Scrapping Text Messages

Hi, all! It’s Aliza here again with another layout using the fabulous August kit. This layout shares the story of how it came to be that we bought one ticket for my son to see Hamilton.  The whole conversation and decision occurred through a series of text messages, so I included one of those texts in my layout. I love taking screen shots of text messages as a way to remember conversations. Sometimes  they are funny or sweet, they capture relationships, and they tell stories.

I converted the screen shot to black and white so it would better fit with my color scheme.

Once all the papers and photos were laid out, I chose some embellishments. Some of the ephemera and stickers helped to tie the design of the page together by adding touches of pink, blue, black, and gold around the page.

And some embellishments helped to support the story, like this gift tag.

And, this might not be an exact quote, but I’m pretty sure he was thinking it.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

 

Make a Bigger Printable

Hi, it’s Aliza once again playing with the Rio kit.

Today I have a story of a little moment when my almost 18 year old son used his sandwich toothpicks to make himself some Wolverine claws. Since this guy is leaving home ridiculously soon, I think I needed to capture the part of him that is still a kid. This layout is also  a little prayer that he keeps that playful side as he moves on into adulthood. Sigh.

I don’t think I can write much more about this bittersweet topic, because it’s a bit raw right now. So, let’s just get a little geeky, and get back to the pretty paper part of scrapbooking. Once again, I fell in love with the dark blue shades in this kit. And I decided to use that blue patterned printable as part of my layout. The printable is 2×2 inches, and I needed a slightly larger image. I could have simply made it bigger. But in this case, I copied and pasted the image a few times to create a 4×4 inch pattern to use on my layout.

I opened the image in Photoshop Elements.

I copied the image by selecting the image layer, and then using Cntrl + Alt keys while I dragged the cursor along the image. This copied the image and allowed me to move it right next to the first one.

I then locked those two layers together, and copied them again.

I printed out the larger image, and cut the pieces that I needed. Super easy! And extraordinarily satisfying to be able to adapt the products fit my needs.

 

So Many Colors to Choose

Hi, everyone. It’s Aliza here again, sharing a layout with the gorgeous Rio kit. In the first layout that I shared, I picked out the various the black, white,  and pink patterned paper and elements from the kit.  I threw in some specks of gold, too. This time, however, I focused on the bright blues, greens, and orange elements. (Of course, I always like to throw in a bit of black and white.)

While I used small bits of paper, the majority of this layout is made by layering up the Clique Kits exclusive journaling cards and printables. This layout came together super fast, since all the colors coordinated perfectly.

I would also love to add that this kit would be entirely worth it, just for those Fancy Pants Designs alphas! The color, the whimsical font, and the puffy texture are  are simply wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Need a Title? Just Use a Song

Hi, all! I am quite excited to begin sharing my projects with the fabulous August kit! I think I say this every time I get a new kit, but the colors just blow me away. Lots of black and white together with bright shades of pink, blue, orange, and green. It is so much fun to work with.

So, back in December, I heard a song. And when I heard the song, I said, “Yes! That song just captured the entire essence of my being!” Those might not have been my exact words, but something along those lines. I later learned the song is by Courtney Barnett, and it is called, “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party.” The refrain that just got me is this: “I wanna go out, but I wanna stay home.” As an introvert, this line expressed so much of what I feel, like, all the time.

Even back then, I knew I wanted to use those lyrics in a scrapbook page, but it did not come together until recently. As I have scrapped and blogged several times this year, I have begun to take dance classes at the ripe old age of 41. I love it, but it does mean I have to leave the house to do it. Hence the inner struggle between going out and staying home. I also included in my journaling, the struggle between going out and following my dreams, and being around and present for my family. Because those are all parts of this dancing story.

 

If there are song lyrics you love, hold onto them. Because they might help you scrapbook a story.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Clean and Simple Page

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful National Scrapbook Day, and for you moms, a happy Mother’s Day. It’s Aliza here with a clean and simple layout using the May kit, Northern Lights.

Since this was a layout about the great outdoors, I really wanted to use that wood grain paper. Also, because it’s a beautiful shade of grey.The blues in the Basic Grey papers were a nice contrast, and brought out my son’s shirt in the photo. (One might think that the young man in the photo is male model, but no, it’s just my son looking preppy and fabulous.) Anyway,  that was the start to the layout. In case you haven’t noticed, I am drawn to placing my elements together in a grid, and that is just what I did here.

I really wanted to use this wood veneer from my stash, and its semi-circular shape inspired some of the other embellishments that I used.

I was a little worried about the muted colors, and I experimented with some pops of color simply by laying them near the layout.

