CREATIVE CREW, Family Reunion Scrapbooking Challenge...

This is my entry for July's Creative Crew Scrapbook Focus Challenge.  The theme this month is 'Family Reunion'.  I decided to use a photo from our last gathering with my husband's family.  Since our rambling clan has settled in Virginia and everyone else lives in Massachusetts, we don't all get together very often.  This celebration was for Michael's parents for their 50th wedding anniversary.  Everyone was there except for Jenni, my oldest daughter, who could not make the trip up with us.  It was a great day at the Wayside Inn (the oldest operating inn in the country) and they have lovely grounds for photo taking. 

I used My Digital Studio to create my page.  I wanted to make an elegant, understated page, but I still wanted it to be full of texture.  It kind of reminds me of my mother-in-law, Ellie!  :)  To achieve all the layering while not obliterating all the color, I began with...  (believe it or not!) Tempting Turquoise textured card stock.  Shocking, right?  You'd swear it was Baja Breeze or the new Pool Party.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see I left a slim bit of the blue peeking out on the right, so that you can see I'm serious!

Then I layered at least four different overlays from the Vintage Overlays brush set.  They were all various light shades which I used at different opacities.  This gave the page a textural feel while not making it too cluttered or busy.  Exactly what I was shooting for!

I set all the other stamps for transparency as well.  And I even used masks of transparent color over the paper-filled photo corners as well.  This subdued all the colors, but still kept them interesting.  Just a few of the reasons why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE My Digital Studio!

I encourage you to play along this month and scrapbook some of those family photos you have hanging around!   Here is the challenge info:

CCREW0711SF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Scrapbook focus: It's Family Reunion month, focus on your family!

SHAUGHNESSY 50th ANNIVERSARY SCRAPBOOK PAGE MDS DOWNLOADS LIST:

• Digital Downloads – Medallion, Notably Ornate, Vintage Overlays, Friend by Definition, Basic Pearls and Jewels
• Shapes – Photo Corners
• Colors – Tempting Turquoise, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Going Gray, Basic Gray, Black
• Fonts – Galant Wide, Ephesis

Update: I had a few questions on how to make items transparent in My Digital Studio.  Once you have selected a stamp (or punch, etc.) in the Design Center on the right, there are several options for configuring the image.  For example, changing the color, rotating or flipping the item, adding a drop shadow (which I almost always do for every object).  Underneath these options are two sliding bars.  The first is Rotate for choosing angles to rotate your objects at.  The second is Opacity (indicated in the picture below - click to enlarge).  Just slide the opacity lever to the left until you are happy with the result.  I have all different opacity levels on my project depending on the color used and desired effect.