helena's creative maven

how to summarise a fabulous month in NZ

2012-01-31T03:02:00.001Z

a quiet day for the last day of my holiday and some time to play in PSE to create some summaries

I entered the names of all the people I saw, places I went and things I did into wordle then copied into PSE to create an image I can print like a photo. (and yes I spotted mis spellings as soon as I deleted the text document!!).

Then I listed some numbers – I like to count things. I used the colour picker in PSE to make the font the same colours as in the wordle.

These will go into my Project Life pockets (when they are available in the UK) along with lots of photos of collected ephemera.

time for play

2012-01-27T08:27:00.000Z

I have been taking some photos of strong plant shapes with the thought they would be good for photoart and textures. When I read Bonnie’s suggestion for Friday PhotoArt of an abstract piece containing 3 photos and one of her textures I decided to spend an hour playing – I have PSE on the notebook that I take on my travels.

The textures I used were Yesteryear on darken and Life is Good on Pin light. I enjoyed the mix of curves and strong shapes. I still find the idea of making abstract art from photos a stretch but am enjoying the process and look forward to seeing what others have done.

While I was playing with textures in PSE I also worked on a photo I took at the Farmer’s Market because the composition grabbed me as a strong still life. I used the backlit texture on vivid light

In the frame

2012-01-22T21:46:00.001Z

Enjoying my holiday with plenty of sunshine and beach walks and catching up with friends.

As I’ve visited several of the regional parks in Auckland I’ve been reminded of the huge frames that are erected in each park to encourage photos.

and used my timer on one to get a photo of me and Sandra – not as sharp as could be but focus with the timer is tricky.

They really seem to encourage group photos and camera fun. Has anyone seen these anywhere else around the world?

a day at the races

2012-01-08T21:57:00.001Z

Journaling reads

When asked if I want to go to a spectator event, my default response is ‘yes’. So on Sunday I watched harness races – when the jockey is in a little two wheel cart behind the horse and the horses trot.

Each race lasts 2-3 minutes and there is one every half an hour. The time in between is for the all important assessment of the horses in the next race and the placing of the bet.

First we looked at how well the horses had done in previous races – with no success. Then I took to waiting until the horses paraded and trying to assess which looked focused and lively. I won $26 on one race when I picked a horse who looked interested and energetic. Overall my winnings covered my costs.

The rest of the time we people watched. Kids running around and waiting for the girl with the baskets of free gifts (juice, jelly beans, nachos). Committed betters who recorded the results on each race and had the book with lots of detail on the horses. The locals who were clearly there to catch up with people and share a good gossip. I also loved the bright colours and geometric designs on the jockeys’ jackets.

All together a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and another spectator event ticked.

The bright patterns worn by the jockeys inspired me to add some pattern paper to the layout!

Have you been to a harness race?

Beach walks

2012-01-05T20:04:00.001Z

I’ve had some lovely beach walks this week

Yes, your right these are not my usual beach. I’m in New Zealand (where I used to live) enjoying a southern hemisphere summer and seeing old friends.

I hope to bring you some glimpses of NZ over the next few weeks – scenery and kiwi life

2012

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

memories, dreams and reflections 2011–part 3–the seasons

2011-12-30T10:11:00.001Z

Back to the computer after a relaxed family Christmas with plenty of yummy food and laughter, a jigsaw, lego and very few photos.

Looking through my photos from the year, I picked out items for Ashley’s list to represent the seasons – hard to pick one. I found it hard to focus on the photos that I had rather than the image that I have in my head for each season. I only have photos of snow on one day in 2011 but nothing else said winter to me!

I regularly take photos of my feet – I have done for years. These also provide a nice summary of the seasons: spring I’m walking the beach but still in boots, summer I’m in the garden weeding and in light shoes, autumn there are fallen leaves and I’m back in boots; and the snow and my wellies for winter. [Frame from The CoffeeShop Blog].

My ornaments’ first outing since 2008

2011-12-21T07:27:00.000Z

Tis the season for a jigsaw

2011-12-19T09:19:00.001Z

With my work commitments finished and endless rain and it getting dark at 3.30pm I’ve been enjoying working on a jigsaw. Growing up we always had a jigsaw on the table over Christmas for everyone to add to. We still generally complete a jigsaw together at sometime over the festive break Finishing this jigsaw last night I was thinking about jigsaws and Christmas and thought of one of my favourite relaxed photos from Christmas 2007.

In 2007 I was living in New Zealand and rented a holiday beach house with some friends for Christmas week. This is us doing a jigsaw under the sunshade in the front garden looking out over the water – the blue strip you can see above the fence. We did several jigsaws as a relaxed, communal activity in the shade.

Are jigsaws part of your Christmas traditions? as a way to enjoy the shade or the dark evenings?

First snow

2011-12-12T07:15:00.000Z

Our first snow of this winter inspired me to create a layout – while making it I realised I haven’t created one for several months and can’t think why.

The template is one of this weeks free items from Kate Pertiet, including the winter clusters behind the photos, making it an easy creation.

Journaling: What a surprise when I opened the blinds on Saturday morning – it was white.

I put on my red wellies and headed out with my camera before it all melted. Walking by the river I liked the contrast of the dark trees.

It was all gone by the evening – this kind of snow I can deal with – seasonal photos and no disruption.

I know grabbing the camera hasn’t always been my first reaction to snow – making a snowman and staying inside have been my normal reaction over the years. Have those of you in areas that get snow in December had any yet?

‘tis the season for lights and cards

2011-12-09T07:52:00.000Z

Last weekend the local community council had its annual torchlight parade along the highstreet with local pipebands and lots of local families – all kids who take part are given a chocolate selection box at the end. According to the notice the parade finishes with carol singing but actually the band played and a few people murmured some words but there was no great joining of voice in song. it would help if the organisers chose carols that lots of people know and had someone on the microphone to lead the singing – maybe next year. No-one minded though – we were there for the lights (and the chocolate, and when there aren’t renovations in the theatre for mulled wine and a mince pie). The lights are lovely – there are the usual ones on the streetlamps but I love the light wrapped trees.

I’ve added a tree image and a second button to my ‘tis the season button for my recording of the seasonal sightings and happenings.

I personalised some stocking cutout cards that I bought and attached a chocolate tree decoration inside for some of the more young at heart of my family (including my nephews in their early 20s and my Nan who is 95!). I had to attach a small clothespeg to each so that it would stand up – js

‘tis the season for mincepies and the German Market

2011-12-07T07:41:00.000Z

About 10 years ago, while I was still living in New Zealand I read somewhere that each different mincepie eaten brought a month of good luck the following year. Since I love mincepies I adopted this habit for December and make sure that I have mincepies from 12 different sources to ensure a good year ahead.

I’ve eaten 2 types so far – the easy ones from highstreet bakers and both were very tasty with a good balance of pastry and filling.

I’m recording my seasonal journey with a button and journaling on photos – as the events happen. As with last year, my first sign of the season was a visit to the German Market in the middle of Edinburgh – yum hot chocolate and big pretzels as well as lots of pretty gift ideas

Memories, dreams and reflections 2011–part 2

2011-12-05T07:34:00.000Z

Continuing with this scavenger hunt of 2011 memories organised by Ashley on Ramblings and Photos.

I’m enjoying finding the items in my archive at random – here photos are from May, June, August and September. I will include at least one other travel photo as part of this project because it was so hard to choose just one.

The one of me and my friend on the beach makes me laugh – I do have some when we are facing the camera as we played with the timer function – but I think the body language says more in this one – and I know we are both laughing at having to run to the location and then walk casually.

Playing with bare trees

2011-12-02T07:27:00.000Z

One of the things that I like to photograph at this time of year is bare trees silhouetted against the sky. With the strong winds we have been having recently there are plenty of trees that have lost all of their leaves – the trick is capturing them when there is a blue sky behind!

For Photo art Friday we were encouraged to experiment again so I played with some of my bare tree photos.

Here I used the invert filter again – to turn the tree white. Then I added Bonnie’s wicked texture on vivid light and got this spooky image that I think looks as if it is bathed in very strong moonlight

Next was a photo I took in town of the trees and monuments on top of a hill

I started by using a Pioneer Woman action to turn it to black and white so as to dramatise the silhouettes. Then I added some textures and stumbled upon an interesting effect. There are several layers that create the action effect and I accidently put the texture between these layers and discovered that it produces an interesting muted effect. I will definitely play with this discovery some more. The textures here are Bonnie’s Old Master dust and unconditional – both on colour burn.

