Family Tree

I started with this brand new collection (that I love by the way)

Did you know that the premier art membership is $30 for 3 months for the fall?  What an amazing price for over 40,000 pieces of art.  YEAH for Heritage Makers!!!

Here's the poster I just made.  It is a 12×18 poster and took about 15 minutes…

Of course I just did the easy part, I need to make sure I have all the picture.  I am pretty sure I do they are all in different places though, so I need to do a little searching.  This family tree takes us back to my kids great-great grandparents.  What I'll do is insert names and faces for each place holder, then I'll make 12×12 page of just faces and decoupage those to tile.  I will put a magnet on the back of each 1×1 tile.  Also, this poster I just made I'll put in a frame with sheet metal, so that everything will stick together.  It will look something like this:

Then my kids can move the magnetized tiles around and learn about their heritage.  I may just use these for Christmas gifts as well…shhhh

 

Look what’s NEW!

 

10 years and counting

Today is our anniversary…10 years!  I cannot believe how much has changed since that day; kids, moves, deployments, job changes, and I could go on and on.  The good news is we still love each other. 

I was counting last night the years we have been together for our anniversary.  Only SIX out of the last 10, including today.  Somehow we manage to be on opposite sides of the world on this particular day!  So for our anniversary, I created a card this morning in Heritage Makers and emailed him the link to the card.  There was no way I could have mailed it this year for him to receive on time, so I did what I could. 

I have this 12×12 page decoupaged onto a tile in our front room.  It is one of my very favorites.  

 

Blur Tutorial

Theres been quite a bit of writing on my blog lately, so it is absolutely time for some pictures. Here is a tutorial on using blur on your pictures.

The first image is a picture of the whole page page. The other two pictures have included captions so you can tell what in the world I’m trying to show you.

The final image is the completed two page spread with the red being the areas that will be cut off, and also the center binding.

Julie

www.YourUniqueStory.com

~Preserving Lives, Strengthing the Future, One Storybook at a Time~

 

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures

Over the last few weeks I have been going through my files, papers, old boxes, and lets say pretty much everything.  One particular day as I was collecting all my old pictures and putting them away, I had the thought of having them scanned into digital files.

To put pictures into Heritage Makers books they have to be digital files, but because I have plenty of books that I can make with what I already have, I really hadn’t considered it for myself.

It was very interesting because two days after deciding to have all my photos scanned I received an email from Arizona Scanning asking if they could place my widget on their website.  I love it when there is such synchronicity .   I have had something else that happened along those same lines yesterday, but that is another post in itself.

Anyway, I will be organizing my pictures this weekend and sending them in to be scanned.  THEN I will be completely digital.  How exciting!  I am very impressed so far with Arizona Scanning, and will let you all know when I get my pictures back.

Julie
www.YourUniqueStory.com  — Preserving lives, Strengthening the Future…One Storybook at a Time.

 

Hello world!

I have made the switch from Typepad to WordPress. Somehow it surprises even me, but I am glad that I did.

Leave a comment, and say hi! If there are more then 10, I will pick one and give away a Heritage Makers family fold and template.

Here is one of my recent favorites:

www.YourUniqueStory.com

 

Favorite Tips and Tricks…

• I love the Ctrl and drag to replace backgrounds/pictures etc and
  still keep the same size and formatting. You can drag from either the
  bottom area or from the trash can. I don’t know what I’d do without this!
• If you want to take off the constrain proportions for a
  background, hold down the shift key while you drag the corner arrow in,
  and you can shape it other than rectangle. (Don’t do this on pictures, PLEASE!)
• Have you
  rounded corners at all? select a background, or picture and type in
  360 in the round corners box. It will be a circle. For a gentle
  rounding, try 10.
• Drop shadow. My favorite numbers are 4 for the distance and 83 for the intensity.
• Last
  but not least…copy formatting from one object to another. Select
  what you want to copy and press Ctrl + C. Then select what you want to
  paste to, right click and select paste format. This makes it quick to
  copy drop shadow, rounding, etc from one item to another.

 

New January Art Collections

Here is the new art for this month. I just love new art, especially when nothing is being taken away. It is better every month!

My faves:

I love the vintage papers in the Glitzy Christmas collection.

The peppermint kisses is great for a little girl, and I like that it can be used for more than just Christmasy themes.

I also like the Scenic Route collection. I definitely lean towards the papers/embellishments that aren’t just seasonal. I always use the search feature in Studio 2.0 rather than just sticking with only one collection. It is just my way.

Have fun! www.YourUniqueStory.com

 

Now that was fast…

I just have to share my excitement. I ordered a storybook from Heritage Makers on Monday and it had already shipped two days later. I could not believe it. Of course this is the exception not the rule, but I am so impressed at how fast they have been shipping lately.

It used to take up to three weeks to receive a book, and now most people are being pleasantly surprised to receive theirs in less than two.

I just had to share…Merry Christmas!

Julie

 

Isn’t this cute?

I made this tonight. It was so much fun!

***I should probably add, this is a preview of two 8×8 pages side by side. The red strip in the middle is the binding.