The World According to Angie

project SAVOR - P ... Pets

 

( graphic elements - Carina Gardner - ABC Inspiration @ JessicaSprague.com; page layout - all me. fonts - elephant, adobe garamond, and amaze )

Pets have a purpose in our homes and our hearts. They protect. They play. But most importantly, they love - fiercely and with great abandon. It's been said a dog is the only thing on eart that loves you  more than he loves himself. I believe that life without dogs is black-and-white; with them, it's Technicolor, and maybe just a little misty around the edges.

This sweet photograph is of my father and Bear, his 3-year-old Morkie. Bear loves my daddy. So sweet...

project SAVOR - M ... Mommy (UPDATED)

 

( graphic elements - Carina Gardner - ABC Inspiration @ JessicaSprague.com; page layout - all me. fonts - elephant, adobe garamond, and amaze )

Journaling reads: My mommy is magic. Hugging her is like slipping into a warm bath, cuddling up in a down comforter, laying your head on the softest pillow and being enveloped in pure safety. Here, you're loved, no matter how ugly you are, no matter what you've said or done, how badly you've screwed up. I can't imagine facing life without her. I don't know how much time God's going to give me with her, so I'm making Mommy Time a priority, and I will savor every single second.

I love this photograph!  My husband shot it at Christmas during our family photo shoot. I had to switch it out for the original photo I used for this layout.
 

She's just "2 Tegan"

Digital elements from Carina Gardner's Very Cherry kit; brushes are by Jessica Sprague. Photographs copyright Angie Key; all rights reserved.

I love these photographs. They're proof that Tegan doesn't burst into tears at the sight of me any more.

This is Assignment 2b from the Digi: In Deep class I'm taking over at JessicaSprague.com, and the whole point of this one was to start from scratch - a blank PSD file - and design something using:

• only three colors (plus neutrals)
• one large focal point photo, offset from center
• several smaller photos
• leading lines
• journaling card popped off the page with a custom, angled drop-shadow
• a large letter filled with patterned paper

I then made a facing page, since my albums are largely 2-page spreads, and there were so many more photos I wanted to use from this shoot:

 

I think my favorite technique from this lesson has been the use of layered brushes. It's sort of the digital equivalent of taking rubber stamps and coating them with thick, acrylic paint ... and then stamping away - without all the mess. Zero clean-up!

I'm pretty happy with my finished layout! And I'm still loving this class.

Heart & Soul

Done as part of the self-paced digital scrapbooking class Digi: In Deep v2 at JessicaSprague.com ... elements provided as part of the class; I just recolored them to match my photographs. Copyrights remain with their respective holders, blah blah. Ahem.

This was part of lesson 2, or week 2, or whatever. Skills I picked up this week involved use of custom shapes, layering brushes (love how this looks on the 2nd page!) and use of the Warp function to create a drop shadow that makes the journaling block look like it's lifting off the page.

I created a second complementary page to house more photographs of the routine ... and since my albums are all 3-ring, it doesn't matter that the stripe swoosh doesn't line up completely. I'm not getting stuck on perfection. :)

These layouts are honestly WAY more frou-frou and detailed than I would normally create. I tend toward the streamlined, the simple, the Cathy Zielske style of scrapbooking, if you will. But that's why it's fun to take this class - not only am I picking up these new techniques, but I'm also getting a little variety in our family albums.

And these wild + crazy pages?

They are totally Veronica.

Let Go(d)

I shot this photograph of the Atlantic Ocean on a trip to Florida several years ago. While revisiting older photos last week, it jumped out at me and wanted to play.

Cre8ive: Listen Quote Album

To round out my work in Week #1 of Digi: In Deep over at JessicaSprague.com, I completed the "Cre8ive Challenge" of making eight quick pages for a 6x6 quote album. The layout template was provided as part of the class materials, and the goal was to practice a few of the new skills from the week while limiting materials and fonts, and sticking to no more than 15 minutes of design time per page.

I decided to make this album do double-duty. It's housing my collection of quotes related to my One Little Word for 2011 - LISTEN.

