4 Wheeling Fun

I finished finals yesterday. I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook, so I have set a goal for myself. I want to make one scrapbook page everyday for the week and a half before I start school for the summer semester. I am going home for three days this weekend, so I probably won't make any pages those days, but expect to see a new page every other day until the 11th. Here's the first page from my "scrap-a-thon".

Journaling reads: This year, Kristi got a 4-wheeler, and Jenny and John got two 4 wheelers. They brought them to Grizzly Ridge for the Liechty reunion. We had a lot of fun riding around on all the trails.

Credits:
Template: Jen Caputo, Collection 23
Papers: Julia Makotinsky, Happy
Fonts: Elizabeth Skinny and Iron Man
Actions: Atomic Cupcake's pristine chipboard action used for the title.

There Ain't No Megs On Me

I made this page on April 5th, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. Katie took these pictures and called that she got to make the first scrapbook pages from these pictures. A few months later, she told me that I could make a page because she didn't know when she would get around to it. It took me a couple of months to finally make the page, but I finally did.

Journaling Reads: Megan laughed as I swung her around on my leg saying, “I have a Megan on my leg!!” When dad saw this he started singing. “There ain't no Megs on me”.

Around the edge: There ain't no Megs on me. Oh, there ain't no Megs on me. There may be Megs on some of your legs, but their ain't no Megs on me.

Credits:
Template: Jen Caputo, Collection 16
Paper: Bren Taylor Boone, Summer Afternoon
Block letters: Robin Carlton, Blox Alpha Brushes
Fonts: Monotype Corsiva, Micahels, Pero CE, Kingthings Wrote, and AppleScruffs,

Photoshop Actions

Cassie told me about some free actions I could download at Pioneer Woman's photography blog. They are all very cool, and I have enjoyed looking at the rest of her blog as well. I wanted to share the link with you (actions here), and to show you one of the pictures I have used her actions on.

Here's the before picture:
Here's the after picture:

The actions I used: Vintage, Lovely and Ethereal, Slight Lighten, and Edge Burn.

I am having so much fun playing with these actions. You definitely need to head over to Pioneer Womans blog and check out more examples, and of course, download these actions for yourself.
(FYI, these are only for the full version of Photoshop, but she says she's working on Element's friendly actions).

Recipe Box

I’m going to try to keep these instructions a little shorter than the last. To learn how to do the clipping masks/group with previous, see the instructions for the matchbook below (steps 2-3). There are just a couple tips I want to share with you for this project.

The products I used are all from the Digital Scrapbook Memories' Beginner Series CD, Flower Patch.

Download the template here.

Dimensions (check the dimensions of your box before using this template):

top/bottom: 7 5/8” x 3 3/8”

front/back main: 7 5/8” x 2 13/16”

sides main: 3 7/16” x 2 13/16”

front/back lid: 7 5/8” x 1 5/16”

sides lid: 3 7/16” x 1 5/16”

To make the paper along the front and one side to look like it is continuous (cut from the same piece of paper), follow these instructions.

1. Drag one piece of the stripped paper over to your template. Position centered on the page and over the section you want.
2. Now copy that layer by dragging the layer to the new layer button (small piece of paper in the corner of your layers palette – look at image 2 below).
3. Create a clipping mask using one of the papers over the front/back main and create a clipping mask using the other paper over the side of the recipe box.

See the pictures below for visuals on this.

*Notice the stars show that the two paper layers are respectively placed right above the front main and the right main layers.

*Notice on image two that the paper layers now have a small arrow pointing at the layer below. This shows that it is clipped/grouped to the layer below. The red arrow shows the new layer button.

I used just any recipe box you can find. It does not have to be a plain recipe box. I painted the edges with a coordinating toll paint. For the papers/design I used, magenta toll paint worked perfectly! Also, I got my recipe boxes from Michaels, so you may want to check there if you are looking for a recipe box.

Feel free to ask questions. I will try to answer as soon as I can.

Matchbook Album

Template: Download outside here and inside here.

Dimensions: 8.5”x 4”

Folds (measured from top): 3/4”, 4 1/4”, and 4 3/8”

*Note*The bottom 1/4” of the outside will be tucked behind the flap, so be aware that this area will not be visible when the matchbook is closed.

I’m going to explain how to make the matchbook album using the items I used (all from Digital Scrapbook Memories' Moods CD, Dreamy Kit). Of course, you can always try different and new things. Make sure you leave a comment with a link to your new designs here, because I would love to see the different ways you guys make these albums.

Outside of Matchbook

1. Open the outside template. The black lines along the side show the places to fold the matchbook. The red lines are the cut marks for the longs sides of the matchbook.

2. Drag the “floral orange” paper over one of the blocks, make sure the paper layer is the layer just above the block layer, and create a clipping mask.

Full Version: Right click on the paper’s layer and click on “create a clipping mask”.

Elements: Make sure the paper layer is highlighted. Go to layer>group with previous.

3. Move the paper around until it is where you want it. Now right click on the paper layer and click “merge down”.

4. Next drag over the scallop template (on the Moods CD, but not in the Dreamy kit). Position the scallops at the bottom of the block.

5. Crop the “WhiteBlue” paper to a small square of just the dots at the bottom. Move it over the scallops and create a clipping mask (group with previous).

6. Drag over three different flowers and three different buttons. Adjust the size of these to fit in one corner of the front (bottom section below the fold lowest fold line).

7. Drag over the tags to spell Mom and adjust them to your liking by rotating them.

8. For the string on the buttons, pull over the tag string. Rotate the string to align between the button holes. Use the circular marquee tool and drag a selection area between the two button holes. Go to Select>Inverse and hit delete (make sure the string layer is highlighted before deleting).

9. Save as a JPEG

Inside of Matchbook

1. Open the inside template. This template actually has two layers for each side. One layer is the size of the actual matchbook, to make sure that the text and paper are in the position you would like to appear on the back. The other layer is larger; this is to ensure that both sides are totally covered with print when you print this out.

2. To start, hide the layers called “paper large left” and “paper large right”. To hide these layers, click on the small eyeball on the left side of each of those layers on the layers palette.

3. Drag the paper “yellowFloral” onto the layout. Create a clipping mask (group with previous) over the layer “inside left/right”.

4. Adjust the paper to the position you want, but DO NOT merge these layers.

5. Type your text into the text box. This text should be upside down so that is oriented correctly when it is printed. The upside down text will be right side up when you open the matchbook.

6. Now, right click on the paper layer.

Full version: click “release clipping mask”

Elements: click on “undo group with previous”

7. Unhide the large paper layers (click in the box where the eye previously was).

8. Move the paper layer just above the large paper layer and make a new clipping mask (group with previous).

9. Save as JPEG.

You are now ready to print these out. Make sure you orient them both with the words inside or outside at the top of the page. Score the matchbook along the black lines before cutting off the white areas. After scoring and cutting off the white, fold along the score lines. Print some pictures about 3.5” x 3.5” and staple into the matchbook with one staple on the flap (see picture at top of post).

Please ask questions if you have any. I know it’s a lot of info, and many of you may be able to do the entire thing without the instructions, but I wanted to make sure that everyone would be able to complete this project. Again, please ask any and all questions you may have.