Christmas Around the World

Free! Get it while you can!

The ultimate digital scrapbooking Christmas mega-mega kit is now available. This kit has like 60 designers contributing and will have hundreds of pieces. It's available free from today, December 10, 2007 until December 16, 2007 only so get it while you can.

A special blog has been set up to access this kit. It's called, Christmas Around the World Kit! The URL is: http://christmasaroundtheworldkit.blogspot.com/. The blog will have a list of links to the blogs of the participating designers. You'll have to hop from blog to blog to download all the pieces. Expect slow downloading at times as this will be a very popular kit, sure to have something something to please everyone.

I'll be busy downloading this kit over the next few days. I just know this is going to make my hard drive groan! I know you have Christmas photos just waiting to be used in scrapbook pages. Here's the ultimate digital scrapbooking kit... for free!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Here in America we don't really celebrate St. Nicholas Day the way they do in other countries. In Poland, for instance, Sw. Mikolaj brings all the children their presents on December 6th rather than on Christmas.

Whether you call him St. Nicholas, Sw. Mikolaj, or Santa Claus... whether he comes on December 6th or on Christmas... he is loved by children (and adults) around the world. I'll bet you have some photos of yourself and/or your loved ones with the gift-giving dude. In honor of St. Nicholas Day, here's a great free digital scrapbooking kit so you can create wonderful layouts with your photos.

This kit was make by Moune? (sorry but the blog is in French and I can't find the designer's name). Anyway, go to her blog http://escrapade.canalblog.com/ and scroll down to 21 November 2007 and you'll see the download link right below the image.


Here's a page I created with this kit.



Your turn! Let's see what you can do with the St. Nicholas kit...

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Jasia's Christmas Card

Here's the cover of my Christmas card for 2007. It was created using the November megakit at SAS.


The photo is of the Nativity at Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit, Michigan.

Another Place and Time: Holland 2

I wanted to let you know about a non-Christmas ethnic kit while I'm at it. It's a follow-up kit for Holland by Lia Holland which I featured previous on this blog. Lia did a great job with her first kit and now she's created another kit of Holland that is just as great if not better than the first!

You can download Lia's second kit here. Aren't these terrific kits?!!! No excuses now...

Go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Russian and Aussie Christmas

The digital scrapbooking blogs I follow are all in full swing with Christmas and Hanukkah kits being featured left and right. I've been on the lookout for any Christmas kits with an ethnic or era theme. Victorian Christmas kits are fairly common and I'll be posting some of them in an upcoming blog post. Other than that, there haven't been too many for me to share with you here. However, dear Kyra has created both Russian and Aussie themed Christmas kits that are just adorable!

Ded Moroz is the title of the first kit. You can see right off that this is the Russian one. It's a great little kit and you can download it here.



The next kit is called, An "Aussie" Christmas. This is large kit with lots of great embellishments. Makes me wish I had some Aussie ancestors! Check it out...

Don't ya just love it? You can download Kyra's Aussie Christmas kit here. Don't forget to leave a note of thanks for Kyra. She's one hard working designer!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Mayan and Oriental

Who's got Mayan ancestors? ...raise your hand.

I'm not seeing any hands go up. Hmm.

I guess there aren't many of you who have traced your family history back that far, eh? Well, if there should come a time when you do, I have just the digital scrapbooking kit for you!

Here's a kit called, Mayan Delights, by Lesley at the Nutkintails Designs blog. Don't you just love the bold, rich colors? Terrific! You can download this kit here.

If you have Asian ancestry, perhaps the Let's Go Oriental kit would be more to your liking. This wonderful kit was designed by Snowraven and is available here on her Snowraven's Cave blog.


I hope you enjoy these kits offered for free by these talented and generous designers. Don't forget to let them know you appreciate their efforts!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Time to Make Your Custom Christmas Gifts!

Only 35 more days until Christmas! I know you don't want to hear about it yet but the time will fly by quicker than you think. If you're planning to make custom gifts for Christmas the time to start is now! I know you may be thinking that a family history book or family cookbook would take too long to put together. Calendars... you can never find enough of the right photos? Here's an idea that's quick to create, inexpensive, very personal, and is sure to get you oohs and ahhhs.