I printed out my journaling strips, and I decided not to keep those inside the grid design. Just to keep things interesting.

In the final product, I repeated the dark blue and the light blue around the layout, in order to keep the eye moving around the page. And, that pop of color? Well, I went with red in the end.

Thanks for stopping by!

Black and White Photos

Hi, all. Welcome to another Geek Lab post by me, Aliza. Once again, I present to you a layout using the fabulous May Kit, Northern lights. This kit is loaded with colors. It’s loaded with papers. It’s loaded with embellishments. There is a lot to work with.

Speaking of a lot of work, we just finished celebrating the holiday of Passover. Like many holidays out there, it’s a wonderful time to spend with friends,  family, and community. It is filled with stories and traditions. And, like many holidays out there, it is also A LOT of work. This year, I did not manage that extra work all that well. Which just meant I had much to do in  the last 36 hours before Passover began. I captured that and some other aspects of preparing for the holiday in this layout. (Pesach is the Hebrew name for Passover.)

Now, because there was a lot of green in two of my photos, I used that as an opportunity to use that beautiful green paper from the Attwell collection. I love that shade of green and the hand-drawn pattern! Because there were four different photos, and I was highlighting the green hues, I converted two of the pictures into black and white photos to keep the color scheme cohesive.

You can convert photos to black and white in a variety of apps right on your phone, but in this case I did it in Photoshop Elements. It is quite simple.

Open up your photo, and click “enhance.”

From there, scroll down to “covert to black and white.”

You will have a few black and white options to choose from. Just click on the one you like best (You can preview how each one looks first), and voila!

See? Simple.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fitting in the Words

Hi, it’s Aliza here again. I have another layout using the Northern Lights kit. Just like the last layout I shared, this one tells another story about me and my new dance classes that I began this year. Well, more specifically, this story is about my new dance shoes.

I’ve written in the past about how I use Photoshop elements to place my journaling on the page. I thought that today I would share a bit more about my process before sending my page to print. It can be often be a drawn out process of writing, rewriting, formatting and reformatting, so that everything fits on the page.

On this layout, I had most of the elements in place; the photo, the tags, the papers, and the flair. Not much changed from my original design plan. But,  I did not adhere anything down until I worked on the writing.  I started with a blank letter size file in Photoshop, and drew a text box in an approximate size that I needed.

Then I began to write and hope that it all fit in the space.

It didn’t. Mot at first. So, I shifted my papers around to see if I could gain an inch somewhere. Then I edited some text, and played with the font size and spacing to eke out a bit more space. I’m going to guess I break a million graphic design rules in the process. Shh. Don’t tell anyone.

It’s not a huge difference, but eventually it’s enough to get the job done. It’s similar, in a way, to organizing a closet. By getting rid of a few items, and rearranging others, it’s possible to gain a little extra storage space.

Once, I get it to where I think it will work, I usually print out my journaling on scrap paper, so I can cut it out, and double check that it will fit where I want it to go.

Then, if I am printing directly onto a layout, I copy and paste my journaling onto a 12 x 12 file.

After much double checking of measurements, then I send the final copy to print.  And then all the other elements were put and adhered into place.

I am sure there are more efficient ways to get this done, but this is how I often work. Typing and formatting are not as much fun as cutting paper, and using cute stickers, but since those words are ever so important, it is worth the time and page real estate to make it work.

Thanks for hanging out with me today, and I will see you all again soon.

Adding Dimension. A Little at a Time.

Hi, all! It’s Aliza here. I am excited to be here sharing this lovely May kit. So many gorgeous and bright colors in there, and it is just filled with stuff to work with. I also bought the Attwell Sticky Notes, which I have been turning to over and over again to use on my layouts.

Now I tend to be a flat scrapper. By which I mean that my layouts don’t often have tons of dimension to them. It’s one of those things that I admire in others, but when it comes to my own work, I tend not to add very much.

When I got to work on this layout, it was like all my others. As I neared the end, and I searched through the exclusive ephemera pack to add a few embellishments, I was most drawn to the floral pieces that matched up to the exclusive card that I used on the layout. And when I moved the flowers around the layout some more, I liked them right above their matching counterparts. So that is right where I put them. With a little pop dot.

A quick and easy way to add a little dimension for those of you who like just a little.

I can’t wait to share more, and I am excited for all of you to get your hands on this kit!

 

Share Your Space-Aliza Deutsch

Hello, and welcome to my little world, my petite scrap space. It feels a little funny sharing my space. Even though I share many stories and photos from my life, I feel like now I am inviting you inside my home. And, I can’t help but notice all its little imperfections in front of the company.

So, here are a few disclaimers. I live in a two bedroom apartment that is large by New York City standards, and small by, well, everywhere else in America. So, no brightly lit craft room for me. I have a nook carved out of our generously sized entrance way, with a desk, drawers, some shelving, and a couple of lamps so I can see.

Okay, here goes.

Now, here is what I love about my modest little space.

1. It’s mine.  In my early crafting years, I had two little kids, and a stack of containers filled with crafting supplies, that steadily kept growing. I would carry everything out to the kitchen table, and then pack everything up when I was done. One day, probably around 2007 or so, I said, “It sure would be nice to be able to leave out an unfinished project.” And my husband said, “I bet if we move things around, we could fit a desk somewhere.” Finding ways to arrange and rearrange things to create more space is actually something I am rather good at. And, so, this little space was born. At the time, I loved it because it meant Dave respected my devotion to this hobby. And I loved it because as a young mother of two, it was the only space that was my own.
2.  It’s efficient. With a small space, I have to be smart about how things are organized, and I need to thoughtful about what I have. There is no room for hoarding here. I am pretty sure that if I had a larger space, I would have a larger supply of things that I don’t use all that often.

So, here is a little detailed tour of what I do have, and how it is all arranged.

Papers from my current Clique Kits live on a bookcase that is opposite my desk. As you can see, that is also where we have a bicycle and a phone. (With wires!) Anyway, the most recent papers stay in the white box in which they were delivered. 

Once a new Clique Kit arrives (Oh, happy day!), the remaining papers of the previous kit go into the plastic Iris box below it, or in my other stash of patterned paper next to my desk. That is also where I keep cardstock, loads of page protectors, boxes of ribbon, lots of rulers, and my beloved paper trimmer. That paper bag hanging on my desk is for trash.

 

Let’s move onto my desk now. The most important part, is the left hand side. In a letter organizer and some little containers, I keep my most recent Clique Kit alphas and embellishments, photos, and lots of scrap paper for jotting down ideas, to do lists, and drafts of  journaling. I usually have a month or two of kits in this space, before things get moved to my stash. As with my patterned papers, after things are moved from here, I no longer worry about keeping kits together. While they are on my desk, those are the things I will work with the most.

 

I love working with one kit at a time.  The products are the latest and the greatest. They all coordinate with each other. But I also love looking through my entire collection, and discovering things both new and old that work well together.

And so, here is a look at some of my shelves and inside some of my drawers, where my stash resides.

On the shelves above my desk are 3 containers. One for my go to tools, one for alphas (and the occasional playbill) , and one for other packaged embellishments-usually stickers. Recent layouts are displayed above, until they make their way into an album. 

Other embellishments like ephemera, enamel dots, flairs, brads, sequins, wood veneers, washi, and more live in in the drawers below or next to my desk.

There are more drawers, with more odds and ends-stamps, hole punchers, ink pads. But these are the items that I use the most. When my little containers get too full, or when things are just getting out of hand, I go through my supplies and do some purging.

One other note: I also use my computer, printer, and Silhouette on a regular basis. And those live on another desk in my bedroom.

Also, my desktop  is almost never as clear as it is in these photos.

 

 

Coloring Printables

Hello, everyone! It’s Aliza, once again. Today I have a layout to share in which I layered and layered those triangle printables that came with the kit to create a banner. I adored both the colors and the patterns, and as I was working, I thought, “I would love to add color to those patterned triangles!” If you are handy with a pen, paint, or marker, you can do this manually. However, I am a bit challenged in that area. So I turned to Photoshop for the same result.

 

In Photoshop Elements, I opened a blank 8.5 x 11 document, and placed the two banner files into the new file. I zoomed in quite a bit, since I wanted to select small areas of the image.

I then clicked on the magic wand tool,

and selected the triangle that I wanted to color. Once I clicked on the triangle to color, the magic wand tool automatically selected the white space within that shape. Just, make sure you have the right layer selected when using the magic wand. (Yeah, I made that mistake a few times.)

 

Once the area I wanted to paint was selected, I went to the paintbrush tool. (Look who else popped up on my screen at the same time.)

Now I chose my paint color.  My plan was to use the colors from the bottom banner in the black and white images. I clicked on the color swatch icon, which brought up the color picker tool. When I toggled on the document, an eyedropper icon appeared. (For some reason it does not get captured in my screen shot.) I wanted to use the light pink color.  I clicked on the color that I needed, and    that now became the new paint color.

Once I chose my color, I clicked back on the selected triangle, and voila!

I continued these steps with some of the other triangles, and then I printed it all out, and added some of them to this layout.