My weight loss!

Thursday 30 July 2009

From Screen to Scrap!

Even more exciting news! My friend Shazza is starting up her own challenge blog!!!!!!!!! Called.......wait for it..........


From Screen To Scrap!


Appearing on a screen near you soon!

This is going to be a very exciting scrapbooking challenge site with the inspiration for the challenges coming from the movies!!! ( hint in the title!)

And guess what! Shazza has asked little ol' me to be on the Design Team! Hows about that for a surprise! There are some really talented scrapbookers on the design team so get ready to be inspired and amazed!

We are going live tomorrow August 1st so please come on over and have a look at From Screen to Scrap

Come on all you cardmakers out there! Why not try your hand at scrapbooking, it's just like making a big card with photos on! Remember all the times you had lovely embellishments but couldn't fit them onto a card well scrapbooking is the answer! And you get to keep it too!

look forward to seeing you there!

Ali

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Bloomin Computer!

Hi guys!
Wouldn't you know it! Just got into my digi scrapbooking, Joined two web sites I was really enjoying and having a great time learning loads of new stuff on my course at Jessica Sprague and my computer goes and conks out!!!!! I was so upset and was wondering where I was going to get the money to fix it when i realised it is still under warranty! Woo Hoo!!!! So it is away being repaired and I am getting withdrawal symptoms! But hopefully it will be back by the end of the week!
This is just a quick post from my local internet cafe to let my friends know I haven't deserted them by choice!

Talking of friends, Congratulations Shazza on becoming the new curator of the artastic challenge blog. It is a great scrapbooking site that has a monthly challenge with a piece of art as the inspiration, if you are into art or scrapbooking have a look and check it out! I know Shazza is going to be a great curator of the site. She already has her own great blog Shazza's Craft Connection so I can't wait to see what she comes up with for the artastic challenge blog be seeing you on there soon Shazza!

Sunday 12 July 2009

Lesson 6

Today's lesson was about TTV effects, which are effects that make it look like the photo has been taken through the viewfinder of an old camera. (I think!) Anyway the effects are great!
Here is todays photo.
Original - Another photo taken at West Kirby beach!

Altered PhotoThis photo was aged using techniques from Lesson 3, then the TTV frame was added and blended, then last but not least a frame brush was used to add the swirly bits.

TTV frame is by Tymcode at Flickr and The round frame brush is from Hof 3 in the course materials from Jessica sprague

Super Duper Bonus Challenge Round

This is another challenge using a lot of the techniques learned this week! We have to use the texturing techniques, add a frame and also use the masking technique from Lesson 4.
Here goes!
The original - Me flying Zoe's kite at the beach at West Kirby near my Mum's House.

The altered

Subtle grungs and Old Film textures from http://lostandtaken.com/ Brown paper texture and Paper frame from http://www.jessicasprague.com/

Project 3

In this project we had to use the techniques from lesson 5 and add a frame. So here is my attempt for this project.

The original

The altered

Subtle Grunge and old film texture from Lost and Taken. Brown Paper texture and Paper frame from Jessica Sprague

Saturday 11 July 2009

Lesson 5 - Textues

In this Lesson we learned how to add different textures to our photos and blending them to create different effects. Another great effect that is so easy when you are shown how to do it! I am really enjoying these Lessons from Jessica Sprague.

Here is the original photo, taken when out walking near my sisters' house in Cumbria.


And here is the same photo after adding the ageing textures!

Textures used were Subtle grunge and old film from Lost and Taken and a brown paper texture from Jessica Sprague.

Just saved the dinner!

I had promised the girls I would cook stewed chicken this week so on Wednesday bought the chicken, cleaned and seasoned it ready to cook on Thursday evening. Thursday came and I went straight from work to visit my friend Janet in hospital, stayed longer than expected and got home too late to cook the chicken as I had to get up early for work the next day. So Friday comes. I had promised janet that I would get her a bit of shopping and take it up to the hospital after work, as the food is apparently awful! Staff meeting after work had to move to the pub next door as the Dance group that uses the building after us were due to arrive any minute! Not bad I think to myself! A quick drink to brighten up the meeting and start off the weekend! Anyway four drinks and a couple of hours later I suddenly remembered janet's shopping!! So off I went! Half way round the shops I looked at my list and the bottom half had fallen off!!!! So I had to try and remember what was on it, with my slightly addled brain! Hopefully I got it all! Got to the hospital 20 minutes before visiting finished! Got stuck on 4th floor as the lift had a funny turn! Luckily it only lasted a couple of minutes and it started again! Thank God! Got to the ward hot and bothered with minutes to spare! Janet was pleased with her shopping and I had done my good deed for the day! Got home about 10 and remembered the bloomin' chicken in the fridge! So I started the stew. Browned the chicken, chopped the veg added the stock and left it to simmer. Started to watch the TV. Caught the last bit of Big Brother eviction! OMG I didn't expect Chris to go! I thought it would be cave man Marcus! What is the world coming to?
Anyway back to the dinner! Woke up on the couch at 3.15 am with a start! Heard sizzling from the Kitchen and remembered the stew! The last of the liquid was just about to evaporate! turned off the heat, boiled the kettle and added a some more water! Just managed to catch it in time! Hope it is still ok for tonights dinner!
Moral of this story? Don't cook when you're knackered!

Lesson 4 - Photo Masks

Hi Guys!
Been very busy over last couple of days! Visiting my friend in Hospital after work and not getting home till about 10pm, when I left the house at 7.15am. A couple of long days meaning I have missed a couple of days of my course over at Jessica Sprague. So today will be a big catch up day! Here is my lesson 4 photo. In this lesson we learned how to use photo masks! This is great for me as I have purchased some photo masks from Gotta Pixel and was hoping one day to find out how to use them!!!!!!!!! Well now I know and how easy it is too! Fantastic tutorials on this course show you step by step video of what to do! It has been very easy to follow! I am so glad I signed up for this course and I love the Adobe Photoshop elements 7. I so want to buy the full version after my 30 day free trial! Another thing to add to my wishlist!

Anyway back to Lesson 4, here is my photo with an added grunge edge

Grunge Photo Mask from Jessica Sprague.

Thursday 9 July 2009

Lesson 3

Another day another Lesson over at Jessica Sprague. Todays lesson was how to age your photo and then add hand tinted sections. Great effects! Surprisingly easy when you're told what to do!
This is my attempt at today's Lesson with the original photo so you can see the difference I hope!

Normal
Aged Tinted Once again the frame is a brush out of the course materials by Hof3

Wednesday 8 July 2009

Lesson 2

Wow! I am loving this new course at Jessica Sprague.
Today we learned how to use brushes. Really like digital stamps, only you can undo it if you get it wrong! Can't believe how easy Jessica made it seem! I hope I can carry on tomorrow with some more practice.
Here's what I did today.
In this first photo I kept the brushes black cos I quite liked the effect.





We were also taught to change the colour of the brushes so i used colours from the photo in this try. I like both versions. not sure which one I like best! Indecisive Libran!!!!!!


Brushes were course material from Hof3

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Project 1

I have started another online course. This time a freebie from Jessica Sprague. It is all about framing and altering your photo's. She teaches her classes using photoshop or photoshop elements. so I have downloaded the 30 day free trial of Adobe photoshop elements to do this course then I will try and transfer this knowledge to my Corel Paint shop pro programme! If this is too hard I will have to save up to buy the full Adobe programme.

Anyway our first project was to add a frame and wordart to a photo. I went through all my Digi downloads and finally came up with this...........

This is a photo from last year.It was a cold day and we went for a walk along Parkgate Prom. They have a famous ice cream shop there and we couldn't resist buying ice creams even in the freesing cold! Here are Gemma and Zoe showing off their ice creams.

Frame from ShopAHolic kit by Sweet digi Scraps bought from GottaPixel

Word Art from Family and Friends word art kit by Nicole Young from Digital scrapbook place

Sunday 5 July 2009

Ready Set scrap Challenge

This is my first attempt for a challenge on Ready Set Scrap.

It was supposed to be for the Word Challenge set by Kristi Brandis.


For this month's word challenge Kirsti would like you to create an item using the following word

"SPECIAL"

and I want to see layering

at least one rubon

and the colour orange in there as well.

Can be any scrapped item



As you can see I forgot to add something orange, so this attempt doesn't really count but I like it anyway. As this is a digital page I used the word 'Special' as my rubon, the photo was layered onto a white matte.

I used the 'Dive in' kit by Kristmess from the Gotta Pixel Store

scrapbook pages

My rainbow

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

I am Blue- it's not as bad as it sounds

You Are A Blue Girl
Relationships and feelings are the most important things to you.
You are empathetic and accepting - and good at avoiding conflict.
If someone close to you is in pain, it makes you hurt as well.
You try to heal the ones you love with your kind and open heart.

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Cards