Remember your loved one with a photo Christmas ornament!

Custom Christmas ornaments are a snap to create at CafePress. All you have to do is go the site, click on "Make Your Own Stuff", then "Fun Stuff", then scroll down till you see the ornaments (round or oval) and click on one. The web site will take you step-by-step through uploading your photo and ordering your ornaments. You can literally do this start to finish in less than 15 minutes! And the price can't be beat... $5.99 per ornament! (Plus a small charge for shipping.) These aren't tacky-looking plastic ornaments, they're ceramic. And they are beautiful.


These are the ones I created just last week. Aren't they lovely? I collect Christmas ornaments and I add new ones to my personal collection each year. So these I made for myself, not as gifts. These are remembrance ornaments. I lost my mother this year, and my cat and cousin last year. I created an ornament for each of them that will hang on my tree. On the backs of each, I wrote a short message in permanent marker. I've made some photo ornaments in the past inserting photos into photo-frame ornaments I bought at the store, only to find that the photos had faded by the next year. These photos ornaments won't do that!


Here are some custom Christmas ornament ideas for all you genealogists and family historians.

• If you attended a wedding this year and took pictures of the bride and groom (you did take your camera didn't you?) you can make the most unique and appreciated "First Christmas Together" ornament they will ever see! A great Christmas gift!
  


• How about set of 4 ornaments on a common theme for a friend... say the two of you together over the years. They will love it!
  


• If you have vintage family photos you could make a fabulous set of ornaments that will have visitors to your home asking, "Where ever did you get these?". I'm planning to do this with some of my period family photos... one from each decade.
  


• Got teenagers in your house? Surprise them with one of these in their Christmas stocking. They'll treasure a photo ornament of themselves with their boyfriend/girlfriend!
  


• Never know what to get for your elderly aunt, mother, father, neighbor? Make them a set of four ornaments featuring the faces of their loved ones! Even if they don't put up a Christmas tree they'll find a place to hang them!
  


• Even younger children and preteens will get a kick out of receiving a photo ornament with them and their BFF (best friend forever)!
  


• You could do a set of travel photos from places you've visited. You can enjoy them on your tree now and pass them down to your children or grandchildren as a remembrance of you in years to come!

The possibilities are endless. The pleasure they bring will be as well.

A bit of advice if you decide to create your own custom ornament. Keep to simple photos. Close-up portraits with solid backgrounds work very well. You can use an image that has a whole scene in it but people will have to lean in close to see what it is.

Ready to get started? Here's the place...

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

My Veteran Uncle

Here is a layout I did today to honor my uncle. Sigmund Lisowski was in the United States Air Corps during WWII. I used Sindiego's Lest We Forget kit (for U.S. veterans) along with a paper from digidiva's Autumn Essentials Papers (sorry, I don't have the link).

Remembering the Veterans

In honor of Veteran's Day here in the U.S., Remembrance Day in Canada, and Poppy Day in the UK, I am sharing with you some free digital scrapbooking kits on that theme this week instead of the usual Era/Ethnic kits.

The first and second kits are offered by Sindiego at the Sindiego's Scraps blog. Here is Lest We Forget for American veterans. You can download it here.


And here is Lest We Forget for Canadian veterans. You can download it here (same link).

And here is a kit for UK veterans called Poppy Day by Snowraven on the Snowraven's Cave blog. You can download it here.

Let's all take a moment on this special day to remember those who fought for freedom. If you can make the time to create a scrapbook page of a veteran using one of these beautiful kits, even better. If you do, be sure and drop a line or leave a comment for the ladies who created the kits. They would love to see your creation! (And of course we want to thank them for their generosity too!)

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: London

The freebie kit I'd like to show you today comes from Jane at MyWalkingLife.net. This one is called National Geoscraps: London. This kit looks really wonderful! Jane has created the kit in 3 parts and so far only Part I is available for download. Part I is the background papers and they look terrific! You can download Part I here. Here's a preview of the kit.

You'll have to check back on Jane's blog to get parts 2 & 3 when they are released. You don't want to miss out on this really neat kit!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Art Deco

I've been showcasing a lot of ethnic kits lately. That's because I haven't come across any era kits to share with you. That is until I came across this really neat Art Deco kit by the lovely and charming Kyra. It's called, "A Simple Art Deco Kit", and the name says it all!


