Drumroll Please....

Back in January, I had just started Digiscrapping. My first project was a calendar for all the extended family. I knew very little, but was very excited to get back into scrapping after a 3 year hiatus- looonnngg story that I'm sure you don't want to hear. I set a goal to scrap 200 pages in 2007. I honestly didn't know if I would make it at the time- especially since I hadn't scrapped for myself in so long. But this became my new passion, my sanctuary, my creative outlet. I had no idea how much I would end up loving it. This is coming from the person who SWORE she would never try digital since I had so much money invested in the paper scrapping/crafting world.

I am pleased to say that on September 4, I met that goal of 200 pages for the year. So I upped the goal a little bit to 250. Well, the last few months have been awesome, and all the CT's I'm on have enabled me to create...



401 Pages!

Yep, that's right. As of tonight at 11:53 p.m, my page count hit 401!! I am psyched!

I am also soo glad to be back in the groove- I forced myself to take a break this month after finishing the Christmas album, and I've been so grouchy without it! I finally figured I just needed to create something again. It worked!

My goal for 2008 will not be as lofty due to the fact that I will be starting school in January, and will probably go full time in September. So I'm still trying to figure out how many I want to do next year.

Anyway, now I'm rambling. Here are the pages I've done since Christmas. As always, credits and journaling are linked in the sidebar to my gallery at DST.


Final Lifts With a Twist Challenge entry:
I scraplifted this one to get back in the groove again:

These got out of order. This is what my 8 year old daughter created all by herself! :)
I just did this tonight- This will be the cover and first page of my 2006 album. (13 pages left by the way!) SO close to being done!
I did these 2 tonight also. It's a 2 page spread of my son's blessing at church- he was blessed New Year's Eve last year:

I love love love this one:

Well, this is probably my last digi blog entry of 2007. Happy New Year everyone!

Blurb Review and Pics

Now that Christmas is over and everyone recieved their books, I can finally post some pics. First off, a review of the publishing service I used.


I went with Blurb.com this time around- they had the best price for what I needed- I was printing 5 copies of this book for Christmas gifts, and that can definitely get pricey, especially since most companies charge by the page after 20, and this book was 68.


Their price list is very reasonable- you can choose either hardcover or softcover. What I like about them is that you can have a book made that has up to 440 pages for less than $100.

They offer 4 different sizes- 7x7, 8x10, 10x8, and 13x11. I chose the 7x7 for this Christmas album.

To use their service, you have to download their Booksmart program. It's free, and fairly easy to navigate. It took me a while to figure out how to upload my jpegs and not use their templates, but once I did, uploading went very quickly. I had already figured out which pages would be where ahead of time, so I was able to just upload and go. After I pieced the book together, it did take several minutes to upload to their site, and even timed out on me once, so I had to start that process again. I don't think that was their fault however- I think I accidentally messed it up while trying to do something else. So I tried again, went and ate dinner, did the dishes, then came back and it was done.

I already knew ahead of time the deadline I needed to order so that it would arrive by Christmas. I uploaded a day before the deadline- December 9th. The next morning I received an email that it was being processed and would ship on the 17th, just in time for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it shipped early, and arrived at my door ON the 17th! Very prompt! It was packaged nicely- each book was individually wrapped in plastic, and then they all came in one box. Shipping was also very reasonable- I paid about $95 total for 5 books plus shipping. Price wise, they're the best. I think shipping was $8.99.

Out of the 5 books I ordered, there was 1 that the printing process messed up on the cover and placed it about a quarter inch too low, so I have a white border on the top. Everything else was ok. I don't know if I'm going to bother notifying them of it- I had to get them sent off, and truthfully, I don't think my husband's 87 year old grandma is going to notice the difference.

The binding is glued together- there's no stitching, stapling, or anything else. Just glue. That was a little disappointing, but for $16.95 per book, I guess I can't complain too much. I did order softcover, so maybe the binding is different on a hardcover.

I'm a little disappointed in the back cover- I did a simple solid background with my picture at the bottom left corner, and included a "Album made with lots of love by Liz". The barcode went right over my name, so it just says Album made with lots of love. Fortunately, my family knows who I am, but next time I'll do that a little higher.

The page quality is pretty good. It came on a semi glossy surface which has a very nice feel to it. I don't remember if there were any options for page choices or not. There are a few pages where if you look VERY closely, you can see some pixellation in the pictures. The camera used was a 6 MP I believe, so I don't think it was the photographer. But, it's very minimal, and like I said, you have to really be looking for it. I resized all my layouts to the exact specifications that Blurb put on their site, and there were a few pages that had very minimal cropping, but I think it helped a lot that i resized to their specs, instead of sending in a 7x7 size.

Overall, I'm very satisfied and will use them again. If you're printing multiple copies of a book, I highly recommend them. I love looking at the pages- it's so neat to see my work in something other than a computer screen.

There are a couple of things that I want you to be aware of when using this service. They have a "slurp" feature so you can import your blog and turn it into a book. It's the coolest thing and goes very quickly, but for some reason, my pictures were apparently too low quality to use in print, so if I want my pictures, I need to upload them myself. I don't know if that's Blurb's fault, or Blogger's, but I'm tending to lean toward Blogger's, based on my experience with them.

