Studio M - Capturing life through Photography & Art

Creating a collage in Lightroom

2012-02-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

Today I received an email from a reader of the post In The Swim asking for help in created this type of collage in Lightroom.

The collage is 8x8 and uses 2 large vertical photos and 2 small horizontal photos. So here are some instructions on how to create it. Once you have mastered this technique you will be able to create photos of any size you want in any quantity.

To create an 8x8 collage in Lightroom.

1. Go to the Print module.

2. Begin by selecting an existing Lightroom Template that fits on an 8.5 x 11 paper. I started with the (2) 7x5 template.

3. Click on each photo and press your Delete key to remove them. You now have a blank sheet of 8.5 x 11. If you don't see the whole sheet you'll have to click on it.

4. On the right side of the screen, expand your Rulers, Grid & Guides panel. Switch on Show Guides.

5. Then expand your Cells panel. Select 4x6 and it will add to the sheet of paper. If it adds a border then you'll need to remove it in the Image Settings panel by switching off the Photo Border option. I like to keep the Inner Stroke option selected to create the white line around the photo and because it's an Inner Stroke it's inside the 6x4 and doesn't make the page wider.

6. Adjust your image boxes to be only 4 x 5.53 inches by playing with the Adjust Selected Cell Height and Width. Notice you can move the sliders or manually type in the number of use your arrows to go up and down. Position your box in the top left corner.

7. Once you have the box the perfect size you can hold down your Alt Key and then click and drag it to make a duplicate box which you'll position at the right edge of our imaginary 8x8 sheet of paper (note you are likely to have an 1/8th inch margin so take that into account.

8. Then add another cell that is 2.67 x 4 inches and position it in the empty corner space. Again press the Alt key and click and drag a second copy into the other corner.

9. In the Template Browser select the + sign to create a New Template.

10. Enter a template name "8x8 - 2v + 2 h" (this format tells me the size and how many vertical and horizontal photos I can add, and that the vertical photos are larger than the horizontal because they are first at a glance). Click Create.

(Note: if you have to edit after you create the template, you right click the template name and select "update with current settings".)

11. The image you see in the center which says Marina Garrison Photography, is the logo image prepared in advance in .jpg format. To switch on your page watermark, expand the Page panel, select Watermark and add it from the drop down menu. If you don't have an existing logo, you will need to Choose the image from the Image Options panel.

You could also prepare a large amount of text as a .jpg image to insert into one of the cells.

12. To add the images you simply select your photos before going to the Print module, then drag them from the area at the bottom of the screen into the cells you created.

You should now have a collage similar to the one in the post. This template is reusable and can be used as a starting point for making additional templates - try making one with 2 large horizontal photos and 2 small vertical photos next.

Have fun with your Lightroom photo collages!

FaceTime you kid without giving them email

2011-10-13T16:33:00.001-07:00

FaceTime and imessage are really useful tools for communicating. My kids have iPod Touch devices but I had always thought that they needed email addresses to use FaceTime.

If you are like me, the thought of setting up an email address for your 7 year old is scary. You know there will be the usual spam that you'll have to delete etc. And you wouldn't dream of allowing them a private communications channel that you didnt monitor.

Anyway for Gmail users I've got a solution that doesn't require a real email address.

In the iPods settings for FaceTime and iMessage add an email address in the following format:
Username+uniqueid@gmail.com

Username is your regular gmail username and uniqueid can be anything like +iPod or +kidname.

Gmail has this quirk that any time the + is used it ignores it and sends it to the main email address. You will receive an email apple asking you to verify. Go ahead.

Once done you simple add your kid to the contact book with the fake email address. Then open FaceTime or iMessage and use that contact.

Simple!

Waiting {Studio M}

2011-09-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Now that we are back at school I'm making 3 school runs a day again! It's hard to find things for "I" to do while we are waiting so we play with the various painted lines on the playground. I'm really not sure how you are supposed to play with a Tic Tac Toe board on the ground. Are you supposed to use stones or other markers? How would you remember which boxes you'd filled already? Instead we make up our own games.

In the Swim {Marina Garrison Photography}

2011-09-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen is under renovation so I'm trying to get the kids out of the house as much as possible while C drywalls, muds, sands, paints etc. By far the easiest place for us to go for some fun is our community swimming pool. It is an indoor saltwater pool and most of the time it's empty so it's like having your own private pool - and because it's indoors it's usable 12 months of the year!

This time I elected not to swim (note: my bathing suit was worn just in case) and to shoot photos of the fun instead.

It only took about a dozen attempts to have all 3 kids look at the camera and smile-ish (yes, I's face is completely forced but it's a start right!).

Photo: D7000 & 24-70 2.8, collage made with Lightroom 3.

Cooling Off {Capturing Life in Kelowna}

2011-08-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's just too hot here in Kelowna. We took a trip over to Kettle Valley's water park earlier in the week to cool off from the 31C heat.

The water park is a little known treasure for families. While not as big as City Park or Rutland's Ben Lee water parks, it is almost always deserted which makes keeping your eyes on three kids *so* much easier when there is only one parent around. It is also gated so your little ones can't disappear on you.

While K and J had a great time, little I still won't venture into the water (although she insists on putting on a bathing suit so I live in hope!). In fact, when pressed I get *attitude* like this:

Anyhow, everyone had a great time even if they didn't get wet ;)

Photos: Nikon D7000 & 80-200 2.8.

Chocolate Fingers

2011-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

I bet you were wondering what happened to the cupcakes! Well here's a peek...

Friday Movie Night {Capturing Life}

2011-08-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today night was movie night. Unfortunately we were out of popcorn for tonight's showing of "The Incredibles". The kids persuaded me to bake cupcakes instead and despite J's 6-cavity situation (yes, really!) I went ahead.

Betty Crocker and I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes. I was surprised I could even find my electric whisk with our kitchen renovation still in progress :)

24 cupcakes were ready to roll in a jiffy.

And 18 minutes later we had fresh cupcakes straight from the oven. Of course, the kids wanted frosting which meant another 5 minutes in the fridge for a 'fast' cool down.

All lined up ready for frosting and mom's speciality, the Smartie on the top. I forgot to take a photo of the finished cupcakes, doh! Oh well, better luck next time... these won't stick around long enough to make an encore appearance.

All photos taken with my 35 1.8 lens, which I am still trying to 'rock'.

Semiahmoo Bliss {Marina Garrison - Fine Art & Photography}

2011-06-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Had a great day! Worked on an acrylic painting of Semiahmoo Bay that I'd been meaning to work on for a while. Used a new support, a Gotrick wooden cradled panel. Certainly different to work on but would use again as I find canvas a bit too springy.

Here it is:

Semiahmoo Bliss ($200) - acrylic on cradled panel

Let me know what you think! I will be exhibiting this painting and a few others at my upcoming show on 25th and 26th June at Gallaghers Canyon Auditorium, Kelowna, B.C. 10am-4pm. Please stop by to take a look.

New Toy... A Polaroid | Studio M

2011-05-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Got a new toy for only $6 from Value Village!!! I'm very, very excited about it..... here's a clue :)

Yes it's a Polaroid camera, model Sun 600 LMS exactly as shown above. I don't know anything about these cameras but I remember them from the 80s. I remember a few years ago they discontinued the film but I believe they've started making it again due to a resurgence in popularity of these cameras.

Can't wait to play....

a la Moda | Studio M

2011-05-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this cute dress I made for little I (also known as child #3). The dress is made of fabric and a Moda jelly roll (Botany). Jelly rolls are fun to work with because they are already pre-cut and the colours are already picked out for you. Even still, with 40 choices of fabric in a jelly roll I spent almost as much time picking the fabrics as making the dress!

Little I isn't very photogenic like her big sister. However I did manage to get these cute shots of her once she put it on.

The pattern can be found here at Moda Bakeshop.

Where am I? {Studio M}

2011-03-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering where I've been lately all I can say is "sick, sick, sick!". The problem with having 3 kids, including 1 that has been to daycare for the first time, is that they bring home everything! I mean every germ, virus and bacteria in a 15km radius :)

So far we've all had stomach flu, fevers, coughs and regular colds, even mom! For 6 solid weeks, arghhhh.... (cough, cough). Even now I've had a cough for 8 days straight.

Here's a picture to keep you going.

Zooques.com {Captured by StudioM}

2011-02-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

Had an amazing photo shoot yesterday with Nicole of Zooques.com. Nicole makes beautiful, hand-made crocheted animal hats for kids and adults. She sells them at local craft fairs as well as through her web site Zooques.com.

We had a fun hour at the park with her kids, her sister's kids and my kids all modelling the hats. We even managed to persuade Nicole's sister to do some modelling for us, only to discover she is super photogenic.

Anyway, here's the sneak peak.....

Erin Cobb's Clean Color {Studio M}

2011-01-17T22:19:00.000-08:00

I've been watching and experimenting with Erin Cobb's clean color tutorial. I deliberately took one of my quite terrible photos of baby I (underexposed, color cast as well as nasty baby skin) to see what I could do. I think the improvement is amazing, especially considering this is my first attempt at this. It took a pretty unusable photo and turned it into something I might actually print!

I'd love to hear your comments!!!

Tagerator Word Cloud

2011-01-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

I read about a tool called Tagerator that takes your Flickr tags and makes a word cloud out of them.

Here's mine. I love it! Click on the image to enlarge.

Tim Mantoani Photography Video {Studio M}

2011-01-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a really interesting video from Tim Mantoani, photographer. I had never heard of Tim until recently when someone on the dpreview forums suggested I watch his Blue Crane Digital Nikon Speedlights video. The speedlight video was really informative and I went to his web site to look at his work and stumbled across his Behind the Photos project where he is taking photos of photographers standing behind their famous photo.

In this 1 1/2 hour presentation, Tim talks about his work and some of his projects including the Behind the Photos project. Very inspirational.

Focus On Your Passion: Finding Yourself in Your Photography from PhotoShelter.com on Vimeo.

Terry Ludwig Salmagundi Cityscape Pastel Set

2011-01-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd unveil my Terry Ludwig Salmagundi Club Cityscape Set online too (I was feeling bad about not opening it, using it, or putting it with my other colors (after all I did *buy* it!). Here is the packaging.

Inside each box you get a blank color chart that you fill out for your records so that when you run out of a color you can figure out what color it was by matching the tiny left over chip of pastel with the marks you made on the chart, that way you can reorder your fave colors.

And this is what you see inside once you open the box. And Terry, if you're reading this, how about sending me your portrait set so I can post some pictures and rave about it on my blog? That's what I was going to buy when it went on sale but then I found out about this new set and got it instead, the portrait set is still on my wish, wish, wish list.

My studio desk is now cleaned up and I'm getting ready to make a mark!

Pastel Palette {Studio M}

2011-01-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

I love color! Just looking at colorful things makes me happy. I'd thought I'd share my colorful pastel palette with you. It makes me so happy to look at it. I keep it all in my Heilman Pastel box which I bought myself for my birthday about 3 or 4 years ago? It is the most well made, sturdy little box and I highly recommend every pastel artist have one. You can travel with the box and don't have to worry about any "crunching" of pastels as there is memory foam inside holding everything in place. In the studio you can open it and "lock" it open. You can place it open on a table or, get this, there is a tripod mount underneath so you can place it at any height on a tripod (this is great for plein air).

This is the smallest size and you can see how much it holds (this shot is cropped so there is even more you can't see). It folds up to little more than the dimensions of a smallish pad of paper (10x13 ish) and has both a handle and shoulder strap for carrying.

In it I keep my Terry Ludwigs (I *heart* these, I would be their spokesperson if they let me!) they are beautiful soft pastels but too small (and too gorgeous) to break, my Sennelier 100 Landscape set (these have been broken in half), my Rembrandts (general 30 and portrait 30 sets) broken, my prismacolor nupastels (30 set). I have another 60 Terry Ludwigs (the Salamagundi set) that I haven't put in yet because I'm not sure I have room to put in all of them and I don't want to split the set.

Just looking at them makes me want to go play and get dusty! Yes, the downside is the dust, believe me in my house you wouldn't necessarily notice any more dust, but it's important not to breath it in because of the risk associated with certain pigments.

Hope you enjoyed the palette tour ;)

Thistles {Studio M Photography}

2010-12-31T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sweet Scent {Studio M Photography}

2010-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Winter {Studio M}

2010-12-29T11:23:00.001-08:00

I'm not a big Winter fan. I guess as a kid our clothes were never warm enough (even though England rarely goes below 0C) and I was always miserable.

I always planned to emigrate to Australia where I perceived it was much warmer but ended up here in Canada instead (ooops!). So after spending 8 wet years in Vancouver we moved to Kelowna which was much colder, although not as damp! One of my first purchases was a snowsuit and boots. These have worked well during the last 7 years (when I could fit into them between pregnancies) and I have to say, it makes *all* the difference.

So this morning I donned the snowsuit (which is now two sizes too big) and went out with the kids into the back yard and park behind our house. I took the camera, got a few pics of the kids and some macros. There's no sign of life outside but I liked the color contrast of this red plant against the grey rock and white snow.

Enjoy!

More over at my Flickr!

For sale: Tamron 28-75 f/2.8

2010-12-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

If you shoot Nikon DSLR then keep reading.

For Sale:
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di XR LD IF aspherical macro lens (this is one that Karen Russell recommends if you can't get the Nikon version, it's got great reviews)

Purchased new in April 2009 (6 yr warranty). Comes with both caps, hood, box, receipt.
Great all around lens. Perfect for New Years, family shots, indoor shots, etc.

I'm parting with my Tamron lens. I'll be upgrading. There's nothing wrong with the lens, it's one of those "it's not you, it's me" situations.

Asking $375 but I will entertain all reasonable offers.
Retails for $529

Local buyers only please.

