Shutterfly Digi Scrap Blog

Wrapping it Up: With Shelleyrae Cusbert

As we wrap up Shelleyrae Cusbert's blog feature we end with some beautiful inspiration that she has shared with us. Enjoy!

Since our Blog is about celebrating “Everyday Life”, please share a layout and a quick paragraph telling us about an "everyday celebration" and what made it so special.

"We are lucky enough to live near the beach and enjoy spending time there. The kids enjoy the water, building sandcastles and the chance to explore the rock pools, while my husband fishes and I enjoy the sun. It is a wonderful way to spend time as a family and celebrate how lucky we are. This layout is of one on my son enjoying a day in the sun."

Shelleyrae Cusbert: On Technology

Shelleyrae Cusbert shares techno inspiration and a stunning freebie mini-kit below.

What is your favorite piece of technology and why?

"My computer is my favorite piece of technology. It allows me to design, to create, to learn, to stay in touch with family and friends and share my life with them. Of course my camera plays a huge part in that too!"

Share a favorite digital technique that you love to use.

"Manipulating shadows is important to create a sense of dimension in my layouts. By separating the shadow from the object, and then using warp tools to manipulate the shadows shape you can add realism to digital layouts."

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

I love writing tutorials, it allows me to share the joys of digital scrapping with others. You can find over 200 tutorials for digital scrapbookers on my blog."

Enjoy this beautiful mini-kit created by Shelleyrae. Please remember that all freebies are for personal use only.

 Download Shelleyrae_ARomanticNotion_Shutterfly

Digital scrapbooking with Layered Templates

If you’ve created a digitally scrapped quick page and feel like you want to take the next step (swim in discrap pool as opposed to dipping your toe), I highly recommend creating a layered template.

View this book

LAYERED TEMPLATES – WHAT ARE THEY?

Layered templates are similar to quick pages, except that instead of having a completed page with a place for you to add your photo, you get a diagram showing where all the components of the page should go. You decide what papers and embellishments you're going to use, but the template shows you where to put them. This means you have more control over the look of the page.  And you’re using the same dragging and dropping principles you used for your quick page, so it’s almost as easy.

In this template, different colors show where the different papers go, and where you should type your title and journaling. You open up the template, drop in your photos, add the paper and embellishments and you're done!

MY FIRST LAYERED TEMPLATE PAGE – NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

Below is my very first page, and I’m VERY excited about it. How did I do this?

1 - First I downloaded the free shabbyprincess.com Harvest Spice scrapbooking kit, which contains backgrounds and pretty elements like the curled paper and the flower..
2 - Then I followed the fantastic Misty Cato tutorial, which showed me how to:
    a - Use my Photoshop software to open all those goodies
    b - Put them all together to create this nifty page.
    c - Notice how I deleted the brads because they interfered with the page curl, and added a flower over the staple in the template because I thought it looked better.

Voila! I’ve created a digitally scrapped photo album page! And I know you can do it too.

Also be sure to check out bigpicturescrapbooking.com for informative tutorials on digital photography and digiscrap classes.

SOFTWARE

Remember – you’ll need software that will allow you to digiscrap. Digitalscrapbookplace.com has an easy to read software section that will help you choose what’s right for you. Best of all, it features links to free software trial versions.

LINKS

If you feel like diving in and learning everything right NOW, check out these useful links. If you want to keep it simple, save these for later.

• cottagearts.net (what are layers?)
• scrapgirls.com (all level tutorials)
• scrapwow.com (beginning tutorials)
• theshabbyshoppe.com (all level tutorials)
• digiscrappingtutorials.com (all level tutorials)
• scrapbookbytes.com (all level tutorials)'
• designerdigitals.com (beginner pdf, and advanced tutorials)
• scrappersguide.com (tutorials & free newsletter)
• bigpicturescrapbooking.com (all level tutorials)

Now make that layered template page!

And once it’s finished, be sure to print it out.  You can also combine your pages into a gorgeous digiscrapped photo book.

"This is your digital scrapbooking inspirational center. Find creative ideas on how to personalize pages and photo books using design software.”

Shelleyrae Cusbert : Talks about Scrapbooking

Shelleyrae Cusbert shares some interesting info below about her scrapbooking experience and talks a bit about her artistic style. She also created a lovely card for all of us to download. Read, download and enjoy!

How long have you been scrapbooking?

