What's Your View Point?

Are you stuck in a photography rut and take your pictures all from the same angle or view point? Try mixing it up the next time you have your camera out on a photo shoot or just taking pictures of your family.
Here is an example of what I'm talking about, I took this picture on one of my early morning walks. I was just taking random pictures of interesting things as I was going along. I wanted to try taking some shots from different view points. Now I didn't really know what I had until I got home as it was such a bright sunny day that with the digital camera I couldn't see the viewer on the camera. So I was really excited how this one turned out it!

I did add a filter to it but I think it was still a stunning view of the world from an angle we don't usually see. And now you can see the finished product of it in a completed layout.


Here is another example of a different angle to take a pic from. In this one I was holding the camera and the baby at the same time. I wasn't going to get left out of the pictures anymore so I was doing this one myself holding my newest grandson. Now of course I couldn't really see how it was going to come out so I was just taking random shots and checking after the results after.


I hope you are beginning to see what you can do by changing your point of view or level from which you are taking the picture.
Try getting down on their level as in this picture of my puppy. This shot wouldn't have looked
same if I had taken it standing looking down on her. I got up close and personal, don't be afraid to get up close often times we are to far from our subjects. Experment with your camera and the settings to see what you can come up with. I love my digital camera because I'm not afraid of blowing a whole roll of film and nothing coming out. I can see just what I have as soon as I take the picture.
I challenge you to get out there and see the world from a whole different angle today.

Sunday, love to learn

I love learning new things! I just cannot help it--the teacher in me just loves to learn anything and everything. Often, I get lost online researching new things. This week, it was solar panels and typography. I know that they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but both caught my eye this week.

Although I am sure you are dying to know all about my plan to gradually move my home to solar energy, but what I want to share with you today is a cool typography site. http://ilovetypography.com/ has so much wonderful information! Everything from how to make your own font to the history of fonts can be found here.

Give it a peek and a bookmark.

Hey Hey It's Saturday

Well it's Saturday again..yippee. time for a couple of hours to do the things I want to do. One of those things is to write you this blog post. Thought we might have a look at a few design tips. For those of us who like to try our hand at designing there are a few tricks we have all learned along the way. I found a really excellent little way of getting rid of those 'flying pixels' we all have from time to time. Yes I know we know how to find them, but what about when we have found them how do we get rid without ending up getting dots in front of our eyeballs?



Well once you have found your strays (by using stroke in styles when using ps to highlight the strays) Find the eraser and choose the third option of magic eraser. Using this tap once or twice in an area outside your image. Notice the red stroke narrowing, if needed repeat the same until your strays have gone. this is especially useful for large and complicated 'cutouts', If there is only one or two strays then using the eraser is probably quicker, but the way explained is ideal for delicate work and for getting in to tight areas.






highlight the strays with stroke







choose the magic eraser then click on empty pixels in canvas





Your image should now be flying pixel free. Now cancel the stroke.

Here is a word of caution though, if the edges of the original image were feathered at all, this way of dealing with straglers will not work. AND always keep a duplicate of your original work so that you are not disappointed if things did not work out the way you wanted.

To finish up your image you may need to select and modify by 2 or 3 pixels contractedand or smoothed, then invert selection and clear Clear the stroke too.. Hope this is of use to you all. Let me know through the comments any tips you have found or have for us to shortcut otherwise labour intensive work.

Dare you!

I would consider myself to be fairly techno savvy. I have to think all digi scrappers would fall into the computer-do as opposed to the computer-don'ts. That is not to say that there are not times when we want to chuck the little beastie through a wall, but we take a deep breath, pop some chocolate in, and try again.

right?

So why is it that none of my non computer devices have any layouts on them? Or even any pictures?

My phone. My mp3 player. My hubby's mp3 player. His phone. My daughter's mp3 player. The rotating digital key chain thing my MIL gave me for Christmas. Not last Christmas--the one before that. Not a single one boasts an image of my children in all their scrapbooked glory.

We were at dinner with friends and doing the inevitable show pictures of our munchkins. I had a few in my wallet. Everyone else had them stored in phones. Darling. Best I could do to keep up was to use the hubby's blackberry and zip into my ScrapStreet gallery. whew. good thing I had that for back up!

So here is my dare today. Grab your electrical friends and load them up with some of those pretties you work so hard to create. You can do it! The computer is your friend!

Who knows. You may just want to run an extra mile during your workout while looking down at that layout made from you in your bathing suit at 18. Try combining it with some inspiring song like "Eye of the Tiger" or my current fave Trace's "One Hot Momma."

smooches!

Thursday Thoughts - Have a bit of Heart

So Thursday again........ I have been musing that in this day and age it is easy to be busy and overlook the little things, a kind word here, a helping hand there. All the little gestures that show your heart.

We all have a heart, which is essentially a circulation pump, but that is not how we think of it or draw it. Your heart is an essential part of who you are and whilst the eyes may be the window to your soul, perhaps the heart is it's home?

So a few quotes about hearts for you to think about this week.

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." Campbell

"Words are the voice of the heart." Confucius

"Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart." Zig Ziglar

"Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart." Kahlil Gibran

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart" Confucius

"A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread" George Herbert

I promised a freebie this week, so here are some hearts to decorate your scrap pages and maybe do some journalling with.

So if you want a heart, download my Heart Freebie here

Wednesday Inspiration - gaining independence

We just celebrated Independence Day on the 4th of July here in the USA and it's everything stars and stripes and red, white & blue. So we're going there and to the fireworks show in this week's inspiration. I know ya got a lot of those pics to scrap!

Here's what I found:

• dafonts: Stars n Stripes
• dafonts: Independence
• iconian: Valley Forge
• Independence Day fonts
• Fireworks - Celebration Photoshop Brushes
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(look under

'starful')

Click this gorgeous kit for your fourth! Available free maybe for a limited time only!

Looking for some title help? Found a few you might put to good use:

• America the Beautiful
• American Pride
• Every Heart Beats True
• Explosion of Fun
• Fireworks On The Fourth
• God Bless America
• Lil' Firecracker
• Proud To Be An American
• (anything) Red, White & Blue
• Stars & Stripes Forever

Oh, so you say you want another ScrapStreet Designer freebie? Okay! Here ya go!! Click the ribbon balloon for a free Sue Wood Designs' STRIPEY ALPHA download!

Font Find From Ronna Penner

This weeks fabulous font find comes from Ronna Penner. It's a free download offered through Matter of Scraps newsletter. The font is simply named Journaling Hand. Ronna describes it this way;

"I designed Journaling Hand with scrapbooking in mind. It's kind of unusual with it's long ascenders and descenders, so give lots of room between the lines of type (leading). Journaling Hand is a quirky handwriting typeface and it will lend an unconventional look to your journaling. Enjoy!"

If you like this font, Ronna offers more of her fantastic fonts at My Fonts and also at her own website, Typadelic where she is currently offering five other free font downloads.