And finally I used a tree silhouette to apply the polar coordinates distort filter which I saw applied in something I read over the summer (sorry can’t remember where). Ever since I saw it I have been trying the effect of different photos because getting the right photo to use makes all the difference to the result. This is amongst the best I’ve created. It reminds me of one of the illustrations in the book The Little Prince.

I’ll be taking more photos of bare trees this month so that I can create some more dramatic photo art with them. Are you a fan of photographing bare trees?

Memories, dreams and reflections 2011–part 1

2011-11-28T07:28:00.000Z

Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos has set an interesting photo quest as a way to reflect on the year. She has a list of 25 items and invites us to share photos that fit the categories between now and the end of the year.

The idea appealed so I decided to play along. I want to print them out so I created a 8 x 8 page with a collage and brief description.

I’m doing the items on the list in no particular order. I’ll create and post one page each week.

Anyone else playing along with this exercise?

Photo art from the archives

2011-11-25T07:16:00.000Z

For Photo Art Friday this week Bonnie proposed that we all look through our archives and post a piece from the past that deserved another showing.

I thought it would be fun to show my first use of a texture and blending modes – the texture was from ShadowHouse Creations. I created it as part of creativity bootcamp in response to the prompt ‘hush’. I still really like it and haven’t lost the interest in applying textures.

I also came across this image which for some reason I have never posted. I know it has a linen or canvas texture applied but don’t know which one.

Do you have the 1st instance of using a technique that you now use all the time?

Istanbul–I believe

2011-11-21T07:34:00.000Z

Last week I had my third work trip to a big city for a workshop. I know that I was in Istanbul but the suburb and our hotel could have been in any large city. There were lots of tall apartment blocks, busy roads, lots of cafes (including Starbucks) and some corner shops selling basic supplies. There was a school and yellow taxis and buses crammed full of people.

One clue that this was Turkey was the flag flying in the school playground. And form my bedroom window on the 16th floor, in the distance I could see the shape of large domes and turrets of the large mosque on the hill in the middle of town.

Unfortunately I did not have any free time on this trip so did not get into the middle of town to see the bazaar or historic sights.

So I decided to have just 2 pages for Istanbul in the photo book I’m creating with some Biograffiti templates.

I haven’t shown the text because it has details of the people at the workshop.

I included some photos taken from the plane on my flight back as they show the snow capped mountains and a glorious sunset.

That’s it for my trips this year but I will continue this album next year as I’m likely to be running workshop in more big cities.

abstract pixels

2011-11-18T07:45:00.000Z

Another fun play session for Photo Art Friday. I was inspired by Carola Bartz’s piece last week where she inverted the image so I opened up several photos and inverted them all. One photo of flax leaves – now in shades of blue – attracted me because of the lines. I found that the change in colours freed my eye to see the image as abstract rather than an object. Then I flipped it horizontally and then the 2 images vertically to create this kaleidoscope effect.

Thanks to Bonnie for encouraging us to experiment and play with photo art. Check out what everyone else has been up to here.

Taking Phoebe to Battery Park

2011-11-15T07:17:00.000Z

OK so the Phoebe in my title is the name of a texture from Kim Klassen that she wanted us to use for Texture Tuesday this week and I applied it to 2 photos that I took in Battery Park, at the bottom tip of Manhattan when I was there.

First applied to the fabulous statue erected to commemorate all the immigrants who entered the USA there.

the original was dark and I like the way the texturizing brings out different aspects of the figures

Then I applied the texture to a photo of the Statue of Liberty taken from the shore, with flowers from the remembrance garden in the foreground. I was pleased with the composition when I took it and love the results of my texturizing

Check out Phoebe’s other adventures at Texture Tuesday

Frosted fruit and flowers

2011-11-11T07:34:00.000Z

Bonnie invited us to try a photoart technique that we do not usually use. I’ve been wanting to create a collage of abstract textured images that all use the same texture.

The photo in the middle is the texture applied to all of the others – it is the frost on the car windscreen taken last year. I applied it to various photos of fruit and flowers from my collection and used mostly colour burn and overlay blending modes, plus one on difference.

I like the balance of repetition and difference

To see what else people have been experimenting with visit Pixel Dust Photo Art

NY through my camera

2011-11-10T07:44:00.000Z

An eclectic mix of images that together made up my 9 days in the city. Some are events that I happened upon and some are sites we see on the TV all the time. I love the range of templates in the Focus Biograffiti album set that I am using for this photobook of my travels.

Top left going clockwise:

taxis on Times Square – there are masses of them but never an empty one when you need one!

there were a lot of mounted police around the financial area because of the protests – these 3 are outside Lehman brothers and seemed to sit all day rather than moving around

fabulous views from Battery Park at the bottom of the island – skyline is how I think of the city

Red M&M on a massive electronic billboard in Times Square – do they really make that much from chocolates?

The wall street protestors

Show hoardings in Time Square. I went to see Mama Mia which was fabulous – such energy and fun

In a subway station – efficient and functional and utilitarian

One of the 9/11 memorials – this one a damaged statue now in Battery Park

One of the flags on the scaffolding around ground zero

Flags fly everywhere – something I really noticed as being different from the UK

Pizza by the slice – v yum and so many choices.

For the title page of the set of 4 for NY, I followed the same pattern as the Nepal set and featured the workshop, including me in action explaining something. I have filled the bottom box with a summary but I did not include it here as it includes details of the participants and facilitators.

I’m liking this format for the city summaries. Next up will be Istanbul.

Look up

2011-11-09T07:33:00.000Z

New York has to be portrayed in tall, thin images – its the shape of Manhattan.

Walking around the financial area where I was staying and attending the workshop there are many tall buildings and we did have to bend our necks back to see the sky. I had forgotten how many amazing art deco buildings there are in the city alongside the mirror glass that we see so much of now. I loved the contrast of architectural styles.

Top row – looking along the street my hotel is in; view from the 21st floor of the office block – with and without snow; glass and brick

Bottom row – Empire State building; the ubiquitous metal fire escapes on brick buildings; Liberty from Battery Park; Times Square as the natural light fades.

More of my NY pages tomorrow.

Halloween NY style

2011-11-08T07:24:00.000Z

When I heard the dates for my workshop in NY I was excited that it covered Halloween so I could see the special things in the shops. I was even more excited to hear about the annual Village Halloween parade and to find a spot where I could watch some of it. In fact the journey to and from the parade was equally entertaining as many adults were dressed up as anyone in costume can join the parade. Some amazing costumes – I absorbed the atmosphere and sights rather than trying to take crowd photos when it is dark.

I decided to focus one of my travel photobook NYC pages on Halloween

The large photo and the other one of skeletons are the puppets at the start of the parade. The cakes and loaf with the cat I spotted in shops. I ate some delicious dark chocolate cupcake with lurid orange frosting too. The carved pumpkins were outside an apartment block and the trough of pumpkins were outside a restaurant.

The template is by Biograffiti (being retired in November). More of my take on NY tomorrow.

Visiting Gotham City

2011-11-07T07:17:00.000Z

On my wanders around downtown Manhattan on Saturday before heading for the airport I turned a corner and found myself transported to Gotham City!! filming of crowd scenes for Batman were underway. I’m beginning to thing that ‘not typical’ IS typical in New York. I’ll have my glimpses of the city pages for you later in the week once my jetlag is gone and I can concentrate on picking photos.

In the meantime here are some groups of security personnel in Gotham City

not a typical October weekend in NY

2011-11-01T08:01:00.000Z

Snow in New York City in October for the 1st time since 1952 – on the weekend I visit !

Some was still in piles the next morning but the pavements were clear

I was expecting cold weather so I had come prepared with boots, coat etc.

The other site I walk past each day as I leave my hotel is the tent protest on Wall Street. On Sunday I took some photos. Of the protest

and the large groups of police in evidence

I also did a whole lot of more typical things – more on those later in the week

Shades of autumn–red

2011-10-31T06:40:00.000Z

No thinking or hunting needed for this one – it had to be my lovely shiny new wellies

The frame is another of the fabulous freebies on The Coffe Shop Blog

Check out other red shades of autumn here.

Making nature psychedelic

2011-10-28T07:20:00.000+01:00

Yes, the big image was created using only the 4 photos on the right which I took on a walk earlier this week – mixed together using blending modes in PSE. I like the idea of my shadow against a psychedelic river.

I used the colour palette frame from the CoffeeShop Blog.

