create at a 12”x12” size (3600 pixels wide), but wanted to save your full resolution jpg at 8”x8” (2400 pixels wide).

Other: This option can be used for a second version at 300 dpi. For example, a 12”x12” and 8”x8” version could be saved by entering 2400 here and checking the Other box.

8x10 for Printing: This option takes a square layout and puts it on an 8”x10” canvas, for printing purposes. The layout is positioned at the top portion of the 8”x10”. The script uses the current foreground color on the expanded canvas and puts a small solid color border around the top, left and right edges, so that no edge details are lost when printing.

72 dpi – Options 1, 2, 3: These give you 3 options for saving at 72dpi. The defaults are set to 600, 300, 150 but can be changed, if desired, by entering new width values in the boxes.

Example:

Start with a finished layout (layered PSD). This example is 'My_Layout.psd'.

Run the script with all options selected.

The script produces these files, in the same folder location as the original PSD. The script uses the original file name and adds '_xxx', where xxx is the width (in pixels) of the file created. (Except the 8x10 version)

Supplies used in sample layout from:
Christy VanderWall
Acrylic Rainbow Cooties
Good Times
Rainbows and Sunshine
Actions from Atomic Cupcake

Instructions - Scripts: Delete Non-Visible

2010-04-12T20:20:00.003-04:00

Why: To quickly remove non-visible layers.

What: Delete Non-Visible searches layers and layer groups (in Photoshop) to find any non-visible layers and deletes them.

How: Open a layered PSD file and run the Delete Non-Visible script.

Using the Script:
When you are finished creating a layout, run Delete Non-Visible. A dialog box will appear, asking if you are sure you want to proceed.

Choose 'OK' and Delete Non-Visible will remove any layers that have the visibility set to off.

Instructions - Scripts: Copy & Close

2010-04-12T19:57:00.028-04:00

Why: To move one or multiple open JPG or PNG files to a layout in one step.

What: Copies and pastes one or more open files (JPG or PNG) to a PSD file and then closes the JPG and PNG files.

What Else:
● Only copies, pastes and closes JPG or PNG file types.
● For each file that is copied, a new layer is created in the receiving PSD. The original file name is used as the layer name.
● The receiving PSD file must be saved first.
● If the receiving PSD dimensions are smaller than the original file, Copy and Close will scale the item to fit within the receiving PSD.

How: With a PSD open and one or more JPG or PNG files open, run Copy and Close.

Using the Script:
1. Open an existing PSD or create and save a new one.
2. Open a file or multiple files that you want on your layout.
3. Run the Copy & Close Script.

For Photoshop users: You can run the script regardless of which file is active. However, if there is more than one PSD open, you will need to select one or the script will prompt you to do so.

For PSE users: Select the PSD you want to copy to and Run the script. If something other than a PSD file is active, you will get this message.

Copy and Close will copy all jpg and png files in reverse of the order that they were opened. Any PSD or other file types that are open will not be copied or closed.

Each file is copied to the PSD, centered, re-sized to fit (if necessary) and given a layer name from the original file name.

Notes: If the original file dimensions are smaller than the receiving PSD, no re-sizing is done. If your PSD is not a square format (for example, an 8.5” x 11” format), certain items may still be re-sized larger than your PSD.

Close-up of layer names assigned in example above.

Instructions - Scripts: Close Files

2010-04-12T19:53:00.005-04:00

Why: To quickly close all unused files.

What: Close files will close all but the currently active file in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

How: With more than one file open, run the script. All files, except the active one, will be closed.

Using the Script:

When you run the script a pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm that you want to close all other files and reminding you they will not be saved.

Click ‘OK’ to proceed or ‘Cancel’ to quit.

Installing Scripts - Photoshop Elements for Windows XP

2010-04-12T14:54:00.004-04:00

These instructions will help you install Scripts for Photoshop Elements (PSE) on Windows XP. Since PSE does not have an option to run a script directly, it will run from an action. Once installed, your script will run the same as any other action.

Close PSE, if you have it running.

Locate the folder for your operating system within the files you have downloaded and unzipped. Inside this folder you will find an .atn (action) file, a .png file and a .jsx Script file.

Install the Script:
Copy and paste the .jsx file to the following location:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements

Install the Action:
Copy and paste the .atn file and .png file to the following location:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\(your version number)\Photo Creations\photo effects

Note: If you can’t see the Application Data folder, it is hidden. You will need to tell the computer to unhide it. This is how:

Go to Tools>Folder Options

Click on the “View” tab. Under the Hidden files and folders icon, select “Shown” hidden files and folders. Click on “Apply” and then “OK.” You can then go back and follow the path to the Photo Effects folder.

Hint: To easily find this folder again, so that you can install additional actions, select the option to create a desktop shortcut to it by right-clicking on the photo effect folder before you enter the folder. Make sure you do this BEFORE you enter the folder.

Now that you have installed the new actions, restart Photoshop Elements.

Run the Action (which runs the script):
Choose “Photos Effects” and then “Show All” from the drop-down list.

You will now see the icons for the new action you installed listed along with the other ones. The actions will be in alphabetical order. If you hover over the icon, you will see the name pop up.

Note: If you have followed all of these instructions and your actions are not showing up in the effects window, you may need to rebuild the media database for PSE.

To Rebuild the Media Database:
• Close PSE
• Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop elements\(your version)\Locale\en_US
• Find the file named “MediaDatabase.db3” and rename it to “MediaDatabaseOLD.db3”
• Restart PSE

Keep in mind that since you renamed the Mediadatabase.db3 file your program will have to rebuild, so you may have to wait a while for it to do so. Also, after every group of new actions is installed, you may need to repeat these steps. Any 'old' database files can be deleted before repeating. When PSE has restarted, choose “Photos Effects” and then “Show All” from the drop-down menu.

Once the action/script is installed and showing up in the effects palette, prepare the workspace according to the instructions included with the script. Some scripts will require a certain type of file to be open and saved or certain layers to be active. See each product specific instructions for the details. When you are ready to try run a script, double-click on the icon on the effects palette and it should begin right away.

It is a good idea to save any work you have started before running an action/script! It may perform steps that you won’t be able to just “undo.”