This is the first time I am doing something like the aAProject. Ive never made a photo book before or even thought about it. I am doing it for me, to share with my future self. I dont know if Im going to share every page, they may not all be pretty. Since its a new experience, I just dont know. Anyway, I am starting with Thanksgiving because that is my last true time to myself, when I gather wind in my sails, before all hell breaks out at work. My Thanksgivings are very mellow and thats the way I like it. Coming from a small family, I cant imagine being around a huge amount of people on Thanksgiving, and have in fact turned down invitations to those gatherings. I am around people all day at work and have to put that face on, I dont want to do it on Thanksgiving. I wouldnt be grateful, I would be grouchy. And quite frankly, having a football game blaring on the TV really puts me over the edge. Not holiday-ish to me. I want mellow and that makes me happy. So without much ado, here is my first page.

ArtPlay Palette Yule[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Yule.html]ArtPlayPaletteYule[/url]
Project Template Album No. 2[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/Project-Template-Album-No.-2.html]ProjectTemplateAlbumNo.2[/url]
MultiMedia Holiday No. 1[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/MultiMedia-Holiday-No.-1.html]MultiMediaHolidayNo.1[/url]
ArtPlay Palette Festal[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Festal.html]ArtPlayPaletteFestal[/url] Fork
ArtPlay Palette Glacial[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Glacial.html]ArtPlayPaletteGlacial[/url] Branch and Pine Cone
Dripped Stains No. 2[url=http://www.oscraps.com/shop/Dripped-Stains-No.-2.html]DrippedStainsNo.2[/url]
Photos: Mine
Fonts: Torquay Hotel and Tom

Process Notes: Since these need to be fast pages, I followed the template as is. I turned the visibility off on all the layers except the large main mask and clipped my turkey to it. I duplicated the photo to clip it to each stain around the main mask. No blending involved. I clipped my dinner plate to the two photo masks on the left and then added Maxwell to the right side photo mask.

I turned the visibility of all the layers back on to see what I was working with, and I liked it. I brought in solid paper 5 for the background and liked the page even better. I didnt recolor any of the template elements, I left them as is. I did add a stain underneath the dinner plate photo, taking a color from the gravy.

I copy and pasted my journaling into the text boxes and changed the font to Tom. I added the title and used the Blend Ifs on it. I then brought in the fork from Festal and the branch and pine cone from Glacial. Last I added the multimedia holiday at the bottom of the journaling. That finished my page.

I so appreciate that Anna has added the bleed lines around the page, making me aware that if I place something beyond those lines, they are expendable. In this case a bit of the branch, and thats okay.