Cathy Zielske's Blog

Layout Share: Spanish Rose

You remember last week when I posted about Aidan's most recent role in The Theater, yes? Well, I realized that it's all well and good how often I blog about my life, but I do need to make a page or two every now and then. So much of my documenting is being done via Project Life—and don't get me wrong, I'm loving this year long experiement—but I still want pages for the kids' albums too.

I grabbed a handful of photos from the show and designed a very simple, old school Cathy kind of layout. No bells and whistles, folks. Just words and photos.

Here's my simple page:

Here's what it looked like before I broke it apart for printing (I'll explain this below.)

JOURNALING READS: Aidan played the lead role in GRS’s first ever musical production, Bye Bye Birdie. Coming right on the heels of playing the White Witch in Narnia: The Musical, she was initially thrilled with getting the part, then the excitement waned just a bit for reasons of which we aren’t completely sure. But on the weekend of the performances, Aidan was really on. Her performance was memorable to say the least. The Shriner’s Club scene was laugh out loud funny. I had tears in my eyes watching my 16-year-old daughter trying to seduce a table full of those shocked Shriner’s Club members. The sight gags were so funny and so well done. We’re so proud of her for doing these shows. It’s quite a remarkable thing to see your child up there being simply amazing. Way to go, yet again, Miss Aidan. Your curtain call was well deserved.

DESIGN NOTES: This is a very simple, photo-intensive page with an asymmetrical balance, in the sense that if you divide this page down the center, the elements are not equal to one another. Notice also the space between the photos and the journaling—all equal on purpose to create an underlying sense of unity. Notice the inch wide cushion of space that surrounds the entire design. This adds a bit more breathing room to a content-rich page. A little note: having the black title box break out of the frame outline and bleed to the edge also adds a small element of surprise to an otherwise very straightforward design.

TECHNICAL NOTES: I designed the entire page using Adobe InDesign. Then, I moved the copied the photos and the title box into a new doc to print those out onto photo paper. Then I printed the remaining journaling and box outline onto white cardstock. I've been doing his process for years. Rather than just print the whole design onto a sheet of 8.5 x 11 photo paper, it gives me the opportunity to do the cutting and pasting that I love in hybrid scrapbooking. One cool tip: I use a program plug in for InDesign called Cropmarks from Cacidi. This little plug in allows you to add crop marks (trimming guides) to each individual photo. Why is this important? It allows you to extend the photo a bit past your crop marks for a true trim to size, so that what you designed is what you end up being able to create.

DIGITAL VERSION: I created a fully layered digital version of this template that you can find here.

 

 

Layout Share: Diagram—Work Life

I'm guessing a lot of you out there work.

And before we start engaging in any debates over what qualifies for "work," let's just clear it up: whether your digs are an office cubicle with chatty co-workers or the laundry room with clinging little ones, what you do in a day is work. Agreed?

I've documented my work before, but I took some self-portraits of myself working last week (for use in Project Life) and I thought: Hey, I should make a page about this. And so I did.

It started with a photo and the idea of making a diagram.

So many days look just like this. Same clothes. Same mug of tea. Same lighting. It's funny, but I have a work trip planned next month and I realized: Sweet Jesus! I have to wear different outfits on consecutive days!

The horror!

Anyhoo… I decided to take my slightly cheeky diagram and turn it into a layout that looks like this:

Here's what it looked like once it was all printed and assembled:

It turned into a simple tribute to my work and my gratitude for being able to do what I do for as long as I have.

JOURNALING READS: In 1999, I walked away from corporate design in America to stay at home with my newborn baby boy. Back then, it was the issue of whether or not we could live on $12,000 a year less. Nearly my entire salary would have gone for day care and downtown parking. Although I did go back to corporate while working for Simple Scrapbooks, I did it from here, my little office cocoon, where so many of my hours are spent. I work here, I make money here, I listen to music here, I connect here, I create here and sometimes I even cry here. I never ever take for granted this opportunity and I try to be grateful for it, even on those months where the income isn’t good and the jobs aren’t fun and the stress is high. Though my work is not who I am, it certainly is part of the definition.

