Scrapbook Sketch & Challenge

I love sketches and I know all of you LS members love them too!  This sketch is for a super awesome giveaway yesterday on the Silhouette blog.  It is fun to take a basic sketch, make it my own and then see what other people come up with using the same sketch. The end results are always so unique. 

Hmmm...what can I do with this?  Lord knows I've got a gazillion photos that could be scrapped.  A sketch really helps me along.  It helps me over the creative road block.  It helps me select & print photos.  It gets me going...

I have blogged about my Silhouette machine before.  Love.

Here's my take on the sketch:

Race for the Cure 2011

After selecting, printing, and cropping just three photos, the rest is pretty easy.  I masked off a circle and sprayed a homemade shimmer mist (CTMH) around the edges.  I used white, black, cotton candy & blossom cardstock.  Oh, and a black pen.  The file tab on the side is a punch.  Other than the assembly, my Silhouette machine did all the work.  Love to hear the hum of that machine as it cuts.

This is the prize...a cute stylish tote for a new Silhouette Cameo machine that will surely be my birthday gift from Bill (hint, hint).

Is it just a coincidence that it's pink?  I think not.

The Law of Murphy

What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Last Sunday, we noticed damp carpet in our bedroom.  I don't mean damp.  I mean wet soaked.  Seems our 55-gallon fish tank has been slowly leaking for God knows how long.  It just took a good long time for the water to seep out, invade the bedroom, and soak the carpet, the pad, the drywall, and the mopboards until I noticed it. 

Ever had to drain and move a fish tank?  So not fun!  So time consuming.  So back breaking.

On Wednesday, High Wind Warnings were posted for the west side of the Front Range including the Foothills and Continental Divide, a classic “Colorado Hurricane” setup with 80-100 mph wind gusts expected. “Most of the gusts will be in the 55-75 mph range,” so said meteorologist Jennifer Broome. In our town, gusts were recorded at 77 mph.  Took down our 6' wooden fence.  Ever try to corral a wandering dog who loves to run and give good chase? 

Then to top it all off, yesterday, Bill decides to run a quick errand with Gracie in tow.  Approximately two seconds later, I hear a loud crash.  I'm thinking that we've lost another section of fencing.  Nope.  Bill's back.  He accidentally crashed the car into our garage door (in the down position).  Seriously?  Who does that?

Yes, I took pictures.  Every single catastrophe has been properly documented.

Project Life Weeks 4, 5 & 6

I'm almost there!  I've been working feverishly to get caught up.  Just 10 days left and I'll be current.  Whoop.  Whoop.

Week 4:

The cute "a day in the life" die cut is a free download from scrapbook royalty Ali Edwards.

Week 5:

Stickers & embellishments:
THIS & THAT  by Lori Whitlock

I do want to share with you an idea to get more photos on your layout.  See that picture of Gracie playing in the snow (third from the left, bottom row)?  That is really 5 pictures grouped as one 4" x 6" image using Photoshop Elements (PSE) and a storyboard designed by the wildly talented Kerri Bradford.  Masking & clipping techniques are a bit tricky to learn and use (at least they were for me), but once you get the hang of it, you'll be tickled to be able to add so many more pictures of a single event (lord knows...I sure get tickled with it!).

Close up.

Week 6:

It is my vow to stay current!

Crushin

Thought I'd play along with "crush week."

Main crush:

Loved this man for a very long time...

Faces crush:

Love these faces.  They'll always be "kids" to me.

Furry crush:

Miss Gracie Lou
Queen of the Castle

Guilty crush:

Revenge is the best TV show to come along in quite some time!

Jewelry crush:

Got a bracelet for Christmas.  Got these charms for Valentine's day.

Scrapbook crush:

Can't scrap without it (even though mine is first generation).

Food crush:

Could eat sushi morning, noon & night.

Music crush:

Love her!

It's a tie:

He's just hot.

Game crush:

If you're on FB, you must try Hidden Chronicles!
I'm addicted.
It reminds me of the Highlights Magazine (hidden pictures)
from my youth (they still make those?).
Genius FB!

Project Life

Confession:  I am a POTD addict.

POTD?  Picture of the Day.

Every
single
day

I became addicted in 2009 when it was called Project 365.  It's now called Project Life (PL).  Even though it's my little addiction, I love the idea, the process, and the end result.  Sitting on my shelf are three complete year-in-the-life-of-Judy-Rakes memoirs.  Photographed & documented.   At first, I was skeptical that I could really take a picture every day.  Those around me thought I was nuts (some still do).  It did not take long to realize that I enjoy it.  I call it my "photographic journal."  One picture and a short note - every day. I love creating them. I love looking back through them. I have learned to see the beauty of each new day and that there is a lot in my life that can be documented (even the mundane, silly routines).  I have learned that I live a pretty charmed life. 

