Stretch!-Digi Layout

I hope you don't mind my sharing another digi layout, but I am having a lot of fun learning how to do different techniques and thought you might like to see. Jessica Sprague has a blog where she posts Photoshop Challenges on Fridays. She explains how to do a technique and invites readers to try the technique. Then you can post the layouts on her website gallery at http://www.jessicasprague.com/. I've known about the blog and even subscribe to it. I've seen on her website forum where people post a challenge to work on a specific technique she teaches on her blog. But I haven't felt the confidence to attempt one of these techniques/challenges until this week. The technique here was to highlight the focal point of a photo as described here. It was a lot of fun creating the focal point. I struggled a bit with coming up with a layout though. It took me some futzing around with it for a day or so until I felt happy with it. I liked trying the challenge and look forward to attempting more soon.

Credits:
Shabby Princess paper and dotted frame(SF_Kristie) http://www.shabbyprincess.com/, Trish Jones, flower from Captured Moments kit(freebie from http://www.scrapwow.com/) . I did stamp a brush a couple of times (not sure who to credit for that) Fonts: Anthology, Century Gothic.

Thanks for visiting! Oh and if you are a subscriber who hasn't actually clicked onto my blog this week, I created a new blog header. I think it looks kinda neat and I hope reflects the fun of October. :o)

Surprise in the Grill-Digi Layout

I'm not sure how well you can actually see this layout, but I worked on it most of the day off and on. I followed another layout pattern in Close To My Heart's Imagine book called, "Everthing in It's Place." The papers and elements are from a cd I picked up at Hobby Lobby called Playground. You can see the website at http://www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com/ The specific kit I used is Zoe's Merry-Go-Round. The letters for "grill" are an alphabet from Trish Jones' Captured Moments kit found at http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/. Other fonts used are Century Gothic and 28 Days Later. I also worked on learning how to create a paper tear digitally. This was a lot of fun to put together.

The journaling reads:
Imagine our surprise when Amy opened up our gas grill and found this bird’s nest! We had just grilled a few weeks before this and I had not noticed any unusual activity around the grill. We were planning to have steaks, but couldn’t disturb the nest, so Steve decided we should buy a small charcoal grill. Of course, this was decided about the time we usually eat! Got the grill, put it together and we were waiting for the charcoal to get ready. Then Steve thought it would be fun to roast marsh-mallows, only we didn’t have any! So, I went to the store again for those! I think we finally ate around 8pm! It may have been one of the most expensive steak dinners we have ever eaten, but it was worth it to see the excitement on the girls’ faces over the nest and being able to roast marshmallows for the first time! We left the nest alone for a couple of months and think one egg hatched. Next year though, I think we’d better cover the grill!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you find some time to create today!

Petals Card-2nd Attempt

Okay, I'm thinking this one looks a lot better! Less blue. I tried taking the photo in front of a different window, which appears to be letting in more natural light at this time of the day.


Thanks for looking again and feel free to let me know that you think.

Playful Petals-Smile

I'm posting this to see how it looks. In reading some of the blogs I subscribe to, I have noticed some pretty nice ways of taking pictures of the projects. They look quite professional in my humble opinion. So here is my first attempt at sort of dressing up my presentation. Right now, this looks pretty BLUE, so I may have to try taking my picture in a different location.


In any event, this is another stamplift of consulant Carolyn Hulin's work. I used Blush and the old style Buttercup background and texture paper. I stamped the swirl (inking up only 1/2 of the swirl) on the B&T. I tissue inked the Blush ink onto my petals stamp after first inking in Buttercup. Oh and in case you weren't sure...I'm using the Playful Petals stampset.

Thanks for looking and bearing with me as I attempt to make my presentation a little more eye-catching. LOL

Busy Day! Another Playful Petals Card

Oh my, what a busy day I ended up having today! I wasn't home much at all. After I got the girls dropped off at school, I delivered an order and came home with a van full of toys. My friend is decluttering and cleaning out in preparation for a move. I had just a few minutes by the time I got home to sit for just a few minutes, then I was off to pick up Jessica. Today was Amy's early release day, so we had just about an hour for lunch and relaxing (Jess played with some of the "new" toys), then we were off to pick up Amy. The girls always want to play afterschool, so we did that and then it was off to the dentist for Amy, who was scheduled to have a cleaning. We were there a bit early, actually. Amy did an awesome job and told me I didn't have to go back with her! What an independent girl she is becoming. No cavities! Yea!! As I was finishing up with the receptionist, I asked when Jessica was due. Well, their records show that she hadn't been in for a year! I am pretty sure she was in this past spring but they didn't have any record of it. They were able to squeeze her while we were there! She did great as well, but has a tiny cavity, so we are going back tomorrow morning to get that taken care of. So, that took longer than I planned. Get home and the girls played with the toys, while I cleaned some others up and looked for batteries for the electronic stuff. Discovered we were pretty much cleaned out on batteries, so after dinner, I went and got some. Came home, plugged them in and then read with Amy and Jess. Got the girls to bed and started to work on my newsletter, which is overdue already! Not quite done with that, but I am just plain and simply tuckered out so I will work on that more in the morning.

I did want to share this card inspired again by Carolyn Hulin's artwork. It's 4 1/4 inch square, not my normal size, but it will still fit in a standard sized envelope. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Desert Sand, Barn Red and Colonial White cardstock. Stamped with pigment White Daisy ink and heat set to dry quickly. Added some grosgrain ribbon, a just bloom and a Barn Red Bigger Brad. Celebrate is from the Happy Birthday stamp set.
And, thanks to Kim, I finally remembered what to do to insert my watermark again! I was having a brain freeze about it and emailed her. Thanks, sweetie!

Happy creating to you!

October Stamp of the Month Card

I was inspired by the CTMH Corporate artwork designed to showcase this stamp set. I added the grosgrain ribbon in the corners with the hemp because I ultimately cut the piece with the sleigh where the stamping is at the bottom instead of centered. I also chose to use Grey Wool cardstock as the base. The images are stamped in Grey Woolink on Colonial White and colored in with our coloring pencils and a few watercolor pencils because the colors worked. The other cardstock colors are Cranberry, Olive and New England Ivy. It's a standard sized card (4 1/4 by 5 1/2). Enjoy and can you believe that it's close to time to be thinking about Christmas already??
Swim class observations for today...

Jess had a sub teacher who really worked her! She loved it. One of the new things she did was to retrieve a ring he held with his foot. This means she had to go under water to get it! Wow! The look of accomplishment on her face was priceless! :o)

Amy is still trying to figure out how to coordinate her arms and kicking and now putting her face in the water when she does "monkey arms" or the crawl stroke. But, very surprisingly to me and her teacher, when she swam on her back, she had almost perfect form! Interesting! Also, her new task today was to go into the deep end of the pool and get pushed toward the bottom of the pool for a deep bob. She didn't like it much, but did it. She got to jump off the diving board a couple of times and I mean JUMP! LOL

Me, I was thankful I switched from jeans to shorts before we went...it was more humid than usual in the pool area today...LOL

Playful Petals Card

I've been working on creating some cards inspired by consultant Carolyn Hulin's cards. I adjusted just a bit to make it mine. Here I've used Crystal Blue, Chocolate and a bit of Heavenly Blue cardstock. I stamped in Chocolate and Heavenly Blue. Some stamping is second generation. It's probably hard to see, but I also random stamped the swirls on the Crystal Blue cardstock. This 3 1/2 x 8 size was a fun card to create. I have more cards to share, but I'll spread it out over the next few days.
I have also been spending some time organizing all the digi kits that I have been accumulating in my ACDSEE photo manager. I can't believe how many Freebies I've picked up already. So much fun, but it does take some time to tag the images so that they will be easy to find when I need them. I hope to be finished with that soon and then I will work on some more digi layouts. :o)

Have a great day!