Repetition

This week we are learning about repetition in my "Design Your Life" class. I was really excited to see the template for the first assignment because I knew exactly which photos I had to use for it as soon as I saw it. For some of the other assignments so far, I have really struggled with which event to choose. I'm really enjoying the chance to catch up some in Colin's scrapbook. It has been sorely neglected since the babies came along.

Because Cathy switches around in the class what sized pages we are working on, I have been able to choose which scrapbook I am working on for any given assignment based on what size the pages are. All of Colin's pages are 8.5 x 11 because that is what I started with when I first started scrapping. Each boy also has a 12x12 "School of Life" book, and an 8x8 Christmas ornament book. I have a 12x12 album for myself that I have used for photos from a cruise we took for my honeymoon and and an 8.5x11 album of random pages that I have done that don't fit in anyplace else. I'll probably start 12x12 albums for the little guys at some point because I know I won't be satisfied with only the "School of Life" albums for them.

This is assignment one for week three:

I really like Cathy's clean uncluttered design style. It fits very well with the style I had already developed for myself.

I'm also really excited how the main photo turned out. Originally, the photo was entirely in focus but I really wanted to blue out the background elements and focus on Colin's face. I had not used the magic extractor feature on Photoshop Elements before and I found it to work great and to be very easy. I duplicated the photo layer, extracted just Colin onto a blank layer, then blurred the layer with the entire photo left on it. I placed the "Colin" layer on the top, and presto!