All four layouts are copyright Jessica Sprague. Digital elements come from the Monarchy kit and Watery Wings brushes by Katie Pertiet. Fonts are OldNewspaperTypes and Ink In The Meat, both available from DaFont.com

 

 

 

I looked ahead, and it seems we get to revisit this particular Cre8ive Challenge after each "week" of the class, creating another set of 8 pages for this album. I'm so excited about getting this printed when I'm done (and getting a second one made for my mom!)

Have I said lately how much I'm loving this class?

Signs of Spring

Fonts Adobe Garamond + Cry Kitty, brush from Katie Pertiet Flourished Love, papers + butterfly mask from Karen Funk Butterfly Kisses kit

This is Assignment 1B from the Digi: In Deep class I'm taking at JessicaSprague.com ... and I'm both thoroughly amused and decidedly pleased. While Assignment 1A gave you a specific layout, all the digital elements to use, and walked you step-by-step through the whole process - in both video and PDF form - this assignment was to take a couple of the techniques we learned and create another layout.

I love well-done instructional design: learn it, do it, then apply it again. Awesome!

For anyone wanting to learn more about Photoshop or Illustrator, whether it's for memory-keeping purposes or otherwise, I highly recommend the classes at JessicaSprague.com. Highly, highly, highly...

And now, I'm on to the next assignment. :)

Grace & Strength

Look who's scrapbooking again!

I've registered for the self-pages digital scrapbooking class Digi: In Deep at JessicaSprague.com in an attempt to (a) give my days some structure and (b) keep my skills from getting rusty while I'm on short-term disability for fibro. The added benefit is that it's got me scrapbooking again.

This is the first of four assignments from this class. The left-hand page is, anyway... and its layout is copyright Jessica Sprague. All rights reserved, blah blah blah. All photographs, on the other hand, are copyright ME.

Journaling reads: This year's Officer Modern competition piece was set to Jewel's You Were Meant For Me. I loved watching you discover this song, which was released when I was in college. But I also watched you work with an intense focus to pull off the Pilates-like moves. You've always been graceful, Veronica, but in the last couple months, you've developed a rock-hard core body strength. Girl, you inspire me!

 

I've decided to use the four assignments for this class to knock out scrapbooking photos of V from this year's drill team competition season. Added bonus: my creative juices are once again a'moving. Yea!

"Believe in Yourself" (that goes for me, too)

I've been gripped by some massive brain-block the past couple weeks, but today, I sat down at my computer with the express intent to CREATE SOMETHING. Not sort, not organize, not tag ... create. And this is the result.

The photograph is of Veronica, executing a C-jump. Isn't she gorgeous? Long, lean, and limber ... and so strong. We did this shoot to commemorate competition season during her 8th grade year in drill team. It's one of many from that day that I'll wind up using, but something about the power in this image spoke to me to today. (I added a selective radial blur in Photoshop after pumping up the color, and then came the text.)

I found the quote/typopgraphy while browsing (read: wasting time) on Pinterest the other day. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was scrap-worthy. And then, I read this article about how to steal like an artist and how nothing is original, and the artist is a collector, and "it's in the act of making things that we figure out who we are" - words that spoke directly to my heart, my frozen + terrified artist's heart that was sitting + waiting + not creating because I didn't have everything together.

More specifically, I am more scattered and possibly a bigger mess than I've ever been in my life.

But today, I sat down to create.

And this was the result.

I think I want to print it. BIG. And hang it up - either in the hallway or in her room, if she likes it enough to let it grace her lime green + zebra-print walls.

Turns out I made it for her, but I also made it for me.

Huh ... whaddya know.

Let Go - Let God

I created this as part of my little project to decorate our home with my photography. This is for the frame that sits on our bar between the kitchen and the living room. I figured it was long overdue to remove the photograph of my dad as Santa Claus. (Sorry, Dad...)

I shot this image of our neighbor's tulips last week on a rare walk down Brennan Drive. I don't get out and walk the neighborhood near as often as I should... either with or without my camera. At any rate, this gorgeous purple tulip was just s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ing toward the sun, and I thought it would be the perfect backdrop for this reminder.

Now, every time I walk past that part of the house - several times, every day - I'm reminded to let go, and let God. It's a reminder I need several times, every day.