Another Digital Layout

I finished another digital layout tonight. This is the first one I've done in the 8.5X11 format right from the start. I haven't gotten my printer yet, so I haven't printed it, but I hope to get it in the next few days. These pictures are from Christmas morning. I used kits from Digital Scrapbook Place for this layout.

Scrapbook page sizes

I made a big decision yesterday. I have been making paper scrapbooks for several years now, and I almost always use a 12X12 page size. I really like this size, and I'm used to it. So when I started digital scrapping, I created my pages in the 12X12 format there as well. Of course, I don't have a wide format printer, so I thought that I would print them at 8X8, since there are some really nice scrapbooks available in that size. I even test printed an early layout (draft print on plain paper) just to see what it would look like at that size, and it wasn't too bad. The pictures were a little smaller than I'm used to, but you could see them clearly enough.

Well, I figured out yesterday that I could redesign most of my digital layouts to 8.5X11, which would mean that everything would be just a little bit bigger than on the 8X8 size. The first layout I redesigned was the one that I had test printed at 8X8, and it really does look better at 8.5X11. I've been wanting a new photo printer that prints borderless prints anyway, so I'm going to get that and then print my layouts at home (since I haven't printed any of my layouts yet other than the 2 test prints).

The wide format printers are still quite a bit more expensive, and so is the paper for them. And the paper isn't 12X12, it's 13X19, so there would be some waste and trimming involved.

Seems like such an obvious solution, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner - one of those "DUH" moments!

New camera!!

My husband surprised me this morning with a new Canon Digital Rebel XT! I am so excited - I've only taken 3 pictures with it so far, but I can already tell I'm going to LOVE it!! So here is one of those 3 pictures - it is my precious kitty (his name is Lucky).

Olympus

I wrote my letter to Olympus a few weeks ago. In yesterday's mail, I received 2 envelopes from them. The first one was a check for all of the shipping that I had spent to send the camera back to them all 3 times, so that was good. The second one was a letter of apology, along with a 2 year extended warranty. I certainly hope that I won't need to use the warranty again after my last experience. They stated in the letter that the extended warranty also gives me a free cleaning and check up, but I won't be using that. I won't be sending the camera back to them unless there is something really serious wrong with it, but at least they tried to make the situation right.

So I don't feel quite as negative towards them as I did before. And they actually have 2 service centers, so if I ever do need to send it in again, I will try the other one. But I'm still hoping for a digital SLR camera. Someday soon I hope - I really want the Canon Digital Rebel, because we have a film Canon Rebel with 3 lenses that would fit the digital. If I get that, I don't think I'll ever shoot film again.

Sunrise

I took this photo in front of our house the other morning.

Christmas Ornaments

I made this digital scrapbook page about my ornaments for a challenge on Digital Scrapbook Place. The journaling reads, "I love my ornaments. Most of them are hand made, although not all of them by me. I have been making ornaments ever since [my son] was a baby, and I make or buy a few new ones every year. When [my son] was a child, he hated the fact that our ornaments didn’t look like all of his friends’ ornaments, but he appreciates them much more now. In fact, I gave him and [son's girlfriend] many ornaments last year, and it was interesting to see which ones they chose. These are 2 of my personal favorites, both of which I made."

I used several kits that I received as freebies from Digital Scrapbook Place to create this layout:
Background paper - Christmas Add-ons by Bethy
Photo mats - Christmas Textures kit by Karen Bowers
Word art (That which is loved is beautiful) - Christmas Textures kit by Karen Bowers
Text background - Airplane kit by Bethy
Ribbons and Bow - Addon5 by Elizabeth

Another word art assignment

I completed another assignment for my word art class over the weekend. This is another photo provided by the instructor (isn't it a beauty?), and I found the quote and added it to the photo. I love doing the word art - it can add so much to a photo! And the best thing about it is it isn't hard at all!

The quote reads, "It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream." (author unknown)

Christmas cards

I usually try to stamp at least some of my Christmas cards each year, but I have totally not gotten around to doing it this year. So yesterday I decided to try to do a digital card instead. My husband is a bird watcher and also likes to take digital photos of birds, so I looked through all his recent bird shots and settled on this one. I then added word art and a background to it, and this is what I came up with.

I usually print my own pictures, but I decided to check out different printing services for this one. Several offer free prints on your first order, so I uploaded the file to 3 different services, giving me 35 free prints (I will have to pay a couple of dollars shipping on one of them, but that's all). I picked up my first order today, and I was very disappointed to find that, even though I had made sure that my upload was exactly 4X6, part of the borders were cut off, and more was cut off on the top and bottom than on the sides. When I asked the clerk why this happened and if I needed to do something special when I uploaded the photo, she said she didn't know, they weren't trained on uploading. I will just need to trim these a little bit so that the borders are the same all the way around - and I'll have to cut off the black line that outlines the card. I'll be very interested to see how the other prints come out.

Word Art Class Homework

The class I'm taking this month is Word Art. This photo was provided by the class instructor, Tina Chambers. I did not take this photo (although I wish I had - it is so beautiful!). But I added the quote, which reads, "There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly," by R. Buckminster Fuller.

Another circle journal entry completed

I had a really rough time finishing this today. I started out by deciding to make a card for a contest. I spent a long time getting it exactly right, then when I was looking up the name of one of the stamp sets I had used, I realized that it was discontinued, meaning I couldn't enter the card in this particular contest.

So then I went on to work on the circle journal. I completed one of the pages, only to realize that I'd made it too big. I guess I hadn't measured the page size. I had thought it was 6" square, but it was actually 5 1/2" square.

So I started all over. Decided that the snowman I had used on the 6" page was too big for the 5 1/2" page. Made a few other smaller mistakes, but finally got the two pages done. The theme for this journal is "this and that," meaning I could do pretty much anything I wanted in this. So I decided on snowflakes and snowmen, since it has been so cold the past few days, and we even had a few flakes a couple of days ago.

Christmas Stocking

Here is the Christmas Stocking I made for my son's girlfriend. I pieced it and quilted it on my new sewing machine. Several of the applique blocks came from the same book that had the pattern for the stocking, but the paint palette and the camera I did from clip art. I am especially proud of how they turned out. This was quite fast to make, since the appliques are all done with a heavy fusible that can't be stitched through. And the extra details like the bell on Santa's hat and the buttons and bow on the gingerbread man are glued on. Many of the key fabrics are the same as the ones that I used to make the rest of ours 9 years ago. It's amazing that I still had so many of the fabrics still in my stash!

Another digital layout

I finished another digital layout tonight. I did this one for a challenge at Digital Scrapbook Place, which is where I've also been taking a lot of classes. The challenge was to use at least 4 of 8 colors provided and at least 1 floral brush among 6 provided; I used 5 of the colors and 1 floral brush element (the 3 flowers along the lower left of the layout). I created the background, the ribbon, and the brad myself.