A Digital Scrapbooking Journal - Part Thirteen

Learning by Doing

Tuesday, September 25, 2007: Bustin' Out of a Hair Rut

My sister, Jean, has a website and blog about everything anti-aging.

Last Saturday in the blog she challenged readers to take an objective look at themselves and update their look.

I took up the challenge. The scrapbook layout above celebrates the changes I made.

It was nice to take some time for myself. And I can't believe the compliments I'm getting on my new hairstyle. I guess my friends must have been thinking, as Jean suggested, "Why doesn't she do something different with her hair?!

It was weird looking back through my photos and realizing how long I had been wearing my hair pretty much the same way. It was definitely time to break out.

Thank you Jean!

My "Bustin' Out of a Hair Rut" layout uses the following digital design products from Scrap Girls:

• TKA_SSEmb_LTCCornerFolds - warped using the Transform Tool
• CFR_JAG_Paper12x12_GoldStripeSplatter
• DMI_Allure_mimosa (paper)
• JHI_Wildflowers_Special_12x12AvensMulti (paper)

I made the little comb and scissors digital scrapbooking embellishments myself.

Thursday, September 27: Digital Graphics - Learning by Doing

I got to thinking about my preferred learning style while I was designing Tuesday's scrapbook page. I knew the look I wanted - a paper torn down the middle with my old hairstyle photos busting out of the tear.

However I didn't have a suitable paper tear among my Scrap Girls products. I did have a set of really nice corner folds designed by Theresa Kavouras that I thought might work.

One of the neatest things about digital design products is that you can alter them to suit your layout. You can colorize them or clip different papers to them and even alter the shape.

I wanted a torn look rather than the crisp neat corner fold in Theresa's design. I also wanted the two sides of the tear to differ enough to look like someone had actually torn the page by hand.

To get the look I wanted I learned a lot about the Edit>Transform>Warp tool in Photoshop just by playing around. What more fun way could there be to learn.

Visit our Digital Scrapbooking Index Page for more tips and techniques.