The Start of a New Year

Well, I'm starting a new year in my scrapbook anyway ;)

 

Quite possibly the easiest page you can imagine.  It came together in just a few minutes and I absolutely love it!

 

 These pages were also extremely quick.  I know there's a lot of color going on here, but it matches the personality of the pictures so perfectly I think it's justifiable. 

 

 Again, some bold and bright colors going on here.  I've been a little bit out of my comfort zone with these eye catching colors.  I really prefer working in muted, vintage tones.  Sometimes, however, you just have to let the true nature of the photograph shine through, and I just couldn't dull the brightness coming from these photos!

So I have a question for y'all.  Are you comfortable working in any color combination, hue, saturation, and brightness? 

Bring a little brightness into these gloomy days of fall!
~Digital Nicole

 

I'll get right down to it.

Yes - it's been a while since I posted anything.  No - I don't have an excuse.

You'll notice the pages are dated 2009, but in my defense, I only finished them a few months ago.  Like so many of you, I have a terrible back log.  For a while I was catching up, but I've been devoting myself to other things lately and have fallen behind again.

These pages were hilariously quick to put together.  They are understated, but I didn't want to detract from the craziness going on in the photos.

 This is another set of very simple pages, but with so many photo's I felt it was necessary to keep the embellishments to a minimum or risk a chaotic, confusing layout.

This is another understated layout.  I truly wanted to showcase the photos here, especially the one on the right because it's so rare that Zach gets a photo with all his siblings.  Even so simple, each piece was methodically chosen to create an elegant design.

And we've finally reached the end of the year!  This page isn't anything too special to me, but truthfully, neither were the photos.  They're cute, for sure (of course I'm biased), but they weren't of exceptional quality or content.  I really just needed a solid way to end vol. 09.

Happy Scrapping,
~Digital Nicole

How Spring And Pinterest Are Destroying My Scrapbook.

I don't know why I haven't had the desire so scrap lately.  Perhaps its the changing weather that's made me restless.  I want to be outdoors.  I want to make summer dresses, plant my garden, and decorate my house.

I also blame pinterest.  I see so many absolutely stunning pages there that I can scrap vicariously through them! Who knew that was possible.  By the time I get done scouring the web for the most amazing work it's 2am, I'm hunched and squinting at my computer screen and my eyes are bloodshot.  So I go to bed.

I'll share a few older works though.  Nothing exceedingly exciting.

 

 This one was fun because I seriously ADORE Halloween. 

I'm actually quite fond of these pages.  The photos lend themselves to this soft palette of warm greys and shades of turquoise.  And of course, as all scrapbookers know, it brings back such fond memories.

Stay inspired,
~Digital Nicole

triangle layout, and a few older works

Haven't really been working on anything lately, things have been crazy.  I do have a few templates I've started.  I find it helps me to block out my idea in photoshop using greyscale to perfect the layout before moving onto colors, textures, and depth.

Here's one that I think is pretty well done:  Let me know what you think, and if there's any interest I could add a photoshop version for everyone.

I also have a few older projects I can share with you.

These pages were fun to make and went very quickly.  They're quite simple, but I kind of like the understated design.

This one was a bit of a challenge for me because of the colors of the photos.  They were taken in a pumpkin field, so everything was brown and dead and we all wore blue! 

You can also see all my older works in my gallery!
~Digital Nicole

Coffee Filter Water Lily

So I'm working on my sisters baby shower and its sort of a sea theme.  Look at this gem I came across in my Martha Stewart Living magazine:

These beautiful coffee filter water lilies are going to look great on the blue tablecloths already in place.  And best of all - they're easy enough to make that the kids can join in!  They're going to love making these.  I mean, it's really as easy as color, cut, and glue. Here's the instructions, but really, how much more straight forward could it be?

Have you tried these?  Or any other coffee filter flowers?  I'll have my finished product up in a few days and we'll see if they turn out! 

~Digital Nicole

Creative block

Well, these first few certainly aren't my best work, but they'll do.  I had such a bad case of creative block that I couldn't get anything done well.  I may go back and re-work some of these, or just pitch them and start from scratch!  In fact, the first one here, is my second attempt at these images.  Much better than my first (I assure you) but still lacking inspiration.

blah

very uninspired and juvenille

started with a cluster



The baseball layout, again, is not my favorite, but it's acceptable for now until I decide if I should accept it, re-work it, or just start over.  The left page of the last layout here started as a cluster element that I modified to suit my needs.  I made it a bit more elaborate by duplicating some of the leaves and flowers and  adding the glitter/pearls.  The page on the right used some of the same elements, I just arranged them differently to suit the image size I needed. 

After these 3 layouts I'm not super thrilled with, I created a truly inspired page.  one of my favorites I've ever worked on:

AAAHHHH, refreshing!  Finally a layout I am proud to put my name on!

This one really is one of my favorites.  The background paper is comprised of several transparent layers, including a few stamps, paint splatter, and paint strokes.  Each of the circles were individually layered, because I didn't have any elements that suited my needs.  The date on both pages was hand written, then scanned, and placed in the layout using a transparent layer. 

Maybe this layer isn't as great as I think, but after the previous three, it feels AMAZING!  I'm so proud of this one. 

And don't forget, you can check out all my layouts in my gallery.

Thank you,
~Digital Nicole

Weekend WIPs (Works In Progress)

Yea yea, I know it's Friday, not exactly the weekend... But I have a wedding this weekend so you'll get my Works In Progress (WIPs) early...

So I've got a lot of projects in the works, some more complete than others.  Lets start with those that are less complete:

Here I'm just working on a layout where I'd like to include 5 pictures.  Its challenging to do anything more than 3 or 4 pictures without it looking overly crowded or pieced together. Which is better???

This is a two page spread I started yesterday.  Even though I made it pretty far into the first page yesterday, I try not to complete a page 100% in just one day.  I don't just run out of time, or get distracted; I do this intentionally.  I find that after a day or two away from a project I can come back with a fresh set of eyes and see the composition in a way I hadn't seen it before.  I'll have had time to reflect on the journaling I want to add and how I want to do that.  For example, yesterday I thought that the cutout picture on the left page was okay, but now I see it's just sitting in the middle of nowhere.  I need to integrate it better.  And the little birdie on the right page, not as cute as I thought. 


Now for a set a little farther along in the design process:

As you can see I only have a general "text" block.  I decided what font I wanted, and the approximate size and shape of the text block.  I still haven't decided on the exact wording to use yet though.  Other than that, these are pretty much complete.  I'm sure I'll find a few things to tweak before I finalize them and send them off to the printer.  In fact, as I look at them now, I'm not exactly thrilled about the little "make/model/year" box on the right page.  I think the handwritten part needs to actually be handwritten; the 'handwriting' font just isn't doing it for me.  I'll probably change that before it's all said and done. 

What do you think?  Remember, I appreciate honest, constructive criticism.

~Digital Nicole