I love Photoshop!

Last night at our last photography class we went over some of the basics of photoshop. I had attempted playing around with it before but didn't really know what things meant or how to do them. I still need a lot of practice but I had fun this morning playing with this picture. One thing I can't find on my program is how to make the black blacker on the horse. She showed us how last night but my program is different and I'm not sure if I have that option.

Anyway, here is the before picture. Notice the fence by his feet and the hay "thingy ma-jigy" right by his tail. (Not the trailor the other thing) LOL! Sorry I don't know what the hay thing is called. I also took out the dark patch in front of his nose and cropped the picture down. Oh! And I made the grass greener :)










I can see I will be having so much fun with this..........my house work may suffer. LOL!

Don't forget you can click on the image to make it bigger.

One more thing. I found out this morning there is no stamping class tomorrow night (thank you Donna). I think it is a volunteer night at the MFRC. I am sorry for anyone who was planning on going but this takes one thing off my to-do list so I have to say I am a little relieved. Now I can concentrate on the Silent Auction table :)
If your not sure what I mean read yesterday's comments.................I think someone is worried about being out-bid. LOL!

Love this one!

Did you see this card in the group picture? This was my favorite card from Saturday. The flower idea came from a video Kristina Werner shared on her blog HERE.

I loved the ribbon flower with all the different patterns but I didn't have enough of the same or similar buttons (shocking isn't it? LOL) for everyone in the class. My solution was to use the bottle caps that Pam gave me a couple of weeks ago. I flattened the bottle caps with my cuttlebug, this is the "recipe":

B Plate
Tan Mat
Bottle (Cap ridges up/smooth side down)
Card stock (scrap)
B Plate
A Plate

It flattens them out really nicely. It is a little tight going through the cuttlebug but I didn't break any plates :)

I punched 2 holes in the cap once I had put my pink and brown cardstock circles on it (cut with Nestabilities) with my crop-a-dile and then put the ribbon through like a button.

The bottle caps are so much fun.........think of all the possibilities!

3 more days and we are leaving for PAAT! I am sooooo not ready. I have talked to a couple of the girls who are already starting to pack. I don't even have my make-n-takes done or my cards for Thursday night class. Last night I was working on our income tax. It is almost done so this morning I am going to finish it and file and then start working on my stamping things. Wish me luck................hopefully we aren't cutting paper at Mom's Friday night. LOL!

And I said it was going to be quiet :)

Thanks to the photography course I took my camera to stamp camp yesterday. I warned the girls before class that one of the assignments was to take at least 5 pictures dedicated to telling a story. I thought what better story to tell than about stamp camp? Well maybe PAAT would be a better story but that is too late and probably too many pictures. LOL!

This is one of the projects we did yesterday (I will show some of the others after I get better pics). It is a frame that was inspired by one Amy Rysavy did HERE. This is the one I demoed in class, the one I did for a sample has a pic of Emma but I forgot to take a picture of that one.

I couldn't find any quote stamps that would fit so we left it blank so they can either put a picture or a favorite quote in it. I think they are so cute and really easy to make. Wouldn't they make great gifts?

This is the group picture from yesterday.......you can't have a story without a group pic can you? LOL!

Thanks girls, for being so patient with me :)

Having way too much fun

Poor Joe was being my guinea pig tonight. We went out after dark with some sparklers, matches and my camera. One of the assignments this week was to use a long shutter speed (at least 1 minute) and I think the shutter speed on these picture was 15 seconds.

The neighbor even got in on the action and stopped in when they saw the sparklers. I'm sure everyone going by thought we were crazy.

I think it was worth it though :)

P.S. If there are any spelling errors please forgive me I am talking to Amy on the phone as I type. LOL!

One week from today........

we, the NB girls will be on our way to PAAT. Last year it took us 13 hours from the time we left Oromocto till we arrived at Mom's house. I wonder how long it will take this time?

We got together last night to "plan our trip" and it was so nice to have everyone together here. I think I need to figure out more excuses to do that more often :)

This is a picture I took of Ian last weekend by the river. I think he looks so cute with his Mickey glasses on.

Oh! I tried to post yesterday but I was having problems with blogger and didn't have time to come back but I have to say I am very happy to have everything cut out and ready for Stamp camp tomorrow. I actually finished Wednesday night! I am sure that is a record for me. LOL! Now today I just have to pack everything and make something for the potluck. I am really excited about the projects for tomorrow..............now just pray that Joe makes it home tonight. His flight to Edmonton was VERY delayed and I don't have a babysitter for tomorrow for backup. Crossing my fingers..............

Lots going on

This month has been really busy with lots of things going on. It will probably be a little quiet here until after Paper Arts A Thon (PAAT) but hopefully after that I will get back into posting more often.

We have 2 more weeks of photography classes left (tomorrow and the week after). This week one of the things we had to do was make a "soft focus filter". I decided to bring my stamping into it and make one with my linen background stamp. I stamped the linen with white Staz On on a piece of transparency. While that was drying I cut a piece of chipboard (around 5 1/2" square) and then cut a hole a little bigger than the size of my lense. I then taped the transparency to the chipboard. This is what it looks like:

This is the before picture of my cat Ripple.










