Photo Editing For Digital Scrapbooking and Project Life!

Today I'm going to share two buttons in Photoshop that I promise will change every photo you own for the better!

See!.... that was super easy right!
So go ahead and give it a try!

Editing in Adobe Camera Raw is also available in Elements and Lightroom. 

Disney's Frozen Theme Photo Book

I'm working on an amazing new photo book for a client based on Disney's Frozen, Oh.. this is the best project ever! The client wants to have the character mix and mingle with her children in the book, so I've made a sample page with stock photos for her approval and I'm all ready to go! It'll take me about a week of so to finish the book and then she's going to have an amazing custom photo book. And of course I had to share it with you all. The Character were purchased through Etsy and she sent them to me to create with. These pages are perfect for skating picures, "Frozen" birthday parties, "Frozen" Halloween costumes and so much more.

Click here to view a complete Frozen Book

I do custom photo book on any theme, with any characters.... you purchase the digital files and I take care of the rest.  The book, pages, layouts and all the digital files are yours!

For more info contact me at lisabarrie@live.com or look at the services pages on my blog.

Photo Book Help!

I just finish working on a wonderful book for the sweetest woman Ann who found me on Shutterfly. I do photo books for people who either need help or want me to do it for them. She already had the book started and I just spent a few hours polishing it up and editing some photos that needed a little TLC.

 Before

After

Photo editing is so important to the quality of any photo book, it worth taking the time to do or have someone do it for you.

Here's what Ann said about her book when I was through editing!

"Lisa it is so Awesome!!!! Thanks so very much!!!  It’s wonderful!  The photos look sooooo much better.  The cover is so much prettier and the red invitation….just perfect!"

"You are so wonderful and I am going to have more books that I would like your help on.  For sure I want the wedding photos in a book and the wedding is October 11^th!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

"I am so grateful I found you………"

 Yep... editing and having a professional work on your photo book makes a big difference!

I'm working an another wedding right now and Katie my client wanted a more sophisticated urban looking photo book to give to her in-laws, but the photos from here wedding photographer were less than stellar.

I took some of the color images and changed them to black & white for a more dramatic effect.

These have a soft vanilla cast to them...so pretty.

 Before

After

Katie asked me to work on this image to try and fix the branch hanging down in the back and fix the very hot /cold effect on the in this photo. It's a really big challenge to make super bright sun and cold shade become the same brightness and intensity and she loved the finish effect. It was a bright sunny day at the beach!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa

Printing Project Life Photo Books

This year for my DD's Freshman Year Book I used this template by Valorie Wibben

It is a great jumping off point because I like the different shapes.

For this page I started off with the template in the lower right. When I start I pace the larger photos first since they are the most important and then I work around that. This month was really picture heavy since there was a lot going on. I pulled some digital elements from Glitz Designs that I had in my digi stock and it added just a little bit of fun. I make my own little elements to fill in  the open spaces and that it.

When filling in open space there are ton of options I use.

Here I use a clipping mask and I can make the digital card or paper as small or large to fit the space, like in the June banner. I enlarged a digi card and added a digital alpha over the top and finished it off with a funky arrow.

. 

I created the Stanford banner by removing the background from the logo and added it over another paper from the Glitz collection called "Uncharted Waters" it available at Jessica Sprague.

This time I'm printing at Adoramapix.com since the entire book in done in Photoshop. The printing is on photo paper and the pages are lay flat which means I don't have any lost areas in the creases of a book.

Scrapbook Artist for Hire!

Oh, I have been so neglectful of this blog and the guilt has finally brought me to here! So... I know many of you come to visit for the Silhouette info which it great! I'm so glad you have all been enjoying those tutorials and I'm happy to answer specific question but please leave me your email address so I can reply. I can't post all the answers so an email address would really help.

