Happy Friday everyone!  Jenelle here today with an inspiration post that will hopefully have you firing up your creative software and getting some more fabulous pages scrapped for your albums and our gallery!

I absolutely LOVE digital scrapbooking – such a creative and fun hobby for me!  I used to really enjoy graphic and art classes when I was in school, even though I never considered myself to be naturally talented in those subjects.  I still remember learning about ‘rules’ of design in those classes and I found that by following those rules (and putting in lots of effort) I could create some pleasing pieces of art work.

Well those rules (or design principles you could also call them) I studied back in school, naturally transfer over to scrapbooking.  They are also closely followed in interior design/decorating, floral arranging, print advertising and even architecture – to name just a few.

Being aware of these design principles can really help you pull together an eye-catching layout and today I would like to explore in detail one of those design principles .  It is called the ‘Visual Triangle’.

The Visual Triangle is a concept that involves an imaginary triangle on your scrapbook page.  It is created by placing three similar elements (eg:- embellishments, clusters, photos, colours, text etc) at the corners, or points, of the imaginary triangle.  It helps create balance on a page (you could even liken it to the number and arrangement of legs needed for a stool to be stable.  3 = balance).

Our brains have a tendency to perceive images in familiar shapes and when you place elements on your scrapbook pages in a triangle, it allows your brain to see the page as a whole, rather than being distracted by one or two items on the layout. It brings your eye all the way around the layout.  It can also direct you to the one area of your page you want your viewer to focus on.  It’s a fairly simple technique that can take your pages from looking good to looking great in a jiffy!  I also believe it’s a technique you can use on every layout – it won’t get old or ever stop having an effect.

There are a myriad of ways you can create visual triangles on a scrapbook layout.  You could create them with:-

• Photos
• Clusters
• Colours
• Text (title, journalling, date)
• Repeated single elements or embellishments

I think the best way to illustrate what I am talking about is to take a look at some example layouts from our team gallery, that use the technique of the visual triangle perfectly.

I hope these 3 examples (remember 3=balance!) have highlighted this technique for you.  There are plenty more layouts in the team gallery that use this technique – next time you are browsing through, take a closer look and see what appeals to you about each particular layout.  It may well be that elements/colours/photos are placed within this visual triangle format!  Subconsciously, we are drawn to designs that use familiar shapes as they are visually appealing to us (eye-candy in a way!  LOL!!).

Why don’t you try this technique out yourself on your next layout – you might be very surprised with the end result!  We’d love to see you post some new pages in the gallery that use this concept.  You may have already been following this design rule and we’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed reading along today, just as I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all my posts here at the Shabby Shoppe Blog.  I have loved being a part of this wonderful team, but it is now time for me to take on some new ventures and I will be signing off from here as a current team member.

A huge thank you to SP, Kylie and the fabulous team for having me here!  I’ve loved every minute!   I will still be ‘lurking’ around in the gallery and reading along with you all though – you can’t get rid of me that easily!!  LOL!!

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday with our latest LOTW winner.  Until then, happy scrapping to you all, THANK YOU and bye for now :)

JenelleInspiration, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized 12 Comments

Hello Shabby Shoppe readers!  Today I (Rosy) will be talking about creating covers for your photo book projects.  I love printing my layouts in photo books!  To be able to physically hold a book and flip through all the pages I’ve created is so rewarding to me.

Many photo book printers give you the option of designing your own custom image to put on the cover of your book.  Here are some things to consider when you create a cover and also a few examples to spark your creativity.

Purpose:

The cover of your book should be a representation of the theme inside the book.  The viewer should be able to tell by looking at the cover whether your book is a summary of your year, photos of your baby boy or all about a family vacation you took.  For this reason, I usually wait to design my cover until the rest of the book is finished and I know exactly what is inside.

Kim shared some questions that she considers when thinking about a cover:

• Will this cover be displayed somewhere? My family books are displayed for a year before the next year’s is printed and the old year goes on the bookshelf with the others where you only see the spine. So one thing I care about is colors (there are some colors I wouldn’t put on the front because they would “clash” with other things in my house). And there are other preferences people might consider if the book is going to be displayed.
• Do I want to include a dedication? I often do this on the back cover. I write a note saying who made the book and why. (For example: This book was made by Mommy for Caleb so that he would be able to look back at his first year. Someday when you have children of your own, I hope this is a special keepsake.) And as an additional note, when making covers, don’t forget to think about the back cover too! There’s room to be creative there too.
• Do I want to include a “recap”? This isn’t something I usually do because I tend to do a summary on the title page of my books. But I’ve seen examples where the cover had a “top 10 of 2012″ for a family yearbook or a “top 10 things I love about you” for a baby book.
• What special verses, quotes, poems, song lyrics, etc should be included?

