Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Teaching Big Impact at Big Picture Classes

I am so excited to announce that my class at Big Picture Classes is live. Big Picture Classes is a website that predominantly hosts scrapbooking, art and craft related classes. You can become and member for a free trial period of 15 days. After that you will pay $9.99 a month. It is a risk free subscription and you can cancel at any time.

It is so amazing that Big Picture Classes accepted my application to teach and gave me a chance to do so. I had never made videos before this and they encouraged me to do so and I pushed myself to do it. It wasn't easy. But I learnt a whole lot during this process and I am grateful for that.

I communicated with both Julie Williams - Education Assistant and Kelly Noel - Content Coordinator  at Big Picture Classes. I can tell you that both of them are amazing and amazingly nice to work with. I originally came up with the idea for the class and lessons. Kelly, gave me pointers to solidify my idea for the class and what each lesson would contain. We bounced ideas and suggestions back and forth to come up with the content for the final 6 lessons in this class. Every single suggestion from her was so on point. It was so awesome to interact with her especially because I have been such a humungous fan of her scrapbooking style and photography for so many years now.

My class is called Big Impact. In this class you will learn some basic photo editing techniques in photoshop elements to make a 4x6 photo to a larger size and how to type text on your images and print them. You will also learn different types of scrapbook layouts you can make with larger photos.  Below is a peek of all the different types of layouts I made with the large photos. I have two videos in each lesson explaining how I edit my photo and how I make the layout. I explained a little bit about all the different products that I used on my layouts and the design choices I made.


As for product choices, I mainly used Studio Calico kits, Ali Edwards Story Kits and Scrapbook Circle kits. I adore all the products that arrive at my doorstep in my kits. In each lesson, I also linked up equivalent products available at Big Picture Classes with which you can achieve similar results. 

I want to say that this is something out of the ordinary for me, from my perspective, I want to stop a little bit and pat myself and praise myself for pushing myself out of my comfort zone ( maybe for the first time in my life). It all started one night, when I sat down and applied to Big Picture Classes to teach on a pure whim thinking that it would go nowhere anyway. I am so deeply grateful that it did not end that way!!!

I hope you will check out my class. If you are not a member yet, you could start a free trial and check out my class.

Have an awesome day!

~Neela

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Rounding up my layouts with Here and Now kit from Scrapbook circle

So we finished yet another month and started a new month. I want to share with you all the layouts that I made with the May kit from Scrapbook circle. This was a super gorgeous kit. It had a lot of fancy free collection designed by Paige Taylor Evans in it. I have to say that this collection is awesome on so many levels. Here are all my layouts:






For more info on each of these layouts, stop by at the Scrapbook circle blog. Have a great day!
~Neela

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Rounding up the layouts made with the One Fine Day kit from ScrapbookCircle

April was my first month as a member of the Creative Team for ScrapbookCircle. It was a lot of fun creating with the products from the kit. It is so exciting to work with all the latest products released at CHA this year. Here are all the layouts that I made:




Here is a little write up on how to type in a circle. I love this effect, it adds so much interest to the layout. In order to do this, I used photoshop elements 14. I first measured the size of my outermost circle. I then selected the text tool, then selected the type on a shape option. I selected the ellipse shape and drew my circle of the needed size. I have pointed out each of these options with arrows in the screenshot. I then clicked at the point on the circle where I wanted to start typing and typed away. This tool then placed the words along the circle. I love this effect.

 


For more details on each of these projects, check out the scrapbook circle blog. Make sure you check out the One Fine Day Kit in the ScrapbookCircle shop.
Have a great day!
~Neela

Saturday, April 2, 2016

I have been busy as a bee!


I know that I haven't posted since the announcement but I have been creating and writing tutorials for Scrapbookcircle for the last month. It was so exciting to get the kit and go through all the different elements of it and chalk out ideas for the assignments and then create. I made 5 beautiful projects  - (4 layouts and one minibook) with the April kits from Scrapbookcircle. The Main kit for the month of April is called One Fine Day and the add on kit that I used is called Stay Cool. You can see all my projects on the Scrapbookcircle website. Also stay tuned for some detailed explanation about each of these projects on the blog during the month. I will keep you updated on when the post goes live.

I am sharing one of my projects here today. I made this layout with a photo of Surya and his friends. I love the photo and I really didn't find the need to do length journaling. The photo says it all. I love that it captures them being in their element.