Another thing is that Blurb will create a PDF of your book, but it's only the first 15 pages. I thought that was a little strange- I like to be able to preview the entire thing to make sure I did it correctly. Now, I remember there being some PDF option to check at the end, and I don't think I checked it, so maybe that's why I only got 15 pages.

With the softcover album, you can customize the cover, as you can with the hardcover. However, I couldn't find a way to customize the spine with softcover, so it's just a plain white spine.

Anyway, that's my review of Blurb. Like I said, I will use them again, and am really hoping they come out with a 12x12 size. They do have a 13x11 size, which would leave a slight border around my 12x12, but I've heard of people doing that and it looks quite nice. I don't know if I'm going to use them for my 2006 album yet or not. I think I'm leaning towards VioVio at this point, since they can do a 10x10.

Thanks for reading! Now here's the album pages, then down below, the actual book.

Winter Cleaning

I noticed the other day that our 192GB server was down to 10 GB. And yes, about 85% of that full space is mine- pictures, scrap stuff, and my Photo Editor Documents. So I freaked a little, and started deleting like crazy. Thanks to my awesome ACDSee (which, by the way, if you haven't upgraded to 10, DO IT!!!!! You won't regret it!) I can burn them to dvd's, delete them off my harddrive, and ACDSee still keeps them tagged so if I do decide I end up wanting it, I just put in the dvd. How's that for a run on, fragmented sentence?

Anyway, I am proud to say that I deleted almost 10GB off my hard drive! YAY! So I cleared a little room. My scrapbook pages alone are up to 25 GB, so I'm going to be burning all my photo editor documents to DVD and deleting them this week.

The bad news is, I just unzipped all my latest goodies, and it was 10 GB! So I essentially just made room for my new stuff and am back at the same spot. Uggh!

I haven't scrapped in a couple of weeks- it's completely intentional. After finishing my Christmas album, I needed a break and was starting to get a bit stressed with the holidays coming up. Come January, I'll start back up again, maybe sooner. I just need to recoup- I've averaged 32 layouts per month for the last 5 months, which I think is amazing. So I gave myself permission to focus on other things. Thankfully my CT's all pretty much said to take a break this month anyway. (LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!)

I got my books back from Blurb, and I'll post pics in a few days, along with a review of the company. I'm just too tired tonight.

We finally got our tree up tonight! Now I just have to spend the rest of this week finishing my Christmas shopping, wrapping all these presents, cleaning my house mega time for company, preparing 2 big meals, and trying to get caught up in the black hole that is my laundry. Not to mention everything at work.

Nah, I'm not stressed. Nope!

Look what I did:

My sisters' many fabulous craft nights left me feeling very sad that they don't live around here so that I could make stuff with them. :( So tonight I saw a thread at DST about these button Christmas trees. They were so cute I ran to Hobby Lobby immediately and picked up some supplies. Here's my button Christmas tree, which, is the first Christmas decoration I've managed to put up! :)

FINALLY!

I finally finished my Christmas album for the family. 68 pages! Dang! I will post pictures after the family sees them at Christmas time, since some of them read this blog. :)

I ordered from Blurb.com. They have a 7 x7 size that you can do either softcover or hardcover. Their prices are amazing. Here is their price list:

Blurb Prices

I am debating between them and VioVio for my 2006 album. It's 12x12, and neither company has that size, but for the prices, I'm willing to make adjustments. VioVio can do 10x10, I just can't customize the cover. Although I did hear that they will put an adhesive sticker of your cover design. Blurb's largest square size is 7x7, which I feel is too small for all my journaling. But they do have a 13x11- there will be a 2 inch margin on the side, and I've seen some with that that look really good. So I'm undecided.

But, in 18 pages, I will be done with my 2006 year! YAY! Now that the Christmas album is over, I can get back to work on it. I miss really creating- I used templates from Janet Phillips for all the Christmas pages to help it go faster. It did, but I don't really feel like I put "me" into the layouts. But I'm still really pleased with them. Hopefully the books will turn out just as well. :)

I have one more digi project to do for Christmas, and at some point, I should actually START my Christmas shopping. Uggh!

Anyway, that's my little update. I will post more layouts when I have some regular ones done- the Christmas album was ALL I've been working on. I'll post those too, just later.

Have a great week!

Finally figured it out

I figured out what I'm doing for my Christmas project. I'm excited- it's also a way to use the 25+ Christmas kits I've had sitting around, and that I just bought. LOL- nah, I don't have a problem! ;)

I would post pictures, but I have family members that check here every now and then, so you're going to have to wait until after Christmas.

I also did my Christmas card yesterday. Ordered from Winkflash, and now I'm just waiting for them to arrive. But the dilemma I'm having now is this:

I made my cards as a 5x7 picture card. I want to send a letter out too, not to everyone, but a few. Do I also get and actual Christmas card and put them all together, or can I just send the photocard as the card? Does that make sense?

