Simplify Christmas Cards this year with Shutterfly!

Want to simplify your holiday cards this year?

As we are moving house, I’m hoping to get these done early so my friends have our new contact details before they mail out their cards! Shutterfly has dozens of Christmas card options to chose from, but don’w worry about overwhelm, they have a cool card selector to help you narrow down to photo number, colour or designer. All of the cards professionally designed for you to pop your photo into and you are good to go! After receiving several books and photo prints from Shutterfly myself, I know you’ll be thrilled with the print quality.

Here’s a selection of my favourites:

Sweet And Retro Christmas Card

Merry Merry Swirl Christmas Card

Nicely Noted Christmas 5x7 folded card

Inspiration from Christmas Past

Today I thought I'd share couple of past designs for my Christmas Cards in the past… click the image for full credit information.

2007

2008 I combined these place cards to be Christmas cards for our close friends at our Christmas Party

2009

I printed this card and popped our family photo on the inside left.

2010

Well I can’t reveal that yet!

If you are looking for an easy gift to create why not check out their desk calendars  - after the first one they are 30% off!

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly, if you are a blogger and you’d like to receive 50 free cards from Shutterfly jump on board!

Why not take a look and let me know what design you like best?

Melissa

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A quick shadow tip

In my travels on the web, I stumbled across this video at Scrapper’s Guide on installing actions in Photoshop Elements, which comes with a cool Custom Shadow action and a PDF manual!

It creates a shadow on a new layer, which allows you to fully customise it to you heart’s content, a feature usually missing from Elements. You may like to change the blending mode to multiply to get to match your other shadows that use the built in drop shadow.

Here’s a quick look at what it can do:

 

All the shadows here are generated using this action and then modified using the smudge tool. I used Monica’s goodies from Songbird Avenue's Toys in the Attic kit (No longer available).


Scrapper’s guide is pretty cool site with some free video tutorials here.

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PS This post is based on one I wrote for the mgl Scraps CT blog

Ready to leave

2010 10 25_Front yard_0003
Originally uploaded by mshanhun

Our home on a clear October day, roses in full bloom. Only a few more days to spend here in Kalgoorlie.

Katie Inspires me

Katie the Scrapbook Lady is one of my favourite bloggers. Katie's posts cover everything from an intro to digi-scrapping to guides to holidays throughout the year to a reminder to regulary record our memories plus snapshots of her life. I found Katie at the Daily Digi had to check out her blog.  I just love reading back through her posts using the little related posts icons at the bottom of each post.

Her big stack of printed layouts inspired me to order my first 12x12 prints and it was Katie who introduced me to the Log Your Memory planner.
Why not check out her digi-scrapping Q&As and more here, her review of Photoshop Elements 8.0 or her scrapbooking secrets
Want more Scrapbook Lady???

• Delicious: katiescrapbooklady
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/digiscrap
• Flickr: scrapbooklady
• Goodreads: 1853467
• Other...: http://thedailydigi.com/meet-katie/
• Other...: http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/scripts/Katie.asp
• Twitter: ktscrapbooklady

I'm glad I found Katie's blog, and I hope you enjoy reading it too!
Melissa
 
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PS All photos from Katie's site
PPS This post first appeared on the mgl Scraps CT blog

Daily dose of digi inspiration

I just adore The Daily Digi, for over a year now Steph and the team have been writing awesome posts about digital scrapbooking.
If you listen to the Paper Clipping Roundtable you would have heard about Steph's awesome layout printing reviews, they also have a great tutorial about making your kid's eyes pop in photos (well anyone's eyes really!), a roundup of online scrapping classes, power scrapping, and tips about organising your photos and digi supplies
The posts cover all sorts of topics, including:

• Computer Tips and Tricks
• Hybrid Help
• Truly Inspirational
• Photography Class
• The Digi Files
• The UN-digi
• The Write Way
• A Gift For You
• Check it Out!
• Crafty Corner
• Just for Beginners
• A Bright Idea
• SCHOOL of SCRAPPING
• Team Inspiration

You can also catch The Daily Digi on Twitter and Facebook.
Melissa
 
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PS This post first appeared on the mgl Scraps CT blog

Celebrate Monday

2010 10 19_Emily's room_0005.JPG
Originally uploaded by mshanhun

Emily loves reading, and in this photo is looking at her book of rellies! Only a couple of weeks until we move and can see them all in person much more regularly.

Purple is a Death Sentence

There’s a big discussion going on over at the Paperclipping Digi Show about purple and colour in digiscrapping in general – check it out!
I’ve even had a chat about it with my husband Phill and he pointed out I’ve done quite a few purple layouts. So, here's a few of my purple layouts for everyone to hate! LOL
Some of these date back to my first days of digital scrapbooking, I almost didn’t include them, but then why shouldn’t you all see where I started out from? Click on the image for full credits.
Thankful for small blessings - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

2009 Calendar - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

August Brag Book Right - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Melissa’s 10th Birthday – Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Friends - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Our little Star - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Celebrating 2 years - Birgit Kerr Play Day - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Meeting Grandad Store - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery


Once in a blue moon - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Lydia's 15th Card - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

My Sunny Side - Scrapbookgraphics.com Gallery

Another purple success story - by Seth Godin

So don't let the naysayers put you off!

Actually, an interesting thought is that the colours you scrapbook with are not necessarily your favourites, but rather those colours that match the mood of your story or colours of your photos.
I know there are a lot of passionate purple lovers out there, but I guess they just don't buy digital scrapbooking kits as much as the purple-ambivalent among us.






Melissa

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Celebrate Monday

I’ve been making the most of our breadmaker, and I made a few rolls. With some spiced, crumbed chicken breast fillets, egg, cheese, pineapple and salad, Phill loved them! Emily even approved of the roll though she didn’t really eat much of the salad.

This post is inspired by Simple Scrapper Celebrate Monday
Melissa

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The Paperclipping Digishow Rocks!

If you enjoy digi-scrapping or are interested in learning more about digital scrapbooking you should listen to the Paperclipping Digi Show podcast. It is a fun and informative show, hosted by Steph from the Daily Digi and this week Izzy took his teasing of Katie the Scrapbook lady to the next level…. I’ll let Steph explain!

Fridays are so much fun around The Daily Digi, and this one is pretty funny too! I’m not even sure if I should type the title of this week’s Paperclipping Digi Show podcast? Ok, Izzy named it “Katie the Profanity Lady” – lol! You have to listen to the whole thing to understand why.

The entire podcast was devoted to answering listener questions so it ended up being a really interesting discussion about several different topics. Be sure to leave your own comments after listening – you never know when they will influence a future episode!

If you listen in iTunes (and subscribe), it helps us keep track of the size of our audience.  Izzy has a video on his site explaining how to do that OR you can see our tutorial with screenshots:

Tutorial for Listening in iTunes

You can join in the discussion about the show after listening if you want.  You can listen here, subscribe in iTunes, or subscribe through our RSS feed.

Quoted from TDD site

I have to admit I’ve been slow to start listening to podcasts, but I really enjoy them now, it’s just like having a customised radio station on while I do the housework! Do you enjoy podcasts?

Speedy scrapping here we come!

I was just browsing some forums and stumbled across an awesome resource at SpeedScraps.

Do you tend to just stick to kit scrapping due to the issues with keeping your credits straight? Well, Christy at SpeedScraps has a great tutorial for you. Part 1 and Part 2.

The best part about all this is that she's created a tool to track your supplies, called, oddly enough Supply Tracker, and is giving it away!

The tools Christy has make allow you to make your layers, and then it puts them all into a credits layers for you and in the File Info too! Awesome!

So why not head over to SpeedScraps and check it out!

Happy scrapping!

Melissa

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Happy snaps!

2010 10 03_Playing with the Coopers_0008.JPG
Originally uploaded by mshanhun

A cute photo from the weekend!

Emily can walk!

So it’s old news now, but I just got around to scrapping this page for a challenge over at Scrapbookgraphics

Emily, you started taking steps all by yourself outside on the 18th of May, and you even showed Daddy when he got home. But you were happy with your speed-crawling for several weeks after that. You did you show off your walking for people in Perth on the 17th of June, just in time for Daddy to get home from Brisbane and again the 28th of July. One funny thing was you only seemed to want to walk in the afternoons!
On the 2nd of August you and Mummy went to the toddler play centre with Aunty Amberley and Jake, and you were having so much fun you just forgot about crawling and walked all the time
It was good timing as we were having a birthday tea for Grandma Okely that night with all of the Okelys and Nan and Pop so everyone got to see you walking. Grandma Okely felt very special that you started walking on her birthday.

Credits: Wendyzine Scrapit Action 10 from

ACTION: Scrap It Collection {3}
by Wendy
Released On: 2010.04.08

See details

Cottage Chic
by Flergs
Released On: 2008.07.11

See details

I’ve decided to keep this blog a bit more up to date with my scrapbooking, and anything else I feel like writing about, so I see you next time!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible*

Speedy scrapping here we come!

I was just browsing some forums and stumbled across an awesome resource at SpeedScraps.

Do you tend to just stick to kit scrapping due to the issues with keeping your credits straight? Well, Christy at SpeedScraps has a great tutorial for you. Part 1 and Part 2.

The best part about all this is that she's created a tool to track your supplies, called, oddly enough Supply Tracker, and is giving it away!

The tools Christy has make allow you to make your layers, and then it puts them all into a credits layers for you and in the File Info too! Awesome!

So why not head over to SpeedScraps and check it out!

Happy scrapping!

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible*