Hello, everyone! How is your January going?? So far, so good over here :) In the past I have talked about outside apps to use to enhance your Project Life projects. Two of my favorites are PixelLab and HP Snapshots. Now, being an Android user, sometimes we don't get the cool things that iPhone users get. So, I have to search for apps that give me the same concept as the iPhone apps and these two are exactly that. In my scrapbooking journey, I noticed some people had these really cool Polaroid style pictures in their layouts. If you are an iPhone user, you may be familiar with the Collect app. It is a daily journaling app that places this polaroid style overlay on your picture. I loved the look and asked around, and the consensus for Android was HP Snapshots. Now, it does not allow much for journaling, but you can put some overlays on it with different effects and it does allow for some text, but it's very limited. So, my solution to this is to use my favorite overlay and then upload it to PixelLab for editing. Ok, let's get into the details :) First, you're going to open up HP Snapshots. You will see a screen that will allow you to pull your photo from whatever social media/gallery you want. I use Google Photos, so I get mine from there. Next, you will choose your overlay ( see above photo). I always pick "clean". I like the way it gives me a blank slate and usually I won't add anything to it for a simple, clean look on my layouts. As you can see below, there are many more to chose from. Once you've done that, you can do one of two things. After you hit the share button, you can save it to your photos. I upload to Google Photos. Or you can just share it directly to PixelLab. From there adjust it so, it is a full picture and hit the checkmark. Now you will be able to edit it. From here you can add text, change the brightness, saturation, etc. You can even add elements to it. Last, save it from PixelLab to your gallery/photos storage and then add to your Project Life layout!
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hello! I hope you all are having a good start to the year! We are doing well so far, it is just going by so quickly already! Today I'm kicking off the 1st part in my Pixelab 101 series. In this series, I hope to teach you the basics of this app, how to use it for your scrapping needs, and some other tips and tricks along the way. Through my journey with app scrapping, I of course, started with Project Life. But little did I know, there is a whole world of apps out there that you can use to scrapbook. Unfortunately, some of these apps are only available on iPhones. So, as an android user, I had to find something that would allow me to expand my creativity and abilities. Cue PixelLab! This app has been great for building pages, adding embellishments to my PL pages, and a lot of other things. So, today I want to start with the basics. I'm going to teach you the basic commands and simple things like adding text to a photo. First, open up the app and click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner. This is where you will have a choice of commands. Select "use image from gallery"-this will be your background. Almost like the canvas if it were a painting. Once you pick a photo, you will resize it, flip it, rotate it, whatever you need to do to work with. You will see this replace the green square. The text will stay, so to edit it, make sure you tap it (you will want the box around it, and then select the pencil down in the bottom left. From there a text box will pop up and you can type whatever you want. I have learned that if I'm doing a large body of text, I will actually break it into a few sections. It's just easier to work with that way. To start editing your text, you can select any of the commands at the bottom of the screen. Just swipe left or right to see all of them. You can change the color, font, rotate, whatever. What I like about this app is all the choices. You can even select specific sections of the text and change it without changing all of it. I chose AprilFatFace for this text. You can even upload your own text into the app. I cover that here. 3D text and mirrored text.
Ok, that's our first lesson! Hope you enjoyed it and try out this app! What apps do you use to supplement your app scrapping? Peace, Anne hello! Well, folks, my train has gotten a little off track... I haven't been sharing my Project 52 pages (due to an unfortunate accident with my phone), and I haven't been updating you on my December Daily, and honestly, I just haven't had the time. With the holidays and the phone incident, (and I just got a tooth pulled! No fun!), I just fell behind. But I have so much to tell you! I am really looking forward to this next year. I had some goals I had set for 2017, and while some of those didn't pan out, I was able to keep up with my blog for the most part and learn even more about the Project Life app and digital scrapbooking. I have learned some new skills that I am hopefully going to be sharing with you this year, and I am even contemplating applying for another creative team. (In other news, I applied for the Becky Higgins creative team and did not make it :(, oh well, there's always next year!). I finished off 2017 with a strong sense of gratitude. I'll be honest with you, financially, this year was hard. We didn't have a lot to spend this Christmas. And with it being the first Christmas that L could really understand, we wanted to make it very special. Luckily, we have a wonderful family who pitched in and they really made the holiday special. So, I couldn't help but just look around and feel so grateful for the holiday, family, and the time I got to spend with L and M. So, on that note, I would like to share something with you! I have created some 3x4 cards I am giving away as freebies for your scrapbooking projects. They are focused on joy and gratitude, the two things I would like to carry into the next year. Click below to download and have a great year! Peace,
Anne Hello!Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a great time visiting with family, holding babies, and eating lots of yummy food!
