A Few Lightroom Tips

It's no secret that I love Lightroom. Organizing my photos in Lightroom has literally changed my life - and I have to thank Kayla and her wonderful Finding Your Photo Flow class for turning me into a Lightroom convert. Thank you Kayla!

I'm getting pretty good and fast at using Lightroom on a daily basis to organize, edit, and print my photos. Each time I work with the program, I learn a little something extra to speed up my workflow.

One of the best tips I learned was from Kayla - it's a little feature called Auto-Advance. It's the way to make your workflow speed up to lightning-fast. Seriously.

As you go through purging and rating your photos, this setting will automatically advance you to the next photo. Sounds like a little thing, but it makes all the difference in the world as you're using those hotkeys to move through your photos. Kayla explains it all here and if you use Lightroom, you need to turn on this feature right now. You can thank me later.

Another thing making me very happy with Lightroom is the print template feature. I love creating and printing my own photo collages. To me, it's so much faster than working with clipping templates in Photoshop - and I end up with a single print with lots of photos that I printed at home. Plus all the settings for editing and printing are right there to adjust, which (in my mind) seems easier than the way you have to do it in Photoshop.

The one frustration I was having was adjusting the crop of my photos just right before placing it in the print template. I was never quite sure how to crop it before I went over to the Print panel, and then was frustrated when it didn't look quite like I wanted it to. So I'd re-crop my photo, then re-insert it into the print template. It was a cycle that quickly got old.

I need to adjust the crop on that middle photo..

I finally had an ah-ha moment when I realized Lightroom automatically re-loads your re-adjusted photo for you. (I'll insert a "Duh" here for myself.)

So you can re-crop your photo after you place it in your print template by going back to the Develop panel and adjusting the crop.

Adjusting the crop in the Develop panel

And voila... when you go back to the Print panel, your photo will be re-loaded with the new crop.

Lightroom has re-loaded the photo with the new crop

Love that I finally noticed this. (Don't love how long it took me to see it.) It's super helpful when you aren't sure what size you're going to want to print the photo until you see how it looks in your print template.

So, all in all, Lightroom is the best. I'm still working in Lightroom 3, which is fine for me - but I'm hoping to upgrade to version 4 soon. I hear it has a lot more features in the Print module, which sounds exciting to me.

Do you have a Lightroom tip to share? I'd love to hear it...

4x6 Photo Love Sketch Layout

Happy 4th of July! We are having a laid back day today, after shooting off most of our fireworks last night. So I'm taking a few minutes to do a quick layout share...

I'm a huge fan of Shimelle Laine at Shimelle.com. She's an incredible scrapbooking artist and Two Peas Garden Girl. She shares so much at her website each day, and I love to see her videos and tutorials.

One of the classes she led last year at Two Peas was 4x6 Photo Love. Each month, she shared a sketch featuring a 4x6 photo - and the number of photos corresponded to the number of the month. So, for November, it was 11 photos on a single layout. Pretty impressive. I loved the November sketch, and it was perfect for a stack of photos I had been wanting to scrap.

Yep, that's a little 3-photo sleeve in the middle.

And here's the back of that little photo sleeve...

I so love this design - genius from Shimelle. Using the 3-photo sleeve in the middle is the perfect way to add up to 6 more photos to a layout. I'm going to be using this technique again, I'm sure.

And here's how it looks without the extra sleeve...

Shimelle does a video to go with each sketch to show how she puts her layout together. I love that she shows you how to create great embellishment collages and gives you more ideas for how to finish off your layout together. She's the best...

Not sure how I didn't notice that Happy tag was off-kilter when I was taking this photo...oh well.

Thank you Shimelle for giving me the inspiration to get this layout put together...

June 2012 Crafty Round-Up

For 2012, I'm doing monthly round-ups for 2012, based on the class Katie Nelson taught at Big Picture Classes. So what did I create / complete in June?

I did a bit of decorating for summer - an updated mantel and some refreshes around the house.

I made several scrapbook layouts...


And a few digital layouts too.