Swingin and Slidin 2

2010-11-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I scrapbook, something just isn't right but you can't quite put your finger on it. I'm sure you know what I mean. Well the previous layout was bugging me. Perhaps it was all the purple and orange. It looked like something from the 80s (BTW, I'm told the 80s are back in. Check out all the bat-wing sleeves at your local mall, and I saw a guy walking around with a John McEnroe headband.... but I digress).

So while I told Bonnie that I wasn't going to change the papers in the layout, I did (sorry 'bout that!) and here is the updated version.

Swingin and Slidin

2010-11-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Catching up on my scrapbooking. Here are a bunch of photos from the Summer.

Water World

2010-11-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Some photos from the Summer. Not sure where K was that day but I was scared to get wet (maybe because she wasn't in a bathing suit?).

Soccer Star

2010-11-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Old layouts

2010-11-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

I found a couple of old layouts that I haven't posted, so watch out for them. They both use Yin Designs templates. I mentioned Yin's templates in my previous post. They are a different style (what I call photobooking) as the emphasis is more on the photos (and lots of them) with some journaling. She offers a lot for free (just go through her blog archives). Feel free to leave me comments letting me know what you think.

Remember this? This one is a collection of pictures of my old apartment and views from our regular walk along the Quay. Ahhhh, the days before country life and kids!

And this one? Hanging out at C's parents place in Palm Springs. This was the one and only vacation we took back when we owned a computer store in Surrey.

Spooktacular

2010-11-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook these days what with 3 school runs a day (J is in 1/2 Kindergarten and K is full time in Grade 1) so when I finally sat down to scrapbook these images it took me a whole day and evening to do it (between other things) and they are quite plain! I'm back on a hunt for a quicker way to digiscrap and have dug out Creative Memories Story Book Creator Plus 3 to re-evaluate it as well as taking a look at Yin's Templates at her blog Simply Yin and commercial site Yin Designs.

Cupcakes, yummy!

2010-10-31T12:10:00.001-07:00

A late post of J's class cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, with chocolate frosting, with chocolate smarties. Yummy!

Halloween

2010-10-31T12:08:00.001-07:00

Growing up in England, Halloween wasn't a big thing, we had Guy Fawkes night (Nov 5th) instead. In Canada Halloween is one of the biggest events for kids next to Christmas and ahead of Easter. They get to wear their costumes, this year Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ironman and Cinderella, and "trick or treat" in our mostly retired neighborhood where you are lucky if you get 10 children all night (and we have 3 of them!). This means that the candy bars come in fistfuls and they'll be eating candy til Christmas if we ration it.

Yesterday we visited the pumpkin patch and when we got home we set to work designing and carving the pumpkins. Due to lack of artistic skills, I've finally taken relieved C of his carving duties and this year carved all 3 pumpkins (yes, without cutting any fingers off!).

Here's the end results.

Mickey Mouse.... well mouse anyway!

2010-09-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Would you believe I found mouse droppings in our minivan!!!! I came home from school drop off and had to dismantle the van, taking the seats out etc to give it a complete clean and vacuum. Then it was off to Home Depot to buy a kid proof mouse trap to put into it. What a nightmare. Can't figure out how it got in but it was certainly feasting on all the dropped kids snacks. Now I'm scared to drive it in case it runs up my leg while my feet are on the pedals (shivers).

Lesson learned - no snacks in minivan and check kids are closing the doors properly.

Beautiful Smile {Studio M Scrapbooking}

2010-08-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

This scrapbook layout is from Jessica Sprague's Pen Tablet basics course week 4. The photos of I were taken on Friday while playing in the paddling pool wearing her new Hello Kitty bathing suit courtesy of Auntie Ronnie (thanks Auntie R).
Photos taken on Friday.

Josh - a sweet spirit {Studio M}

2010-08-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

You are my sunshine {Studio M}

2010-08-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

Week 2 layout from Jessica Sprague's Pen Tablet Basics course. Although this is a digital layout, you can see how my own handwriting can be incorporated into the layout. I used a calligraphy brush in Photoshop to do this.

Birthday Fun Layout {Studio M}

2010-08-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is an older layout done as part of the Jessica Sprague Wacom Basics course. I thought I better post it before J has another birthday in 2 months!

Snapshots of a Good Life {Studio M}

2010-08-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

My Snapshots of a Good Life course got cut short at the end of last year due to an emergency in my home land requiring my presence. Rather than take it again as an alumni, Kelli (of Caffeine Induced) and I are coaching each other through the course albeit at a snail's pace.

Kelli just posted her week 1 assignment which put the pressure on 'lil ol' me. So here goes:

Viewpoint:

And on composition:

K in goal, with I defending. Somehow J has a good chance...

The goal when it finally came...

Horsing around

Having fun

Going for a ride

Finally I had to get an actual pose. Of course, J looks like he's missing a leg??

Watercolors {Studio M}

2010-08-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

I inherited these two watercolor paint boxes from my aunt who passed away last November. I haven't really touched her art supplies so far as it's been too sore a subject for me as I am not yet over her death but I think I'm ready now to take a look at what I have and try to use it.

The larger box is a Daler Rowney Georgian watercolor set with 14 pans and two tubes (white and black). The pans are removable but aren't 1/2 pan size so I'm not sure whether replacements are possible. The smaller box is an Alwyn Cranshaw box, also by Daler Rowney (not sure if these are Georgian the student series or not). This box seems to have been sold as part of a set but might have been available separately as I didn't inherit anything else with it. It holds 6 x 1/2 pans. The original colors were: Crimson Alizarin, French Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cadmium Red and Hookers Green. As you can see only the crimson and the cad. yellow still have much left. I'm not sure what is supposed to be in the section to the right (if you know please leave a comment). I am going to purchase the 1/2 pans and clean up the kit for some plein air painting (probably just out in my neighborhood to start with).

Studio M

2010-08-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading my blog a while you'll know that my first creative spot was inside a closet and then I moved out into the family room. Well after hearing my husband complain about so much "c**p" everywhere for the 10,000th time, we agreed that I would take over the spare bedroom (former nanny's bedroom, former office with said closet). I knew I couldn't fit all my Ikea furniture in there so hubby has inherited 1 desk as a result.

This is the end result:

View from the doorway, you can see my art table immediately in front of you.

Once inside you see my magazine rack. 1st shelf = knitting, 2nd shelf = photoshop, 3rd shelf = scrapbooking. This shelf was picked up from Winner's a while back.

Jutting into the photo from the right side is my easel. It's a french easel with 3 legs so it isn't the smallest thing in the world but I can't afford a floor easel right now so I'm making do. The only thing that is good about it, is that it does have a forward tilt - an essential for pastel artists so the dust falls to the floor and not all over the painting. To the right of the easel is my metal drawer unit (from Ikea) that stores art supplies not in my plein air bag, includes tubes of paint, all the left over pastel sticks (I only use 1/3 or 1/2 in Heilman pastel box), pencils etc. Garbage can is underneath on the floor. Brushes are on top in a metal pot.
P.S. This is my latest work, it's a portrait of Eric Dolphy, a jazz bass clarinetist/saxophonist.

