Babies, Paper and Song

Six Years Ago

We were married six years ago this weekend. It was a beautiful autumn day, crisp and sunny. I have always been happy we chose to marry in autumn, my favourite season. Besides, we didn't have what you would call a "June Wedding". It was non-traditional, in some ways. We chose to get married on Friday, partly because it was cheaper. The bridesmaid wore black. The ceremony was at 5, followed by cocktails and nibblies. There was not a full dinner, no tables, or place cards. The reception space was a former cinema, and our names were in the marquee. We didn't take a limo there, we walked down Yonge St. to the sound of honking horns.  Rather than a band or a dj, my friends did a cabaret and sang. Our first dance was the end of the first act. I didn't throw my bouquet to a bevy of waiting bachelorettes. I presented it to my mom, to her surprise. We didn't cut a wedding cake, we had a croquembouche, a cone of cream puffs, covered in white chocolate and strawberries. It was definitely different, but I just loved it. I wouldn't change a thing.

To celebrate, Quillan and I went out to dinner between shows. We went to Nota Bene, a fancy but cool restaurant a short walk from the theatre. It was delicious. Afterwards we went to Second Cup for coffee, laughing at how much we spent on dinner, compared to how much we spent on "dessert".

I made him a layout with one of my favourite photos from our wedding day-- taken just a few minutes after the ceremony, as we were waiting for everyone to file out of the church before  making our grand exit.

On Sunday, we decided to bring the girls down to the theatre to where I work. I thought it would be good to get it done before it turned cold. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the worst day to be driving in the city. I knew there was a marathon on that day, so I stayed away from the waterfront. Unfortunately, it turned out there was also a parade of several thousand Chinese Canadians celebrating, I believe, 60 years of communism. Traffic was grid locked, and it took an hour and half to get to work, plus parking my car and walking the last few blocks. It would normally take 20 minutes. Quillan was then left to entertain the girls while I worked:

It was all worth it, though, because having them visit me at the theatre was amazing. Being my first show since I became a mom, this was the first time my two worlds collided, and it was very emotional for me. Of course, all my cast members LOVED the girls, and I loved getting a photo of three of us in my dressing room spot.

Very special.

Finally, Miss Lily decided to get up and starting walking this weekend. It was so fun to watch her learn to balance, and to see her face as she walked forward. She is so darn proud of herself!

Today was rainy, but it has cleared into a beautiful cool day of dappled sunlight. I'm going to take the girls to the grocery store in the stroller, and maybe make meat loaf for dinner. It feels like a meatloaf night.

Eek!

I just came home from a long walk with Quillan and Lily, and found that my layout, It's All About the Nana, is the Layout of the Day at 2Peas! :) Not only that, the other layout I posted, Be the Change, is in the Top 10! Woo hoo! (Insert "raise the roof" hands here.)

This layout is part of the bonus gallery for the fall issues of Scrapbook and Cards Today. You can see the other layouts here.

It makes me happy that this layout was chosen because it is one of my very favourites. I just love this photo of Audrey and my mom. Pure adoration.

"Be the Change" is a layout I did for a challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog, about every generation having the opportunity for change. It made me think of the Gandhi quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I just did it last night at work, in time for the midnight deadline.

Don't you just LOVE that paper? So pretty. The rub-ons came from a few different packages, and I just arranged them into a verse. I also put rub ons on some of the letters so that "Change" is highlighted.

Finally, another layout from the Scrapbook and Cards Today fall issue, featuring photos from Cecile and Cengiz' wedding this summer:

I'll be sharing another layout from that issue tomorrow, as well as my layout from the November CK that just came out.

Have a good one all!

The new issue

Have you downloaded the new issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today? Have a look! It's awesome! Tomorrow I'll post my layouts from the issue.

Lights! Camera! Actions!

** First off, check out my blog post over at Scrapbook and Cards Today. I have a tutorial up! **

I love working with actions in photoshop, and the choices out there for Photoshop Elements are really great. Over the next little while, I will show you some of my favourite actions, how I use them, and where to get them.

