Catching up for the week....

Hello. Remember me? Yes, I'm still alive. No, I was not at CHA like some of my fellow stampers were. Life has just been in the way a little this past month so stamping had to take a back seat for awhile. But here are a few cards I made last week for the Dare To Get Dirty challenges and beginning of this week that I wanted to share with you.

For Betty's "Dare to Get Dirty" challenge of making your own Design Paper. I used three images from The Tribe set by Our Craft Lounge to make the design paper. Colored the images with prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. Took a paint brush and "pounced" ink spots on the dp too. Used the same "pounce" on the wording layer. All layers are distressed with distress ink. main image is colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits.Used sketch 116 for my layout.

I cased this card of versamom who was featured stamper last week. Kept the layout the same but changed images and color. Used nestabilities for the squares. Middle square is on dimensions. All paper but the black is from the La Creme matstack. The flowered layer is black flocking.This is also for Becca's DTGD challenge of using punches or die cuts. Besides the nesties, I used my square punch on all the images and added the Martha Stewart border punch below the ribbon.

Love how this ribbon matches her outfit. Colored her with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. Used oval scallop nestabilities and then popped them up using Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. Bow was made using the Bow Easy and attached with Helmar 450 adhesive. Images from Our Craft Lounge - The Tribe.

A couple of Dare to get Dirty challenges here, texture (flower soft), birds, ribbon to name a few. The green paper is from the Latte matstack and has a slight texture to it. The brown cardstocks is actually a double color with a vivid shade (light brown) on one side and a rich shade (dark brown) on the other side. This cardstock comes from DoubleMates and also has a texture to it.The owls are on Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to give them dimension. Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits were used. I added Flower Soft to make it look like 'flowers' under the tree.Images are from Our Craft Lounge Used Sketch challenge 137 for my layout.

More Dare To Get Dirty challenges here. Used Helmar liquid scrap dots to do the paper tole with the flower. Used the flourishes and circles to make my own dp, added just a little red to the small dots. Made my bow using the Bow Easy. Thanks to Rainy for the sketch. Images are from Stampendous.

Check back during the week as Our Craft Lounge is having Holiday sneak peeks all week long!!

I STAMPED!!

It’s only been almost a month since I uploaded a card to my SCS gallery! OMG. I can’t believe I have gone that long without stamping. I must be sick!!  lol     

No, seriously, life has just gotten in the way this month. It has been nice to sit back and take a break from stamping but I’m ready to get back into it.

So I started out easy. I used today’s sketch over at SCS. I went with The Tribe by Our Craft Lounge. I thought the image would be perfect for that “over the hill” birthday! I know.. my twisted sense of humor.

Colored the images with prismacolors and blended it with Odorless Mineral Spirits. Made a faux layer on the skulls with a black marker and ruler. The design paper is from Basic Grey.

All paper is attached with Helmar Quick Fix runner.

Supplies used:
The Tribe by Our Craft Lounge, white cardstock, basic grey paper, brads, prismacolor pencils, odorless minerals spirit, Helmar quick fix runner

A little behind Day 13: Collage & Brush

4-H has taken control the last few days and I simply haven’t had the time to post the last and final class of the Jessica Sprague Photoshop class that ended on Saturday. (well there was one more ‘class’ on Sunday but again it was a check quiz and I just don’t do quizzes ;) )  Now I know some of you are upset that you missed out on taking this class but she does offer some free classes at her site if you look in the “Free stuff” link on the side. When things slow down for me, I will be going back and doing those sessions. So on to Day 13.

Day 13: Collage & Brush – 9 panel collage and adding brush to it

9 pictures in one? wow, I had no clue what I was going to use until hubby got home from the Dayton Air Show with 455 pictures! Yes, he took 455 pictures! All different angles, close ups, etc. They had Chalet seats that were right on the flight line so he was able to get some good pictures of one plane as it got ready to take off. Even got a picture of the pilot waving at them! How cool is that. Anyways after I saw all the pictures, I got excited to do the class.

This collage is all of one plane! Remember all those angles, close ups I said my husband took? Here are just a few. I didn’t crop anything out, I used the pictures as is! See the pilot waving/saluting? Too cool, so jealous I didn’t get to go!  I muted my brush so it wouldn’t be just a strong over powering white.


The bonus challenge for the class was to change the picture to sepia or black and white and then bring back color to just one square. I love how this turned out.


 I love this one of the boys.The top corner is my husband and Benjamin while the bottom corner is the father and son that went along.  I changed the background color to black which made the white brushes noticeable on the edges. I used a grunge brush from Obsidian Dawn as I wanted more of a ‘masculine’ look than the brush above. 
Well I hope you enjoyed my journey through the class. I can’t wait for life to slow down some so I can go back and do more pictures. I am now picture craze taking my camera with me where ever I go and taking shots of everything and anything. Thank goodness for digitals!! lol

Tomorrow is our last day of judging and I can’t wait to show you the projects Allie has been working on. They are turning out really cute.

And a warning for the faint hearted… I AM STAMPING TODAY so the next post later on will actually feature a card or two!!  *gasp*  So I just wanted to forewarn you so you don’t have a heart attack when you see an actual card up! It has been ages since I have stamped (or feels like it) sure hope I remember how ;)

Day 10, 11 & 12…. Lots of pictures to catch up on!

This is going to be a long post. Still busy working on 4-H projects.. it’s only my 9 yr old with “projects” but she is also my slow one so it’s taking a little time! But they are coming along great and I can’t wait to show her/them off when all done.

Well Jessica’s class is almost over. It has been so much fun but addicting as all I want to do is go out and take pictures to play with now! lol  So without delay.. onto the last three classes… Day 10, 11 and 12.

Day 10: Start-to-Finish (your own clipping mask, adding textures, adding a text overlay, some type and an edge burn)

Two textures on top of Benjamin, my one wording (in white). Old picture of Benjamin.


Day 11: Selective Recoloring

Turned the photo to black & white and then brought back the color in one spot. Had to add more wordart (changed the color of it too).

Emily, one of Carmen’s friend, took this picture when she stayed the night and the girls went out walking the town. She used my camera. Turned the word art to white.
Love this picture I took of Jorden one day when I was doing a photo shoot with her. I miss my little chubby baby!! Ger thought I should have colored her eyes since my saying says Angel eyes.

I just love this picture of Carmen with Jorden and her niece, Leah. Another one of Carmen’s friends took this at church after a luncheon. And yes, Carmen’s shirt does say “if you think i’m crazy, you should see my mother” and it was actually me that showed it to her to buy!! Yup, i’m crazy!! lol


Day 12: Storyboards

These was a few years ago when our sidewalk was redone. The guys were so great in letting Benjamin help lay the soil. He loved it. What boy wouldn’t!
Tried adding a mask to the middle picture.. don’t know how i did it but i did do it!! hehe I’m so proud of myself.

K, so since I managed to do the mask above… I wanted to try something completely different. So I found these masks on the net and came up with this Storyboard.



K, one last one from a class a few days ago. I lifted it from a school friend’s album as it was such a beautiful picture and I could just picture (hahaha no pun intended) word art on it.

Day 8 & Day 9: Type and Edge Burn

Yes, I’m missing Day 7 but it was a check quiz and I didn’t take it. shhh don’t tell the teacher!! lol

Day 8 we learned out to add our own type to the picture. I took a picture from a few years ago when our storytime took a field trip to the Apple Orchard. I changed my photo to black and white and then brought some of the color back. I did this by using one of Jessica’s FREE classes that is open to everyone. You can find it here. I also added a frame around it from day 6 (TTV).

My type might be a little hard to read but I just couldn’t get it any stronger and I had things to do yesterday that I just couldn’t spend all day on it (even though i wanted to!). It says “A is for apple”

Day 9 (which is today) is Burned Edges which is a subtle darkening on photo edges that is a subtle way to pull a viewer's eye toward the middle focal area of your photo.

This was taken a few years ago when we had family pictures taken. It’s hard to tell that I ‘burned the edges” but I did. Of  course I had to add some word art which came from Elegant WordArt.