So I wanted to share what new adventures I've been up to and some of my recent projects. One thing that's new is I've been doing photobooks for people mainly though an online photobook company. I've done everything from Baby books to Wedding albums. I've also been converting peoples paper scrapbooks to digital, that is a big job! I had one customer with 90 photo albums that we scanned and placed in photobooks and I did a huge amount a photo editing since many of the photos were from the 80's and the image quality was not very good. Then we went and did a few new theme albums pulling some of here favorite images and we add scanned memorabilia as well.

I've been doing books for myself too. Right now I'm finishing up my DD's freshman year of high school scrapbook and here are an example of some of the pages. I've combined both Project life style pages and more artistic layer pages similar to what I would have done with paper.

this last one is the book's cover. 

I really like the combinations of the fun, bight, phone images with the single photo, artistic, scrapbook pages. It really covers all the bases both artistically and functionally. All these pages are done in Photoshop and uploaded to the Photobook website.

Thanks for stopping by!

How to get caught up with Project Life!

Hi My Friends,

I have been taking a long break from scrapbooking to take care of some major life changes! I've been dealing with everything from my husband taking a job across the country, to renting out my house, to the death of my 99 year old grandmother Essie. My DD and I are staying in Los Angeles for the new school year while my DH moved to Washington D.C. to start an exciting new job.

So while I have been busy living life I have fallen horribly behind with project life....so what do I do with a Five month gap? Unfortunately there are many long stretches without picture or much to say. So I have decided to be very flexible and do one page at a time filing in the gaps in any way that fits my recollection of events.  The first thing I wanted to tackle was my daughter's summer camp experience this summer.

Luckily I have trained my DD to take lots of pictures with her cellphone. it almost makes the bill worthwhile!

Here are my suggestions for jumping back in:

1. Start with whatever is in the front of your mind.

2. Be flexible, fill in with online photos of places you went or old photos.

3. There will be gaps and inaccuracies (I don't have a perfect memory), enlist others help to remember specifics.

4. Check your calendar or check book register to peace together chronology.

Relax and enjoy the process no one is judging you!!!

Project Life: Documenting a Week When You're Sick.

Every March around the first my daughter gets sick, I don't know why, but here we go again. My DD was home for 4 days with a fever so there wasn't much going on. So what do you document when your home sick with your child?

So here are some suggestions. 

1. Home remedies, do you have a special tea you brew or some other special foods. For my daughter when she's sick the only thing she wants to eat are grilled cheese sandwiches and my special smoothies, especially if she has a sore throat. 

2. Trips to the doctor. 

3. Things that bring comfort. Even my 13 year old reaches for one of her old stuffed animals when she isn't feeling fell.

4. Entertainment. My daughter loves to watch movies and play crazy eights when she starts to feel a bit better.

5. Memories of a previous illness. I remember when my DD got Croup and we had to call an ambulance because it got so bad. No fun but if you haven't documented a story from the past you can tell the story now.

6. Tell a story about when you were little and what your Mom did or didn't do for you. It's a great opportunity to pass down a story or tell how a ritual got started.
7. Take photos of the stacks of Kleenex tissues or bottle of cold medicines. 

8. Remember to take a picture when the cold or flu passes, capture the healthy glow coming back!

So here is week 9 the sick week.

That I used this week:
From Designer Digitals

KPertiet_HeyThere_WoodAccents-thinarrow
KPertiet_MossyAlphabet
StudioDD_ReadymadeBannersForMom
KPertiet_SunPorch Collection
KPertiet_LiftedWingsNo3
KPertiet_BerksLane Collection
KPertiet_ClippedStacksNo6
AEdwards_DocumentDetails_MemoryTags
KPertiet_HeyThere_WoodAccents
KPertiet_CleanStitchedCirclesWhiteNo1
KPertiet_HeyThere_Labels
KP Stitched Grid
KPertiet_StampedBlocksNo7


Digi Kits that will help document those weeks when someone is not feeling their best.



Sick Day by Traci Reed


9 Out Of 10 Doctors Agree by Libby Pritchett

Do you have a ritual when you or your kids are sick, I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment.

Have a healthy week.

