Last year I made my 365 using Gina’s LIFE 365 - TOOL BOX Collection, learning digital scrapbooking as I went.  I was elated with the pages I was creating but the amount of time put into the project was just too much. I got lackadaisical about the project around late March.  Then, I noticed that we could get the Hodge Podge kits free if we uploaded our pages.  Well, that got me going again–free product, you bet!!

This year I decided that I would just put my efforts into other digital projects. Well, my daughter, who lives half-way across the country, thought it would be fun to have her own 365 book. We could do it as a team effort; she would take all the pictures and do the journaling, and I would create the pages.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit to this at first, when along came Gina’s 2010 Sweet & Simple Pages. What a breeze! All you have to do is insert your photos and add your journaling, presto-chango, you are done. 

Since the Sweet & Simple Pages are stacked templates, they also give you plenty of wiggle room to add your own creativity.  Notice the original and the simple changes I made for the page to fit our needs. I just rotated a picture, added a few elements and words, highlighted text, removed the stitching, and spiffed it up with a brush stroke. 

 It has been a super team effort.  I get to see the day-to-day activities in my daughter’s life, and she gets a pretty book-a great deal for both of us.

So, if you are getting the 365 doldrums, or your time is at a premium with vacations and all, remember to check out the Sweet and Simple Pages.  They are a lifesaver!!

Also, remember to upload those pages.  The new releases are 20% off at the beginning of each month and you get an extra coupon for an additional 20% off the new Sweet and Simple products just for uploading your pages to the gallery and forum.  What a deal. Check out the forum for more information.

Happy Scrapping,

Iowan

Hi!  Photoshop Elements is a great, inexpensive program for photo editing and scrapbooking, but it does have limitations.  But sometimes, those missing features aren’t really missing - they’re just hidden - and if you know the right tricks, you can use those features after all!

One such feature that I know is hidden in PSE, but actually is available for our use, is text justification (formatting your text so that the left and right edges line up).  Head on over to this thread in the Weedpatch Tutorials to learn the trick for justifying your text in PSE.

Hi there everyone, it’s tutorial time here again. This was supposed to be on the blog yesterday, but I must apologise as our house is still in painting turmoil and my internet had to be disconnected temporarily and it caused a little hitch. Not sure what the problem was, but now my emails still aren’t downloading. Will have to get on the phone about that today.

I have a fun tutorial you can use on your photos to add just a little something different. Hope you enjoy it.

This tutorial is how to de-saturate your photos, but using selective colour. In other words, you still retain certain colours whilst de-saturating (greying) others. It often results in an old-fashioned vintage feel in your photo. I think it’s fun to do, so I thought I’d share it with you.

For example :

DOWNLOAD the tutorial here.

Chat soon.

elcome to our first PPC for May. In my part of the world, Autumn has settled in really well and we were recently away down in the Cape in a small village called Franschhoek. (pronounced Fransh hook) This little town is really worth a visit if you’re ever down in Cape Town. Only 40 minutes out of Cape Town, it boasts a few of the top restaurants in the world and has the most gorgeous little shops to potter around. It is also situated in one of the main wine making regions of our country so you have an array of picturesque vineyards to visit too.

When I packed on Friday morning, I obviously made sure my faithful camera was the first thing to go into my carry-on luggage. We were going to a wedding and I wanted to make sure I could take a few pics at the wedding and of the gorgeous countryside. Well, would you believe, we were asked not to take cameras to the wedding? Perhaps you have experienced this request before, but I never have. I don’t often take a camera, only if it is a really special wedding. And this one was. The setting was beautiful, and knowing the bride, I knew we were in for a very unusual day. (She wore a red dress! And she looked lovely- a beautiful baroque-inspired red ballgown). The rest of the wedding did not disappoint either! This was truly a photographers dream! But, alas, I only managed to take a few shots here and there with my phone so I could show my daughter. (I don’t even know how to download the photos from my phone!).

As we were really short on time, I didn’t even find the chance to snap photos of the beautiful village or Autumnal scenery. So as we were driving out of the town, an idea came to mind. How could I leave without even taking one single photo? That would simply be awful! So I grabbed the camera and changed some settings and proceeded to take photos out the window of the moving car. (My husband at this stage thought I had totally lost my mind!)

