Play Ball Title Word Art

OK, this is a test to see if this will actually work. I've "emailed" this small PNG file to my blogger account. I'm hoping that you can click on the title link and download it from here, rather than having to go to 4shared.

So test it out... does it work for you?

Click on the image, then when the "Play Ball" comes up in a new screen, right click on it and choose "Save As" -- it should come up to save as a PNG file.

Let me know how it worked! 4Shared is great for big files, but kind of annoying (in many ways) for the small ones.

So about this little piece of word art. I needed a title for a LO of my kids playing catch (I'll have to find/share that one, too). I wanted to make a "baseball" looking word art of the words "Play Ball", but I wasn't really sure how to do that. Then the lightening bolt (er...ball) hit me in the head...

The picture above is made of a close-up photo of an actual baseball. I just positioned the letters over the strings so that it would vary a bit for each letter. So when you look at the letters up close, you can see the real strings, the leather texture, as well as the holes and accompanying cracks in the leather of each individual stitch. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

This particular set of word DOES have a drop shadow. Since I layered them on top of each other, I thought it needed something to create some differentiation in the letters. I hope you aren't too annoyed by the shadows (note: I don't typically add shadows to elements/word art, because that does usually annoy me).

I feel an alpha coming on....

Enjoy!

Layered Template #42 (back on numerical track)

Well... it was inevitable... last night my daughter showed signs of blisters on her hands, feet, and mouth. Great. Our Thurs/Friday trip to a family wedding next week may end up being out of the question. Even if they're better, we may be too shot to make the 9+ hour drive!

Anyone want to babysit on Tuesday/Wednesday? Both my husband and I have work commitments we really shouldn't get out of. I want my Mommy! This is when it's really rough to be new to an area... no support system in place!

But.... scrapping continues to provide a good outlet! :) So, you guys benefit as well.

In this LO, each stamped frame, each photo, and each word in the title is a separate layer. So there are a LOT of layers. But it also allows you to put a LOT of pictures on the page. This is another instance where I didn't want to leave out these pictures, but none of them were wonderful in and of themself.

With the title -- yes, it says "I love Maryland" -- but each word is its separate layer, so you can delete "Maryland" and add your own word. The font that I used is called "Digs My Hart" and is free at various places. To get the sticker effect, I selected the text, then expanded my selection by 5 pixels. I moved that selection to its own layer and filled it with white.

So enough of my mini tutorial -- not my forte! ;) Instead, I'll share the link for the template. Go find 17 photos to fill it! HERE is the link.

Layered Template #35 (really should be 44)

OK, here's another template that got misnumbered and I don't feel like going in to change it -- so there are officially two #35 layouts.

This template actually started as a "What in the world am I going to do with all these pictures that are just too cute not to include, but don't really warrant a page of their own?" thought -- yes, I think in complete run-on sentences! I was surprised and happy with the outcome of what I thought would certainly be a boring LO.

D-man's orange shirt probably helped to bring some excitement....

Anyway, a couple friends hinted that they'd like for this to be a template. Easy enough. So HERE it is! Enjoy!

Layered Templates 33 & 34: 7 Photo

***Added June 20: Oops! You caught me! These should actually be templates 42 and 43. I noticed that last night, but Jody noticed it, too. I was hoping no one would! :) I had created 33-41 on a different computer and didn't save them on this one. So when I was titling them, I just went with the most recent. It didn't "feel" right to me, but I didn't see others.... so in a sleep deprived state, I went with it. So these two and one other (coming soon) will be duplicate numbers. I won't care if you won't care! But I'm sorry if it caused confusion. I just gave away how spacey I actually am! :) ***

You know... why is it that the only scrapping time I get is when one of the kids is sick!? It's D-man's turn. Lucky guy got Hand/Foot/Mouth from one of his day care friends. I was called to get him yesterday, and because there's nothing to do for it but let it run its course, we're stuck at home until it's out of his system. So I'm getting some good scrapping in!

Thankfully he appears to have a mild case of it. He has one teeny blister on each palm, and his left foot has 5 pea-sized blisters, but his right foot is clear. I can't see any in his mouth, but the day care director thought she could. He's drooling like a fool though -- his shirt is literally drenched from neck to waist within half an hour of dressing him. Yuck! He doesn't seem to be in pain or bothered by it, so that's a good thing! Now lets hope we can contain it to JUST him.

So anyway... here are two LOs I did recently, which I created templates for. They're essentially the same, which is why I grouped them. One is just made to house a horizontal primary photo, the other is designed for a vertical primary photo.

I hope you enjoy it! You can find them HERE.

Wedding Album: Last 4 Pages

It's done! And as of yesterday, we're officially at 10 years!

Get the last 4 pages HERE.

Wedding Album: 4 More Templates

We're nearing the end!

Why is it that the weeks are so busy that I can't upload the freebies for you all? The days just slip away so quickly.

These 4 templates include word art on them -- two pages of which you haven't already received in the word art freebies. I hope to get them added to a word art only download, but for right now, grab the word art via the templates!

You can get these 4 pages HERE.

Digital Scrapping with Non-Digital Photos

I had a question regarding how I used my non-digital photos to create my wedding book. I thought perhaps others may be curious as well, so here's my response.

I tried scanning old photos a couple years ago with an album I did for my Grandparents. But I really thought the scanned images came back grainy and low quality -- not to mention it took FOREVER to do!

I discovered then that photographing them with my digital camera worked much better. So when I want to "scan" non-digital pictures in, here's what I do:

1) Find a window in my house with a nice sunbeam coming in
2) Set the photograph in that sunbeam -- perfect indirect light
3) Turn off my camera's flash
4) Turn on my camera's macro setting
5) Snap away

I usually take a few photos of it, because sometimes it doesn't focus quite right. But if you're good with your manual settings (I'm not), you may be able to correct that yourself.