Oskar 2014 digi layout - CSI #120 DT

I had great difficulty with these colours - even though they are really traditional and appear in alot of collections like Websters Pages. Nothing seemed to work, so I left it and left it. And then my new cousinette Oskar was born, and his first photos on facebook really could be edited to fit in with this palette, and I really wanted to do a celebration page.

This is my 6th cousinette - born just before Easter, and my youngest cousin Mitch's first baby. Mitch and Anne both work in the wine industry (hence the grapes!). Anne is German and I just love the name and spelling they have chosen! This was the first photo released to Facebook on the day, and it had a bit too much eye candy, which I cut out to match this palette more. The Haiku reads: Embrace the love around you, Wish you a successful and happy life, Full of wonderfully special moments.
Evidence: stripes, mixed media background, textured paper, gesso, something sheer (ribbon), animal accent (duck), umbrella, wet medium, place something upsidedown (the flowers), raindrop shapes.
Testimony : write your journaling as a Haiku.

CSI case file #120 - click to go to CSI

Oskar McKenzie 2014 digi layout - CSI #120 Design Team

Ingredients: American Crafts Becky Higgins Project Life Baby Edition For Him papers - no5 (lined), Kraft coloured plain background, Sugar Plum Designs On The Edge masks - HA012, Lara’s Digital World - Bye Bye Summer Elements - Flower 1 (grape hyacinth), Flower 2 (blue flower), Jasmin Olya Designs CU Flowers - Vol 9 Lilies of the Valley - no 03, [PrelestnayaP Designs - Because of You - el20a (white flower), el43 (stitching)], Feli Designs Gentle Spring - grapes, DB Designs Love Birds - bow5, [Among The Wildflowers - K Hartley - Blue O, KHartley Border1 (lace)], Far Far Hill Freebies Vintage Scans Naïve Fall 006 (heart journal block), CU Distressed Overlays 4 - Courtney’s Digiscrappin’ - no 04, (Spots), Lara’s Digital World - Under the Palm Tree - Water 2 (raindrops), Chip Chop Shop - Duck pin (scanned), etc

Organic Evolution 2014 digi layout #118 CSI DT

I am still a part of the CSI Design Team and am enjoying every moment. My brain just seems to align well to photograph inspiration, palettes and extra challenges.

Plus, CSI exposes me to all the web sites out there to assist with inspiration whether it be for writing or for scrapbooking. Like the Magnetic Poetry for this one. WOW. I was in 7th heaven - I made poem after poem! I used the first one I made on the page I created.

The #118 layout also came with an amazing sketch from Emma Stafrace, which I was determined to give my best shot - even though Em's sketches are 30x30 and not A4 (sometimes its a bit of squeeze to follow it to the letter). I also used the columns from one of the CSI Coordinates Kits - I just love some of those and use items from them over and over again.

I featured my little garden, which has been vastly neglected over the past few months, but keeps keeping on. It does feel it has got a bit jungly and I'll need to eventually get back out there and get it into some order! CSI case file #118 with sketch - visit CSI

Organic Evolution 2014 - digi layout - CSI #118 Design Team

Evidence : white background, jewels, animal print (on the tigers?), arrows, hearts, fabric (pattern in back on left and rose like flower), beads, fringe, fibres (stitching) Sketch - used the sketch loosely - and the talking tigers come from that, testimony: Try out the Magnetic Poetry
Ingredients: [Among The Wildflowers kit - K Hartley Wildflowers Patterned Paper no 4,khartley Flower 3], A Christmas Wonderland : Joyful kristin cronin-barrow - Jewel 3, Laura Burger Going In Circles - bitz3 (beads), Far Far Hills Pearl Summer Freebies Kit - 008, [Far Far Hills Bright Spring Time kit - 003 (open shuttered window), 007 (watering can)], CSI Coordinates Kit #86 Column Pillar, [Sugar Plum Paperie/Shawna Clingerman A Boy’s Story No3 (wooden slats), Arrow2, tab3 (the hearts are sitting on it)], Basic Grey Stella Ruby Borders - Border 8, Scrap Art Studio Collab Changes Add On - Stitches 1, Sandylion 23 stickers ‘Zoo’ pf0m6 - ‘tiger’ (scanned in myself), The ettes Fayette Terlouw Time 4 Dreams - Glitterheart - melon, Fayette Cool Breeze kit - Caption Bubble Oval, fringe/folded ribbon (scanned myself), words at top of page are from Magnetic Poetry, etc

Everyday is Beautiful 2014 - digi layout

My cousinettes Violet and Olive recently came to Australia just as their little cousin Oskar was born, making a huge family reunion with their other cousins, Aunties and Uncles, and Aussie grandparents.