I decided to try it with a picture that i turned black and white. Here is how the picture looks before I added any burned edges:

And here it is with burned edges and type. I tried to make the faces more the focal point.

Can you see the difference? These two are best buds which is good since they are cousins! I love it when they have just seen each other the night before and then see each other the next day, they are running towards each other holler the other’s name and give each other hugs. Mom took this picture the other day. So in this picture they are both 3 but Leah (on left) turned 4 a few days after.

Today is busy with 4-H projects. Judging is next week and we are just now starting! I have never been this late before on projects for 4-H!

Day 5 & Day 6: Frames, texture and TTV

Today’s post is a combination of day 5 and day 6 as I was so busy yesterday with another project I didn’t get to yesterday’s class until late last night (or was it early this morning?)

So Day 5 was learning how to add textures to our pictures. The bonus challenge was to add a frame to the picture after adding the texture. I tinted my picture first to a sepia tone before adding 3 layers of different textures! The frame was added using a soft light.  Of course I had to use word art again!

My mom took this picture of my Jorden, 3 yrs old, and my niece who just turned 4 this weekend. These two are best buds.
 
Day 6 had us working with TTV. As Jessica puts it “a really fascinating concept in photography circles, called "Through the Viewfinder". To get a worn, faded look, photographers will actually take photographs (often using a macro lens and a light blocking device) through the viewfinder of an old camera. The result is a photo with blackened edges, distortion, scuffs and scratches and marks - pretty much what we've been looking for all our lives, right?”

So today we had to add a TTV texture and then anything (and everything) from the previous classes to our picture.

Once again I used a picture of Jorden that mom just took. (no, her hair is not that curly. for some reason she wanted it curled that day.) Added my texture and then added word art.

Notice how the “spoiled” is the same as above? That’s because it is the same word art.. I just erased the other wording to get just spoiled for the above picture!


After I had done this one, I realized I hadn’t added the frame from yesterday as I was going to do that. So here it is with the frame and once again I made the frame a soft layer.

And then I had to do this one as I just love the saying. I used a different TTV texture here.

Once again thank you for looking and following along with me during this class. Have a great weekend!

Day 4: Clipping Masks

I hope you’ve been enjoying my pictures lately. I’m having fun dressing them up. It’s that word art that gets me. If you are in need of some word art, I suggest checking out Bethany at Elegant Word Art, she has tons of word art and it’s all free to download. I don’t think I've even downloaded half of her word art yet!

Today’s class was on masks. I’ve been waiting for this one and wasn’t disappointed. I can see myself using this technique on all my pictures. Especially the grunge look. So without any delay..

Added a grunge mask that was given to us in the class.
 
Found a heart mask (it was made by Bethany but don’t think it’s on her blog) one day when I was looking for word art. Changed the background color to the pink. The top of the heart is cut off because my picture wasn’t tall enough to fit it all on. But I still love it.


Now I was able to do a few more hand tinted photos last night for yesterday’s class. Of  course I probably spent half the time at Bethany’s Word Art blog downloading word art first.

Tinted the picture and then made us pop a little more with color. Changed the color of the word art and added the frame.
 

Did the first two steps of the hand tinted class but couldn’t bring myself to add any color back in. Another word art from Bethany’s. Think this is my favorite one from yesterday’s class. This was taken last year at Hocking Hills when we were on our mini vacation.
 
Once again thank you for looking. I know I haven’t had any cards to show lately. Am working on a big project that I hope to be able to show you soon. I’d probably have it done already if I wasn’t spending so much time “playing” with my pictures! lol 

Today is zucchini bread day. I have a 7.5 zucchini waiting to be shredded so check back tomorrow for those pictures. Keep your fingers crossed that tomorrows class works well with the pictures! (see I'm obsessed!!)

If you are taking this class too, let me know where your photos are so I can see what you are doing.

Day 3: Frame + Brush + Hand-Tint

I am up way too early! Little one woke up at 4am and was wide awake so I hopped on and did today's class.

