My background experience includes a four-year stint as a draftsman, which means I worked constantly with graph papers and parallel bars on my drawing table, and more than 30 years as a graphic designer, back in the "olden days" as my son used to say. In the olden days, we didn't have a computer to get everything straight. We had t-squares, parallel bars and our own eyes to make it all work. I have to admit that I was pretty good at eyeballing the alignment on all the reams of typeset copy and the photos, but 20 years of working on a Mac will definitely spoil you. Everything is always lined up at right angles unless you don't want it to be, so I have come to rely on digital scrapbooking.
However, you don't always want to create digital pages. A case in point is this page I created about my sisters-in-law. I have a 12" x 12" family album, and while I could create it as an 8" x 8" layout on my printer with additional layers to make it fit the book, that's not always an option and it's a waste of paper as well.
Enter the Get it Straight Laser Square. This is the coolest tool I've seen in a long time. It makes getting things aligned so much easier.
I have to admit that, although I was good at lining things up when I was creating magazine layouts, those years on the computer have made me dependent. I used to be able to step back and see if an alignment was off, down to 1/16th of an inch. Now, I can't spot a 1/4" error while I'm working, but when I come back to the page once it's in a book (and glued down) it stands out like a sore thumb.
NOTE: I know that there a couple of pieces that look like they are slightly off, but that is due to the camera operator, and I have to admit that it's me, not the Get it Straight Laser Square.
Here's how I made this page:
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| I trimmed my patterned paper so that I could layer it onto brown card stock. Lining it up with the Get It Straight Laser Square was a breeze. |
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| I wanted a vintage look to go with my vintage photos, so I sponged Walnut Paper Soft Color from Viva Décor on all the edges before layering. I then layered all the photo and journaling elements on brown and green card stock, using the Get it Straight Laser Tool to make the alignment easy. |
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| I placed my largest photo first, moving it up and down until I had it where I wanted it. I then turned on my Get It Straight Laser Square and the beam showed me where I needed to straighten it. |
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| I added the second photo using the Get It Straight Laser Square to guide the placement. |
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| The third photo was added, but since I wanted to use it as a pocket, I only added the adhesive on the sides and bottom. My journaling will tuck in here. |
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| Once again, lining up the title bar was so easy with the Get It Straight Laser Square.I made the title block using Duetica Lettering Arts Studio's Piper font. I was able to make this title my own by adjusting the letters using Duetica's great software. The font's alignment variety helps break up all the right angles of the other elements. |
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| With all the nice straight edges, the title block wasn't enough contrast. I rounded the corners of the sub-tutle block and, instead of layering the sub-title straight on, I fanned the layers out. |
My journaling tag was inserted behind the photo on the left, with a tiny pull tab made with the Craft Geek Pin It tool and the Solstice Pin It set. Here's what it says:
"I never knew my sister-in-law Janell at an early age and never even knew Betty. By the time Larry and I met, Janell was in her thirties and Betty had been tragically killed in a train/car crash. Looking back on these photos taken in happy times gives me a glimpse of the wonderful life they lived while growing up in Arkansas. I particularly love the photo of them sitting on the bumper of that old car. Betty is politely smiling for the camera and Janell was giggling. I can just imagine her saying, “I have ice cream and you don’t!”"
The gold in the Craft Geek Pin It tab stood out a little too much, so I cut some flowers, leaves and swirls from metallic gold paper using Sizzix dies and a Big Shot. They were the icing on the cake.
The finishing touch was to use a Viva Décor Gold Glitter Pen to add some dots around the page.
Watch for my next Get it Straight Laser Square post which will involve 45° angles!
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