Today I will show you Actions by Jess, which are some of my faves. When I upgraded to PSE 7, I e-mailed Jessica about whether the actions I had purchased for PSE 5 would still work, or if I would need to pay to upgrade to the newer version. She very kindly sent me the same sets of actions for PSE 7, free of charge. That’s good customer service, I’d say!

Using this photo of Lily from yesterday, I’m going to show you my process with Jess’ Actions.

First SOOC:

Cute. A little over-exposed, and a little blurry, but I love that little two-toothed grin.


 After removing the colour cast, I used Jess’ Creamsicle Actions which add bit of dreamy colour, while adding pop and brightness. In this case, since Lily is in pink, I used the Strawberry Crème action, adjusting the “colour and pop” layer down to 11% opacity, and the “strawberry crème” layer down to 48%:

After that I used two of Jess’ Secret Processing Actions to make her eyes pop, and sharpen the whole image.

Next I adjusted the contrast a bit to bring out the shadows, and cropped it a bit.

Finally,  I used Jess’ Thin White Frame action to finish it off. (OK, I realise you can't see it here, but it's really nice, and no effort whatsoever!)

Before and after:

Subtle, but better. Just how I like it.

GrandDad and Lily

My dad was never a baby person. It's not that he disliked them, he just wasn't a "woodjy-woodjy-kissy-kissy" baby person. Until grandchildren. Actually, even with the first grandchild, Becca, he wasn't totally into the baby thing, but then Audrey stayed with them for a week when she was 3 months old. He would walk her around the main level when she woke up in the middle of the night for feeding, while my mom prepared a bottle. They bonded. Then Carson came, the first boy in the family, who only had eyes for GrandDad. Finally, Lily-Belle. GrandDad just thinks Lily is the most beautiful baby there is. He cuddles her and kisses her big ol' cheeks. It's very sweet. So, I did this layout of the two of them at the cottage for him to keep at work. It's an 8X8 layout, backed on a piece of cardboard packaging. I'm going to put a tab on the back so that it will stand up on its own.

Scrapbook and Cards Today Fall 2009

Thursday is the debut of Scrapbook and Cards Today Fall 2009. I am so proud to be a part of this publication. The artwork is stellar, the writing is interesting and relevant, and the product is so up-to-date-- in fact, I've been told that we feature new product before any other magazine. It's a quick turn around for everyone working on the issue, but it's so worth it. I will have three layouts in this upcoming issue-- available free in its entirety at your local scrapbook store, or as a pdf on the website.

As a bonus, I am featured designer on the blog this week! Head over there today and you will find a layout about Audrey's "creative" week-- colouring her arm, and cutting off her hair. :) Then on Wednesday I'll be doing a tutorial for rolled photo frames. Here's a preview of that:

Finally, a few photos of the girlies. Man, I love dressing up those little girls, and as I just broke out the fall clothes, I was especially, er, creative. (Truth be told, this isn't what I wanted Audrey to wear. However, in keeping with my new laissez-faire toddler attitude, I gave in.)

Hidden Treasures

The other day when I was visiting my mom, my sister and I started digging through her photo drawer. Ever since we were kids, my mom has kept most of her photos in their little folders in her bureau. I've always loved to pick a pack at random and sit down for a few minutes on my parent's bed to glimpse our family history. (Some of the early teen shots of me are pretty hilarious. Put it this way: I'm already planning a layout for them called "Awkward".)

On this particular occasion I came across a pack that didn't have any photos, just a set of 8 negatives. Holding them up to the window, I was pretty sure they were of me when I was a baby. I took them to be developed, and I was thrilled to see 8 photos of myself. I thought I had seen pretty much every photo that existed of me at that age, so it was just so neat to see these images:

So, for one thing, my folks  are a decade younger than I am now. Look how young and gorgeous they are, transcending the unfortunate mid-70's sense of style. The other thing is how much I look like Lily! It's uncanny. My mom thinks I am about about 11 months here, but I think I'm younger-- more like 7 or 8 months. Here is Lily at 7 months of age:

It could seriously be the same baby!
Look for a layout, or two, using these photos soon!