Kylie shared a quote that she used in her 2011 projectSCRAP album and would be great on a gift book:

“We gather up pictures and bits of our past and scrapbook them into a gift that will last” ~Kimberly Rinehart, “Scrapbooker’s Verse” found here.

 Design:

Once you’ve decided on the purpose and what you want your cover to say, you can get on to the fun of designing it!

A cover can be designed with or without photos, but it should make the viewer want to open the book to see more!

Every printing service will have their own guidelines as to trim area and such.  Most photo book printers have a cover template with trim guides that you can download so that you can design your cover specifically for their process.  Hardback covers usually have a trim area just like the inside pages, plus the area that gets “wrapped” under, so your best option is to simply keep everything off the edges.  If you’re a “living on the edge” type of person and willing to take the risk of having something important trimmed off, then by all means go ahead and put it out there, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! ;o)

Some printing companies let you stretch your image across front and back covers like this:

And others have the covers divided into front cover, back cover, and spine images like this:

I recommend deciding on your choice of printer and downloading their cover templates or finding their crop guidelines before you start designing your cover.

One thing to note is that your cover colors may vary depending on your choice of print shop.  I have had a book printed where the cover colors were more saturated than the inside pages and so I shy away from using brightly colored backgrounds on my covers, but Jenelle has had the exact opposite experience and says that she tries not to use pale “colours”.

Some other thoughts that Jenelle shared about covers:

• I am very wary of the cropping that can occur with some print places so always make sure I have left a large margin on the covers. (Way to go, Jenelle!)
• I like to write a little summary on the back of what the book is about/where we went/dates etc.
• I usually choose some favourite photos for the front cover and keep one quite large. Then I add smaller photos on the back.
• I sometimes get a smaller/soft cover book printed as well that the kids can keep on their bookshelves. Then I don’t stress about grubby little fingers or ripped pages and they can still enjoy looking at our holiday snaps themselves.

 I hope we’re not making this sound more daunting than it really is!  Like any other scrapping, there is no wrong way to create the cover of your book, but I hope our ideas can give some inspiration and direction to anyone who may be struggling with this part of the book printing process.

Thanks for joining us today…Kylie will be here tomorrow with our next Easy-As-Pie Template Challenge and to announce the winner of number 25!

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Happy Friday everyone!  This is Kim and I’m here with another ad inspiration post!  It’s been a while since we’ve shared one of these – I hope you enjoy it!  While I was looking around at ads for potential scrapping inspiration (you can google “print advertising” and find all kinds of things!), I found several fun ideas.  But what ended up really sticking with me was this ad.

Wow, I am not even old enough to remember the days when you could get a Coca-Cola for 5 cents!  But I love this ad because of all the Coca-Cola bottles in line.  They give the ad depth and movement.  And I wondered if I could somehow recreate this idea and make it work for a scrapbook layout.  I even had a certain picture in mind with lots of movement of its own that I thought might work.  So after working and reworking for a while, here is my layout inspired by the ad.

The elements inspired by the ad may be obvious, but here is what I was focusing on the most:

• The row of frames getting larger as they moved across the page.  To me this draws my eye to the main picture.
• The circle for journaling.  I don’t think I would have thought to put a circle at all in this layout with all the other rectangular frames, but it was an idea incorporated from the ad.
• The sketch in the background.  I absolutely love seeing the sketches Rosy often includes in her layouts.  I just don’t think to work them into mine much.  But looking at the background of this ad made me think “sketch”, and I had to give this a try.  It’s one of my favorite parts of this layout!  (And if you would like to try your own sketch from a photo, check out Rosy’s post explaining how to do it.)
• One thing that wasn’t intentionally inspired by the post is the word “trust” in the title.  I wanted to find a saying to use in this layout, and trust is what I was thinking of because I love that my husband can throw my youngest in the air really high and he never has any fear or doubt that Daddy will catch him.  Funny that trust is also what the ad was talking about!

We’re also sharing a treat with you today – a layered template inspired by the ad that you can download for free!  You can CLICK HERE or click the image below to download the template.  Happy scrapping!  And we would love to see your layouts in our gallery!

That’s all for this week, but Rosy will be here with you on Monday to announce our next Layout of the Week.  Bye bye!

KimFree (not desktops), Inspiration, Uncategorized 10 Comments

Hi everyone! :o)  It’s Kylie here…and once again, I’m thrilled to share another GALLERY GIRLS feature with you!  It is always an absolute joy for me to put these all-time favorite posts together for all of us to read & enjoy!  As I’m sure you’ll all agree, there is something so special about learning a little about the very talented person behind all those wonderful pieces of gallery inspiration!  And with this new post we are very fortunate to get to know a little more about the very-very talented and lovely Lisa!…or SparkysGirl2, as she’s known in our beloved little gallery.  