This is a nice kit for those of you looking to capture the era of the 1920s and 1930s. Kyra has done a great job of including period pieces. I love this era and I wish I would see more kits offered for it. It was such an exciting time with gangsters and flappers! If you liked the musical "Chicago" you know what I'm talking about.

You can get Kyra's kit here. Be sure and remember to say thank you to her for sharing her kit with us!

Whew! 5 posts today... a whole week's worth in one day! I'm caught up for now :-)

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Quirky Scrapbooking

Here's the latest style of scrapbooking that has caught my interest. It's commonly referred to as "quirky". I stumbled upon it several months back when I first discovered digital scrapbooking. Or should I say I stumbled on a web site with a gallery of this type of scrapbooking and I fell in love with it. I didn't realize then that it was it's own style. I just knew I liked it better than most of the other stuff I was seeing. I remember bookmarking the site but now I can't find it :-(

Anyway, here's a site about "quirky" scrapbook design, DigitalArtQuirks.com. It bills itself as, "a brand new home to an ever growing community of digital artists and computer crafters, exploring and expressing themselves through art forms such as Art Journaling, Collage, Art Trading Cards, Altered Art and even scrapbooking that digs a little deeper or steps outside of the box."

The idea is that instead of creating a scrapbook page of say Aunt Lizzie as a flapper back in the 1920s (using classic photos and standard kit "doo-dads"), you create a page with Aunt Lizzie's image incorporated in a series of symbols and images of the Roaring Twenties. This style uses a lot of blending modes and targeted lighting. The best way I can think of to describe it is to say it looks more like a work of art as opposed to a craft project, with different levels of symbolism and meanings.

From the Studio Matters blog:

Most of us scrap the good times: the birthday parties, the holidays, and the family vacations. But as wonderful as those layouts are, what do they really say about us as individuals? About our values? Our heartaches? Our day-to-day struggles?

For the Quirk, working in Photoshop can be therapy. Quirks scrap about their illnesses, their divorces, their relationships with their spouses and parents. Sometimes, they‘ll scrap about day-to-day frustrations, such as housework, bills, and hair.

Creating art allows the Quirk to make statements about things they feel strongly about. They create art based on their views about religion, politics, and yes, even sex.

For the Quirk, art can also be a means of exploring “big” thoughts and ideas. The Quirk will take a favorite quote or a favorite song, and add imagery that conveys what those words mean to them.

Here's what I mean. This example is from the gallery at DigitalArtQuirks.com. The page was created by Marretje.


Isn't this a wonderful piece? It's about the games people play.

So how does this relate to genealogy? It's a different angle on creating a show piece of your ancestors. It's a way to say more about the times in which they lived instead of about them personally. Let's face it, we all have names on our family tree that we can't find any personal information on. But we can always come up with information on the times in which they lived. Think about it. Scrap it.

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

More About AncestryPress.com

I was going to do a review of the new AncestryPress.com web site for creating a family scrapbook but it's already been done so well by some of my fellow genea-bloggers that I'm inclined not to do it again. Instead, I'll just supply the links to their well written articles.

Randy wrote, Using AncestryPress to Create a Book, and Using AncestryPress to make a book - Post 2.0.

Kimberly Powell wrote, Ancestry Press: A First Look.

Personally, I was pretty impressed with what you were able to do on the site. But there weren't enough options for adding your own backgrounds, changing colors, etc. to suit me. I'm a little more creative than the site allows for. Still, if you don't want to invest in learning software (Photoshop Elements 6.0) and finding just the right kit to use for your purposes, this could be a good option.

November 3rd is Almost Here!

Just a reminder that this Saturday, November 3rd is a very special day. Not only is it my birthday, and the day of the great gridiron battle between Michigan and Michigan State, but it is also "Digital Scrapbooking Day"!

This is the perfect opportunity to sit at your computer guilt-free and create some wonderful scrapbook pages of your old family photos. (Can't feel guilty when it's the official day!) If you haven't tried digital scrapbooking before, this is the perfect time to start. Load up your software if you need to, download one of the many kits I've shown on this blog, and start playing! You'll have a great time being creative!!!

