Name Your Supplies

Would it be a sin if I don't mention what supplies I use for my traditional layouts?

The reason I don't get to join challenges and contests or upload my layouts on on-line galleries is because I don't keep track of supplies I use. My goal is simple - to complete a layout. Sometimes it takes me too long to decide what papers to use and how to lay the pictures and embellishments on the background paper. Figuring out what the supplies are after they are all chopped into bits and pieces and having to write down everything I used will surely take a whole chunk of my time. Besides, after the sheets are torn off the pads, and the flowers are cut-out from sheets, buttons taken out of their packages, I wouldn't remember where they were from! I wouldn't dare make a list on a post-it-note and attach it on my LO. I don't know if that post-it-note is acid free.

Some write the list on the back of the background paper. For me, I can't do that. Most of the time, my LOs are double-sided, especially if I used a beautiful double-sided sheet - I wouldn't want to waste the other side!

Of course, I think, using digital supplies is an entirely different thing.

• Most of my supplies are free. The least I could do is introduce the designer through my layouts as a "thank you so much" gesture, for being kind-hearted and generous.
• It is easy to make a note of supplies as I can safely tuck them somewhere with the digital file.
• It is more convenient to upload my layouts to an on-line gallery directly from my computer [unlike traditional LOs, I have to scan or take pictures of each one in order for me to save them in my computer.

Just an almost-time-to-go-to-bed thought.

Respect for Life

The older I grow...let me re-phrase that...the more mature I become, the more respect I have for life. Perhaps it is because I now have more knowledge of life and its wonders. More so because I've reached the age of what I think is more than half of my life years. I don't know if I'll reach the age of 60, 70, 0r 80. For sure, I'll never live to double my age today.

I've seen 3 generations replacing me. My generation having their own kids, our kids having their own kids, my generation getting old, the generation before me (our parents') being OLD-er, and the generation before them... now gone.

Young ones don't think about being gone. There isn't an inkling of any thought that life will someday stop. Right now it is the enjoyment and the going forward, which is a natural, healthy attitude.

I always say to those who care to listen: There is only one life. You may be given an extension of what you have now, but you cannot buy, borrow, steal, ask, be given, find, create another one to keep you going.

I've known a long time ago that living things around me are not permanent fixtures. Sooner or later everything goes - back to being dust, becoming one again with the cosmic particles floating in this space we call universe. It's sad to see [and hear] about someone's life being snuff away at an any age because of carelessness, or misunderstanding, or fighting for reasons they believe is right. This does not apply to humans only. I believe that animal and plant beings also have the right to be here. The ant, the icky worm, the yucky housefly, the spider, the squirrel, the cayote searhing for food in urban backyards, they only have one life, some may live for years, others live for a day. If they don't bother you or hurt you in anyway, leave them be and let them fulfill what it is they were here for.

Respecting people's lives is not just letting them eat and breathe. It is also respecting their personal space, their work, their thoughts, their beliefs. Respecting life is being patient.

As I mature more, I'd like to have more patience and more understanding of the whys and hows of life around me.

Happy birthday to me!

Mind Your Manners....hrmmm... I mean Layers

I think the thing that confuses a digital newbie most is how to get to each element after they've been dragged and dropped on the canvas. There is this wonderful box that shows you all the elements and how they are chronologically arranged on your canvas.


Imagine having a sheet of 12x12 scrapping paper on your desk; you place your photo on top of this sheet of paper [that will be layer 1], then you add a frame on your paper, whether that frame is on top of your photo or on one side of your background paper, that will be layer 2. Then add another thing on top of your sheet, that will be layer 3, and so on.


In digital scrapbooking, mind where the layers are. Is layer 2 above layer 1 but below layer 5 and 4? What you want to position the flower peeking out from behind the picture?

Highlight the flower [LAYER 3], drag it with your mouse and put it between the photo [LAYER 1] and background paper.

You can rename your layers if you want to. Renaming them is especially helpful if you have more than 10 and more than two of the same kind of element (for example 3 flowers), and also if you cannot identify what the layers are because the previews are too tiny. To rename, double click on the name of the layer.

If you don't want to rename them, you can play the game hide and seek. If you have 10 tiny flowers and you now don't remember which layer is the one you want to move around or delete, click on the eye icon [layer visibility]. Watch your canvas when you do this because whatever element disappears from your canvas is the layer you clicked. Keep on clicking until you find the correct layer. [Now's the time to name those layers!]

The next picture shows you how to add notes to your digital layout. I use this to take note of who the digital designers are so that when I upload my LO in my gallery, then I have the information at my fingertips.

To add notes, click on the NOTE icon in the TOOL BOX. Add the notes as soon as you drag an element on your canvas, or before you close your digital supplies folder so you won't forget.

So here, I have a finished, simple LO. This file is in PSD format, therefore it is a fairly big sized file. To shrink the size of the file and to be able to upload it in your gallery, save your file as BMP or JPG. I save mine as JPG with a resolution of 72 dpi.

Take note that when you save your document as JPG, you'll lose the note. I usually shrink my PSD file in a smaller sized-file by merging some of the documents. See this tutorial.

If you have questions or comments about this tut, please let me know. TFL!

Credits: Do It Digi July Inspiration Kit - Summer Romance by BrokenJar Creations www.digitalscrapping.com

Newbies to Digital Scrapbooking

I learned using photoshop on my own, with a little help from a former officemate. I am no expert but I will share with you what I know and how I do things. I'm pretty sure that there are other ways to do things and perhaps they are the correct ways or the ways that make more sense, but until I discover them or until someone shows me the better, easier way, I will stick to what I currently know.

A couple of friends, an officemate, and three people who found me in the tangled web of the internet have asked, "how do I make a layout? Where and how do I start? How do I put things together? Shall I pick the picture and build around it, or shall I pick the supplies then pick the picture?

There really is not just one correct way to start an LO, whether it is traditional or digital. You might find beautiful papers and embellishments and want to use them right away then find the perfect picture/s to post; or you might have a beautiful picture and scrounge through your scrapbooking supplies for the perfect papers and embellishments. Either way works. It is easier if you have a theme. If you have a photograph on or of the beach, look for supplies pertaining to the beach; if your supplies are bright and happy colors fit for a birthday or summer celebration, then look for a photograph that would go with those colors and emotions.

Check your resolutions - if you are like me, armed with an old computer, I suggest changing your pictures' [that doesn't just pertain to photos] resolutions and make them all the same - see here. I found out that if I do not use elements of the same resolution, one would be bigger than another when it's not supposed to [for example, a bling shouldn't be bigger than a flower]. True, I can re-size the flower, but by doing so, re-sizing might make the flower fuzzy or blurred - because remember, you are increasing the size of the element but the resolution of, say 72 dpi is not enough for such size.

Putting your elements together - It is easy to put elements together in one LO. Start with a simple LO first until you master the art of finding things around your digital work area (^.^) Scraplift a simple traditional or digital LO. As with crediting digital suppliers, please don't forget to give credit to the person you scraplifted from.