Check out other photo art created with digital magic on Pixeldust Photo Art

shorter days do have a silver lining

2011-10-27T07:14:00.000+01:00

I’m not a fan of short days. One of the things I love about living in Scotland are the long evenings with plenty of daylight.

But, I have to admit that this week the shorter days have delivered some fabulous light on my daily walks.

At 4.30pm along the river

and coming back in the other direction

and then in the morning by the sea

and when the sun came from behind the clouds

I’m loving how my familiar views are taking on new looks with the amazing light of the golden hour that I’m actually seeing due to the shorter days. Have you been noting the change in light at the moment?

In a New York state of mind

2011-10-25T07:40:00.000+01:00

My next trip is to New York City so I’m looking for suggestions from my lovely blogland friends who have experience of the great city on things to see and do and eat.

I’m there for work so only have free time in the evening and, I hope one afternoon and a Saturday morning. My hotel and the workshop venue are in the financial district. I’m interested in any suggestions of places to visit in Manhattan that I wont have read about in the ‘top 10 things you must do’ guides – shops, photo-ops, walks etc.

In particular I’d welcome suggestions on things to eat. I’m going to buy some candy corn and other Halloween related treats – what else?

And for my non-American friends – I’m open to some photo scavenger hunt challenges to hunt down on my trip – yellow taxi cab; statue of liberty; Halloween decorations – what else??

Shades of autumn–orange

2011-10-24T07:56:00.000+01:00

While searching for orange in the gardens I pass on my daily walk I discovered that the vast majority of berries and rosehips are red – a deep red, red. I did find a few that were orange – and appreciated all the more for being unusual. A nice range of oranges from the yellow to the red ends of the range. I love the colour contrast with both the green leaves and also the blueblack of the iron fence. Check out what others found in orange for this weeks shades of autumn

Frames are again from The Coffee Shop Blog

Wrapping up the week with some photo art

2011-10-21T07:30:00.000+01:00

To end my week of memory keeping with photos of my Kathmandu trip, I played with some of the photos and textures to create some photo art to share on Photo Art Friday.

I loved these flowers that were floating in a large tub in the hotel lobby. I included them in my photo page about the hotel which I posted yesterday.

For the art I added Bonnie’s medieval magic texture on linear light blending mode at 50% and then her dappled dawn texture with the same blending mode and opacity. Then I applied the rough pastels filter for that painted look. I love the vibrant colours.

Red brick in common in Kathmandu – this is in the hotel gardens. I added Bonnie’s fanciful texure on colour burn blending mode at 58% and them her medieval magic on colour dodge mode at 62%.

Finally I really went to town on one of the landscapes that I included in my post on Monday and created an almost abstract piece. I can imagine it as a silk print

I applied Bonnie’s dappled dawn texture on luminosity blending mode at 100% and then duplicated the photo and used hard light blending mdoe at 14% to bring back a small amount of the building details.

Thanks to Bonnie for the fabulous wild textures and the prompt to share photo art each week.

more of Kathmandu trip

2011-10-20T07:20:00.000+01:00

I’ve decided I’m going to have 4 pages for each place in my photobook of my current work trips. I’m using templates from Biograffitti who is running a retirement sale at oscraps at the moment if anyone needs some great album templates.

The above will be the first page. I have written about the workshop and trip in the bottom block but it contains too many details about other people so I’m not showing it here. I did manage to get one photo of me at the workshop – looking rather colonial with the cup of tea !! I loved the tables all ready for the workshop with the flowers and marker pens.

pages 2 and 3 will be the one of Kathmandu buildings from Monday’s post and what the women were wearing from yesterday’s post. Then page 4 features the hotel and the fabulous views of the snow capped mountains of the Himalaya range behind the city hills.

I loved the bright flowers that were displayed all around the hotel. And that large lounging seat in my bedroom was fabulous for relaxing and looking at the view, checking e-mails and blogs etc. I didn’t take a photo of the outside of the hotel because it was a dull modern building.

Nepalese women are so vibrant

2011-10-19T07:25:00.000+01:00

I was in Kathmandu to conduct a workshop which had many women participants who were all quite happy for me to photograph their lovely clothes. I used another Oscraps template for a page.

Most of them wear the long tunic over leggings and have a matching scarf. A few wear a sari although they said these were more often kept for special occasions as they have not pockets and are not practical when moving around a lot. Several of the women were wearing western style clothes but didn’t photograph them.

I love the bright colours that many of them wear and the patters. The one on the top row, 2nd from the left, is woven cotton from hill tribe designs. On the bottom row, 1st picture, the 3rd women’s tunic has amazingly detailed embroidery in gold thread all over the front.

Interesting that this style which they have been wearing for generations is very similar to how many western women dress at the moment with the popularity of a dress or tunic over trousers or leggings.

More of my trip photos tomorrow.

Kathmandu

2011-10-18T07:10:00.000+01:00

Kathmandu is a spectacular city, ringed by hills and then the mountains behind. The buildings are tightly packed, tall and often look either rundown or unfinished. Cables and wires are strung all over the place, including big bundles of cable. In many buildings there are shops on street level with 2 or 3 levels of housing above that. There are small Hindu and Buddhist temples scattered around everywhere (which I didn’t photograph).

I love the vibrant colours with all of the brick and the painted walls and plenty of trees as well. Many buildings have plants on the roof and a relaxation place.

I also like how these photos seems to have captured the strong light and also the distant haze.

I used a template from Biograffitti (who has a retirement sale over at Oscraps). I’m going to use the set of templates to create a photobook of my trips. Photos of what the women wear tomorrow.

Shades of autumn–yellow

2011-10-17T07:59:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Nepal at the end of the Dashain festival so was treated to lights and decoration everywhere. The festival is the biggest of the year and when many people make their annual trip to visit family.

I was on the lookout for yellow as the shades of autumn colour this week and found plenty in the special decorations – yellow and orange flowers are used to decorate the temples. Interesting to see that yellow is associated with celebrations at this time of year in other cultures too.

The ‘web board’ is again the Coffee Shop Blog.

I’ll share some more photos from Nepal over the rest of the week.

look at my view !!

2011-10-12T13:44:00.000+01:00

This is the glorious view from my hotel room in Kathmandu – part of the Himalaya range of mountains. This one taken as the sun was setting so the snow is lit and stands out more.

just a taste til I get to faster internet connection.

Shades of Autumn - green

2011-10-10T08:16:00.000+01:00

I’m joining in the shades of autumn photo challenge which is running over the next 8 weeks with a colour specified each week for photo inspiration.

The trees around me either bare or green at the moment and with all the rain that we have have recently, the grass is also looking lush. I took these on a walk last week.

The frame is from The CoffeeShop Blog.

hydrangeas

2011-10-07T07:32:00.000+01:00

What with overcast weather meaning few photos and lots to do workwise, the only creativity I’ve managed in the last week is some photo art prompted by Bonnie’s Photo Art Friday

I combined a closeup of hydrangea bloom with a photo of the river and tried all the different blending modes. Then I was thinking about ways to compare the effects and ended up showing 2 effects in each image (I used a gradient mask). The frames are from The Coffee Shop Blog

I will definitely be playing with this merging again.

that golden hour

2011-09-30T07:26:00.000+01:00

One thing that I like about autumn is that I am out and about during the ‘golden hour’ which is so good for photos. On Saturday we took a walk with cameras around the harbour and caught wonderful reflections and soft warm light on the walls and great shadow and silhouettes.

Here are a sample that I tweaked in PSE

I added a brush stroke filter – brushed edges and cropped for the panoramic dimensions.

I changed the levels and hue slightly to emphasise the sunlight and shadows

In both of these I placed the camera close to the plants growing on the wall and angled so that the sky was behind them. I added Bonnie’s dappled dawn texture in soft light.

My sister is sitting on the steps taking photos. I used the poster edge filter (my new favourite). I love the colours in this one.

All together I enjoyed tweaking the photos with subtle effects, sometimes less is more.

I’m linking up with Friday Photo Art – loving the range of images that people are sharing.

recognising the everyday shot

2011-09-28T07:18:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I walked into my living room and looked at the sofa and thought – that is an everyday shot – it sums up part of my life right now.

I used it with an overlay from Cathy Z and printed as a normal size photo. This is becoming my favourite method of memory keeping.

Have you had one of those moments or shots recently?

Planning a travel album–suggestions please

2011-09-26T08:31:00.000+01:00

I’m gathering ideas for a special travel album.

