Summertime scavenger hunt–instalment 5

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

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

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 …

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?