Hone Your Instincts: Creating a Double-Page Background

I've been doing a lot more double-page layouts lately. We've been offering them every week with the sketches at Scrapbook Challenges, and my quarterly sketch design gig at Scrap n' Art Magazine has me constantly thinking in two-page terms also.

I have kind of a digi pet-peeve about double-page spreads, though...I hate it when the beautiful edge treatments of my background paper form an awkward stripe down the center of my page!  I want the final effect to be that I added that treatment around my completed layout, not that I used two sheets of paper that already had it done.  Know what I mean?

So, here's my technique to create a seamless background for your two-page digi layouts... I'm using PSE7 for this tutorial, but the basic steps will be the same in any program that uses layers.

Step 1:  Place your background paper and slide it all the way to one side of your canvas.  Duplicate the layer, and slide it to the other side.  See how the blue line formed where the sprayed edge treatment meets in the middle?  I don't like that...

Step 2:  Duplicate the paper one more time, and place it in the middle of the canvas.  Now move this layer below the first two so you see the center line again.  It'll look like this:

Step 3:  Select your eraser tool.  Pick out a nice big brush.  I've used a 200 pixel soft round brush because I like the way it blends and doesn't leave behind hard lines.

Step 4:  Select one of your top layers and simply erase the center line.  Your very bottom layer will show through, filling the void and creating a seamless background.  Select your other top layer and repeat.  Take special care erasing at the top and bottom so the edge treatment blends nicely with the bottom layer.  Now it looks like you intentionally treated the edges of a double-page layout, rather than sliding together two single sheets.  I think it's much sleeker.

Step 5:  Select all three layers of the background paper and merge them into a single layer.  This will make your layer palette less confusing as you build the rest of your layout.

Soccer Star digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kits: Let's Go Mini by Robyn Meierotto, Kitschy Hearts by Akizo; Frames: Old Vintage Paper Frames II by Maybemej; Sketch: 297 by Scrapbook Challenges; Fonts: Carbon Type, I Love Derwin

And a couple more examples from my archives...see how the edge treatment goes around the whole layout and not down the center?

Evan Rocks digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Birthday Boy by Faith True; Sketch: 281 by Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Baby Boston

EPIC digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Blue and Orange Papers, Mask: Crazy Kit by SAS Designs; Grid Paper: Sea Wonders Kit by Isabel Mendez; Brush: Arrows by Lucaliverti; Brush: Dynamic Stitching Brushes by Amanda Sok; Sketch: Katherine Hanson; Font: Joyful Juliana

CK and Me

I loved this page from Maggie Holmes in the May/June 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, so I whipped up my own little scraplift of it... and CK put it on their blog this morning!  Woot!

Football Star by Maggie Holmes, May/June 2012 Creating Keepsakes page 72.

First Smile digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Spring Freebie by Just Jaimee; Banners: Tied Up Banners by Kitty Designs; Fonts: Missed Your Exit, My Own Topher, Underwood Champion

Thanks, CK!

DIY Teacher Gifts, Part 1

Pup's last day of preschool is tomorrow (*sniff*), so we scrambled around today to gather the supplies for the gifts he had picked out for his two teachers.  We found the idea on Pinterest, of course, and once we had actually tracked down the components, they were a cinch to make! (click photos to enlarge.)

The hardest part about this project was finding the Ball jars.  I'm not a canner, so I didn't have any on hand...and this time of the year, the thrift stores are totally out of them and you can only buy them new in boxes of a dozen or so.  I finally found these in a dollar store!  Score!  Buy the wide-mouth variety in order to give yourself enough space to load it up.

I found the plastic magnet-letters at Walmart for $1.27, and each jar filled nicely with a single package.  I used a rinsed-out iced coffee bottle for the insert (ohdarn, I had to guzzle two of them!), and just dropped the letters around it.  The ruler-print ribbon came from Walmart, too, for less than two dollars.

The blog from the inspiration pin also linked to a pdf download of the little Thank You tags.  I altered it slightly to include Pup's name on it and attached it to a bendy straw so I could stick it in the flowers.  The back is a plain apple version of the tag that's also included in the download, so it makes a cute finished product.

