Baby Album

Now that multipage cutting works again. I can finally get down to business. When I design an album, in its entirety, I like to use the multipage function so that I can see the flow of the album and make sure it is appealing.

I am making a baby album for a friend of mine. She is not a scrapbooker. There are a few things to consider when making an album for a non-scrapbooker. First remember that the picture comes first. I love tons of embellishments and different size photos. I like being artsy with my personal pages. But for a friends album that I am not sure of their artsy side, I try to keep it simple and not too busy. You also have to remember that they may not also be into photography or have a photo editing software. They probably just use a point and shoot camera, center their subject on the screen and push the button. They probably take horizontal pictures and sometimes when they feel wild, they will turn their camera side ways and get a vertical shot. Now that they have taken their pictures, they will take them to their local Walgreens, CVS or Walmart and print doubles in 4X6 and maybe a 5X7. Oh, and don't forget to ask if there is a theme to their baby room. In this case the theme was princess and the room is done in pastels with focus on pink and purple.

You have to take all this information into consideration when creating an album for this friend. You are limited on photo placement and size (4X6 and 5X7) and most of your photo placements should be horizontal. You also want it to make it as easy for them as possible. They will probably print out their pictures, take some office tape, role it up so that it becomes double sided and place the picture in the album. They will probably write the date in the journal spot. And that is fine. You want to make the album that easy for them. Remember, they are not a scrapbooker and any more than that and they will tuck it away and your album will never be seen again.

This album will consist of 26 12X12 pages. 24 of them will be displayed as a double layout and one will be the title page and one will be the back page. Because I have 26 pages to do and very limited time (the baby was born 10/13/2009..I am already late), I had to do much of designing on the go. (Thank you Gypsy). But I also had to use 3 or 4 basic templates. I am switching up the elements on double layout per template. And the templates will be spaced out so that all the pages don't look the same back to back but the book will look cohesive because the use of a few templates will help the album flow. ( I hope I am making sense.)




This is the title page. I made two pockets with large tags inside them. The pockets were made out of acetate teachers use for overhead projectors. For the life of me I can't think what that is called. It was sewn onto the pattern paper on three sides and down the middle. I then created the tags in my Gypsy using TBBM, StoryBook and GBS. There is one tag for mom and one for dad so that they can journal wishes for their new baby or blessings.



As you can see, the title page has two pages. One is the layout design and page 2 is the page that has the actual cuts. One of the items that didn't make it to the cut mat was the rectangle I used from GBS that served as a placement for the acetate pocket. I had it there so that I could design the tags the right size.

For the first template, I used a 5x7 picture on the left and two 4x6 on the right. I have 4 pages done with this basic template...well I will when I am done. I am currently working on the second page of this template. The frog prince is the theme of this one.

I didn't one to leave the photo placements a bare white spot so I used small patterned paper as place holders, then framed them twice.



I added small decorative frames to the bottom. They are only glued down on three sides so that the picture will be able to slide onto the frame. I also put a little journal spot on the page for mommy to write.

Here is a picture of my Gypsy file. I used a 12X24 inch mat to do my design my double page layout. Each page has a different theme, frog, butterfly, crown, etc. But the last page of my file is the page that I actually do all my cutting and I only place things on the left side of the mat (the first 12 inches). When you do this, you can use a 12X12 to cut your design, even if you used 12X24 mat to design.



Some people like to cut out everything, for the whole album, before they start working on a page. I found that I prefer to work on one double page layout at a time. Designing probably took the longest. I had to create templates that met the criteria of photo sizes, come up with themes for each page, create new designs, etc. Now, all I am doing is cutting, grabbing the coordinating paper then gluing, stamping embossing. Over the next few days I will be adding pictures of the pages as I complete them. My plan is to do a double layout per day. Hopefully I can be done in the next two weeks so that I can give my friend her gift.

Update for Gypsy dated 01/22/2010 work!

Hallelujah! Can i get an amen? I was on the infamous build 155 for the past few weeks. I missed the update to 158 that caused some new Gypsy owners to freeze up and send their Gypsies back to ProvoCraft. I believe it worked for all the existing users that stayed current on updating their Gypsies. But being stuck with build 155 has been frustrating to say the least.

I was in the middle of designing a 25 page album for a friend when I updated to 155. This album consisted of multiple multipage designs. To my dismay, build 155 broke the multipage feature. And I believe build 158 would have fixed it for me an not froze my G, it was pulled before I had a chance to download it.

So when PC sent out an update on a Friday afternoon, the beginning weekend of CHA, I was hesitant to do it. But someone said it worked for them. So I crossed my fingers and after a long day at a swim meet with my daughter, I decided to do the update. And it seems to have worked. I have not been able to cut a test file because we are at the final day of the swim meet and I won't be home until late this evening. But when I do a cut preview everything looks great. Even the preview of a multipage was bad on 155. My Gypsy is now on build 159. It did not give me the photo application that came with build 158. However, if you are currently on 158 and have the photo app. When you do your update, you will get build 160 and you will still have your photo app.

Carry all your handbooks in your pocket

Ok, I admit it. I am a techno geek. I love everything electronic. Give me $100.00 and tell me I can either spend it at Best Buy or WhiteHouseBlackMarket and I will run to Best Buy. Tell me I can spend it anywhere and I will run to my local scrapbook store By Design Scrapbook Boutique . But a close second is anything electronic.