For this layout I used both sides of one patterned paper that you see above. It is from the Carpe Diem collection from simple stories. I loved the white script on the black background and loved the angle. I totally wanted to highlight that and cut along the angle of the text and also placed my photo along that angle. The other side the paper had hand painted watercolor circles. I loved the colors of these circles and how beautiful they looked with black. So I fussy cut the circles and glued them on the white background. I used the corrugated cardstock from fancy pants to highlight the angle of the text.
The chipboard word 'together' is from a sticker sheet from Bella Blvd. It comes in white and you can paint it. I painted it with acrylic paint and mists to match the water colored circles. Finally I used the absolutely adorable orange sequin puffs from PinkFreshStudio to add a little more interest. Here is my final layout:


When a kit is put together so nicely it is so easy to create. I love working with kits. 
Have a wonderful day!
~Neela

Friday, March 11, 2016

Start of a new adventure!

I am so excited today to announce that I have been asked to be part of the  Creative Team for Scrapbook Circle. Scrapbook Circle is an amazing scrapbook kit company owned by Lisa Andrews. I am honored to be designing alongside all the beautiful and talented ladies on this team!



You will start seeing my projects with these kits from the month of April. So stay tuned for sneaks and more this month!
Have a great day!
~Neela

















Thursday, February 25, 2016

Projects for Citrus Twist Kits

I was presented the opportunity to guest design for citrus twist kits for the month of February. I was jumping up and down with joy when I was asked. It made me so very happy. I wanted to share all the layouts I made with the beautiful products in this kit. The colors, patterns and embellishments are perfect. The best part is that it includes the very latest products released at CHA in December - Maggie Holmes Bloom, Maggie Holmes Shine and C'est La Vie from Pink Paisley. The kit also includes citrus twist kits exclusives like the cork circles and clouds, a cut apart phrase sheet and word stickers from pinkFreshStudio for citrus twist kits. Here are my layouts:







I made 5 layouts with the Febraury Main Scrapbook Kit. I still have papers and stickers left. I thoroughly enjoyed making every single layout. I thank Citrus Twist Kits for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
Have a wonderful day!
~Neela

Monday, February 1, 2016

Guest Designer at Citrus Twist Kits

Hi everyone, I am so proud to announce that I am the guest designer at citrus twist kits for the month of February. It is so amazing to see my photo alongside with all these talented ladies. I am so thankful to citrus twist kits for giving me this opportunity. You should check out their kits. They are filled with the latest products from popular manufacturers. I loved the February kit. It has such a variety of products. You can create such a fun mix of layouts. I made four layouts from the main kit and every one of them is one of my favorites!


Here is a sneak peek of the layout that I made with the Feb kit. Check it out and also get a glimpse of my scrapbooking journey and craft space at the Citrus Twist Kits blog today.

Have an awesome day!
~Neela

Friday, January 22, 2016

Member spotlight

I am so proud and honored to be spotlighted by Studio Calico today. I am so inspired by the kits and so enjoy being part of the community. There is a ton of inspiration in the member gallery. For more check out the link here.

Have a great day!
~Neela

Friday, January 1, 2016

Cold Country

Happy 2016 to everyone. It's been a long time since I have posted or created anything. But I finally got some time to create these holidays. I had the perfect photos from our trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana where my brother lives. I have never wanted to go to a place colder than Santa Barbara at any time. But I had to visit my brother as I had never checked out his new house. As we were landing in Chicago during the thanksgiving weekend, it was snowing. We saw the whole place covered with snow from the plane and it was quite beautiful. The next day was Nov 21st, Arjun's birthday and all he wanted was for it snow on that day. And it did and it looked beautiful. My family and I have hardly ever seen it snow, I have to say it was so breathtaking and beautiful. The kids had the most amazing time trying to make snow angels and having snowball fights. The layouts that I made reflect the beauty of snow, the birthday celebration, the kids excitement to be playing in the snow! All products that I used in these layouts are from Studio Calico kits and the Firsts kit by Ali Edwards.








My layouts are a mix of sizes and techniques. Some of them are hybrid layouts and some are just plain old paper piecing. All I can say is that I had so much fun making these layouts and getting the stories told of our trip.
Hope you enjoyed checking out my layouts. Have a great day!
~Neela