...was awesome. Tomorrow I'm turning 3-0. Yesterday I reviewed my '29 list' so today I thought I'd share 30 awesome things that happened this year-in no particular order.
1. I survived a summer without camp. A serious feat if you know me. It was difficult & there were tears but I got through it and I'm looking forward to another great summer with M & E.
2. I celebrated 29 with some awesome peeps & one amazing visitor. Shout out to D for coming all the way here to the rock!
3. I got published in Creating Keepsakes. It's not on stands yet but it's happening soon.
4. I met and befriended Kelly Purkey. EPIC. Anyone who knows me, knows how cool this fact is.
5. And then she came to Newfoundland and taught classes! It might have been a scrapbooking highlight for many of us-me included.
6. We took road trips to Marystown, Lamanche, Ferryland, Carbonear, and Cornerbrooke. Moving home to NL has it's benefits.
7. I celebrated Canada day-for the first time in 11 year- with some new friends.
8. I graduated and received my Masters in Education. So much hard work over 2 1/2 years finally came to fruition.
9. I stood on the sidewalk at 49th & 5thand watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. That was a bucket list item for me. It was surreal actually.
10. I shopped the black Friday sales at 12 a.m at Macy’s. Yep. Shopping + black Friday + NYC= bucket list. Beat that.
11. I baked my first pie. I'm not a pie kinda girl. I bake. I bake a lot. But, I don't bake pies. My MIL bakes pies so when she complimented my pie I felt like I had done something seriously right.
12. I explored the East Coast Trail with my two favs- M & E. Turns out I really like hiking! Who knew?!
13. I learned to quilt and... Thank you Elise Blaha for your unknowing encouragement in this endeavor. Both sets of parents got quilts for Christmas this year.
14. I learned to knit. I will eventually get to that cowl. Maybe by this winter I'll have one of wear.
15. I made some new girlfriends. Not an easy thing in NL but I'm fortunate to have some new scrappy friends and girlfriends alike that I'm happy to be myself with.
16. I learned to make chocolates with some crazy ladies. This was too much fun. So many, many photos.
17. I discovered colored denim. In a big way. Hello L.O.V.E. I should stop buying pairs now.
18. I admired my father as he struggled with cancer and come out way on top. Latest reports are awesome. He's a trooper!
19. I DIY’ed the crap out of a lot of stuff & attended many garage sales. Turns out one man's trash IS this girl's treasure.
20. I witnessed some great friends get hitched. I love seeing others find what I'm so lucky to have. I am also a sucker for a good wedding and a few tears.
21. I read a lot of good books. A lot of good books. Favorite might have been 'The Art of Racing in the Rain'. Just a sign of how much I love my dog.
22. I threw a doggie birthday party for E’s 1st birthday. See above notes.
23. I got a prom do-over and actually went to *fake* prom with someone I wanted to attend prom with! My original prom date was a dud. Nuf said.
24. I tried mixed media. Like the pies, not very me. But, I enjoyed it. It's something I'm looking forward to pursuing.
25. I had a New Year’s eve worth remembering-Happy 2015! What?! Those of you who know this story understand what I'm talking about.
26. I hosted a book brunch for some very lovely ladies. One where we never really discussed the book but had lots of food and lots of laughs.
27. I spent some quality time during the summer with my fav baby boy Liam. And am looking forward to doing this again. Babies grow up so fast.
28. I sported a fascinator for not one but two weddings! Trendy. Yep. That's me-trendy! [Insert rolling of the eyes here].
29. I hosted my first thanksgiving feast! The families all gave in and we didn't have turkey because we were in charge this past year!
30. I am about to spend my birthday in one of the most beautiful places with an amazing person I am very lucky to have in my life. There's only one thing missing-our Eugene.
xoxo
K
Friday, May 24, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
This girl...
...is about to turn 30 on Saturday. Yep. I'm not sure if I'm ready to embrace it or just freak out.
Here's the '29 list' that I made last year just about this time and the progress! I was ambitious in my goals. But I think I did pretty well actually!
1.Have a girls weekend.
2. Get back into dancing.
3. Run ‘Cape to Cabot’.
4.Host a Tea Party for the girls.
5.Have a picnic in Ferryland at the lighthouse.
6.Get published in Creating Keepsakes.
7. Take a class at the Anna Templeton Centre.
8.Take the tour of The Newfoundland Chocolate Factory.
9. Take a cooking class with Matthew.
10.Take a selfie every day for a month.
11.Find a tea I enjoy drinking.
12.Learn to properly ice cupcakes.
13.Rent a cottage for the weekend.
14.Finish decorating our house.
15. See the sunrise on Signal Hill or Cape Spear.
16.Visit three new places.
17.Take a beach vacation.
18.Survive a summer without camp.
19. Journal more in my scrapbook layouts.
20.Make a new friend.
21. Make stamps.
22. Make a point to see my girlfriends more.
23.Revamp my blog.
24. Make a photo book.
25. Take a class in something fitness related. Spinning maybe?
26.Send more mail.
27.Use my real cameras more.
28. Volunteer at a local event.
29. Join a running club.
I haven't decided if I'm going to approach this year's big 3-0 with a new project like this one or something similar yet. I'm letting IT come to me this time around. Stay tuned!
xoxo
K
Here's the '29 list' that I made last year just about this time and the progress! I was ambitious in my goals. But I think I did pretty well actually!
1.
2. Get back into dancing.
3. Run ‘Cape to Cabot’.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Take a cooking class with Matthew.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. See the sunrise on Signal Hill or Cape Spear.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21. Make stamps.
22. Make a point to see my girlfriends more.
23.
24. Make a photo book.
25.
26.
27.
28. Volunteer at a local event.
29. Join a running club.
I haven't decided if I'm going to approach this year's big 3-0 with a new project like this one or something similar yet. I'm letting IT come to me this time around. Stay tuned!
xoxo
K
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
'What I'm Working on' Wednesday
I'm currently mulling over possibilities for my Kids Summer Scrapbooking camp.
We'll be working with an Amy Tangerine Daybook in our day-long workshop and I have big plans to pack it full of fun techniques! Space will be limited as supplies are limited so if you're local and know someone who would like to participate contact The Paperie for more information.
xoxo
K
We'll be working with an Amy Tangerine Daybook in our day-long workshop and I have big plans to pack it full of fun techniques! Space will be limited as supplies are limited so if you're local and know someone who would like to participate contact The Paperie for more information.
xoxo
K
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
MOjo Monday Challenge!
Today I'm sharing a Mojo Monday challenge with you from my local store, The Paperie.
Go to their blog to check out the details but here's a peek!
Gotta love that sentiment! Check out the brad! It was just calling to me.
xoxo
K
Go to their blog to check out the details but here's a peek!
Gotta love that sentiment! Check out the brad! It was just calling to me.
xoxo
K
Monday, May 20, 2013
Photoshop Elements Tutorial: Creating Photo Collages
*Dedicated to my dear friend Heather! ;)
I’ve been ages trying to put this tutorial together for some of my KTOL students and it’s finally done. I did a little demo for them during their class in April but promised to do a little blog post for future reference.
I’m trying to keep it simple here for the masses. I am by NO means a photoshop expert-see Ali Edwards digital scrapbooking posts & Cathy Z’s tutorials for something more advanced. But I’ll do my best to show you a simple way to create what I call 2-up & 4-up photos on a 4 by 6 canvas.
First of all, I’m working with Photoshop Elements 8 which is the most current version I have. As far as I can tell, the most recent version of Photoshop Elements has the same symbols for the tools so it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.
If you’d like to follow along as I go, you can download a free 30-day trial copy of Photoshop Elements 11 on the Adobe site. It’s right here!
So, first we want to open up photoshop and create a blank canvas. I’m sticking with 4 by 6 photo canvas’ because that is what most people will create to upload for printing but you can also follow the same steps to create a 5 by 7 or any other size you want, just change the length and width to suit your needs.
So first go to the ‘File’ button at the top and click on ‘new’. You may also be prompted when you open by a little rectangular screen- click on ‘start from scratch’. Once you hit ‘new’ or ‘start from scratch’ you will get this screen.
You cant to create a canvas which is 6 by 4 by 300 pixels/inch. Insert all your information here and name your canvas if you like. Hit ‘okay’ to take you to this screen.
Now, we want to open a few photos so we can crop them and add them to this canvas. You can either go to ‘file’ and click ‘open’ or you can hold command + O (Mac) or ctrl + O (PC).
I chose my photos from iphoto but go where ever you store your photos and choose two pictures.
Once they are open you want to crop them-we’re going to make them 3 by 4 vertical pictures. So we’re going to click our mouse on the crop tool. See the tool that’s circled.
After clicking on it you’ll notice that the bar at the top of the photoshop program will change so you can alter your dimensions for cropping.
Always, keep your resolution the same as the canvas you created. We created a canvas with 300 pixels/inch so we’ll continue to use that number for cropping (see: resolution).
Crop your two images-you may notice they get much smaller. That’s okay.
Next we’ll take them and add them to our canvas. Go back to your cursor tool.
Click and drag your photo onto the white canvas. Alternatively, you can hit command + A(mac) or ctrl + A(pc) to highlight the whole thing then hit command + c or ctrl +c to copy & command + V or ctrl + V to paste onto your canvas.
Move your photo around your canvas to suit your needs.
Then move the other one onto the canvas in the same fashion.
You can add text using the ‘T’ tool & brushes or whatever you like.
When you’re done go up to ‘layer’ and scroll down to ‘flatten image’ and click there. You’ll notice that all your layers on the right hand side change into one layer. This is what we want in order to save it as a jpg (for easier uploading).
