My Very Own Font

I somehow came upon a new free handwriting font site a little while ago...Sugar Frog Fonts. And I decided to submit my handwriting for a font and what do you know...now I have my very own handwriting font! I think this is so cool. Not because my handwriting is awesome (far from it), but because now I can use it for the journaling in my digital scrapbooks and it will actually be my handwriting. I can think of several other uses too. In any case, you can head over to Sugar Frog Fonts and pick up any number (or all) of the free fonts they have over there.

All By Myself

My mom told me last week that she wanted to keep Ethan a bit this week since she hadn't seen him in a while (maybe a week!). So, she picked him up today and I saw them off. The thing is, after they left I had a pang of sadness that I wasn't going to be around my little boy until tomorrow morning. And then I wondered what in the world I was going to do with all my free time. And then I did a celebration dance. Essentially, I had just been handed a day off of work. A holiday.

Here is a list of things I could have (some I probably should have) done, in no particular order:

LAUNDRY
DISHES (I have a small pile in the sink and a full dishwasher right now)
IRONING (does this count as laundry?)
TAKE A NAP
WATCH A MOVIE (one that Casey won't watch with me)
READ
GO SHOPPING (or go anywhere I wanted!)
STRIP WALLPAPER (took me about 3 seconds to nix this one)
WORK (for my part-time job)

But I did none of those things. Instead, I worked on Ethan's baby scrapbook...uninterrupted. And accomplished a lot. Come to think of it, the last time I made this many layouts was another day when my mom took Ethan for the day. Hmmm. For those interested (family), take a closer look at these pages in the gallery.

Breaking Out of Procrastination

For exactly two years now, I have needed and wanted to create a photo book from our trip to Africa. We went in July 2007. Right after that I got pregnant and I had 10, almost 11, child-free months to do this. And yet, I procrastinated. And then, even after Ethan came, I had several months where he slept peacefully for 9/10 of the day. And still, I procrasinated. Why? I think there were two main reasons for my procrastination:

1. The main thing was that the task seemed a little overwhelming to me. I took almost 800 pictures just with my camera and I wanted to use several more that my parents took with their two cameras. Not that I planned on using every single one, but that's a lot of pictures to sort through.

2. And...I wanted this book to be perfect. That's a dangerous word, but here's my reasoning behind it (besides the fact that I am a perfectionist, ok?). This was a huge trip for Casey, me, and my family. Huge. It was two weeks...to Africa...and pretty much the trip of a lifetime. How are you supposed to document a trip like that in an appropriate manner? I knew I didn't just want to get prints and slap them together in an album. And I didn't want to just use the ho-hum templates and terribly blah fonts that most photo book services offered...although they were just fine for other our trips and pictures. But not this one.

But here is what broke me out of my procrastination. It happened so suddenly and the book was completed in one long weekend (Friday through Sunday). I decided that I'd much rather work on the Africa photo book than peel wallpaper from the bathroom. That was my big motivator. Avoiding something else. But if there's something to avoid in life, it is definitely taking down wallpaper...an activity that I said I would never do again. I've got to be more careful with those absolute statements.

Anyway...the photo book is not only completed, it's here. And it is pretty much everything I wanted it to be, thanks to Blurb and the new BookSmart software they have. Their templates are fully customizable now, and they allow you to use the fonts installed on your computer; those two things are all I needed. If I've learned something here, it is that I need to find something I dread more than the thing I need to do and then it will get done.

Making Progress

Remember when I said that I wanted to have Ethan's baby book {scrapbook} done by his first birthday? It's been a little over a month since I made that goal public and I'll admit...it's a bold one. Well, while there IS still time for a miracle, I think I'll be happy if I just continue to make progress on the book. And I have made some progress...in the form of 24 pages/layouts. That sounds pretty good {and I guess it is}, but conisdering that only covers up until we come home from the hospital, I still have a long way to go. And my layouts are pretty simple. I don't use a lot of elements. I don't like clutter and that applies even to my scrapbooks. You could call me a lazy scrapbooker, I guess. I like for the pictures and journaling to be the main focus. And truthfully, some of these pages could still be tweaked further. I'm horrible about finishing a page and then finding one more thing I want to change. But, in the spirit of actually having any sort of book to look at, I've decided to be a practical perfectionist. Here's what I've done so far...you can see these pages in detail on our photo website.

Baby Scrapbook

Photo of Ethan by Summer Photography

My plan since I was still pregnant with Ethan was to make his baby book in digital scrapbook form and combine it with a first year scrapbook. I want to have a section about the pregnancy, including some sonogram photos, and a section about each month of his first year. That is the plan. Notice that it is still a plan and not a book. I have made the cover {above} and a few first pages, but considering that he will be 10 months old in two days, I am painfully behind. My goal is to have this book completed {except for his one-year birthday pages} by his first birthday. That is a lofty goal, I know. I have also decided to post the pages {as I get them done} on our photo website under "Digital Scrapbooks." At the very least, this will be a place to share the scrapbook and maybe it will also hold me just a little bit accountable for finishing it. I figure I've got to do at least 5-7 layouts a week from now until the end of May to get this thing done. Wish me luck!

Digital Scrapbooking Resources

I received a couple of questions via the comments and email about my post yesterday. And in the past so many people have asked me what I use to scrapbook digitally so I thought I'd compile all my resources and share them here. This is what you'll need to get started, but be careful...if you have any affinity for scrapbooking whatsoever, this can be addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you!

