Santa will be trying to fit down all our chimneys in a few short weeks and if you are thinking of starting to scrap on your computer you may be interested in letting the big guy know that Adobe's holiday deals are here (offers end Dec 21st.)

Cheers Groobers


Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun

P.S Have a Fab and Groovy Crimbo :-)

Just recently I've been clicking away quite a bit with the old camera and sometimes with my cell phone camera when I couldn't be bothered to cart the big ass one along. :)

My mum has been visiting from England so we have been out and about quite a bit taking lots of snaps along the way at a few really fantastic local and not so local events.

Firstly there was the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Plymouth and thankfully this year it was a beautiful day not like last year which shall we say was a trifle chilly (click here for my post from last years event - Create Holiday Photo Postcard Using Your Digital Scrapbook Software.)

We spent a very enjoyable evening at the Edaville Festival of Lights which I must say just keeps getting better and better each year, it was great to see the tree carver guy there (we found him at this event a few years back when he did a great job of transforming two trees in our yard, click here digital scrapbook page and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the fantastic carvings he created for us.)

And finally the piece de resistance our four day trip to Disney, my mum was seventy this year and we took her for her very first trip to the magical world that is Disney, we all had a fantastic time and now all that's left for me to do is to create a digital photo scrapbook to send to my mum so she has a permanent photographic memory of her trip with us.

So that's my task over the next few weeks, if you've created a special digital photo scrapbook I would love to see how you tackled the task and would appreciate any tips and tricks you may have, please leave a link to your creations in the comments so I can take a looksee and steal your ideas ;)


Cheers Groobers




Create It, DigiScrap It, It's all good fun!

I enjoy using Google docs and I am always interested in the many different software applications out there for creating digital scrapbook pages.

Today here's a quick presentation and review of the MemoryMixer software (just click on the double arrow to go slowly step my step through the slides).

Cheers

Groobers



Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun!

It's been so long since I have actually sat down and completed a digiscrap page so yesterday I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns and started searching around for a suitable template candidate.

Now this is where google reader came into play, it makes it just so damn easy to find the information you require. 

One of the scrapbook blogs I have subscribed to via their rss feed is ScrapMatters.com and low and behold there it was, the perfect template for the page I wanted to create, delivered directly to me by the powers of google reader, sweet. (ThanksLoriBear for the beautiful template you created).

When it comes to scrapbooking a page nothing says Halloween more to me than pumpkins, especially the carving, lighting and displaying of them in all their spooky goodness or perhaps I should say badness.

So here are the steps I took and the changes I made to Lori's template to create this page:

For the background layer I open up a photograph of my daughter pretending to eat pumpkin seeds, added filter/blur/gaussian blur and pumped it way up to 250 to create a piece of digital scrapbook paper, as the base to my page.

Each part of the template is labeled within the layers palette, so I went into each element and changed the colours by picking from my photograph using the eyedropper tool, selecting coordinating colours from within my photo to use for the elements. When changing an element, first select the layer then hold down the command key (mac) control key (windows) and using the move tool click on the shape within your layers palette to select it then click on your eyedropper tool to choose a colour from within your photograph this will set your foreground colour then edit/fill selection/use foreground colour and hit ok.

Any parts of the template I did not need for this project I just deleted from the layers palete (make sure you save as before doing this, you don't want to delete the original template!).  I saved this page as delicious-pumpkin.psd so that it wouldn't overwrite Lori's original (that I want to keep for my stash :)

I opened and copied the same photograph twice more into the page layout and positioned each version above the photo element layer, then selected my photo layer and choose layer/create clipping mask to put my photos into the framed mat's within Lori's layout (once they are clipped within the frame just move the photo around until you have the part of the photograph you desire showing.)

Finally I added some text and simply changed the blend mode of the layer to screen and the opacity of the layer to 47%. 

Adding the words delicioso I can almost hear Dora saying yum yum yum yum yum, can you?

Cheers

Groobers


Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun!

p.s Especial thanks for the template download created by LoriBear ScrapMatters.com
Here is the link for the blog post about this Digital Scrapbook Page Template

I was wondering today if you could do me a huge favor as my niece has got through to the final five in Stray FM's Win A Wedding competition, I have been working all morning on the poster above to try and drum up some support for them, as at this final stage it's all down to the voting. 

So what is Stray FM and what is this all about?

Stray FM is an independent radio station that covers Harrogate, Knaresborough and the surrounding areas and they are running a fantastic competition with the Dower House Hotel to win your wedding  along with loads of other great prizes. 

Now I can tell you I have been to many a function at the Dower House including some great weddings (as I grew up in Knaresborough and as my dad would say it's the bonniest town in Yorkshire), and I have to say it's the perfect spot for a 'Bit of a Do'.

Now Amanda is a really lovely girl who would do anything for anyone and usually does, she is always smiling and cheerful even when times are hard, I do not know Michael well as we moved to the states before they got together so have only spoken to him on the phone but if Amanda has chosen him he must be a winner, anyway I will let her tell you their story herself just click on meet Amanda and Michael below.
Meet Amanda and Michael

So if you have a spare five minutes on the 2nd of November I would really appreciate you giving them your vote, hey I need an excuse to wear a hat!

Cheers

Groobers

Create it, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun

At the week-end we were carving our pumpkins, well I say we my husband and daughter were and I was clicking around with my camera, anyway I got a couple of shots once the masterpieces were completed, in one the pumpkins were lit up well but the background was dark and in the other you could see the background but not the lit up pumpkin.

I have been trying out photoshop elements 8 over the last couple of days so thought these would be perfect examples for me to try out the new photomerge exposure tool.

Now I think that Is a Kind of Magic!

Nice one Adobe :)

Linda Sattgast adobes scrapbook expert explains the new features with photoshop elements 8 in her video review below:

You may also find Rick LePage of MacWorld.com review an interesting read, I know I did so here's the link Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Review

Cheers
Groobers


Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun!

Alternate Blog Post Title: "Lying in my bed thoughts running through my head..."

If I was starting out today learning how to use my computer for scrapbooking which software would I choose? 

Photoshop CS4 with all its bells and whistle or Elements 8 the one designed with the end user in mind?