This was my favourite pic I think of their visit. Olive is looking very lovingly at Oskar, and Olive is just having a good time in the background. I loved the warm colours in the photo, and used the amazingly gorgeous inspiration from Orange Paperie provided by John Weston to create this page.

Orange Paperie May 2014 inspiration

Every Day Is Beautiful 2014 - Orange Paperie May 2014

will come back and put ingredients in.

Stripey Cloud Day digi scrapbooking layout

I loooovvveeed the inspiration photo from Archiscraps for May 2014. The colours were so warm, and I loved the clouds and the reflections in the water. I wanted to capture all that in my page. I started out creating graphics of the little houses, but didn' end up using this in the end.

Stripey Cloud Day occurs in Autumn for about 2 full days. I don't know what causes it. But full bands of clouds stretch across the sky with about twenty bands together, creating a stripey cloud effect. By the  second day they fade, and then totally disperse and you can't see any hint of them any more. Year after year of living in my current home I have experienced Stripey Cloud Day. I almost missed it this year as the first day was totally overcast.

(see my step by step below)

Stripey Cloud Day 2014 digi layout for Archiscraps May 2014 challenge (with mist)

Archiscraps May 2014 challenge inspiration - gorgeous

HOW DID I CREATE THIS PAGE?

And here's how I created the page step by step (using Adobe Fireworks). Lots of people keep asking me how I create digi pages freehand like I do - without templates. So here it is! (click on the pictures and you'll go into the picture viewer - a bit easier to see) I should point out at this point, that the construction of the page can take a few hours to a few days, depending on where I get stuck or when I am unhappy with the page. Sometimes it just all comes together; but sometimes it does not.

I copy in the inspiration photo. I then create my own little palette of the colours I like best in the picture, or the ones that stand out for me, remembering there are actually hundreds of colours in there. I create a little tower inspired by the tower in the pic that I may be able to use later.

I have a few shots at the background - first blue, and then settle on purple. I leave the inspiration picture and palette up so I can see them and match items to them. I bring in my photos. These were photos I thought would go well with the palette because they don't have alot of white in them.

I bring in another photo so that there are three now - two landscape and one portrait in the middle. I extend the frame I have chosen so it stretches over all three photos. I have created some little houses and coloured them like the ones in the pic to see if that will work on the page. I also create my first 'reflection' by mirroring the photo block and then using the transparency of that layer to make it see-thru.

I feel the row of houses are too high, and too high to throw a reflection in my 'water'. I decide to bring in flowers for that area instead. At first, they look exactly like they do when I bring them in.

I edit the flowers by dragging them over my palette and changing their colours to match. Then I re-arrange them on a loose line. I put swirls in behind in purple. I move the row of houses to the bottom. I create a vertical mirror on the flowers and houses to 'reflect' them into the water. To break the harsh lines on the houses reflection I also turn on a motion blur. It is now that I step back and look at the overall feel of my layout. Is it a little too dark? Is it a little too busy?

I change the swirls behind the flowers to white. This will match in the with border around the photos and make the layout a little lighter. I decide the layout is too busy and remove the houses and their reflection. I also now hide the inspiration picture - I don't need it anymore. I need to look at my layout now and decide how to finish it off and what it needs for me to be happy with it.

I put a border mask around the layout. This helps frame it and drag my eyes in towards the layout. It's black. I also create my title freehand using different fonts and circles inside the program. I pull in some buttons, but I am not sure exactly where to put them. I re-colour them towards those already in the layout.

I feel the layout needs some magic at this point. It needs to lighten still a bit, and needs something like birds or clouds and a bit more texture and misting to finish it off.I have added a black lacey journal block in behind the photo frame. Any other colour is too stark.

I change the masking border on the page to white. I add clouds to the top background. I add a few flying birds in white, and a black swan down on the water level to make it look more like water than a shiny table top. I add purple mist in behind the flowers and swirls to make them pop more, and white misting paint to give it a magic quality. I also adjust the colours in the title, move the buttons to their final location, and add some wee flowers to the top of the page for balance. I save the document and then export it out as a PNG file so that no one else can access the layers I have created. The exported file is 'flat'. And that's it. All done!
(except my ingredients list of what I used - still need to do that - I feel I owe it to the creators of the marvelous kits and elements to credit them accordingly!)