DESIGN NOTES: This page features font harmony (the use of a single font for title and journaling), repetition (the brown color from the headline to the read-in to the date at the end), common margin spacing in and around all of the elements and a slightly asymmetrical balance within a symmetrical framework.

TECHNICAL NOTES: I create the entire page using InDesign. I love InDesign's Line tool and the Stroke options for putting all sorts of different arrowheads on the lines. Each one of the little captions in the photo is a separate text box overlayed onto the photo. I designed the whole page, then copied the photos onto a new InDesign doc, and sent those to print onto photo paper. Then I printed the original page, minus the photos, onto white Bazzil cardstock. The final step was to trim the photos and adhere. Hybrid scrapbooking at its simplest.

Have you documented your work at any time during your memory keeping years? If yes, do share. If not, tell me why you haven't. And above all, consider doing it again.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

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Layout Share: I have something I want to tell you

The past few weeks have seen me experiencing a whirlwind of emotions: first with my daughter leaving the country for eight days, then by living through her absence for those very eight days, and then getting her back safely in one piece.

And what do we do ladies (and scrapbooking dudes) do when we process our life events and innermost feelings? Why, we scrapbook them. Naturally.

I designed a new template with the idea of having something to tell someone, in this case, my now 16-year-old daughter, Aidan. I envisioned it as a letter of sorts. A letter with photos and a title, assembled onto some cardstock.

Here is the finished page:

JOURNALING READS: Time, my dearest daughter, is a bullet train. Now I know this doesn’t really register when you’re 16. Right now, you are infinite. We are infinite. Life moves forward but not in the same way as it does for me. At least not anymore. You had such an amazing adventure in El Salvador and though you’ve been away from home before, something about this trip sent me into a state with which I’m mostly unfamiliar: the state of connecting to the fact that you won’t always live with me.

I know you’re supposed to grow and learn and eventually leave. That’s the path for many children. It was my path and once I left for good, it felt right. And good. And realizing how I’ve traveled this path in my own life made me realize that you too are going to follow your own version and it will result in you not living under this roof anymore. Last week when you were away it really hit home and I was overcome with the sadness of it.

Not sad that you get to live your life; that’s not it at all. I want you to have everything in life that you want; to experience things that bring you passion and joy; to continue forging this amazing, singular identity of yours. I’m so proud of you and your independence. I just want you to know that sometimes,  I will feel a twinge of sadness at this rite of passage in both of our lives. I wouldn’t keep you home forever if I could, but sometimes, the idea of it… well, it puts a smile on my lips.

I just want you to know how much I love you and how thankful I am for our relationship. I still need to get out of the way from time to time, but I think we both know we have something very special here, something kind and supportive and loving. I will always be part of the four walls of your home that support you. And those walls, even when they’re not visible, will be with you for the rest of your life. Love, Mom.

TECHNICAL NOTES: I began this page using a base template and working in Photoshop. I placed all of the elements into the template: photos, words, embellishments. Then, I turned off the photo layers and the date bar layer and date text, and printed the rest out onto a sheet of white cardstock. Next, I turned those photo layers back on, and turned off all the other layers (text and title). I moved the photos in from the edge, moving both the photo and its layer mask together. (I did this by holding down the Shift key and selecting the appropriate layers.) Next with everything moved into the center, I used the Pencil Tool to create some trim guides. Why? Because once I drew the guides, then I could make the layer masks on each photo slightly bigger than they originally were and this would allow for bleed on the photos for trimming. Here's what the page I sent to print onto photo paper looked like:

In essence, I created some hasty crop marks to help me trim the photos to the correct size. That's how you can take the base of any digital template and begin breaking it apart, turning off and on layers to create a hybrid design like mine.

DESIGN NOTES: The balance structure on this design is asymmetrical—if you draw a line down the center, what you have on the left is different than what you have on the right in terms of the space occupied by the elements. I use repetition both in color (orange), font (Archer is the font for the title and journaling), and for elements (the digital flower stamp.) One thing I look for when desiging is how can I align elements so they make sense. Notice in the title how "I have" aligns with the same left edge as the journaling block. It's a simple touch, but looking for subtle alignments is a great way to create a design with unity. Also, I maintained equal amounts of white space around the photos and around the edges of the entire design. Unified and common white space contributes to a sense of purposeful design.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

Celebrating my 100th template release with a layout share + a software giveaway

Many moons ago, long before digital scrapbooking was even a twinkle in my eye, I spent many a day looking through the inspiration over at Two Peas. It was 2002 and people were coming up with the coolest ideas for making layouts.

