Having New Eyes

Web Design Workshop

When I get new software, (I'm talking about software purchased to accomplish a task, not gaming), my opinion about the software falls into 1 of 3 categories.

1. oh crap.  This is a total waste of my time and money, either because the learning curve is so steep I'd have to return to school to use it, or it's so simple that I can already do what it does.
2. hohum. This program isn't going to help me express myself.  I have a couple dozen templates to choose from and can't really personalize any of them. (My kindle reader is sort of in this category... though I admit I LOVE my kindle for reading,  I cannot personalize it which is a real downer)
3. YUM.  I can start using this immediately, AND I can't foresee ever quite exhausting all of it's potential!

In my world, personalization is everything, so everything that falls in the 1st 2 categories will never feel my love, but rather my neglect.  The YUM category, though, is full of my loves.  I LOVE Photoshop Elements.  I LOVE my Mac, and most of the software that comes with it.  

This TypePad blog of mine falls into both categories 1 and 2.  There are things I COULD do if I went to school and learned how, and I LOATH school, which brings up the topic of this blog.  There is a new kind of school that's catching fire all across the net.  Online workshops.  No set time for attendance, no driving anywhere in all kinds of weather to spend a few hours at a shot learning what could be learned in 45 minutes.  I get to wear my jammies, make hot tea, go potty, take a break and take a hike, etc.  

The short version is that I stumbled across a TypePad blog that really struck me as personal, and I thought "I want to know how to do that!"  I contacted the blog owner, and what do you know, she taught a TypePad web design online workshop in April, and was going to be teaching another soon!  Do you want to know how fast I signed up?  Most people would be speechless, though my friends who know me better wouldn't be so surprised.  I mean, heh, if it's something that you'll be able to use and benefit from, and it'll cost no more than a big heavy book on the same subject, but a lot more fun and meaningful because of the person to person interaction, why sit and ponder?

The workshop is called Blog 2.0; Web Design for Bloggers, focusing only on the TypePad blog platform and starting in 3 DAYS!  I can't remember EVER being excited about school, but the chance to make my blog uniquely me, while studying in my jammies, has me all breathless with anticipation.  (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit)  You should be seeing some real changes in my blog in the next few months, as I put into practice the things I'll be learning.

Saturdays!

I love Saturdays - I usually have no obligations or places to be, no people to talk to or appointments, anywhere!  This morning I've been playing around with photos, layers, and textures in Photoshop elements and love the results.  Perhaps I'll discover a look that says ME and stick to it, but then again, perhaps not. 

The first 2 pictures are both using the textures and overlays provided for free in the Shadowhouse Creations blog and tutorial.  I pretty much followed the tutorial, but with some tweaking, since my original photos were a great deal different from what the author, Jerry, used.

The first photo was taken on my front patio.  Every Friday, a bunch of women plus one girl come together at my house for quilting, sewing, painting - whatever we want though primarily quilting.  Our youngest friend is Maggie, whose family was fostering a cripple lamb until it was old enough to eat grass and not need a bottle.  Maggie's Mom came over after sewing time with the lamb at my request, for photos and petting.  Here, my neighbor the photographer had set down her camera to snuggle the lamb.

 

This is a photo my daughter in law took of my 3 grand children, expressly for me.  (My Mom needed a picture on her "grandkids wall" that included the twins).  I'm including the before and after pictures so you can see what a change layering can make.  I have to admit that I really like the original picture a lot more - I'm not a huge fan of dark or grunge when the subject matter is my angelic grandchildren, but it was fun playing with layers.

By this time, I was getting antsy - there has to be something else to do on a Saturday morning besides sit on a hard chair (no cushion?) and do computer... but... I had stumbled upon another tutorial, with links to textures I could use, and I just had to stay a little bit longer to try it!

I'm including the original image, the enhanced image, and then the layered image...

I know I'll get the hang of it!

Memories of a Quilt Workshop called Scrapbook Quilting

Pam Holland is an artist with a wonderful perspective. Her work is never entirely predictable, and doesn't fit into "Normal" or "Average" as far as quilts go, and I find her quite inspiring. I've attended one of her workshops, at the Chicago International Quilt Show (now moved to Cincinnati) which was a class in making a scrapbook quilt, of all things.  The end result of the class:

 

It wasn't very well attended, and my theory is that the word scrapbook in the name of the class turned off many a quilter who has already decided that they don't have time for scrapbooking AND quilting!  Whether or not that's true, the result was that in a class that could have had 35-40 people in it, there were only 6, and we had wonderful one on one time with Pam that wouldn't have otherwise been possible.  Just this morning, when my newsletter from Alex and Ricky's TQS came in email, I saw and devoured a short little video made by Pam Holland.  Playing with cheesecloth, dyes, fused fish, and grandchildren, I think you'll enjoy this video immensely, as I did.  I'm already trying to remember where my dyes are!

 

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Lyric's wonderful little Sketchbook Slipcover Tutorial!

I stumbled upon this slipcover tutorial by Lyric Kinard and just had to share it!

A couple of tutorials I stumbled upon this morning...

Having registered with Google blogger, I am able to follow blogspot blogs and see all new posts in my blogger dashboard.  Often, someone I'm following posts a tutorial, and here are 2 you might be interested in!  The first one is definitely interesting for anyone who has and likes to use a sewing machine for quilting or scrapbooking.

Kelly has a blog called My Simple Walk, which I find fascinating, full of ideas about simplifying your life.  She's got a goal of owning only 100 things, and writes all about her discoveries on the journey.  She also posts lots of videos - and this one is an instructional video on how to paper-piece.  I like paper piecing because of the accuracy of the points in the pattern you choose - points being the hardest part of piecing - whether with fabric or paper.

 

A second blog I enjoy, for inspiration, tutorials, and eye candy, is 3Creative Studios.  They share tutorials in pdf format, so you can download and save them to your computer!  That's darn handy when your computer monitor isn't anywhere near your workspace and you need to print out instructions.  They've posted this great tutorial on making Sugar Maple Placemats.

 

 

Marvelous Memory Book and Giveaway!

While I continue to walk in the woods and enjoy the winter scenery with JJ....

I continue to stumble upon really neat websites.  This most recent discovery will interest anyone interested in an easy project for putting those photos from a special event into a hand made, mixed media memory book.  A GREAT project for a snowy winter day!    Judy Gula invited Liz Kettle to post this great tutorial on her blog, and to offer a giveaway at the same time!!  You can use actual photos in the project, or print them out on fabric - both ways work.

I Love making envelopes! Now to start writing letters....

TUTORIAL ALERT!

Last week I posted the link to a web site with all sorts of wonderful templates, including a paper doll template.  I happened to have last year's photo issue from a Montana publication (couldn't bear to throw it away, the pictures are too wonderful), so I decided to try my hand at making some envelopes.  After spending an hour figuring out how NOT to use a printed out template, I'd made a bunch of envelopes that fit either a 4x6 or 5x7 photo, since when I actually write a real letter, I love to include a family picture.  THIS IS MY PROCESS - I hope it's helpful....

I found that both sizes, 4x6 and 5x7, can be made with a regular sized magazine page.

 

Start by folding the page - bringing the bottom half up.  In the case of a 5x7 photo size, fold up 5.5 inches, and for a 4x6, fold up 4.5 inches (give or take a fraction of an inch!)  From the bit of paper that isn't hidden under the fold, you'll make the flap that folds to close the top of the envelope.  I'm working with a 5x7 photo at this point.  TIP - if you start with the page upside down, then when you fold it, the picture facing you is right side up.  These first few pictures were my first envelopes and I hadn't visualized the final result.

 

Center the photo in the fold and with your fingernail, crease where the edges are.

 

 

Cut OUTSIDE of the creases - allowing a bit of extra space in the final envelope to accomodate more than a photo.  You know, the letter you're going to write and include?

 

After cutting out the tabs, you refold the page and mark where the top flap will fold and trim the corners to make the flap.

 

 

With or without the photo laying in the page, fold the side tabs then assemble the envelope with the tabs on the outside and with the adhesive of your choice,  (I used double sided tape) seal the edges.

 

 

As you can see, I didn't bother trimming the torn edge (created when I tore the page from the magazine.  It looks kind of funky and creative in my opinion.)

 

 

Handmade Gift Card Holder

This lady has a nifty little tutorial on making an easy gift card holder with some of your pretty papers.  Of course, if you lack pretty paper - get a printer sheet and decorate it with paint and markers before cutting and folding!   Click the image to go to her tutorial.

Playing with images on my Computer

I have a head/chest cold.  That said, you'll understand why I canceled the weekly quilting group that meets at my house every Friday - there's no way I'm going to send any of my friends home with a cold to fight!  You'll also understand why I chose, instead, to play most the day away with some of my photos and adobe photoshop elements - it's something that I really like to do, but never have a block of time big enough to actually accomplish anything!  The way to approach this kind of "goofing off" is, of course, through the internet.  Google specifically.  (How did we survive without google?!?)

I searched

"photoshop elements" tutorial grunge

I'm quite taken with the whole grunge movement, though the name is a lot more negative sounding than it should be.  In the music world, it was an alternative form of heavy metal, gutteral, coarse music.  In the art world it usually means stark realism complete with fade spots and scratches.  It usually isn't simple looking, but usually kind of busy, even energetic.  I ended up with something that perhaps isn't grunge, but it was fun approaching it from that perspective.  The picture I chose to use was one of the full moon rising just above the trees on my street, that isn't particularly inspiring and doesn't do the scene any justice at all.  After looking through the tutorial, I realized that I could change the sky to fabric and actually approach the impact that the scene had for me in real life.  The original photo precedes the result of my experiment, below.

 

 

My next experiment, this morning, was using this video tutorial minus the grunge in the google search.  I chose a picture from earlier in the year when Mark brought our grandbabies for a visit.  I had this picture of Chuck feeding Sam, and thought I'd see how to make it look like a color sketch.  The original is charming:

 

But check THIS out!

 

Some great DIY links on a creative Saturday!

I'm sure that I'm the only person who sometimes just, what do you call it, "surfs" the net on a slow Saturday morning.  Personally, I like to start at a favorite blog, and check through their categories for something to read, and that will motivate me creatively to get out of my chair and leave the computer alone!  One of my favorite blogs is Ucreate, where a creative lady named Kari posts oodles of wonderful, creative, inspiring projects, pictures and tutorials.  

This morning I've been experimenting with a half empty bottle of Mod Podge, so I decided to see if Kari had a Mod Podge category and lo and behold - she did!  As a matter of fact, she's had 17 (!) posts about Mod Podge.  Each one is usually a post to a tutorial and the very first one really caught my attention.  Her link led me to the Frugal Life Project blog.  Here I found a tutorial for making cool wall panels from canvas frames purchased at the dollar store.  

Now, I'm not going to run out to the dollar store this morning and see if there are canvas boards here in Charleston - but I'm sure going to save this idea!  What a great way to use up some of the coordinating scrapbook paper I have, AND decorate a wall, for mere pennies.

Another link under the Mod Podge category, also utilizing scrapbook paper but in much tinier pieces which are really more like scraps than sheets of paper, was for this tutorial on making a cute necklace.

Why don't YOU check out Ucreate for yourself?  I mean, only if you're feeling a bit unmotivated, and happen to have some Mod Podge laying around in the midst of your PLETHORA (a new word I really like) of craft supplies, ideas, and unfinished projects!