Our trip's digi scrapbook pages so far

[beasleybear]

I've posted these in a few places but realized I never posted them here, in Disney Mecca! :laughing: Here's what I've done so far from our trip a few weeks ago:

Title page:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWtitlepage.jpg

Pizza Planet:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWPizzaPlanet.jpg

Josh and the Big Hat:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWJoshandBigHat.jpg

The Seas with Nemo & Friends
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDW2007theseas.jpg

Pop Century
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWPopCenturyCMsize.jpg

Port Orleans Riverside pg 1
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWPORiversidepg1.jpg

Port Orleans Riverside pg 2
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWPORiversidepg2.jpg

Port Orleans Riverside pg 3
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/beasleybear/WDWPORiversideHiddenMickeys.jpg

[maslex]

These pages are beautiful. I absolutely love the title page (might have to scraplift the idea) ;)

I've never done digital scrapbooking and really don't know where to start either. I just love how everything comes out. I'm assuming it's much quicker than regular "paper scrapbooking" right? But don't you miss having a "hardcopy" of your album? Some days I just love to sit and go through my albums. It's a bit different looking at them on the computer screen, no?

Once again, these are great. Can't wait to see some more!!!

[beasleybear]

But don't you miss having a "hardcopy" of your album?

This was the big stumbling block for me for getting into digiscrapping in the first place. Then, I realized that there's really no reason you can't print out your pages; they are nothing more than giant pictures! :) Some people print at home with a wide format printer, others use a standard printer-friendly 8 x 8 inch size, and there are options for printing in stores & from websites, as well. And now there are lots of places that do photobooks, too.

What I will be doing with this particular album is printing out each page at Mpix (my fav online printer, but admittedly expensive for this kind of thing) in an 11.3 x 12 inch size. (You send it to them as 12 x 12 with blank space for the .7 inch, and they trim off the extra.) Reason for that size for me is that I then mount the giant page "photo" onto a Creative Memories album page, which counts the page edge strip in their pages' 12 x 12 inch dimenions. And you just adhere it like a large photo with some of their adhesive, so it's super quick! Just mount and add a page protector, and you're done! For this one, I'll be using the Mickey coverset. :wizard: I like the look and feel of a real scrapbook album for things like this where the pages are not completely coordinated. I like Storybooks/Photobooks to have more of a polished, coordinated look by using the same color structure throughout. That's all personal opinion, though.

While I do have a few pages that exist in web-only format (at the moment), I like having albums too much to abandon them. :) But digiscrapping has opened up so many more possibilities for me in terms of scrapping. Not to mention that I can actually do it with the kids around. It was really impossible to take the time to drag out all the (sometimes sharp) equipment just to do a little scrapping. Couple that with the benefits of an undo button and instant picture resizing, and there's quite a few advantages that make it difficult for me to go back to paper scrapping. :)

[beasleybear]

Oh, and I have that title page's 8 photo semicircle LO saved as a template; I keep meaning to get it up on my blog! I figure it can be a little timesaver for anyone who wants to do a similar layout.

[RLccweems]

I love what you've done so far! I want to learn how to do the digi scrapbooking. But it looks so hard....


lettie

[Faerie]

I LOVE the hat page. I'm new to digi and right now I'm in limbo between both. I did download that paper from your blog (THANKS!) I'm looking forward to playing with it

[beasleybear]

I love what you've done so far! I want to learn how to do the digi scrapbooking. But it looks so hard....


lettie


Depends on the program. I use Photoshop Elements (soon to be using Photoshop CS2/CS3), which definitely has a learning curve. But once you learn a few basics, it gets easier to use and you will find you can do so much with those types of programs. Other programs are easier to learn, I've heard, but I can't recommend any of them since I have no experience with them. Both PS and PSE have free 30 day trials (and I think at least one of the other big ones does as well. If you check out the digi threads in this section, there's been some messages about getting started & other info. :)

[KimAshton]

Wow these are beautiful.

[scrappinmom]

AWESOME pages!!!!

You guys are so tempting!