Lisa 

Project Life Documenting your Feelings

Some weeks aren't about what I do, but how I feel. Having a child is a long goodbye, and I don't like it. So 

I'm happy to be able to share how I feel with my daughter in a way that she'll appreciate more when she's 

older. Right now she really is too busy to worry about it, and that's the way it should be. 

Motherhood is letting go, even when you can't

Journaling reads:

Some weeks feel like a quantum leap, I sense the push and pull of your evolution. Your growing inside, so

quickly and I’m both in awe and devastated by the trajectory I see you on, leaps and bounds. At the

same time you call me Mommy and curl up beside me, you come back to the safety of being my baby.

But we see it coming, your future, high school and beyond. I’m mourning, wondering how I’ll let you go.

As you reject the symbols of your childhood, your new wings push against me. I hold my breath because

I’m not ready, but this isn't my choice. This is your journey, all I can do is stand back and watch you soar.

 Now that I'm finishing my second month of Project Life I feel like I'm making it my own. In the beginning couple of weeks I had no idea what I wanted to say or how I wanted things to look, but now this is starting to feel really good. And I look forward to doing the week.

Am I Too Boring to do Project Life?

Am I too Boring for Project life?

The simple answer is heck no. Part of doing Project Life for me is recording all of the everyday things in my teenager daughter's life, and for my teenager that means what she is listening to, shopping for and planning. So this week is a look at just that. I don't feel any pressure if there's a week were I either don't spend a lot of time with her because she's busy at school or spending her free time with her friends. I still get involved and I listen carefully whenever she's ready to share. Often I will go back after the layout is done and add more journaling that I don't post because that stuff is boring to you all but it's an important step for me to add my thoughts.

Things to make notes of

Music around the house.....

Any sentence that starts with mom I need......

Planning for summer, spring break or a family outing...

How she spends free time....

After school activities....
Emails form school....
Projects at school...

It's all part of the story, so I'm not afraid that it not important because it's our story. And if you like to share you're pages, don't worry about your privacy you can add the journaling afterwards or shut off the layer in Photoshop. 

Just don't skip it!

I'm still using my Day One app, it really helps because everyday blends into the next.

Have a great Monday and don't forget to leave me a comment. How do you document your week?

Lisa

My Project Life Pinterest Board

Well it been a hell of a week and not in a good way. There were so many fire to put out, I exhausted myself and afterwards I slept for about thirteen hours. Oh, the joys for being a Wife and Mother. But back to the important thinks like scrapping! So, I have a couple of things to share with you. first of all a quickie update, I received a couple of comments about not finding things that I mentioned or listed in a post. The first one being Pixlr-o-matic which I mistakenly called Pixelomatic or something like that, it's available for both the iphone and android and you can find it in the respective stores. In addition, I generally posted everything on my Pinterest board and I've added a button to my blog to make it easy to find. The other missing information was regarding some of the PL (project life) digital products I use and again, if I forget to but a link on my blog you can generally find it on my Pinterest board. Every week (sometimes daily) I shop for new products and post them to my board so I can find it later when I need it.

Speaking of PL shopping on my my favorite places to shop (besides Loriwhitlock.com) is Studio DD it's part of Designer Digitals and I generally feel compelled to buy anything designed my her. And although digital product is very reasonably priced sometimes I exceed my monthly budget and I can't buy anymore. So I wanted to try my hand at designing/scraplifting some of the designs Kayleigh has done for Studio DD and I'm really happy with the results I used the new Templates from Lori Whitlock and her new basics line and here is the results. This looks so simple why oh why did it take like 8 hours to do!!!

I added the photos for Lori's blog post but I designed these for a two page project life layout. Thank you Kayleigh for all the inspiration. 

Here's what I used:

Echo Park t&t graceful woodgrain

Lori Whitlock Basics

Lori Whitlock Flair buttons available soon.

Studio DD Hey There labels

DD Messy Stitches , digital date No.9, twill definitions, Clean Stitched Circles White No1

If it's not listed here I probably made it.