"I began digital scrapping in 2000, when my parents moved overseas. I regularly emailed them photos of my daughter and at some point began to "decorate" them using PictureIt!99. It wasn't until about mid 2001 that I stumbled across a traditional scrapbooking website (scrapbooking was unheard of here in Australia) and thought 'oh that's what I do only with the computer' and began searching around for other sites. I joined with some online friends to establish a yahoo list for computer scrappers in late 2001 and then joined one of the first online digital scrapbooking sites online as a DTM at its launch in 2003. I have remained active in the digital scrapbooking community ever since."

What is your creative style?

"I’m never sure how to describe my creative style. I love color and tend to be most mindful of that when I design a kit or create a layout. I like for my layouts to be balanced and tend to not use a lot of photo’s per page. What is most important to me is that I have created something unique and special for my family."

Here is the freebie card template created by Shelleyrae.. Please remember that all freebies are for personal use only.

Download Shelleyrae_ARomanticNotion_Card

Getting to Know: Shelleyrae Cusbert

Shelleyrae Cusbert tells us a bit about herself and her business. She also shares a creative layout with us below. We hope you find some great inspiration in her information.

Tell us about yourself.

"As a wife and a mother of four beautiful children aged between 4 and 13, my life can be rather busy in our country town on the east coast of Australia. I’m involved in several community groups, including a coordinator of our local photo club and teach digital photography and editing part time."

Tell us about your site.

"My blog allows customers to keep up with my latest design releases, sales and to sample my work. I am currently an Independent Designer at Inspiration-Lane and Scrapbook-Elements . Each store contains exclusive products designed by me.

Inspiration Lane is a friendly full service community that offers a range of challenges for which you can earn points to redeem in store, a daily download mega kit and Club Click, a great value product subscription service.

Scrapbook-Elements was launched in 2004 and is an active community that includes rewarding challenges, tutorials and weekly newsletters with tips and gifts. They pride themselves on great customer service and designers collaborate to create a unique U-Build-It kit each month."

Here is an adorable layout that Shelleyrae would like to share. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day: From Shelleyrae Cusbert

We have more information coming from Ali Edwards in the next few weeks but wanted to take the time to introduce a very special person that has a very special Valentine's Day treat for all of us. Shelleyrae Cusbert has created a card, a quickpage and  and a mini-kit for us with a lovely romantic theme. We will be sharing all of those freebies and some wonderful inspiration from Shelleyrae in the next few weeks.

We, of course wanted you to be able to download a special treat today because it is Valentine's. We figured you probably took some very special photos today that needed to be documented so we have included  Shelleyrae's quickpage called "A Romantic Notion"  for you to download.

Please enjoy the quickpage and please remember that all freebies are for personal use only.

Download Shelleyrae_A_Romantic_Notion_Quickpage

Ali Edwards : A Shutterfly Book

Ali Edwards is no stranger to Shutterfly.  Ali serves on the  Shutterfly Scrapbook Advisory Team  and has created a guided photo book  called "Everyday Life" for Shutterfly.  Her inspiration on documenting the daily snapshots and routines of life have encouraged people to take notice to the small daily treasures around them. Below is a Shutterfly book that Ali created about "celebrating today." Enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book.

Ali Edwards: An Everyday Celebration

Ali Edwards shares an "Everyday Celebration" with us below. Hope you enjoy the inspiration!

"Scrapbooking everyday life has been my main focus since I started back in 2002. I have always been drawn more to celebrating our daily lives than bigger events like Christmas or birthdays (which are wonderful traditions of course). This is a layout I created back in 2005 to document our morning routine. I love this layout because it is focused on the words and the photos without a lot of extra. The idea is simple: select one morning and record/document/capture with words and photos those “mundane” things you do everyday: make coffee, wake your kids, check the time, make the toast, etc. One of the things I really love about this type of layout is that it is a story I can tell again. I definitely need to do an updated morning & evening routine layout."

What Inspires Ali Edwards?

Ali Edwards tells us below what inspires her most. We hope inspires your life and art!

"I am most inspired by everyday life and the general process of living day to day. For me right now this is often specifically related to life with my kids. Things they say and do and the feelings I have for them as we go about your days.

Relationships and connections between yesterday & today are very inspiring to me.

I love stories about real life – all kinds of stories. One of my favorite radio programs is “This American Life” on NPR. I also read quite a bit and find inspiration on the pages of so many books.

And images. I can’t forget the images. The photos we take (my husband and I both take a ton of photos), the things I see in magazines and online on sites like flickr or tumblr, old photos from my childhood – all these images light a fire in me creatively."

Enjoy a fun freebie from Ali. The card below is ready for your photos and can easily be printed at Shutterfly. Please remember that all freebies are for personal use only.

  Download Ali Edwards New Year Card1