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Finally, the ever-quotable Audrey:

(As I'm making scrambled eggs for lunch)

Audrey: Mummy, what do we call those things we keep eggs in? Those little white things?

Me: The carton?

Audrey: No, Mummy, those little white things we keep eggs in...

Me: (Now I get it.) Those are called egg shells, honey.

Audrey: Ohhhhh!

Rocking the DPS, part deux

Thanks for all of your comments on part one of my DPS tutorial. For those of your who missed it, DPS are Double Page Spreads, and they are often a source of frustration for novice and experienced scrappers alike! In the first part of the tutorial, I covered one of my go-to methods for creating a DPS, using different sized photos across both pages. Today, I want to look at another design option.

This scheme is heavy on one page, lighter on the other. When you put most of your photos on one page, you leave the other page free for either a blow-up, title/journaling, or white space.  I often use a photo grid on one side, fitting in lots of photos. The other page becomes the focus because it is so open. Sometimes I feature the title here, too. There are no specific steps to go through with this one, but here are some variations:

So go on and try a DPS-- you might be suprised at how much you like it! Link me up, if you do!

Rocking the DPS

When I first started on the Scrapbook and Cards Today DT, my first assignment was,  and I quote, “Three layouts, one of which is a DPS.” I wrote back asking if they wanted any two page layouts, and what in the world is a DPS? It turns out DPS is “Double Page Spread”, so that answered both of my questions.

Double page spreads don‘t come easily to me. They don’t feel natural-- there’s something very intimidating about all that space! However, they allow me to use up a ton of photos, and they are really good for getting published. In fact, I was looking for examples to show for this posting, and  I realised that three of my latest four DPS are out for publication. So, if you are looking to get pubbed, one way is to rock the DPS.

When approaching a two pager, I am practical. I stick with what works. It’s not the type of layout where I get super creative and artsy. My goal is to crank out a clean, eye-pleasing layout that puts the focus on all those photos. Over time, I’ve come up with two basic designs that I adapt to whatever topic I’m scrapping.   Here is the layout I completed yesterday, called “Pre-Three”, using one of those basic designs:

I started out by dragging a bunch of photos into a file that I might want to use in this layout. I then picked the three that I loved the most, plus one good focal photo. I find that choosing two to four larger photos, then adding an odd number of smaller photos works for me. I ended up with one 5X7, three 4X6, and 7 wallet size.  I grabbed two work mats and started playing with photo arrangement:

 I always place the larger photos opposite each other near the centre of the layout, for focus and balance. I knew that I wanted my title on the larger photo, so I added that right away. I also kept white borders on three of the photos.

When I was happy with the result, I grabbed my cardstock -- Creative Memories “Cement”, which is my favourite neutral cardstock. (It’s not too brown and not too grey, so it goes with almost anything.) I also used the new Creative Memories Jumbo Circle Cutting System to cut circles out of some Basic Grey “June Bug”.  (You can cut circles up to 12” in diameter with this puppy!)  I arranged the paper circles and photos on the cardstock, adjusting here and there until I was happy with the overall look.

I glued everything down, popping up a few of the photos on foam squares, then embellished with some circular elements, and a butterfly. I printed my journaling on a scrap of photo paper in dark green, and glued it down in two spots.

 

Voila, mes amis! I think this layout is pretty solid-- not earth shattering, but it shows off a lot of favourite photos in a clean and pleasing way, and it is easily adaptable to so many subjects.

I’ll cover my other basic design for DPS later in the week, so remember to check back!

Also, have a look over at the Scrapbook and Cards Today Blog. They are having a HUGE giveaway. Seriously. It’s epic. And look for the fall issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today coming out soon!

Lily's First Step

...was yesterday. I was grocery shopping/at the scrapbook store. My husband will never let me live it down!