A busy couple of days

So my last few days began with a good idea.

 

The best things always do ... or so it seems at the time.

I use Photobox a lot and they have some good offers. I get all of my digital pages printed and made into books with them But i gett eh square books.

Anyway ...

I had an e mail offer of a reduction on a reduction on a reduction.

 

One of those offers that was too good to miss - or so it would seem

 

It was for an A4 hardback book of 160 pages for £32.00. Full price would have been over £150

 

What a lovely idea - we said.

We could make a travel photo album - we said

It will be lovely - we said

For 160 pages we could put the best shots of the last seven or eight holidays we said

It's very cheap - we said

We used to pay about £5 to have a roll of 36 film developed and then we had to put them in albums and not all of the photos were ones we loved - we said

You will have fun making it - HE SAID!

It will be a lovely project - HE SAID!

OK - she said. I will do it.

 

Now the only photobooks I have made have been of my digital pages. Piece of cake. they are all square, are all edited and I just drop each page onto a page of the photobook. Job done. Book complete in about 15 minutes.

 

So THIS is 160 pages FROM SCRATCH.

No of course I can't use their templates as the photos don't fit like that!

I need to go into each holiday album (and most holidays are filed on a  day by day basis so even our recent trip had a folder for travel, a folder for Ghent, a folder for Amsterdam, a folder for Haarlem, a folder for Ypres etc ) and then I had to pick four or five pictures from each, put them in a  separate folder, edit them if necessary (I gave up editing them. They are as they came out of the camera and good enough!) upload them to Photobox, add them to pages, resize them, play with them, decide on layout and background. 160 pages worth!!!!!

The first 20 pages are lovely. All beautifully arranged and labelled and with coordinating backgrounds. The next 80 pages are photos dropped onto pages. I have gone with simple.

 

160 pages is an awful lot of work. I am on page 100 and have had enough but I know I have to finish it or I have wasted the hours I have worked on it so far. I think, when it is finally finished and the book arrives, it will be a while before I want to look at any of the photos.

 

However, angst aside, it will be lovely to have the book. I think all of us, now we are digital, are guilty of having our photos in digital format. I do print a  lot of mine to scrap but it is not like when we used to have photo albums. We have just dismantled our photo albums to get them out of the non acid free environment. This will be fun to have in years to come. I think! Maybe!

 

I have a new digital page to share today made with a new collection by Created by Jill called Sunday morning and available as a bundle which includes a FWP.

 

 

This is what I made for it - my first digital page of the most recent trip we took.

 

 

The picture in the frame is me looking sideways - concealing the nose which is still looking pretty grim and scabbed and red and vile. The bottom faded picture was me looking at the camera with nose stitches in full view and horrid - hence why it is faded.

Barb you asked what inks I use to edge papers - most of the time I use Tim Holtz distress inks - I have the entire range and I rarely use them as they were designed for - I don't really do the whole mixed media thing. But they are great for edging with the foam pads. I do still have the cats eye chalk inks which I love too - though many are very old and dried up now.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day out in the forest enjoying the sunshine
• completing 100 pages of the worst project ever
• perseverance
• the new car coming ever closer

 

 

 

Comments

[Barb in AK]

Karen, you amaze me!! 160 pages??!! Especially, if you have to edit ANYTHING! But you are right--- it will be so lovely to have the book when it is finished. I have become fond of photobooks. Now that I don't take as many photos as I used to, it seems photobooks are the way to go, instead of getting involved with all the hands-on creations. Of course, as soon as I say that, I want to sit down and touch my papers and embellishments, and PLAY! ;-)

About 2 years ago, I started a book about my mom on Mixbook. I have been very fortunate that the site allowed me to work at my own pace. There were times that I didn't work on it for months, then there were moments when I could get TWO pages completed in a night. Some pages were done digitally, then slipped into the templates. Others were created right on the background page of the book. I had just finished up the book (only 29 pages) right before mom passed this month . It was a lot of work to me, but I am so glad I had made it. What a precious item. I'm sure you will feel that way about your travel photobook--- something so very, very special!

Oh how I love the cat-eye chalk inks, but mine are fading fast too. I am definitely NOT a mixed-media gal, either. I remember how hard it was for me to start inking edges of my papers, but I really liked the look of pages that my friends and online sites showed. I still don't think I've got the technique down that well. LOL!! :-D

I so love the way you use a near-transparency for your background page. I think I'm going to give that technique a try soon. I know mine will never look as professional and nice as yours, but you have inspired me (as always) to step outside of my "comfort zone". Thanks!

[Julie]

Hi Karen,

I really want to start making digital pages but I just don't know where to start. I assume that the first thing to do,is to purchase Photoshop or a similar programme.

What would you advise?

I'm a big admirer of your work and you never cease to amaze me with both the quality and quantity - just amazing 😃

Julie