Between being sick, working, taking care of my kiddos, working some more and getting ready for Thanksgiving … it’s a wonder I’ve gotten anything done! Not that I really have (there is ALWAYS more to do, right?)… but I can offer up some new layouts!
Here are a few of my latest creations. What are you working on?
What’s new?
Well, for starters … I got a new camera. I have been wanting a new camera for a very long. I have done my research. I have window shopped. I have drooled. And I was just waiting for my husband’s stamp of approval. The stamp cam last Friday and I went right out and got this little guy:
It’s a EOS Rebel T1i with EF-S 18-55mm IS and I’m in heaven. This is my first Digitial SLR and I love, love, love it. I have always used a basic point and shoot camera and now that I’ve gone this route, I’ll never be able to go back. The pictures, even on auto mode, are so much better. I have been having a blast taking pictures of everything.
I’m in the second week of Shimelle‘s “Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages” online class. I’m happy to say I’m keeping up and have created 4 new layouts as part of the class. Here’s a look at what I’ve been working on.
So what are you up to? What are you working on? Tell us and we’ll enter you in for a chance to win a free kit. If you already subscribe then we will send you a kit you don’t already receive or create a special one just for you. For newbies, we’ll send you a July Kit of your choice.
I’ll pick a winner on Sunday, July 18. Have a great day!
I was surfing the Web a little bit ago and saw this challenge from Shimelle.
The challenge was to create a layout with the theme “Happiness is … “ She posted a free digital template that could be used, but it was required. I used the template, along with a bunch of Spring Junque goodies from House of 3(my current favorite place to shop for digi and hybrid items).
Here is my interpretation of the challenge:
I used some fun techniques on this page that I learned in a brush class from Jessica Sprague. I highly recommend taking a class from her if you are interested in trying out digital scrapbooking.
I think after my kiddos go to bed tonight, I’ll create an all paper layout using the same template as a guide. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a small book the was all about the things that make you/me happy?
Lately, I feel like I am constantly digging myself out of a hole. Sadly, I never can get to the top! I just keep climbing and never reach the top. The last few weeks have been CRAZY. Seriously. CRAZY.
I have neglected this blog. I have neglected my personal log. I have even been so swamped I had over birthday party planning for my daughter to my hubby (yikes! I can only imagine what this party is going to be like!) Some days I’m surprised I even remember to brush my hair!
But. I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. This might very well be the week that I catch up.
I wanted to start something new on this blog. I’m hoping it will help me organize my thoughts better. Four Things. Every so often, I want to talk about four things. I picked the number four, since that’s the size of my family (mommy, daddy and two kiddos). I have a tendency to be all over the place. I’m not a linear thinker. I bounce all over the place. I call it multitasking, my husband calls it nuts! So, in limiting my chaos to four things, I am hoping my blog adventures will be more manageable.
For today, I want to share the four things I am doing right now:
1. I am reading this book.
“The Elegance of the Hedgehog” by Muriel Barbery.
I was introduced to this book thanks to my book club. I never made it to the book club meeting at which they talked about the book. Good thing, since I’m not done with it yet! However, I really appreciate having a group of women with whom I can occasionally hook up with and talk about interesting things that have nothing to do with my children, my husband or my work. It’s a nice escape and it’s oh so intellectually stimulating. I highly suggest joining a book club. Look online, I’m sure you can find one in your area or maybe your church or moms group has one. Real Simple magazine has one I have been thinking about joining. Check it out here. What are you reading right now? I always love book suggestions. I am one of those people who can’t say no to a good book. I have stacks of books all over my house. The more books the better I say. I’ve found it thrilling to watch my daughter learn to read and develop a love of books. She’s turning into a miniature me when it comes to that and that makes me smile.
2. I’m working on this layout.
Since coming home from Disneyland, I have been wanting to scap our photos of the trip. Well, life happened. Cooper got sick. I had to go to Europe. And no scrapping of Disney pics has been done. Today I decided to do some digital pages using pictures from the trip. This is the first one I finished. I used all House of 3 goodies for this layout. I heart House of 3.
3. Preparing for a trip to Brazil.
I have never been to Brazil, but I’ll be going there in May. I am excited and nervous. Brazil is pretty exotic in my book, so that part is exciting. But it’s also a little dangerous in some parts of the country and that of course scares me. I’ll be traveling with a group of people, so I’m sure everything will be just fine. I bought myself a new swimsuit for the trip. It’s not a “Rio” swimsuit (that’s a super skimpy swimming suit if you were wondering what I mean), but it’s still a new and cute suit. I am excited to see all the touristy things and also just relax in the beach.