Digi scrapping looks cool

[scrapbook35]

Absolutely love your "How To Wear A Big Hat " page !!!!!!!!!! that's the best !!
I too am between digiscrapping and traditional. I am obsessed ! with both ! But the digi scrap is sooo much faster ! I am using three or four different programs because they all have different pro's & con's. If I was more skilled, or (PATIENT) I would just use photoshop because I know it's the most versatile. However I love to add music to slide shows, and I Now use memory mixer for that because I just got it for my birthday. Along with The qvc Today's special value kit aired on Scrapbook fair day in couple weeks ago (On MY Birthday !) so I have tons of NEW digi scrap stuff and traditional paper, including all this chipboard in the new kit . Still scrappin away my pics from Disney Dec. 2006 (First xmastime visit !)

Thanks for sharing your layouts, I love to look !!!!:thumbsup2

[PrincessNancy96]

Love the title page.. I'm going to scraplift that one if it's okay.. I love my hardcopy scrapping.. Digital is just not for me.. but I like the way they look and the fact you can print them is great... I'm just old fashioned... But I do love your pages!!!

[Olaf]

Very nice, Beasleybear! I especially like the hat page. Did you use a path for the titles/ears on the first page? And the sparkles on that page, how did you do that? Ugh, I have so much to learn. Which texturizer are you using for the background pages? I really like it. Was the goofy stamp your creation? It's great as well.

[kaddjr]

I love your pages! Very nice! Do you create your digital elements in PE and how do you do it? I would love to learn to do this.

[Daisydu]

Those are super cute! Thanks for sharing! :cutie:

[beasleybear]

Love the title page.. I'm going to scraplift that one if it's okay.. I love my hardcopy scrapping.. Digital is just not for me.. but I like the way they look and the fact you can print them is great... I'm just old fashioned... But I do love your pages!!!

Scraplift away! I posted it so somebody could do that type of LO if they wanted. BTW, the idea for it came from an old Creative Memories LO booklet where they had a circle of 12 baby pictures around a large picture. So I didn't exactly invent the idea! :)

[beasleybear]

Ok, the other questions. Everything was done in PSE4. I used some papers & elements on these that are free from my blog: Seebee's Freebies Blogspot (http://seebeesfreebies.blogspot.com/). (Look for anything that says "Dream Trip".And I keep everything that I've ever posted available on my blog, so you may have to hunt back a bit for some things.) That includes the Goofy Stamp, the paper used on the hat page, and the sparkle frames on the hat page.

Because PSE doesn't use paths, I had to cheat a bit to get text in a semicircle. Most of the line of dialog was written, then the Warp Text was used with the Arc function. For instace, "Eight Days At Disney" was typed & then arranged, using an arc of 100 to give a half circle. Then, "World" was typed separately and Arc was used...but probably only around 30 or so. You just want it to bend enough to follow the curve established by the beginning of the line of dialog. Both pieces of the line of dialog were lined up and merged together once they were aligned perfectly. Then because I was using PSE4 and you can't control glow colors, I had to do another workaround to get a white glow. You duplicate the text layer, apply the glow to the bottom layer, and then you can manipulate the bottom layer with Hue/Saturation without disturbing the color of the text. I probably also duplicated the layer with the glow to make it stand out more.

It's a bit of work, isn't it? :laughing: I think Adobe just needs to include paths next time. At least I believe they added the ability to change drop shadow colors (and probably glows, but I am not sure) in PSE5.

The sparkles were created with a couple of brushes, one I found on the web that allows commercial use, and one created by me in PSE. That particular sparkle paper is part of a pack I sell at Digitals; info is on my blog.

My favorite texture for paper is included in PS/PSE, and it's easy to do. Get a color for your background. Then, create a Pattern Adjustment Layer above that colored layer in the layers palette by clicking the little half white/half black circle and choosing "Pattern...". When the Pattern Fill box pops up, it will probably default to a pattern you don't want. Click the little down facing arrow, and then when that box opens to show the rest of the patterns in that set, click the little right facing arrow. From the list of pattern names that appears, choose "Artist Surfaces". And the very first pattern in that set, called "Dark Coarse Weave" (you can see the name if you hover your pointer over the tiny thumbnail), is what I use a lot. For a 12 x 12 inch, 300 ppi page, you'll need to increase the scale percentage up to about 250%. Click OK, and now change that adjustment layer's blend mode from Normal to Overlay, Soft Light, or any of the ones around there. Adjust the opacity of that layer down to make the pattern more subtle. That's it! It took more time to write than it would take to do it, especially after you get used to doing that.

Hope that helps some.

[Olaf]

What a sweetie you are to write all that out. I'm printing this one out. I really like that page texture. Not happy with what's available in the filter menu.

