Birthday Card Digital Photo Collage

I made this card for my son's 32nd birthday {wow!} and wanted to share it here since some of my family and friends who knew I was working on it, wanted to see it. Now that the birthday is past I can post these pics. By the way, the card was very well received. Rodrigo's dad, and wife, Dianna, probably enjoyed it just as much as Rodrigo; Dianna because she loves to see photos of her hubby when he was little, and his dad because he remembers those days well.

I create custom-designed greeting cards, to order, for any occasion!}

I also made the envelope {how cool is that?} using two pages torn out of a travel magazine and these directions by wikiHow. It was super-easy, eco-friendly, and added a really fun touch to the card. Not to mention, since I had neglected to make my card a standard size, I didn't have an envelope to fit! However, I liked the end result so much that I will probably be making envelopes for all the cards I send from now on.

I located some of my favorite photos of Rodrigo during his first year of life and scanned them into digital format. I restored the faded color {these were originally stored in the now infamous magnetic photo albums!}, cleaned up some dirt and scratches, sharpened them a bit, and then popped them into a collage template {a modified version of Scrapbook Etc.'s SBEQuickCollage303 which you can find here}.

I added the arrow in the top left photo pointing to my pregnant belly, and a bit of text to each of the other photos.

To make the card I simply printed out the photo collage and then adhered it to a folded piece of cardstock using black photo corners, for a bit of an old-fashioned look. You can either type up a sentiment, print it out, and glue it inside, or just hand-write it. Easy!
Seeing the photo on the top right really brings back memories. I hadn't the first clue what to do with a baby! It's pretty obvious by the look on my face. Rodrigo's dad didn't know any more than I did, we were just kids ourselves, but we managed; we just figured it out day by day.

I especially love the bottom left picture where Rodrigo is covered with the yellow-and-white gingham tied quilt I made for him, and which he carried around for years {his blankie}. What you can't tell from the photo is that Rodrigo is in an infant seat on the floor of the front passenger seat of our 1960 VW bug {as seen in the top left photo} - that's where he rode whenever we went anywhere. Every time we went around a corner too fast he would tip over!!! Yeah, no car seat laws in those days, I guess it's a miracle he even survived, but I'm SO GLAD he did!

Happy Birthday, Rodrigo! Love you!!

Happy Birthday Digital Layout - for my Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!!

My dad loves cars, especially VW bugs (in all their many variations), dune buggies for off-road racing, and (of course, he's a guy) fast sports cars. He has owned many cars over the years so for his birthday I decided to make a collage of photos of just some of those cars.

The top left photo is from the 50's and shows my dad holding a jackrabbit that he'd shot while out hunting with a friend. In the background is his VW bug which, if the photo were in color, you see is dark green with with red tires. How awesome is that?? The top right photo is an iStockphoto of a "new" beetle, red, exactly like one he owned some 7 or 8 years ago.

In the middle is a photo of an apple green de Tomaso Mangusta sports car. Although this is a photo I found on the internet (I didn't have one of my dad's own car handy), this is exactly like the car he owned in the 70's. I remember it well. In fact, for all I know, this may be the actual car my dad owned that's now owned by someone else. In my Internet research I found that only 200 Mangusta cars are still out there, and how many could there be that color?

Third row: on the left is a red Classic VW that currently sits in my dad's garage. It's a 1968, and is in close to original condition, including the skinny steering wheel with the horn in the center, and those funny little wing windows that you crank open with a little lever. My dad just this year acquired it from "a little old lady" who only wanted him to give her what she'd originally paid for it in 1968.

The other photo is also from the 70's. My dad was big into off-road racing in those days, along with my brother, Steve, (that's the two of them in the photo). The dune buggies were built on VW chassis, had roll-bars added, and were pushed full-throttle over dirt roads pocked with holes and rocks. A very bumpy ride that required the wearing of kidney belts and left the riders covered in mud, dirt, sweat, and grins. My dad and brother were a tough bandido in those days.

Bottom row, on the right-hand side is my Dad's bright orange VW with flames painted on the side and a souped-up and satisfyingly noisy engine. I got to drive this car for awhile during my first year in college (in the 70's) and enjoyed the attention I got wherever I went.

Finally, bottom left-hand is my dad posing in front of the Brubaker Box, aka the Automecca Sports Van, a vehicle originally dreamed up by a guy named Curt Brubaker, and then taken in hand by my dad who worked to manufacture and sell them either fully built or as a kit. You can read more about it here. And if you scroll down to the photo of the "Volkswagen Greats" magazine article entitled "The Automecca Sports Van . . . or the Brubaker is Back?" you'll see a photo of my dad, Mike Hansen, just to the right of the title.

I guess you could say my dad's had a few cool cars in his day . . . !

Photo Collages California Style

I've been going to town with the collages!

I'm working with a podiatrist to design some photo collages for his patient waiting room. Since his office is in northern California, I thought collages of some of the local sights and places of interest would be appropriate and fun for the patients to look at.

I've got ten made, and more planned. I don't think he'll use all of them, but I just can't seem to stop! I'm using my own photos, almost exclusively, so in addition to creating these for my client, I am also scrapbooking my own photos from trips that my hubby and I have taken. I can't wait to see these framed and hanging in the doctor's office, as well as smaller versions slipped into my own family album.

I'd love to know what you think. If you'd like to see more collages click here: www.webajeb.com/DigitalScrapbookPages-CollagesByWebajeb.html.

Here's another one that I like a lot:

I can make collages of places you have visited (and these look GREAT framed and hanging on the wall), so just let me know if I can create one for you. What wonderful memories.

They make great gifts, too.

Digital Scrapbooking New Baby Photos

One of my favorite scrapbooking subjects has to be new babies. I just love photos of the little beings so newly arrived from Heaven that they probably still remember what it's like. I think that's why newborn babies often look so wise, almost as though they are old instead of brand-new. They know stuff we can only imagine.

My niece recently had a baby girl and has been emailing photos. Each time a new batch arrives I quickly pop them into a collage and print the pages out for my album. I don't have a lot of time for my own scrapbooking right now so the collage templates have been working out great.

I'll be sharing more collages, with totally different photo subjects, in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

Cool Collages

I've been creating collages today, with the Quick Collage Templates by Scrapbooks Etc. Here are a few.

Ocean Beach at Golden Gate State Park , California:
The historic Fisher-Hanlon House in Benicia, CA.:
The Solano County Fair in California:
Queen Wilhelmina Garden at Golden Gate Park, California:
Aren't these cool and fun? I'll be making more. I'm finding collages are perfect when I have a bunch of "general" photos of an outing or event. You know...those photos that you love, but really don't require a caption, and sometimes not even a title, because they pretty much tell the "story" on their own?

Gather up a handful of your own photos and send them off to me. I'll make you one of these lickity-split!