Sketch #51 – capture these sketches

When I saw this sketch I knew I had to try my hand at it. I don’t know why it spoke to me but it did.

I really don’t like this picture of me but if I had a choice there would never be a picture of me in the scrapbooks as in my mind I never look good. I believe that some people just don’t take good picture while others the camera just loves them. I see this when my hubbie takes pictures of the dancers. Some of them just never take a bad picture. Do you have the same issue?? I wonder how many of us avoid getting in front of the camera as we’re never happy with the results. The purpose of my scrapbooks though is to leave a record of us all as a family and not just the kids. I mean I’m expecting to be gone before them and hope they will cherish pages like this even though I don’t anywhere near my best! (I looked even worse in color!).

Digital Supplies

Changing Digital Papers Color

Sometimes when scrapbooking you don’t have the correct colored paper. Now the beauty of digital scrapbooking is that it doesn’t matter you just change the color (can I just say here I don’t think I’m going to give up traditional scrapbooking totally but this digital stuff is getting a little addictive making and I’m loving I can do it anywhere!).

The patterned papers I chose to use are these ;-

I wanted to change the blue to match the blues more in my pictures and didn’t want the green wanted a brown. Doing this is easy in PSE 8.0. Firstly I took the papers and included them in my layout with the pictures. I then used the eyedropper tool and sampled the color of the jacket Philip was wearing. Then I clicked on the layer with the paper I wanted to change and selected Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue Saturation. A pop-up window  appears and the check the colorize box and if by magic the paper changes color. You can change it a little more if you want using the sliders.

Using this method I also changed the color of the hearts from green to the brown – so simple, so cool and fast! Means when you buy a digital element you can use it many times in many colors and thus get lots of uses out of it.
The other special thing I did on this layout was the cut out of Philip. So easy to do with the magic wand tool and so much easier than cutting out with scissors! Can you tell I’m becoming more and more into this digital scrapbooking. That being said I’m starting my next Big Picture Scrapbooking class this next week with May Flaum – “Adventures in Scrapbooking – using your stash” - its about using up your stash. So I think I’ll have my glue and scissors out again although I’m not sure I’ll use much of my stash up as I’ve got so much of it. I really need to get into my scrapbook room to clear-up ready but haven’t made it there yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Supplies used in addition to papers -

plus - Flergs_SBAportauprince_Heart1

Southport Times

When we first got married we lived in a small village called Burscough which is between Liverpool and Preston and inland from Southport in the North West of England. With our first child on the way I wanted to take pre-natal classes and signed up with the National Child Birth Trust. As a young couple we had made few friends in the area prior to this and these classes have resulted in making life long friends. Each time we visit England we try and get to visit them, it doesn’t always work as we have limited time and many people to see. (We missed seeing a couple of sets of friends this year due to vacations and time constraints. Its really hard when you have family and friends to fit in and its also your vacation.)
On this occasion we were able to spend a day in the Southport area and see three families in one visit. We all met with the birth of our first born child – Jake, Eleanor, Isabella and Nathan. Thirteen years later (with 11 of them spend overseas for us) we can return for a visit and the kids just act as if they saw us yesterday and even us adults manage to continue where we left off, although we do discuss the differences in education and things like that. Sue was a great host and provided a excellent base for our visit. Its great to have someone willing to open their house to that many people. Thanks Sue!

Supplies – Katie Pertiet Photo Clusters no.31, Vinnie_Pearce_Kraft_Paper_single, Jen Wilson grungedges_set1, iKari designs Alpha Bits Stamped Chocolate.

Another layout from England……

Well that’s not exactly true as the pictures are from Portmeirion in Wales but they are from our trip to the UK. Portmeirion is a strange place. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust. Many know it due to the pottery that was designed by the daughter of the Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. My Mum used to love this pottery and the last time I visited I was able to selected some pieces to add to her collection from the seconds shop. This time we spend a few hours just exploring the grounds. We had left the kids with the grandparents for a few days and it was nice just to have sometime to ourselves. If your ever in the area I highly recommend a visit, but get there early as it gets busy!

Digital supplies - KPertiet_PhotoClustersNo31, KPertiet_GraphicFlowerClusters-3, Kpertiet_Edges_7, KPertiet_StitchedJournalStripsNo2-1 (Designerdigitals.com); Kraft Paper - VPearce_Kraft_paper01 (Two Peas).

London Trip

On our recent trip to England the main reason for the trip was to visit the American Embassy to present ourselves for our renewal interview for our “visa”. We have a special visa which allows us to live in the USA due to hubbies job but it is only valid for a number of years and it was finally time for us to renew it. The kids didn’t have to attend so we flew from London to Manchester on our arrival in England and then a few hours later we caught  a train back to London. Having just flown all through the night from Texas by the time we arrived back in London we had been travelling for over 24 hours – yuck is all I can say. Then the next morning we had to be at the embassy for 9am the next morning so we couldn’t even get to sleep in and catch-up. Luckily our interview was simple and fast so we got to spend sometime wandering around London (even those in a sleep deprived state) and having lunch with my sister before we got back on the train and headed back to Manchester. By the time we finally made it to Manchester we were both dead on our feet but happy to know that our visa had been approved and we could return to Texas and continue with life. I don’t know what we would have done if there had been a problem – thankfully it didn’t happen and for that I thank God.

Digital supplies –Papers and digital elements  JM Designs – Travel the World; Template – Biograffiti.com – creative juice no. 21(freebie). Shadows – scrapmatters.com Jennifer Barrette designs “Get Real – Realistic Drop Shadows”.

Back from England

 

Haven’t posted for a while as I’ve been in England for two weeks. I had fun but glad to be back in my own bed with my own things. Its nice not to have to cook and clean for two weeks but I miss my own space and was ready to get back to the routine. Visiting England is about the grandparents and I take the kids each summer but this year we also had to renew our visas which allow us to live in the USA and we’re grateful that this was achieved in the end with ease and we can stay for five years without having to renew.
While I was in England I had the opportunity to meet up with a school friend who I hadn’t seen in 26 years so I thought I’d record this with a digital page – digital because I’ve discovered one of the great advantages of digital is that it can be done at 4.30am without waking others who may be sleeping and as I always have trouble with the jetlag this is a great advantage to me!

The layout I have created is also for a challenge for the online crop which is running at pretty paper, true stores (and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes) blog. It was a color challenge to scrap with red, aqua and white. I then decided to use the latest template from Katie Pertiet at www.digitaldesigns.com template inspiration.

Supplies – Katie Pertiet Clock Buttons and template; Jen Wilson – worn foam stamps, paper flower – Reminisce kit from sweet shoppe designs and red paper and text swirls from Jessica Sprague.com InAWord04.