National Handwriting Day: January 23rd

 

Did you know that there’s a National Handwriting Day?  If you look at the National Day Calendar you’ll see that there’s actually a day for almost anything.

But… today is to celebrate our handwriting.  As a digi scrapper, handwriting can be a difficult thing to include.  Here are a few ways to try to include this into your photo books:

• Scan handwritten notes from loved ones, including greeting cards.  I have a pile of birthday cards and plan to scan several, especially those from family members.  It’s the inside of the card, with the personal notes that’s important to me.  I can then get creative with my layout.  Instead of scanning, I could take a picture of them as well.
• If you print your photo books, ask family members to write in them directly.  Of course, leave room for hand written journaling in the layouts.  But there’s plenty of pens, including Sharpies, that will work on slick photo book paper.
• Create your own hand writing as a font.  I did this a few years ago and though I prefer more perfect ‘script-y’ fonts, it is nice to have mine. I used YourFonts to build mine but I’m sure that there are others out there too.

I’m sure that there are many other ideas for using your own handwriting in digital scrapbooking.  Let’s brainstorm in the comments!

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Forever Friday: Big Black Friday Digi Art Bundle Now Available

The Black Friday Exclusive 2017 bundled collection includes the following brand new kits:

• That Friday Feeling – Page Kit by Across the Pond,
• Snowflake City – Exclusive Embossed Papers by Paper Tray Studio,
• A Better Me – Page Kit by Designs by Mandy King,
• Joyful by Jen Martakis Designs,
• Black Friday Blueprints 2017, 11×8.5 and Black Friday Blueprints 2017, 12×12 by pixels2Pages,
• Shaping Up Bundle 1–4 by Templates & Co,
• Geometric Layout Bundle 1 by ClickCollage,
• Solitude by Seatrout Scraps,
• Celebrate Exclusive Card Pack and Celebrate Exclusive Gift Pack by Lucky Girl Creative,
• Chasing Rainbows Exclusive Canvases, 2018
• Four Square Quick Desk Calendar,
• Forever Design Maps Exclusive 2017,
• Our Favorite Memories Pre-Designed Book by Forever Digital Art.

These kits are brand new and only available from RIGHT NOW through 10am Eastern, Tuesday, November 28 in the Black Friday Exclusive 2017 bundled collection. These kits will never be offered in the digital art store again so pick up this bundle today!

Note: In order for this bundle to work and have the 75% off discount applied, you must enter DEALOFTHEDAY at check and hit Apply. Once the code is entered, the cart will automatically populate with the 15 kits included in the bundle. Proceed with check-out. Once your transaction is complete, go to your Downloads where you will find 15 kits each with their own download link and activation code.

Retail Value: $150
Deal of the Day Price: $37.50

Create your free account here, go to Deals in the upper left and start shopping!

Make it Monday: It’s another Layout a Day (LOAD) Month

Yes, October is a Layout a Day month, specifically for Scrap Happy Family members.  I had intended on keeping up but there’s so much going on that I’ve slipped behind.  It’s currently Day 9 and I’ve completed 6 layouts, to date.  I hope to get another one done tonight so it’s not too far behind.

I’m all scattered this time around too.  As much as I’m trying to stay with the prompts, I want to keep up momentum on my current pictures.  In these six layouts, I’ve done some of my sister in law’s wedding, my last Disneyland trip and Forever Live.

I’m going to do my best to get caught up this week because I want to start creating holiday gifts too!  It’s really never ending isn’t it?  (ha ha)

What are you creating this month?  Link up in the comments.

Forever Friday: Adding Text to a Shape

Here’s my latest How-To video using Artisan 5.  Someone recently commented at how few options it seemed for adding text in Artisan.  You can imagine the WOW factor after showing her this tip.

 

Are you learning to use Artisan?  What tips are you looking for?  Please add your requests to the comments.

I’m a Creative Team Member!

Welcome back to the Make it Monday blog circle.  Did you arrive here from Melissa?  I love how she uses templates to make scrapping so easy!  Read on to see who’s next in the circle.

I’m so excited to announce that I have been asked to be a part of Designs by Laura Burger’s Panstoria Artisan Creative Team!  Twice a month she adds new products to the Forever Artisan store.  So here’s what’s new for July….

Flip Flop State of Mind – I love this kit!  Bright colors and such fun for summer and beachy vacation pics!  I actually used it for a pool party and Baptism pictures too…And if you use software other than Artisan, you can find her at the Pickleberrypop Store.

And just released this past Friday is Pure Paradise.  This one is full of great colors, flowers, masks and embellishments.  I can see myself using this one year round but some of those embellishments will be perfect for our pictures from Mexico.

 

I know I’ll use both of these new kits alot!  Do you have thoughts on how you might use kits with these summery colors?    I’ve seen some of the new designs and am really looking forward to playing with them – stay tuned!

Meanwhile, continue in the circle to Alice who has 3 brilliant ways to scrapbook with a bucket list.   Creating layouts with your summer bucket list was the first challenge in our Summer Scrapping Challenge this year…. have you joined?

