First TBall game!!!

Nick and Vanessa had their FIRST TBall game this past Saturday. I missed the game because I had to work in the Snack Bar (UGH!!). My friend Jolly's husband took these. (The one with Nick batting is a whole series of shots. I can't wait to scrap the entire series!!). And isn't Vanessa just the CUTEST EVER??!!!! OMG!!!

A Million Memories - April 2009 Kit Projects!!!!

Here are my projects using the April 2009 Kit at A Million Memories. I'm so happy with them....yet so sad that they are my last projects for AMM. I had an AWESOME two years on the Design Team. THANK YOU to Michelle for giving me such a great opportunity!!!!

~a sweet Lil girl~











~Springtime memories~











~a day to remember~





~you color my world~





~Happy Birthday {card}~

Congratulations to the new AMM Design Team!!!

Congratulations goes out to the new Design Team at A Million Memories. SOOOO much talent. I can't wait to see what they do with the kits. And congrats to Michelle for selecting a wonderful team!!!!

Spring Cleaning Sale at A Million Memories!!

Check it out!! You can get 15% off your ENTIRE order at A Million Memories this weekend.

Excludes classes and monthly kit memberships.

ENJOY!

AMM DT Challenge: 3/8 - 3/20 "Algebra Lesson"

Hey all!!!

I'm up for the DT Challenge this week over at A Million Memories and I thought we'd have fun with a little bit of ALGEBRA. Don't worry...there is REALLY SIMPLE match involved!!

Your challenge is to come up with a layout using the following equation:

B&W+1C=GLO WHAT??? LOL!!

Black & White plus ONE color equals a great layout!!!

You have to create a layout using ONLY BLACK AND WHITE plus ONE color. (You can used colored photos or black& white). The color can be the complete range of that color from white to black and every shade in between. Using red as an example would include pink, ok?!!

You cannot add ANY other color (unless you have a flower or something with leaves...but that's sort of cheating...LOL)!!

You have until Sunday, March 20th (MIDNIGHT PST) to post. I'll be giving a little RAK to the winner (I just have to photograph and post it). Check it out HERE.

HAVE FUN!!! Here is my digital layout!!

A Million Memories - March 2009 Kit Projects!!

I had SOOOO much fun with this kit. It's so springy and colorful. Each month Michelle's kits get better and better. You can grab your kit HERE.

~dolce bella~
I just love how this came out. It's one of my favorite photos of Vanessa and her cute smile.

(Dolce=sweet, bella=beautiful)

I added the MME flowers and some Prima bling.









~Playing Mommy~
Love these photos of Vanessa holding her Webkinz Cat. She's going to make a good Mommy someday!
Everything is from the kit...I just added some Primas, stickles and bling (I think from JoAnn's).





~goofy grin~
Goofy picture of Vanessa. I added some MME pp (background) and K&Co Wild Rasberry embellishments.


~q & a~
I had SO much fun with this mini album!!

I loved the idea of the envelopes so I made a little Q&A with the kids.

Each child has there own photo. I changed them all to B&W and then pumped up the exposure to really make them intense. They look SO cool IRL!!

On the back side is a quick (funny) quote they said during the "interview".

Inside each envelope is the answer to the questions. For the envelopes I used my {old} foam stamps and paint, regular stamps and ink, and Glimmer Mist. It was SO much fun!

The instructions for making the envelopes will be posted soon!!! So check back!!

Editing your layouts for blogs and galleries!

I created this post for the A Million Memories Blog for today!! I also wanted to share it with my friends and family.
------

Layouts are not just for albums anymore!! These days, scrapbookers all over the world are posting their work to online galleries and personal blogs. They are submitting their work to magazines and trying out for design teams. They want to showcase their projects and really make them stand out. So, for this week’s technique, I thought it would be fun to show you some ideas on how to edit your projects to really make it POP!!

(I will be using my personal photo editing program from ACD Systems but these or similar options are available in most popular photo editing programs. Check your user guide for more information)




Lighting:
The best way to take a good picture is to use natural lighting. Try your best to not use artificial lighting unless you really have no alternative. Artificial lighting will cause unexpected color changes and in most cases will cause a glare on your photos.

When using natural lighting, don’t use direct sunlight because this will cause harsh shadows on your project. Instead, use diffused light or find another spot further away from the door or window.

Editing:
When I take photos of my projects, the first think I do is select which photo is the best (I usually take at least 3 of each shot) then I delete the rest.

The next step is to CROP the photo. I try to get as close to the edges as possible so that my project fills the entire screen.




Next, I edit the EXPOSURE. Most editing programs will have an “Auto Exposure” option which works fine in most cases. But I prefer to use the “levels” or “histogram” option. This is where you get to play with the “shadows”, “midtones” and “highlights” of the photo.




The idea is to move the “slider” for each of the three options until you like what you see. The most successful way that I’ve found is to move the shadow and highlight sliders closer to the “peek” of the histogram. This will usually give you the most natural exposure. From there, you can change the midtone slider a bit. Mostly, just tweaking the shadows or highlights is all you need.

As you can see, I moved the highlights slider to the left a good bit to reach the first peak and I moved the shadows slider just a bit to the right.




Next, depending on the lighting in the first step, you might have to change the COLOR CAST. This is where you will see either a bluish or yellowish cast on the part of your project that is supposed to be white.




I don’t always need this step but sometimes it really makes the difference. Right now, I think my photo has a yellow tint so I’m going to use the Color Cast option. The flower over the lower black circle is what I’m going to use as my source.

Find your editor’s COLOR option. Take your mouse and hover over the area where you want your photo to be white. (Usually you will see an eyedropper). Click on that section and you will notice the entire project will look much better. If you don’t like what you see, keep clicking on different areas until you like the color change.




There are loads of other options you can use like sharpness and noise but I don’t use them unless they are absolutely necessary.

The final step before saving is to RESIZE your document. Typically, I resize my projects so that the largest side is no bigger than 600 pixels. This will work perfectly on most websites and will be accepted by most magazines and other calls. Anything smaller and you might just loose too much detail. (You can always make it smaller if needed for a specific call but you can never make it bigger without losing detail and resolution).




Now I know this may seem like a lot of work in order to post a project but you will love the results and it will be worth it!!

~KISS~ Digital layout

~KISS~

Quick digital layout. I just loved this photo of Vanessa and wanted to do something really quick.
Paper is by Katie Pertiet (ScrapPink). Everything else is Jen Wilson Designs.