Say Cheese!!

I love mini stuff...

Those of you who know me well, know that while I LOVE scrapbooking, I'm not very disciplined in completing the "everyday" kinda book. You know, the ones that go from year to year and capture everything from the baby's first poop to what you ate for dinner last night.  Nope, not me. In my life, I'm doing good for getting dinner on the table last night much less scrapbooking about it!

So many people I talk to say they don't scrapbook because they don't know where to begin. I was one of those people too, until I discovered that I could do a mini-scrapbook about a particular trip or event and viola! (wah-la in french, giggle, because I'm mexican!) I'm done. It's a sense of accomplishment when you can complete something in one sitting and be able to show it without boring your friends to tears. And really, do you get that many fabulous photos that you have to scrapbook all of them?  Not in my house. Out of a hundred photos, I MIGHT get ONE where my child isn't picking her nose or my DH isn't staring at the sky. And if I'm feeling really creative, I can crop out the "offenders" and keep only the "perfect" person in the photo.  I LOVE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS!

So, this is where my girlfriend, Angie Tieman's, mini photo album falls into my lap of love. She designed this adorable book in May and when I saw it, I knew that I had to teach my stamp clubs. I love this little book because it holds just 1-3 photos and its perfect to tuck into a briefcase or jean pocket when DH goes out of town.  If you haven't checked out Angie's blog, you need to. And I'll tell you now, she's much more dedicated in blogging everyday with photos than I am. Her enthusiasim makes me want to stamp and play all the time!

So this is a little book that I made for Mark for Father's Day. Okay, well, I haven't given it to him yet because I needed it to copy, scan & post but, I promise, as soon as I'm done typing tonight I'll march right over to his recliner and give it to him :-)  If you want to try your hand at making a mini book too, check out Angie's tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers.

I'm often asked where I get my photos printed. I print them at home after I've edited them to my liking. These photos are 2" x 1 1/2" but, you can do the same thing by resizing your photo and then uploading it to your favorite photo printer. Just remember to select the "wallet" size option when ordering. Then all you have to do it trim down the photo when your working and you're set to go. And if you want to try to change the color photo to a Sepia tone try this (in Photoshop Elements 6, sorry I don't don't anything else)

Open PSE 6 > Open your photo

In layers palette, click on the top layer in your stack>click Create Adjustment Layer (this is the half black, half white circle in the Layers palette > choose Hue/Saturation

When the next dialog box appears, check the "colorize" button and then set your Hue slider at about 24 and your Saturation slider to 24 > click OK.

This will give you a sepia tone. And yes, I know there is a more precise way to complete this action but, is this the quickie version that doesn't require a Ph.d to complete :-)

 

What month is this?

Sometimes I have too much fun in life as evidenced by the time passing between posts.  Seems I'm either on a obsessive/compulsive posting mood or I drop off the face of the earth! But alas, here I am again.

My trip to Virginia in the spring was awesome! We visited Williamsburg, Jamestown and Jefferson's Monticello.  It's fascinating to me that everyone who works at these Historical sites are in period costumes, complete with the language accents and event's of the era.  You were really a spectator in their day-to-day life. They would cheerily involve you in their conversations and remind you what was going on on "that day in history".  As an adult, I've learned to love history (I hated it in school! I might have even flunked it!) so it was a really exciting for me to see some of these places that I'd only read about in books.  As a note, if you saw the HBO series ADAMS (about John Adams), it was partly filmed here in Williamsburg. I recognized some of the scenes as places we visited. That was cool.

Jamestown really made us appreciate how hard the first colonists had to work just to survive. They were constant targets for unfriendly Native Americans, victims of disease and most died from starvation! Whew, I'm glad I was born now and not back then. I would have died the week I arrived! Not to mention that all the women had to wear long skirts, sleeves & bonnets.  Remember, to show your ankles, wrist and neck was improper. For that alone, I would have been shot. I'm so hot natured that I almost live in shorts year-around. Nope, nosirree, not me. I would have died back then.

Now, Monticello was fantastic. My interest in Thomas Jefferson started when I read about Sally Hemmings, his proposed lover and slave. After reading many books about his life and his beloved home there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to visit when I was already in the area. The house was full of his inventions. Did you know he invented the dumb-waiter? Yep, it was right there in the dining room. Check out some of his other inventions. What was really cool was that I got see most of them at Monticello. This was definitely a detour worth taking.  Oh, oh, and I took this photo. Doesn't look like a postcard? Unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos inside the house so you'll just have to plan a visit for yourself to see it!

And lest, I forget what this "blob" is all about, here is a recent digital scrapbook page that I made for my Jessica Sprage on-line course. I used some photos from our Williamsburg trip because the point was to learn to create a small slide show of interesting photos to compliment a main image.  Never fear, I'm not going 100% digital.  Throughout my trip I was purchasing and stashing paraphernalia to use in a real scrapbook. There's something fulfilling in using textured papers and 3-D elements to tell a story.  As soon as I finish the Disney Album (trip taken October, 2006), the family Colorado trip (taken June, 2007) and St. Maarten (taken August, 2007) I'll be working on the Virginia album! Whew, I'm tired justing thinking about it! I think I need a scrap booking retreat! Are you in? I have one scheduled for October 2008...