Over the next 3 months I will be working in 4 or 5 different cities on 3 continents: Kathmandu in Nepal; New York city in USA; Istanbul in Turkey and Nairobi in Kenya. I’m facilitating workshops for United Nations Development Program aimed at encouraging the people who run elections to do more to ensure that women participate in the elections. Because the trips are for work I won’t have the opportunity to go sight seeing but I do want to record my impressions of each place.

I’ve talked before about some of the approaches I’ve taken to memory keeping on the move to suit different situations. For a family holiday where we took masses of photos – capturing everyone’s visual memory. For a long nomadic journey – a daily journal. For a relaxed holiday – taster tags. I will probably take my tag kit to record the little stories.

I also thought it would be fun to compare the places seeing as I am going to such different cities over a short period of time. So I was thinking I want to establish a few themes and make sure I have photos of each for each city and then I will create some pages that compare cites by theme (my social scientist’s love of categorising is ever present!). Looking back on the photos I took in Dhaka (Bangladesh) when I was working there last year, three themes emerge.

I enjoy eating local food wherever I am and also recording the related rituals of the day like the cup of tea. Although I will be staying in big hotels in each place, all designed for business traveller, I know that there will be differences in the food. Probably sub-themes are breakast; what I drink and dinner.

All of these photos were taken out of the window as I was driven between my hotel and office. I like taking these kind of photos so this will be a good comparison theme too.

Some of these are taken from the window of my hotel or office and others on a walk by the lake.
I also have lots of photos of the workshops and participants which will make another good theme. I’m thinking some details of each hotel would also be good.

What other themes would you suggest? Remember I can’t count on having time to visit places other than my hotel and workshop venue so photos will be what I happen upon rather than being able to seek things out.

I’ll be asking for food and other suggestions for NYC nearer to my departure on that bit of the trip.

feet

2011-09-23T07:38:00.000+01:00

Last week I was in town, near the University campus, sitting enjoying a coffee and idly watching all the new students walking around. I became really interested in the range of shoes and boots.

I set my camera on the table, pointing at the pavement, and clicked away as people walked by. I took 25 in about 10 minutes. The general plan for displaying them evolved in my head on my bus journey home. I’m pleased with it as a snapshot of life in UK in 2011

I’m linking this up to Friday Photo Art over at Pixel Dust Photo Art. head over and check out what others are doing – I’m loving the creativity and variety there.

Summer scavenger hunt–final instalment

2011-09-22T08:30:00.000+01:00

I’ve had heaps of fun doing this scavenger hunt. I’ve visited places I wouldn’t otherwise have visited; been excited to see a unicyclist; and obsessed about pirates.

I really liked the variety of items on the list and having several months to find them. Sharing the excitement with others in blogland as they found items added to the fun – I liked the feeling of a collective hunt for pirates and street art etc.

I’m two short, funnily they are next to each other on the list. Here is what I managed.

Looking at them all together they represent different aspects of my summer.

Thanks Rinda – looking forward to the next one !

it was windy

2011-09-20T07:22:00.000+01:00

Last week we had strong wind – not on the scale of the hurricanes – but noticeable. I was surprised to see that the wind had toppled most of the benches in Princes Street Garden. Wonder what kept the occasional bench upright.

I added some textures to make the large grass and pavement areas more interesting and the texture really brought out the shadows. I used two from Kim Klassen – Silent Night (overlay blending mode) and Stamped softly (linear burn blending mode). The font is Britannica Bold.

I’m linking up to Kim’s Texture Tuesday where this week we were free to use any subject matter and any of Kim’s textures.

bubbles

2011-09-19T07:18:00.000+01:00

journaling reads

Bubbles, big bubbles, I mean really big - I had to stop and watch.

All they were using was string looped onto canes and a big bucket of liquid - so much fun from such simple tools.

I’d watched jugglers and unicyclists and people sitting on tall poles and squeezing through tennis racquets and hoola hooping but these bubbles were my favourite street entertainment at the Fringe this year.

The big word art I used as the title is from Ali Edwards – I’m really enjoying using several of her overlays at the moment. The texture in the background is a texture from Pixel Dust Photo Art. I created the template – probably subliminally inspired by Cathy Z.

Are you a bubble fan?

When you date a layout to you put the date you created it or, as I have here, the date the event took place?

Renaissance plums

2011-09-16T08:10:00.001+01:00

Linking up with Bonnie’s Photo Art Friday again. I love the depth and warm colours in this image.

The plums came from my Dad’s garden and are now chutney but the colours inspired me to take some photos before I cut them up. I then used several layers of Bonnie’s Old Masters texture to create this look. Love the effect that it has on the colours and contrast.

95

2011-09-14T08:10:00.000+01:00

My Nan turns 95 this week. She’s too frail for a big party like she had for her 90th but she will enjoy receiving lots of cards and recognition of her age.

I had a look in the shops for a 95 card but there are very few and non appealed. I had the same trouble trying to find a 50th wedding anniversary card earlier this year. Surely neither event is so rare that the card companies can all but ignore them.

Anyway I decided to make a card instead so gathered some supplies in gold and red – my Nan’s favourite colours. She likes bling too but I didn’t have any in my stash. The numbers are sold to put onto wheelie bins – I thought they would make a good stencil and make the number the real star of the card.

I used the gold for the card base; cut the numbers from the red; added gold ink to the flowers. I used foam tape to attach the numbers.

It’s on its way in the mail now to make sure it is there by Saturday.

And here’s a photo of my Nan and Gramp with me as a baby – their first grandchild

and this one has 4 generations – my Mum is on the left and my Nan’s stepmum is sitting.

autumn glow

2011-09-13T08:03:00.000+01:00

I spotted these plants clinging to crevices in a brick wall when snatching a walk between rain showers on a very blustery day.

All have been texturised with Kim Klassen’s autumn glow texture using the colour burn or overlay blending modes which really bring out the contrasts in colours between plants and brick. Check her texture Tuesday for other uses of this versatile texture.

The frame is from the Coffee Shop blog.

keeping it simple

2011-09-12T07:51:00.000+01:00

More and more I’m drawn to recording memories by writing on a photo and adding frames or wordart.

Here I used a gradient layer to fade the photo on the left to give a clean space to write. The ‘document’ is from a pack by Cathy Z

Is anyone else watching the rugby?

Imagining

2011-09-10T07:57:00.000+01:00

About three quarters of all the novels I read are in the sci-fi or fantasy genre and I enjoy the related art that imagines different worlds. Often there are familiar elements but the colour of sky is different and contains large, colourful moons or planets. I decided to use this as a theme in some digi art play.

The foreground is a photo I tool last week and the basis of the sea and sky is a photo I took the week before. I added texture from ShadowHouse Creations and then used some Dark Design planet brushes.

I enjoyed playing and like the mix of real and imagined.

I was prompted to play and create some photo based art by the new Photo Art Friday at Pixel Dust Photo Art. I intend to play along each week with a photo based piece. Pop over and see the wonderful range of art that people have created and shared.

Summer photo hunt–instalment 11

2011-09-09T07:47:00.000+01:00

‘The hunt has got to her’ I can hear you thinking ‘there are no crocodiles on the list, or butterflies, or animals decorated with butterflies’

Don’t worry, the pressure of finding the final items hasn’t got to my sanity – this is part of a political protest that I stumbled upon when I was in town this week.

The animals have been decorated by artists and will be auctioned to raise money. In the meantime they are hiding around the city. The website says that the concept will travel to other cities worldwide.

love fireworks

2011-09-05T15:41:00.001+01:00

The Festival Fireworks end the Festival season with a fabulous display that many in Edinburgh enjoy for free for various vantage points around the city. The local radio transmits the live concert so that everyone can enjoy the full spectacle, not just those with tickets for the Prince’s street area.

I love fireworks. I always try to photograph them – taking masses in the knowledge a few will be OK. When I saw this template pop up on Scrapping with Liz today I knew it would work well for a selection of photos to give an overall impression and not focus on any one photo.

Journaling reads

ending with a BANG and lots of oohs and aahhs. This year we had a perfect vantage point for the Festival fireworks exploding off the castle and listened to the accompanying life music relayed on local radio. Incredible synchronicity between music and pyrotechnics. I remembered to watch and enjoy as well as press the camera shutter !!!

The font for ‘bang’ is Hootie with wow effects applied in PSE. The rest of the text is j.d. font.

Are you a firework fan and do you attempt photographs of them?