So it didn't surprise my husband in October when I found a way to use my IPhone for scrapbooking. After receiving my Gypsy and playing with it for a while, I realized that there are some images that I need the manual to figure out all the layers or features of a certain cartridge. The whole reason I bought the Gypsy is to leave my carts and manuals behind and create on the go.

The it donned on me. I always have my IPhone with me. Figure out a way to put them on the IPhone. So that is what I did. There are two ways to do it.

Option 1
Create a book mark in Safari or create an Icon on your Home Screen for each manual

1. From your Home screen on your IPhone, hit the safari button
2. Go to cricut.com
3. Tap the information tab at top of screen
4. Tap Cartridge Library Icon
5. Scroll down to the desired manual (you may need to magnify your screen by using the backward pinch technique on your screen)
6. Tap View in the handbook column
7. Once the handbook comes up on your screen, tap the + sign at the bottom of your IPhone
8. You can choose Bookmark if you want to only add a Bookmark within Safari (very similar to "add to favorites" on your Internet on your computer. OR
9. You can choose Add to Home Screen
10. Whichever you choose, another screen will pop up giving you the option to name the bookmark or Home Screen icon.
11. The cursor will blink in the name field. Just type the name of your Cartridge in that field.
12. Tap Add at the top right.
13. If you chose add to Home Screen, your Safari will close and on your IPhone you will see a new icon for that direct link to that web page.
14. If you chose add Bookmark, when you open Safari, hit the little book icon on the bottom left and a list of bookmarks will come up and just tap the desired bookmark.

This option works for both the Itouch and IPhone. However, you need Internet access to get to the handbooks. So if you have your Itouch and you do not have Internet access you won't be able to see the handbooks. If you have your IPhone, you can do this but depending if you are on the G network, E network or wifi will depend on the speed of which the handbook will load.

Option 2

Use a PDF Reader and download handbooks to your IPhone or Itouch. This option works well for both because you only need Internet access for the initial set up. Once it is set up, you will just open the application on your IPhone and then open the handbook that you want to see.

1. Make sure both your device (IPhone or Itouch) and your computer are on the same wifi network (If you are doing this at home, more than likely your device is on the same wifi as your computer)
2. On your computer, Create a folder for the handbooks
3. Go to your Internet and go to the Cricut Cartridge Library
4. Download the desired handbooks to your new folder on your computer (To do this, click view on column for handbook, the manual will pull up in PDF format, when the handbook pulls up, tap file on the left side of screen, then 'save as" and find your folder, name your file and then click save.)
5. On your IPhone, open your PDF Reader application. (if you don't have one, go to the App store and search for PDF Reader and purchase. I think it was 1.99).
6. When you open your PDF Reader you will see an IP address at the top of the screen. (Get your glasses on because it is small) it will look something like this: http://%20192.168.1.205:2000/
7. Whatever the IP address is on your home screen of your PDF Reader, type it exactly as it reads on your computer in your Internet address bar.
8. You computer Internet will go to a screen that says "IPhone Http Server"
9. Tap the browse button, this will allow you to browse your computer and look for the handbooks you downloaded onto your computer earlier
10. Once you select the handbook you want to add to your IPhone or Itouch, click the open button on the screen and your computer file screen will close and you will be back at the Internet site for the Http server.
11. Click upload.
12. The PDF version of the handbook will miraculously appear on your IPhone or Itcouh within the application.
13. Repeat steps 8-11 until you have downloaded all the PDFs you want onto your Itouch or IPhone.

Remember, in order for you to get your handbooks onto the PDF reader on IPhone or Itouch, your computer and your device must both me on the Internet via wifi. Here is the link to applications official how to. But once they are on your device, internet access is no longer needed.

I hope this has been helpful. If you are more of a visual learner, let me know and I will do a video on how to do this. On a side note, I am in the process of updating my blog so you may see it change colors or see some wacky stuff. I can only do it in the morning between 4 am and 6 am, so sometimes I may need to leave in the middle of it. So I am asking for forgiveness in advance.

It's all coming up blossoms...cherry blossoms that is

I was at the mall today and came across a wonderful outfit for my IPhone. Now you are probably wondering why I am blogging about my IPhone on my scrapping blog. Well it is because my IPhone is very much a part of my scrapping world.

You see, I save page sketches to it. I visit blogs and messageboards from it. I even store all my Cricut cartridge manuals on it. So it only stands to reason that it wears an outfit that compliments my Gypsy. When they finished dressing her, I showed the guys at the Zagg kiosk my Gypsy. They were in so much awe. They had no idea what it was but I saw the love in their eyes for her. They fell in love with her for her shear beauty.

If your mall doesn't have a kiosk, you can get them at zagg.com. And while you are at it, see about getting a franchise because they are busy all day long everyday. I have never seen so much action around a kiosk.

I am designing one for my laptop. I found another place to get a skin for it that is customizable. It is skinit.com . I hope to have it before the Houston Swarm in February.

I am back

Well the holiday season is over and I am sort of back to a normal routine. To say the least, I finally have some breathing room to make videos and show some of the projects I have made or in the process of making.

Many of you may have or are following Christmas with the Cricut, now called Calendar Girls Holidays with the Cricut. This blog is fabulous. Well over the holidays, I believe it was Mandy that did a project with shadow boxes. I simply loved it! I loved it so much that I made them for my brother and sisters. It is a picture taken at my dad's 80th birthday party. It was the first time in 10 years that one of my sisters has been back to Texas. So it was the first time in 10 years that we all got together. What better way to remember it than to give everyone a beautiful frame with a picture of the occasion? And think out of the box, you can do this for Valentine's day also for a loved one.