Finally back to Digital Scrapbooking

Now that I finally have a new laptop I started digital scrapbooking again. I had to reinstall Gimp on my new laptop (which is a free software comparable to Photoshop). I highly recommend Gimp, it is very easy to use. I blended a picture of one of the gingerbread houses ino the background on this layout below. I forgot exactly how to do this and scoured the net for a Gimp tutorial on blending a photo. I eventually just played around with the layers and brushes until I figured it out. I didn't realize until I was uploading this post that I did post a link on my blog last year with a link on how to blend a photo in a background. I really like this effect and I plan to use it in more of my layouts.

Our trip to Nashville, Indiana

Click on the pic to see it larger.
Luckily I did get in the creative mood yesterday & finished 2 layouts! Here is one of the layouts from our Mini-Vacation to Indiana ( Dan's work sent him to Indiana & we tagged along ) .. I found a bunch of cute digital freebies from this site & it helped inspire the layout of this page. I like how usually these two pics wouldn't seem all the great without family in them -- but with a little journaling they actually come to life.

Oh and btw, i turn 35 today :-) Not that anybody reads this blog anyhow!!

I used this tutorial to blend a picture into a background. She uses Photoshop but I sorta played around with Gimp until I figured it out. I LOVE how this page turned out!!!

Bathing beauties

This layout is the first time I cropped pictures into circles. I think it gives the layout a fun feel to it. plus...the circles remind me of bubbles which match the whole swimming/water thing.

Today we are grilling veggies with white rice. I think rain is coming so I hope the food gets done before it starts pouring! We really need the rain though. Our grass looks like a patch of golden wheat. I'm kinda glad I didn't plant any vegetables in the garden this year. I bet I would of had a terrible time with growing good produce~!

Swimming in Indiana

We spent 2 weeks in a hotel in Indiana while my husband worked at another plant training employees. It was so much fun to stay in a luxury hotel! Complimentary breakfast & dinner made life easy for me and best of all it was all FREE!

i like simple

As I'm making more layouts & learning Digiscrapping I'm starting to realize I like very simple backgrounds and usually only 1 picture per page. I love how this one turned out - and its just a cell phone picture! This poor kid has swimmers ear today. We swam for two weeks in Indiana and she is in horrible pain in both ears. One ear is worse than the other. I pray the meds work quick! Poor Jess. :-(

moustaches ;-)

I love how this layout turned out. I think it fits her well. She cracks me up, when she woke this morning she still had a moustache on her face & couldn't get it off (even though the markers are washable?) lol

buddies layout

I remember Isaiah was talking and talking to me that day. :)

I like this one!

I found a picture of Jess. It was taken at my Aunts house at Christmas.. The photo isn't super clear but I worked with the unfocused-ness (is that a word? LOL) to match the softness of the layout. I didnt even mention it was Christmas so I could add journaling on what she's into this year. I really like this one!

Baby Isaiah

Aw he's so little here. I'm on a roll.... Shutterfly sent me a free 8x8 book offer so I need to get 20 scrapbook pages finished so I can have them made into a scrapbook!

I've been feeling pretty icky the past two days. Hope I can get at least one page done today..

Jessica Scrapbooked at age 10

I found this picture of Jessica in my email saved folder. It's been there sitting in that folder about 3 years!! I absolutely LOVE this picture. I love her hair this length & she looks so good in red! I used my very first purchased kitJessica Sprague's covered buttons (on sale for only $1 too) . They are wonderful and a steal at that price!

Dan & baby

I finished another layout! My sweetheart Isaiah is still the same way as portrayed in this pic. Just yesterday Daniel said that Isaiah barely left his lap all evening after he got out of work. It might have something to do with Daniel being gone at work for weeks at a time..

Moms Day Brunch with Isaiah - Scrapped Digitally!

My newest passion is digital scrapbooking. Years ago when Jessica was a baby scrapbooking was just starting to become popular. I loved the idea of being able to be creative and recording precious memories at the same time. I was a single mom back then & unfortunately scrapbooking was an expensive hobby for me. I did find a bunch of non-traditional (and probably NOT acid free ways to work around not having alot of money) and still being able to scrapbook her baby pictures. I have 2 huge binders of her pictures all scrapbooked. She is now 13 years old and I didnt go much beyond that. Now over 10 years later I've decided to dive into scrapbooking again. Technology has made it much better for me to scrapbook nowadays. I am learning digital scrapbooking. It is SO much cheaper and no mess! and I can print if I want to (multiple copies too!) I love it!