Here at the Shabby Shoppe we soooo treasure our little digi-scrapping community…and Lisa has been a special part of our Shabby family since 2009.  And, since then she has delighted us and inspired us beyond words with all the layouts she has posted.  Her digi-scrapping skills are literally breath-taking…every page is quite simply stunningly beautiful!!  Lisa has a definite knack in bringing out the very best in the paper combinations she chooses to layer…floral, plaid, stripes…genius!  Put your hand up if you’re like me and in complete AWE of Lisa‘s clustering skills…seriously now, just take a peek at all those perfectly formed posies!  And, she sure knows how to mix and match all our favorite Shabby Princess kits seamlessly!  I’m certain we’ve all stared at a SparkysGirl2 page from time to time, totally fascinated, and just soaking up all that brilliant scrapbooking goodness – I know I have!!  And it’s not just Lisa‘s scrapping abilities that catch your eye, it is her sense of family, her memory-keeping…the stories remembered and beautifully told.  Her pages are heartfelt and, above all else, full of love!

(Be sure to keep on scrolling so you don’t miss all the brand new layouts – there’s bunches and bunches!! - Lisa created especially for this feature!  She will also be uploading them to her gallery…so you can see larger images and more info about each there…Thanks Lisa!)

Let’s start with some inspiration!  Lisa sent through so many new creations that it made the job of choosing which one to keep full-size and showcase first a very tricky thing indeed…I fell in love with all of them!  In the end I chose this beauty…how could I not, really!  Old photos of loved ones get me every time!!

Now, on with the interview…and heaps of inspiration along the way…

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF…

My name is Lisa, but I am known around digiland as SparkysGirl.  I am married to my best friend, and we have raised three kids together – two girls and a boy.  Our son still lives at home, but he has one foot out the door!  He will be graduating from college at the end of this year, and he is planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him — sssshhhh!  Depending on timing, I might be revealing a secret! ;)  We have a dog named Tanner, and three cats:  Grace, Suzy and Faith.  At this point in our lives, my husband (also known as Sweet Baby Cakes) and I are officially “dating” again.  We managed to navigate the waters of child rearing, and we finally have time to spend together doing things that we enjoy.  We find time to see movies, peruse antique stores, take short road trips, and we share dinner out A LOT.  In addition to working full-time as a systems analyst, I enjoy photography, reading, genealogy, and, of course, digital scrapbooking.

Here are two more lovlies!  How fun is the angled background papers?!!

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SCRAPPING DIGITALLY…AND DID YOU EVER GIVE PAPER SCRAPPING A TRY?

I have been scrapbooking digitally since April of 2009.  At that time, I was looking for a way to create a special scrapbook for my husband’s upcoming “milestone” birthday.  I also wanted to create a slideshow of photos.  As I hunted the web for resources, I stumbled upon digital scrapbooking sites … like The Shabby Shoppe!  I was intrigued, and I got started almost immediately.  I had paper scrapped for years prior, but I was frustrated by the mess it created and the need to pack it up and put it away.  With digital, there are no tiny scraps of paper, glitter or glue to clean up!  I can scrap anytime and anywhere!  Instant love and instant addiction!  I am so thankful for the Shabby Princess, because she has those “freebies” on her site.  I downloaded and used those to build my confidence in my ability to scrap digitally.  Without those freebies, I doubt I would have pursued the craft the way I have.  I was worried about investing money in kits until I was sure I could successfully use them to create layouts.  I am eternally grateful to her for her generosity!  It opened up a whole new world for me!

Now these are just PRETTY, PRETTY, PRETTY!!!!!

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR SCRAPPING STYLE?

My scrapping style is eclectic to say the least.  Most of my layouts are the standard heritage or paper-look style.  However, if the mood strikes I’ll create a page that leans more towards an art journal type layout.  If I am going through a difficult time, I often use the outlet of scrapping to express myself.  One fairly constant in my pages is clustering … I am an element-clustering fanatic!  I love flowers, leaves, swirling ribbon and string, and stamps.  I am in awe of the creativity of other scrappers, and when I feel my mojo going on the fritz I haunt the galleries or participate in a challenge.  I love to look for new techniques to learn, and I’ll often incorporate them into my layouts – this adds to the random and eclectic style.  One resource I use a lot to learn new things is Photoshop Creative magazine.

WHAT IS THE FIRST COMPONENT OF EACH PAGE YOU CREATE…OR DOES IT VARY FROM PAGE TO PAGE?

The first component of each page varies from page to page for me.  Sometimes it’ll be a particular element or paper from a kit that inspires me.  Other times I have a specific photo or topic that I am laying out, and I’ll start with it.  Every now and again … it’s the title that begins it and I build from there.  As I sit here pondering my typical approach to a page, I realize I’m a little scattered about it.  But it always works itself out in the end.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LAYOUT (TO DATE) AND WHY?