Since it's Black Friday, I wanted to offer a freebie! These were inspired by my December Daily planning....which is going pretty well. I do have a new kit I will use and then today I will look at what Ali Edwards has on sale in her past Christmas kits sale she is having right now. I was eyeing a couple last week, so I'm so glad they are on sale. Ok, so I have to be totally honest with you, this is the first time I've offered freebies made by me, so if we have technical difficulties, just let me know. I'm offering two 3x4 cards and two .png's for you to use for your Christmas albums. Just click the picture below and enjoy! Peace, Anne hello! Merry Christmas! I know, I know, it's too early...but is it? Only 10 more weeks! So, I'm trying to get a head start on December Daily. If you're not familiar with it, check out Ali Edwards website or just look it up on Pinterest. Basically, it is a memory keeping project that goes day by day to document the holiday season. In studying it, it seems like a lot of people go about it free form, no real theme in mind, but since I need a little more structure than that, I am using a guideline of prompts for each day. I am also trying to decide what format I want to use. I was thinking I want it to look more like a physical album, so I may try to use Pixelab for some of it. I also would like to think that I can have most of my pages done and then I can just plug in the photos, but sometimes I just like to work in the moment and go with the flow. So, we will see! I think I will be purchasing this kit to use, in addition to some freebies I have found on Pinterest. Good ole' Pinterest, always there when I need something, lol. Isn't it preeeetty??? Last, but not least, I want to share with you my December Daily list. Hopefully you find some inspiration here, and let me know - how are you planning on documenting your holidays? Peace,
Anne hello! Ok, so I've been kind of quiet here lately. I sort of dislike the term "season of life", but let me tell you, I've been having a season lately. So, I wanted to give you an update and just give you a preview of some things I have coming up :)
Recently, I realized that I needed help. You know, after you have a baby, life changes in a big way, hormones go out of whack, and really, you just do what you can to get by. About a month before L was born, we bought a house and got engaged. Needless to say, it was a lot. And though I didn't think much of it at the time, it was a big adjustment for us. So, it finally caught up with me and I realized I was experiencing a mild case of post-partum depression. For me, it manifests itself in anxiety and anger. Not good for a new mom. I mean, I know it's just natural to be anxious for your child and worry about them, but it was affecting my daily mood and reactions to people and situations. I can say that I am feeling much better now that I have sought help and I am really enjoying myself and motherhood a lot more. With that said, I got a little behind on my blog. Not much, but more than I would like. So this is what I am planning in the next few weeks: 1. The second Ali Edwards "Day in the Life" project. I completed this in September I think. Honestly, time is flying so fast, I can't remember, but I will be featuring that soon. 2. I will continue sharing my Project 52 album. 3. I'm hoping to have some more tutorials for you. Some Project Life related, and some Pixelab. I started using Pixelab a few months ago and I'm loving it! So I would like to share that with you. 4. I am also gearing up for Ali Edwards December Daily. I have never done this project, but I am looking forward to trying it out and hoping it doesn't add too much stress to my holiday season! I think that is all for now! Thanks for coming by and hopefully I will have some inspiration for you soon! Peace, Anne Hello!Tutorial time! Soooo, I recently downloaded the Pixelab app to add to my arsenal of scrapbooking apps and I am loving it. If you're not familiar with Pixelab, it's sort of like a simplified version of Photoshop. What led me to this app was the need for a way to add .png's to my pages. I love Ali Edwards digital products, but needed a way to use them on my phone. Thus, Pixelab. You can also mask, layer images, Bezier, do some photo editing, and much more. But, today I want to walk you through the steps of downloading and using a font from outside the app. Please note - this is for Android :) Let's dig in! 1. First, find a font you would like to use. I have used the website dafont.com with a lot of ease and success. You can just look through the most popular or search for handwriting, calligraphy, holiday, etc. I found this Halloween font that I though would come in handy here pretty soon. Once you find one you like, click the "Download" button. 2. Once it has downloaded, open up your files and unzip the folder. If you do not have that capability, you can download an app that will unzip files. 3. Ok, this is the important part. When you unzip the folder, click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Then select "Edit". From this point you are going to start the process of copying the files into another folder that Pixelab with recognize when you pull up the font options. So go ahead and select your files, so they can be copied. 4. Click the 3 dots again and choose "Copy". 5. The "Copy To" screen will pop up and you will select, "Internal Storage". 6. Scroll down to either the "Downloads" or "Fonts" folder. You can copy into either one, but the "Fonts" folder is probably going to be easier to manage. 7. Open Pixelab! 8. Set up the layout however you want to. I'm just keeping it simple here for tutorial purposes :) Select the "A" on the bottom of the screen and you'll see some commands come across the screen above it. Hit "Edit" so you can type your words. 9. Type whatever you want and hit "Ok" :) 10. Scroll over to the "Font" selection by dragging the commands to the left with your finger. 11. Your font selections with come up on the screen. Choose "My Fonts". 12. Now, from here you can select the folder you want to pull it from or it will just automatically have it loaded for you. You will see all the fonts you have downloaded. Yay! It's working! 13. You're almost there! Once you get back out of that screen, stay in the "A" section and by scrolling left or right you will see more commands for your font. You can change the color, size, add shadow, perspective, all kinds of things. And that's how you do it! Well, thanks for sticking with me and hopefully you can implement this and add some cool elements to your pages.
