First Attempt

It appears I’m getting worse and worse about posting.  I have some quilt related projects that are almost ready to post, but not quite yet.  I’ve still been playing with the digital scrapbooking, but I had a major setback a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve spent hours organizing the various kits and papers I’ve downloaded.  I had a folder on my external hard drive for Digital Scrapbooking and was working in it.  All of a sudden the whole folder was gone.  I wasn’t concerned because you can just get deleted stuff back from the recycle bin, right?  Wrong!  In this case there was more data in the folder than there was space available on the computer hard drive so it bypassed the recycle bin.  Did I have a back up?  Of course not.  I went searching for undelete software on the web.  Most sights have a free version that one can use to scan their drive and if it sees your files you then pay for the full version to undelete.  It took hours to scan that 250GB drive, but sure enough I could see the files.  So I shelled out the $$ to buy the full version.  Several hours later there are files on my computer that have the same names as those I lost.  HOWEVER, the undelete software does not recover all the data from Photoshop files so the files were absolutely useless.  Of course the software company does not offer a money back guarantee. So I’m out months of work, all my original scrapbook pages that were print quality and the money for the undelete software. 

Lisa asked me if I even thought any swear words during this debacle.  Fortunately, they aren’t really part of my vocabulary so the answer was no.  There was a great deal of frustration and beating myself up for not having a backup.  So I’ve been spending my spare moments redownloading whatever I can.

During all this scrapbooking, I’ve been wanting to try making my own papers and element.  So today I took a stab at some paper.  I’m uploading a zip file of the paper in the download box on the right.  If it looks appealing feel free to use it any any way you choose.  Here is a preview:

I used a palette by Carle from Kuhler.  If you haven’t seen that web site before it is worth a look.  I can see using the palettes for quilts, clothes, home dec, etc.

Then & Now

I’m still working on my digital scrapbooking classes when I can.  The one I’m posting today is making me feel old.  The two photos were taken six years apart, but it just doesn’t feel like that much time has passed.  What happened to that mischievous little squirt?  I can tell you, he is almost a teen!

This layout was from Jessica Sprague’s Digi In Deep class.  All the paper and elements were supplied as class material.  I thought of another reason I prefer digital scrapbooking.  If I’m using digital photos the properties of the photo file will tell the date the picture was created.  No more having to remember to write it down, or looking at the other pictures from the roll of film to try to get an accurate date.

Final Assignment

I just finished my final weekly assignment for “Now We’re Rocking with Photoshop,” taught online by Jessica Sprague.  I’m only about two months behind, but the saying is “better late than never.”  As I was working, I was thinking about why I prefer digital scrapbooking to the traditional paper, scissors and stickers style.  I think the big reason is I can manipulate the pictures — enlarge, reduce, crop etc. — without destroying them.  I can use a portion of a picture in one layout and turn around and use it a different way in another.  Another big advantage is if the paper or elements aren’t the color I want I can change them with a couple mouse clicks.  It isn’t necessary to go buy more supplies.  One other reason might be that I’m a computer junkie!

So, this assignment was a two page layout.  High quality digital photos work best.  Unfortunately, the pictures I have of my boys when they were young and cute are printed.  So these pictures are a little grainy when enlarged, but this was mainly for practice.  All papers and elements were provided as class materials.

A Little Bit Creative

I’ve been having blog withdrawals.  But I really haven’t had anything worth posting.  It is hard to believe only one more week, and we are through the first quarter at school.  I think I mentioned I’m teaching PE to grades K to 9 (in addition to Math & English to 3rd & 4th graders).  I’m finding that this 44 year old body has a very hard time keeping up with those 1/3 to 1/4 my age.  By the time I get home at night my shins are aching, and all I want to do is collapse.  It doesn’t help that I started reading the “Outlander” series about the time school started.  I finished the last book in print yesterday, so maybe I’ll get back to some creative endeavors.

I had posted my digital scrapbook layouts while taking Jessica Sprague’s classes.  I got sidetracked with those as well and haven’t finished the last two classes.  Thankfully she leaves the videos up permanently.  So this evening I sat down and did the layout for week three of “Now Your Rocking with Photoshop.”  I am really pleased with the subtle picture in the bottom left corner that looks like it is part of  the background paper.  I’m not too sure of some of the froo froo stamps around the frame, but those were the class materials provided so I used them!

