Ideas for Scrapbookers Anniversary Blog Hop and RAK!

Hello everyone!  It has been such a great experience to be a part of the team of contributing artists for the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog.  Now that the blog has turned one, it's time to celebrate and thank our readers for making this such a good year!  Today I am going to share my favorite posts involving sketches.  As I looked back there were 3 sketches that I particularly liked.  First is a sketch that was created from a readers page.  Anita Marie Bownds submitted a beautiful layout that was used to produce this sketch.  It is great when our creative readers share their talents and give us great ideas too!    Here is the sketch and then a layout that I just created interpreting the sketch.

And here is my layout.

The next sketch is by one of our contributing artists, Heather Landry.  This is a great sketch that could be used many ways.

Heather's example layout for this sketch is adorable.  I just love the pics of her pug!

Last is a sketch by another of our contributing artists, Lisa Blastic.  This is also a very versatile sketch. I loved this idea so much I decided to try a digital layout based on Lisa's sketch.  Here is the sketch.

Here is  my digital layout of my husband and my niece.  I used a great kit called "My Number One" by Eva Kipler to complete the layout.

So now that you've had a brief taste of the great sketches on the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog I have a scavenger hunt  and prize for one lucky reader.  The prize is a $15.00 gift certificate to the Scrapbook.com on-line store.   I have three questions you will need to answer.  To get the answers you'll need to look through the sketches on the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog.  Jot down your answers and email them to me at joy2scrapbook@live.com.  Everyone who sends me the correct answers will be entered into a random drawing.  You have until Wednesday, 10/20/2010, at midnight to email me your answers.  On Thursday, I will send the winner, via email, your gift certificate to scrapbook.com.  I will also post the winners name on my blog. Sounds fun right!  OK, let me give you just a little help to get started.  To view all the sketches easily on the Ideas for Scrapbookers blog, look in the right hand column of the blog and scroll down to the area with the column heading LABELS.  Click on the topic "Sketches" and the posts that involved sketches will be filtered for you.  Now just remember as you hunt, that at least one of the questions below will be found in the "Older Posts" so don't forget to look beyond the first page. 

Scavenger Hunt Questions:
1.  The first sketch you will be looking for is VERY versatile and can be used for an 8 1/2 by 11 page OR a 12 by 12 page.   (Hint:  The sketch is displayed as an 8 1/2 by ll sketch and  the sample layout is a 12 by 12 page).  What is the date the sketch was posted? 

2.  One two page sketch was inspired by a Starbucks ad.  The sketch is based on a readers page.  What is the name of our creative reader?

3.  Which contributing artist for Ideas for Scrapbookers developed a sketch from a layout she did titled "Excellent"?   Send me the Name of the contributing artist that created the sketch.

Since there are just 3 questions, this shouldn't take you long.  Hope you have fun with this.  I'll be looking for those answers in my mail box!  Good Luck to everyone!

Thank you for joining in today's blog hop.  Now its time to move on to your last stop.  Next is Pam Callaghan's blog.  Here is the link: http://mylittlecreativestudio.blogspot.com   Have fun!!

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A Wave Template for those Water pictures!

I have been enjoying our puppy, Maggie, however she is growing up too fast! At just over 5 months she is about 50 pounds.  We have found that she loves to play in water, any water, whether it is a sprinkler, puddle, garden hose or her water dish.  We had a kids pool stashed away and pulled it out to see what she would do.  Watching her play was hesterical.  I took photos as best I could (she didn't stay still for very long).  I put a few of them together to create this layout which I titles "Splish Splash."

This layout was done with a digi kit called "Daydream Believer" by Kristin Cronin-Barrow at Sweet Shop Designs.  I just love her work!  If you'd like to try creating a layout with some of your water pictures, I have  a .PSD file of the main wave elements that is available for download  Expired.

For my paper scrapbook friends, here is a .jpg file you can print and use to cut out those waves.  Just cut out the left and right wavy pieces and place them on top of a colorful background paper. 

Hope you will enjoy using this fun template shape with those swimming, beach and fun backyard water games kids like to play.  Thanks for stopping by.

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Recapturing memories from the past!

When my husband and I were kids our family's didn't take many pictures.  The thing to do in the 50's and 60's was to take slides.  Of course now digital photography is the mainstay of my picture taking, but what about all those slides sitting carefully packed away in my basement.  A friend of mine bought a slide scanner, because like me, most of her memories from the past are on slides.  She loaned it to me, and told me to figure out how it worked so I could teach her.  That sounded great to me and I could satisfy my desire to scrap some of those precious old memories.  The scanner she loaned me is a "Smart Digital Image Copier" by Stratford Labs.

It came with software which I found very easy to install on my computer.  The slides fit in a long slim back tray which slides through the scanner.  It holds 3 slides, so the process of scanning very many old slides will be a time commitment.  However, the quality of the end picture (.jpg file) is pretty good, actually better than I expected.