Now, we’ll save the photo. Go to ‘file’ or hit command + S or ctrl + S You’ll see that it wants to save it as a jpg-if it doesn’t say JPG then you need to go back and check that you’ve flattened your image.
You’ll get this screen- Chose to save it at the maximum quality so you get the best picture even though it’s larger. and hit okay.
And that’s it. All done.
To create a 4-up photo like this one- you just open 4 photos instead of 2 and change your cropping to 2 by 3 by 300 resolution and crop them and drag them onto a 4 by 6 canvas. Here's an example-
You can also do 2 by 2 by 300 resolution if you open 6 photos and crop them and drag them on a 4 by 6 canvas. Here’s an example of that one-
I hope that you try out this method to get more from your pictures and more bang for your buck. I know that there’s nothing more annoying that printing a bunch of 4 by 6 photos and having to cut them all down. It’s such a waste. And using photoshop is much quicker and convenient at home rather than trying to create the photo collages at the Kodak picture maker in your local drugstore or supermarket. If you create them all at home you just have to hit that beautiful ‘select all’ button when you go to have your pictures developed!
Good luck!
xoxo
K
I’ve been ages trying to put this tutorial together for some of my KTOL students and it’s finally done. I did a little demo for them during their class in April but promised to do a little blog post for future reference.
I’m trying to keep it simple here for the masses. I am by NO means a photoshop expert-see Ali Edwards digital scrapbooking posts & Cathy Z’s tutorials for something more advanced. But I’ll do my best to show you a simple way to create what I call 2-up & 4-up photos on a 4 by 6 canvas.
First of all, I’m working with Photoshop Elements 8 which is the most current version I have. As far as I can tell, the most recent version of Photoshop Elements has the same symbols for the tools so it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.
If you’d like to follow along as I go, you can download a free 30-day trial copy of Photoshop Elements 11 on the Adobe site. It’s right here!
So, first we want to open up photoshop and create a blank canvas. I’m sticking with 4 by 6 photo canvas’ because that is what most people will create to upload for printing but you can also follow the same steps to create a 5 by 7 or any other size you want, just change the length and width to suit your needs.
So first go to the ‘File’ button at the top and click on ‘new’. You may also be prompted when you open by a little rectangular screen- click on ‘start from scratch’. Once you hit ‘new’ or ‘start from scratch’ you will get this screen.
You cant to create a canvas which is 6 by 4 by 300 pixels/inch. Insert all your information here and name your canvas if you like. Hit ‘okay’ to take you to this screen.
Now, we want to open a few photos so we can crop them and add them to this canvas. You can either go to ‘file’ and click ‘open’ or you can hold command + O (Mac) or ctrl + O (PC).
I chose my photos from iphoto but go where ever you store your photos and choose two pictures.
Once they are open you want to crop them-we’re going to make them 3 by 4 vertical pictures. So we’re going to click our mouse on the crop tool. See the tool that’s circled.
After clicking on it you’ll notice that the bar at the top of the photoshop program will change so you can alter your dimensions for cropping.
Always, keep your resolution the same as the canvas you created. We created a canvas with 300 pixels/inch so we’ll continue to use that number for cropping (see: resolution).
Crop your two images-you may notice they get much smaller. That’s okay.
Next we’ll take them and add them to our canvas. Go back to your cursor tool.
Click and drag your photo onto the white canvas. Alternatively, you can hit command + A(mac) or ctrl + A(pc) to highlight the whole thing then hit command + c or ctrl +c to copy & command + V or ctrl + V to paste onto your canvas.
Move your photo around your canvas to suit your needs.
Then move the other one onto the canvas in the same fashion.
You can add text using the ‘T’ tool & brushes or whatever you like.
When you’re done go up to ‘layer’ and scroll down to ‘flatten image’ and click there. You’ll notice that all your layers on the right hand side change into one layer. This is what we want in order to save it as a jpg (for easier uploading).
Now, we’ll save the photo. Go to ‘file’ or hit command + S or ctrl + S You’ll see that it wants to save it as a jpg-if it doesn’t say JPG then you need to go back and check that you’ve flattened your image.
You’ll get this screen- Chose to save it at the maximum quality so you get the best picture even though it’s larger. and hit okay.
And that’s it. All done.
To create a 4-up photo like this one- you just open 4 photos instead of 2 and change your cropping to 2 by 3 by 300 resolution and crop them and drag them onto a 4 by 6 canvas. Here's an example-
You can also do 2 by 2 by 300 resolution if you open 6 photos and crop them and drag them on a 4 by 6 canvas. Here’s an example of that one-
I hope that you try out this method to get more from your pictures and more bang for your buck. I know that there’s nothing more annoying that printing a bunch of 4 by 6 photos and having to cut them all down. It’s such a waste. And using photoshop is much quicker and convenient at home rather than trying to create the photo collages at the Kodak picture maker in your local drugstore or supermarket. If you create them all at home you just have to hit that beautiful ‘select all’ button when you go to have your pictures developed!
Good luck!
xoxo
K
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