Spring Social quick page freebie and Woody alpha by Digital Design Essentials, custom handwriting font by Kristen Creech at jessicasprague.com

Shabby Princess - Sandbox Collection kit, template from Papercropz: Vol 8 by NeeNee Designs, font is my custom handwriting font by Kristen Creech at JessicaSprague.com

Ten Pin kit by Peppermint Creative, template by Anna Aspnes

I started working on a new project (thanks for helping, Mom!)

The boys and I made a Father's Day album using this awesome printable from eighteen25. I printed the pages off at home and then used a 4x6 photo album to hold the pages after the boys filled them out. I filled in the rest of the pages with photos of Dad and the boys together.
And finally, I sewed an eReader cover for my Kobo.

What a great month! I know July will bring more fun. Don't forget - if you haven't linked up to this week's Pin-Up Party, there's still time to do that. I would love to see what you've been working on too...

MightyCrafty Mondays

I'm announcing a new endeavor here at my blog - MightyCrafty Mondays. I love sharing projects with my cyber-friends. But as busy as we all are, I find myself on Pinterest more than anything else - always searching for new ideas and inspiration.

To help us all share our projects - but in a quick way - I wanted to host a different kind of link party - a Pinterest-link party. We'll do this on Mondays (hence the name).

I've participated in many link parties, but I know it's hard to comment on everyone's blog even when you love the ideas. But it's super easy to pin the idea to Pinterest (which is what I end up doing 98% of the time). So, let's have a link party where the whole goal is to pin new fabulous ideas to your Pinterest boards. I'm super excited...

Here are the Pin-up Party rules:

1. Share your crafty project in the linky list below. Anything goes! Recipes, home decor, scrapbooking, cards, knitting - anything you've made with your own 2 hands and want to share with us.
• Link directly to your original post - not the homepage of your blog.
• You *must* be the creator/owner of the project you're linking up.
• Don't link up to a store or a giveaway.
• Don't link up to a post that's just a collection of photos from Pinterest or Google. 
2. Link back to this blog in your original post. Grab the link party graphic below.
3. Visit the projects in the linky list and pin the ones you love to your Pinterest boards. (You can also leave some comment love if you have time.)

<a href="http://mightycrafty.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nfNouaZALh3m7t9sa5obJXKmhguwNMMnjTGT5jccb0EzvtfH4ajjO_EArVR25SkA4jD0RUzAhW36A5W_snfOr5hfk4ElrMN7KCf4TlrMmtdU7RlkVKFpQL8tW1YYWwF7NWg5/s1600/MightyCraftyMondaysButton.jpg" alt="MightyCrafty.me" width="125" height="125" /></a>

A couple of notes:

• Only participate if you want your photos pinned onto Pinterest. There's a bit (a lot) of controversy right now over pinning photographs to Pinterest. (Read more here...)
• By participating in this link party, you certify that you have permission to share the photographs on your blog post - so please only link up projects that you've created yourself.
• To protect your own photos, you should add (at least) your blog name to your photos so you can get credit for your ideas on Pinterest. (Even better - follow these ideas from Making the World Cuter to make sure your photos are pinned in the best possible way.)

I'll be visiting / pinning / commenting on all the blogs who participate - and featuring the top views too. I'm hoping this will be a fun way to share what we're working on and get lots of new ideas. I so love to see all the creativity going on. Have fun!

FYI: If you're new to Pinterest and pinning, Amy Lynn Andrews has a great must-read article: The Ultimate List of Pinterest Tips. And another great article about everything-Pinterest is The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest by Confessions of a Slacker Mom.

Layout From Paper Scraps

Sometimes, while I'm cleaning up my craft table after creating a layout, I realize I have way too many scraps.

I keep all my paper scraps in a little basket on my table. It's handy to have them there so I can grab a small piece of something when I need it. But when the basket gets too full, I know I need to do something to clear out some of the scraps. Sometimes I'll make a card. Sometimes I'll punch a bunch of shapes to put in my color drawers.

This time, I made a layout just from scraps.

I sorted through my scraps to find dark, grungy patterns...

I pulled out several that were in the same color family, then trimmed them into 3-inch strips. I layered the strips along the side of the photograph in a single column. Color mist over top helped to unify everything together. Love it...