Thanks so much for stopping my and if you have anymore questions just leave me a comment and I will try my best to get them answered right away.

Lisa

Digital Project Life Week Four

 This Month is flying by and I'm so much more aware of how we spend our time. I love that we make an effort to spend time with friends and my DD and I love for go for coffee. The is my DD's last year of middle school and I'm starting to get so excited for her. This week we got her packet with class electives and the curriculum guide. Middle school has come and gone in the blink of an eye, so I can only imagine what the next four years are going to be like. I'm so glad I'm doing PL to capture every detail!

Here's what I used this week:

KP Stitched Grid

StudioDD_ReadymadeJournalersPhotoNo1-2

StudioDD_ReadymadeJournalersPhotoNo1-6

StudioDD_ReadymadeJournalersPhotoNo1-3

KPertiet_CrowningAffairUnderstatedSolids-5

KPertiet_CrowningAffairUnderstatedSolids-1 recolored

Digital Project Life

Well this weeks Project life post went together so quickly, mainly because it was all one theme. My daughter had finals this week and everything this week seemed to revolve around picking her up and studying.

I started by adding all the journaling cards first and then the pictures and last the text and embellishments. I used a lot of iPad photo editing apps because the standard pictures look kind of lost in the midst of all these bright color. My favorite is Pixlr-o-matic there are lots of free extras and the end results are fun. I've added a ton of different fonts on this page too, I like the way it adds energy and randomness to the end results. Well I can't believe I'm all up to date so I wont have another PL post till next week sometime.

Thanks for coming by!

Digital Project Life

Week two is finished!

I'm still working on letting go of my pages looking a certain way and just telling the story. As a long time scrapper the aim for me was to create something that looked like it could be hung on a wall this time around I'm concentrating on somethings that looks like a page in a notebook...yeah that's a big transition. 

Digital Scrapbooking: Using Brushes Tutorial

Well it's been a crazy busy week, my daughter had finals so I've been driving her back and forth to school all week (a 40 minute drive). So I'm happy to have a couple of minutes to share something fun with you all!

I love confetti and any clear products, acetate, Lucite so when I receive the new product for the week I thought it would be fun to share how to create a little plastic pocket filled with heart shaped confetti using Lori's new brushes.

1. load Lori's brushes in Photoshop and choose the brush you want to use. Set the foreground color to anything you's like I used Black because I used it as a mask.

2. Set the brush setting to alter the way you use the brushes. You will be able to see in the window how the brushes are effected and use the spacing slider so you can spread them out.

3. After creating the amount of confetti you want in your pocket you can add a drop shadow or bevel and emboss the shapes to add depth and texture.

4. Add paper in back of the card, I used Lori's Kiss Me collection.
5. The last step is to add a plastic page protector and some stitching.

Lori’s new heart shaped brushes and her Kiss Me papers.
Plastic Page Protectors  available at Two Peas.
 

That's it for today, have a great day!

My Project Life Pinterest Board!

I've started a new Pinterest Board that has tons of free printables and some of my favorite project life digital resources you can find it here!

I update it at least once a week with all kinds of goods for Project life that I love and I hope you'll find useful and inspirational!

I made a couple of project life cards, and you can download the free .psd file!
I hope you enjoy them.
Click Image

Well here is week one of the new year, I included the last of December since I wanted to reflect a little on closing out the old year and have a moment to talk about my hopes for this year. I've continued to keep track of the daily details using the popular Day One app. I'm finding it extremely helpful so far especially remembering the conservation I have with my 13 year old daughter. I want to remember the things we talk about and the things she says at this amazing time in her life. I think thirteen is similar to when she was a toddler because the changes come so rapidly and are so important. I use a ton of different products for this layout and I mix and match all the time, i concentrated on the color and style of the page rather than on the name of the designer. I love college and I find this really works for my style. 

