This past week marked my daughter’s first day of Kindergarten and also our first week of homeschooling. Two very big firsts for our family!

Credits: Kit is “A New Day” by Sweet Shoppe Designs, the lined paper is from Misty Cato‘s “School Girl” kit, ABC border is from Quirky Twerp’s “Little Classroom Borders” (FREE), Template is by ChrissyW.

In my previous post, I had a tutorial on one way to achieve rounded corners on the photos in your digital scrapbook layouts. Today I would like to give a few scrapbook layout examples that use rounded corners not only on the photos themselves but also on papers or a grouping of papers. This is a trick I use often on my own layouts. Sometimes it is nice to not be so square.

Credits: Scraplift of a layout by Denise Gormish found here, Kit is Kristen Cronin Barrow and Scrapkitchen Designs – A Mother’s Love

Credits: Kit and QP are both FREEBIES designed by me and available for download on my Digital Scrapbook Freebies Page.

Credits: Kit is “Just Us Girls” by RK Designs

I attended the last portion of the DigiScrapMap chat tonight that Hummie puts together and I am glad I did. I came away feeling so encouraged! I have been feeling bad about neglecting my little blog these days but her words of encouragement were enough to light a fire underneath me to get another template created.

It is a simple layout/template but it does have room for quite a few photos.

Here is the layout I used to create the template.

To download the template, please click on the image below. You will be brought to my download page containing all of my available scrapbook freebies.

I have another free digital scrapbook template for you. Looks like I am averaging one a month. Sad. I really need to pick up the pace with my own scrapping so I can create more templates too. Now if only some more inspiration would come my way!

Here is the layout I used to create the template.

Credits: Kit is “Simple Pleasures” by Sweet Shoppe Designs

To download the template, please click on the image below. You will be brought to my download page containing all of my available scrapbook freebies.

Just a note: the kit I used on my example layout is a freebie by Sweet Shoppe Designs. I am not sure how long it will be available but, as of tonight, it looks like it is still available for download at Donna Downey’s blog if you are interested. Here is a preview of the kit:

I have another free digital scrapbook template for you. Here is the layout I used to create the template.

Credits: Kit is “Sunshine of my Life” by ScrapKitchen Designs, Journal Strips are by Shabby Princess (recolored by me)

I have decided to start including an “example” layout as a part of the preview with my templates. I have noticed some other designers doing this and I think it is helpful to see what others have done with the layout. Having a visual really gets me inspired on those days where I am feeling very uninspired (which happens more often than I’d like). Hopefully you will find this helpful too. You can click on the image to be brought to my download page containing all of my available scrapbook freebies.

I have fallen in love with 2-page templates. I think I may have to start creating some more of these. I love being able to finish 2 matching pages in one sitting.

Here is the original layout. It is of our little Breezy girl, who recently had to spend a night in the hospital for RSV. After a couple weeks on oxygen, we are glad she seems to be fully healed.

Credits: Alpha – Striped Alphas by Dharamsala Designs, Background Paper – Warm Woolen Mitten by Three Paper Peonie, Flowers – Recess by Heather Roselli

And now for your free template download. You can click on the image to be brought to my download page containing all of my available scrapbook freebies.

I have another freebie template ready for download. Finally!!

Here is the layout it was created from.

This layout was inspired by a beautiful page created by Rebecca Cooper – the original can be found here.

Additional Layout Credits:

• “Rub a Dub” kit by Kristen Cronin-Barrow
• Alpha is “Basic Acrylic” by Delicious Scraps
• Doodles by Kate Hadfield

And here is the template. You can click on the image to be brought to a page of all of my freebies available for download.

Sometimes I find myself sitting at my computer all evening, willing myself to come up with a scrapbook layout and coming up with nothing. This could be in part to my addiction to Facebook and reading blogs too.

To get out of my scrapbooking rut, I decided to try using a sketch/challenge over at Ella Publishing. It seemed to do the trick, as I was able to get another layout completed tonight. Hooray!

This is my Breezy girl at 8 weeks. She is really starting to interact and socialize with us more and just seeing her smile makes me smile too. I get a thrill of happiness every time I pick her up and hold her close.

Credits: Layout based on sketch by Donna Jannuzzi found at Ella Publishing; papers from “So Sweet” kit by Zoe Pearn; hearts and sparkles from “Happiness” kit by Three Paper Peonies.

I think you can still get Zoe Pearn’s “So Sweet” kit for free by subscribing to her newsletter here.

I saw someone post a layout of pictures in a calendar format and I fell in love with it instantly. My mind began thinking on how I could make a template for it when I saw that she had linked up a template that she had purchased and used to make the layout. I went out and bought the template pack that night and I have to say that it is fabulous! Everything is on its own layer so it is very easy to customize.

Here is what I did with the template.

Credits: Template by Misty Cato “Month in Review 2010 Calendar Templates”, Papers by Martine McKnight “Winter Wonderland”, Snowmen by Digital Anemona “Christmas Gift”

I enjoyed making this layout so much that it almost makes me wish February would hurry up and get over so I can start on my February month in review layout.

I had a chance to get some scrapping done yesterday, so I have another template that I would love to give away.

There is a download for the 12×12 PSD file as well as a separate download for the PNG files if you use a program other than Photoshop. You can click on the preview to be brought to my download page that contains all of my available digital scrapbook freebies.