[beasleybear]

I updated the OP to add the Pop Century page I finished today. :) I used a couple of things from my blog, but oddly enough, no Dream Trip stuff this time. I think I woke up this morning with the idea of how I wanted to do this page, and the results came out looking like what I wanted. So, I'm happy!

[Olaf]

Oh my word. Been to your blog to check it out. Incredible! How long have you been doing the digi thing, Beasley? Downloaded the paper. Can't wait to try it out. Very, very cool. :thumbsup2

[beasleybear]

Oh my word. Been to your blog to check it out. Incredible! How long have you been doing the digi thing, Beasley? Downloaded the paper. Can't wait to try it out. Very, very cool. :thumbsup2

I downloaded Photoshop Elements 4 as a free trial in early December 2005 so I could do a few things to a photo for our Christmas card, & fell in love with the program. I asked for it for Xmas & received it. I did mainly collages & photo manipulation with the software, and then in May 2006 I did my first digiscrap page. And I pretty much never looked back. :thumbsup2

You can call me Chris. :) I need to add that to my sig!

[susan0326]

Chris,

I love your blog and most of all ... your digital work! Awesome stuff!!

I do a little digital work but still mostly a paper scrapper. I just got an upgrade to the current version of PE for Christmas and it's much better than the older version I had.... much more intuitive.

Thanks for all your freebies and for all your layouts. It's very inspiring!

[vanyel]

Great pages. I love the Pop page - looks like Mickey heads, right side up and upside down!

[beasleybear]

Great pages. I love the Pop page - looks like Mickey heads, right side up and upside down!

Yup, that was intentional. :thumbsup2 In fact, I woke up thinking about that particular portion of the page and decided that's how I wanted to do my Pop page. I love it when something turns out looking like I envisioned it! :)

[beasleybear]

I just got an upgrade to the current version of PE for Christmas and it's much better than the older version I had.... much more intuitive.


I agree that the program gets better as they upgrade. I also have v3 on another computer, and when I use it and find something missing that's available in v4, it makes me glad for what they added! :)

[CC&M]

I love your work Beasley Bear! Great stuff!

I noticed earlier in this post that you mentioned putting the 8 photo semicircle on your blog but I didn't find it...is it there yet or have you not gotten around to it yet? Would love to have it!

Thanks so much for sharing all your hard work!

[beasleybear]

I love your work Beasley Bear! Great stuff!

I noticed earlier in this post that you mentioned putting the 8 photo semicircle on your blog but I didn't find it...is it there yet or have you not gotten around to it yet? Would love to have it!

Thanks so much for sharing all your hard work!

I still haven't done it, oops. Tell you what, I'm going out to digiscrap tonight, and I'll try to get it done. :)

[boBQuincy]

These pages are beautiful. I absolutely love the title page (might have to scraplift the idea) ;)

I've never done digital scrapbooking and really don't know where to start either. I just love how everything comes out. I'm assuming it's much quicker than regular "paper scrapbooking" right? But don't you miss having a "hardcopy" of your album?

These pages *are* very nicely done!

I only did traditional "cut & paste" scrapbooking for a short time before switching to digital but it doesn't seem to be any faster. Part of the time factor may be due to my moving things around more and resizing them more. I spend a lot of time getting the images and text just the right size before considering a page done.

Once the page is done I print a 12 x 12 (or sometimes 8 x 10 plus a 2 x 10 sidebar) for the book.

To start out with digi-scrapping try one of the more affordable programs like Adobe Elements and get friendly with layers, much like the layers of a traditional scrapbook page.

[beasleybear]

Template is up on the blog now. :wizard:

[CC&M]

Thanks Beasley Bear! I just went and downloaded it. As a newbie to digi scrapping and not being a designer, I really love great templates! Thanks again for sharing!:cool1:

[DisneyMama629]

I can't seem to find a link to your blog. How is everyone getting to it?

[beasleybear]

There's a link in the first message of page 2 of this thread. My message, third sentence, where it says "Seebee's Freebies Blogspot". Clicking on that should work.

[Fran98765]

Chris' blog: http://seebeesfreebies.blogspot.com/

[Caitsmama]

Hi Chris!! Love your lo's (and your work!!), thanks again for all you do!

[beasleybear]

I updated the OP with the Port Orleans Riverside pages. They're a little bland but at least I finally got them done! :banana: