Some pics as promised and another new beginning

Happy New Year!!

Another new Year, and another new decade. I’m constantly amazed at how fast the time just zooms by. At the BBQ/party we were at last night, we were comparing tales from a decade ago – almost all of us sans kiddos.  And being a big night (you remember….. a new Millenium!) we all had tales to tell. Awesome stuff. I hope you and yours celebrated in good ways

As promised in my last post, I downloaded my pics. All 858 of them. Uh-huh…. 858 in one month alone! Wow…. I wonder if it was the influence of the new toy or not?!

Anyway, I couldn’t possibly inflict all 858 photos on you. Besides, I don’t think I would be finished even now if I had decided to do just that! So here is a taster from our week in Ohope. And guess what? It barely scratches the surface of even those pictures!! Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get the idea!

You’ll see lots of surf and sand… the gorgeous Pohutakawas, our Christmas hats, cousins, berry picking, gingerbread house building (YUM!!) and playing in the sprinklers at Creel Lodge (Turangi).

Having put all of these photos from December I’ve realised that I have a TON of material to scrap. Plus all the items I’ve not done through the year. I was a slacker scrapper in ’09! But I’m really itching to get back into some good creative messes. Having spent quite a number of minutes (…hours?!) taking the photos from camera to PC, I have also completed a couple of digi pages a la Jessica Sprague’s Holidays in Hand class. Great templates and papers were given away in the free class.

The plan is to get December’s activities into a photo book. Shutterfly or Snapfish for printing? Any thoughts?

Right – having spent a good number of hours on the PC today, I’m being told to get down and cook dinner. The cheek!! Actually, I think the late night last night meant they were all happy to let me play while the Mr’s all chilled out in one form or another.

So happy 2010 to you all – see you soon!

Practise, practise, practise!

Better, I think.

But wait. There’s more!

Mr 5 has had 2 textures, a clipping mask, brush, word art and a frame applied. Yeah, ok, so this one might have gone a little over the top with pretty much everything except the kitchen sink thrown at it, but it is so much fun to do! For printing, I think I’d do away with the frame on this one and just re-jig the size of the brush.

Playing Digi Style

This week Jessica Sprague has been running a free digital course to show how to manipulate photos. Having had a go at digi-scrapping, I was feeling a little let down with my Photoshop abilities to actually have good photos to use. This course is a basic one, but she is teaching us So.Many.Seriously.Cool techniques. I’ve done just a couple of photos from earlier in the year, and I’m impressed.

Of course, it goes without saying I still need to learn to take better photos to begin with (actually, I’m almost certain I just need a great camera…. *wink*).

So here is an example after Day 3′s lesson. I’ve applied a frame, created a vintage tint and tried a little hand tinting.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Personally, I’d probably apply a little more tinting to Mr 8′s eyes before I get this printed. I definitely wanted a natural, vintage look; but his eyes are so blue, I think it could stand a little more “popping”. What do you think?

Oh where oh where has my mojo gone?

There a serious mojo drought happening around these parts. Do you know I’ve not actually finished one complete layout yet this year??!! I know….. and I call myself a scrapbooker!  Think I might be turning my id card in any day.

It makes me feel better that I’m not the only one suffering the affliction… several cyber buddies seem to have similar issues. So instead of looking guiltily at the layout that just needs a bit of something to finish it off, I decided it was time to do my homework from the 2Peas PSE class for February. The lesson was specifically learning about using the shape tool – and I think I got it. The strips and the photo shape are the shapes I used. I piked out of doing the 1/4 circle thing that she showed us in the tutorial. My excuse was the kit I was using had a cute butterfly that I just wanted to use.

So in handing in this assignment, I earned my first official badge over at 2Peas. I forgot to tick the box on the January one so it didn’t show up. Darn!!

Layout details: Shabby Princess “Promise” Collection, swirl by Sunflowers, fonts are Cafe Rojo and Vintage type.

Now that wee bit or creativity has been done, I better get back to the list of UFOs I’ve got gathering dust. There was a time when I wouldn’t actually do something else until I had the first one done… And that is really quite a good rule of thumb. Except when you have a really bright idea that you just have to do.

Um, yeah, not willing to hand back the title of World’s Best Procrastinator I see!

Foray into the digi side of life

I had some time this afternoon to play around. The Mr’s were playing at the neighbours and that is a wonderful time to do something for me.

Now, I’ve had PSE6 for a wee while now – at least a year. And it has been bugging the bejeebers out of me. I’m not a computer dummy at all – for the most part, I’m able to work out what I’m meant to be doing for myself. Occasionally, i can’t see the steps in between and need to ask for help.

But PSE?

I felt like I’d met my match. Dummy territory for sure.

2Peas currently have a free course with video tutorials on how to use PSE. Yippeee! methinks and I head on over there. And wouldn’t you know it, it really is simple to get started!! I knew all I needed was someone to show me the ropes and if you are like me at all, you’ll find these tutorials a breeze to understand.

So I got to playing:

Details: DigiRosa’s Christmas Freebie from Eidou

Hey, speaking of creativity…..anyone doing the Project 365? I don’t get what the hoo-haa has been all about {there weren’t enough kits to meet demand} but poor Becky Higgins seems to have copped the worst of it. Sure does seem to be more than a little harsh and nasty. Still, I’ve seen around the traps that the kiwi ingenuity is right up there. Considering it was going to cost us mega-bucks in postage ($140-200!!!!) I doubt there would have been many Kiwi uptakes of the kit anyway. I know I got stung dreadfully with postage when I pre-ordered the school kits last year. Mandy is the girl that seems to be right on the ball – head her way if you were tempted to take part but didn’t know what to use without the kit.

Plus, she has actually begun the task, and has great examples. I’m not sure if I want to commit to the project myself, but I’ve been taking a photo a day anyway. You know: just in case

……………………and no, I’m not going to make a habit of multi posts in one day….