One of my favorites? The then ubiquitous "100 Things That I Love" concept. You took a sheet of cardstock, grabbed a pen, and had at it. Even a die-hard computer journaler like myself felt the fun and freedom of tackling this themed page.

Fast forward to today and I knew I was coming up on designing my 100th template for my collection over at Designer Digitals. What better way to celebrate than to re-create the "100 Things" concept in a layered digital template?

I didn't look at my original page prior to designing and creating my 2012 version. I wanted to see how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same. Here's the latest and greatest version:

The things that have changed? My children have gotten older. When I looked at my 2002 page and read "The way Cole says Aidan's name—Aine" it made me swallow just a little bit harder than normal. The last time I did this page, my children were little. They're not so little anymore.

The things that have stayed the same? My love for what I do, and for puffy clouds, and for lip balm and for clean sheets, just to name a few.

I adore this concept—whether handwritten on a piece of cardstock (which I actually really love), or journaled out in true digital style—this is a page that lets you simply riff on what you love. Of course, I had to create my 100th template in 8.5 x 11 because that is my tried and true go-to size. This 100th template is all about celebrating what I love to create and the way I go about doing it.

And to further celebrate today, I've got a pretty sweet giveaway for you.

I've got one copy of Photoshop CS5, the full version of Photoshop, that could have your name on it. This program retails for $699. Yep. It surely does. One of my best friends works at Adobe and is hooking one of my blog readers up with a fresh, clean and fully-legal copy of this amazing software.

And that's a pretty sweet piece of software, let me tell you.

UPDATE: My friend John at Adobe, has been reading your comments and is throwing in a second copy of Photoshop CS5. So make that TWO copies of Photoshop that I'm giving away.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY: Leave me a comment today and tell me one thing that you love. That's all I'm curious about. Simple enough, right?

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you not only for supporting my product line at Designer Digitals, but for continuing to come and read my blog, share your thoughts and opinions and generally for giving a damn about what I have to say. It means the world to me.

Thank you so very much.

(And thanks to my life long friend, John, at Adobe. xo.)

This contest will close on Thursday at 9 p.m. and I will choose two random winners. I'll post them on Friday. Good luck.

THIS POST IS NOW CLOSED. Check back tomorrow to see who won, and also there will be another giveaway in the morning.

Layout Share: Faces of Change

A few weeks ago I read a great article in the Sunday Parade magazine called "My Story in Five Faces" by Connie Schultz.

Scrapbooker that I am, I thought: now this would make an awesome concept for a layout. So I set out to translate her concept to scrapbook form. Here's what I ended up with:

I designed a 12 x 12 digital template featuring four slots in which to feature 4 decades. I decided to cover the teens through 40s. If you're not that old, you could do the preteens through the 30s, or if you have more decades, you could turn this into a two-page spread.

I chose to make this page a hybrid project. I simply printed out my photos on separate photo paper, and printed the rest on a sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock.

Clean. Simple. Journaling rich. My kind of page.

JOURNALING READS:  The Teens—Oh, this sweet, young face. When I look back at any photo from my teen years I always see the same thing: a girl who is trying so very hard to be the latest and greatest thing, but is missing the mark and deep down, she kind of knows it. I have a lot of compassion for this face and this girl. I look at her and want to tell her to hold tight; that her style will be coming; that she’s going to feel good in her own skin as soon as she makes the connection that being her—not being anyone else—is a pretty good and desirable thing. I also see way too much hair. Good God! Way too much time spent in hot rollers. I also remember a girl who didn’t want to move her head too quickly for fear of shaking out a those hard-earned loopy curls. Sigh. Those were the days.