I did a bit more stash-busting too by using rub-on words and shapes to create the embellishment collage. I have stacks of those Making Memories rub-ons from years ago but I still love them too much to part with them. So I used a bunch on this layout too.

Do you have a bunch of scraps laying around? Try this easy way to use them up. I'd love to see what you create...

DIY Quilted eReader Cover

I love my Kobo eReader. It's not fancy. It's not in color. It's doesn't have a touch-screen. It's incredibly basic. But I love it. I'm an avid reader (see my Goodreads.com widget on the sidebar for what I'm reading right now). And I use my Kobo every single day.

I knew I needed a cover for it but I hadn't found anything that really liked. I wanted to sew something but for some reason or another, the project never made it to the top of my to-do list. Until last week.

I found this iPad Cover Tutorial from One Shabby Chick and I knew it was the one I wanted to make. I love that it has the velcro closure. Most of the patterns I found had a zipper or something fancy for the closure, and I'm too impatient (and not a good enough sewer) for that. Velcro was perfect.

I had all the necessary supplies on hand - and I got to use up (almost) the last of my Basic Grey Origins charm pack.

I quilted the rest of the squares together to make a solid piece of fabric for the outer layer and inner layer.

I love how it turned out. Here's the back...

The tutorial has easy-to-follow instructions - the only change I made was to make it a little larger than I needed so that I could fit my power cord and clip-on light into the pouch with the eReader (for easy travel). Thank you One Shabby Chick for the great pattern...

Linking up to:


      

Product Review: Xyron Creatopia Shapez

I've become a bit of a die-cutting fiend lately. I love cutting my own letters, borders, and journaling shapes out of any paper I choose. I currently have a Big Shot die cutting machine and a Quickutz Revolution. Both machines are great. But it was a bit of a pain to have 2 machines, storage- and space-wise. Plus I like to add adhesive to my paper before cutting it, so I had a third large machine in play - the Xyron Creatopia. I LOVE my Creatopia for putting an even layer of adhesive on my die cut projects. But having to get out all three machines while I was scrapping made me not want to get any of them out.

So one day I was browsing around the web and discovered that I could get a die cut machine that fits inside my Creatopia - the Creatopia Shapez. And I realized that all my prayers were answered. (Okay, I can get a little overly excited about little things.) And we had a garage sale coming up, so if I could sell my Revolution and my Big Shot, I'd have a single machine to do all my die cutting and adhesive-ing (a word I made up). That got me really excited.

I ordered the Shapez set from Create For Less (it's out of stock right now, but you can still get it from Xyron.com). I had to try it out as soon as it arrived.

The process of taking the adhesive cartridge and rolling wheel out of the Creatopia is easy once you get the hang of it. And the die press fits right inside the Creatopia - the platform then folds down to make a nice surface to roll the plates through. Cutting-wise, it works just great, the same as the Big Shot but a bit wider at 6.5" instead of just 6".

You can cut with every kind of die - thick or thin. You can emboss too (in fact, an embossing mat is included, which I had to buy separately for the Big Shot). I was even able to cut with a long Sizzix border die and the long border cutting plate I had for the Big Shot. I had to shim it up a bit to get it thick enough to go through the Shapez cutter, but it worked just great too.

If you want to learn how to really use your die cutting machines, you need to take the A Cut Above class from Online Card Classes.

I know it says it's a card-making class but it's so much more than that. The class covers traditional die-cutting machines and Silhouette/Cameo die-cutting. There are so many moments of "Oh - so that's how you do that..." I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned from this class. It definitely gave me the confidence to get out my die-cutting machines - traditional and electronic - with every layout I've been creating.

Cork letters cut with the Quickutz 4x8 Chocolate alpha die

Overall, I am so very happy with the Shapez die cutting machine. It does everything I did with my Big Shot machine but integrates with my Creatopia so that I have just a single machine to do everything. If you already have a Creatopia and you like to die cut, the Shapez machine is a great solution. If you don't have a Creatopia, you should get one. I'm just sayin'...

On a related note, I was able to sell my Big Shot and my Revolution in my garage sale - so I was able to pay for the Shapez as a break-even deal. Which was a big deal to me since I'm trying to keep to a budget for my scrapping habits. Yay me!