Summer photo scavenger hunt–instalment 10

2011-09-02T07:56:00.000+01:00

One of the questions on my mind this summer has been ‘what makes a pirate look like a pirate’? prompted of course by the item on Rinda’s scavenger hunt list.

This is what I had in mind

But unfortunately it is a statue I walk past and not the specified ‘person dressed as a pirate’.

On the first day of the Fringe I was hopeful of finding pirates and spotted these two

but was not convinced – seemed to be swashbucklers and lacking the skulls, missing limbs and parrot.

In the last week of the Fringe I saw that a group were advertising Pirates of Penzance so set off to find one of the performers in costume.

Not what I had expected but I asked him (Nathan) and he said he was in the pirate chorus. And he is holding the flyer for the show

So I’m using him as my pirate.

Summertime Scavenger Hunt–instalment 9

2011-08-26T08:17:00.000+01:00

Two more items from the list

an artist outside of the house – as part of the Fringe Festival activity

a handwritten sign listing the items for sale at my favourite cafe.

4 items still to get and filling them will be pure chance.

And I took the photo of myself to add as the big photo in the collage, and also the title.

Rinda – note I put the year on in the anticipation that you will repeat this exercise next year. And how about a winter version??

displaying my digiart

2011-08-24T08:11:00.000+01:00

I’d been wondering how to display my digiart pieces with the Dr Seuss quotes. Then I received an e-mail alert of a 48 hour special on printed mugs from the online photo printer that I use (Photoshop) and I had an accidental smashing time with some of my mugs.

So I ordered 5 mugs using the images in the colours that match my decor. The picture space is narrower than the pieces so I had to crop. With the brown one I divided the quote across two mugs.

I’m really pleased with the mugs. The colour and print quality is good and it is such a fun way to have my digiart displayed and used.

I will definitely be using my own art the next time I need to buy some mugs.

Have use had any photos or art printed onto mugs?

Dancing memories

2011-08-23T08:11:00.000+01:00

We had fun on Saturday evening attending a ceilidh, with a great caller for all those who did not know the dances. After a week of watching lots of performances in the Fringe Festival it was a nice change to be participating in the entertainment. As I went to school in Scotland, I learnt the basic dances there and the moves and rhythms came back to me easily. My feet seem to have a good memory for dances – but some of my muscles complained they were being used in new ways!

The room was dark and people were moving fast so my photos were all blurred. But I think they are a perfect candidate for some texture treatment – and with Kim Klassen’s theme for the week ‘back to school’ it all fell together nicely.

I used 2 texture layers – all that on multiply blending mode and canvas magic on linear dodge. The font is boring showers.

Summertime scavenger hunt–instalment 8

2011-08-19T08:18:00.000+01:00

I was hoping to come across this artist because I love to watch him work.

He uses spray paint, newspaper, old bowls and a blade to create amazing fantasy-scapes

The red plant on the right – the leaves were created using a sponge, the trunk was scrape with the blade to reveal earlier layers of paint and the blue plant was created using pleated newspaper.
He sells the pieces after they dry (takes over an hour, I overheard) and has a collection too. I’m happy to donate each time I watch him create.

I’m using one of these for the graffiti art item in Rinda’s scavenger hunt – because he is creating using spray paint cans and doing it in public

I love project runway

2011-08-17T08:05:00.000+01:00

Journaling reads

From the very first episode of series 1, I’ve been hooked.

I love any reality show that tests a group of experts but this is my favourite in the genre.

I love the range of challenges, including wacky ones and designing for larger models

I love Tim Gunn as the mentor and his plea to ‘make it work’

I love the silhouette at the start of the runway

I love the ritual of best and worst on the stage to be quizzed by the judges.

But most of all I love the design and the creations that the designers make, under immense pressure, each week.

I was prompted to create this layout by Shimelle’s prompt to use the title ‘I love’ coinciding with me watching the current USA series. I’ve watched the Australia series too and loved it, even without Tim Gunn. I also incorporated Shimelle’s prompt to use a cluster of 3 similar things as embellishment.

Are you a Project Runway fan?

Credits: template Cathy Z from Design Your Life class; hearts from Anna Aspena; Scrap Sisters, R Young and Paislee Press.

beautiful tropical beach

2011-08-16T08:00:00.001+01:00

I’m back on the layout roll. Creating my list for my Monday layout reminded me that I haven’t created a layout about my trip to Ille de Pines while holidaying in New Caledonia two years ago. I used Shimelle’s sketch of the week. I really like the 4 small photos in the strip as well as the focal photo. Pushing my normal approach by using a pattern paper as well as the textured papers and in adding the doodle like circles behind the papers.

Journaling reads
The quintessential tropical paradise beach – soft golden sand; turquoise water; safe bays and shoals of small, luminescent fish.
A 2 hours ferry ride from Noumea on the Betico means it is an easy and popular weekend day trip for locals and tourists alike.
The ship back was full of satisfied, tired, sun kissed people – and a fair bit of sand.

Credits - Date stamp – LLL creations. Circle doodle – Kim Klassen brusht. Word strips, perforated frames and papers from The blog train’s august bloghop – by kk simplicity paper; LollyPop Des Happyfun; ADD; jusmedigital. Font Maiandra GD

Looking back

2011-08-15T07:50:00.000+01:00

I’ve done plenty of digiart and photo enhancing recently but can’t remember when I last created a layout. So I took the challenge on Simple Aussie Girls to create a layout about me. I do create lots of layouts about me but am happy to add another. This one records my movement around the world and back over the last three decades.

Writing on photos – digitally and with pens – is rather a go to habit at the moment.

I’d happily print out just the image with the writing (after moving the date onto the image). I created this part first and then thought about putting it onto a more traditional layout size. I actually did two versions (one of the many possibilities I love about digi scrapping). Do you have a preference between the versions?

Summertime scavenger hunt–the unicycle instalment

2011-08-12T07:50:00.000+01:00

I said last week that I was hopeful of getting my unicycle shot now that the Fringe Festival had started in Edinburgh – and the first street entertainer who I saw on Saturday was indeed including a unicycle in his piece

I snapped a few more from the list too – I’ll share them over the next 2 weeks

Thanks to Rinda for the scavenger hunt and inspiration to hunt out happenings this summer.

Dr Seuss quotes–the full set

2011-08-10T07:25:00.000+01:00

The fabulous colour challenge is at its end, with an invitation to display the full set of pieces. Head over to Twinkle, Twinkle to see what others have created – a wonderful, diverse collection.

I’ve really enjoyed creating these pieces. I’m glad I decided on a theme at the start – including favourite Dr Seuss quotes and playing with the digiart potential inside PSE. I have learnt new techniques. More importantly I learnt to go further, to add more, to create several elements and then stack them up, to not stop the first time that I reach a stage that I find pleasing. The change happened on the yellow week when I created the ‘copper’ piece separately. I’ve printed them all as 5 x 7 with a white border so I don’t lose anything in the printing process. I will stick them back tot back and put on jump rings. I think I will create a cover in black and white and copy all the descriptions from the blog posts on the inside cover.

For now here is the full set. Do you have a favourite – quote or overall piece?

summer treat

2011-08-08T08:09:00.000+01:00

One of my summer treats is enjoying a coffee outside, by the beach – check out lots of other photos of summer treats at the Crazy days of summer.

Summertime scavenger hunt–instalment 6

2011-08-05T08:10:00.000+01:00

Staying vigilant for the remaining items on the list, I spotted two more

A glass building – this is the extension to one of the theatres

and some garden ornaments – the alternative to a decorated mailbox – seen in a DIY store

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival starts next week so hoping to find a unicyclist and a pirate there, maybe one of them will be staging a political protest, or carrying a beehive ?!.

I’ve become an abstract artist

2011-08-04T07:34:00.000+01:00

with my camera !! Went for a walk on the beach after ice-cream yesterday evening when the light was doing that amazing thing it does at dusk and the sky looked so big and the sea was smooth and the vista was shades of grey and blue.

These are the kind of abstract work I’d like to paint.

I didn’t do anything to them digitally (for a change).
I must remember to walk in the evening more often to make use of the amazing light

Oh the places you’ll go

2011-08-03T07:25:00.001+01:00

So sad that this is the last colour in the colour challenge at Twinkle Twinkle – I’ve relished my weekly play with digi techniques and looking at the wonderful range of creativity from others who participated.

I saved my favourite Dr Seuss quote for last – from Oh the Places You’ll Go – which I think should be given to everyone at each turning point or crossroads or down point in their lives – so pretty much everyone, all the time should have at least one on their shelf. I know at least one of you reading this has several.

So this week I decided to bar myself from using bevel as I have used that effect so much. Here I started with a photo or orange flowers from my garden and then applied several image altering and filter techniques. The one that gives the honeycomb lines is stained glass texture and I’ll be using it again. The fonts are travelling typewriter and Matisse for the highlighted words.

Now I need to find or invent a new theme for a weekly play with digiart.

salvaging some snaps

2011-08-02T06:50:00.000+01:00

It was actually sunny last week, so sunny that I could not see the image on the back of my camera. So I just pointed it in the right direction and clicked several times in the hope that when I got them on the computer I would be able to salvage some nice images with judicious cropping and perhaps some textures.

I used some textures to lighten up the shadows around the wall – Kim Kalssen’s ‘not too shabby’ on overlay blending mode and then her ‘luminous’ on multiply blending mode.

I think it gives a hazy beach effect that I really like.

The interesting composition is because my ‘point in the right direction’ was a bit off and I only just got my sister in the frame. I added Kim’s dream texture on overlay and then colour burn blending modes.

I really like that the words in the texture show on the wall – as if there was graffiti there. I removed the texture from my sister but nothing else. I like this as a subtle texturising.

On Texture Tuesday this week we were free to texturise as we wanted – check out what others have been up to here.

Summertime scavenger hunt–instalment 5

2011-07-28T16:05:00.001+01:00

Its festival week locally – the bunting is up in the High Street and on several houses in the neighbourhood.

The big event at the start of the week is a ride out that starts by fording the river, goes out to a ruined tower on an old battlefield then comes back into town, gallops along the beach to the harbour, two and a half hours later.

I watched and photographed the first bit – next year I’ll watch the beach section I think

[frame is from coffeeshop – they have a great selection]

On Friday I’ll watch the fancy dress parade along the main street and on Saturday the end of the final ride out as it walks down the high street – last year there were nearly 200 horses and riders.

I now have over half of the photos in the hunt list but only 3 more that I am confident of finding – all of the others will depend upon serendipity, remembering the missing items and having my camera with me at the right time.

the writings on the wall

2011-07-27T08:54:00.000+01:00

Purple – my favourite colour – is the challenge this week at Twinkle Twinkle and I’m using another of the more political Dr Seuss quotes with my digi art experimenting. Having chosen this quote, the phrase ‘the writing is on the wall’ kept circulating in my head so I used it as a pointer in my play and it seemed to go well with the power connotations of the colour purple.

The background used several gradients then a wall texture and grunge brush from ShadowHouse creations. The font is stencil and the hand drawn box is from Ali Edwards. As always I’ve used bevel layer style too – in this series it is the one effect I’ve used every week.

I’m really going to miss this series when the challenge ends – I might have to do some more on my own if there are more colours to use.

When you have some online browsing time have a look a the wonderful range of creativity that is posted weekly in responce to this challenge – you will find the linky list here.

the bizarreness of dreams

2011-07-26T07:22:00.000+01:00

When I was visiting my parents earlier this month my Dad showed me this image that he created as a student

He merged two photos in the darkroom, much like I do on the computer now – a reminder that playing with photos is not new.

I used the same idea of silhouette and textural image for Kim’s Tuesday Texture prompt this week – dream. For me dreams are usually a confusing merging of random elements.

I merged a photo of a flower bed with a photo of my shadow leaning of the rails of a bridge.

Then I added two layers of Kim’s scratched magic texture on hard burn to give the crumpled paper look.

I’m sure the interpretations will be very varied this week – check them out here.

Lots of activity on the beach …

2011-07-25T07:12:00.000+01:00

from other people, that is. With ‘motion’ the topic for Crazy Days of Summer I headed to the beach to gather some images to merge with the magic of Photoshop Elements to show movement.

These are the two that worked out the best

I was focussed on the dog but I also like the group of people moving across the sand in the background.

Here I love how the process of merging has made the sand and sea texturised.

If creating multi exposure merged photos like this is something you’d love to be able to do in PSE but you want someone to sit beside you as you go through the process then my one on one PSE tutorials could be what you are looking for – check them out here.

Summertime scavenger hunt – instalment 4

2011-07-22T08:03:00.000+01:00

Rain was an easy item on the list this week – here on the window beside my computer looking onto my flower garden.

Any an unexpected capture – on an off chance I asked my sister if she had any roosters about her house and she produced this one.

So I now have 9 of the 21 in my collage.

I’m confident I will capture a festival next week as one goes past my front door on Monday.

How are you getting on with your summer scavenger hunts?

love to have red wings

2011-07-20T08:08:00.000+01:00

As you can see red is this week’s colour over at Twinkle Twinkle with the added challenge to include a winged item.

I’m using this challenge to play with digiart techniques in Photoshop Elements creating canvases to display some of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes. I’m really enjoying the weekly play and am learning a lot about different techniques.

I’ve seen she art pop up in blogland and been wanting to try my hand at using the idea in my digiart and this seemed a good week to have a go. I’ll definitely be using this idea some more. Not sure which I covet more – her dress/top or wings.

Credits – canvas background from a Kim Klassen texture; splotches and drawn lines are brushes by Anna Aspena; wings from a brush by Becs Stock; paper used on dress BYD spring picnic – turned red; font is travelling typewriter. She art associated with Christy Tomlinson.

sometimes you just have to wonder why?

2011-07-19T07:57:00.000+01:00

Walking along by the beach I noticed this bench has its back to the view – not sure if it has been turned around or I just never noticed it before. But I did thin – why? don’t you see the lovely view?

Image enhanced with two layers of Kim Klassen’s aurora texture. For lots of other fabulous texturising with this texture head over to Kim’s Cafe for Texture Tuesday.

the critters on my plants

2011-07-18T07:48:00.000+01:00

The Crazy Days of Summer had me focussing up close on some of the plants this week – and not for the flowers.

These ants swarm all up and down one of my roses – don’t know why this one is particularly desirable. As far as I know they are not harming the rose so I leave them.

Which is not true of my next subject – I admit this is the first time I have squished something after photographing it but I am waging war on the slugs who seem to think that I plant lettuces for their benefit!!

If you are game for more up close encounters with other critters head over to the Crazy Days of Summer link up.

colour bloghop–July edition

2011-07-16T16:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my stop on the July colour bloghop. If you started at the beginning then you are almost at the end and I’m sure you have seen lots of lovely items using the blues, cream and reds of this months inspiration. If you have just happened upon the hop then the full list is at the end.

I decided to design a card this month – unusual for me, but that was how the muse took me when I sat down at my computer to create.

The canvas texture is from Kim Klassen, the stamp is from Kate Pertiet and the font is Stamp Act.

Safe travels as you hop over to Alysse.

http://amysoto.blogspot.com/

http://scribblesstickingstitchingstroking.blogspot.com/

http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

http://scrapyourlife.net/

http://craftygoodies.blogspot.com/

http://www.MichelleRoycroft.blogspot.com/

http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com/

http://www.curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrapworthylives.com/

http://adriennefalzon.blogspot.com/

http://www.vsws.typepad.com/

http:/handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com

http://throughthecameralens.typepad.com/

http://1200somemiles.blogspot.com/

http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com/ <<< YOU ARE HERE

http://alyssephotographs.blogspot.com/

Summertime Scavenger Hunt–instalment 3

2011-07-15T08:06:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Rinda’s scavenger hunt list I made a special trip to one of the old graveyards in town and took lots of photos. I suspect that she hoped her scavenger hunt would send us to some places we might not otherwise visit.

Item 13 is ‘A cemetery of historical significance or with an interesting story’. This place definitely has historical significance

and also an interesting story

[frames are my Katie Pertiett]

I never thought I’d write a photo laden post about a visit to a graveyard – but it was interesting – thanks Rinda.

having fun with collage

2011-07-13T16:24:00.000+01:00

Brown was the colour challenge this week at Twinkle, Twinkle, with the extra challenge of adding a pop of colour.

Continuing with some of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes – I had to include at least one of his more political sayings because for me they are integral to why I love his work.

My intention was to use a different set of digital art techniques each week and to just play. This week I created 6 canvases using gradients, brushes and bevels and then cut squares from each, created a collage and then cut a piece to use. I really love how this process changes the look of the pieces. The font is Stamp Art jumbled.

If you use Photoshop Elements for editing or scrapbook layouts but would love to experiment with some digiart then why not sign up for my digiart one on one tutorial session

anniversary BBQ

2011-07-11T08:02:00.000+01:00

Really in a LO groove at the moment.

Last week we had a BBQ to mark my parent’s Golden Wedding Anniversary (50 years).

As I say in the journaling – we planned a BBQ and luckily it was sunny after weeks of rain.

I have made a mini album for my parents (I will post photos when it is finished) and decided that for my album I wanted one simple page that captured the atmosphere. I may well create some other pages later with more of the photos.

For this layout I used a template by Katie Pertiett and made some changes. This is what it looked like originally. I changed the paper size, changed the title, moved the heart so I could use the box for journaling, and increased the photos so that the lines were over them rather than around them.

The font is Segeo Script

If you are intrigued by digital scrapbook layouts and using Photoshop Elements but would like some help getting started then check out my ‘getting started with pse’ one on one tutorials.

10 fantastic title fonts

2011-07-10T07:45:00.000+01:00

I love using letters and numbers in my creations – the biggest section of my embellishment collection is alphas and in digi it is no different – I have lots and lots of fonts.

Digitally I love to use different fonts for titles and for captions on photos but also to make subway art. I used my current 10 favourites on this creating subway art piece and have provided a link to the free download of each. Loading you new font is easy but varies according to operating system so google ‘download font on ‘ then your operating systems for instructions if you have not done it before.

get Universal fruitcake here

get Stamp act here

get sketch block here

get SF Action man here

get rub this! here

get Matisse here

get Lemon chicken here

get diesel here

get candles here

get boring showers here

Linking to 10 on the 10th with Shimelle – check out other decads there, judging by last month you will find great variety

K.I.S.S

2011-07-08T08:08:00.000+01:00

A reminder that keeping it simple is often the best route. I had been thinking of creating a LO but decided that the photo and the few words were all that I needed

At the weekend when visiting my family in the country, I spotted two pigs scratching on this farm implement in their field and obviously really enjoying the scratch.

A good reminder for the month – literally and metaphorically !

Summertime Scavenger Hunt–2nd instalment

2011-07-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

I visited my parents in the country at the weekend and bagged another three for the scavenger hunt – enjoying the extra items to look out for while out and about.

There is still time to join in – check out Rinda’s site for the list and task details.

Item 3 – a fire

just what was needed on the evening of a very sunny day – we did toast marshmallows (but smores are not a Scottish thing)

Item 10 – a wooden bridge

with the added bonus of a fabulous reflection on my morning walk

item 11 – a forest

mostly planted by my Dad to provide a sustainable fuel supply for the wood stoves in winter

Planning on a special trip for one of the items this week – I suspect this is an intended consequence of setting the hunt items.

no limits in digi creativity

2011-07-06T07:41:00.000+01:00

Really enjoying my weekly play for the colour challenge at Twinkle Twinkle – I like the constraint of using just one colour and I’m enjoying playing with different arty techniques within PhotoShop Elements. And the added pleasure of knowing they will all be part of a mini album with some of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes.

This week I started by working on the extra challenge which was to add metal – I could have brought in some metal look embellishments but decided to create my own metal piece. It was a lot of fun and I stumbled upon a method to make a copper metal look (use the wow chrome layer style effect and then add a copper gradient level).

Then to the yellow and given how dimensional the metal looked I wanted the same in the background so used the bevel effects several times.

I’m really pleased with the result – it went through lots of permutations but I made extensive use of what I think is my favourite aspect of digital creating - the undo button!

And I love the challenge of this quote – don’t be constrained by rules and received wisdom – in this case the idea that the alphabet ends at z. I love Dr Seuss’s zaniness.

If you would like to explore digiart techniques in Photoshop Elements have a look at my intro to digiart and one on one intro to digiart tutorial

Head over to Twinkle Twinkle to see other yellow creations – across a wonderful range of media.

3 photos I took 3 years ago

2011-07-05T08:28:00.000+01:00

For Texture Tuesday this week Kim’s challenge was ‘3’ – however we wanted to interpret that.

I started by looking at photos that I took 3 years ago when I was still living in Wellington, New Zealand. So some different photos – but similar themes to what I take now. I chose 3 to texturise.

A fantastic game of rugby – The New Zealand All Blacks beat the Irish team 21-11 in a lively game (I looked it up – my memory for details is not that geeky!).

It was cold and wet and the photo is taken from a distance under lots of strong lights. The texture lightened the grass and makes the players stand out more. Texture is luminous on soft light blending mode.

My coffee by the beach habit started in Wellington so this is a happy memory even though it was cold enough to be wearing boots.

Again the texture lightened and added contrast – luminous texture on soft light blending mode. Then I added the overaly as a nice placeholder for the caption – the font is Universal Fruitcake

And this is the beach that I photographed a lot in Wellington – those buildings are part of the airport (it has water at both ends of the runway).

I wanted to create an old postcard look with the texture. I was having trouble finding a blending mode that I liked on the water, the land and the sky but nothing was working on all 3 bits. So I used a different blending mode of different parts of the photo and erased the parts that I did not want then layered them together. I like this approach and will use it again. I used luminous texture again and the blending modes are – colour dodge on the sky, colour burn on the water and hard light on the land. The font is Lemon Chicken and I added a thin stroke layer style to give the outline.

To see how others interpreted 3 with their texturising head over to Kim’s blog.

If you are frustrated with texturising or any other part of using PhotoShop Elements, and you think an hour of one on one help would suit you then check out my one on one tutorials.

light on the river

2011-07-04T07:56:00.000+01:00

Last week we actually had some sunshine after lots of rain and overcast days. So on my walk along the river I took several photos of the light sparkling on the water

Linking up for Crazy Days of Summer as it moves into July – this week the prompt is light.

the bear went over the mountain to see what it could see

2011-07-01T08:17:00.000+01:00

we used to sing this on car trips when I was a kid – seeing what was on the other side always seemed a good idea to me and finding ‘only’ the other side of the mountain no reason to stop looking

I took this photo in 2009 during my trip around islands in the Pacific – I was up Mount Yasur, in Vanuatu, at dusk to see the volcanic crater.

The Inspiration Avenue prompt this week is ‘nursery rhyme’ and I decided to keep it simple – a lovely photo from my archive and the words.

Are you keen to see what is on the other side of mountains or are you deterred by knowing it is only the other side of the mountain?

Summertime Scavenger Hunt–1st instalment

2011-06-30T08:34:00.000+01:00

Rinda set us a varied and challenging list of subject to photograph this summer and I managed to snap three easy ones yesterday when I went into the centre of Edinburgh.

item 2 a museum – I love the warm sandstone on this building

item 8 – your country’s flag – both the Scottish flag and Union Jack (United Kingdom flag) fly over the court buildings

item 14 – a castle – handy that there is one of these in the middle of the city!

I’ve decided I will put all 21 together in one collage – yes I am confident I will think of a way to capture them all. i looked through my template folder and found one by Wanda at StarXL8 that fits 21. For now I am just adding photos – in the order on the list.

Hope to have another update next week.

stand out

2011-06-29T07:56:00.000+01:00

I’m really enjoying the Summer of Colour Challenge at Twinkle Twinkle because of the great range of media that people are using and because of my own reactions to using only one colour range, including those that I tend to shy away from. I am using the challenge to play with Photoshop Elements to make interesting canvases for some of the my favourite Dr Seuss quotes.

I used the gradient tool and some brushes to create the background and flat dots. The raised dots use the bevel layer style. Nothing particularly flash technique wise but I think it is powerful as a piece.

If you are interested in trying some digiart techniques on Photoshop Elements then you might be interested in the new hour long one on one buddy session covering three techniques for creating digiart backgrounds that I’m offering on DigiScrap Buddy.

experimenting again

2011-06-28T08:48:00.001+01:00

I’ve noticed in the texture Tuesday posts that I visit and in my own texturising work that there are often bits of the photo where we want to remove the texture and people use different techniques to do this. In this example the image on the right is fully textured and on the left I removed some from the left hand side and I think it gives the image much more depth. I used Kim Klassen’s golden texture on hard light blending mode.

In the past I usually used a brush tip in the eraser tool at 50% opacity to remove some of the texture but it is a bit hit and miss. I’ve been playing with the gradient tool recently and decided to try using it as a way to remove part of the texture.

The rest of the post describes how I did this – for those of you not interested in PSE techniques feel free to skip the rest of the post.

