It's Blog Hop Time!

Welcome to the Scrapbook Deals for You blog hop! The Summer challenge is to create a layout, card or project using a sketch. There are a lot of sketch sites out there.
I picked this sketch from Ali Edwards. I love her clean, simple style. I used one of the photos that I created during the Photoshop class and created this layout! I really like how it all came together!

To see the whole blog hop list, go to the SD4U MB.

Friday-5 : Obon!

It's the end of July already! I can't believe that summer is almost over. It's Friday and it's an early Friday-5 for a change! Today I'm sharing some photos from the last weekend's Obon.

Here's my mom and all the kids, decked out to dance!

... a little dancing action. There was a good turnout... three circles of dancers!

Here are the BIG kids, Chris, Cheryl and Hana, getting ready for the Fan Dance.

Jim decked out, LOL!

On the way home!
Cheryl is not going to be happy with me for this one, hehehe...

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

Crafty Share

It's been a while since I've done a papercraft share. As I was downloading photos from my camera tonight, I came across photos of the two cards that I made for my mom's and dad's birthdays. Here they are:


I used copic markers to color the images. I'm not quite ready to break out the coloring books, but coloring with these markers is a lot of FUN!

Stay tuned! Coming this weekend is the Scrapbook Deals for you Summer Blog Hop!

Happy 5-Friday!

We are now officially in the middle of summer and this is the time of year where we usually go to Kauai. I love Kauai! The air has a wonderful sweet smell, it's beautiful and green, and I have family there. It's a great place to rest and unwind... eat and be lazy... hike and swim... Here are five of my favorite shots from summers past.

OC Fair 5K - Opening Day

We finally have the results from the OC Fair 5K! Chris and I both have new PRs!
Chris's time was 20.10. He came in 3rd in his age group and 21/625 overall (19th in men) that means only two women came in before him.
I came in at 24:03 (that's more than 5 minutes off my old PR). I came in 2nd in my age group, and 87/625 overall (23rd in women). The first place woman in my age group beat me by 2 seconds...

Unfortunately, they gave prizes to only the top three overall finishers, or Chris and I would have ended up with prizes :o)

This is the only photo I have of the race. You can see me pretty clearly. Chris is just to the left of me in the photo wearing an orange shirt and orange hat (you can just see the top of his head and a little of his shoulder).

New Classes at Jessica Sprague

I'm really excited about the new classes at Jessica Sprague! After taking my last class, I got a 20% off coupon that I put toward two more classes. In the first class, we'll finish a 20 page digital album in 20 days. I have an album I've been wanting to work on. This will be a great way for me to get a start on it! I was hoping to finish it before Christmas!

This class is all about digital brushes. I'm actually pretty good with brushes, so I was going to give this class a miss. But, since I had the 20% off coupon, I decided to go for it. The last class was so much FUN! I'm in the mood for more and don't want to wait until the end of August for the other class to start. The brush class starts in just one more week!

Happy Monday!

And what a beautiful Monday it was! Sunny, HOT, and just an all around good day :)

And it was a good day for changes, hehehe... Chris says that bleached blond is so LAST YEAR! The new color is ORANGE, LOL! Jim stayed home from work today. He worked on Chris's hair, after Chris got home from summer school. (BTW, Chris is getting an A in geometry! Way to go Chris!)

Chris LOVES his hair! He wants to get it done again before school pictures so that his hair will be orange on his ID card... well, that will liven up his portrait, that's for sure!

Photoshop Class Day 13

Yesterday's class was an extension of Friday's class. Instead of a three photo storyboard, it's a nine photo layout. The size of this one is 8"x8", at least this one will print on our printer. I don't know where to get Thursday's 7"x14" storyboard printed.

These photos are from our trip to Hawaii last summer. I'm working on a photo book of our 2008 trips. This will be one of the pages in the book.

This is our last day of instruction. The very last class (which is today) is just another test. I haven't logged onto the site yet to take it.

Registration for Jessica's new classes starts tomorrow. I'll post again tomorrow to remind you! If this class was any indication, the new classes will be GREAT!

Friday-5... 5K Mud Run!!!

Here are promised photos for the mud run. It was less than exciting... I mean the mud run AND the photos. I didn't marry my husband for his photography skills, that's for sure, lol!

