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.

Photoshop Class Day 2

It's day 2 of my two week Photoshop class. Today's lesson was on how to use brushes (which means I can do frames and word art in the color of my chosing). Here is my homework for the day!

This class is perfect for my busy life... Watching the video and finishing up my homework took me less than half and hour. It's FUN too!!!

Photoshop Class Day 1

I signed up for that free Photoshop Class that I posted about HERE. I have Photoshop Elements (PSE), but I don't use it because it's just different enough from Photoshop 7.0 to frustrate me! I'm hoping that this class will get me up and using PSE in a couple weeks.

I just finished my first class today and here is my homework from Lesson 1: A photo with a frame and word art!

This is a photo from Kona a couple of summers ago:

Weekend Sports report

This is the last game of Chris's soccer career. The game has gotten rougher and rougher as he's gotten older... checkout out a snip of the game this weekend by clicking on the image below:

He hurts where landed on his hip, and I'm sure he's going to be sore tomorrow. That's the hardest take down I've seen him take.

He came out of the game right after that. I wanted to check on him. But, Cheryl said it's uncool to have your mommy checking on you. Jim and Papa checked if he was okay. He was... in fact he was okay enough to go back in after a short rest. The tournament this weekend was a disaster... Three losses this weekend, 0-1, 0-5, and 0-1. With the red card in the first game, that left the team with -3 points as their weekend total.

As I said, that was Chris's last game. He's decided to give up AYSO to concentrate on his running. He wants an alternate Varsity spot at CIF this year (assuming that the school makes CIF again this year)... Good luck with the running training, Chris!

Friday-5

It's a wonderful Friday! The start of a week of vacation. We leave for Mexico on Monday for FIVE days of fun in the sun! Can you guess what next week's Friday-5 will be on? hehehe....

Today's FIVE are five photos of flowers growing in my yard:

This first one is the hanging pot in my front yard. YES, I finally replanted that pot (to the neighbor's relief, lol!), and it's coming in nicely!

The day lilies that I transplanted last fall are blooming GREAT!

I love the hyacinths this time of year! All winter they look like dead sticks, but they really put on a show in the spring and all through summer.

Not the greatest photo. I love the colors in these columbine!

Look Mom! The orchid you gave me is blooming! The first orchid that I didn't kill. Mom was right, they are indestructible!

Thanks for checking out my FIVE!
Have a great weekend!

PTI June Blog Hop

Welcome Blog Hoppers! The engineering company that I work for has contracts with most of the world's airline companies. As a result our building is decorated with airline travel posters. This is a United Airline poster for Hawaii. The unusual color combo always catches my eye when I walk by it.

I just knew I wanted to try and use those colors together! Here is a Father's Day card that I created using Fancy pants patterned paper and the Star Prints stamp set from PTI.

Put it together with a pretty homemade box and it made a very nice gift for my dad... Happy Papa Day!

A little Father's Day fun

Not only was it Father's Day today, but we also celebrated my niece's birthday and her 8th grade graduation. She's getting old so fast! She's starting high school in the fall at the same school that I went to for high school. Yep, the old alma mater is still standing... I think it should have reached historical building status by now. LOL!




Here is the promised video of my nephew taking a dip in the pool. Click on the image below to bring up the video.

As you can see he had a little help from his dad and his uncle. He's such a good sport!

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Happy Father's Day!

I want to wish a Happy Father's day to the special dads in my life...

my dad:


and my kids' dad:



Happy Father's day to all the special Dads out there!!!

Happy 5-Friday!

Welcome to the end of a very very busy week! School is finally out, YAHOO!!! Chris is so happy to finally be out of school. Cheryl's been out for a month already, she starts back at college summer school next week. Jim has started his part-time summer route... Welcome summer vacation!!!

It's still Friday... just barely... and here are my Friday-5! I noticed today that I have five library books on my coffee table waiting to be read.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Airman by Eoin Colfer

The Ironhand (Stoneheart Trilogy, Book Two) by Charlie Fletcher

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments, Book Three) by Cassandra Clare

The Awakening (Darkest Powers, Book 2) by Kelley Armstrong

I hope you enjoyed my Friday-5... See you next Friday, if not before!

Now I've gotta get reading so I can finish all these before they are due, LOL!

Friday-5

Some of my friends participate in the Thursday-13, where they make of list of 13 random items on their blogs on Thursday. My friends Beth and Mara participate in Friday Favorites, where they make a list of their favorite things on Friday.

Well, I like the randomness of the Thursday 13 but I think 13 items are just too many! I like the Friday Favorites, but I want to list more than just my favorite things.... So, I've come up with my own blogging list called Friday-5! Hmmmm... now I think I need a blinkie. Oh well, that's something else I don't have time to do, LOL!

I've had music on my mind more than usual this week (probably because I've been without it). I went running at lunch on Monday and got caught in the rain... my poor little MP3 player didn't like that one bit! Yep, it gave up the ghost... I miss it. I ordered a new one from Amazon (with twice as much memory, YIPEE!) and I'm impatiently waiting for its arrival.

With music on my mind... here are five of my best running songs:

1.Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

2. Beautiful Day - U2

3. Fame - Irene Cara

4. Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf

5. Dreams - Van Halen