Inspirations

I'm so jazzed to have found an exciting new (to me) blog created by Donna (of Tootlebugz), Day (of Day's Digidesign), and Linda (of Mrs. JayBob).

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to DigiInspirations at http://digiinspirations.com/blog/

I've been following Donna for a long time, and love her work. After visiting DigiInspirations, I'm beginning to feel the same way about Day and Linda.

They have some novel ideas, like PageStarters:





And, guess what?  This freebie is still available on their blog!


Check this and all the other cool inspiration at Digiinspiration.  I love great ideas that take us in new directions.  From a purely selfish standpoint, I wish these ladies well.  The rest of us can only benefit from their creativity.

Thanksgiving 2009 in La Jolla, CA

Thanksgiving happens to fall around my older sister's birthday, so we make an effort to spend it together as a family.  After dinner, we walked down to the beach in an effort to mitigate some of the damage from gluttonizing and/or overindulging in every way!  I got some decent shots, despite the fact that I am photographically challenged, both behind and in front of the camera.  So, it's always a pleasant surprise to see something come through that is somewhere within the realm of what I was hoping for.  The picture below was at sunset (duh!) and, after duplicating the photo and changing the copy blend to Multiply, I then added a blue canvas and a caramel texture, both from Skeletal Mess.

This is the original, straight out of the camera:

And, not able to leave well enough alone, I manipulated another copy with the blue texture only above the sand line, and the caramel texture below it.  This is not quite so dark, and has a completely different feel to it.

Ad Pictures for Upcoming Tucson Festival of Books

The Second Annual Tucson Festival of Books is fast approaching (March 13 and 14) and we're already scurrying to prepare and place our ads for our University of Arizona Alumni Authors Tent.  Here are some pictures from the Parade of Characters (from children's literature) featuring my good friend's granddaughter:

 

 

 

 

Aren't they just TOO sweet?!?

Wetfish Designs Winter Pix

Cyndi of Wetfish Designs posted some great photographs she took recently. One just spoke to me and I texturized it with a couple of Skeletal Mess phenomenal textures.

Serendipity At the Office Supply Store

My husband and I were running Christmas errands earlier this week. As we were parking at the Office Depot, I noticed the beautiful poppies in the parking lot. I just had to take a picture (or two) and happened to get lucky with these little guys. They were so intent on their job, they never even knew I was there!

Textures used were by Skeletal Mess.
The frame action was by Chain from her Deviant Art account.
The photo, again, was taken by me.

The Christmas Spirit

Suddenly, it seems as if I am infused with the Christmas spirit, and felt moved to experiment with masks in Photoshop. They work very differently from those in Paint Shop Pro. Not better or worse, just different. Here's an example of today's effort:

Although I do not know who created the mask, credit for the pattern goes to The Scrappin Cop for her brush entitled Patterned Grunge. Thank you, Deb!

Growing Up

Simplement Scraps is today featuring Ange Design's latest kit, Growing Up, and has shared this beautiful QP as a freebie (available until Sunday, November 15, at midnight):

Link to Download

Here is mine:

Credits include: Ange Designs (QP), Gunhild Storeide (ribbon), and Simplement Scrap.

Download your own at Simplement Scrap:  http://simplementscrap.free.fr/spip.php?article325

A Creative Burst

I've been looking for an online digital design class all day and have had no luck meeting my criteria (excellent designs created by instructor being the most important).

So, I decided to make some paper. For some, the amount of time I spent making this one paper would have enabled them to complete a kit. Nonetheless, I am very happy with it, especially considering it is a "junior" effort!

Botanical Love

Credit and thanks to:  Aqueous Sun texture; Texture1.psd (unknown author); Wetfish Designs Botanical Overlay

Misty Cato's Tutorials

Today, I followed a couple of Misty Cato's numerous tutorials on her blog. The lesson entitled, Photo Editing: Impact Portraits, was a real eye-opener. I started out with a photo that, although not technically great (and which certainly could use a lot of help in the composition department), I thought had pretty good color balance:

After a series of steps involving, among other things, copying the original picture various times and using different screen modes, we arrived at the finished product. The improvement in the picture (which I cropped, per her suggestion) and color balance is amazing to me!

Check out Misty's website, her store, and her tutorials.  The tutorials are clear and easy to follow.  And her product is first-class.

Curled Frames

Gunhild Storeide, one of the most generous designers out there, just posted a set of curled frames; and, as if that weren't wonderful enough in itself, she also posted the directions on how to make them!  Head over to her site at:  http://www.storeide.se/gunhild/index.htm and take a look at this and her other six pages of mostly CU elements.  I told you she was generous!

Here's my frame:

Project of the Day - Frame Resizing

Just finished a tutorial by Sara at After Five Designs for resizing rectangular frames to square ones. It was amazingly easy and I went on to bevel and texture the finished product, all in about 30 minutes!


I started out with a plain rectangular frame by Maria Designs (I've added a black bottom layer for better clarity):



Following the (terrific) instructions Sara provided, I ended up with this, a rustic and realistic old wooden frame:

Wooden texture by AK for Pink Ink Studios

And that was it!  Easy. Try it yourself!

Lori