You Two : Digital Scrapbook Layout & A New Collaboration

My friend and fellow Designer Digitals product designer Anna Aspnes approached me recently about the idea of combining her skill at digital stitching with my hand-drawn words. Sounded like a pretty great idea to me. The result is a new series of stitched words from Anna + Ali. Travel and School packages are currently available.

The School package includes 6 different words in 6 different colors.

The Travel package includes 8 white words.

In the layout above one of the challenges I faced was working with a bunch of small resolution photos. For some reason my small Canon PowerShot SD1400 was set on the wrong resolution when Katie took the kids to the beach. The photos she took were so great but the resolution wouldn't cut it for even 4x6 sized photos. I had planned to blow-up the top middle shot of Simon and Anna until I saw that it was maybe 2 inches wide at 180dpi! I decided I still wanted to work with these cute photos (work with what I have right?) so I created a small photo gathering in Photoshop (about 6 inches x 3 inches @ 300dpi), collaged them all together, and then paired them with a couple additional larger photos showing the two kids together.

JOURNALING


Katie took the two of you on an adventure to Florence today. She packed up a picnic lunch, loaded you in the car, and off you went. Here in town it was over 90 degrees so we hoped for nice weather over on the coast - the photos tell the whole story. Awesome late summer weather on the Oregon coast. New sand toys. And a stop at DQ on the way home. Katie told me that the two of you slept the entire way home. That sun & sand is sure wonderful like that. Nothing better.

SUPPLIES


Ali Edwards : Summer Title + Journal, Summer Quote Strips, Stacked Dates 2010, Thick Month & Day Words (coming this weekend); Anna Aspnes : StitchedWords Travel No.1, Complete Stitched Alpha; Michelle Martin : Michaela Solids Cardstock; Katie Pertiet : Beachy Clusters Brushes & Stamps No.2, Labeled Journalers No.2, Worn And Torn Journalers, Digital Brown Stitches, Yellow Word Bits No.1

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34 thoughts

  1. Barb says…
    08/27/2010

    You did a great job working with those low-res photos. :)
    And I love those stitched words - you and Anna make a fabulous team!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Christina says…
    08/27/2010

    wow love this new site Ali. Looking forward to some great inspiration here. Love the layout simple yet very effective.

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. Linda says…
    08/27/2010

    very inspired to try out some digi pages

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. SandraL says…
    08/27/2010

    Wonderful layout! I never would have thought to pair the backyard photos with the beach photos in a lo. But I see how well they go together since its a story about the two of them at play. Great idea! Just saw something in a new light. Thanks!

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Michelle says…
    08/27/2010

    I love the photo collage idea. I always like to use tons of pictures but have never tired doing a photo collage. That might be a project for this weekend!

    Reply 0 Replies
  6. Lori says…
    08/27/2010

    What a fun layout! I lOVE your new website and 2 blogs - yipee! I am assuming still working through the kinks as your blog isn't bringing in your new blog posts to my google reader.

    Reply 3 Replies
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Lori can you let me know if you don't see anything new by the end of today?

    2. Miriam says…
      08/27/2010

      I'm also a googlereader, and still nothing here (2:15pm Eastern) I'm hoping that the feed will eventually cover both blogs - or do we need to sign up for a second one separately?

    3. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Miriam - the current feed should cover both blogs: http://feeds.feedburner.com/aliedwards

  7. Kristi K. says…
    08/27/2010

    I can't subscribe to this thru my Google Reader. Why?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Hi Kristi - have you tried this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/aliedwards

  8. Vicki says…
    08/27/2010

    Yup Ali the project blog does not come up in google reader. I am not sure why-- this is the error message I got "The feed being requested cannot be found" Great new site though!!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Right now there is just one feed for both blogs - eventually there will likely be two separate ones. For now if you subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/aliedwards you will get both.

  9. Abby P says…
    08/27/2010

    Love your new website -- I used to be able to double-click on your layouts to get a larger view...now it takes me to a comments section where the layout image is even smaller. Usually, the more details I see, the more I end up spending at Designer Digitals (is that a good thing?) :) Any way to correct this?

    Reply 3 Replies
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Ah, good question. Let me see about that.

    2. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Adjusted that...I'm learning Wordpress as I go!

    3. Abby P says…
      08/30/2010

      Oh THERE we go! Thanks for fixing the double-click-Word-Press issue. Now I'm going over to Designer Digitals to buy me sometin'! Thank you, Ali!

  10. Heidi says…
    08/27/2010

    I love your new website,lots of inspiration. I know you are still finishing things up on the site so I know I should be patient, but where are your minibooks? (many of them cant be seen.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Are you looking for one in particular Heidi? Here's a link to the current portfolio: http://aliedwards.com/about-ali/portfolio/minibooks

  11. Faith says…
    08/27/2010

    Is the content the same on both blogs?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      No - totally different. This one is for projects, layouts, tutorials, etc. The other is more for storytelling, giveaways, inspiration posts, etc. The welcome page gives a bit more information: http://aliedwards.com/about-ali/welcome

  12. Alison Exelby says…
    08/27/2010

    I get your blog updates through bloglines, it wont let me add your new blog to my list and im not sure why

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      08/27/2010

      Hi Alison - right now there's just one feed that includes both blogs: http://feeds.feedburner.com/aliedwards

  13. Jackie Bremer says…
    08/27/2010

    I love the clean look of the site - and will enjoy finding my way around. I have one problem - the white background is hard to read - I connect my APPLE laptop to a larger monitor when at home and that one is very difficult to read.

    Keep up the good work - am so encouraged to write my stories.

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Anna Aspnes says…
    08/27/2010

    COOL ALI :D

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. KimBe says…
    08/28/2010

    Ali love the new cyber abode and the Anna & Ali team up..Super fun stuff!

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Lori says…
    08/28/2010

    I added the feedburner web address (the old one still hasn't come thru) that you mentioned and it worked now! thanks ali

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Tina says…
    08/31/2010

    LOVE the new site Ali!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Nenette says…
    08/31/2010

    Hi Ali! wonderful site!!! I've always been a fan of yours. Your journaling is always heartwarming and your layouts are always simply elegant. Thanks for the inspiration :-)

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. Leslie says…
    08/31/2010

    Hi Ali... just wanted to say that I'm a big fan of your digital work and your templates came in so handy when I put together our Disney album. I did a hybrid version that I'm loving more and more by the minute (using various sizes of page protectors,etc). And I also turned it into a photobook that is easier for my little boys to handle. Here's a link to the photobook... http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=%2Fgallery%2F1%2Fpost%2FGMGDBg0at3LBg3ZAexsRBC
    Great job on the new blog! :)

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/01/2010

      Oh Leslie! That is so cool - thanks for sharing the link!

  20. dhill says…
    09/01/2010

    You always amaze me with your knack for mixing great photos and style in your work. The stitched words make such a cute, subtle statement. Thanks for sharing your creative eye with the world. :-)

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Charity says…
    09/08/2010

    I love the idea for the low-resolution photos. I accidentally forgot to change my camera settings back to their normal settings while we were visiting family in TX and now I have a lot of photos that aren't great at the 4x6 size. Keeping them small and making a little collage or grid with them is an awesome idea.

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. Janelle says…
    09/12/2010

    Have you ever tried the Scott Kelby trick for enlarging low-res photos? Just resize the photo by 110% (the magic number for enlarging without pixellating (sp?)), and keep resizing by that percentage until you get to the size you want! It's amazing! :) Hope that helps. Love your blog!

    Reply 0 Replies

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