The Twenties—Remember that movie called “Stella got her groove back”? I don’t really know what the film was about, but that title is how I felt about me and my 20s. Cathy got her groove back. Actually, because I never had a groove that wouldn’t really be an accurate statement. However, it was in my 20s where I feel like I connected to myself stylistically. It was in my 20s where my confidence —spurred on in my late teens from the whole new wave experience—continued to grow and increase and some might say blossom. In this photo, I’m already living in Minnesota with Dan, and it really was an era of fun, change, love, life and work. I learned to rock the lip liner and lipstick, as well as keep that skin pale, smooth and flawless. Ha!

The Thirties—If I found my groove in my 20s, I definitely capitalized on it in my 30s. But the 30s had one component that the 20s were lacking. Namely, children. I had Aidan when I was 30 and the face that was looking back at me then looked not much like what you see above at all (at age 37). My 30s saw my weight go way up and way down, and that decade probably saw more different faces of me than at any other time in my life. In a sense, the face you see above came towards the end of struggling with identity and how I fit into the world as a mother and later as a self-employed woman trying to make it all work. The hair definitely stayed shorter in the 30s. Again, being a parent, who had time for fussy hair?

The Forties—And here we are today. Key differences? This face needs glasses to see. This face has looser skin around the edges. This face has a bit of extra skin underneath it as well. I wonder if it’s too soon to categorize a decade into which you’re presently planted. I know that so far, my 40s have been good to me, but they have also been surprisingly challenging in some ways as well. I’ve chosen to make my 40s the time of quitting smoking and getting in shape. I’ve chosen to make my 40s about fixing the glitches in my marriage and building a new and different life with Dan. I’ve chosen to grow at a time when I could have sat back and simply said, “Hello status quo.” So this face? Unsure but hopeful. And grateful for every single minute of it.

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TECHNICAL NOTES: I created this page using my No. 99 Layered Template. Once I placed my photos and sized them to my liking, I then dragged all four photos along with their mask layers (dragging one photo and one mask layer at the same time) into a new document for printing. I manually added trim marks using guides and the pencil tool to draw them in, and then I made each layer mask a bit bigger on all four sides to accommodate for a bleed on each photo. I printed the photos onto photo paper. Back in the template, I turned off the photo layers and just printed the rest onto a piece of white 12 x 12 cardstock.

DESIGN NOTES: This page features a very symmetrical balance structure. What you have on the left you have on the right. Also, repetition is strong as the photos and journaling boxes repeat across the page. There is also equal amounts of white space around all of the elements and a nice wide margin of space cushioning the entire design. Font harmony is achieve through the use of a single font for the title works and subheads. Of course, because I own that font, I used it for my journaling as well.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

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To celebrate the release of my 100th template at Designer Digitals, come back tomorrow for a seriously cool giveaway. I'll give you a little hint: It might involve Photoshop CS5.

Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

 

 

Layout Share: Always

I'll admit it: I haven't been doing much traditional scrapbooking of late. Blame it on my Project Life obsession.

Not that I have any problems with being obsessed, but as I was working on my Week 8 stuff, I came across a picture that sparked an idea for a simple page about my girl.

With the stress of last week behind us, I wanted to make a simple, straightfoward page for her album. And I suppose not a lot needs to be said other than here's the layout I made.

I can't remember the last time I used paper flowers and mini brads. I feel so old school right now.

Clean and simple. Reminds me of everything I love about this hobby.

Amen.

TECHNICAL NOTES: I also went "old school" and designed this page using InDesign CS 5.5. I designed the concept on screen, then broke apart the components (photos, titles etc) and printed them out separately. The thing I love about using a page layout program like InDesign is the freedom to quickly come up with exactly what I want to create. It's funny, but I'm so much slower in Photoshop, even though I design all of my Designer Digital templates in that program. InDesign will always be my go-to program for straight up hybrid scrapbooking from scratch.

DESIGN NOTES: I always look for ways to create unity on my page; elements to tie it all together. Here, I repeated the striped patterned paper, as well as repeating a single rounded corner on opposing corners. I also repeated the same font for the title, the journaling and the small word strip, as well as the color of the type, which I sampled from Aidan's shirt using the Eyedropper Tool. Further, I repeated some of the same flowers that you see in the headband she is wearing (something she made last week.)

Also notice the common margin widths on the top and sides. White space is always a critical component of any design I make. It is quiet and it allows everything else to breathe and live within the space. Ahhhh.

