One Little Slip ... The Story Ends {on a happy note!}

So yesterday was the one year anniversary of my son's fall from a rope swing. That one little slip, left him pretty banged up (you can read last year's story here: http://prettyinposies.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-little-slip.html) ... 3 trips to the OR, 8 weeks of missing school, numerous x-rays & Dr. visits, a CT scan, radial nerve palsy, a dynamic splint, an arm brace, and 5 months of PT/OT ... and we can report that all is well!

I've finished documenting the big moments in this year long journey on this two-page digital layout. It matches the first two-page spread, with some new papers and elements thrown in from Pink Paislee and Dani Mogstad. (The first LO below is the one I did in Oct 2011.)

In the Making Designs:
Foto Template Pack
Gourmet Paper Pack
La Storia Elements Pack

Dani Mogstad:
Pumpkin Spiced Latte Complete Kit
Softly Falling Complete Kit
Take Me Away Complete Kit

Pink Paislee:
Caught On Camera Elements
Caught On Camera Papers

We had our last Dr. visit yesterday. While the Dr. sent us off with a clean bill of health, we presented the Dr. with a framed digital layout showing how far K has come & all the things he can do now, despite his injury.  The Dr. was thrilled was his recovery and pleased to receive this gift. He had his partner come in to take photos, and of course I snapped a few myself! 

Such a great ending! Here is the layout we did for the Dr.

The little "doctor" related elements were created by me, using clip art from the internet. They looked "finished" after popping them into Anna's adorable wood frames.

Anna Aspnes
FotoBlendz Album Template No 5D
ArtPlay Palette Socialize
ArtPlay Storm Solids
KardStock Neutrals No 1
Woodshop Frames No 1

So, yeah ... all is good again!

xoxo jenn

Published ... Creating Keepsakes Magazine!

Hi ya! Just wanted to share the exciting news that I was picked as a Fresh Face for the latest issue of CK Mag.

Here's the adorable illustration that was done for the article.

Erin Stewart, a co- Creative Team Member for Jessica Sprague was also picked as one of the 10 Fresh Faces. How cool is that?

And here is the Layout that was featured.

Sweet Love Carina Gardner::
VICTORIAN ART Paper Set 2
COQUETTE - Brad Set
DAISY JANE - Flowers
COQUETTE - Word Art Set
FRESH PICKED - Summer Collection
FRESH PICKED - Summer Collection
FRESH PICKED AUTUMN TICKETS
ESSENTIALS - Frames v1
BABY MINE- FULL KIT
BIRDHOUSE - Buttons

liv.e designs::
Tabby Tabs
Loopies Vol.1 - Flutterby

other:: Katie Pertiet: LIttle Hearts Kit (owl epoxy)

 

“Copyright 2012 by Creating Keepsakes magazine. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.”

You can see the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes Magazine and order it here.
-xoxo Jenn

Make it Monday ... digital scrapbook layouts

I've got two layouts to share with you today featuring the newest goodies from JessicaSprague.com. These are two of my recent favorite photos too.

My Everything
Jenni Bowlin Studios - Front Porch Collection - coming soon!
Mercantile Labels
Printed Tickets Baby Boy & Girl
Rhinestone Buttons & Bows
Transferware Flowers
Timeless Elements - Designer Spotlight Freebie (rose)

Fancy Pants Designs
Off to School Alpha - coming soon!
Off to School Extra Ppaers - coming soon!

Glitz Girls
Happy Travels Element Kit

Jodie Lee
Georgia Rose Washi Tape -coming soon!

Splendid Fiins

 @ the office supplies 1

Wheels
Splendid Fiins: Buku Bokeh Photo Overlay Textures - coming soon!
kinda sketchy template 1
kinda sketchy album templates-12x12
when skies are grey cards
when skies are grey paper pack
when skies are grey paper pack v2

Echo Park:
Everyday Eclectic Paper Pack 2 (Kraft and orange solid) 

 

thanks for looking! -xoxo jenn

Make It Monday ... Digital Scrapbook Projects

I just have two digital scrapbook projects to share with you today.

