Mariannes Motifs

Happy Halloween

Here's some halloweeny-goodness in picture form.

The Boys

a few of my favorite things

1.  Pumpkin patch pictures.

2.  When there is a storm and the lowest news reporter on the totem pole has to go out on the beach and report in their rain gear with everything blowing around them.

3.  A really good conspiracy theory.  (should be harmless, and at least partially believable)

4.  Sonic drive in has tater tots!  Woo hoo!

Quick Page Brag Book Tutorial using png files

For today I have updated and improved one of my most popular older posts.  Enjoy!

Quick Page Brag Book Tutorial using png files

How to make a Brag Book using Quick page png files

Here's an project idea of how to make a 4x6 brag book with the Harvest Time brag book quick page album.  (or any brag book quick page album) These are png files that have transparent parts where you can place your photos on a layer underneath for an instant "scrapbook-y" layout that looks great.

1.  Have some photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.  (These instructions will work with pretty much any version.)

2.  Take some fall photos with your digital camera or scan in some old paper photos.

3.  Open one of the brag book pages in your Photoshop program.

4. Open your photos.  (File, Open)

5.  Crop your photo with the crop tool if you want.  When it looks the way you want click control + a to select all and control + c to copy.  Switch to the brag book page and do control + p to paste.

6.  On the left hand side of the screen use the layers palette to drag the photo underneath the quick page layer.

7.  Resize your photo to fit:  control + t will start the resize command.  To make sure you keep the aspect ratio correct click the little lock button on the tool bar or hold down the shift key as you resize.  (No squooshed faces, please!)

8.  Add text: use the text tool on the left side of the screen and pick whatever font and size you want on the toolbar at the top.  Use the move tool (very first tool on the toolbar on left) to move your text just where you want it.

9.  Add other elements or frou frou stuff if you want!  Kim Hill's shop has lots of goodies. 

Tip: For Brag Book freebies, check Ikea Goddess and DigiScrap Depot.  You can buy some wonderful themed brag books, and but if you check the freebie sites you can also get alot of super cute free png quick pages to download.

10.  Save your file.  I like to save the full psd file in case i want to make changes.  I also save as a jpg with compression level 10 for printing.  This is the file you will upload to a photo processor.

11.  Finish all your layouts and make a note of where on your computer you have saved your jpg files.

12.  Upload these pictures to your photo processor of choice.  I usually upload my 4x6s to Walgreens.com and then I can pick them up at the store by my house 1 hour later.  This saves me from having to deal with printing them myself although that is cool, too! 

Tip: Want to know how to bind a brag book? - try using a Bind-It-All machine for easy at home spiral binding.  Click here for more info on a book I made with my Bind-It-All.

13.  For an extra special touch - try these spiral bound "snapbooks" from shutterfly.  At $9.99 for 20 pages, its a pretty good value.  These make super little gifts for grandparents!  Winkflash also has a similar product.

updated 4/2/08

My first Quick Page Brag Book is for sale at cgessentials.com

As you may know, I've been a member of digiscrap designer Kim Hill's creative team since the summer.  Kim allowed me to make a brag book (4x6 set of .png quick pages with transparent sections for photos) and it is for sale in the online shop.

Harvest Time 4x6 Brag Book

I am very excited about seeing my work for sale in the store.   Thank you Kim!

Here's the blurb on the set:

This brag book has 12 pre-made pages in flattened PNG format.  Each page is 4x6 inches.  Pages are laid out to look great when printed as there is plenty of blank space around the edges so that the important things do not get cut off when printed.  There is plenty of space available for your personal touches of journaling or additional elements.

All layouts can be flipped horizontally and most look great rotated 180 degrees giving you 3 times the options.  And you could also use these to make your own desktop wallpaper!

If you like this brag book, you may also like the Harvest Time coordinated kit sold separately.
 

Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO®

Just because it's cool - check out this guy's site:

Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO®

Coaster Book - Bind-It-All Project

I took the day off today and hubby and goofed around while the kids were at school.    I got hubby to go to Archivers with me, and had fun browsing around the scrapbooking stuff.  I got inspired to make a coaster book.

I had bought a bunch of 4x4 chipboard coasters from Emily Giovani and I finished my first real bind-it-all book with them.  I am really proud of how it came out. 

I resized my layouts to 4x4 and put them on a 4x6 canvas and had them printed at Walgreens.    Then I used mod podge to stick the trimmed photos on the coasters. I used a sanding block from the home depot paint department to round the corners and soften the edges.

The I used my handy dandy Bind-It-All and a 1 inch coil to make it into a book!   Whee!

For digi credits see my gallery - http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=966

Its mostly Kim Hill stuff cause she RAWKS and I am on her CT.  Yay!

Here's a couple of pics -

Gratitude

I am grateful for

my husband
my children
owning my own house
having a good job with health insurance
my awesome family (hi mom and dad!)
living in America with the bill of rights
my friends
my awesome GI doctor
my comfy bed - wish I was taking a nap in it right now.  zzzz

5 Countries I would like to visit in my lifetime.

1.  Ethiopia.

2.  Japan.

3.  Korea

4.  Great Britian

5.  Australia

10 things I am happy about today.

1.  My kids are healthy and happy little boys.

2.  I have a wonderful hubby who works full time, goes to school at night, and still has time to help around the house.

3.  I have a good job and like my co-workers.  I have a GREAT boss!!!

4.  Today is a cool day in Atlanta, the weather is finally cooling down and seeming to be like fall.  Its been a very hot and dry summer.

5.  I got a great pair of shoes on sale at Target today.

6.  My mom's birthday is Oct 9th, and I ordered a little something to be delivered to her.  (smile)  Plus I got it on the cheap thanks to slickdeals.net.

7.  My mom and dad RAWK!!!  They paid the kids daycare bill and I am so BLESSED to have such nice generous parents who take care of their grandkids.  Thank you mom and dad!

8.  I am really proud of my sister in law who just started nursing school.  Yay Steffi!

9.  Heroes is back on TV.

10.   I have a new Jayne Castle  (Jayne Ann Krentz) book at home to read.  I lurve me some JAK.

And now for an illustration of point number one: the boys on a pig sculpture.  We were on the way to subway to get sandwiches and then have a picnic at the park.   Seeing a photo opportunity outside the local kids boutique, I whipped out the little Sony (love to carry it in my purse) and the rest is history.