Some of the slides I scanned were even damaged.  For example, I was looking for a picture of my husband as a child that I had seen years ago where he was wearing a firefighter helmet. After much searching I found it, but to my dismay the slide had mold one it.  After some research as to what I could do, I found that rubbing alcohol could be used to clean off the mold.  With this task done I could see that the emulsion of the slide did have some impressions in it from the mold, but I still wanted to give scanning a try.  Here is a layout I did with that precious picture.

My husband was between 3 and 4 years old in the top left picture.  While I lost some of the color from the slide, the clarity in the picture was still quite good.  The two other pictures are recent photos.  While my husband is no longer a firefighter, he really enjoyed this job.  He kept his uniform and with a little encouragement I convinced him to put it back on so I could have a "then and now" layout. 

I had some doubts about slide scanning prior to this project, but now I can see that the end product will certainly produce photos that can be used for many things, including scrapbooking. 

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Punch an Interesting Circle Border

I have been collecting punches for years and from time to time pull out several of them and just experiment with an idea.  Frequently I use circles in my layouts.  They are pleasing shapes that go well with other layout elements.  I was working on a layout with some pictures of Maggie, our new puppy.  She is such a sweetie I had been trying to achieve a soft pretty look to convey what I felt about her. I wanted to make the edge of one circle a little more interesting and the first thing I though of was to use a punch.  Here is the layout I completed after trying several different punch ideas.  The light green circle has just 1/2 of a flower shape punched around the edge.  I then put small pearls in the flower centers for a delicate touch.

Here is a picture of the punch I used around the edge.



I lightly marked my green circle with pencil marks that I had measured and evenly spaced around the circle.   I used the pencil marks as a guide to evenly place the punched flowers.

I punched the flowers out by turning the punch over and lining up my pencil mark with the center of the flower design.  At the same time I made sure that only half of the flower was going to punch through the edge of the paper circle.  With all the pencil marks it was very quick and easy to make this pretty edge.  The best part is the pencil marks get cut away by the punched shape, so there are no worries about erasing pencil marks from your circle.  Have fun!

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Winner of the Autism Awareness Blog Hop RAK!!

Thank you all for participating in the Ideas for Scrapbookers Autism Awareness blog hop!  It was a great experience for me.  I learned quite a bit about this disorder and that will help me as I work with friends who have children with Autism.

I am so happy to announce that Teresa Jaye is the winner of the $15.00 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com.  If you will email me, Teresa, at Joy2scrapbook@live.com, I will send your gift certificate to you.  Thanks again for participating!  Hope you all benefited from the information we shared.

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Autism Awareness Blog Hop & RAK PRIZE!!

Thanks for joining the Ideas For Scrapbookers blog hop today.  If you've been hopping along, you just came from Heather's blog where you learned about the Types of Autism.  If you've just joined the hop, you can get a list of all the participating Artists here.  I'm going to be sharing information about the diagnosis of Autism.


Diagnosing ASDs can be difficult since there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorders.  Doctors look at the child’s behavior and development to help make a diagnosis.  They will ask the parents and caregivers to complete thorough histories of the child to help pinpoint when and if certain developmental milestones have been met.  Scrapbooks and baby albums can play a part in helping to record this important information.

ASDs can sometimes be detected at 18 months or younger.  By age 2, a diagnosis by an experienced professional can be considered very reliable. However, many children do not receive a final diagnosis until much older.  This delay means that children with an ASD might not get the help they need.  It is imperative to recognize the early signs of Autism (see Cathy's blog) and request an evaluation for your child as soon as possible.  Experienced doctors that specialize in the diagnosis, treatment and care of persons with ASD can include neuro-developmental pediatricians, neurologists, and specialty care pediatricians.

To learn more, please visit the National Autism Association
 
A few of my friends have Autistic children and I can see the challenges they face with this disorder. To celebrate Autism Awareness month I put together the following layout using the color scheme and puzzle pieces from the Autism logo.   The cute little guy here is my husband at age 3, I treasure these old slides.
 

Because you have taken some of your time today to join our blog hop and make a stop here, I will be giving away a $15.00 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com to one random guest. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. I will select one person from a random draw and reveal the winner Wednesday, 4/28/10, on my blog, so stop back by to see it its you. Good Luck to everyone!!

Next stop on the blog hop is Sarah who will be sharing information about medical issues that accompany autism.

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I love border punches!

I have been collecting border punches for a while and added a few to my tools this year when Martha Stewart came out with the "Punch Aroung the Page" sets.  I love to use these when making cards or doing a layout.  The extra detail and texture just adds to any project.  Here is a layout I just finished with photos from a visit we made to Virginia.  My sister-in-law has a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley and I couldn't get enough of the country views.

I have been layering my punches recently and really like the effect.  In the layout above I put a bold blue under my border punch and made three layers of scallop punched strips in the center of this layout to make a nice break in the page.  It make take a little more work, but I do like to use regular border punches to make a frame.  The layout below I created from a Liz Qualman sketch.  I love her work!  This layout uses a wide Martha Stewart border "Trellis" punch and it made a frame that really stood out on the page. 

I had fun with this project because the punch had a wide enough spacing in the design to weave a ribbon through.  This added to the texture and color scheme of the layout. 

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