It was HOT, it was CROWDED, it was CRAZY! Every time we got to an obstacle, there was a huge backup of people. I ran with Cheryl, and Chris took off with the front pack... there's no holding that guy back. He even admitted that he's too competitive. It drives him crazy to have anyone pass him.

Here we are before the race. We couldn't find the staging area, so we waited at the starting line.

Here's Chris going by. You can see one of the mud pits behind him.

Here's me... or at least half of me.

Here's Cheryl. She ran the entire way (except of course where the group came to a dead stop.)

Here's our after photo. You might be wondering why Chris isn't muddy... well, he fell in crossing the lake.

There were photographers on the course so maybe they'll post some photos of the race. If I find some good ones of us, I'll post them later.

Maybe I'll feel different about it in a week or so, but to sum it up in a nutshell, "That was kind of FUN, let's NOT do it again..."

I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Photoshop Class Day 12

No Friday-5 today... I'll post my 5 photos from the mud run tomorrow!

The class is almost over, BooHoo! I'm really enjoying this class. I read on Jessica's blog that the next class will be a 20-paged digital book completed in 20 days. I'm definitely going to take that one! It's supposed to start at the end of summer. I'll keep an eye out for the registration and let you all know.

Today's lesson is on storyboards. I loved the clean professional look! Can you just image these printed out and framed?




Note: FONT - Renaissance

Photoshop Class Day 11

Today we learned how to use layer masks to mask off colored areas of a photo. I've done this before, but I used a duplicate layer and erased the areas I wanted colored. The teacher said that this works much better because it's easier to fix mistakes. I don't think that's true... with the undo key, I can fix ANYTHING! LOL!

I took this photo of my daughter and my niece last summer. They are showing off a few mountain apples that grow in Kauai.

NOTE:
Hue/Saturation layer - hue:35 saturation:5
Paint black on the Hue/Saturation layer to show the color underneath.
Add punch to a B&W photo - Add a levels adjustment layer and move sliders. move left slider to right, move center slider to left, move right slider to left.

This is your chance to go to Mars!

How fun is this?!!!
Enter your name, and it will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!

Photoshop Class Day 10

Is it day 10 all ready? I've learned so much! Textures, clipping masks, frames, brushes, text, adjustment layers... Here it is all put together in one lesson!

This is a photo that we took on our cruise to Ensenada. It's such a grey photo (it was a grey day). But look how beautiful it is now!

NOTE:
Create clipping mask using the rounded rectangle tool.
Font: Adler, Porcelain
Textures: Brown-paper-Texture, grungepaper2_by_fudgegraphics
Remember you can set blending modes to brushes: soft light, overlay, multiply

Photoshop Class Day 9

This is a cool technique! It's a way to darken the edges of a photo, leaving the center bright. That way any distracting backgrounds can be muted, bringing your eye to the main subject of the photo.

Here is the before photo:

And here is the after photo:

The look is very subtle, but it does make a difference. The background of the photo drops further into the background. I tried this on a bright, colorful background and it didn't work as well. It's much better with a background that will wash out by darkening it.

NOTE: Edge Burn
Create levels adjustment layer. Move middle slidger to .62 (right).
Black shows what is beneath. White hides what is beneath.
Use gradient tool. FG:black, BG:white. Selcect feathered circle.
Set GRADIENT mode (not layer mode) to Multiply. Click on center and drag to outside.
Use brush tool to color black on the adjustment layer to brighten areas.
(increase/decrease effect by changing level layer adjustment or changing opacity of the layer.)

Photoshop Class Day 8

What happened to Day 7, you ask? Well, Day 7 was test day... and I scored a 100%! YAHOO! Today's lesson was on Typography. Using type on PSE is just like my old PS7 program, so I took my spare time today and added: a clipping mask, an adjustment layer, a texture layer, and text...

This is a photo from Chris's 2009 track season. This quote by Steve Prefontaine is one of his favorites:

The only race pace is suicide pace and today is a good day to die.

NTOE: Font KarbinE

Photoshop Class Day 6

Today's class was on replicating a TTV look. She never did say what TTV stands for but it's a worn, faded look. Photographers will actually take photographs (often using a macro lens and a light blocking device) through the viewfinder of an old camera. The result is a photo with blackened edges, distortion, scuffs and scratches and marks - pretty much what we've been looking for all our lives, right? ;o)

Here is a beautiful photo of my mom that I scanned into the computer. Why anyone would want to grunge up a beautiful photo is a total mystery to me.

Here is the image after applying the TTV filter and some brushes... I have to admit that I like the look!



NOTE: Adding TTV Texture
Most old cameras took photos as squares, so we'll be cropping square for authenticity. :)
Now add either a vintage desaturated look, OR a sepia-tone look using the instructions in Day 3's lesson.
Open and add your TTV texture to your image, resize as needed so the black edges go all the way to the edge of the image.
Set your TTV layer to Multiply.

Friday-5 (on Saturday)

Well, I just finished going for a run. WHEW! It's 96F out today, hot, Hot, HOT! Here is my promised Friday-5. I'm so proud of myself! I even edited the photos using my new Photoshop Elements program, YIPEE!

Here they are... the promised photos of our trip! It was hard to limit myself to just five. I have a TON of photos! LOL!

Here we are still in Long Beach, exploring the ship, getting ready to leave. Look at my hair! I'm so in need of a haircut!

Here is the ship, Carnival Paradise. It seems small when we're on it, but standing next to it at dock like this, it's like standing next to a huge condo complex!

Snorkeling in the Catalina Marine Preserve... There were SO MANY FISH! No colorful tropicals (except the Garibaldi). The water was FREEZING! Brrrr.....

Now this is the life, kayaking! I LOVE kayaking! We took a bus to Bufadora, rented a kayak and paddled to the Bufadora Blow Hole. Look at the water BLOW! I think it's bigger than the Poipu Spouting Horn, but it's hard to tell. I've only seen the Spouting Horn from the top of the cliff.

I had to put this one in! This is the first time that I've dance with my husband since our wedding! I dragged him out of his seat during the dinner show. I knew he wouldn't refuse with all the other people at the table watching him, hehehe...

It was so nice to get away, even for just a short while. I paid for it this week though... it was insanely busy at work! I'm so glad it's weekend!

Photoshop Class Day 5

I had such a busy day yesterday! I spent over 11 hours at work and was wiped out when I got home. So, I took yesterday's photoshop class this morning. (Aren't online self-paced classes great? :o)

Today's class is on textures. This is a totally new technique for me! It's a beautiful look for the right photo. I can't see using this technique on anything except landscapes.

This is a scan of a photo that we took on our honeymoon in New Zealand. The road was completely clogged with sheep, lol!

Well, I missed my Friday-5 for the second week in a row... bad me... I'm going to go through my cruise photos and make it a Saturday-5... Maybe.

NOTE: Adding Texture
Make photo black and white
Open texture 2, brown-paper-texture, subtlegrunge5
(Best blending layers to use soft light, overlay or multiply)
Soft light is lightest.
Overlay is medium.
Multiply is darkest.
Group with photo and set all texture layers to soft light.

Photoshop Class Day 4

Today's lesson is on clipping masks. I'm so glad that this was covered because I use this all the time in my old Photoshop program! Using a clipping mask you can reroute the edge of a photo. In this case, we used a grungy edge:

I took this photo on our trip to the Catalina Botanical Gardens. I didn't know if my friend Mary had ever seen a prickly pear cactus. I love how beautiful and lacy they are! They have beautiful yellow flowers too... these are just ready to burst into bloom!

NOTE: Clipping Mask
Mask layer goes under the photo layer.
Hold ALT key and click on line between the two layers. Right click to group.

Copic Candy

I wanted to share about a blog giving away some stamps and copics. This lady is a great copic artist and I've been stalking her blog for a few weeks now. Go check it out and become a blog follower!

Chrissy's Art and Heart

Photoshop Class Day 3

Today's lesson was on adjustment layers and blending modes. We used them to create a vintage look photo. Here is my original photo.

Here is my photo after it was adjusted, blended, cropped, and embellished with a frame and some brushes. I think the reason I didn't get a real good washed out vintage look because the colors on this photo are too bright, but I think the look is interesting. What I was really anxious to use was the red-eye fixer! It was so easy! I don't know how I lived without out it!



NOTE: Vintage Hand Tinted Look
Use Hue/Saturation layer (1) (half white/black circle). Set saturation to 50-60.

Use Hue/Saturation layer (2) again. Click colorize checkbox. Set hue to 35. Set saturation 20.

Set blending mode to Hue/Saturation layer (2) to soft light.

Hand tint photo, add rose on cheeks. Add a new layer. Select a soft edge brush. Select pink cd5a5a. Paint. Set blending mode to soft light. Reduce opacity to 45.