Make Your Own Digital Scrapbooking Papers in Photoshop

In case you missed my guest post over at Libearate Creativity, here it is.

Today I have fun tutorial for anyone who likes digital scrapbooking.  If you get sick of the freebies out there and don't want to pay for more, start making your own background papers!  Here are a couple of my favorites that I've created lately.  If you like them feel free to click on them and then right click to save it to your computer. 

Ready to create your own?  Here's How:

Create a new document: 2 inches x 2 inches, 300 ppi.

Fill the square with a design.  Typically you start by choosing a color and using the paint bucket tool to add a background color.  From there you can draw in a design (which I have done and being no artist, it can still turn out!) or using the custom shape tool (which is what I did below). 

Don't have many custom shapes?  Lady Oak is a great place to download loads of free custom shapes!  I typically like to place my shapes randomly.  If you do place them in a tidy order like I did below, make sure to put them closer to the edges otherwise your finished product will end up boxy, as you'll see in the end.

Now, go into the edit menu and define a new pattern.

Now you're done with the 2x2 image, you can save it if you want, I usually don't.  Open a new image that's 12x12, also 300 ppi.

Once you have your new document open, go to "edit", "fill" and choose the new pattern  you just saved.  Voila!  You've got a 12x12 scrapbooking page.  Now we'll just add some finishing touches.

To do that, go into the texture tool and play around!  I almost always add a canvas or burlap texture to make it look like actual paper, but often I find other fun effects in there that add nice touches.  It's fun to play around with!

Once you're happy with your finished product just save it as a jpeg and you're good to go!

Make Your Own Digital Scrapbooking Papers in Photoshop

I am being featured over at Liberate Creativity today.  Go check out my tutorial for making your own digital scrapbooking background papers!

"Owl Love You" Free Digital Scrapbooking Kit

I found this over at Chanin's Corner, isn't it adorable?  She designed it and is offering it as a free download for her readers.  I love her blog, she's always go great stuff going on over there.  Click here to head over there and download it for your Valentine's Day scrappin'.

Digi Scrapping

here's what I've been up to lately:

If you can read the dates you'll see I'm playing catch up, but still, isn't scrapbooking fun?  I find digital scrapbooking way less intimidating then traditional scrapbooking because if I make a mistake I can fix it with just the click of a mouse.  Anyways, if any of you haven't visited Shabby Princess, do so!  They've got tons of cute, FREE digital scrapbooking kits. 

On another note, we are moving yet again.  I know, ridiculous, right?  Well here's an explanation: we are unexpectedly expecting baby #2!  I can already tell this little one's a trouble maker because he/she is coming about 4 years earlier than planned, lol.  Little Sam is only 11 months old and I am already over 4 months preggo.  We were pretty blindsided by the news and to handle it I let go of everything that wasn't absolutely required of me (thus no blog entries for awhile) BUT we have had enough time to accept it and I'm excited to welcome another little cutie into our family.  Of course on those days when Sam is grumpy I wonder how I'm going to handle two babies, but once they are old enough to really play together they'll have lots of fun :) We find out in 6 days if it's a boy or a girl.  I'm nervous, really hoping for a girl so I can have one of each, but we'll see. 

So my whole point in bringing this up: we are moving to a smaller place.  Opposite of what you would think, right?  With two babies we won't be able to comfortably afford our current place (remember the hubby's still in school) so it's time to downgrade.  There is an apartment complex I have my eye on because of it's great location but it has no official dining room.  We are looking at some bar tables and stools to see if we could squeeze one of those in the corner of the living room, but we'll see.  I'll miss our dining room table, but how often do we really have company for dinner anyways?  And they do have some cute bar tables out there! 

Well I hope you don't mind me divulging my personal life here :)