I had hope that using my computer while I am pregnant wouldn’t bother me so much, but it does. I get dizzy and sometime feel physically uncomfortable when using a computer. I hope to get online as much as I can tolorate. I will defiantly be online once a week for a quick check on everything.

I haven’t been online for the past 6 weeks due to morning sickness which I get 24/7 and not just in the morning. But now I am over that, although I now have a respiratory illness and it is causing problems with my asthma, so I have been resting as much as my energetic 3 year-old will allow me. Otherwise my pregnancy is going well. I got to hear my baby’s heart beat for the first time the day before my birthday

I will try to update this blog each time I go online.

Ribbon has become a staple for digital scrapbooking, especially grosgrain ribbon. In this tutorial I will teach you how to make the grosgrain pattern and to then make it into a ribbon, like this one:

I am using Photoshop CS2 for this tutorial. It may work in other versions of Photoshop and other programs.

Feel free to print out TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon for your own personal use. Please do NOT redistribute TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon in any way without permission. If you wish to share TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon with others send them to Blogging Life as it Comes instead.
You may use this link: http://candaceduffyjones.com/2008/06/tutorial-grosgrain-ribbon/


This work by Candace Duffy Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This post is getting a bit long for the front page. Continue reading here…

There are many elements that are often considered only for girl layouts, like flowers, glitter, bows, gems, etc. But they can be used on boy layouts.

Glitter - Use messy glitter, like glitter strokes or splashes. Golds, blues and greens work great!
Flowers - I found that small fabric flowers work best and in solid colors like brown, blue or white, with buttons in the center.
Ribbons - Use twill or grosgrain, in solid colors or simple patterns, stay away from florals or flourishes.
Gems - Antique looking gems or dull colors like blues, golds or dark reds.

Here are some layouts that use the items above in a boy layout (click on the image for credits):

Now how can you make a layout look masculine with all the great feminine styles, elements, kits, etc? Well here are some great, and popular, items to add to a boy layout: staples, tape, cardboard, boxes, snaps, buttons, twill, hardware (screws, nails, hinges…), string, paint, stars, keys, torn paper, denim or anything that looks old and worn. There are many other things to consider: colors, textures, and age of the male. The younger the male the more feminine items you can usually add. Like babies, adding lace, florals and pastels work but for a grown man that may not look so masculine (that also depends upon the man).

If you have some tips on how to make a layout masculine please feel free to post them here.

Have you ever seen a kit and absolutely fall in love with it, only to realize you have no photos to go with it? As a mother to a boy, this happens too often. I sometimes scrap my baby photos or photos of my sisters, but I would much rather scrap about my son. So what do I do? I buy the kit and use it on pages of my son! Yup, I have used flowers, pink and many other “girly” elements on my boy pages without making them looky, well, girly.

I bought this kit, Happily Ever After, by Nitwit Collections and Kay Miller Designers. I also bought the Happily Ever Flowers and Happily Solids (there is also an alpha, brag book and quickpages available too) by Nitwits Collections. I loved this kit so much I couldn’t stop myself from buying it. The dragons, frogs and flowers are wonderful! I told myself I needed to buy for this layout, which is very “girly”:

So how do I create a layout from a kit with a lot of pink? Well not everything is pink. I stuck mostly to the greens, browns and blacks that were also in the kit. You can also alter the color of an element or paper if you want to. Below is a layout I created of my son. I used some pink but I also used green, blue and black. The blue is from Bear Necessities by NitWit Collections. I even included a flower, which is tan, not pink. Basically I used the more generic elements as the dominate elements of the layout.

In the layout below I used the same kit and again stuck to non-pink elements, however this layout does use some pink.

Other “girly” kits I used for my son’s layouts are On a Lark Mini Kit by Correen Silke [layout], Festival by Shabby Princess [layout], Tag Sale by RetroDiva [layout], The Sun is Finally Shining by Pamela Gibson [layout] and Forever Yours Collection - Eternity by Jen Reed and Krista Mettler [layout] (this last kit is not exactly girly but it is geared towards weddings).

I would love to see your boy layouts using “girly” kits. You can post a link to your layout in the comments and I will take a look.

My first tutorial! I have figured out how to make a nice looking sequin and I thought I would share the how-to with those who would like to make their own. I am using Photoshop CS2. The instructions may work with other versions of Photoshop. So lets get started.

Feel free to print out TUTORIAL: Sequins for your own personal use. Please do NOT redistribute TUTORIAL: Sequins in any way without permission. If you wish to share TUTORIAL: Sequins with others send them to Blogging Life as it Comes instead.
You may use this link: http://candaceduffyjones.com/2007/09/tutorial-sequins/


This work by Candace Duffy Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.