Just Be You Pink Paislee
Bohemian Bliss Clusters -coming soon! Makes putting together a page SO easy and quick!
Bohemian Bliss Element Pack
Bohemian Bliss Paper Pack

Summer Days
Fancy Pants Designs - coming soon!
Off to School Collection

Nancie Rowe Janitz
watercolor splats - coming soon!
Color Wash Brushes

Carina Gardner
PHOTOCUTS Frames V.4

Dani Mogstad
All American Summer Complete Kit

Splendid Fiins
Sew Crafty - messy stitches vol 1

 

 

That's it for now. xoxo-jenn

Technique Thursday V.3 Making an Artsy Background

I thought I'd share how to make a multi-layered artsy background, just like the one I did for my "Life Is Brighter With You In It" page. This type of background, where it transitions from b&w to a bold, burst of bright color can be used for so many themes, and so many types of photos.

I started with a 12" x 12" file in Photoshop using Nancie Rowe Janitz's Art Journal Pages.

I filled the 12 x 12 layout (LO) with a few of her pages like so:

Here is what my layers palette looks like.

I used Nancie's Polaroid Transfer Masks to mask each Art Journal page onto my 12 x 12 layout to give it a more blended edge where the various Art Journal Pages meet, rather than having a hard edge.

Once my background was set the way I like it, I saved it as a JPG and dragged it onto a new 12" x 12" file.

Here I knew I was only going to have parts of this "background" paper visible, so I needed a neutral paper to be my absolute background. I chose a lovely paper from Nancie's Hopeful Art Paper pack. (I used the one on the top row all the way to the right.)

So there is my background paper, and on top of that you can see a mask that I added from liv.e design's EZPZ 08 Template: And Then. (Love this mask!)  I just dragged a couple of copies of the mask onto my LO and placed them along the edges, merging each of the masks on the right side together, and then the left side together.

Here are my layers palette again. (My layers also show the background that we created in the previous step with the Art Journal Pages. There is a background copy clipped to each mask, at the moment those layers are turned off so they are not visible. See next step to see them turned on.)

And here is the page with a copy of the background that we made earlier clipped to each mask. The one on the right side, I simply removed the color by desaturating it.

But I realized I wanted it to go black and white ... to color, so I flipped it.

Ahhh! Much better.
That's the look I was going for.

And then I realized that I really liked the background paper (The Hopeful Art paper) with its bits of scruffy text and wanted more of that to show through, but I didn't want to compromise the masks with the Art Journal Pages. So I duplicated that Hopeful Art background paper and dragged that copy up to the top of the layer stack. I turned it on its corners, like so:

I used the Multiply Blending Mode and added a Layer Mask and painted with Black on a low opacity to hide much of the paper (especially the ugly hard edges), but blending in some of that nice scruffy text. Here are my layers again:

 And here is my final background.

It's a small change ... adding that duplicate copy of the Hopeful Art Paper. Blending it into the image wasn't necessary, but I felt it was worth it and just gives that little extra bit of depth to the overall background.

And here is my layout with photo, and all the little details.

Hope you enjoyed today's Photoshop technique. Would love to see a link to a page you create using this tutorial, so feel free to share!

thanks for checking in. xoxo -jenn

Make It Monday ... Digital Scrapbook Projects

Just popping in to share the LOs that I recently made.

Life is Brighter With You in it! Nancie Rowe Janitz |
Art Journal Pages
Polaroid Transfer Masks
Hopeful Art Papers
Dreamy Photos 1
Dreamy Photos 3
Retro Spring Kit  
Liv.e Designs | mask from: EZ-PZ Template 08 - And Then

Splendid Fiins | wishy washi - skies are grey set 1
when skies are grey cards v2

Jenni Bowlin | Rhinestone Buttons & Bows

And after seeing Rachael's recent LO { link } - I am love with Jessica's simple, but beautiful vintage frames from an old Template | Jessica Sprague Template A . I don't think it is in the store, but I am trying to find something similar to link ....