4. I’m listening to Paperclipping Roundtable
I know. I’ve talked about this before. But I love this podcast. It’s so relevant. It’s fun. And it’s inspiring. The episode I was listening to today, titled “Get Inspired” was especially good. In this episode they invited a “real world” scrapper to the table and she said something that really stuck with me … “Done is better than perfect.” How good is that? I spend a lot of time trying to make everything just perfect and that means a lot of things are never done. Isn’t it better to get things done and stop being such a perfectionist? I think this is going to be my new mantra – Done is much better than perfect!
The last few days I’ve spent most of my extra time dipping my toes into the world of digital scrapbooking. It’s becoming a mini obsession for me. I really don’t like being able to do something and do it well. And when it comes to digi scrappin’ I’m far from a pro.
I have been interested in exploring the world of digital scrapbooking for some time now. Awhile back I went as far as downloading all the free digi products I could get my hands on and even bought a considerable amount of templates, brush, digital embellishments. And then I did nothing with all of it.
I can’t imagine ever converting completely … I love to feel and touch the product as I create a page. But for practical reasons it makes a lot of sense. Since I travel. A lot. I often feel like I miss out on valuable crafting time. If I incorporated more digital crafting, I could craft on the road and not have to pack a single extra item.
I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable on a flight a few days ago and Stacy Julian mentioned Nan Scott and her Web site. While visiting Nan’s site, I clicked on a PhotoShop Elements tutorial and thought I could manage to put together a page with Nan’s instructions. And I did. Here’s a look at my first digi page. Mind you, it’s my first. And I went a little nuts with brushes … but I wanted to try out a bunch of different tools. Pretty much everything on the page is House of 3, plus a freebie Ali Edwards had posted awhile back.
Don’t laugh at my page. It’s my very first try. I really had a ton of fun playing with all the tools in PhotoShop Elements and the goodies I purchase at House of 3. Since I have a background in newspapers and have done some design work, the basics of working in an Adobe product are coming back to be quickly. There was a time I was a whiz at using InDesign, but if you don’t use it … it leaks out your ears and is lost forever!
I also found a super helpful tutorial on the House of 3 blog courtesy of Rhonna Farrer (I love, love her work. She is beyond talented). This tutorial specifically uses a tool kit they sale at House of 3 *yes, I bought it … along with a truck load of other things), but the techniques can be applied to so many different things. Here are a few more pages I made this week … again all House of 3, Ali Edwards and a little Nan Scott Design Studios. Be nice … I’m new at this.
Shelby's 5th Birthday
Finally, I’ve repeatedly checked the various tutorials and articles Ali Edwards has posted on her blog regarding digital scrapbooking. All of her tutorials are straight forward, easy to follow and concise. Check them out here.
I think my vision for my personal digital scrapbooking would be to get a page started, print it out and then add embellishments for texture and depth. This would give me a chance to be more creative when I travel, stay caught up and still play with the physical page at some point.
Are you digitally scrapbooking? Do you have a go to site for tools or tutorials? Share … I want to know!
In my attempt to enter the world of digital and/or hybrid scrapbooking, I started looking for an online application I could use to edit my photos and add some simple treatments to them.
I figured it would be easier to use a simple online application in the short term and brush up on Photoshop or Photoshop Elements in the long term. I’m hoping to take some sort of Photoshop class in the near future and am looking forward to a series Ali Edwards has planned for next week on digitial scrapbooking (she mentions the series at the bottom of this post).
I found this site that I’m currently loving … it’s called Picnik. As it says on the homepage of the Web site it’s designed to make photo editing fun – “Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s fast, easy, and fun.”
The cool part is, it’s free. You can sign up for a paid version of the site, but all of the basic tools and tons of fun goodies are free. I’m testing it out for free right now and will decide if I want to upgrade to the paid version later.
So what can you do on the site? Let me show you. Here is a raw, unedited photo of my sweet baby Cooper. It was taken on a cell phone, so it’s not the very best quality. However, it’s adorable and I’d like to be able to tweak it a little so it could be used for either a scrapbooking page or a blog post.
Here’s the photo after I made some basic fixes to it thanks to Picnik. One of the things I like best about this site is that every time you apply some sort of action (like adjusting the exposure), there is a mini tutorials that pops up on the screen and explains what the action is, why you would make adjustments to it and how you’d make changes.
And now here’s the photo after I add some of the cool effects and features. For this particular example, I applied the “holga-ish” effect and then added the museum matte frame. There are all sorts of free effects and frames you can use. There is a Polaroid frame that makes your photo look like it’s, umm, a Polaroid! Try it out, it’s tons of fun.
Next up for me … I want to try some of the cool digital items that you can purchase at House of 3. Have you seen Heidi Swapp’s latest endeavor? Her new site, House of 3 offers all sorts of down-loadable goodies that you can either print out and use on a physical scrapbooking page or you can use them digitally. How cool is that?
RSS