I have always been in love with the notion of keeping a journal/diary.  I've started and stopped many times in my life time.  I kept a "locked" diary between my mattresses when I was a tween (the very same "locked" diary that my brother took to school to share with all the boys).  I started another journal when I was going through a divorce 22 years ago, as someone said it would be therapeutic.  Huh?  I just could never really get into it.  

I am exactly the person for whom this kit was designed:  a photo, a journal card, a date stamp, and day-of-the-week stickers.  Rarely, do I add more fluff to the already very cute design (using the Turquoise edition). 

For me, it certainly does not replace the glamour of traditional scrapbooking.  I still really enjoy that process as well.  This is different.  No creative road blocks. Just photos and (short) stories (oh, and some ephemera like receipts and ticket stubs, etc.).   These books are all me.  Personally. 

Since I am still madly and passionately in love with "regular" scrapbooking, I don't feel obligated to make PL my be-all-end-all scrapbook. Instead, it's my goal to catch all those little bits and pieces of our every day lives. If anything, it's helped me decide which photos really need a two-page layout and which just slip into PL.

Here is the new title page for 2012. 

And here are weeks 1-3:

This year, I am adding simple Silhouette diecuts from the wildly talented Kerri Bradford.

If you’re at all interested in the process, check out the mastermind behind the products here (look for the Project Life button on the sidebar, as well.)

If you’re ready to get started, you can get products from amazon.com.   I’d love to have you join me.  We can support each other.  I am definitely a POTD addict; and hopefully, you will find lots of ideas here on the blog to get yourself in the pictures.  Additionally, I suggest you really learn the self-timer feature on your camera!

If you're already in the 12-step program, drop me a note as well.

Favorite Apps

Someone recently asked about my favorite photography app on my iphone?  Hmmm..... I've downloaded so many photography apps, it's hard to choose.  There are several I like (and may feature here on the blog from time to time). 

Today, I want to talk about AutoStitch.

As a scrapbooker, I have many, many times, tried to hold my camera perfectly still and take horizontal pictures one...at...a...time...with...the...same...zoom...and...on...the...
same...arm...level...trying...to...hold...perfectly...still (c'mon, you've done it too!).  Then after I had my pictures printed, I would paste them back together, trying to line them up to make it look like it was one big picture in my scrapbooks (sometimes spanning a two-page layout).

2008 trip to Costa Rica
6 pictures
(title is a coincidence!)

Thanks to AutoStitch, I don't have to do that old-fashioned approach any longer. It's super easy to use.  You just take several photos of the scene you are trying to panorama-ize.  You don't have to line anything up.  Go back and choose the photos you want to make into a panorama, and "click" stitch.  Presto-chango, you then have a panoramic shot that you can crop (right then and there) if you like.  You can save it. Email it. Print it. Text message it. Upload it (to FB).  They are beautiful shots.  You cannot even tell where the photos are stitched together. I think I've used it with as many as 10-11 photos.

This app is MARVEL-OUS!  I've used it many, many times.

Hike to Blue Lake

Niagara Falls
(both the American falls on the left & the Canadian side on the right)

Denver Civic Center

Wish you had a wide-angle lens?  AutoStitch can also be used for photos that are just too big for your view finder.  Same process - just not so long and skinny as a panorama shot.

Casa Loma
Toronto, Canada

This app (just a mere $1.99 investment) leads me to think that a plain-ole-phone can me more useful and wonderful than the best (or expensive) DSLR camera!

What's your favorite photography app?

February Snow

Have ya heard?  We've been on National News for the past weekend.  Yup!  We're buried in snow.  More snow than we know what to do with.  Record breaking snow.  100-year-old-records were broken.  It started snowing here last Thursday evening around 6:00 p.m.  It snowed Thursday night.  It snowed all day Friday. It snowed Friday night.  It snowed Saturday morning.  We shoveled out Friday noonish and we shoveled out Saturday noonish...again!

Friday was definitely a snow day.  I do not save lives.  I am not a "necessary" employee.  I was not going anywhere.  No, I am not 10; but I do love a SNOW DAY!

• Denver broke a single-day snowfall record on Friday with 12.5 inches of snow. The previous record was 9.5"on the same day in 1932.
• Denver also broke the three-day snowfall record for February with 15.9". The previous record was 14.1" back in 1912.

Official snowfall totals for Denver are taken at Denver International Airport.  DIA is about 24 miles from my doorstep.  I live in a north/westernly Denver suburb.  We got way more than 15.9".

The purpose of this particular post, however, is to share some pictures I took over the weekend of Gracie (our darling one-year-old Mini Goldendoodle).  See, nobody told Gracie that much snow is horrific.  Awful.  Or, that it shuts down the City.  Dreadful.

Gracie
absolutely
loves
the
snow!

There are not words to describe the pure, utter joy of this dog romping in the snow. 

So now, she waits at the back door to be let out.  Once the door opens, off she goes to tear through 2' of snow as fast as her legs will allow then comes in with little snow balls stuck to her fur.  We towel-dry her, but those pesky little snowballs?  She chews them off, one by one, and then goes back to the door.  Sits.  Waits.  Does it all over again.