Digi: In Deep

I’m continuing my digital scrapbooking/photoshop education with Jessica Sprague’s Digi: In Deep class.  The first lesson was posted on Monday and I finally got around to doing it.  As you know from last week’s posts, I have pictures to play with.  Since the highlight of our trip seemed to be the beggin’ burros they made the layout today.  Everything but the pictures was provided as class materials.

Not Camping

For the last three years about this time of year I’ve gone camping with my sister and other family at Ike Kinswa State Park in Washington.  I’m not going this year, but my sister is getting ready to go for a very long week-end on Wednesday.  I needed a subject for today’s layout so I pulled pictures from our trip in 2006.  The pictures were taken by several different people.

The paper and elements were all supplied as class materials in the Jessica Sprague class.

Still Playing

I think it is about time to go to bed, but I’m still playing with Photoshop.  We had a challenge on Wednesday that I hadn’t done yet, so I goofed around with it.  Here are the results —

The parts for the layout were KPertiet_PaperRevealNo2_2, and trishjones_distresseddiva_distressededge both of which were part of the class materials. The brushes are from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/154. I created my own “Lego” paper using a pattern overlay I downloaded from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/patterns/id/1022.

Expensive Week

It has been an expensive week here in our household.  On Wednesday morning Jesse had the rest of his baby teeth pulled to speed things up at the orthodontist.  I wasn’t quite expecting the total bill for four baby teeth.

Wednesday was really the first day I was out for any length of time after my bicycle accident.  (Still have a knot in my leg and am limping.)  We didn’t take many side trips on the way home.  Later in the day our refrigerator finally burned itself out.  We knew it was going to go someday, but were hoping to limp it along for awhile.  So I made another trip out with Guy Wednesday night and picked out a new refrigerator, which will not arrive until Monday.  We are living out of a small freezer and and ice chest.  That was an even bigger bill.

Thursday saw us at the orthodontist getting Nolan fully fitted with braces.  Gasp, now we are paying orthodontist bills for two.  Do you hear the hyperventilating yet?  That would be Guy.

We had a challenge in the Photoshop class I’m taking.  We were supposed to take a picture today and digitally create a scrapbook page in less than 30 minutes.  I didn’t make it in 30 minutes, but it was less than an hour.  So here you can see part of that money at work.

The paper was a download we received in class from www.sweetshoppedesigns.com and the brushes are from 227 HQ Ornaments at www.brusheezy.com

Now We’re Rockin’ with Photoshop Day 1

My leg is still giving me fits.  I managed to quilt for about 2 hours yesterday and probably an hour today and then it was back to having it propped.  There is still a knot in there about the size of a baseball and now the whole top of my leg down to knee level is black.  Since I spent the majority of the day sitting, I made it through the first assignment of “Now We’re Rockin’ with Photoshop” taught by Jessica Sprague.   The class is a continuation of the one I took with her last month.

Here’s this times layout —

The paper and elements were all class materials and the designers for those materials were Trish Jone, K Pertiet and Jessica Sprague.  The only exception was the brushes which were a free download from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/154.

While I am definitely enjoying the scrapbooking, but one of the reasons I’m taking the classes is to become more comfortable with Photoshop.  I’ve been getting books from the library to help me with that goal as well.  The one I’m working through right now is very good.  I may just have to buy it.  It is “Layers:  The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature.”  It is written by Matt Kloskowski.  It is a step by step, here’s how to do this … with layers written in a conversational type format.  It is easy to understand. 

While I was working through the book, I found the author is one of the hosts of Photoshop User TV.  The weekly programs are free for about a month after they are put up on http://www.photoshopusertv.com/.  Another resource if you are trying to familiarize yourself with this software.  Some of it is over my head, but sometimes a tip sinks in.

Final Week of Up & Running

This week is the final week of the Up & Running class with Jessica Sprague.  I thought the layout this week was loads of fun to work through.  Usually the more complicated something is the happier I am.  Perhaps it is the need for a challenge, or it could be that I just like to learn new things.

The picture in this weeks layout is a scan from a photo that was made from a slide.  As you can imagine, the quality isn’t that great.  The picture was in color, but part of the assignment this week was to create more of a sepia toned picture.   I really like this picture.  It is of my dad and me.  Apparently, I had no fear of standing upright in his hand.  My sister wouldn’t ever do it.  When he tried with her, she would just sit down.

  All the elements in the layout were provided by Jessica as class materials.