Baby-Fiona Month Stickers

I mentioned that I'd made month stickers for Fiona. I finished months 1-8 yesterday before going to take her photos for month 1. Today, after preparing for Primary sharing time this Sunday, I finished up months 9-12.

I started collecting digital scrapbook papers, elements, etc. about five years ago. I have the most wonderful

never-gets-used-up-stash EVER!

I'm still amazed at the generosity of so many talented designers. Almost all of my digital papers were FREE or at a very low cost.

I incorporate polka-dots into each design and each month corresponds with the holiday of that month (ie-Fiona will be three months old in December- so red and green). I am so pleased with the results!

I made a layer template (thank you Jessica Sprague for all of the wonderful classes I took with you! I learned SO MUCH!!)

If anyone is interested I will share my template with them. Sadly I don't feel that I can share the finished stickers since I drew from so many people's digital work.

The nice thing about the digital template is that you just open it in PhotoShop then drag your digital papers above the mask and *clip* the paper to the mask.

** AND I believe in giving credit, where credit is due...

1-  Shabby Princess French Countryside FrenchCountryside_SP_paper (1).jpg & FrenchCountryside_SP_paper (6).jpg

2-  Misty Mareda @ Little Dreamer Designs mmareda_paper5.jpg, Shabby Princess FrenchCountryside_CR_paper (3).jpg

3-  Designer Digitals Jen Adams Donnelly Giving Thanks- JAD_20061112_AdChallenge_Grateful.jpg & JAD_20061112_AdChallenge_Thankful.jpg

4-  Sweet Shoppe Designs Carnival dmogstad-carnival-paper.jpg, Dirty Feet Designs aka Heather Benson (the best I could find here was a Facebook page that MIGHT be this designer) dfd-dotsgrunge-p8.jpg

5-  Shabby Princess SP_SeasonalSampler_Amore_Paper_Hearts.jpg, & SP_SeasonalSampler_Amore_Paper_Stripes.jpg

6-  Designer Digitals Jackie Eckles Breathe Nature: JHE_BreatheNature_Paper6.jpg & JHE_BreatheNature_Paper7.jpg

7- Designer Digitals Dana Zarling dz-adchall-5-4-paper2.jpg, Shabby Princess SP_RummageChic_Paper_Plaid.jpg

8-  Shabby Princess SP_OliviaCollection_Paper_VanillaFloral.jpg, Designer Digitals Jackie Eckles Breathe Nature JHE_BreatheNature_Paper7.jpg

9- Shabby Princess SP_SpringBreeze_Paper_BigCircles.jpg & SP_SpringBreeze_Paper_Stripes.jpg

10- ScrapArtist Mystery Scrap Challenge (this is what I have for the TOU but couldn't find a website) SA_muse_gmiller-acidrainbow-paper.jpg, Shabby Princess ShabbyP_Celebrate_StripedPaper.jpg

11-  Sweet Shoppe Designs Carnival: hroselli-carnival-paper-dots.jpg & aslagle-carnival-paper.jpg

12-  Jessica Sprague Type+Writer online class kit: NotebookCoordinates-1.jpg, & KHMize-PacificPoint-Stripes.jpg

(Whew, do you have any idea how long it takes to note each of these? But not nearly as long as it took these wonderful individuals to create them!)

Fiona's Already a Month-old!

Maybe it's because I'm not the sleep-deprived mama but it sure doesn't seem like one whole month since baby Fiona was born! She is such a sweet little baby.

In recent months I've seen these darling month stickers that one sticks on baby's onesie to take a photo each month. What a great idea!

I was talking to Camille about this a few days ago and asked where she thought I might find them.

 Pinterest! 
 (Duh! I said the duh-part, not Camille.)

"But you could probably make them yourself!" exclaimed Camille. (Hmmm, who is sleep deprived here?)

So I went a lookin' on Pinterest and found some good ideas.

Enter PhotoShop and my whole supply of polka-dot digital paper that NEVER gets used up! Yay! (Can I just say that it used to stress me out to use my cute paper!) As I worked on the template for the basic sticker I had a brainstorm! Why not use month appropriate papers (orange for October, red and green for December, etc)?

I absolutely love that Miss Fiona has her Daddy's dimple!

But you know... even good babies get tired of Grammie taking their photo! I couldn't resist one of this darling little boo-face.

Photo-bombing

I love the new name for something I've done most of my life... photo-bombing.

The other night, after a long day and a not so restful night's sleep, I was trying to wind down and go to bed. I decided to take one last look at the internet on my iPad mini... within minutes I was in hysterics!

First I watched this video which got me started... (the last scene is my favorite).

Then I found these photo-bombing animals on Pinterest by the time I'd gotten to the bottom I had tears running down my face (keep in mind that it was nearly midnight).

I watched video and looked at the photo-bombs again... just for good measure.

But you know what it left me with? An insane desire to have *Pirate Cat* to do some personal photo-bombing just for me...

Aahhh! PhotoShop... I love you!

Beautiful Camille

I'm working on Camille and Kevin's wedding album presently! I've had lots of fun using some wonderful templates from Simply Sarah. (Sadly, she doesn't have the link active any longer for these.)

But today, TODAY! I decided to try my hand at some new textures from Kim Klassen (my niece, Cindy, turned me on to her blog and fabulous textures!!)   Today is TT (Texture Tuesday) and since I worked like a happy-dog in the yard (my hands DON'T HURT... my back DOESN'T HURT!) I decided I could use a little creative time playing with one of my favorite shots from Camille's wedding.  PLUS- Rita, over at CoffeeShop has out a new action that is fabulous!



What do you think? I just love it. I can see that I have a whole new creative outlet goin' on here!


TEXTURES- kk_dream, kk_autumnBurst (These are free textures when you are signed up for her Texture Lovin' List)

ACTION- CoffeeShop 2 Minute Miracle (Rita is so wonderfully generous as well. You can go to her blog to get the 2 minute miracle and read her tutorial!)

335- Holy Family

Two years ago today I started my December *Photo of the Day* journey. Little did I know that it would grow into a two-year-long project!

It has been a wonderful journey! I've never kept a consistent journal before, what a blessing, besides that it has given me a wonderful creative outlet, improve my photography and editing skills,and  have a place to write about the things I feel, to work out grief, occasionally have a vent, but mostly revel in the joy of life that has been granted to me by my loving Heavenly Father.



I thought it was only fitting to let my little Lumix marsupial-pocket-camera be the star again... she is the one I started with. This is also the original frame I used when I started. I love the feeling of going back and revisiting that start so long ago... today is the 700th day! Amazing!

226- Temple Garden Watercolor

The minute I looked at this photo on my computer is just screamed *WATERCOLOR*... so of course, I had to oblige.



I thought you might like to see the original SOOC.

221- Lily Art

When I was at the Temple on Friday I wandered the gardens and got so many wonderful shots. I've decided that I'm going to deal them out slowly and savor them instead of OD-ing all at once!

I had fun playing with some filters on this photo. I love how it turned out.

(I learned this technique from a scrapbooking magazine article by Renee Pearson which I can't find online. If you are interested I will send you the tutorial that I cut and pasted in a Word document.)



By the way... August and September are my favorite garden months. All the plants are in full bloom and splendor.

209- Dandelion

Why is it that this funny little weed makes us smile?


FONT- Albemarle Swash, ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, BRUSH- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShot_Horizontal6, FRAME- Hof3_RoundedSquare4FrameRF, TEXTURES- AllHeckBreaksLoose, Beneath the Surface2

I had a good time playing with several different textures and blending modes on this one. I even tried out some filters, but in the end opted to just stay with the textures. I love PhotoShop!

098- Quilt Design

So do you ever get to the end of the day and say, "What the heck have I done all day?" Well, I can tell you that I've been sequestered in my play-room all day long ciphering!

I've made quilts for each of my kids when they got married. (That is since I started to quilt in the mid 90's so my first three got short changed on that deal. Maybe sometime I will have to rectify that!) So with the upcoming nuptials I knew I needed to get busy.

This isn't the first quilt I've made for Camille (in fact I've lost count!) She's always had more input in the design process than the others. She tried to describe what she wanted and finally said, "You know, like the decor at P F Chang's!" Well, I didn't know! So on Tuesday she stopped by and took this photo for me.



I pulled that baby into PhotoShop and started, well, shoppin'! I just love graphic design with PhotoShop! I monkeyed and played and ciphered until my cipherer was very tired... time to take a break or two or three.

Usually when I design a quilt I just pull out the graph paper and start sketching away and scribble my notes on the side. But I knew that this one was going to be a little more complicated AND I am going to be much more distracted (boy, ya' think!), so I knew I wanted to have some pretty iron clad instructions.

So I've spent the day creating a step-by-step pattern for *Camille & Kevin's Chang Quilt*. (I could take that puppy downtown!)



I'm thinking batiks. Now that I have all my yardage ciphered I can go shopping! Yea, fabric petting (no licking in the shoppe). I love to go to the quilt shoppe, or two or three! I'll be back tomorrow with fabric samples if I am successful!

082- Mama & Bebe

This evening I spent a couple of hours working on announcements for baby Sophie. When I came upon this photo I knew it was one I wanted to play with and include.



I normally don't do a before and after-s of my photos but I want to show you the magic of PhotoShop actions. Rita at CoffeeShop.com has so many wonderful free actions. Her Baby Powder Room was my choice for this photo. One of her contributors, Morgan, recently did a great post about using this action.

So without further ado here is my before and after!



Magic isn't it?

031- PhotoShop Sky

I glanced out the window and saw this sky. My first thought was that it looked just like a PhotoShop sky... you know the kind, just right to use as a backdrop for that photo that needs a beautiful sky or as a texture layer. This one is pretty much as I saw it in the sky, but I think you will see it again here in other creations.

356- Creative Editing

Wouldn't it be nice if all photos were just perfect they way they are? Yes, I could like that. But you know what? That is not normally my luck.

But I didn't even take this photo... so what's the problem? I have an ancient, dinosaur scanner with dust streaks on the underside of the glass. We received a very nice photo from Erik and Megan of their family that I needed to scan... yeah... time for a new scanner. (BTW anyone out there know how to clean the underside of the glass on an HP Scanner?)


FONT- Albemarle Swash, BRUSHS- Holly Pack by vaia.deviantart.com ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, TEXTURES- book cover1, chaotic soul both by SkeletalMess

329- Maple Mountain *Sunrise*

You all know, by now, that I live in the wonderful Wasatch front of the Rocky Mountains. I'm tucked back in a little area called Spring Cove. I have a beautiful view of Maple Mountain out my bedroom window. I've mentioned before that it is *my* mountain. I grew up in the High Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California and mountains are just in my blood.

When I was out at Camille's school I noticed that across the lake to the SE was *MY* mountain... looking beautiful, as usual. I pulled out my trusty dSLR and snapped away but when I got home I was disappointed with what my camera had captured... it wasn't what my eyes saw!

This is why I love PhotoShop! It allows me artistic license with my photos. And today, once I got started... well, I'll just show you what my heart saw!


FRAME- SP_ShabbyBorders1_StraightShabbyBorder, FONT- Georg, Freebooters Script JOURNALING PATH- JSprague_4-squareTemplate BRUSHES- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShotFrameKit, ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, OVERLAY- Sun Shower (left), Sunrise

Here is the untouched photo... I like what my heart saw better!

304- All Hallow's Eve

As I was looking through my photos from this year I ran across this one that just begged to be the potd for All Hallow's Eve. I love all the fun things that I can do in photoshop.


BRUSHES- Hof3 Sample Kit, FONT- Papyrus ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, TEXTURES- notaclue 3, chaotic soul, scratch-n-sniff TOTD #35, scratch and itch TOTD #46 all by Skeletalmess

I remember with great fondness all my childhood years of trick or treating. We would knock doors all over town (population 1500) with NO parental supervision. It was such a different world back then. My first unhappy Halloween memory came the year that *someone* smashed my carved pumpkin!! I couldn't believe that anyone would do that!

As a mommie I made costumes for my little children each year (so some are 35+ years old). Then Gordon & I went to several Halloween parties. I've saved all of these costumes and they reside in my Halloween box in the dungeon.

I think my happiest Halloween memories are of the years that Bek and the boys would come to my house for Halloween. We'd drag out the box from the rafters (no dungeon-basement in So Cal!!) and we'd have a costume parade! Stuart's favorite thing to do was mix up the costumes. My favorite was the year he put on the kitty hood, pirate patch and turtle body and then chased the little trick or treaters down the path!

Stuart, Caden and Bek 2001

148- Just No Substitute...

There's just no substitute for a good camera (or insert the word of your choice here!) My Daddy taught me this years ago. When I was still in my mid teens he started buying me useful gifts: mostly cutting implements (bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha), scissors, knives. I still have all of them. And since he taught me how to sharpen them (but I've forgotten the trick for scissors =() they are just as sharp and useful now 40 years later. I think that taught me that sometimes you really are better off to spend a little more and then the item lasts a lifetime.

So where am I going with this? I'll tell you. You know that I have (and carry with me) my little marsupial-pocket-camera. My new dSLR is just too bulky and expensive to carry in my purse. I've thought that little MPC was better than nothing or a camera phone photo... but just barely!

EXHIBIT A



We went up to the Draper Temple to do an endowment session. When we came out there was beautiful Lone Peak covered with huge cumulus clouds and a black threatening sky. I uploaded the photo to my computer and played with it. Tweaked the lighting, added blended layers to try to brighten it, high pass filter to boost sharpness. But I am still not happy with the results. It is NOT what my eyes saw!

EXHIBIT B



Every evening this week I have gone out on the new deck to enjoy the beautiful weather. I have my chaise lounge out there and then I drag out a pillow and beach towel to make myself more comfortable. I've done some reading, eaten dinner, listened to the sounds of nature and the neighborhood and tonight did some clouds watching. When I saw these beautiful clouds hanging over Hobble Creek Canyon I came in and got my new Cannon Rebel XS, put on my 50mm lens with a polarizing filter and snapped off some photos... THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MY EYES CAN SEE!

The only *edit* I did on this was balance my lighting (it was a little underexposed) and add my watermark...

I rest my case.

096- Put out to Pasture

We are all familiar with that phrase: put out to pasture. We normally apply it to people, horses, and other animate objects. But when I saw this dilapidated old tractor I couldn't help but think that this faithful friend has also been put out to pasture.



I don't know the whole story but I'm guessing that it goes something like this:

Not too many years ago this whole area of Springville was just rural pasture lands with a few homes dotted along Canyon Rd. But as happens, cities begin to grow. In 1993 the tract where I live was built and many of the homes here are still inhabited by the original owners. But the explosion that is now called Hunter's Valley/Hidden Cove is much newer. And now there is a sea of houses where a friend my age used to drive her pony cart through the fields.

I wouldn't even know about this little lost tractor, hiding behind her old master's home, had it not been for some developer who bought up a huge hunk of land, punched through a new road and graded a bunch of huge lots for $1M homes. (Sadly for that developer the housing/economy crunch has stopped that subdivision in its tracks).

So here sits a once useful machine... I can only imagine the stories she could tell about the valley she used to cultivate, the crops she has harvested, the feed she has hauled to store for the winter, the animals, wild and domestic, that she's been friends with. And now she sits alone, forgotten and rusting.

077- CA spring

I told Rebekah this morning that I feel just a bit like Dorothy when she is sucked out of black and white Kansas and thrown right into the middle of technicolor Oz!

This is the most beautiful time of year to visit the central valley in California. Everything is growing, green and lush. Sadly in a few weeks everything will start to die of thirst and turn brown and crispy.

My first offering of the day is my bokeh macro of this sweet little yellow wildflower. Although I could partially duplicate this look with my old camera my new 50mm lens is just the pip for this kind of shot! And I LOVE it! (Frankly it was the desire to be able to take these kinds of shots that pushed me over the edge to get a dSLR camera...)


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, NRJ_SAND_BRUSHES1

The next photo is of a gnarled oak. I've always love the look of this tree and I think I like it best naked! I knew just what I wanted this to look like when I looked through the view finder, but the image needed a little creative help to get it to this state. I wish I could remember where I saw the information that a camera doesn't detect as much color variance as the human eye. But thanks to photoshop and some good editing and actions I can get really close to what the eyes see. (This one was shot with the EFS 18-55mm lens. I also got a 75-300mm lens; making three in all.)


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, (A2D)_Lomo

073- Alien

I sat down to my old-lady-can't-see-up-close-make-up-mirror and was putting on my only make-up (mascara. see... that's a real money-saver to have sensitive skin!) and saw this un-earthy glow around my pupil! EEeee-EEeee-EEeee... (Hear Psycho music!)



I knew no one would believe that I'd been taken over by those aliens from Stephenie Meyer's book if I didn't get photographic proof!! Do you suppose I am safe on the streets with all the humans around! Questionable... definitely questionable!


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, OVERLAYS- photo texture 2, JB's brick smoke-stack

045 Valentines to You

Just want to send out a Happy Valentine's greeting to all of my friends. Happy thoughts to you today. Love you!


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, My Hearts Desire

044/365

So... do you ever have one of those days when you just wake up cranky? I did today; our stupid little dog decided he was going to be restless last night and tromp all over the bed demanding to get in bed with me, instead of where he belongs on Gordon's side of the bed (he just runs too hot for me; I wake up roasting). I always can tell when I am sleep deprived because everything looks so bleak. OK rant over, that has nothing to do with today's post except to say that I still have a choice how to spend my day even when I'm tired and cranky!

I finished Sandie's *wedding ensemble* today! Whew, and yippee! I didn't want to be last minute, I don't like to work that way. Since I won't be able to get a photo of her in it for several more days (maybe even waiting until the wedding day on 3-6-9, how cool is that!) Anyway I got creative with a POTD for today. I spent at least an hour just monkeying around with the layers, papers, shadows, scalloped mat, etc. So here it is... brown and green... it doesn't get much better than that!

FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, Carrie-Stephens-SD-swirly-floral, Carrie-Stephens-SD-lime-delight

Just as I was finishing the dress photo I looked out my window (and what did I see???) but two of our darling neighborhood boys creeping around the edges of Lake Lewis. Finally one of them does *the stomp*! AHHHHhhhh... I grabbed my camera, ran downstairs and hollering,

"Don't move! Wait for me!" (I'm sure they think I am going to do... I don't know what?)

Cute little brother says, "I'm in a hurry to go to a birthday party."

"That's OK", says I. "Let me put my camera on burst... OK STOMP!!!"

Then I had to come in and call Mama and explain that those wet sneakers and pants... yeah, that's my fault! ;) I love to watch boys being boys!


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, free_high_res_texture_45