If you're looking for more ideas check out the official web site for Digital Scrapbooking Day.

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Bavaria

I'm way behind on the freebie ethnic and era kits so let's start off there. I know many of you will appreciate this kit is called "Bavaria". It has a lot of charm!Those of you with German/Bavarian ancestry will appreciate this one.
It's it great? And doesn't it make you hungry??? It's making my mouth water right now.

You can pick this kit up on Gerti's blog here. Thanks for sharing your talent with us Gerti!

Another Place and Time: Poland!

This is the day I've been waiting for! I've been on the lookout for a Polish-themed digital scrapbook kit for a couple years now and today I finally have one to share one with you. Kyra, whose kits I've mentioned before on this blog, has honored my request and created a Polish-themed kit and is giving it away for free. Isn't she a doll? She's my new best friend! LOL!
Isn't this a great kit? I love it and have already designed a scapbook page with it.


I'm just thrilled to have a Polish-themed kit to play around with. If you'd like to grab this kit for yourself you can do so here. Be sure and say thank you to Kyra while you're there!

Ancestry Introduces Digital Scrapbooking Application

PROVO, UTAH – October 9, 2007 – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, today launched AncestryPressTM, a tool that lets users create professionally printed, custom family history books, family recipe books and more. With this new state-of-the-art publishing tool, Ancestry.com offers users a one-stop solution to build their family tree, discover historical documents about their ancestors, collaborate with their family members and create high-quality family history books for themselves or family gifts.

AncestryPress exports profiles, historical documents and photographs from a user’s online Ancestry.com family tree directly into automatically generated page layouts – such as illustrated family tree charts, biographical timelines and document pages. Users can easily customize the look and feel of each page by adding family photographs, changing backgrounds both plain and themed, using drag-and-drop page embellishments, writing text and more.

Beyond family history books, users can also use AncestryPress to create heirloom recipe books, complete with photos and memories of the family members who handed down the recipes, as well as photo pages, suitable for framing, that showcase important moments in their family’s history.

Once a user has finished adding personal touches to the book, they can choose from two simple printing options. Users can print individual pages immediately to a home printer. Or they can have Ancestry.com professionally print and bind a full-color, hand-stitched, hardcover book.

This was from Ancestry's press release. I'll being checking it out and will do a review on this application in the next few days.

The Digital Scrapbook Blog Carnival is Posted

The latest edition of the Digital Scrapbook Blog Carnival is posted on Lisa's blog, the Scrap Princess. Head on over and check it out and see what's new in the world of digital scrapbooking!

Halloween and Genealogy, Here's the Link

October is here and in addition to it being Family History Month, it's also the month of Halloween. In the next few weeks we'll all begin to see the Halloween decorations going up in our neighborhoods... pumpkins, witches, ghosts, etc. Those of us who are genea-historians will naturally think about our ancestors and wonder if they celebrated Halloween and if so how. Tina Sansone at BellaOnline has a wonderful article about this, Genealogy and the Origins of Halloween. It's an interesting article, check it out.

Here's an special Halloween treat for you. I've found a fabulous Vintage Halloween kit that you are just going to love! It's a mega kit with so many pieces you'll have a hard time deciding which to use. This kit was created by Winged Heart in Ohio and she was kind enough to share it with us all for FREE!

This kit has so many pieces it's got five previews! And it's so versatile you can use it for general autumn scrapbook pages too. I love to create pages with kits that reflect the age of the photos. This vintage kit will certainly reflect Halloweens in days of old but it would also give a nice "aged" flavor to more current Halloween pictures too!

You can get this kit here. Don't forget to say thank you to Winged Heart in Ohio, my neighbor to the south. She deserves a lot of thanks and appreciation for all her work and generosity. Can you imagine the hours/days she spent creating this kit? Yowza! So head on over for a visit, get yourself a fabulous Halloween kit...




And go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Europe, Canada

Happy Monday! Happy October! Happy Family History Month!

Today I have two ethnic kits for you. The first is called Kit Europe by LilyKay. This kit will be appreciated by those who have European ancestors from various countries. Check it out, download it for safe keeping, and don't forget to thank the designer! You can get the kit here. Isn't it great?!