This is with the soft focus filter.Pretty cool, eh?









And this is soooo cool.......









Ian was my model for Ghosting. He thought it was pretty cool that he got to be a ghost. Plus there was a little bribery with gummy candies. LOL!

Anyway, I am off to start figuring out what we are doing at stamp camp this weekend. My homework is pretty much done so now I can concentrate on stamping................well and maybe a little house cleaning.

Playing with new stuff

A week or so ago I got my Copic markers (from Hanna Stamps) and new stamps from My Favorite Things. I think I mentioned before that I had colored a few images in but hadn't done anything with them yet.

Yesterday I snuck in a few minutes to make this card. I ended up not using the images I had colored because I wanted to try to make the dog a black lab and I wanted to use the Summer Picnic paper so I matched my colors to the paper.

The hat and sandals I stamped seperately, colored and cut them out. For the sandals I put them flat on the paper and the hat I popped up. (I did the sandals because I originally had them blue and didn't like it). The little "pebbles" are dew drops from Hanna (I think they were called Cowboy).

My voice is finally starting to get better.....yay! It is still a little scratchy but it is definately getting better. This afternoon I am planning on going out to do some of my photography homework. I really don't want to do what I did this week again (trying to save my pictures to disk 30 minutes before I had to leave). If I get some good pics I'll share them here :)

Oh! But maybe not until after Tuesday, I don't want the others copying off me. LOL!

Losing my voice

The last few days I have been losing my voice and today it is worse than ever. The last 2 days it was not so bad during the day but by evening after talking all day it was bad. Today if I try to talk above a whisper I really have to strain.

It may have something to do with my stupid (I am being nice here) dog running away last night. It was just before bath/bed time for the kids. I snuck out to try to take some pictures of the vehicles going by (panning). I was turned facing the road and she took off out the back corner of the yard. We have a "zapper collar" but apparently the battery was low so it didn't work. I'm sure calling her for 20 minutes did my voice in. This is the second time this week, this morning I changed to battery. LOL!

Anyway, I am really hoping this doesn't last. I need my voice for Thursday night. Thank goodness Joe is coming home tonight so I can rest my voice the next couple of days. He can do all my talking to the kids for me :)

But I can still laugh! Check out this video I found this morning while blurfing (blog surfing).

Another fav

This is another favorite card that we did at a stamp camp a while ago. For this one I punched the circles out of Close to Cocoa cardstock and then ran them through my Zyron machine. I used the new chunky glitter on the circles and it looks sooooo sparkly in real life.

For the stems I ran Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon through the Zyron and then cut it in half (it was either Debbie Olson or Nicole Heady that did this). The leaves are from the level 3 hostess set Time Well Spent. They were stamped in Basic Brown, colored with markers and cut out. I then shaped them with a bone folder and glued them on with pop dots. The doodling is free-hand. Not one of my strong points but it is fun :)

Jill asked if the tacky tape affected my punch (last post). I think I put a little goo gone on it after and then punched some scraps to remove the excess. I still find it sticks a bit but it still punches fine. Hopefully with more punching the stickyness will go away. If you had a Zyron machine the technique above might be the better way to go.

I finished a card yesterday that I had started the day before so hopefully I get a chance to post that later today or tomorrow. I have been fighting a cold this week and I think yesterday it finally won :( I am feeling a little "blah" but life goes on. Right?

What a week

We seemed to be running all week long. I think it started Tuesday when I started a basic photography course. It is going to be a lot of fun and I am really excited about it but there was a lot to remember and take in the first week.

With Joe still away I ended up having a babysitter 3 times this week. For the photagraphy course, a dentist appt. and stamping Thursday night. We haven't had a babysitter in months so I was a little worried about how the kids would do but they were great. Both nights they were in bed by the time I got home and the sitter said they were great! That makes it so much easier on me (and them) when I have to go out.

Wednesday morning Emma went to the daycare and had a blast with the other kids. I had been thinking about sending her once a week to get her around other kids and since she had such a good time we have decided to do it. When we go to playgroup she is stuck to my side most of the morning. I am hoping this will help with a bit of that "shyness". Is that a word?

Anyway, only 2 more days till Joe comes home! I have been doing a bit of stamping but I plan on doing a lot more next week :) I broke down a few weeks ago and ordered copic markers. I colored a few images with them but I haven't made any of them into cards yet......maybe tonight.

Oh! I should say somthing about the card, shouldn't I? The layout was cased from a card I saw somewhere online that was shared at leadership. Sorry I can't remember where it was.

I don't know how well you can see it in the pic but there are 3 half circles under the bashful blue piece. I punched them out of terrifically tacky tape and then once they were on the card I pressed them into the blue micro beads. I added the micro beads on the bird with Tombo Mono Multi (my new fav glue!). The beads on the right side are on a staple. I just opened one side of the staple, slid them on, bent the side back down and then pushed it into the card.

Time to get some cleaning done......blah. It is a really damp, cloudy day here, we had a bit of snow last night. Hopefully it will clear up later so I can get my homework done for my photography class. I don't want to be doing it at the last minute Tuesday. Although, I am a procrastinator so chances are that is what will happen :)