I'll fly away with you
Carina Gardner | Photocuts Overlays V 2 and Photocuts Masks V 3 ... coming soon!
PHOTOCUTS Frames V.1
WELL TRAVELED Paper Set 3 Sail
WELL TRAVELED Paper Set 4 By Ground
PARIS & CO French Solid Paper Pack 1
PARIS & CO Ribbon Stash
INFORMED - JOURNAL FORMS
PINFEATHERS - Doodly Swirls
PINFEATHERS - Stickers
PINFEATHERS - Titles

Dani Mogstad
Hello Sunshine Complete Kit
Chasing Rainbows Complete Kit

Catch a Wave Nancie Rowe Janitz
Gouache Painte Strokes
One Sweet Love Borders
ScrapArt Starts 1 : Watermark Resist
Sun Kissed - A Beachy Mini

Carina Gardner
PHOTOCUTS Masks V.2 Summer/Beach Theme
FRESH PICKED - Summer Solids

Dani Mogstad
Aloha Complete Kit

Liv.e Designs
Doodle This Way - Arrows Rub-Ons & Brush Set  

That's it for now. -xoxo jenn 

Friday Foto Frenzy summer photo share ... a day late

Since we were on vacation last week, and I took a break from blogging/crafting/etc, I am just going to do weeks 2 & 3 together. And yes, I know it's Saturday. Yesterday was a crazy busy day for us, non stop from morning until night. So I'm doing my Friday summer photo share today.  It's summer - what else can I say. ;)

Anyway, here's what we've been up to:

 The boy finished his week of Tech Camp. He loved it, which is really good considering how much this camp costs for one week. He tells us he wants to go back again next summer. Awesome when we can find him things that he is really interested in.

Scary to think that he will be going off to a college campus For Reals in just 5 short years. Sigh.

Then we headed down to NJ shore to connect with family. We took the cousin to an Insect Museum where he could touch all kinds of insect-ish critters, like this giant millipede. There was also a tarantula and a giant hissing cockroach to touch. He loved it.

 Oooh, there was a scorpion that glowed a blue tint under black lights. Very cool. The kids were able to touch this fellow too.

Cousins at the Insect Museum. This place was well done and very educational. We give it 2 thumbs up!

One more group shot. Sweet.

Then we headed on over to the zoo for some outdoor fun and a wider selection of animals. That's my mom holding up the little guy to get him a better view.

 And once he got a taste of sitting up high, of course he wanted to be picked up again & again. Here's the boy holding his little cousin. Love.

 The girl getting a kick out of feeding the animals.

 This little goat was the boss of little cousin's popcorn. He kept feeding the goat and wouldn't stop. Why? Because he said "the goat was still hungry". He thought it was his job to feed the goat until he was full. Luckily the goat made away with someone else's entire box of popcorn (box and all!).

 Once done with the demanding goat, we were able to move on through the zoo. There were lots of fun animals to see. How adorable are this pair?

A magestic lion. He lifted his head for about 15 seconds to check out his surroundings. Then he laid back down for his nap. We were in the right place and the right time.

Lots of smiles = a fun day was had by all!

It was a hot day, so after the zoo we retreated to the pool. And we rescued this poor little chipmunk. Not sure how long the little guy was swimming, but he was saturated and panic stricken.

We just bought the girl some fancy new googles, because she didn't like the cheap-o pair I picked up earlier in the season. She's resumed her alter ego as a mermaid with those googles. I don't know a kid who can swim under water as much as she.

These two spent time in the pool just being boys. This shot is simply hilarious!

 A little time to catch up on reading. Hunger Games ... good stuff.

And of course there was lots of time for the beach! On this particular day, the ocean was so warm and so calm. It was great for swimming laps and wading in really far. Perfect kind of ocean for the little cousin.

 There is always a beach fort. Always.

Lifeguards getting their early morning workout.

And cousin was in love with digging for sand crabs. He found one big one that they named Chunky.

Another day at the beach. Beautiful day, but so crowded!

They enjoyed time at an indoor amusement park to beat the heat.

 Where they zipped around on the speedway in race cars.

And whirled around on rides. 

 Adorable baby robbins. We watched them grow from this ....

 ... to this, in just about 9 days! And we watched them fly from the nest too!

The boy set off for a week of sleep away camp. First time ever. I was nervous, but he did great and had an amazing time.

More camp photos next week ... and the girl did an art camp but those photos are still on my camera from yesterday's Parent Day. I'll get them up next Friday.
Hope you are having a great summer! -xoxo jenn