Lisa says ~ One of my most favorite layouts is one that I created for the Amazing Digi Scrap Race last year.  I love it, because it is a heritage page without a heritage look to it.  It’s called, “Creative Women“.  Some of the most special people in my life are on the page.  I really, really, really hate photos of myself, so it’s odd that one of my favorite layouts includes a photo of me.  I think it was a required element to the page.  I love the colors and the topic.

…and here is SP’s pick(s)…

…okay, so SP had a hard time picking JUST ONE (I don’t blame her one bit!)…so there ended up being a tie for her fave SparkysGirl2 creation…

WHAT TIP/TECHNIQUE DO YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED SCRAPPING DIGITALLY?

The technique I wish I had known about right away was shadowing, shadowing, shadowing!  It makes such a huge difference in layouts!  I am always searching for cool shadowing techniques that create a more realistic look and that adds to the page creatively.

WHAT IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE INSPIRES YOU IN YOUR SCRAPBOOKING?

Just like my eclectic style … my inspiration is random, too!  I see layouts EVERYWHERE (this is now a family joke – they recognize the zoned look I get when I see something that is inspiring a page)!  From the menu board at a restaurant, to a television commercial, to a magazine advertisement … I’m always thinking in terms of how it could be translated into a page.  I am a Christian, and I am often inspired by my faith and the scriptures.  I am also driven to document my heritage.  After my Mama passed away, I received tubs of old photos.  Some of the photos are labeled with who the people are in them.  However, quite a few aren’t labeled at all, and I find this to be so sad!  Each of the photos has people with a story … and, I’m nosey … I want to know their story.  I’m on a quest to get them labeled and the stories told.  I hope my children and grandchildren will appreciate having tons of family information at their fingertips.

What beautiful photographs…and stunning page designs to match!

TECH STUFF :o) Tell us about your camera and software!

I have a couple of cameras.  I have a Canon Rebel T3i that I use as a backup.  My main camera is a Canon 60D.  My next investment will be in better lenses. 

When I first started scrapbooking digitally, I used Microsoft DIP but only for a short time.  I used Photoshop Elements after that, but I have since upgraded to Photoshop CS5.  I recently purchased Photoshop Lightroom to organize and process my photos, but I haven’t learned how to use it yet.  Sometimes it seems there just aren’t enough hours in the day!

These two layouts are sooo creative…and sooo cute!

FAST FIVE FACTS!

• Favorite COLOR: Blue
• Favorite FOOD: Chocolate
• Favorite MOVIE: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (I love to laugh!)
• Favorite SONG: What A Wonderful World … makes me cry every time I hear it!
• Favorite MEMORY: The day I married Sweet Baby Cakes

And finally, this little masterpiece…it makes my heart smile!

—————————————

So, now you ‘know’ Lisa a little better!  She is such an inspiration for us at the Shoppe and I’m certain you are finding yourself completely inspired, too!  Be sure to check out Lisa’s entire gallery for even more beautiful layouts and digi-scrapping inspiration! 

THANKS AGAIN LISA, for being a ‘gallery girl’ and for allowing us to admire all your special pages – full of wonderful family photos and memories – right here at the Shabby Shoppe blog today! :o)  It has truly been a pleasure & a privilege to work with you!

Thanks for stopping by…and I’ll be seeing you all tomorrow with the JULY free Desktop!!

KylieGallery Girls, Inspiration, Uncategorized 9 Comments

Hello everyone!  Rosy here to bring you some inspiration in your use of alphas!  Most of the Shabby Shoppe‘s kits include a complete set of alphabets.  My favorite method for making titles is combining one alpha with one font, but I decided that it was time to get out of my box and mix up my alphas a bit!  Using a different alpha for every letter in a word gives a happy, playful feel to your layout.

…and if you’re going for a more funky look, try mixing up design and color too!

Kylie’s page is a perfect example of how versatile alphas really can be.  Not only did she use various alphas in one word, she also layered them on top of each other!  How creative is that?!

Using a different alpha for each word in a longer title gives you a nice scrappy, layered look…and on a page where a stamped alpha would get lost, I’ve made it into a sticker by adding a stroke and shadow.  Using one letter as a monogram element is also a nice touch.

In Kylie’s “Life is a Beautiful Ride” she made her own alpha by clipping some pretty papers to a font.  Using brackets to frame her photos gives visual interest to her page.  I also love her idea of using a circular alpha as a monogram element in the center of a flower!

Some other creative uses would be to use the openings in alphabet letters like o, a, p, d as a frame for a small photo, or mixing a capital letter alpha with a lowercase alpha for proper nouns.

I hope these examples have gotten your creative juices going and I’d love to hear your ideas on more uses for alphas in the comments!

Thanks for stopping in!  SP will be here tomorrow with a Project Scrap check-in.

RosyInspiration, Uncategorized 3 Comments