It’s rare to get my children to pose for the camera and even more unusual to have them both in the same shot and looking at the camera. This image is even more special to me because of the expressions on their faces and in their body language. Ella is clearly the protective (and bossy) big sister while Luke stakes his ground as the mischievous little brother. Both are opposites, from their place on the autistic spectrum, to their personalities, their appearance, likes and dislikes, yet these two absolutely adore each other and get on unusually well together (most of the time).
I was inspired and intrigued by the colors in the image. Specifically how the colors of the train they are seated in match that of the flower on Ella’s shirt. It’s a chance encounter of two totally different objects that share a single commonality. They work in harmony and appear just like they are meant to be. My direction was to parody this relationship with that of my children.
I duplicated the focal image, enlarged and cropped the duplicate copy to bring focus to my daughter’s arms around my son. The cropped image was duplicated and the duplicate layer was desaturated and edited to create a crisp black and white image. I applied a Layer Mask to the black and white image and used my trusty Wacom pen with the the Paintbrush tool and soft round brush to erase parts of the black and white image to reveal the color image beneath. The image was turned on its side for visual interest and simply because it fitted.
I selected the Burn tool with a soft round brush and “painted” the edges of the original image with my pen to create a “burned” effect.
The two-tone stamped sentiment was created using the Paintbrush tool with a single “tap” on the Wacom tablet using the color black. I selected half the sentiment using the Rectangular Marquee tool and inverted the color to create the black and white effect.
Holiday Token Words, MonoBlendz “Cayenne” and “Jade” Paperies, Staples & Stitching from Paraiso Azul PageSet, Fonts AL Uncle Charles
It’s simple. He likes to eat candy floss but hates to have it on his hands. Documenting my son’s sensory issues and Asperger’s is a big part of his life experience and it helps me come to terms with it and put it all in perspective. It also helps me to see the gifts that Asperger’s Syndrome brings instead of just focusing on the negatives. Scrapbooking the less than perfect aspects of life is great therapy.
The story is about his sticky fingers so I wanted his hands to take center stage and look like they are protruding from a window/frame. This technique involves subject extraction using the Magnetic Lasso tool. It is time consuming and is most easily and effectively achieved using the Wacom tablet and pen.
I started the layout with the focal image and a frame and adjusted the size of the image so that his fingers extended outside the parameters of the frame. A new white fill layer with a “cut-out” the size of the frame provided a blank canvas and hid the protruding parts of the photo beneath.
I duplicated the photo, dragged the duplicate on top of the fill layer and used the Magnetic Lasso tool to trace only the edges of his fingers that were outside the frame. I copied and pasted the fingers to new layers and merged them, deleting the copy photo layer. Stray pixels were eliminated using a soft round brush with a Layer Mask at a 100-200% zoom.
I have performed this technique with a mouse; however, the process takes longer and does not deliver as neat a finish as with the Wacom tablet and pen.
Words and brushwork placed around the protruding fingers draw the eye and support the image. The blue and yellow palette compliments the colors of the photos and gives the layout a hot sticky feel.
Papers MonoBlendz “Navy” & “Bananas and Custard” Paperies, Boyish TextART, Frames, Stitching holes & staples from Mama PageSet, Basic Gradient BrushSet by Anna Aspnes (www.designerdigitals.com), Fonts Kabanoss, Sun N Moon, Satisfaction, Planned Obsolescence
Bumper cars are iconic of theme parks and span not only generations but also cultures.
We are a multicultural family with English/Welsh and Norwegian/Chinese ancestries. My husband and I were both raised on different continents, in different cultures with different life experiences yet bumper cars are just one of the common strands we share (even though we both call them something different). This page is a celebration of the differences and commonalities we live with each day. It also shows our children enjoying the same rides their grandparents enjoyed. More simply, it shows Ella and Luke having fun.
I started with 8 photos of my children enjoying the bumper cars and chose to use 5 of them to create a collage. These 5 photos were adequate to tell the story and I didn’t feel the need to include them all. I often decide to create a collage where I have one image with a good focal point but lots of empty solid space in which to overlay and blend additional images.
I opened the focal image and dragged it over to my layout using my Wacon pen. I enlarged the image slightly by dragging the corners so that the photo filled the majority of my “canvas”. Another image was opened and positioned on top of the main image, before experimenting with the blending modes in the Layers Palette for a “best fit”. The pen allows me to move the Curve sliders in slight increments to adjust the lighting of the image.
A combination of soft round and basic gradient brushes with the Paintbrush tool and a Layer Mask (PSE users can use the Eraser tool) were employed to blend the edges of the photos into the main image. I find the Wacom pen gives greater control and precision in applying brush strokes for a more seamless finish to the collage. I repeated this process with all remaining images to create the core collage), and then used the collage as a single photo in completing my digital scrapbook layout with additonal brushwork.
In this layout I also added a color gradient by selecting the Magic Wand tool with my pen and clicking inside a frame to make a selection. The Gradient Mask tool was used to create a gradient within that selection on a New Layer to which a blending mode was applied.
Fonts Alien Mushrooms, Urban Regent, Klill-LightTallX, Century Gothic, Rush Two
Background Paper MonoBlendz “Origins” No. 2 Paperie by Anna Aspnes (www.designerdigitals.com), Fonts Arial Black, Klill-LightTallX
Background Paper MonoBlendz “Origins” No. 2 Paperie, Staples & Stitching Yesterday PageSet by Anna Aspnes (www.designerdigitals.com), Fonts SansXHigh, Frakturika
Stitching Anna Aspnes (www.designerdigitals.com), Fonts SlabserifXhigh, P22 Cezanne, EnglischeSchT
Paper Vintage Evergreen Paperie, Stop To Signs by Anna Aspnes (www.designerdigitals.com), Stock Photos from Stock Exchange, Clothing Images from www.anthropologie.com, Scanned Clothing Tags, Fonts CK Circle Time, Klill-LightTallX
Fonts Phonetica, Arial Narrow, Niagra Engraved, Will and Grace
As a UK-native and military spouse with the United States Air Force, Anna brings a truly global perspective to digital scrapbooking. Her journey began in 2002 with her husband’s assignment to a remote air base in northern Japan — and the birth of her two children, Ella and Luke.
Intrigued by the combination of art, technology and family, she quickly transitioned into Digital Scrapbooking. The response to her work in the industry was tremendous and she was soon able to turn her artistic talents to successfully designing and marketing her own digital scrapbooking products. She is also a Contributing Editor to Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, an independent designer for Designer Digitals (www.designerdigitals.com), and most recently created a Tribute photo book for Shutterfly.
Killer! Your pages are killer!!!
Love it .. and oh yah Go Air Force!
These are such an awesome mix of graphic coolness! I love them, Anna!
Ann, LOVE your pages..so totally fun to see them!
Anna: I always LOVE looking at your work. The graphism of your designs always inspires me to push myself further. Just LOVE it :))
It is so fun to hear your voice! I love your design and creative process - it is inspiring!
Love how you turned that photo sideways! So fun working on this!
Gorgeous work, girl! I LOVE to see your stuff!
This goes well beyond creative, it’s pure ART!
I love your work. Love how his fingers pop out of the photo. That is my favorite thing about digital because I also love paper piecing.
I really, really, REALLY like your work, and this is coming from a professional graphic designer (albeit I haven’t been doing it for too long myself).
Your work is clean (or at least LEGIBLE, unlike entries from some of the other contestants) but definitely showcases your personality and some originality, with variation in design styles, use of camera and lighting, and overall design balance.
keep up the fantastic work; you’ve got MY vote