Lesson 3 - Event Lesson for "Oh, Shoot 2"

     Finally posted my collage for lesson 3.  I chose the trip to Georgetown Cupcakes.  It is featured in TLC's "DC Cupcakes".  The cupcakes were delicious and we did not have to wait any time at all to get our order.  We sat in the shop and devoured all 6 cupcakes in short order.  Vivian only wanted the frosting on her "Happy Birthday" flavored cupcake.  Greg got a Peanut Butter & Chocolate cupcake.  I ate a "Strawberry" flavored cupcake.  Lexie and I both ate a "Red Velvet" cupcake.  We shared bites of each others cupcakes.  It was a fun experience.  Tasty, too!

All photos:  Canon 60D, 50mm, manual mode

Photo 1: SS 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 400

Photo 2: SS 1/160, f/2.8, ISO 640

Photo 3: SS 1/160, f/2.8, ISO 160

Photo 4: SS 1/160, f/2.8, ISO 100



Today

     I thought I would try a masking technique that was new for me.  Instead of putting photos in the masks I used pattern paper.  I used one sheet of paper but used different opacities and blending modes for the variations.  I used Linear Light at 100% opacity, Color Burn at 100% opacity and Normal at 74% opacity for the various masks.  I thought it turned out very nicely.

 

Modern Master Template No. 4 by Tiffany Tillman

These Are The Days by Karen Funk

Font:  KG Cold Coffee

Last day of Jessica Sprague Birthday week challenges

    Today is the last day of the 7 Days in June Challenges.   There was no new freebie; the challenge was to use at least 3 items from the previous freebie kits.  I chose quite a few and some blenders to make a more artsy page.

Summer Fun by Cilenia Curtis, blenders, labels & filmstrip

Beach Party Bloghop by Splendid Fiin, paper

My Life at Play by Traci Stroud, paper

Freebie items from the challenges:

Watercolor Mask 8, Dreamy 10-1, paint 1 by Nancie Rowe Janitz

Point of View arrows by LivEdesigns

Font:  Legion Slab



Jessica Sprague Challenge - Day 4, 5 & 6

     While in Washington D.C., I missed the challenge on day 3 because the hotel room didn't have free Wi-Fi.  We figured out there was Wi-Fi in the lobby so I was able to do day 4.  I did day 5 Friday evening when we got back into New York City.  Today I finished day 6.

     Day 4 was an art journaling layout by Nancie Rowe Janitz.  She supplied some interesting paint drips, blotches and shapes.  We had just returned to the hotel from a day of sightseeing the monuments and the White House; it was SO HOT, we literally dripped with sweat.  The dripping paint overlays in the freebie kit reminded me of how hot we were all day.  The buildings reminded me of the beautiful buildings in D.C..  There were also lots of flowers everywhere, so I added flowers to the page.

 

Day 4 freebie kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz

Journal Your Art Out 5 by NRJ

Fonts:  KG Cold Coffee, Junebug, Lobster 1.3

 

 

     Day 5's Challenge was by LivEdesigns.  She had a kit with lots of arrows and the challenge was to use at least 10 arrows in the layout.  I decided to use one of Vivi's pictures from the hotel.  I particularly liked the hollow arrows and knew right away that I would recolor them the color of her clothes.  It's kind of simplistic in design, but I love the wistful feel of it.

 

 

7 Days in June Challenge freebie by LivEdesigns, arrows;

Sing for Spring by LivEdesigns, twill & paper

Scribbled alpha by Liv;

Paints by Julie Kneipp, Che Yang, Dawn by Design, Sue Cummings;

Font:  LoveMeForever

 

 

     Day 6 was by Nancie again.  She gave a set of overlays and masks to apply to photos for interesting treatments.  She had some examples using 4x6 photos, but I decided to stick with a 12x12

layout.  I only used the kit and one bit of word art from a different designer.  This photo was taken on Tuesday morning when Vivian was out back swimming in her little wading pool.  It is such a sweet picture of her and her mommy.  I wanted to highlight their kiss.

 

This is how I treated the photo:

 

Layer 1: nrj dreamy 9 :: normal mode, opacity 74%

Layer 2: colored photo :: opacity 51%

Layer 3: nrj watercolor mask 1:: recolored gray, linear burn mode, opacity 100%

Layer 4: b/w photo :: clipped to mask in center of layout

Layer 5: nrj dreamy boken :: multiply mode, opacity 58% clipped to b/w photo

Layer 6: word art

Layer 7: date

 

 

7 Days in June Challenge kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz

Sweet & Simple by Sue Cummings, word art

Font:  Estrangelo Edessa





JS 7 Days in June Challenge - Day 2

     It's day 2 of the birthday challenges.  This one is from Nancie Rowe Janitz.  She provided some fotofun brushes to apply to photos.  She also had some links for 4 new fonts.  I used just a couple of the brushes and one of her suggested fonts.  Earlier in the day I found a freebie template that layered papers and embellishments that I was dying to try.  Decided to use Brian's bandage pictures because they were kind of funny.

 

Freebie template by Kimeric

Open Wide by Megan's Creations, papers & elements

Chasing Rainbows & Home Town Proud by Dani Mogstad, leaf & ribbon

Are We There Yet by Britt-ish Design, tape

INsD freebie by Studio Flergs, tape

Fonts:  Peach Milk, Playtime With Hot Toddies

Jessica Sprague Birthday Party Challenge - Day 1

     Jessica Sprague.com is 6 years old and she is hosting a different challenge everyday for the next 7 days.  Liv of LivEdesign is first up with a free template and a challenge to do a comic layout.  This is right up my alley because I've been collecting superhero kits for a while.  I thought of Ewan instantly and decided to scrap his bicycling photos.
     Liv suggested a site for free comic book actions for photo treatments but I haven't used actions yet and didn't want to start today as this layout has to be finished and posted before tomorrow morning.  I used filter>sketch>comic as my treatment.  I worked the sliders randomly to get an effect I was satisfied with and applied it to all the photos.

 

Freebie comic template by LivEdesigns

Superpop by Dani Mogstad

Fonts:  Funny Kid, SF Slapstick Comic, Unmasked BB

 

Vivian's Ballet Recital

     I wanted to scrap Vivi's recital as quickly as I could since it was SO precious.  I had taken over 125 photos of the event but there were not that many good ones as the event was fairly dark and I only have a 50 mm lens. 
     I decided to scrap as many photos as I could and I figured a filmstrip type frame would be the best bet.  I found an interesting one that was stacked.  It took me HOURS to get this layout finalized.  I wanted to use yellow in the flowers to match the recital flowers.  The dark pink paper was interfering with the title and journaling so I opted to add the gray polka dots ( I LOVE POLKA DOTS). 
     The journaling took a long time, too.  I reworked it at least 5 times in order to tell the story of all the cute and humorous details.

 

Photocuts v1 by Carina Gardner, filmstrip

Transformation & Coming Home by Dawn by Design, paper & flower

September Blooms & Cocoa Love by Che Yang, butterfly & flower

Doodly Flower by Mindy Terasawa, flower

Bliss by Creashens, flower

One Moment by Rosey Posey Studio, flower

Miracle Boy by Scrapyrus, string

I Am Who I Am by Allison Pennington, flower

Fonts: JB Cursive-V3, Legion Slab

Together ... a quiet understanding

     There were a couple of photos that I took of Brian and Buddy at the turtle pond while I was practicing my landscape lesson for "Oh, Shoot 2, Advanced Composition".  The goal was to use the lighting during the "golden" hour (the hour before and the half hour after sunset).  Brian helped me with my shots of the water by throwing in some rocks for a splash effect.  While he was sitting there with Buddy, I got some nice shots of the two of them. 
     Yesterday, I saw a new kit by Audacious Designs at Pixels and Company that I just knew would be perfect for those photos.  I worked from 9 pm to 1:30 am on the layout.  I just couldn't put it away until it was finished.
     First up is the photo I posted for the lesson followed by the layout of Brian and Buddy.