Any advice would be appreciated, for the 2 people that read this. :)

I'll post some layouts when I'm done with my Christmas project. Right now it is consuming ALL my evening time. I'm trying to finish by December 9th so I can order by the deadline. I'm ordering from Blurb.com- trying them out.

Anyway, it's late and the kids have school tomorrow. I better get to bed. Hopefully I can sleep.

Last Week's Layouts

So now I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for Christmas presents. I have done a calendar the last 3 years, but I think I want a change. I wanted to print out my family album as a hardbound book for the people who usually get photo stuff, but then I realized that the album I'm working on is 2006. Thought that might not be the best idea. I thought about doing a year in review album- month by month and doing a 2 page spread for each month. But I'm still on the fence with that.

The kids are getting their Christmas Photoshoot tomorrow with my friend, so I may just make that into an album. I don' t know. Either way, if I do go with some sort of album, it will be from Blurb.com. Have you checked them out? Their pricing is fabulous! :) Up to 440 pages for less than $100 and they'll do a blog book too! I may end up even just printing off my blog with pictures and give that out. I don't know. I'm kind of stressing though. Whatever I decide needs to happen FAST!

Anyway, while I ponder that, here are my layouts for the week. As always, credits and journaling can be found at my DST gallery- link on sidebar. And if they're for a CT, their store link is also in the sidebar.


Used OScraps November Collab- O So Thankful. I included some of the song lyrics from one of my favorite songs in our church children's songbook- I'll Walk With You.
CT layout for Tangie Baxter using 3-4 different kits and element packs:
CT layout for Sara Ellis- I had a bout of Scrappers' block, so I found a random quiz for MySpace, took it, and posted my answers.

BTW, I'm sooo loving these folded paper templates from Karah Fredericks!


CT layout for Tangie Baxter using Sweet Bliss Confectionary. This one gave me fits, I messed up, and the file size was too large to re-open with my Photo Editor (we're talking 139MB!!!!), so I had to figure out how to edit it. Thankfully I fixed it and am now happy with it.

CT layout for Buzy Bee using Pinkalicious. I sooo love pink! Also done for last week's Hodge Podge challenge.
CT Layout using Merkeley Designs Mocha and Pistachio kit. (Simply delicious by the way!). I also did this for last week's Digi Dare Challenge. I love the way it turned out!

This was a 3 birds with 1 stone- Buzy Bee using Guy Thing, current Hodge Podge, and current Lifts with a Twist challenge:
The next 2 are for Gina Miller's template challenge. I love love love this template and plan on using it for at least 2 more layouts that I can think of off the top of my head. The pictures below were all taken by me, my sister, and my 8 year old daughter. I still have a lot to learn, and this was my first "photoshoot" but I'm really pleased with them.

Here it is in its entirety. I used the template for both sides.
CT layout for Pixel Gypsy Designs:
Well, that should do it for a while. I've also done some more work on my son's ABC brag book of his trip with his aunt last summer. I'm hoping to have that done by Christmas, but it may not happen, given that I still haven't figured out what I'm doing for the rest of my family! OY!

SUAS, and layouts galore!

Well, things have been just a hair on the busy side since I last posted! On top of throwing 2 large parties, helping with a PTA carnival at our school, going back to work part time, and now studying for my placement test so I can start school in January, I'm not exactly sure how I've managed to do it all! :) If I didn't make time to scrap, I would literally be in tears and go insane. This is totally my outlet- done after the kids are in bed. I guess that's why I've become a night owl lately- I savor that time when the house is quiet, and it's just me, my creative juices and my computer. :)

I finally finished the profile pages for my pregnancy album. Now to move on to the rest of it. As always, my gallery at DST is linked in the sidebar for credits and journaling, and my CT stores are on the side as well if you want to check them out.

I used Pixel Gypsy's Boyish Charm in this:



The following are all layouts I've scrapped since my last post.
This one was done for a Digi Dare Challenge, using Tangie Baxter's "Way Too Stinkin' Cute" kit. And it is too!
CT layout using stuff from Merkeley Designs and Jill D-Zines: This is my best friend- do you see any resemblance to me at all? We're not related!
CT Layout for Pixel Gypsy, and also for her blog challenge:
2 page layout using Tangie's Winter Forest Floor kit:

This is my first attempt at blending and extracting. It looks like I missed some stray pixels, which I tried to pick up, but still missed it. I'll have to fix that. This used Gina Arzaga's new fall stuff:
Jill D-Zines and Sara Ellis:
Tangie Baxter's Mystery Case for DSD, and for a Digi Dare Challenge
Another one for Pixel Gypsy and her blog challenge:
I used Buzy Bee Scrapper's Pinkalicous Mini Kit in this:



Since SUAS is now officially over, I can now post my layouts for the public. I did not win, nor did I come anywhere close, but I did produce some layouts that I put a lot of work into, and am very proud of. I do think I won't do a contest like that again- I don't like knowing that I came in somewhere around the bottom, as I think it's all a matter of perspective. I will probably do Digital's Next Top Scrapper Again, and I really want to do the Amazing DigiScrapping Race the next time they do it, but I doubt I'll do SUAS.

Anyway, here they are for your viewing pleasure: