Strathmore Card Class - week 1

It's been a while since I shared something crafty. This week started a 4-week long FREE card class over at Strathmore Paper Website. This week was a lesson in pen and water color. I was going to draw a Christmas ornament, but decided that a coffee cup was easier. I was surprised how fast this was to finish... the card and envelope in under 30 minutes.







Thanks for looking!

Not Cooling.... yet...

Cooling Trend!

Hot Hot Hot!

A Girl needs her Accessories

The next step is to setup my Galaxy Tab for travel journaling. Up to now I've been using a traditional paper journal with colored pens. That works, but I still need to type my journaling in when I get home to post to my blog or to create a photo book. It's better to just type it in to begin with, right?

So the first off I need some ACCESSORIES... like a keyboard. I can't journal using the virtual keyboard. That thing drives me nuts! I need a real keyboard that I can touch and goes click, click, click when I type. It was easy finding a keyboard. I just jumped on Amazon and here is what I found. It's cute... it makes my 7" tablet look like a micro-mini laptop... and better yet, it fits in my purse!



Next I needed a journal app. This was a lot harder.. I tried searching for "journal," "diary," "notepad," and "Word." I tried several of the top rated ones and even one called "Travel Journal." As with my experience with other Android apps. They didn't all work well; some didn't work at all; some didn't work with the bluetooth keyboard; and some didn't allow me any way to get the text off the tablet for blogging or photo book creation. Finally in my frustration I loaded a non-free app called Write.

Write is designed for students to take notes in class, but it works perfectly for what I wanted in a journal app. I can start a new entry or add to existing entries. It works great with the new bluetooth keyboard, and it has built in sharing with the Blogger app. It doesn't have spell check though... none of the apps that I tried had spell check. Spell check must take up too much memory on a tablet.

The last thing I need... in the words of Tim Allen... is MORE POWER! On our camping vacation next month, I don't know how much availability we will have to a power outlet. So, back to Amazon and I found this little cutie.



It also doubles as a flashlight, so it's perfect for camping. And BONUS... it's PINK! I tried charging my tablet with it, but it only charged from just about dead to 50%. I'm going to get one for Jim's iPad too, but I'm going to get him one with larger capacity... and his can be blue :oD

The last thing I need is a File Manager. I can't stand not know where all my files are! I need to be able to move them, copy them, delete them, and rename them... In other words, I need to show this android device who's boss. So I found one called, not surprisingly... File Manager.

File Manager let's me control the what's and where's of the files on my tablet. What more can a girl ask for.

So I'm all SET! Bring on the week long camping trip... I'm ready!

More Android Fun...

FUN?!!!... Frustrating is more like it...

I figured out that Android Apps are a "free-for-all," and not all of them are free. I've tried many apps trying to figure out how to stream line my work flow. I'm getting into the Six Sigma process design, haha.

Anyway, the only things I use my Galaxy Tab for is 1) Reading eBooks 2) Posting on my Blog.

READING

Reading eBooks was a no brainer... the Kindle app took care of it all. It even works with most of my library eBooks. I have the Overdrive app for the library eBooks not borrowed from Kindle, but I haven't had to use it yet.

BLOGGING

Posting to my blog was not so easy. I tried many apps... different cameras, different photo editors, different journal apps. Some paid for, and some not... and many many apps that did not work or only partially worked. Thought I would like one app to do it all, no such thing existed. I needed a camera app, photo editor app, blogger app, and other apps that I didn't know I needed until I tried them as you will see if you keep reading:

I several different cameras... the popular Zoom FX, Paper Camera, and others that add special effect or borders. But, I keep going back to the camera app that came with the tablet. It's easy to use. I can zoom in and out using the volume buttons, there is a timer, burst mode, and I can record video with it. It's has everything that I need in a camera, plus it saves my pictures to my SD card instead of tablet memory. The other camera apps have been removed from the tablet.

I have tried many many many different photo editors until I settled on Aviary. It's easy to use. I can fix the image quality, add frames, crop, add text, and it can share with Blogger. That's what I need 98% of the time. One of the editors I tried was the very popular Instagram app. I like my pictures clear, bright and colorful. Near as I can tell, Instagram is for making your pictures look old. They do have a great community, but I can't have my family going to multiple sites to see what I want to show them.... I think that's just rude.

The last thing I needed was the Blogger app. The Blogger app lets me create a new post (with text and pictures) and publish it to my blog. Simple, straight forward and easy.

