Thursday, November 19, 2009

Better Late than Never...

:)

I'm late for the second week of the Mosh Posh blog hop. Sorry to confuse all of you visitors! My life has been CRAZY lately. We just moved back into our house after being away for 3 months due to flood damage. We are all (not) adjusting to being in our old routine, and our formerly familiar beds. My kids are (not) doing well sleeping in their room together after being in separate rooms for 3 months. And once again they are sick... or should I say they are STILL sick? Their ear infections weren't wiped our by the first antibiotic, so we're trying another one. I am tired-er than I've ever been but at the same time I'm thrilled at the improvements to our house. Once we are healthy and rested I think I will enjoy it even more.

Anyways, enough about my personal life! LOL!

About scrapbooking... do you love taking pictures, but when it comes time to edit them you are completely clueless about how to make them look professional? My all-time favorite quick tool is Photoshop Actions. Here is a link to the actions I use the most by Pioneer Woman: HERE and HERE. They are FREE and easy to use. My favorites are PW's B&W, BW beauty, and Fresh & Colorful. Such a quick and easy way to make your photos look like a million bucks. I use them on almost all of the photos I take when I don't have time to tweak them myself.

And just to quickly share a few ideas from my November layouts:

Cardstock is your friend!!! If you have some blank, un-used space that's screaming for some attention, grab some scraps of cardstock. A simple band of coordinating solid color can nicely fill an empty space without drawing attention away from the part of the layout you want to enjoy. Easy backstitching along the seam gives it polish without too much fuss. This vertical strip of brown cardstock completes the layout better than patterned paper, more photos, or embellishments would have and it took very little effort.


Use lists to tell the story! Not feeling like writing a paragraph of journaling every time you make a page? Try using lists to communicate your message when you don't have loads of space on your layout. Or use a list of key memories about the person, place, or thing you're scrapping about when it's becoming a challenge to write about them in a few sentences.


Can't choose one photo? Use them all!!! I had so many CUTE photos of my son during this single photo shoot that I had such a hard time choosing one or two of them for a page. I decided to use them all. To give multiple photo layouts the strength and impact of a single photo layout, try cropping them into a uniform shape and grouping them together in an organized way. Making them all black and white also helps give the group of them additional uniformity. Try using one of those B&W photo actions to make them even more stunning.


Well, thanks for dropping by! Sorry I am so discombobulated today! :)

Anyone who leaves a comment before 12 noon EST tomorrow will be entered into a drawing to get a goody from me. Hmmm... I'm thinking a package of chipboard Thickers sounds nice. :)

27 comments:

Heather said...

Oh I'm first! Very cute layouts....I love the little girl {with four growing girls, I'll be sure to us that title}.

Heather Landry said...

I love all of your layouts! Your clean design style is right up my alley! Thank you for all of the inspiration!

wendipooh13 said...

your life sounds very crazy and hope it settles down!!! LOVE your pages and great work!!!wonderful style

Diana Fisher said...

Adorable pages! I love the layouts you used and I really like this month's kit!

connie said...

Brooke hope the kids are better soon and everything gets back to normal. Thanks for the photo editing tips. I love the LO's.

Nitasha said...

Hope you and your crew feel better soon! And thank you for those photoshop actions- i enjoy using photoshop but sometimes get overwhelmed with all of the steps it takes to do some things...Thanks for all the tips and sharing your super cute LOs!

{Sarah} said...

Oooh, thanks for those links! I love actions!! Awesome job this month... I think you really out-did yourself!! Hard to believe you weren't even in your own space when you did these!! =)

Kristie said...

Love all those super cute faces!

Jamie Harder said...

FABULOUS layouts!!!!

Bonnie Widmaier said...

awesome work. hope the kids feel better soon.

Michelle said...

I think you did an amazing job with this kit. I always love everything you make!!! Sorry to hear you all are still sick.. but glad you have your home back. The pics you put up before even without it being finished.. your home looked amazing!!

Wendy said...

Great layouts! Good luck with your house and sick kids.

Michelle H. said...

The LO's are are so beautiful!! Love the paper line!
I hope life will get easier for you! Thanks for the inspirations!!
Hang in there!
Hugs!!

isabel scrap said...

Love your layouts, the way you use C Cricket papers !

la zaz said...

Amazing layouts, i love your simple style
thanks for the chance

vitoria said...

Cute face ! love the pictures and love your layout.
You choose warmy colors

the mustik said...

Thanks for the inspiration on your blog, only beautiful projects

the mustik said...

Thanks for the inspiration on your blog, only beautiful projects

isa dona said...

Great work, your style is pure and happy, love it

alexandra said...

oh, love crazy face ! so cute
thanks for the inspiration, i like to read your blog

Meghann Andrew said...

Love the Cosmo Cricket goodnes you have going on! All these layouts are absolutely fab, and thanks for the link to the actions. I just started using them, and they are so simple!

Hollie said...

Well, I'm happy that you are back in your house, but I'm sorry about the trouble you are having!
Thanks for the PhotoShop tip- I will DEFINITELY be using that! :) And your layouts- as usual- look awesome! :)

Shana said...

Thanks for all the tips despite all the craziness you have going on. I don't know how you keep up with that part and are able to create such fab pages of those cute kiddos!

PamSpradlin said...

I love PW actions also. They can do wonders for some strange photographs. Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

Lillian Child said...

What sweet children ... cute pages!

Roberta said...

Great tips!!! I'm loving that gorgeous girly layout!

Amanda Sevall said...

Love all the smiley face pics -- such cute layouts!!