Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! It's time celebrate all that Dad's are! And I have the best Dad ever!
He's just turned 83 years young. I've been working on his Memoirs, scrapping them digitally, so as to put a slide show together for him. The process is long, and seems to take forever, but it's a labour of love, to be sure, and through it all, I have certainly gained so much more knowledge of who he is and the life he's lived, had I not taken on this project!

We've heard the stories all of our lives, but there is something so special about getting it all down on paper, and supported with photographs. The project will end up as a multimedia presentation, with sound, and visuals. He's still working on it all, with every new big event in his life getting documented. He's saved so many old documents, passports, papers, birth and death announcements, and family history, it's mind boggling.

He keeps bugging me about getting his books back, but I've barely scratched the surface of this huge project! I need to seriously get going on it! I had hoped that I would have something for him as a gift for Father's Day, not sure what I'm going to do. Maybe a sneak peak??
Here are a few of the layouts I've done:

The thing is, Dad has Age Related Macular Degeneration. This is what got me started to begin with, he can't even see the stuff he's putting into his books without the help of his reading machine! He can, however, see the large screen TV, if he sits real close, and sits at an angle to it. People with Macular Degeneration usually retain some peripheral vision, the centre of the their vision is what's been impaired. So, I decided to put his pictures onto a Dvd, to be viewed on the TV. And of course, I can't just do things simply, being an artist, and creative person, I have to put my stamp on it, and I want it to be special for my Dad, 'cause he's special!

This picture is of a much newer type, but similar in design, they are kind of like the old microfiche machines we used to use in the library. Do they even still have them?

Dad was always the one you went to if you wanted something, 'cause Mom just said no anyway. At least that's how it seemed as a child! But my Dad has always had a very long fuse, he's slow to get impatient, and angry, and has a great sense of humour! But boy oh boy, watch out if he gets to end of that fuse, 'cause a big kaboom is waiting at the end of it! Thankfully, there's not been many of those, and it was usually our own fault anyway!

Dad loves the Lord, loves his family, Mom, his kids, grand kids, and now 3 great grand kids! And we have large extended families too. It's a crazy loud bunch when we all get together, a bit overwhelming if you first come onto the scene!

They have a great house for visiting, and love to garden, and take excellent care of everything.
They've made a point to make their house a home, and one that all feel welcome to enter. They've never taken the "spiritual gifts" test, but I am 100% positive that both my mom and dad have the gift of hospitality! Everyone is made to feel as welcome as possible.

They've also taken care to make it very kid friendly, (not kid proof, mind you! kids have to learn what they can can't touch!!), having a basement that has video games, board games and lots of stuff to do, a backyard that rivals any resort, with a large heated swimming pool, a hot tub, gazebo and lovely deck. My kids never complained about going to visit, as a matter of fact, it was a good one to use as a consequence for undesirable behaviour: Watch out, or you won't be going swimming, playing video games....

We're spending Father's Day at my brother's place this year, as he's singing (my brother, Dad can't carry a tune in a bucket, seems that's where I get my own singing ability from!) with the "Nylons" on Sunday at a Barbershop show. A little different, as Mom and Dad usually do all the hosting of parties. I think they deserve a break! It should be fun!

They have had company from Holland, and more to come next week! They love it, but it's tiring none the less! My Parent's gift of hospitality will be stretched once again this summer! My Mom and Dad's gracious gift is gladly shared, but I do worry how tired they get. Dad's 83, Mom's going to be 75 this year, but still their stamina puts me to shame!! I hope I'll be able to keep up! I'm looking forward to spending some time with my Dad's family, getting some great photos, then scrapping them!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Happy scrapping to all, and especially, a very Happy Father's Day to all the great dad's,
And to my Dad: I love you lots, you're the best Dad ever!

Marlene.

Texture plates and digital scrapbooking paper:

Textures aren't just for changing the look of a photograph! You can also use textures to change the look of your digital scrapbooking paper.

I have just completed a new set of texture plates that resemble different fabrics and fabric patterns.

Available at Etsy

These are great to use in layouts and paper that you'd want to look like its been printed on various types of fabric! In the following example, I've used the texture "herringbone-distressed", with a blend mode set to "overlay". The 'before' looks like paper, the after looks more like fabric:

Original "paper" +

Texture Plate "herringbone-distressed" =

"After", digital "paper" now has a fabric look to it!

In this example, I've used paper from an add-on freebie from an earlier post, you can get it here.
I used the texture plate twice on this paper,  set at "overlay" and "soft light" blending modes. Doing this has given this paper more of that textured look. Since the texture itself has some distressing added, this transfers to the paper as well.

Original "paper" +

Texture Plate "Cotton distressed" =

 "After", digital scrapbooking paper that now looks more like fabric!

Thanks for dropping by,

Happy Scrapping!

Marlene

Using textures in photography, 3 easy steps to take your photo from commonplace to compelling.

A few of weeks ago, I took some pictures of blossoms in our beautiful Niagara region. My DD lives just outside of the city, and on the street to get to her place are many orchards. During blossom season, the trees are just exploding with colour! Every day just gets more beautiful, until they reach their peak, and before you know it, it's all over!
I took some time to slow down, stop at the side of the road, and take pictures! I made sure to take my camera's manual with me, because I knew I would want to play with exposure and aperture. I still have a lot to learn about photography, but the best way to learn is to do it!

I still don't know what kind of trees I was taking pictures of! I did know they were pretty, and I wanted to capture that. I also wanted to create a fine art print, using some the of the new textures I've designed.


3 Easy steps to go from commonplace to compelling:
     1. The first step is to open your photo in photoshop, or photoshop elements. Make sure that you do all of the editing, cropping, and adjustments that you want to do at this stage.
     2.  The next step is to add the texture layer. There are always several ways to accomplish anything you want to do in photoshop. You could (a) go to "file" and "place" the texture layer, (b) open the texture, drag and drop it onto your photo. Holding down the shift key while doing this will ensure that it will be centred over your photo, (c) open the texture, drag and drop the layer in the layers palette onto the photo, or (d) select the texture, go to "edit" and click "copy", then "paste" it onto the photo. Using keyboard shortcuts is great with this technique.
Once you have the texture layer over the photo layer, you will need to adjust the texture's size to fit over the photo. Go to "edit" and "transform", holding the shift key will keep the aspect ratio when pulling the handles on the corners, or just grab the handles on the sides, and stretch to fit.
     3. The next step is to adjust the blend mode and opacity. This is where it gets exiting! My favourite blend modes so far have been, multiply, linear light, overlay, and soft light, when texturing my photos. I have had some success as well with duplicating a texture layer, and choosing 2 different blend modes at different opacities.
Opacity will also make a huge difference in the final outcome. You will most likely need to adjust the opacity so as not to overwhelm the photo.

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Experimenting with the blend modes and opacity is fun and exciting. It's great to see how much the mood, colour and lighting are transformed before your eyes as you do this. I usually duplicate the layers I'm working on, try a few different blend modes, and see which layers I like and want to keep, and get rid of the ones that aren't working. Sometimes it's a combination that's works out the best.
In my example, I used 3 separate layers to make my texture. I used texture layers from my new "Summer Sun Kissed Texture" pack.

 Available at Etsy

The first layer is "lavender mist", which has the blend mode set at soft light, and opacity is at 100%. The second layer is "TexturePlate-painterly", it's blend mode is overlay, and the opacity is at 85%, and the last layer, is "Sun Kissed Edge". The blend mode is linear light, and the opacity is at 40%.

 

A few more examples:

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, and as always, please feel free to leave a comment, tell me what you think, or share a link to your own textured photos.
Happy Editing!
Marlene

Freebie Friday! Textures for Photographers and Digital Scrapbookers

The sun is shining again, and the promise of summer is right around the corner. That puts me in a good mood, how about you? I have continued working on some more textures, and I decided to share a small sample of these newest creations with all of  you.

 

download 

These are 12 x 12, 300 dpi jpg's. They can be used as digital paper, or overlays in scrabooking layouts, or photographers can use them to texture their photos. See the previous blog entry for more info about texturing photos.

If you download, please be kind, leave a comment. Designers work hard to bring you freebies, we really appreciate getting some feedback.

Please feel free to link to your layouts, or photos!! I'd love to see your creations!!

Happy Scrapping and editing!
Marlene

Learning about Texturing Photos and Digital Scrapbooking Layouts

I came across a fantastic article recently, which explained a lot about textures in photography, how, when and why to use them.

I've always love texture, in whatever medium I've been using, from my metal and jewellery days, to now when designing digital scrapbooking papers.

What I've learned so far, (and I've got much more to learn) is that textures aren't there to fix bad photos. Garbage in, garbage out!

It does add interest, changes the mood and lighting, can enhance or change the style of the photograph or digital scrapbooking layout.

So... I've been having some fun designing some textures, and experimenting with some of my own photos and layouts. (I will be putting together a package of them and they will be available at my Esty shop)

here are some Before and After photos:

This first set, I broke my first rule, I don't think this is a great photo to begin with, but I was anxious to try out some of my new textures! Once I got started, I just kept going! I like the results, though, and that's what matters!

Before:

After:

 I cropped the photo, then used 2 layers of "bokeh" texture, and 2 layers of "paint" texture plates.

I used a gausian blur on the 2 bokeh texture layers, one had the blending mode set to "multiply" and the other to "soft light" On the bokeh layers, and on one of the paint layers, I brushed out the cactus flower, and also used different blending modes.