 

SS: 1/1600

f/2.2

ISO 640

WB: Daylight

Manual Mode

50 mm, Canon EOS 60D

 

 

Camp Currie by Audacious Designs

Fonts: JB Cursive-V3, Chunk Five

 



Jessica Sprague Challenges

        There are two challenges this month at JS.com.  The first one I did was the Art Journaling challenge by Nancie Rowe Janitz.  She painted and scanned a background paper as inspiration for the challenge about COLOR.  After a bunch of attempts at blending, I decided to use it as is with an interesting quote about color.  I searched the net for quotes and just didn't find anything that fit me personally, so I went with something truer to me.  I tried to use some of NRJ's kits since it was her challenge.  This is what I came up with....

 

Journal Your Art Out 3 & 5 by Nancie Rowe Janitz, dolls & heart

Large heart freebie by NRJ

Doodly Flower alpha by Mindy Terasawa

Fonts: LL Rubber Grotesque, Café Lounge 19

 

 

 

     The second challenge was a scrapbooking challenge by Liv from LivEdesigns.  It required a template she designed which was inspired by Pinterest.  I wasn't very excited about it at first but once I started looking through my photos for things that I love, I got into it.  I decided not to feature people but things or events that pertain to me. 

     I, of course, had to tweak the template to reflect me so I added a background paper, elements and some paint splatter.  The font and journaling blocks are original to the template.

 

 

Freebie template by LivEdesigns

Soliloquy by Valerie Wibbens, elements & paper

52 Inspirations Week 23 by Sue Cummings, paint

Font: Century Gothic

 

 

Pixels & Company June Challenge

     It's time for another challenge from P & C.  I decided to go for the CEO level again.  My last effort garnered an invitation to be a guest creative member for the month of July.  I will need to create 4 layouts using new kits from their designers.  I have the chance to make more layouts using their kits if I want.  I believe that the kits are free if I use them during my creative team member month.  It is quite a challenge and a privilege.  Needlesstosay, I'm nervous and want to do a really good job.
     The CEO layout for June was fairly tricky.  The layout photos had to be about a celebration.  One of the photos had to be a close up and there had to be two different treatments (edit techniques) of the photos.  I don't have a lot of photo treatment ideas yet, so I opted to make one black and white.  To make the b&w photo more interesting, I made a layer mask of it and erased back the colorful candles on his birthday cake.
     The layout had to be in the upper half of the page with a visual triangle and a brush foundation.
     The title had to be an adverb that intersected with the journaling.  There also had to be 3 word strips. 
     Once I decided on Ewan's third birthday party I looked for a cheerful kit from one of the P&C designers.  This site requires that 25% of the layout must be from their shop.  I have a LOT of Mye De Leon kits since I bought a bunch of them when she was trying to raise money for her little boy's surgery.  The ki tI chose had a cute tag that I thought would make interesting frames and the design grew from there.   I thought it turned out GREAT!  I particularly like the way the string turned out.

 

You Are My Sunshine by Mye De Leon

Daydream Believer by Shannon McNab, brad

Font:  Pea Gemini Jen, Chunk Five

Mother's Day

     I started out making a challenge layout for Pixels and Company.  I had these two photos in mind.  When I put the one of Ewan hugging Rachel's neck in a small frame, it just didn't do it justice.  It had to be BIG.  Problem was--big wouldn't work for the challenge.  So onward to just a layout for me.  I played with some blending and opacity for the background paper and the photo.  The photo is blended at Color Burn and the paper is set at 63%.  I had to make a duplicate of the lower portion of the paper at full opacity since I liked that better.
    I added the flourish last and loved its look but noticed that the original placement made it look like it was coming out of Ewan's nose.  So I had to move everything a little bit.  I didn't want to lose the flourish so I tweaked the placement which made the journaling come in too far from the edge, so I added more journaling to the story to expand it to fill the space.  I think it has an artsy look  I posted it at Pixels & Company and Jessica Sprague.com.

 

Let It Be Me by Mye De Leon, elements & paper

La Boheme by Mye De Leon, frame

Font:  KG Eyes Wide Open