Green Elephant Scraps

2009-10-05T07:36:00.007-05:00

You make your memories...I preserve them!

We live our lives to the fullest--building memories that will last a lifetime. Ensure that future generations see, read and learn about your life by having beautiful digital scrapbook pages created of your most memorable events as well as your everday ones! (Afterall, it is our everyday moments that reveal the most about us!)

If you have a pile of photographs just waiting to be organized in an album or if you have a special occasion that you want to commemorate in a unique and beautiful way, then why not let me take care of it for you? As a Scrap For Hire artist, I will scrap your memories for you digitally so you'll have them to enjoy for years to come.

What is Digital Scrapbooking?

Digital scrapbooking is the perfect way to preserve your memories and, in my opinion, is far better than paper scrapping. Much like traditional paper scrapbooking, you have your personal photos, backgrounds, elements and alphas and they're layered onto your pages in much the same way as far as appearance goes. The difference is that, with digital scrapbooking, they're all digital images that were either created with the various design software on the market today, or have been scanned in from real items. There is no paper involved for digital scrappers unless they print a copy of their page(s). As you can imagine, there are a lot of benefits to scrapping your memories digitally, and you can read about them here.

What is Scrap For Hire?

Often abbreviated S4H, Scrap For Hire is when you pay someone to digitally scrap your memories for you and provide you with a printed version. Perhaps you don't have the time, the right program and/or the know-how to scrap your own photos. That's where someone like me steps in. You provide me with photos and some basic info--which will be covered in our initial consultation--and I create beautiful pages which I print for you individually or as an album. With the album option, you save 5% on the page price plus you get the traditional album for free! I have a number of different ones to choose from once you place your order.

Since I'm also a digital scrapbook kit designer, for an extra fee I can create a kit that would be used just for your layouts! That means no one else in the world would have a scrapbook with papers and elements like yours! It is 100% unique and geared towards your style and personality! This is especially nice for wedding albums if you want to use your wedding colors for all your pages.

Scrap For Hire artists usually have a wide arrray of kits to scrap with--all approved for S4H use, of course--which means you can choose the color, theme and style for your memories. Once you give me an idea of what you're looking for, I can e-mail you previews of different kit options to choose from.

I hope you'll stick around to browse through the rest of my site. Please visit the categories below (also found as links at the top of each page under the header) to learn more.

Benefits of Digital

Ideas

Pricing

The Process

Stock Designs

Contact Me

Portfolio

Testimonials

About Me

2009-10-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

The Benefits of Digital

The benefits of digital scrapbooking are numerous. I truly believe that it far surpasses traditional paper scrapbooking.

Since everything is done digitally, mistakes can be easily fixed. There's no more waste of papers or other materials. If you make a mistake, you can easily undo it!
Ditto with photos. You never have to worry about ruining a photo by cropping it too close or incorrectly. The programs used for digital scrapbooking allow you to make a copy of your photo with just a few clicks, so if something goes wrong you can undo it or go back to your original photo file.
There is NO waste with digital scrapping! No more paper pieces fluttering around, no bits of ribbon too small for any other use. There's no trash being thrown away, which makes digital scrapbooking the "Green" choice!
You save tons of money because everything is reusable! To get a double page spread, you don't need to buy duplicates of all your papers and elements...you just use the same file over again! This is really great if you want to make an entire album with matching papers and elements. What a money saver!
You don't have to worry about adhesives giving way over time and falling off, or about adding too many elements that make the page too heavy. With digital prints, there is nothing that falls off, nothing that peels.
Digital pages are space savers. All the elements and papers are images, but because the programs used allow you to include shadows and warp shapes, everything looks as realistic as its paper version. Because it is a single, flattened jpg, you can fit more digitally scrapbooked pages into an album after they've been printed than you ever could with the traditional pages!
If you choose to frame one of your prints, you don't have to buy one of those shallow shadow box style frames made especially for traditional scrapbook pages. A regular frame will do just fine, thank you!
No worries if someone spills something on one of your layouts, if they somehow get torn or otherwise damaged. Everything is replaceable! A copy is saved on a computer or disk, so you can just get another copy printed!
Making multiple copies of albums is a breeze. You can keep a copy of your pages or album for yourself and order additional copies for friends and/or families. You can make a brag book of a school event for your child and make copies for each of his/her friends! You can also change the size of the additional copies if you want! You can keep the 12x12 album for yourself and order 8x8 albums for the grandparents, memebers of the wedding party, etc.
Digital scrapbook pages can be shared easily with others. Since they're flattened jpg images, you can e-mail them and share your memories with people all over the world!