Today JessicaSprague.com introduce a technique you can use to create a cool hand-tinted special effect for photos you'd like to add a soft, antique feel to. And then gave us a frame to download and had us add stars as a bonus project.

First I am going to show you the orginal picture I used so you can see the difference.


Now I hand-tinted the picture, added the frame and a few stars. I also cropped the picture before adding all the extras. Can you see the difference? I think I like this 'older' feel to the picture better than the orginal picture!


Of course I had to go find some wording to put on the picture. So here is the same picture above with text added to it.
Once again this was taken by my daughter and her friends out on one of their many walks around the neighborhood.

I’ve had a couple of questions about the last firework picture I uploaded so I thought I would answer those.

1. What kind of camera do you have? I have a FujiFilm FinePix S1000 10.0 Mega Pixels
2. What setting did you use for the fireworks? I used a setting called fireworks. My shutter speed was set to 2 (didn’t even realize there was a shutter speed until i started taking pictures and then it was to late to try and figure out how to change it)

I hope that answered the questions well enough. Feel free to ask more if you have them.

Keep your fingers crossed that I am back later with today's sketch. I really like it and hope I have time to play after taking little one to story time this morning.

Day 2: Brushes

Day 2 of class with JessicaSprague is with Brushes. I love using brushes and was glad for a refresher (at least for me) course. I had to go to my favorite place though and download some more brushes. So where do I like to get my brushes? Obsidian Dawn She has tons and has tutorials on how to install them ect. The flourish and pixie flourishes in the photo are from her site. The square frame came in the class kit.

I have only been able to get one picture done for today's class and I did it last night at 2am!! I took this picture yesterday of Jorden picking some of mom's raspberries to eat.



K, so after yesterday's class, I went on a download spree and searched the internet for free downloads of frames and word art. I wanted a word or saying for Fireworks but only found this wording: I took the picture Sunday night at another firework display we went to. I changed the wording color to white as it was black.

One last one, I promise. The frame was from the class kit and the wording from my download spree. This is my daughter and her friend, Haleigh, who is living with us for a while. This was taken one day when they went out walking with their other friend (the picture I used yesterday of them laying on the road). I think the wording is perfect for Haleigh right now.

Day 1: Frame-ups and Special Effects

Today starts the first day of a 2 week online Photoshop class I am taking via JessicaSprague.com.   We were given frames and some wording and directions on how to add them to our photos. Too much fun! Now I can’t wait to make my own frames and wording to add to my photos.  

Here are a few of my pictures that I did for today’s class. Enjoy.

Thought this would make a neat thank you from the bride and groom. Pink and Black were her main colors.


It wasn’t until after I finished that I realized I had put relax with a cemetery in the background! LOL  Not much else you can do in a cemetery but relax! I was looking more at the kids and not the background. Note to self: look at entire picture when adding any effects!


Think this says it all!

Carmen and her friends went out for a walk one day and took my camera. This is just one of the many pictures they took and I had to play with it.
 
Well I hope you enjoyed what I ‘learned’ today. Can’t wait to see what Day 2 brings.

Now I am off to weed the garden, pick raspberries and then work on 4-H projects. Tis a busy time right now but I am hoping I can fit in some stamping sometime this week. Starting to get withdrawals!

Happy July 4th!

To all my American friends, Happy 4th July!  Here are a few pictures that have been taken that I would like to share with you on this day. Enjoy and be safe.

Tatoo Air Show 7-26-09  taken by my husband
 

Few pictures of the many fireworks during our town’s firework display last night.

It’s a Cupcake cake!

I was asked by a school friend if I would make her daughter a cupcake cake for her birthday party. The suggestions were pink, purple, baby blue, puppies, kitties, sparkles or pearls. 24 cupcakes with half being vanilla and half being chocolate.

I found a coloring page that had a girl holding a dog. Perfect!  I colored the hair and eyes of the girl the same as the birthday girl and made the dog the same color as hers.  I did a purple background with a lighter purple shell border. Sprinkled some edible glitter on it. I love how it turned out and I hope the family was happy too.