Shutterfly Digi Scrap Blog

Everyday Inspiration by: LaWanna Desjardin

LaWanna Desjardin , digital artist at Scrapbook-Bytes shares some awesome "everyday inspiration" with us. Since our Blog is about celebrating "Everyday Life", we have asked LaWanna to share a layout and a quick paragraph telling us about the "Everyday Celebration" and what made it so special.

"A lot of my layouts are about everyday moments, celebrating the ordinary. This one is one of my favorites because it illustrates something I see about my youngest son that others don't get to experience very often and that is that he is so very nurturing. Typically, he's a very rough and tumble little boy and quite hard-headed, fitting the "typical boy" stereotype very well. But he loves animals and babies and he becomes very gentle and sweet with them. So often I find myself frustrated with him, trying to teach him to behave without squelching his outgoing, fun personality. These moments I see him like this, I'm reminded at what a sweet and loving child he really is."

LaWanna Desjardin : Shares a Quickpage!

LaWanna Desjardin , digital artist at Scrapbook-Bytes shares a an awesome square quickpage with us. Just add your own photo and journaling and you are done. The square quickpages can be uploaded to Shutterfly and printed for you. They are the perfect addition to your scrapbook.

Please remember that all freebies are for personal use only!

Download LDesj_CrushQuickPage

LaWanna Desjardin : Freebie Card!

LaWanna Desjardin , digital artist at Scrapbook-Bytes shares some of her creative inspiration with us. She also has a very beautiful and fun freebie card template for us. Enjoy!

How long have you been scrapbooking?

"I started traditional scrapbooking when my oldest son was born.  I managed to horde an absurd amount of paper scrapping supplies before I stumbled across a digital scrapbooking message group. That was about 6 years ago and I've been digital ever since.  I still like making traditional cards and crafts sometimes."

What is your creative style? 

"I've always like clean layouts and simple designs but with the flexibility of digi-scrapping, I also like playing around with other styles. The most important thing to me is making sure that nothing on the page outshines the photos and journaling. And I always try to make sure there is some journaling on my page."

Here is a freebie card template for you to download. Please enjoy and remember that all freebies from our blog are for personal use only! The card is Shutterfly  ready, (which means you can add your own photo and journaling and have it printed perfectly at Shutterfly!)

Download LDesj_Crush_card

Welcome : LaWanna Desjardin

Welcome  LaWanna Desjardin , digital artist at Scrapbook-Bytes.We are thrilled to share information and inspiration about LaWanna with you.

Tell us about yourself.

"Basically, I'm just a small-town journalist turned housewife. I have two boys who are 6 and 4 and a great husband who is extraordinarily supportive. My first passion is probably writing. I love writing creatively, though I don't have nearly enough time to devote to it. I also love photography and paper crafts. Honestly most of my time is consumed taking care of my family - laundry, dishes, dinner, cleaning and all the mommy-things. I won't say I love doing all that but I do find it really gratifying to know that I'm caring for them in these little ways. Sometime, I step on a Lego lying on the floor or in a puddle our new puppy just made and I have to stop and remind myself how lucky I really am to have this wonderful life."

Thank You: Lie Fhung

It has been fun getting to know Lie Fhung , digital artist from Scrapbook-Bytes . As we say thank you to her for sharing info about herself she shares a load of wonderful gifts with us. She has a few 12 x 12 quick pages and a coordinated mini-kit. AWESOME! (Please remember that all freebies are for personal use only)

Download ZtampfGift_BurninLove_Papers

Download ZtampfGift_BurninLove_Accents

 

Download ZtampfGift_BurninLove_QuickPage01

Download ZtampfGift_BurninLove_QuickPage02

Enjoy a great coupon below to buy more incredible products from Lie.

Lie Fhung : Talks About Techniques!

Lie Fhung , digital artist from Scrapbook-Bytes shares some technology inspiration with us!

What is your favorite piece of technology and why?

"Can't beat my iMac - along with Photoshop. Together they give me endless joy of creating. I'd say the Internet too - can't imagine my life without it! I met so many wonderful people (including my loving husband!) through the Internet and I make my living online too! For me who is living abroad, the Internet also provides quick and inexpensive tools to communicate with my friends and family back home."

Please share a favorite digital technique that you love to use.

"I'm a Photoshop user and here is a technique that I love to use with transparent/translucent elements. You know that drop shadow adds so much realism and dimension to your digital pages but it could be tricky to add shadow on transparent/translucent elements because the shadow would ruin the transparent/translucent look. Here's how I do it:

I'd duplicate the layer, then add the shadow on one of the layer only (usually the bottom layer). Then on the Blending options, I'd set the 'Fill' of this layer with shadow to '0' (Zero). This should make the element 'disappeared' while retaining the shadow.

In some cases, it might be necessary to add a 'Color Overlay' first (under the 'Layer Style'). Use White and play around with the 'Opacity' and 'Fill' levels.

The sample below shown a couple of snowflakes from my Snow Country Kit: on the left is the original version, on the right is with added shadow. I usually include a neutral drop shadow with most of my translucent elements. But sometimes you need an extra shadow to make them pop out even more. With the technique I described above, you can! I placed several items underneath the snowflakes to show how the translucency is retained although the added show did make the snowflake on the right appear slightly darker. Hope you will find this useful :)."

Do you have any digital tutorials on your site or located anywhere else that you want to share?

"I believe Scrapbook-Bytes.com has the most comprehensive tutorials. I have only written a few mini tutorials myself, mostly by customer requests. Here is one which I hope your readers will find useful:

http://ztampf.com/blog/2008/10/11/using-12x12-quickpages-and-ensembles-on-85x11-pages "