 

Layout a Day, Feb ’15 (LOAD215)

The Layout A Day (LOAD) challenge for Feb. 2015 is now open!!

If you’re not familiar with this program, it’s a month-long event where participants are challenged to create a layout a day, every day for the month of February. Each LOAD challenge has a theme, and LOAD215 will be “Once Upon a Time… Celebrating the Stories and Books of Our Youth.” We’ll use children’s literature to inspire our layouts and stories.

You can find out more here.

This time around, I’m also one of the featured designers!  I created several layouts to be featured in some of the daily prompts.

This is an annual event where I often complete my yearly family album.  I always look forward to finding time to finish a layout a day.  However, if that seems like a too large of a task for, there’s no Layout-Police.  If you can finish 1 layout in the month, that’s one more toward your completed album.  And if it motivates you to do 5 layouts, WONDERFUL!

So, what’s stopping you?  How does a Flash-Discount sound?  Regular registration is $50, but for January 1 & 2, EVERYONE can receive the alumni discount of 40% off with the code ALUM at checkout. This code expires at midnight 1/2/15.

Sign up now – here and then comment to let us know you’ll be joining us!

Oh, and it’s January 1, 2015 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!  What are your scrappy plans this year?

Cheers!

Scrap-lifting for Inspiration

Welcome back to the Make it Monday Blog Hop!  You probably came here from Gina Zee who finished a tag she started last week.

During my most recent Layout a Day challenge, one of the prompts was to scrap-lift someone else’s layout.  You already know that I’m a big fan of sketches so this was a fun way for me to pick something to copy.  I looked at the list of my favorite layouts and found this one from Kim that was perfect for me to scrap-lift (used with permission).

 

I loved Kim’s use of white space and the doodled frame.  And I knew this would be easy for me to recreate digitally with Artisan.  Most of my layout used supplies from Captured by Studio Blagovesta to show off some of the selfies we took while on vacation last month.  It’s so easy to use the papers & embellishments from a single kit so I’m certain it all matches.  For the doodled frame and word art, I just re-colored it to match and tweaked the Opacity.  Here’s a quick video to show you how to do these in Artisan.

 

I’ve noticed that I pin a lot of this kind of inspiration on my Scrappy Inspiration and Scrappy Sketches boards on Pinterest – are you following me?

I wonder if you have ever scrap-lifted before.  Please share your experience in the comments.

Now go visit Melissa and see how she’s using the Project Life App to help her with a Week in the Life project – Happy Hopping!

 

In case you missed someone, here’s this week’s Make it Monday Blog Hop list:

GinaZee:    What did Gina do to fix last weeks tag?

Melissa is showing you how easy it is document a Week in the Life with the Project Life App.

Kristie shows how to create a background using a blended ink technique.

Alice Boll has a BRILLIANT trick for using a postcard on a layout.

Beth is sharing how her 30 days of thankful album is all ready to go.

Connie  is sharing cute lamb party goodies – they’re BAA-bulbous!

Jen is showing us 2nd part of a double-layout template for free!

 

 

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Using Gelli Prints Digitally

Welcome back to our Make It Monday series!  You probably arrived here from Jen who shared her Count Your Blessing Project.  Read through to see the others in this blog hop.

I’ve fallen in love with my Gelli Plate and making fun papers to use with my paper projects.  However I love some of the prints more than others and feel like I could never get it that good again!   I realized I could scan my prints and then use them in my digi-scrapping too.

I have a fairly new Brother MFC all-in-one machine that actually scans better than does photo quality printing.  I’ve scanned my prints and then imported them into my Artisan software.  Once in the software, I’ve tagged them to make it easier to find and use.

I then can use them in my projects as I wish.  So far, I’ve done a layout and a two sided tag. I love how the paper looks embellished and the colors in the tags are so fun!

 

I’m now even more excited to combine my love for Gelli prints and digi-scrapbooking!   Thanks again for all your support during these Make It Monday blog hops!  Now it’s time to check out Gina Zee who is using wrapping paper for a tag!

 

And if you missed anyone, here’s the full lineup for this week’s Make It Monday Blog Hop.

 

Connie shares her inspired new wall display for showcasing scrapbooking layouts, tags and cards!

Melissa is sharing a super simple, but FINISHED Week in the Life album – with free cut files for you!Beth is sharing the beginning of her December Daily prepping and has a great tutorial on how to incorporate different page protectors

Jen is sharing a free template & her NEW! Count Your Blessings Project that starts on November 1st.  This project will include hybrid, traditional and smash style scrapbooking, all in one fun mini album for November.

GinaZee has a project for Christmas tag swap. Upcycling paper for a Seasonal tag.

Kristie shares an interesting way to create a background with handwriting and a water soluble medium.

Alice from Scrapbook Wonderland has and adorable card for a little girl. Bonus… it’s a gift too!

Alison is sharing how to tie a current photo with an older story that didn’t have one, on her layout today.

 

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