Next up is my computer workstation area. I've moved back into the closet. You can see my printer, laptop, 24" monitor and scanner. I also have a rubbermaid drawer system under the desk for my stamping supplies. Since this photo was taken I've added an additional shelf and bulletin board above the scanner.

Next up are my shelving units - cubes from Ikea. I *love* these shelving units they are so versatile. I actually have 3 of them and used to keep them all upright, but this time I thought I'd turn one on it's side so I could use the top for additional storage. Baskets on top are journaling basket and unmounted stamp storage. File folders are full of genealogy stuff to be sorted (on a backburner right now).

Immediately above these shelves is a window where I keep my camera collection, 4 vintage rangefinders and my grandfather's kodak.

Next you'll see my Ikea Alex drawers. I love these because they are shallow and can hold large paper - 13x19 printer paper but they are not quite large enough to hold newsprint paper pads. On top is my cutting station - an SU guillotine and a mat cutter.

Now for my art table. This is also from Ikea. The table can slope or be level and can be at various different heights. I try to keep it sloped to prevent me from piling too much on top of it!

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed the tour of Studio M, my creative playground :)

What's a Photowalk?

2010-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

My previous post detailed my experience at the Kelowna Photowalk, one of thousands of World Wide Photowalks that took place last week. So what's it like to go on a photowalk? The Munich photowalk group created a video of the experience to give you an idea.

Annual Worldwide Photowalk - Munich, July 24, 2010 from Ewalis Emotions on Vimeo.

If you think you'd like to try this experience then you'll have to wait until next year to register for one of the photowalks available at www.worldwidephotowalk.com.

Worldwide Photowalk 2010

2010-07-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I attended the Worldwide Photowalk at the Eldorado Hotel here in Kelowna, British Columbia. We set off at 8.30am on what was to be a bright and sunny morning. First I took some photos in front of the hotel of some Harley Davidsons. Then I walked along the boardwalk taking advantage of the shade and cool weather at that hour of the morning. I walked all the way down to Rotary beach then I headed back to the cool air conditioning of the hotel and took a few more shots before settling down with the other attendees for refreshments and brunch.

It was a great day and I got some good shots, my favorites were taken with my Nikon 80-200 2.8 lens which is extremely heavy and requires fairly fast shutter speeds in order to avoid blur.

All photos were edited in CS5 Bridge and Photoshop and shot in RAW!!!

Keep those wagons rollin.... {Studio M}

2010-07-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Bloom and Grow {Studio M}

2010-07-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Monthly - March 2009

2010-07-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Monthy - Feb 2009

2010-07-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

At Play Photo Collage

2010-07-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

Tom Boy

2010-06-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

The Monthly {Capture Life}

2010-06-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

The Monthly is Cathy Zielske's answer to the project 365 photo documenting craze that has gotten a lot of popularity in the last few years. Cathy (like me) can't commit to a daily regimen of taking photos. I thought after my Daily December 2008 that I was ready for the Project 365 so I tried it back at the beginning of 2009 and it lapsed after a few weeks. Trying to remember to take a photo daily, especially in the Winter when you can't go out (or don't want to), is really hard work and I admire anyone that can actually do it.

The Monthly is Cathy's solution to documenting the real moments of your life without the pressure of taking photos daily or on any schedule. In fact, the system she's devised allows you to take as many or as few photos as you want during the month. Basically it's a set of templates from designer digitals that includes a title page, a monthly title page (12 variations), a journaling page, a journaling and photo page, and several other collage templates for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Back to 2009, these photos are still largely un-scrapbooked and held prisoner inside my computer. So I thought it would be a good idea to test drive her system using the photos I took in 2009. So here goes.

Title page

Monthly opener

Journaling page

Like most of my projects, we'll see how long I can keep doing this :) but I'm feeling better about those photos already knowing that I can simply "slap" them onto a page and call it done.

Hollywood Chick

2010-06-28T15:15:00.001-07:00

We got a new paddling pool for the back yard now that we have to fit 3 kids in (plus any of the neighboring kids that want to come over). Yesterday the kids spent the afternoon in the yard and "I" tried on K's sunhat and sunglasses. Is this a sign of things to come....

Blurb, Quilt and Dell Monitor

2010-06-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

Been neglecting the blog lately (it's the end of the school/dance year so lots going on):

I sold my copy of Photoshop CS4 and bought a Dell 24" monitor. It's in transit but is scheduled for delivery on Monday!!! It was a one day sale, $289 down to $189. It will be 2nd screen to my laptop. I have CS5 suite now.

I just finished a quilt top, just large layer cake squares in Basic Grey Blush fabric (yum!!). Will turn it into a duvet cover for K's room. The photo is with only the rows sewn when I was doing a sanity check to make sure none of the pieces were upside down or in the wrong position.

My vacation scrapbooks (digital) just arrived from Blurb.com. I'm in love. They did a great job. I got a hard cover 12x12 and 6 - 7x7 soft covers ($12.95 each!!). The whole order was $150 (the large album was going to be $125 on it's own at Creative Memories so I vote blurb as being better value for money). Will definitely use Blurb again.

Kobo Reader update coming soon!

2010-06-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to read on the Kobo Reader blog that a software update will be released at the end of this month, although you can also sign up for the beta testing program and get your hands on the update earlier.

This is what Kobobooks said:

"Through the last 30 days, we have also been working on our first software upgrade for the Kobo eReader, focusing on what customers have been telling us. Our software is complete, and we are just working on the final touches on the upgrade process. The upgrade will be available the week of June 28th and we will make sure you know the minute it is available. For those that want to upgrade sooner, we are offering our beta program to partake in the software trial sooner.

Here is a sampling of some of the improvements we are making:
1. ePub Font resizing. You will be able to load Adobe ePubs with fixed font sizes (set by the content publisher or originator) and still be able to resize the fonts with your Kobo eReader.
2. Hiding 100 Free eBooks. Some customers have told us that they actually don’t want the 100 Free eBooks in their way, so we have added the ability to hide the 100 Free eBooks we provide. We are working on a wide range of other organization features for a separate release of our desktop software coming in the future.
3. The “Off” Screen. The challenge with eInk screens, is that even when they are off, they look like they are on. We are working on making this a lot more clear to everyone, especially those who are not experts in eInk.
4. Sleep Mode. We are introducing a new “sleep” mode, if you have left your device inactive for more than 5 minutes, it will go to sleep. This is helpful in managing battery life, and it’s also a behavior that people have come to expect.
5. Low Battery. Some of you have found situations where your battery runs down faster than expected. We found the problem, and fixed it. We’ve also improved how we tell you that your battery is low, and you are running out of time to finish your chapter. Lastly, we have improved this shut down process so it is clear that you have run out of battery, and your Kobo eReader needs charging.
6. Installation. Some of you Windows XP users have had difficulty installing the Kobo Desktop. We did a poor job communicating what version you needed, so we’ve fixed that and for those customers that don’t have Windows XP, Service Pack 3 – we are bundling in everything you need."