If you need inspiration, here are the two layouts I put together which were what I created the template from.

Credits: Rub A Dub Kit by Kristen Cronin-Barrow

Wow, I think this is the longest time I have ever gone without a post on here in quite awhile. I guess I will use our new daughter as my excuse. Bree is now 5 weeks old. Born just a few days before Christmas, she was a wonderful gift!

After she was born, I realized that I still haven’t scrapped most of Adrianna’s baby photos yet. Rather than stressing about all the layouts I will have yet to do, now times two, I recognized that digital scrapbooking can help me simplify my scrapping in that I can make ONE general layout for a baby event (for daughter #1) and simply use that layout as a template to quickly make a second layout with photos of daughter #2. I can also easily clip papers and embellishments from a different kit to the layers of the original layout as well. This should be a huge time-saver for me, since coming up with the layout design idea is usually what takes me the longest when making a page.

So here is the same baby event (getting ready to head to the hospital to deliver) for both daughters. Same general design, two separate layouts created from one original PSD file.

Layout #1                                          Layout #2

Credits: Inspiration for the layout from this page by Eva Kipler; Ribbon by Dani Alencar ”On this day” kit; Kit on layout #1 and flowers by Paislee Press “On this day”; Kit on layout #2 by Jennifer Barrette “Chilled”

And of course I made a template out of my layout so it can save you some time too.

There is a download for the 12×12 PSD file as well as a separate download for the PNG files if you use a program other than Photoshop. You can click on the preview to be brought to my download page containing all of my available digital scrapbook freebies.

Good morning! I should be spending my free day cleaning my very messy house for Thanksgiving company, but instead I felt like playing with Photoshop. As a result, I have a free digital scrapbook template with room for 3 photos available for download.

There is a download for the 12×12 PSD file as well as a separate download for the PNG files if you use a program other than Photoshop.

Here is the layout that this template was created from if you need some inspiration.

I created this word art for a scrapbook layout I was working on and thought I would share it with you.

The quote is from Mahatma Gandhi and states, “When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.” You can click on the image above to be brought to my digital scrapbook freebies download page.

This is the layout I created it for, in case you need any inspiration.

How would you like another free digital scrapbook QP from my latest kit, “Remember the Magic“? This one would make a great second page to the first QP I gave out a couple weeks ago. At least that is how I am using it for my own layouts.

You can click on the image preview above to be brought to my list of freebies available for download.

And here is my layout that the QP was created from. It is more pictures of my daughter meeting Mickey for the first time.

Thanks for your comments. They always make my day.

If I look only at my progress in taking at least one photo a day for the Project 365 resolution, I have to admit that I have failed. Miserably. I have gone through a range of ideas of what to do to salvage the project in my mind.

After my deliberation, it all came down to this: Do I continue with my original idea of making a separate scrapbook album of the Project 365 photos, showing a nice snapshot of our year even though there won’t be a photo every single day? Or do I just give up altogether and just be glad for the extra photos to fill my albums that I might not have taken otherwise?

Option 1 still seemed like a good option, although it would end up being a much smaller album than originally planned. Option 2 seemed a bit daunting at first. Sure, I am thankful for the extra photos but that also means EXTRA scrapbook pages to create, and goodness knows I am already behind on scrapping my photos. So I decided on a mix of the two.

I decided that I would continue scrapping my “photo-a-day” photos, making one layout for the week of photos. Or sometimes 2 weeks to a layout since I didn’t get an actual photo every day. But, instead of having these layouts be placed in a separate album, I will place them into my regular album. My albums are in sequential order, so they will simply be placed in order like any other layout.

After I made this decision, I began to realize how free-ing this will be for me. Here’s why:

1. Even without considering the Project 365 photos, I often have a lot of photos where there is only 1 shot of an event or day. But if I still continue to scrap layouts that are a week’s compilation of one photo per day, it would be an easy way to get many of them scrapped and journaled without feeling the pressure of making up to 7 layouts that consist of just 1 or 2 photos each.
2. Sure, the photos won’t be of the same event or same subject matter, but they won’t be expected to be since they will still be part of the Project 365 layouts.
3. Without the pressure to complete so many separate layouts for the extra photos that don’t have a “place” or a special memory to warrant their own page, I will *maybe* catch up on my scrapping for the year. (haha, if only!)
4. I will still get that snapshot of our everyday lives with these layouts, which is what I was hoping for.
5. I am keeping my Project 365 layouts very simple. Uniform background. Simple titles stating the week and dates. Photos. Simple journaling for each photo. I often reuse the same templates and just flip them. Quick and EASY!!

Example:

Some of these photos are ones that I would have wanted to include in my scrapbook album even though I only had 1 from the event. But instead of having to make several 1-photo layouts, I can make ONE multi-photo layout of our week, including journaling. In doing so, I also capture a snapshot of our week in some of the other photos that might not have normally been deemed “scrap-worthy” even though I am glad to be able to look back at them now with this layout and still remember what was going on in our lives.

After getting started with this idea, I have been able to scrap 2 months worth of photos in less than 1 month. This includes my regular layouts and the ones that I put onto my Project 365 layouts. Hooray!

How are you doing with your Project 365 goals, photos, or layouts?