Peace, Anne Hello!Man, time is flyin', ya'll! I can't believe September is almost over. We've had a pretty good month; a few hiccups, but we'll talk about those later.
Now that October is almost here, I will be getting out my fall decor and making the house all warm and cozy, smelling like cinnamon apples all day. Ha! It will probably continue to be the toddler infused mess that it is, just with a few pumpkins sprinkled here and there. Anyway, back to my album-here are some highlights: 1. L got a stomach bug and threw up for the very first time. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper, but he got to stay home with mama for a day. Luckily it didn't last very long. 2. Our little baby is brushing his teeth now. And he's very good at it! 3. Grandma and Grandpa visited and L was so worn out he fell asleep in his high chair. I mean, isn't every little kid supposed to do this at some point? SO CUTE! 4. And last, but not least, L is no longer afraid of the vacuum! Yay! It's the little things, right? Enjoy! hello! Hope you all are doing well! Let me ask you something-Do you find importance in documenting the day by day? I know it can get mundane, but there is beauty in the every day. I mean, its just life, right? I have to admit, I struggle with this. It's just a constant tug of war in my mind between "Whats the point of all this picture taking/scrapbooking/memory-keeping?" and "Take ALL the pictures!!" But, I really feel that telling our story is important. And one of the things that concretes that belief for me is wishing that maybe my childhood could have been documented a little better. I mean, don't get me wrong, for being the second child, there are plenty of pictures of me and such, but at the moment, I wish there was a better record of my milestones, events, etc. And just everyday life! So, with all that said, sometimes the everyday involves going to Grandmas house-and that's what I featured in my second Day in the Life project. When I was looking to Ali Edwards for inspiration on this, she had stitched her photos onto the cards. I really liked that look, but since I work on apps, I used Pixelab to do it. I suppose I could have purchased a "stitch" .png to add to the photos and make it look more similar to hers, but honestly, I like the simplicity of what I ended up with. I also had a lot of pictures that were landscape, so I inserted them into my layout and turned my photos, and then I turned the page itself. I will have more on this later :) I know she is planning on doing another one in November, but with December Daily coming up and just the time this little project requires, I don't think I will be participating in it. So without further adieu, here is my Day in the Life! Peace,
Anne hello! Well, another four weeks have passed. This summer seemed to go by so fast! The mornings and evenings are cooling off here and it is getting me so excited for fall! Anyway, over the weekend we visited my parents. I chose that weekend to do the Ali Edwards Day in the Life project and I found myself getting tired of taking pictures. I almost wondered if I was choosing the right time to do it. I just thought it would make for a more interesting documentation, but I realized that I also just needed to be in the moment. We don't get trips to my parents house very often and L is at that age where he is really interacting and starting to talk, so it was fun to see him play with his grandparents and cousins. It's the same reason why I don't really like to take too many pictures or video at concerts. I love the music so much I just want to feel it, and really soak it in...and dance, of course! So, while I love scrapbooking and saving our memories, I just wanted to remind everyone that sometimes the best memories are the ones we immerse ourselves in - and save in our minds. I hope you all have a great week and remember, there is a lot of devastation going on right now with Hurricane Harvey, Irma and the wildfires, but we can all be the light in the darkness. Keep preserving your memories, and tell me, do you scrap current events-good or bad? Hopefully today you find some inspiration. Enjoy! Peace and Good Memories,
Anne |
Hello!
I'm Anne! Follow me as I go through life as a new mom and soon-to-be wife. Always looking for a creative outlet, I want to share all my ideas with you here at Life by Design! Archives
February 2018
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