I also used an action from Pure Photoshop Actions: Pure pink, which boosted the colour a bit more. They have some great actions! They are subtle, but still pack a punch!

These are the textures I designed and used in the above example:

The key is working with layers, blending modes, opacity, and even filters, to achieve the look you want, (or sometimes you get happy accidents)!

Here are more Before and Afters:
Before:

 

After:

 

After again, adding a border:

This photo was taken at the Port Dalhousie pier. I like the way the texture has changed the colouring on this photo. Although the original photo does have a nice quality to it, I believe that the texture has made a difference in the mood of this photo. It's gone from slightly ethereal to rugged to painterly.

The last one was processed with a "paint" texture plate, and 2 versions of the texture below, one layers blending mode set to overlay, and the purple one set to multiply.
I brushed out the rocks on this one as well.

Here is another example,
Before:

After:

I did a series of Valentines day cards for my Hubby and the kids. I'm not partial to pink, so this was my answer to making cards for them, with out all the girly pink!
The texture layer is green, with a bit of brown. I set the blending mode to overlay, and brushed out the area over the photo. I like both looks, but the texture definitely adds some interest to the layout.

Before:

 After:

This is a layout from my dad's memoirs that I've been working on for a long time. Have a look here to see more of these layouts.
This one looks great after the texture has been added. It adds a sepia colour to it, and the crackled texture also ages the layout, and tones down the contrast, which is quite suitable for a heritage layout.

This is a learning process, to be sure, and I know I'm not there yet, but this sure is a lot of fun!

Here's the link to that fantastic article:

Digital Photography School

Thanks for stopping by!

Please feel free to share a link to your photos or layouts that you've incorporated some textures in!

Or, just share your thoughts.

Happy Scrapping, and Happy editing!

Marlene

Using Digital Scrapbooking templates to show off my new grandson!

A little catching up, since it's been a crazy couple of weeks! What an exciting and tiring time we've had. Since Eli has arrived into our world, my DH has been working with my brother in London (Ontario) during the week. My DD struggled with mastitis again, our church's family night program has wrapped up for the season, I've helped with a fundraiser, I've been sick, and we had a crazy wind storm! Whew!!

Hubby's work in London has been going well, however, he's strained his back, and he's resting it right now.

Thankfully, the doctor that saw my daughter believed her this time about the mastitis. With her first child, they told her she didn't have it, and did not offer any other help. Normally, a nurse will come to the house to see how new moms are doing, and especially if she's having difficulties, but the H1N1 flu was going around at the time, and there was no help for her. She ended up giving up breast feeding. In the long run, it was better for her and the baby, the pain stopped, and the baby was happier too.

But this time, the doctor prescribed antibiotics, and she was back to normal in a few days. And of course, the timing was impeccable, as that was also the day of the wind storm. Many homes were without power, and their house was one of the unlucky ones to be without for more than 24 hours. The house was too cold for a new Mom and a new-born baby. Even better timing, it was her hubby's first day back to work! She came to our house to get warmed up, as our power was back on after about 10 hours.

With them living in a more rural area, they are on a septic system, and without electricity, their basement flooded too!

There was so much damage to hydro-electric poles, trees, houses, and roofs. I've never seen it that bad! You could hardly drive around anywhere with there being a tree or pole crossing your path.

We are very thankful that we had no damage to our own house!

Now that we are healthy again, and the Internet is back up, and life is getting back to normal, I can get back to scrapbooking!

Using templates for digital scrapbooking is a great time saver! You can still use a lot of your own creativity, and have a lot of freedom to choose papers and elements in your layout, but the big choices, the layout itself, is done by a "highly skilled professional" lol.

One of my very favourite digital scrapbooking designers had a recent freebie posted on her blog. She gave away this delightful template! I was just looking for a template to show off my new grandson, and there it was in my inbox! aren't newsletters great? Whether it was the timing of the newsletter, or the great photos in the example, I don't know, but I loved this one right away, and got to work right away too!

Sahlin Studio

This is the layout I've done with it, using some pictures of our new grandson. These were taken the day he was born.

 

 

This layout uses products that I've designed, for the most part. 

The ribbon is a freebie I grabbed from a blog train a while ago, called "grandma's quilt" It is by Valerie Steinkoenig @http://www.geniabeana.blogspot.com

I put together a kit specifically for photographers to use to design cards and birth announcements. Its called "baby soft"

Available at Etsy

And this one I did, using Sahlin Studio products, that I intend to submit as part of the May template challenge:

Don't I have an adorable grandbaby!? I love him so much already!

Templates are a great way to get some of those layouts done that you've been meaning to get to, but haven't got around to it yet!

Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Scrapping!
Marlene