1. Editing Software. You must have some kind of editing software in order to create digital layouts. I currently use Photoshop CS3 but started out with Photoshop Elements, which I loved. Elements is a more affordable version and has the added benefit of an excellent organizer... which, incidentally, I still use to organize my digital stuff. I would highly recommend PSE to anyone. Other options are Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro, or Digital Image Pro. There are probably others. Basically, you need something that will allow you to use/handle .png files and layers.

2. Digital Kits/Supplies. In paper scrapping, this would be the background papers, elements, word art, frames, stickers, etc. that make up a layout...only these are digital files that are sold at digital scrapbook stores online in downloadable form. Here's a list of my favorite shops...don't forget that many of these offer free kits and supplies so always check for that. Freebies are a good way to start out and get used to making layouts before you start buying stuff.

• Heather Ann Designs
• Nitwit Collections {very stylized, cutsey}
• Oscraps
• Peppermint Creative
• ScrapArtist
• Shabby Princess {great freebies}
• Sweet Shoppe Designs
• The Digichick Boutique
• Two Peas in a Bucket
• Designer Digitals
• Funky Playground Designs
• Fonts for Peas {free handwriting fonts}
• Free Scrapbook Fonts

3. Tutorials. If you are new to Photoshop (or any other editing program), online tutorials can be very helpful. Or, if you know your way around but want to get into some more advanced stuff, tutorials will help you with that too. Many of the scrapbook stores listed above have tutorials on their websites so check them out for that. Additionally, I've found some great tutorials on these sites:

• The Sprague Lab {Blog}
• TaylorMade Designs {Blog}

4. Printing Layouts. As I mentioned briefly yesterday, there are several options to get your digital layouts in printed form so that you can enjoy them and show them to others. But actually, you can upload digital layouts to any photo sharing website {Shutterfly, Snapfish, Smugmug} just like you would any other photo. But, obviously most of us wouldn't go to the time and trouble to scrapbook if we didn't want to print our scrapbook in some form. There are two main ways to do this.

First, you can print individual pages and put them in a traditional scrapbook with clear sleeves for each printed page. This allows you to print pages as you go and not have to wait until your entire book is done to print some of the first pages. Here are a few places that will do this, although there are many more if you look around the internet. I have not used any of these specifically for printing pages because, as I said before, I don't like printing individual pages.

• Shutterfly {make sure you go to the digital scrapbook section because it is different from their regular prints section}
• Mpix
• Scrapbooks Please

Or you can complete your book and have it printed in bound form like a photobook...just with your digital layouts instead of the regular templates. Often you have the option of creating the cover, back and spine for your book as well, which makes it even more customized. This is what I have done and intend to do with my digital layouts. It is worth the wait for me to have a product that I think is most attractive, practical and durable. Here are a few places that will print a finished book:

• Shutterfly {again, this is different from their regular photo books}
• Blurb
• Scrapbooks Please

5. Inspiration. For me, this is crutial. Sometimes I need a little spark to get the creativity flowing. For most digital kits, the designer will post a couple of sample layouts using the files in that kit. Look for these on the page that shows the details of the kit. There are also galleries of layouts on every single digital scrapbook store website. Additionally, most designers have a blog or website on which they post their layouts. I go to all of these places to get ideas.

Digital Convert

I mentioned a little while back that I was into digital scrapbooking. I dabbled in it before Ethan was born, but now, of course, I have his first year album to do and I want it to be special and hand-made by me. I use the term hand-made loosely because I'm basically using my keyboard and mouse. In reality, I know that the efforts I put into his album are more for me...to preserve these memories I have of him and finding another place to display the {hundreds of} pictures I've taken of him.

Recently I had been using photo books from various vendors {mostly Shutterfly and Blurb} to create any albums that I wanted...and I still plan on doing that for certain things. But, I've rediscovered my affinity for scrapbooking. I tend to be on the more simple side of things and less cluttered in my designs {big surprise}, but I still like the look of it.

Back in high school I did scrapping the old-school way and I have about five 20 pound albums to show for it. They're enormous. And did I mention they're heavy? I love them, I really do. But, I'm definitely a digital convert. If you love scrapbooking and have any sort of computer knowledge whatsoever...make the change. You will be glad you did. Here's why I did:

1. It takes up less space. Actually, it takes up NO space in my house. Only a little bit of hard drive space on our computer. For a girl who hates clutter, this is good.

2. The finished album is 10x smaller. You do have the option of printing your scrapbook layouts individually and binding them in a traditional album. But why would you do that? You can use Shutterfly's digital scrapbook solutions {and a couple of others} to print your digital scrapbook in a nice, neat, manageable book. Perfect.

3. The workflow is much more organized and practical. When I want to scrapbook, I don't have to haul out all my supplies on my dining room table. Alternately, I don't have to either leave them out there or pack them up again when I'm done. Everything is packed nicely away on the computer for me to "pull out" whether I've got one hour or a whole weekend to dedicate to scrapping.

4. I save money. When you buy traditional supplies and you use them {besides stamps}, they're gone. Then you have to buy more. With digital scrap supplies, you can use them again and again...and for different projects. Also, you don't have to print your pictures. And if you accidentally crop a picture badly or want to change it...you can...and you didn't waste a print.

5. More creative licence. When I put together a layout, I move things around like crazy and change things up a lot until it's perfect for me. I need to let go of the perfect thing...but with digital scrapping, I can move and change things to my heart's content and I haven't used or ruined any of my supplies.

6. Print multiple copies. If I wanted to share my book or make another copy, I can. And I don't have to do everything all over again.