SUPPLIES: (Note: the mini brads are so old I don't have links; same with the flowers.)

InLinkz.com

Video Tutorial: How to Recolor PNGs

I designed a new set of 3 x 4 cards last week called Check Cards. The cards are perfect for use in your Project Life pockets and some might say they're kind of adorable.

The set comes as a PNG and ABR set, but also includes sheets of printable PDFs (cards come in black ink only) for those who don't have Photoshop. Today I wanted to show you how to change the color of the PNG files in Photoshop Elements. Once you have this basic approach down, you can apply it to any PNG file you can get your hands on. Following is a short video that demonstrates the steps plus also how to size the cards down for a perfect fit into Project Life Design A page protectors.

 

Watch the video at Vimeo by clicking here.

STEP BY STEP: RECOLORING A PNG
1. Open the PNG file.

2. Go to Edit > Fill Layer. Under Contents, click on Color….

3. From the Color Picker, choose a color you'd like to apply. Make sure "Preserve Transparency" is checked. Click OK. Then click OK again. The color will apply to only the image content.

STEP BY STEP: SIZING DOWN 3 x 4 CARDS in PSE
1. To change the width of the card to 2-7/8 wide (the actual width of Project Life cards), or 2.875, go to Image > Resize > Image Size. In the Width field, type in 2.875. Make sure that Scale Styles, Constrain Proportions and Resample Image are all checked. Click OK.

2. To change the height of the card to 3-15/16 (the actual height of Project Life cards), or 3.9375, go to Image > Resize > Canvas Size.

3. Click on the Center Anchor Point. Change the height to 3.9375.

4. This will add an equal amount of extra space to the top and bottom of your page. Your card is now sized correctly.

STEP BY STEP: PRINT MULTIPLE CARDS ON AN 8.5 x 11 DOCUMENT
1. Take your finished PNG file and flatten the file (Layer > Flatten Image), then double click on the locked Background layer to create a new Layer 0.

2. Create a new 8.5 x 11 document (File > New > Blank File).

3. From the upper control bar area under the Arrange Documents icon, choose Float All in New Windows.

4. Click on the PNG file window, then go to the Layer 0, click on the layer and drag over to the 8.5 x 11 document and release. The file should copy into the new document.

5. To add a trim line to the card file, go to Layer > Layer Style > Style Settings and check the box before Stroke, then change the stroke weight to "1 px." Click OK. Repeat for more cards.

FRACTION CONVERSION CHART
As mentioned in the video, I have this nifty little chart I use all the time when working on digital and hybrid scrapbooking projects. It converts fractions to decimals and millimeters which is very handy when converting for sizing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Download, print and enjoy!

Download CZ_Fractions2Decimals

Questions? Comments? Post in the comments and I'll do my best to answer. And look for my full Project Life post on Thursday.

This set is on sale today at Designer Digitals. To purchase, click here.

A Tiny Templates Tutorial + a free fraction conversion chart download for you

I have a new digital product at Designer Digitals called Tiny Templates.

The idea is very simple. Seven 3 x 4 layered digital templates that allow you to create tiny little cards containing photos and a story. I created them for use in my Project Life album, and I'll be posting about my Week 3 of Project Life later in the week, but today the Tiny Templates are on sale and I thought I'd show you exactly how to use them, and how to size them to fit exactly into the Project Life Design A small pockets.

I put together a 20-minute video walking you through working with one of the templates, including how to size the templates down. Just a word of caution: you may see Tiny Elvis at some point during the clip.

You can watch the clip at Vimeo by clicking here.

I wanted to include the written instructions for resizing a 3 x 4 file to fit perfectly into the Project Life Design A page pockets. You can always trim them down after printing them at full size, but heck, why not just print them at the exact size and employ the use of crop marks for easy trimming? It's your choice!

SIZING DOWN 3 x 4 CARDS STEP-BY-STEP in PSE
1. To change the width of the card to 2-7/8 wide (the actual width of Project Life cards), or 2.875, go to Image > Resize > Image Size. In the Width field, type in 2.875. Make sure that Scale Styles, Constrain Proportions and Resample Image are all checked. Click OK.

2. To change the height of the card to 3-15/15 (the actual height of Project Life cards), or 3.9375, go to Image > Resize > Canvas Size.

3. Click on the top Anchor Point. Change the height to 3.9375.

4. This will add a small amount of extra space to the bottom of your page. You will need to adjust your elements to fit the space, including moving the Background layer clipping mask down to fit, or moving your photos or type layers down to fit.

FRACTION CONVERSION CHART
I have this nifty little chart I use all the time when working on digital and hybrid scrapbooking projects. It converts fractions to decimals and millimeters which is very handy when converting for sizing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Download, print and enjoy!

Download CZ_Fractions2Decimals

Questions? Comments? Post in the comments and I'll do my best to answer. And look for my full Project Life post on Thursday.

 

 

 

Holiday Hybrid Page + Step by Step Video

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at the Zielske household, and I know what you're thinking, "Um, yeah… it's about time, Zielskes."

Traditionally, we get our tree in mid-December. This year, I was pushing for an earlier pick up, but the kids have been indoctrinated with the "be patient" Zielske way [read: that would be the more male Zielske influence at work here]. But I will admit to you: I don't go very mental at Christmas.

We don't have a ton of decorations and we usually try to keep the holiday a bit more low key. About four years ago, I even stopped sending Christmas cards. As my list grew to well over 100 people, it started to become such a tedious chore. I recall thinking, "Where's the joy in this?" and that was the question that helped me to be clear on what really needs to happen during the holidays. We just need to be.

That said, we did find the perfect little tree, as we do every year. I grew up with an artificial tree, so every year I've lived with Dan has always been a bit of a treat, the whole going out and getting a tree thing. This year, however, it did seem a bit like no one was that geeked to head out. Granted, it was bitterly cold that day and the kids are getting older so it's not as much fun to dart in and out of the rows of trees. I found myself wishing everyone was on the same holiday spirit page. I think I walk a fine line between wanting to keep Christmas in perspective and wanting to go mental over it.

But I'll save my issues for my therapist! Let's get to scrapbooking, shall we?

This page features a few digital products, combined with good old cardstock and a photo. (And thanks to Aidan's friend, Martha, for snapping the shot of us on our tree getting outing!)

I get emails frequently from people who would love to dabble in digital but find it intimidating or confusing. I've put together a short video showing you how to take a few digital products and create a hybrid scrapbook page.

This page is built around one of my Story Card 4 x 6 photo overlays.

Click here to see the video over at Vimeo.

 

Here are the steps to help you duplicate what is shown in the video.

STEP-BY-STEP

1. Create a base document. (Mine is 8.5 x 11).

2. Open a 4 x 6 Story Card PNG file. Copy and paste into base document.

RECOLOR ELEMENTS OF THE PNG
1. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, drag a selection around the portion of the small title you'd like to change the color of. Once selected, go to Layer > New > Layer via cut to cut and paste that part of the title onto a new layer.

2. To color this new layer, go to Edit > Fill Layer and under Contents choose Color…. Then use the color picker to find a color you like. Click OK, and then OK again. Your element should be recolored.

3. Repeat the Layer via Cut from the Original Layer to break apart the other elements for re-coloring.

ADD A TEXT BOX
1. Click on the Horizontal Text Tool and drag an area on your page where you want your column of text to appear.

2. Type in your journaling, then change the font, size and leading using the controls in the upper tool bar.

ADD IN GRAPHIC PNG ELEMENTS
1. Open a PNG graphic file. Copy and paste into your base document.

2. Click on one corner handled to size down to what you'd like the image to be.

3. Re-color image as directed in Recolor Elements of the PNG.

4. Make sure the elements appear in the Layers palette below the Original Layer, so they appear to be behind the overlay outline.

5. Duplicate graphic by going to Layer > Duplicate Layer. Drag into place on the page.

 

SUPPLIES: Holiday Story Cards 1 (Cathy Zielske) • Graphically Scrolled No. 01 Brushes & Stamps (Katie Pertiet) • Orange Peel Texture 8.5 x 11 white cardstock (Bazzill Basics) • Mrs. Eaves font

Holiday page and process

With a wintry 5 or 6-inch snowfall this past weekend, it was the perfect time to stay in pajamas, pour an extra cup of Joe, and play with my Thanksgiving photos. In other words, it was Sunday Scrapbooking Time.