The second kit I have for you this week is called Oh Canada by dear Kyra who creates the cutest kits! Check this one out. I know you'll love it. I wish I had some Canadian ancestors so I could use this kit myself! You can get the kit here.

Isn't it just darling? Have fun with it and don't forget to leave a nice note for Kyra. Thanks Kyra!

Back to School Time for Creative Genealogists!

September is here and it's back to school time! Adobe is offering 3 new classes that will be of interest to digital scrapbookers. There are two classes featuring the newly announced Adobe Elements 6.0, and one for advanced scrapbookers using Photoshop CS3.

• What's New in Photoshop Elements 6.0 will be offered on 10/02/2007
• Tell your story with photos and videos using Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4 will be offered on 10/23/2007
• Advanced Scrapbooking with Photoshop CS3 will be offered on 11/13/2007
  

To register (for free) click here. You must register on the Adobe.com site to register for classes.

Right after you register for classes, you need to go shopping for back-to-school supplies ;-) Here's what you need boys and girls...

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 ($89.99 ... a 10% discount plus free shipping!)

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6/Adobe Premiere Elements 4 (a bundle of both software programs for $139.99 which is $10.00 off the regular price and $40 less than buying the two programs separately, plus free shipping!!!)

Adobe Photoshop CS3 ($629.49) Adobe Photoshop CS3 Upgrade ($195.99) Free shipping on either!

Photoshop Elements 6.0 will be shipping October 5th for Windows XP/Vista users, so get your order in now! Mac users, your version will be coming out after the first of next year. Photoshop CS3 is already available!

If you purchase your software using the links on this site you will be supporting my genealogy blogging and not-for-profit genealogy web sites. Thank you for considering purchasing from Amazon.com through my links :-D

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Chocolate!

If your family history includes a propensity to chocolate addiction, have I got a digital scrapbook kit for you! Check this one out. It makes your mouth water just looking at it! You'll have a lot of fun creating great layouts with this kit. Like always, it's free for the taking. But don't forget to say "thank you" to the creator, Dnad. Here's the kit.

Well, there's nothing I can top that with ;-) So that's all for this week folks.

Is your mouth watering yet? Well, what are you waiting for... go get creative with your genealogy!

Digital Scrapbooking Carnival is Posted

The latest edition of the Digital Scrapbooking Carnival is posted. Head on over and check it out!

I especially liked, How To Create a Custom Brush From a Photo, by Kayla, the Legacy Lady. This one has endless possiblities... see if you can't imagine some for yourself!

Another Place and Time: Art Nouveau

Here's the post I meant to get out yesterday...

This week I have a delightful art nouveau kit for you. It's called Peacock Royale and you can find it on the Creative Victorian Designs blog. The kit comes in 6 parts so be sure to scroll down to get all the sections. Isn't it just beautiful?!!!

Netta has created this kit and shares it with us all for free. So be sure and leave her a comment of thanks. The generosity of talented designers like her is always appreciated. Thanks Netta!

Another Place and Time: Mega Heritage Kit

This week's Monday freebie is neither an ethnic nor an era kit. Instead, I have a heritage kit to share with you. This isn't just any old heritage kit. This is a mega kit! This kit has some Victorian elements, heritage elements, old roses, and great papers. If you have old photos that you want to create scrapbook pages with, this is the kit for you. You are sure to find something you'll like.

The kit is called "Heritage Rose" and it is featured on the Fishinmom blog. This particular kit was released in 12 segments. The last segment, with two papers, can be gotten here. After you download that segment be sure and scroll back through Fishinmom blog and get the other 11 segments. And while you're there don't forget to say thank you in the comments section. Here's a couple previews of a couple of the segments...


Enjoy!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: France

Usually this is a Monday post but since yesterday was the Labor Day holiday I spent the day having fun at the Michigan State Fair instead of sitting at my computer desk. So please pardon my tardiness ;-)

This week I'd like to show you a vintage freebie with a French theme. Those of you with French ancestors will appreciate this kit. It has both a French and a vintage theme (1910s/1920s). This is Vieux Charme de la France by Kyra. She also has another freebie kit on the same blog post if you're in to... Innocence.