Instead of removing some of the texture, I added back a small part of the original photo and did this by clipping a copy of the photo onto a gradient level that is mostly transparent. It is easier to do it and look at the result than think about how it works just reading this.

Here is the layer panel for the image on the left

I added the texture in soft light blending mode.

Then I created a new layer and used the gradient tool, set on foreground to transparent, with the circle shape and ticked reverse. I drew a line from the left edge to the middle of the flowers because that was the area that I wanted to remove the gradient.

I duplicated the original, moved it to the layer above the gradient and then clipped it to the gradient level – only the portion that is grey in the gradient shows.

The same technique worked nicely on a portrait of my nephew too.

This time I added golden texture in soft blend to make the face softer. But I wanted to distort the background more so I added golden texture again on hard light. I then removed hard light from the face using the a gradient level (set on diamond) and clipping to it a copy of the photo with just the first texture layer added.

I will be playing with this technique some more as I think it has lots of potential.

flowers are not the only yellow in my garden

2011-06-27T08:26:00.000+01:00

I love my bright garden chairs (the other 2 are purple and turquoise) and it would be lovely if we had some better weather so I could sit in them instead of just looking at them from my kitchen window.

Really enjoying the diversity of prompts in Crazy days of summer. Check out the other interpretations. They have just announced the prompts for July and again great variety – light next week and then patriotism – already got me thinking.

a photo a day for the scavenger hunt

2011-06-26T08:01:00.000+01:00

I was looking at the photos that I had taken for the Sunday scavenger hunt this week and realised that I had taken one a day, Monday to Friday and that they were a nice overview of my week. So I put them together in a digital scrapbook layout, for a change, using a template from Cathy Z’s Design Your Life class.

The categories were

windows and doors – walking in the park I’ve often wondered why these have been blocked off

eyelashes – I knew my sister had some stunning falsies so I asked her when we were Skyping and then took a photo of the screen as she showed me

paint – I rarely buy it but I love the range available in types of paint and colours

veins on a leaf – plenty in the garden

faceless portrait – loving my new kindle

If you are interested in creating a digital scrapbook page using PhotoShop Elements but want some personal help then have a look at my new one on one buddy session (via skype). to create a scrapbook page or enhance photos

I’ve never been a great painter

2011-06-24T08:19:00.000+01:00

but now I have Photoshop to do it for me !!!!

These started as photos that I had taken and then I used some of the artistic styles in the filter menu in PSE. I kept tryign different ones until I liked the result.

Prompted to play by the Inspiration Avenue prompt this week to be creative with summer sunshine. We haven’t had much of that around here this month so I used photos from last year.

interested in exploring creativity in Photoshop Elements then check out the digiart intro in DigiScrap Buddy

feels so good to grow my lunch

2011-06-23T10:43:00.001+01:00

prompted by the Simple Aussie Girls 1st simple scrap challenge template, to tell a simple story of my week.

I used the eyedropper tool to take all of the colours for the layout from the photos, including changing the colour of the stitching to match the strawberry, and date.

I turned the template into a 12 x 12 using resize canvas on the image menu and added the strip on the left.

Thanks to the simple Aussie girls for showcasing simple layouts and providing the versatile template.

If you want some easy to follow instructions on using PhotoShop Elements to create simple layouts check out DigiScrap Buddy.

sometimes the answers are simple

2011-06-22T08:10:00.001+01:00

Continuing the summer of colour challenge at Twinkle, Twinkle with more digiart and another favourite quote from Dr Seuss – you can see my first piece in the series here.

This week the colour challenge was green with a bonus challenge to add some citron. I’m enjoying these challenges and restricting myself to using only the colours in the challenge.

I'm doing all of my pieces using Photoshop Elements to create digital artpieces. I want to try using different tools and techniques each week in this challenge. This piece started with some photos I took of atolls from a plane window flying over New Caledonia. I then used the gradient tool to add layers of green and also the citron. I used the dissolve blending mode to create the spattered effect. The font is myriad.

using my Grandfather’s photos

2011-06-21T08:01:00.000+01:00

I created this page as if it was from my Grandfather's photo album – he is paddling in both photos. I love the hats they are wearing to paddle.

I used an oldbook background from ShadowHouse Creation, photo corners from Heaters Scraps and the travelling typewriter font.

The scans that I have of the two photos were in different types of black and white so I added texture to both to make them look the same. First I used Kim Klassen’s linen on multiply blending mode (40% opacity) and then her portrait texture on soft light blending mode. I applied the same textures to the labels to give them the same aged look.

I’m pleased with this approach and will use it for some more of the old family photos that I have.

Check out Kim Klassen’s site for more textures applied to photos of people (not a common content for texturising).

crazy days of summer - water

2011-06-20T07:45:00.000+01:00

I walk by the river most days and by the beach at least once a week. So the third weekly prompt at Crazy Days of Summer – water – was a case of ‘which picture to use’ rather than ‘what can I photograph?’. Sunday last week there was lovely sunshine of the water and clear views (there is often fog and the other side disappears).

I chose this as my water shot for the Crazy Days of Summer collection. It is straight out of camera.

Looking at the other photos I took that day I was inspired to create a layout using a lovely versatile template from Paislee Press (see here for a very different page I made with the template).

Font is matisse and I applied a down bevel layer style to the template doodle to make the lines look as if they were drawn into the background.

June colour combo bloghop

2011-06-18T16:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Color Combo Blog Hop!

If you arrived from Alysse’s photographs welcome to my step on the hop. If you are a regular reader then you can see the full list for the hop at the end of this post.

Through the hop you will see a range of creativity, with the colour combo as the common theme. I decided on a layout using more photos from our trip last week

The template is by Kate Pertiett; the font is Myriad.

Your next stop on the hop is Rebekah – I know she will have a fabulous piece with the colour combo.

Here is the full list for the blog hop – enjoy your trip

http://amysoto.blogspot.com/

http://alyssephotographs.blogspot.com/

http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

http:/handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com

http://www.vsws.typepad.com/

http://adriennefalzon.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrapworthylives.com/http://spud-pickle.blogspot.com/

http://www.curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com/

http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

http://1200somemiles.blogspot.com/

http://www.MichelleRoycroft.blogspot.com/

http://craftygoodies.blogspot.com/

http://scrapyourlife.net/

http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

http://scribblesstickingstitchingstroking.blogspot.com/

on the 1 day of summer

2011-06-17T08:12:00.000+01:00

I collect sketches and templates, lots of them, I admit. Many in my collection I have not used and a few I have used many times.

On Wednesday when I opened Shimelle’s sketch of the week post and saw this sketch I was inspired to create a page right then – this sketch clicked for me and I had a photo and a story that I wanted to scrap. Usually a ‘what we did this summer’ need lots and lots of photos but we have had only one really sunny day so far so I liked the idea of a one photo layout for this story.

I’m sure I’ll use this sketch again – space for a story, prominence for a picture, and a small spot for some pretty if I feel like it but it would work without too. I stuck closely to the sketch because it all worked for me on this story / scrapping session.

I created the multi person photo using the eraser on PSE. All ‘papers’ are created on PSE using the colour picker tool to take colours from the photo. The flower on the squares is a brush from sleepwalkerfish that I used as an eraser (like a punch). The font is travelling typewriter. The idea of copying the text at larger size comes from simple Aussie girls.

creating a composite photo digitally

2011-06-16T11:23:00.000+01:00

Last week I posted a composite photo I made from 8 photos of a lovely waterfall.

This is another version of that waterfall

Several people in the comments said that they like the composite but did not know how to make one digitally.

I created a tutorial for DigiScrap Buddy – find out how to create a composite photo digitally here.

I’d love to see any composites that you make, if you post one please leave a comment here.

Here is another composite – a long panorama of Queen’s View

playing in blue

2011-06-15T08:36:00.000+01:00

I’ve been on the lookout in blogland for a challenge where I can play with some of the digiart or collage aspects of photoshop elements to make a book of prints containing some of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes. The new 10 week summer colour challenge for works in any medium, being run by Kirstin on Twinkle, Twinkle, seemed ideal.

As you can see, first up was blue.

I used the gradient tool; filter texturize, erasing with grunge brushes, impressionist brush and the bevel layer style.

The font is Boring showers and I added bevel layer style

I bevelled the whole image (move the flattened image onto a new blank file and then apply bevel to the image – works for a drop shadow too).

I think I will print the 10 pieces, glue pairs back to back, punch two holes and add jump rings to make a small book.