It started out with a base template and a computer. First up, select photos:

You know, this part never causes me much stress. I took (or rather, Aidan took) around 75 shots on Thanksgiving, low by Zielske standards, but I knew that a handful or random photos would be just enough for the visual story because I had a whole other page to actually tell the story.

With the key pieces in place, it was time to send files to print. The photo page went onto a sheet of photo paper; the journaling onto a piece of white cardstock.

Now this could have sufficed. Done and done, put it into the family album. But I really wanted to cut and paste. I love scrapbooking with my computer but I also love a little bit of cut and paste. So, I cut apart all of the photos, trimming very close to the edges to preserve the sizes.

Ahhh, there they are. All ready to go.

Next up, select a background cardstock from my stash.

Sometimes I think my colored cardstock gets a bit lonely with my affinity for basic white. But I managed to select a holiday color to complement the bit of color on my journaling page. The other motivation behind the cut and paste was to try out this new Scotch Dot Roller adhesive.

For those of you who were Kokuyo fans, I have been told that Scotch bought them and that this adhesive is essentially the same thing. Honestly, it seemed like the real deal, minus 2 percent. That's my official review. In short, it's a great replacement.

And the adhering began…

After the photos were down, they looked like this.

Just a nice pop of color for a base. Simple. Clean. Done.

But then I thought, "What if I dressed up the journaling page with some stamps and paint?" In other words, why not get a little nutty and crafty?

But the problem with me getting nutty and crafty is that things sometimes end up looking like ka-ka du jour.

Stamp placement? Not part of my overall skill set. Next.

Okay, that's better… whew! I just pulled an old sheet of scalloped cardstock out from my ancient stash and it was just the right bit of scrapbooky goodness to call it done.

Try as I might, I just like simple. Simple designs, simple approaches, simple execution. It's just the thing that keeps me coming back for more. Simple is good.

JOURNALING READS: In the Zielske family proper, there are five kids and we’ve started alternating the Thanksgiving hosting duties. It actually started a number of years ago. One year will be at Joanie’s, then the next, a sibling, then Joanie, and onto the next sibling. Our first stab at hosting the holiday was back in 2006. It wasn’t the first bird I’ve ever made, but it was definitely the biggest of the batch. So this year, it was our turn to host once again. Actually, it was a toss up between us and Deb, but Dan really wanted to host, especially with our house remodeling project being completed. I think we both wanted to test out our new family room with actual family.

I started the preparations the Saturday prior, getting my 18-pound bird in time for a full fridge defrost.  I really wasn’t stressed out about what had to be done, even knowing that we’d have less people bringing actual dishes to share, because Joy and John were both eating at their other families’ homes. The night before Thanksgiving, I made Sarah’s yummy cranberry chutney, and a doubled batch of sausage stuffing. We had a Lady Gaga HBO concert blaring in the background.

I always say, nothing like Lady Gaga to inspire a holiday sense of gratitude, right? I also cooked up the squash, and made sure the bird was in prime defrost mode. (Side note: at the last minute, I decided to brine the bird, until I realized you technically don’t brine self-basted, frozen turkeys. Yes, I ended up dumping all the brine after Googling whether or not I should have done it in the first place. God bless the Internet.

The day arrived (with unseasonably warm temps on tap), and after shaking off a wee bit of morning stress (and having a glass of wine at noon) everything turned out beautifully. From the most perfectly done turkey you could hope for, to breaking in our new electric knife that was a gift from my parents, our day was full of family, noise, food and gratitude. There is a reason this is my favorite holiday. It’s just about celebrating all that is good and all that we have. So glad we hosted on Sheldon Street this year.

SUPPLIES: Layered Template No. 97 (Cathy Zielske) • white cardstock • photo paper (Ilford)

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In other news, I'm happy to announce that I'm on board to be part of Becky Higgins' creative team for Project Life in 2012. I dabbled in Project Life this past year, and am really looking forward to working with some of her new products and finding a way to make it fit into my memory keeping process. Plus, I'm honored to work along side all of these other talented women. I'll be sharing my work on Becky's site and here as well beginning in January. Thanks, Becky! Glad to be part of it all, friend.