In the meantime, I *heart* my Kobo Reader. It goes everywhere with me, it's light and fits into my purse. I have a couple of light scratches on the glossy bezel (possibly from keys in my purse?) but no scratches on the display area. The battery life has been fine and I've been reading for a couple of hours daily.

If I'd have known just how convenient having an eReader is, I'd have gotten one a lot sooner. You know when you go to the doctor and they show you into the doctor's examination room but you have to wait 10 mins, well out came the reader. Funnily enough, when the doctor came in he wanted to see it too!

To read my original Kobo eReader review click here.

Dandelions are flowers too {Capture Kids}

2010-06-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

As any mother of a son knows, while a son can be silly, goofy and rough, sometimes they can be sweet too. J picked this dandelion and proudly gave it to me like it was a red rose or a sweet bouquet.

Same image cropped. Both images edited in Photoshop using the 7 points system.

Go number 11 {Capture Life}

2010-06-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

K has been playing soccer in the local league for 6 year old girls. She's actually proved to be quite good which really surprised me as I thought she'd inherited my natural athletic ability (as in none at all). Instead she gets right in, tackling and stealing the ball from the other girls. Of course she does have one advantage, that of being about 6 inches taller than most of the girls her age which makes her a little more intimidating.

These shots were taken at her game. I'm not sure what blogger is doing to the photos but I've noticed that that they are much more vibrant on blogger than they appear on my screens at home. I processed these using Scott Kelby's updated 7 points system. His system is quick and easy in Adobe Camera Raw CS5 compared to what it was when his book first came out (because you had to use CS3). The new version of the 7 points system is available on www.kelbytraining.com and (considering you can buy 1 month access for $25) is much cheaper than buying the now outdated book.

A Stroll in the Park {Capture Life @ Studio M}

2010-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

This morning "I" and I spent some time in the park outside our back yard. For those of you that have never set eyes on our home, we have a grassy area (the park) outside our back fence and a gate in the fence to go out. The grassy area is mowed once a week and there are several trees there. It is flanked on one side by the "forest" a small area the size of a single lot but that contains dozens of fully grown ponderosa pines. The older kids love to play in the "park" and the "forest" and the best part is that I can look out the back door and keep an eye on them. Unfortunately for "I", I only let her out accompanied by an adult (she is only 22 months after all!) and we have had bears in the back yard in previous years.

Today she got to spend some time out there without the kids (they were at school). She wore a new dress I picked up at the Gap for $11.99 (reduced from $30 or something!). Of course I wasn't going to let her out there looking so cute without subjecting her to a photo shoot :)

San Diego Zoo {Capture Life through photography}

2010-06-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Took the kids to San Diego zoo. It's amazing to think that there were so many animals they'd never seen in real life or even in photos (only cartoons). They were surprised how big the animals were because you can't really get scale when watching on TV or reading a book.

Here's a sample of what we saw:

An Afternoon at the Park in San Diego {Capture Life}

2010-06-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

I am slowly starting to dig myself out from under 700 photos of Disneyland, the Oregon Coast, San Diego Zoo and Sea World. I've started with the smaller groupings of photos.

There were taken in San Diego at the part in our camp site "Campland on the Bay", which by the way is *highly recommended* if you ever find yourself needing a tent or RV camp site in San Diego. It was quite close to Sea World (just across the bay) and you could even watch the fireworks outside. Great playground, swimming pools, and small private beach.

In the rock garden {Studio M Photography}

2010-05-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

Brotherly-Sisterly Love, not {Capture Life}

2010-05-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

Click on picture for larger version.

3rd place at Fine Art America

2010-05-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am amazed to find out that I won 3rd place in the "Love Van Gogh" art contest over at Fine Art America. There were 159 entries all inspired by the work of impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh.

Thank you to everyone who voted for my artwork "Vincent's Sunflower".

You can own a print copy (starting at $24US) by purchasing here or the 11"x14" original pastel painting is still available for $150US (please contact me directly).

A great $40 find - Ikea drafting table

2010-05-24T22:27:00.000-07:00

I love getting a bargain (who doesn't!). Today while scouring the local classifieds, I spotted this Ikea desk/drafting table for $50:

These are the same legs I have on my current art table, but I have a solid top. However, K is always wanting to share my table (which often has piles on it) so I thought maybe I could get it for her to use. So after a long drive to the west side of Kelowna, and $40 (yes knocked the seller down $10 on a desk that retails for $200) we came home with it. Now we get to play musical furniture to make space for it for her. She can't wait to play art with it.

A week with a Kobo

2010-05-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

I've been on the fence over an ebook reader (or ereader) for a while. My friend has had one for a while (a Sony 505) but I just couldn't justify the $400 to buy one. After watching the ereader space for a while, I was intrigued by the release of the Kobo (available through Chapters here in Canada) for $150 limited time only.

After checking out the features, I preferred the specs on the $150 Kobo to the $199 Sony reader (mainly because the Kobo has an SD card feature) which overrode anything else the Sony could do *and* this coupled with the Kobo's ability to bluetooth connect to a smartphone to download content online (again the Sony's can't do this - the Kindle can but I ruled out the Kindle based on it's DRM issues meaning that if you upgrade your reader you can't take your books with you to a new reader). So I bit the bullet and pre-ordered the Kobo before any release date was announced.

Of course, the Kobo was shipped 2 days before my vacation and as it turns out it sat at the post office for 2 weeks waiting for me to return. I picked it up last Monday so these are my thoughts 1 week later.

Ergonomics
I love the fact it's light. Much lighter than the Sony which is metal and probably more sturdy but for something supposed to be portable, light is king. The screen seems comparable to the Sony. It has less buttons so doesn't have as many options for turning pages and finding stuff but these are minor points. You pretty much have to turn the pages using the big blue button and can hold the unit in your right hand to do this. The thing I *hate* is that directly underneath the blue button (on the underside of the unit) is the USB connector. No big deal in itself except that the unit has a squared off section for the connector instead of the smooth rounded edge and you can feel it digging in when you hold it with one hand on the right side (like it's designed to do so). What where the designers thinking? That connector could have been anywhere on the unit and they put it in the one spot that was going to cause discomfort. Duh!

User Experience
I've read a lot of comments about how difficult it is to upload books using the Kobo and Adobe Digital Editions software. This may be true. But why oh why aren't you using Calibre? Download this free software (and make a paypal donation at the same time) and you can see the contents of your Kobo, upload new books at the push of one button and convert old books you might have in other formats to epub to go onto your new reader. Simple. Calibre. Haven't tried to purchase any books from Kobo yet and I suspect that this might be where the issue will become a little more complex, but if there is a download option, there's no reason you can't add the book to Calibre and upload it to the Kobo. What Calibre is missing is some kind of library option for downloading content from a library (that expires on a certain date) and lending books to friends (again expiring on a certain date).

The reader is a little slow. Not when turning pages but to read you need to power up the unit (it goes through a progress bar with 7 segments, but when the 7th is reached there is still a lengthy wait), then you will see your "Books I'm Reading" list with the last book you read highlighted. You still need to click it to open. Again you'll wait, and this time you'll see a quote on screen with no progress bar. Eventually you'll get to your page. Why the unit can't simply open your book to the last page you were on is beyond me. Aren't you likely to pick up reading the same book if you're 1/2 way through. Isn't that the most likely option rather than opening a new book? And for those people that were going to open a new book, they could still have that option once they got to the last read page.

Finally there is a bug in that the epubs I've read so far (2 - Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel) don't allow me to change the font size. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it's something to do with how they were compiled (they weren't purchased from Kobo). I need to check into this more as the books that came free on the reader work ok.

And did I mention there are 100 free books on the reader. Amazon/Kindle charges up to $6 for each of this out of copyright books (with most being $1). I've provided the link above if you want to price out the value of these books.

Conclusion
Anyway, with about 1000 pages read in 1 week, I think the Kobo is a hit. If you're thinking of buying a reader then check out the Kobo which is now on display at your local Chapters store in Canada and coming to Borders stores in the US.

Sea World

2010-05-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

I Swim {Studio M}

2010-04-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Click on image for larger version

My Words {Studio M}

2010-04-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have a tradition of writing down all the words each child can say at 17-18 months. There are some standard ones, "banana", "shoes", but then there seem to be words specific to each child's personality.

K's unique words were "hat", "let's go", "clean-up".
J's unique words were "bear", "frog", "diego", "tickle"
I's unique words were "butterflies", "pizza", "TV on", "bite" (the name of I's blanket because she chews on it).

I am definitely noticing a parenting trend from going places and cleaning up (with 1 child) to pizza and TV with 3 children! Hmmm....

Click on image for larger version

Outside {Studio M}

2010-04-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Click on image to see larger version

A few from the vault {Studio M}

2010-04-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

Not sure how these got missed along the way but I'll share them anyway.

Springtime 2010 with Storybook Creator 3 {Studio M}

2010-04-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Ali Edwards, a scrapbooker who is doing a lot of digital work these days. I can't afford to buy all the templates and elements she sells so I often create my own versions of her designs. She recently published a page that I liked and I wanted to "scraplift" it (that's what scrapbookers say instead of "copying").

Here's Ali's page:

Here's mine:

My page was made using Creative Memories' Scrapbook Creator Plus 3. This is a bit of a diversion for me. I usually make my pages in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, however, the upgrade to Scrapbook Creator was on sale for $9.95 and came with 1 kit so I thought I'd grab it as I still had the previous version. I'm curious to see what the new features of version 3 are and whether I might be able to produce pages faster with a more scrapbook oriented tool.

I did cheat one tiny bit, and made the paint overlay in Photoshop, saved as a .png and then imported to SBC3. Everything else was done inside SBC3. I've since figured out I could have made that element in SBC too by using the Line tool.

Kid Art Solution {Studio M}

2010-04-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of other moms out there, I am swamped with my kids art work. K especially loves to paint and can turn out 5 paintings at a sitting. These paintings are usually done on some strange size paper 9x12 or even larger and can make storing them difficult and scrapbooking them bulky.

A few days ago, I suggested to K that she paint what she'd thought she see on our upcoming vacation and she turned out 5 more paintings to add to our evergrowing collection.

Rather than scrap the bulky, original artwork, I photographed it making sure to stand over top of the artwork so it was square to the camera. I then loaded them into Photoshop and adjusted the levels. Often this is necessary because your camera wants to average the photo to a mid-grey and if the painting has vibrant colors or little white space, things can be off colorwise. Next I cropped out the carpet so only the painting was showing (the painting aspect ratio and the camera aspect ratio aren't the same so some carpet was visible). Finally I added an overlay frame with the title of the painting (sometimes necessary if you can't figure out what the painting is) and printed them on 4x6 photo paper. I also created a 4x6 journal block and then inserted all 6 images into a 12x12 photo protector page (you can get these from a variety of sources in different brands such as We R Memory Keepers, Fancy Pants Design, Pebbles Inc).

And this is the page that got inserted into K's scrapbook which takes up less space and is a permanent record of her art. K loves it!

The Kiss Layout | Studio M

2010-04-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

You've already seen the photo, here's the layout. I don't have a lot of time for scrapbooking these days so my style has become increasingly simple and sometimes I just print an enlargement, put it in a page protector and call it done :)

This layout has been printed in 8x8 for I's album.

Let's Go Outside {Studio M}

2010-04-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

I is at the age now where she doesn't like to be left behind when the other kids go out into the back yard. She's still learning to talk but she makes it pretty clear when she wants to go outside. She runs to the door with shoes on (doesn't matter who's shoes - any shoes will do!) and says "outside", which is one of the few words she can actually say.

Yesterday and Today Week 5 | Studio M

2010-03-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Back in October/November 2009 I was enrolled in Ali Edwards Big Picture Scrapbooking course "Yesterday & Today". I kept up with the first four lessons and posted layout here on my blog. Then I was called back to the UK for a family emergency and by the time I got back I was behind and had other things on my mind.

I am now ready to pick up where I left off and finish the course. So here's the layout for week 5. The challenge was to make a layout with no photo, just journaling in a 6x12 size.

Antennae | Studio M

2010-03-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

J is studying bugs at school and we've been learning about them at home too. Today's discussion was about antennae and what they are used for. Of course, K had to give us a demonstration.

The Kiss | Studio M

2010-03-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

I is learning how to kiss. She hasn't got the lip smacking sound figured out yet but she's learned how to purse her lips already. This is the sight we are treated to on a daily basis when she tells us "I lub you". Kids are such a blessing!

J's Handsome Clothes | Studio M

2010-03-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

J in his "handsome clothes" and his new glasses. Poor guy hasn't been able to see anything since birth and has a +5.75 in one eye and a +6.00 in the other.

2010-03-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

Not much going on around here with Spring break in full swing. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on a family history project - a book to be self published.

Today I am starting the Heath Vest for J. He's really excited to get this sweater but wants to watch me make it so he can wear it "tomorrow". I keep trying to tell him that it will take much longer than 1 day but it's not getting through! Here's the Heath Vest for those of you that are interested.

The pattern is my first try at Intarsia but it also called for a provision cast on - something else I haven't done before. It is available through Knitpicks.com but you can also buy a kit that comes with all the yarn in the colorway shown above (which is what I purchased) for $14.99 here!!!! I thought it was an amazing deal so that's what we have. The pattern comes in 4 kids sizes (starting at 24" chest) as well as adult sizes.

So far I've only done the provisional cast one - I want to read up on Intarsia a little before starting it.
In my search for information/help on provisional cast on's I wanted to share the following youtube videos which were really helpful.

Making the provisional cast on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3J-sUx_whE
Removing the provisional cast on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNFXO8MH2z0

Enjoy!

The Tooth Fairy

2010-03-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, K reported that she had a loose tooth and finally today it fell out. So tonight we are expecting a visit from the tooth fairy. I think we set the expectations well, the tooth fairy will exchange the tooth for a "toonie" or should that be "twonie" (hmm, have to think on that one!).

Hope to get a photo of the gaping hole tomorrow along with a shot of the poster K made so that the tooth fairy wouldn't get lost on the way to her room (she was rather concerned that the tooth fairy might go to the wrong kids' room - and it's not like we have that many kids right? only 3......, can you imagine if we were the 18 kids and counting family.......)

For those of you still waiting for your kids teeth to fall out, there's more blood that I expected/remembered and make sure you don't brush the teeth too hard that day or you have more bleeding! Well come on, it's not like they come with a manual ;) (the kids or the teeth)

We read "Clifford and the Loose Tooth" tonight which is a big improvement over Robert Munsch's funny story "Andrew's Loose Tooth". Despite the latter being the funniest, I think it may be a little scary for the newly wobbly-toothed child.

No Limits | Studio M

2010-03-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

Berry & Bramble Cardigan

2010-02-11T16:53:00.000-08:00

Loving how my Berry & Bramble cardigan is coming along! I started this pattern early January (I think?) and have ripped out sections several times as I wasn't "getting" the pattern. Now I'm moving along nicely and have almost finished the main body piece. I just have to figure out how to do a 3 needle cast off to join the shoulders, then I can start the edge trim which is ribbed.

Here's mine:

And here's what it's supposed to look like:

The only thing is that I wish I'd picked another color. After reaching my ripe old age! I found out that actually I am not an "Autumn", I am actually a "Winter". Duh! So instead of wearing leafy, earthy tones, I'm supposed to be wearing clear, jewel tones (ruby red, emerald green, purple, brilliant blue, as well as pure black, white and grey). The only brown I'm supposed to wear is dark chocolate. Oooops!

Convert PSE tags to Adobe Bridge hierarchical tags

2010-02-08T15:46:00.001-08:00

As a recap you might want to read this article on how I set up my Category Drawers digitally in Photoshop Elements. Now while Elements lets you set up sub-categories and keywords at different levels, it turns out that when you write them to the files, that they are not hierarchical at all. (And of course, if you don't write them to the files, you won't have any at all).

This means that when you read them in Bridge, they are all jumbled up because they are sorted alphabetically by keyword, and the categories are actually ignored. To some people this is OK, but in the Library of Memories this is not helpful.

Bridge can support Hierarchical keywording which is just what you need for the LOM system. To check it is switched on, select Edit, Preferences, Keywords. I suggest that you uncheck the "automatically apply parent keywords", and check the other two boxes (Write and Read hierarchical keywords).

So I had to look for a way to bring those hierarchies over from Elements to Bridge. So this is what I did.

1. First you need to open Elements Organizer and make sure that your categories/keywords are all cleaned up, no duplicates etc. You cannot have 2 tags the same even if they are in different categories. To fix this, rename the tag to incorporate it's parent category so that the duplicates are now unique.

2. Use the Edit, Write Keyword Tag and Properties Info to file function to ensure that all the keywords are written in the metadata of your files. You will need to do a Ctrl+A to select All before chosing to do this. This process can take a really really long time in Elements so be prepared to walk away from the computer for an hour or two.

3. Next open a spreadsheet program (Excel, Works, whatever). Starting with the top of your LOM categories (in my case People) open up your categories and sub-categories in the Organizer so you can see them all. Back in the spreadsheet, start typing in each category/tag vertically in column A. I had around 200 entries by the time I was done. Phew!

4. Save your spreadsheet if you haven't already!

5. In your spreadsheet program, select File, Save As, and choose a text document (.txt) format with tab delimitation. In Works this looks like Text & Tabs.

6. Now open Bridge CS4. You are probably on the default "Essentials" view. Select the "Metadata" view. You should have a Keywords pane on the right side of the screen.

7. If there are any keywords displaying in the Keywords pane, right click on them to remove them from the keywords list. You can select multiple keywords if necessary. It is best to start from scratch to avoid confusion.

8. In the keywords pane, on the right top corner is a drop down menu icon. Click on it and select Import. Navigate your way to the .txt file you saved earlier. And select it, click Ok and import it into Bridge. You will eventually see your keywords show up in a list. This list appears alphabetically and is jumbled because there is no hierarchy, all tags are at the top level.

9. Using "drag & drop" mouse technique, go about recreating the same structure you had in Photoshop Elements. Simply drag the sub-categories onto the top level categories, and the keywords onto their parent categories.

Now when I go to a photo, I can see the keywords with their correct hierarchy, a la Library of Memories.

Library of Memories 2010 - using Adobe Bridge CS4

2010-02-08T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've written several tutorials about using Photoshop Elements for the Library of Memories system taught at BigPictureScrapbooking.com and detailed in the book "Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian.

As a LOM 2009 alumni, I get to take the course for free again this year. This is just as well because I never did finish "everything" in the course. To recap, I organized my photos, created my cold storage, my binders etc all in PSE and even created some layouts with my newly organized photos. But every organization system needs an overhaul once in a while and taking the course again this year is an opportunity to take a fresh look at what I've been doing, and how it can be improved (or not).

One big change for me since last year, is Photoshop CS4. I purchased Photoshop CS4 back in July of last year. It was a great deal as part of the Wacom tablet owners program, you can get a full version of Photoshop CS4 for $299 USD. Anyway, I have to admit that I haven't fully made the leap from PSE to PS CS4. This mainly boils down to the high comfort level I have with PSE7 Editor over the newly designed Photoshop Editor CS4. The second reason is that my photos are currently organized in the PSE7 Organizer.

For those that aren't aware, Photoshop CS4 comes with it's own organizer called Bridge. Bridge isn't a database driven organizer (like PSE Organizer, Lightroom, ACDSee). It is simply a powerful file browser, more like the File Explorer in Windows or iPhoto on a Mac. And I've been a little put off by the process of figuring out a new workflow for my photo organization/editing.

But a new year is a new year, and I'm feeling inspired, so I've embarked on the journey of switching my workflow from PSE7 to Photoshop / Bridge CS4 and I'm going to document the process, through in some tutorials and (hopefully) you'll follow me on this journey.

More to come....

Pen Tablet Basics Week 1

2010-02-05T16:08:00.000-08:00

Recipe: All items taken from Pen Tablet Basics Week 1, JessicaSprague.com
Click on image to see larger version.

Helping Haiti

2010-01-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

The devastation in Haiti is beyond my comprehension and my heart goes out to those families that lost someone they loved this last week. While initial donations will be used to purchase supplies needed *now*, it is going to take some time for Haiti to be rebuilt (look at Katrina and the Tsunami as examples of how long it takes).

As digital scrapbookers we can help by purchasing the Songbird Avenue kit which will be released February 1st. All proceeds from the kit will be donated to charity supporting the Haiti effort.

You can read more at Songbird Avenue. Please support this effort.

Christmas Ornaments Layout | Studio M

2009-12-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

I'm not really feeling myself since the death of a close family member in November and haven't felt like blogging.

This is the first page I've scrapped since then. The layout briefly documents the Christmas Ornaments the kids have been making at school.

Recipe:
Template - Jessica Sprague Beautiful Album
Everything else - Songbird Avenue SugarPlums
Font - Century Gothic

Aspiring NHL-er | Studio M

2009-12-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Scrapbook album tour | Studio M

2009-11-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

Take an interactive tour through my newly labelled scrapbook albums on Flickr (click here).

I've sold all my CTMH albums and moved almost all my 12x12s to American Crafts D-Ring albums. This enables me to more easily mix page size as the pages/posts don't have to be removed to insert the different sized extra pages.

See previous post about spine labels.

New Scrapbook Spine Labels

2009-11-03T18:22:00.001-08:00

DSC_0669_web
Originally uploaded by Marina Garrison

I've been meaning to update the spine labels on my scrapbook albums for a while. I had an idea to use metal rimmed circle tags (in the Ali Edwards style) but needed a 1" punch which I didn't have.

So today I borrowed a punch (thanks B) and started the process of re-labeling them so they coordinated.

Green albums are family:1 and family:2; pink are ig:1 and ig:2, blue are jg:1 and jg:2, purple will be kg:1 and kg:2.

Even though the albums aren't all the same style (in fact ig:1 is a cool photo album) I think they look much more "coordinated" and the differences aren't so obvious as they were before.

Comments? Do you like? Do I spend too much time reorganizing? Lol....

Halloween 2009 | Studio M

2009-11-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

Wanna be a Clickin' Mom? | Studio M

2009-10-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Come on over and join in some of the great discussions going on at Clickin’ Moms right now! Everyone is gearing up for the holidays, discussing which shiny new photo equipment to put on their wish lists and planning their holiday family portraits and photo shoots.

Take a Great Pumpkin Patch Shot
The Light Baby section has a quick tip about getting a great pumpkin patch shot! Find Big Spenders for High Priced Photography Sessions Members are having an active discussion in the Photography Business section about how to find customers willing to pay higher prices for photography sessions. Plus, the thread about setting up a professional photography business is still going strong!

Clickin’ Moms Newsletter Tips – Self Portrait Focusing and a DIY Tripod
For a well-focused self portrait, place your camera on a tripod and put something to focus on where your face will be. Once you set the focus, put yourself in the portrait and use a remote or your camera’s timer to shoot. It will take some trial and error – but setting the focus on a stand-in object should keep those errors to a minimum.

What happens if you forget your tripod at Christmas and are wondering how to take your family portrait without it? Use a lamp instead! Unscrew the lamp shade and attach your camera to the threads that you just removed the shade from. It fits perfectly!

Download Free Photoshop Actions Check out the latest free actions posted in the Pay It Forward section. The Verve Actions are super popular right now!

Use coupon code CMNEWS for 10% off any subscription!

Yesterday & Today Challenging Memory | Studio M

2009-10-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Photos taken by K and J with the Fisher Price toy digital camera.
Click on picture for larger version (and to read journaling).

Yesterday & Today Childhood Memories | Studio M

2009-10-25T20:39:00.001-07:00

From Studio M

The second layout from the Yesterday & Today album. Click the picture for the larger version.

Yesterday & Today Intro Page | Studio M

2009-10-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm taking the Ali Edwards Yesterday & Today course over at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com. I haven't taken one of their courses for a while because I don't like the fact that you don't have access to materials after you've finished, but this course was pretty tempting and came with a lot of digital elements by Ali (well worth the cost of the course itself). And even though I've been in the scrapbooking doldrums lately and haven't scrapped anything for a while (2 1/2 months!), I signed up for it anyway.

[In fact I bailed on the Jessica Sprague "Beautiful" album course that I was enrolled in and didn't complete any of the layouts. So now that's 2 courses I'm behind in, I still have the Type + Writer course to complete too :( So I didn't hold out too much hope of completing this course]

I have to say I've been impressed with Ali's course so far. Ali's emphasis is on documenting now, forget getting your craft room ready (Bonnie!) or scanning in all your photos, or scrapbooking chronologically, or..., or... Ali's stresses that you can document your memories now. It doesn't matter if they are random or planned, it doesn't matter if you have photos or not, it doesn't matter if it's just a short story and not a whole layout, she has a very "just do it" attitude. She emphasizes documenting in words and pictures. Not necessarily journaling everything (although you can) but if you're more comfortable with lists or stickers then "just do it".

So here are the first layouts from this album. I can't promise that I'll keep up with this but it's looking good at week 3 of 13.

From Studio M

Jim Garland - I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister

2009-10-04T15:33:00.001-07:00

Excellent song. My kids and I love Dan Zane's version, but here's the original. Although written in the depression it certainly speaks to today's economic crisis.

140 Free Photoshop Action Sets

2009-09-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Just passing along a link to an amazing blog entry with links to 140 photoshop action sets. Yummy!

http://free-web-design.co.cc/140-amazing-photoshop-actions-sets-and-tutorials.html

Is it broken? | Studio M

2009-09-23T11:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, so don't laugh but I was trying to put J in the naughty corner for being cheeky and I tripped over him into the back of the couch, put my hands up to break my fall, and broke my finger (left hand ring finger at the joint). C had to pull my rings off with margarine as the finger started to swell.

Anyway, Dr. thinks its broken and had to get x-rays. Waiting on results. Right now fingers taped together.

Hard to type, change diapers and can't cut up my own food :(

Bubblicious | Studio M

2009-09-13T10:10:00.001-07:00

Moms Sunglasses | Studio M

2009-09-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Had fun yesterday taking pictures of I playing with my sunglasses. She totally knew what she was supposed to do with them but had a little trouble executing! The session was going great up until the point where (while mom was fiddling with her camera settings) 'I' slid off the side of the king size bed, landed on her head and broke the sunglasses. Boy, did Mom feel like a deadbeat mother whose child could have had their eye poked out with the broken sunglasses..... Back to parenting school I think.....

Tutu | Studio M

2009-09-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

Technically not perfect but cute all the same. I is dressed in K's ballet tutu. Love the B&W.

One from the vault | Studio M

2009-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Back to School | Studio M

2009-09-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

K started Kindergarten yesterday and J started 2nd year pre-school this morning. K was pretty excited when she came home yesterday, she had a great day and especially enjoyed recess where she got to socialize with some of her ex-preschool now G1 friends!

Lightning Strikes Small Fire in East Kelowna

2009-09-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

C noticed a small fire in East Kelowna around 5pm September 1st on the way back from the grocery store. A helicopter was on the scene about 30 minutes later shortly before the main thunderstorm went overhead.

This photo shows both the fire (to the left) and the helicopter (to the right).

2009-08-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T19:49:00.000-07:00