I hope you'll take advantage of this wonderful free kit for digital scrapbooking. When you visit Kyra's blog, be sure and tell her thanks for the kit!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

6th Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival is Posted

I'm just a little late with this annoucement but... the 6th Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival was posted yesterday. More great things to read about the world of digi-scrapping!

Check it out! Then go get creative with your genealogy!

For Photos With That Vintage Look From The 1940s

If you've got some old photos from the 1940s, you've probably got one or two with deckled edges. I don't know if deckled edges on photos was a style unique to the 1940s or not but all the photos I have with deckled edges happen to be from the 1940s.

Anyway... that deckled edge adds a nice vintage look to photos. If you'd like to add the deckled edge to some of your photos you'll be happy to know that you can do it in Photoshop Elements 5.0. Linda Sattgast has a quick and easy tutorial in this week's edition of her weekly newsletter. If you'd like to check it out you can do so on her digi scrapping site. It's her tip of the week this week. If you're reading this after the week of August 27, 2007, try here.

If you give this tutorial a try and you like the results you might want to enter your results in a Challenge on the forum at Linda's site. If you do, let me know. I wanna see!

Now go get creative with your genealogy!

Another Place and Time: Holland, Egypt, Scotland

This week's Monday freebies are for those of you with roots in Holland, Egypt, or Scotland. I have three freebie kits to show you that I'm sure you'll enjoy creating scrapbook pages with. Without further ado, take a look at these...

First we have a large kit from Holland. Take a look at this kit. Isn't it great? It has so many wonderful images of Holland. You can surely show off your Dutch ancestors with this kit!
You can get this kit for free on this message board.

Next we have an Egyptian kit for those of you with Arabian ancestors. This one is called "Henna" and has a look of the desert sand. Isn't it great? This kit has
- 10 papers
- 2 Henna swirl
- 2 Henna golden swirl
- an arabian poetry as a word art
- Alfa

You can get the Henna kit for free at: http://arabianscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-new-freebies-henna-kit.html

And last but not least, I have a fantastic kit you will absolutely love. Actually, this blogger, Snowraven, has had a series of kits (8) she made for Scotland. This is the last of her series but you can still download all of them. Each kit has a lot to choose from so you'll certainly find something you can use to create fantastic pages about your Scottish ancestors.

You can get the kit Bonnie Scotland Autumn here:
http://silversnowyraven.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-freebies-last-of-bonnie-scotland.html

I hope you download and use these great kits. There's no better way to get creative with your genealogy!

How to Create a Good Looking Scrapbook Page Using a Poor Quality Photo

Sometimes no matter how long you work on editing a photo you can't make it look good. It's the old, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear", story. This is often the case with photos taken back in the 1960s and 1970s. Remember those Kodak Instamatic cameras that used 110 cartridge film? Many of us have a slew of poor quality photos taken with those once popular models.

Here is a picture of me taken in 1972 with a Kodak Instamatic camera using color slide film. You just can't make this photo sharp and crisp.

I can't go back and retake the photos of my teenage years. I'm stuck with the photos I have, poor quality though they may be. The photos are still precious to me because of the memories attached to them. So I'd still like to create a scrapbook page to capture the essence of those days. But what can I do about that poor quality photo?

The best thing I've found to do when scrapping with a poor quality photo is to only use a small portion of it (enough to jog the memory) and surround it with elements that will pull your eye away from the photo. Bright colors and or a busy layout will direct your eye around the page rather than focus on just the picture.

In the layout shown below, I used the "cookie cutter" tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 on my photo and "cut" it into a flower shape. Once the photo was cut out I layered it with two other flower elements to draw the eye out from the photo. When you have a great photo, you want your scrapbook page to emphasize it and set it off. But when you have a poor quality photo you may want to consider de-emphasizing it.

When you first look at this page your eye is naturally drawn to the photo. But it doesn't stay there. It's pulled away first to the bright orange flower that frames it and then further out to the peace sign, up the green ribbon to the bright yellow smiley flower, and then to the text areas.

So there you have it. A way to make a scrapbook page look good even with a poor quality photo. No excuses now... get busy and get creative with your genealogy!

[Scrapbook kit used: Hippy Chic by CanDesigns]