There are so many reasons that make digital scrapping the right choice!

2009-10-04T16:26:00.009-05:00

Pricing

All individual pages will be printed on a heavy-weight, acid-free paper with high quality inks. If you order a complete traditionl album, I will contact you with choices for album colors. I prefer the brand Colorbok because the 12x12 pages fit it nicely. If you have your own album that you will be using, please let me know as I might advise you to request your pages slightly smaller to make sure they slide easily into the sleeves. Many people choose to build their albums slowly, doing several pages at a time (a great option if you can't afford a complete album all at once!)--especially if it's a child's album and they want to add to it as their children grow. If this is the case, let me know so I can keep a folder open for your ongoing order.

Canvas prints may be ordered as traditional artists' canvas or as a flat canvas. Contact me for more information. Wall art will be printed on the same paper as the regular page layouts, as will invitations/announcements once they become available.

Please contact me with any questions about extra services or if you have a special project you don't see mentioned here. For the time being, I will print invitations/announcements/ greeting cards on a case by case basis until I figure out pricing. Just contact me with your needs and we'll work something out! Ditto with bound albums as it is a new area for me.

All my pages are printed at my "day job" so I can keep an eye on quality. This makes the price of printing a bit higher for me, but saves on time and money in the long run as I don't have to get them shipped to me first to check quality nor waste the valuable time in shipping back and forth if they need to be redone. If you would like to see a sample of the print quality before you place an order, let me know and I can send you a sample layout.

I do not have pricing set up for digital copies of pages because I am up in the air on whether or not I'm willing to do it! I can give you a e-mail or website posting suitable size on disk for a small fee. Just ask about it and we can discuss that option.

2009-10-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

The Process

Below is outlined the general process I will follow with all clients.

First, e-mail me with some general information to get us moving forward. This includes the number of pages you're looking for, the size, the finished format (an album, brag book or loose pages) and a brief overview of any particular style of scrapping you prefer. I will contact you with a few questions to get a better idea of what you're looking for and what your expectations of me might be.
If you have a deadline, we will discuss this and try to set a date that we can both agree to. Because I work fulltime and have 2 small boys to look after, I may not be able to accept your order if a strict deadline is required. I will, however, do my best to meet all your needs.
We will have a more in depth consultation where you can request certain colors, 2 page spreads, particular kits/themes, how many photos per page, etc. Any photo retouching (removing scratches or dust) or other manipulation (changing a color to B&W or sepia tone, selective coloring, waterpaint or other styles, etc.) will need to be discussed at this time.
I will send you a contract with all the details including a final price. If you have photos that need to be retouched or otherwise manipulated (other than cropping and resizing), this will need to be discussed during our first few consultations as it will affect the final price.
You will need to get your photos to me. I would prefer to have them already scanned in, but can also scan them in for you if you do not have the means to do so yourself. If you scan them yourself, please scan at a high resolution. Set your scannet to at least 600, although 900 would be preferable (especially for small sized photos). I might ask you to rescan if I don't think the quality is good enough. I will provide you with info to a site you can upload the photos to, or a physical address so a disk can be mailed. If I scan the photos for you, extra time must be allotted. I also will not be held responsible for photos lost in the mail (you can see why I prefer them to already be scanned). If you are local, we can set a meeting place for me to pick up your photographs.
Photos that need to be on the same page must be grouped together. Any journaling, names and/or dates must be written and typed out by you and sent to me either along with the photos or in a separate e-mail.
Before I start any work, a 30% deposit is required. I am not currently setup to accept PayPal payments, so checks or money orders is the only way I can accept payment. The project will not start until your check has cleared.
As I complete pages, usually a few pages at a time, I will e-mail you a draft for approval. It is your responsibility to proofread the journaling, names and dates--if any--for mistakes in info and/or spelling. If any changes are needed, I will redo the layout and send you another draft. You are allowed 2 revisions (excluding revisions where I have made the mistake in the journlaing, names or dates). Any revision requests after the first 2 will incur an extra charge.
After all the pages are approved by you in writing, no other last minute changes can be made. The remainder of your payment is due at this time, and nothing further will be done until payment has cleared.
Your order will be printed on acid free paper using high-quality ink. If you have requested a traditional album, I will assemble it for you. If you have ordered a hardbound album, all the info will be sent off to the printer. I will then contact you to make arrangements for getting your order to you. If you are local, we will set a meeting place. If I am mailing you the final product, it will be sent via UPS and I will e-mail you the tracking code. All photos, disks or other items you send to me will also be returned at this time.