Here's what I used for this project.

amyjaz-todayoverlays-overlay13

LIP_ClassicCardTemplates-14

LIP_PromptCardTemplates1-08

LIP_ClassicCardTemplates-02

LIP_ClassicCardTemplates-05
Designer Digitals

KPertiet_DigitalDatesNo9_scribble-8

AEdwards_days of the week

AVictoria-prettywonder-paper-7

AVictoria-prettywonder-paper-9

AVictoria-prettywonder-paper-8

AVictoria-prettywonder-paper-5

Moo&Puppy Rainbow Mecca ONE-05- Etsy

jds_winterwonderland Alpha

lili_agirlsdiary_paperclip_red
Downtown Christmas Kit

VWLR_DowntownXmas_bag1b

VWLR_DowntownXmas_bag1c_stkr

VWLR_DowntownXmas_bag2b_stkr

VWLR_DowntownXmas_car2

VWLR_DowntownXmas_label1

VWLR_DowntownXmas_label2

VWLR_DowntownXmas_lamppost

VWLR_DowntownXmas_sale

VWLR_DowntownXmas_receipt1

VWLR_DowntownXmas_receipt3

VWLR_DowntownXmas_bittyheartsred

VWLR_DowntownXmas_shoptiludrop

APennington_SocialButterfly (butterfly 4)

 I wanted to share with you the Downtown Christmas kit I used for this layout I think is really great. You'd think shopping was a universal and popular topic in scrapbooking but surprisingly...no!

I search just about every online source I have and this was about it, but it was perfect. I especially love the receipts and shopping bags which I think I'll use again and again.
Thank you for visiting and I'd love to hear from you about your project life experiences and what your working on.
Hugs, Lisa

Project Life Valentine layout

Lori Whitlock has some new items in here store and I created this Project life page using some of the journal cards and fun papers. In addition, I've added some elements from some of the other collections she's designed and they all go so well with each other which is why I always like to mix and match.

You can find the Kiss me and other collections here at Jessica Sprague. It's on sale 25% off through the weekend. For more information on Lori's designs you can visit her website at Loriwhitlock.com.

Here's a list of everything I used.

LW-KissMe-Ele-11

LW-KissMe-paper-08

LW-KissMe-paper-02

LW-KissMe-paper-04

LW-KissMe-paper-06

LW-KissMe-Ele-10

LW-KissMe-paper-09LW-Fresh-Air-Element-10

eph_summerdays_elements1_bird

eph_summerdays_elements1_orangearrow

eph_summerdays_elements1_funcircle

eph_hellosummerep1_redpinkbutterfly

eph_hellosummerep1_memories

eph_hellosummerep1_memories

eph_hellosummerep2_friends

eph_lovestory_bestfriendtag

Have a great weekend!

How to Start Project Life

Happy New Year Everyone!

The last 12 months have been full of changes for me, a new home, new design teams, going digital and I've learned so much. But, after combing through all of my layouts for the year I realized that I wasn't capturing enough of the day to day things that are happening in our life. My daughter is 13 and she'll be starting high school next year so, I decided I want to work on capturing the little bits and pieces of life that really don't fit in my traditional scrapbook pages....Well, I've decided to do a 365 type project. I wanted to include the last few weeks of the year and not wait until January 1st, especially since this is my first year doing this type of journal keeping.

So here are my first pages! 

Here's what I used:
Plastic Page Protectors
Amy Tangerine Ready, Set, Go Collection

So here's what I've learned so far (I'm talking to myself here)! 

1. Forget how this looks or the quality of the images, just tell the story.

2. Get it done quickly. Don't spend 10 hours like on a regular page.

3.Customize elements to fit your story.

4. Say what you feel and don't hold back.

5. Take lots of pictures with your cell phone, you're never going to carry around your SLR camera.

6. Get a hold of all the images off everyone's phone.

7.Take more picture of you and the DH.

Well that's it for now.

Thanks for visiting and sharing this journey with me. I've had a great year and I look forward to sharing more with you all this year too!

I haven't started with a cover page I think I'll do that last when I have a better feel for that will come in the future.