Here are a few of the photos I took (very quickly) of the countryside just outside the village…

So in the end, I still got some (albeit mediocre) photos of the autumn colours and those majestic mountains. Now that you’ve read through my long story, here’s your challenge for this week (should you choose to take it on):

HERE’S A TIP:

To get a clearer shot, adjust your camera mode to “Shutter Priority”. This is usually indicated by “TV” or “S” or something like that.  Or have a look in your manual to see if your camera can be adjusted in this way. Now change the Shutter speed to around 350. In other words, you want a fast shutter speed to be able to freeze the motion of the scenery flying by. Because you are in Shutter Priority Mode, and not full ‘manual’ mode, the camera will automatically adjust the Aperture setting for you. So no need to worry about that.

If your camera hasn’t got a shutter Priority Mode, you can always try a Sports Mode, usually indicated by a figure running.

When you take your photo out the front window, your photo shouldn’t blur too much at all as the car is driving forward. (See the photos with the road in front)  If you take a shot out a side window, there will be blurring due to the movement. (You could always try adjusting your shutter speed to a faster setting to try avoid the blur even more). I kind of like the blur in the foreground. I focused my camera a little into the distance, just below the mountains, causing the foreground to blur with the movement, but the mountains to be in focus. This was fun and at least I managed to get a few shots from our weekend!

So upload your image to the gallery and then post a link in the Challenge Forum to grab your 1/4 Petal Point.

Happy Snapping!

“W” made with ‘Kicking up the Leaves” and alpha from “Creating Beauty”; Note with prompt made with Life 365-Stamp-it and –Attach-it.

Hi, everybody! I have no desire to be a designer, but I’m kind of frugal, and if I can do something myself instead of buy it, that makes me very happy. I have seen some papers around digi-land with raised, or embossed, patterns on them, and I figured out how to do this myself. It is not very complicated to do, and I’ve got a new tutorial just posted over in the Tutorial Forum on how you can do it too! So please head on over there and check it out!

My freebie is related to my tutorial, and here is the preview (and it gives you an idea of what YOU will be able to do after reading through my oh-so-simple tutorial):

**DOWNLOAD EXPIRED**

I will leave this freebie up for 36 hours, so if it interests you, please grab it ASAP. It has been tested by the W&W CT girls in several versions of Photoshop and PSE. For PSE users who have never used layer styles, I included some very brief instructions on how to install the style to help get you started. It’s not a simple process in PSE, so you may have to search the web for help.

I have to warn you, you might get a little bit addicted to layer styles once you start playing with them … I have.  Enjoy the tutorial and your freebie!

Hi there! Sorry this is a little later than usual, but I’ve had bit of a busy day. My car’s central locking system literally blew a fuse so I had to go get that fixed as there’s no way I could go anywhere and leave the car unlocked. Then of course this afternoon was me playing mom’s taxi (as usual).

Hope you’re all having a good week and keeping up with taking your photos. I’m very motivated this year and determined to keep up. What better way to keep up than with some photo inspiration?

This week we’re going to get QUIRKY! Let’s do something a bit different! Take a photo of someone but break some rules and add some fun! Try to make it more than just a photo – make it depict a memory, let the photo tell a story or simply use a different perspective.

• Challenge Rule 1 : Your photo must have a person (or persons) in it.
• Challenge Rule 2:  Make it Quirky and unusual.

Don’t you love photos that make you take another glance? Photos that just have something different in them that catches and holds your eye. Remember it’s still a photo for your 365 Project, so make it something that’s still personal to you and a photo that you like.

Here are a few ideas to spark your imagination:

• Take a photo from an unusual ANGLE. You can turn your camera;  take a shot while lying down on the ground or standing on a ladder; get down to your subjects’ level…
• Leave some BLANK SPACE on your photo. Place your subject to the side of your photo, leaving around 2/3rds of the photo “blank”. That is, with an uncomplicated background. This is an ideal spot for journaling or adding a quote.
• Take a photo of a PORTION of a person! You don’t have to have the whole face in the shot or even the whole body. Focus on the hands, or the feet or the eyes. This combined with an unusual angle could make for a fabulous photo.

One thing to keep in mind when taking unusual photos like this is – remember where you want the focus. For e.g. If you want to emphasize someone’s hands, for instance, then focus the camera on the hands so that they are crisp, while the rest of the image is slightly out of focus. Play with the depth of field.

Tip: To get a subject in focus, but to the side of our image (not right in the middle where your camera focuses) , first focus on the subject by pressing down on the camera’s shutter half way until it is in focus, then keeping your finger on the shutter, move the camera so your subject is where you want them in the image. Now press all the way down. Voilà!

A sharp busy background can also be distracting when photographing people, so concentrate on focusing on the subject. Make your subject stand out by either having very little in the background, or by making sure your background is blurred and your subject is clear and crisp.

Don’t just point and shoot, think about what you are photographing.

Although not a portrait, here’s an example showing Depth of Field, where I focused on a Bonsai in the foreground, with the hint of a blurred watering can in the background. This is also an example of chopping the subject off, only showing a portion of it.

Here’s another one I took of a giraffe drinking at a waterhole. Fortunately we were parked in just the right spot and the giraffe conveniently bent down and drank. I simply seized the opportunity! I love this angle- the giraffe looks so awkward!

I’ll post some quirky portrait photos of my own too once I have tied my little subjects down long enough to take a pic or two! I’m hoping to grab a chance tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy the challenge.

Take a peek HERE to see how the challenge works and how you can earn your petal points! Remember to post a link in the forum HERE to your photo in the Challenge Gallery.

Hi there!

Firstly, yes it is actually Wednesday today, not Tuesday as our banner says- so I do apologise if I’ve confused you LOL! (Just thought I’d check and see if you are awake! hee hee) This is my first Tutorial here at W&W and I hope it is going to be useful to you. I know that that’s how I learnt the basics of digital scrapbooking. When I first started with Photoshop Elements I had no clue whatsoever! My first layout was simply awful as I had no idea of where to start or how to add shadows etc. Purely from reading tutorials, I was able to improve and managed to find my way around PSE. I now have PS CS3 and though I also read tutorials , I ended up taking an online course to learn it properly as it has many more features than PSE.

When I scrapbook digitally, I like my layouts to look as though you could touch them and feel the different layers. I want them to be realistic looking. I want certain elements like staples to be the correct size for the page. Sometimes they are too big for a 12×12 page and when printed, they are simply too big to be real - I’ve never seen a giant staple before ;o) That’s just me. Perhaps you prefer a more graphic look to yours.

One thing though, we all want the photos and elements to be in proportion, not distorted. So I decided a quick and easy beginners tut on RESIZING would be good. I have also done another tutorial on adding a border (STROKE) to photos, elements and text to create a ’sticker’ look for wordart or a title, thus making your elements you buy a little more versatile and giving them a brand new look.

If anything is unclear, please just ask!

If you have any tutorial requests, please add them here in the comments - it really helps to know what you would like to learn.

DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL HERE

Have fun playing!

Veronica

Hi everyone! Kelly (kenandbelly) here today. I’m so excited to kick off the Twelve Days of Christmas Countdown celebration here on the Weeds and Wildflowers blog as well as in the shoppe. For each of the next twelve days, one of the creative team members will be posting a freebie here and an item in the shoppe will be on sale for half price… but only until 12:00 midnight, EST.   These freebies and these sale prices will only be good for 24 hours so plan to check back each day!

Before I share my freebie with you—and the secret to a great photo shoot technique that I used on my Christmas card this year but that is usable for any occasion—let me show you today’s half-price product, the Wildflower Holiday Kits Collection.

Remember, it’s half off today only!

Okay. On to my freebie! I’ve made a QP out of our Christmas card for you all, just in case you’re waiting till the last minute for some inspiration.  I’m really happy how this turned out— and a lot of people were interested in how I did it.

I love pictures with kids holding up signs. Here’s the thing: this photo shoot is a LOT easier than it looks. If you do it the easy way, that is. Doing it the hard way, the way you might think I did this, is really frustrating and difficult to pull off. I’ve tried it.  Getting a little one to hold the sign so it’s readable is really tricky. Making the sign look nice in the first place is tricky, too.  I know I don’t like looking at my own sloppy handwriting on signs!  This year… it dawned on me.  Duh.  There’s an easier way.

