Scrapbook pages are a great way to memorialize special moments and events. Today’s post describes preserving the love and excitement involved in welcoming a new family member, as well as for conveying the excitement and anticipation leading up to a family wedding.
Today’s post is part of the LinkedIn April Showers Blog Hop. I’m glad you’re here. If you are coming from Cindy Murray’s The Crafty Neighbor, you are in the right place! (If you landed here first and want to do the full hop, start here. )
April Showers Digital Layout
Since I’m in Michigan and the snow is just getting around to melting, I’ve yet to catch spring fever. Instead, I’ve focused on the big upcoming event in our family—the marriage of my cousin’s son Daniel.
All weddings are special, but this particularly resonates. There was a time when our fondest hope for Daniel was for his survival. Fast forward 15+ years and Daniel, a survivor of pediatric cancer, is now working on his Ph.D. in oncology research. Bride-to-be Erin is perfect for him and all of us are looking forward to the wedding.
April Showers… Inside and Out
When I heard that a shower for Erin was planned for April, I had my “April Showers” theme. The look I wanted to achieve was a warm cozy inside moment viewed from outside in the rain.
Steps
I use PhotoShop Elements (PSE) 8, but you can accomplish these steps with other software packages. You can also use the same concepts for a traditional (paper) scrapbook page.
As Erin’s bridesmaids will wear a sea-foam green, I used a similar color from a “Signs of Spring” digital collection found at ScrapGirls.com for my background. A contrasting yellow to match the spring flower embellishments was used as the backdrop for my narrative.
For me, the narrative is the most important part of my pages. I compose it in Word so I can take advantage of spell-check. I chose a font with a formal look to go along with the wedding invitations, etc. I used Jellyka Delicious Cake for the titles and Jellyka Western Princess for the narrative. Both fonts were free downloads available from DaFont.com.
Making the frame: To make the “window” into a frame for my photo, I cropped a stock photo of a window, then used PSE’s magic eraser to move the interior content. (The hard part was finding a stock photo. It was only later that I realized I could have simply gone outside and taken a photo!) I also took a photo I had taken of rain coming off of a gutter and used the same magic eraser to isolate the raindrops. I then superimposed those drops over my window frame. I used the normal eraser utility to remove any extraneous drops. Now I had my “April Showers” feel.
Adding the photo: The 12 x 12 layout would have had room for a landscape photo, but the portrait orientation works well too. I added two copies of the photo in PSE. On the top version, I used Filter–> Distort -> Glass utility to make the photo appear as if it had been taken from the outside.
 I didn’t want to exaggerate this effect too much, so I set the transparency of this layer at 49%. I locked the two photo layers, so I could move them around if necessary later on.
Finishing the Layout: To finish the layout, I used other embellishments that I found in my spring digital kit to give a finished look. Since Erin’s corsage had white and pink roses, I decided to add wet roses as embellishments. To do this, I used stock photos and eliminated the background of the photos with Image ->Magic Extractor, then added them as layers. To give the ribbon embellishments some depth, I selected each layer and added a drop shadow: Layer –>Layer Style –> Style Settings.
And the Winner of the April Showers Blog Hop is…Angelina Romero:
For our kick off event we offered e a great prize package valued at over $150. Congratulations Angelina.
Next Hop: Thanks for stopping by! Now hop on over to Stamp Patty’s to see what beautiful project Patty Chenail has created for you!
Great digital page and tutorial! Your post rocks! 😀
xox Krys
Thanks Krysthle. Yours does too. As soon as I get my permalink problems sorted out, I’ll be over there to comment.
Such a beautiful page and great tutorial! Love the window frame 🙂
Thanks Elizabeth. It’s a great theme!
Great digital page, and the colors are perfect!
Thanks Linda. Thanks for dropping by.
Oh wow! I love it! You’re so lucky you have PS; I want it so badly! Beautiful design with the window 🙂
Thanks Val. I did it with PS elements, which is not nearly so expensive and you can do a whole, whole lot with it. It lists @ $100, but you can often find it around $70.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Great Idea will have to try this I like to paper scrap but i love the way you created the moment through the window great job…
I wondered how to do that with paper. Maybe you could get the “wet window” effect with some sort of cling wrap or vellum or print the photos with the renderings. With a landscape photo, your window could be wide enough to open at the center, giving a clear view as well. I’d love to see a photo if you do try it.
Thanks for taking time to leave a comment.
What a fantastic idea! I love the idea of looking from the outside into the window. Great layout.
I am following you via Facebook. I have liked your page and enabled notifications, newsfeed and added you to my favorite pages.
Thanks so much Jean. I’m honored.
I love your digital layout! I have never tried digital before but you make it look very simple! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Nicole. I hope you do try it some time.
nice, thanks for sharing
Thanks for stopping by!
Love it Laura! Thanks for sharing a scrapbook page! Always looking for ideas!
Yours too Patty!
Ohhh how sweet is this digi layout!! <3 it!!
xoxoxoxox
Jessica Kephart
http://www.homespunelegance.blogspot.com
Thanks Jessica. I’m glad you like it and glad you stopped by.
Thanks for the tutorial. So helpful when people give the instructions rather than just assuming that we all know how to do it.
Thanks for commenting Teresa. I wasn’t sure I had given enough info.
Love the window effect, especially the raindrops!
Thanks Phyllis! Glad you stopped by.
Love your tutorial. I will definitely have to try the window frame part. Thank you. It is a great layout.
Thanks–Glad you liked it. Thanks for doing the blog hop.
Love the way you brought the theme together.
Thanks so much Angelina!
I love the page–It turned out great!! And your instructions are so clear I feel like I could do it too. Maybe. 🙂
Just love your digital layout!
Lovely digital layout and tutorial!
I am still trying to figure Photoshop out…..this is a great idea!
Great project thanks for sharing!