If you have any questions about this process, please e-mail me!

2009-10-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

Contact Me

I prefer to our intial contact to be via e-mail. Afterwards, we may choose to meet in person if you live in my area or chat on the phone to go over details.

When you e-mail me, please include basic information on what it is you're looking for...the number of pages, the size, a traditional scrapbook, a bound book, a brag book, etc (I'm sure you get the idea!) Don't forget your name, where you're located (so I can look into the cost of shipping the final product to you), and a little about the style you like (if you have a preferred style).

So...here goes! You can e-mail me at:

greenelephantscraps@hotmail.com

2009-10-04T12:31:00.001-05:00

Testimonials

"I gave this photo to my mother as a gift from the grandkids – after the tears from joy – she had tears of laughter at remembering them in their younger days." --Sandy (St. Louis, MO)

"All the pictures that I have had Nicole work on for me have always been exactly what I asked for or if I didn’t have anything in mind she has always had the creativity to make them look awesome. I will continue to use her for any picture project that I want done because I know that she will work hard with me to give me the result that makes my pictures come alive with creativity and color." --Diane (St. Louis, MO)

"Nicole has some unique talent and passion for this. I was so surprised and truly touched to tears when [Nicole] presented me with these [canvas prints]. Those 4 canvases are a valued treasure in my home. As a matter of fact, I hired her to do some as gifts for loved ones last Christmas. She can take your treasured photos and turn them into awesome keepsakes and gifts." --Alicia (Lafayette, LA)

2009-10-04T11:36:00.004-05:00

About Me

I'm the mother of 2 little boys (5 yrs old and 2 yrs old as of right now--summer 2011) who keep me mighty busy. They are, as a matter fact, the cutest little boys in the country (I won't say world because I'm not that vain). I often wonder--after looking at me and my husband--where in the world they got their looks from? My 5 yr old is an Aspie with SPD and early signs of dyspraxia. He has his own blog, which is sorely in need of a blogger other than his mother who cannot seem to keep up with her posts! LOL His blog is called I Am Not Broken...I Am Me. As you can imagine, it has been quite a challenge learning about what works and what doesn't for him. He was just diagnosed in December of 2010, so we're still learning. My other son is...well, he's 2. Enough said!

I'm originally from Wisconsin and my hubby is from Louisiana, which is where we've made our home (for the main reason that hubby can't handle northern winters). Yes, it was a culture shock...no, I really don't care for the food much at all.

I lost my job in February and wehave been struggling to make ends meet while I look for another job. We have reached the decision, I think, that it would be best for me to stay home and try a variety of things. I'm trying to get a few more kids in for an in-home child care job, I have an Etsy shop with my sister featuring our photography (Thistledwn Studios), and--of course--I have my Scrap 4 Hire business.

In my spare time, I scrap my boys' baby albums as well as create gifts for others. I'm also getting into creating digital scrap pages for myself, which are mainly the realism/fantasy kits. My personal art has a bit of a dark side to it! In February of 2008, I began designing digital scrapbook kits for others to purchase and made my store home at Designs In Digital. After my youngest was born, I had to put a hold on that for the most part, and although I do plan to continue designing kits in the future, it wasn't until I had to pause my design career that I realized my true passion is designing layouts. Hence my decision to start a S4H service!

Me and my boys at the start of this site...Autumn 2009

Me and the boys at the time of the site revamp...Summer 2011

My how they grow!

2009-01-01T08:37:00.001-06:00