So, you wanna know how to make a kid-with-a sign photo shoot work? The easy way? (I feel like I should cue a drumroll here…)

Give the kid(s), your spouse, your friends, your dog, your snowman, whoever, a BLANK sign to hold.

Use your digital scrapbook stash to fill the sign in later! (hint: something with a markered look like Gina’s little whimsy alpha works great for this). Simple, yes. Effective, yes. Neat-o?

This way, it doesn’t matter what way they’re holding the sign, how they’re holding it, or where they’re holding it. They can hold it backward. They can hold it upside down.  They can wave it around. They can actually get silly about the whole thing– and they just might get silly because they’ll likely start to think that YOU are nuts for taking pictures of them doing this—and pictures of them laughing at you behind the camera are exactly the kind you want to capture, am I right? Just keep snapping away and get ‘em to have some fun with it.

A regular piece of printer paper would work fine for this photo shoot. Bigger can be better, though. Cardboard works great for this—my daughter’s holding a piece of cardboard I scavenged from the back of a pad of construction paper. How easy is that?

Oh, and one more tip. Never underestimate the power of a good bribe, I mean, treat to bring out their grins. My daughter loves candy canes so I gave her one during our photo shoot and it turned out to be a really sweet prop.

There you go! That’s my secret for a kid-with-a-sign photo shoot. Click on the preview *** SORRY, LINKS HAVE EXPIRED*** to download the card QP. Grab it, grab your kid(s)/spouse, snowman, whoever, grab your camera and a blank sign and get snapping! I bet you can have your card ready to go before you know it! Do share—we LOVE to see your work in our gallery.

Since I’m in a festive mood, I’m also going to share a QP of a LO I did about my girl’s love of holiday candy, especially candy canes.  The journalling reads, “first candy cane of the year. Wait, I mean second. Third…? We’re going to have a hard time keeping ANY on the tree, aren’t we.”

Here you go! Enjoy (preview is clickable) *** SORRY, LINKS HAVE EXPIRED***

I hope your holidays are sweet!

Hi W&W fans!  I just posted a tutorial over in the forum describing a few techniques for giving your layouts a painted aesthetic.  Head over there to read about Photoshop filters, photo masks, and blending modes.  And, it also has some good ideas for re-using your digi elements to get MORE out of them.  It’s like two tutorials in one!  You don’t want to miss it, and you can find that tutorial HERE .

And here’s more great news:  Gina made a special photo mask set, and has released it early, just for this tutorial!  Here it is:

You can go straight to the Shoppe for that item here:  Wildflower Photo Masks

And even MORE good news:  Gina also gave me an “earlybird” coupon code to give you.  It’s good for 25% off today and tomorrow only (Dec. 2nd and 3rd 2009):   Coupon no longer valid

YEA!  Now, go have some fun shopping, learning and scrapping!

we had this request in the forum today:

Hi Tee!
I bought the new Birthday Party collection this past weekend and I am loving it!….I’ve been able to go in and add birthday filler pages for my 365 book and they match so well with the other pages that I have made.

I am working on my oldest son’s b-day pages and I would like to use the alpha that came with the kit, however I would like to be able to use the consonants in colour, not just the vowels. Can you please tell me how to recolour the alpha and still retain 3D look of it? Pretty please???

Here is the alpha she is using and wants to have options to color all the letters…

here you go…it is fun and not hard to do!

open up your alpha page…if you just want to do a letter at a time then marquee and highlight your letter and copy to a new layer…this is helpful if you want to make them each a different color…but to keep it super simple and let lots of you do this if it helps your pages I am showing you the super fast and easy way!

go to Layer then Layer Style and then Color Overlay…

it will automatically cover your letters in this red and you will see your blending option defaults to NORMAL…

you don’t want the solid cover…to keep the fab dimension Gina designed into this alpha, go to Blending Options and pick SCREEN…steps shown here and results in the next one…

now you want to pick your color to match your oh so fantastic layout!!! click on the red box next to blend mode and you will get a huge color picker!

to get that perfect matching color, open up a Photoshop file and roll your mouse over the color you want to match…you will have a dropper tool…click down and that color becomes your overlay color! AND YOU DID IT!!!!!

HAVE FUN!!!

(((hugs)))