Pup's thrilled with them, and I'm fairly confident that his teachers will love them, too!  Who wouldn't want flowers from a boy with a face like that?!

SC Sketch Round-Up

It's time for another rousing rendition of Scrapbook Challenges Sketch Round-Up!  Which really only means that I haven't posted any sketches in a while, and I need to appease my guilt about it!  As always, sketches are linked to the SC forums and you can click to enlarge... So, here goes!

Sketch 291

 Direction digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Papers: Be Unique by Karen Funk; Word Art: balancinghome.com; Embellishments: Direction Elements by Robyn Meierotto; Clipping Masks: Cut It Out by Robyn Meierotto; Brad: Simply Boyish by Karen Funk; Sketch: 291 by Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Lithos Pro

Sketch 293 Double

Waterboys digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Sports-Football by Sahlin Studio; Sketch: 293 by Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Underwood Champion

Sketch 294

Cozy Together digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kits: Yesterday's Jam by One Story Down, iNSD 2012 Collab by MScraps; Clipping Mask: Cut It Out by Robyn Meierotto; Sketch: 294 by Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Courtney Dorkling

Sketch 295

Six Candles digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Lined Paper: Line It Up by Amy Martin; Patterned Papers: DayGlo by Shannon Hegarty; Elements, Alpha: Hoppy Birthday Collab by The Lilypad; Sketch: 295 by Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Traveling Typewriter

Sketch 296 Double

You're My Happiness digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Retrospect by Design House Digitals; Kraft Paper: Whiteout Papers by Audrey Neal; Journal Cards: Favorite Things 2 by Gennifer Bursett; Sketch: 296 by Scrapbook Challenges; Fonts: Gill Sans MT Condensed, Carbon Type

Fiesta!

Nine years ago, almost exactly to this minute, Son #2 came into the world.  Quickly, like a jet plane, which was ironic because the clock read 7:47 when he made his entrance.

Yesterday, at this exact time, he celebrated with eight of his best friends (and, reluctantly, his siblings) by throwing an epic fiesta!  Happy Birthday, son...we love you!

The Invitations, inspired by this pin.

The Grand Entrance.

Festive Decorations, inspired here (pom pom garland) and here (ruffled streamers).

The Salsa Bar.

Churro Cupcakes (recipe here) and Thank You bags of Jarritos sodas, Hot Tamales candies and party poppers.

The posse.

NSD Blog Hop Reveal

Sorry for the delay on this...it was supposed to auto-publish three days ago, and I just realized it didn't!!

Time for the big reveal!  If you followed the full hop and gathered all the puzzle pieces, *this* is what you should have put together:

And *this* is what I did with it:

Sweet Smirk digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Nummy Buddies by Lauren Grier; Sketch: Scrapbook Challenges; Font: Trash Hand

Click over to the Reveal Forum at Scrapbook Challenges to see what the rest of the Design Team created!  Thanks for stopping by!

National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapbook Challenges National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop!  I hope you're enjoying your little trip through the interweb...you're probably joining me from Tabitha's blog, but if you've just stumbled upon me here (or have gotten lost along the way), you can find the beginning of the train at the SC Blog.


We have a marvelous sketch for you this weekend, but you're gonna have to work for it!  Muhahahaha!  You'll pick up one little piece of the puzzle at each stop on the hop, until you've got it all assembled.  Fun, right?  So, here's my piece...

And this is what it looks like in my layout!  (Oooh, aaahhh!)

OK, so, on to the important stuff...PRIZES!  These are really cool...

1.  The HOP ON PRIZE for completing a layout based on the hop sketch and posting it to the Hop On thread at SC.

2.  The COMMENTING PRIZE for leaving love at each of the DT blogs.

3.  The NEW MEMBER PRIZE for one randomly chosen member who joins SC between 5/4 and 5/6.

So mysterious!  Told you you'd have to work for it!  Hahaha!  Have fun hoppin' around this weekend and I hope to see you around the site!

Your next stop on the Hop is with Lee-Anne.