Now I can post simple text and pictures to my blog! Hooray!

So here is my blogging process:

1) Take a picture. I can use the camera app or take the picture through Aviary.
2) Edit the picture in Aviary.
3) Select sharing in Aviary and post straight to Blogger.

THE NEXT STEP

There are some fun apps out there that let me "play" with my pictures. Here are my favorites:

Instead of posting an entire line of photos to my blog, I'll post a collage of photos. The first collage maker I tried was Photo Grid. It did everything I wanted, so I didn't even try any other app.

InstaPlace along with InstaWeather are fun they let me add some stylish text over the photos marking the place, time and weather. However, they require wifi to work. So even though I have GPS location turned on, it still won't tag the photo without wifi. A total bust for camping. I added the InstaPlace information on the camping photo in the post below after I got home (no wifi in the campground).

So here is my blogging process if I want to use any of these extra apps:

1) Take a picture. I can use the camera app or take the picture through Aviary.
2) Edit the picture in Aviary.
3) Save the picture to my SD card.
4) Open the picture in the app of choice.
5) Edit the picture (create collage or add location text)
6) Save the picture to the SD card.
7) Post the picture using blogger.

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to get some basic use out of their new android device.

Test new Android app

How do I get rid of the virutual keayboard? I'm using the blue toothe keyboard. Hit ESC o to remove the keyboard. Spell check? I need spellcheck! ARRGH!

At least I figured out how to post a photo!

Camping weekend

Greetings from Silent Valley!

August Card Club Kit Reveal

Welcome to the Club Mojo August card kit reveal! We have 10 ladies in the club this year... 10!!! These are all wonderful ladies who I've had the good fortune to meet at Scrappin' Mojo.


It's time for our Club reveal. This month's kit was put together by Jan! I LOVE the soft shabby look of this kit, and this kit is HUGE! Wait until you see all the talent and inspiration! Here are mine:



I had this Christmas tag sitting partially done on my table for weeks. When I got this kit inspiration struck! I used a frosty colored brad, pearly button and white trim to finish up the tag.



After the tag was finally off my table, I dug into all the embellies... and there were a lot of them!



This card focused more on the gorgeous patterned paper. I added stamped sentiments, embellies from the kit, and some cute metal embellies that I got from Terri:



I couldn't wait to get to this project. I used my new Julie Nutting stamp to create this tag. I added a pop of color by using scraps of beautiful patterned paper that I got from Kim.



This last one, I used the die-cuts from Niki's July Kit, added patterned paper and a cute sentiment from Jan's kit, and waala... a gift card holder!



I used up almost every scrap of this kit, I love it so much!
That's it for me this month! Be sure to checkout the creations from the other ladies:

Beth - bethiejs.blogspot.com
KimP - Mojo Card Kit Reveal
Diane - mumblebeedesigns.blogspot.com
Terri - jazzyscrappertidbits.blogspot.com
Mary - justanotefrommary.blogspot.com
KimO - Mojo Card Kit Reveal
Jan - Mojo Card Kit Reveal
Niki - ellenaspaperhouse.blogspot.com
Stella - http://myscrapbliss.blogspot.com/

Thanks for dropping by!

Nothin' nothin'

It's been quite a while since I've blogged, but really there has been nothing going on.

Chris is out of summer school, and is waiting for Fall semester to start. Cheryl is in summer school. Jim went camping twice without me. I'm super busy at work and too tired to do anything when I get home.

So what to blog about... nothing much, but did you know that today is National Zucchini Day? In fact every day of the year is assigned an American National Food Holiday.

Cheryl was born on Bean Day... somehow that seems fitting.
Jim was born on Irish Coffee day. It doesn't seem right that is an AMERICAN food holiday.

Shellfish and Snails get their day too...
Chris was born on National Baked Scallops Day.
Grandma and Papa were married on National Ecargot Day.

How sweet it is...
Papa was born on National Gingersnap Day, and Grandma was born on National Sugar Cookie Day.

Jim and I were married on "Grab Some Nuts Day" ... enough said there...

And I was born on National Parfait Day. I don't remember ever having a parfait. Maybe for my birthday this year :oD

So what day is your special day?

http://www.tfdutch.com/foodh.htm

Camping

Serano Creek campground. Posted from my tablet.

Here's more photos now that I'm home....

Our camp site.



My camping buddies.... Jim....



Jena-girl....



And Jena's friends... Can you see them?



Chip and Dale.



It was a nice two days... time to go home: