Friday, November 6, 2015

Some of Today's "Fun Stuff" -- LOL!


Sheep On The hill
Sorry that today's photo isn't of good quality.  It was taken too late in the day, a couple of days ago, while being a passenger in a vehicle going at the speed limit ... and I was actually shooting the sheep on the hill.

One of these days I will get around to taking it into the graphics program and "correcting" the contrast and at least making it look less hazy.  Then maybe we can turn it into a piece of art -- maybe extract some of it for a small watercolor painting or a colored pencil drawing.  If I knew where my soft pastels and small pad of pastel paper could be found in the melee around here, I might even consider doing a small pastel.  WARNING:  It has been years and years since I actually did any pastel work -- I think that was back when I took a few art classes at the community college near where I lived.  I enjoyed working with pastels, though, and now I wonder why I did not continue with them ... Hmmm ...

Today's Music at [free] Spotify -->  The Piano Guys - A Family Christmas
If you are not familiar with The Piano Guys, find them at YouTube and be prepared to enjoy ...

Yes, Christmas music ...
Earlier I was watching a YouTube video and the background music was instrumental Christmas music and since it is November, and I am in the mood to be working on Christmas cards or small gifts, it seemed like it might be okay to go find something "festive" to listen to ... (I don't include that video here but it is one from Sandy Allnock showing how she uses Copic markers to color in a set of Christmas ornaments.  Here are the other two videos I did watch:)

Here is one of the YouTube videos I watched (not the Christmas themed one -- this one is a bit more "timely" in that the paint kit used is available for a very limited time and is an awesome deal!)




This video from Sandy Allnock is fun but the kit is no longer available.  However, the technique she uses is one you can apply to other projects:



You may want to check out the Hero Arts November kit -- it is still available on November 6th, 2015, but who knows how much longer it will be available ... It looks pretty cool and includes stamps, dies and some Flower Soft flock;  there is a separate die set that also coordinates with the kit.  Actually, it is shown at the end of Sandy's video on coloring the Glass Ornaments ...

Okay, so on to something for today besides two videos to check out ...

Hmmm ... As I look around, you know, there isn't anything on the desk or in the vicinity to share today ... soon I will be sharing a piece of art that is "in progress" right now ... but in the meantime, enjoy the work of other talented artists (as in, watch Lindsey and Sandy in their YouTube videos ...)
and have a wonderful "one" (day, evening, etc ...)

OH DRATS!  I missed this morning's Speed Scrap over at GoDigitalScrapbooking.com in celebration of Digital Scrapping Day!  But I think I may have 24 hours to actually complete and upload the page ... come on over and play along!!!
Just checked it out -- Monday night is the deadline!  Lots of fun activities over there.  Come join us!!!




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Thursday, June 4, 2015

New Month of "Challenges" Awaits ...

It's early June and the perfect time to start digital scrapbooking (if you don't already).  If you are already a digi-scrapper, come join me and lots of others at GoDigitalScrapbooking, in the forums, for the scrapping challenges this month.

This is one of the pages I did for the May Challenges.  It was a simple page and lots of fun to create.  All of the challenges were fun (though I found one or two a little "challenging"  LOL!) ...

I use StoryBook Creator (originally from Creative Memories) to create my pages.  An updated version is available from Panstoria with a few features that my software does not include.  If you want to start digital scrapping, there are lots of software programs available;  some are even free.  I've tried quite a few and because I was already familiar with StoryBook Creator and its features, I decided that is the best program around.  However, some of the free programs are very good too.

If you want to know more about the programs available, I will be putting together a post about the variety that are available.  In the meantime, feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.

Happy Scrappin'!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

An Animal You Have to See!

I know this is not a craft or art related post.  But I tried to share this animal over at Facebook -- it did not get even one "like" ...

I had recently heard that Facebook does its best to not pass on posts that include links ... they figure you are doing advertising or marketing. I figure, if that is true, it is because they want to charge you for promoting your post.  I really don't like the way Facebook even dares make decisions about what posts to pass on to followers of other Facebook users, but ... **sigh**

Anyhow, once you see this critter, you too will want to make sure other people find out about it.  So please go here to see the Chinese Magic Rabbit, also known as the ila pika.


Digi-Scrap Freebies and Challenges

YIKES!  It is April already and 2015 is slipping away from me.  I meant to be posting projects regularly -- that is what "Make 2015" was supposed to be about -- you know, making and posting a variety of art and craft projects here.  **sigh**  How time gets away form me.
I have been doing art and crafts, just not getting them photographed or scanned or not getting them written up and then posted here.

However, over the weekend, I remembered that two of the digi-scrap stores that I like to deal with run "Daily Download" programs.  So, off I went and then sneaked over to the Forum areas to see what Challenges they had for the month.

The first I'll share with you is www.godigitalscrapbooking.com where they have a daily download program that lets you collect a complete kit of "papers" and elements if you show up every day and get the freebie of the day.

As for the challenges, there are quite a few.  Most of them give out a "posting bonus" -- and if you participate in all of the challenges, you end up with a fairly large kit of papers and elements.  To collect the entire kit, you need to participate in the Progressive Challenge, (six steps to a completed page) and pick up the download for each of the downloads for the challenge.
The photo at the top of this post is the page I did for the "multi-photo" challenge.  (a) one day I noticed my "bedhead" reminded me of Phyllis Diller;  so I started taking Silly Selfies first thing when I get up;  (b) most of the photos are absolutely dreadful and some are silly too;  (c) my oldest sister, who is 15 years older than I am, HATES these things, especially when I use them somewhere that the "public" can see them, so I look for the strangest and ugliest and silliest when I decide to use them (maybe I am the brat she thinks I am -- even at over 50, such labels tend to still stick) ...  This page actually made GSO status yesterday -- that is, "Gallery Standout" for the use of the postage-sized images. LOL!

The second store that offers Daily Downloads is www.plaindigitalwrapper.com and they don't have as many challenges this month.  Once I finish all of the challenges for GDS (godigitalscrapbooking), I will get going on the ones from PDW.

The scrapping software I use is version 3 of Creative Memories' StoryBook Creator.  Caspedia, and then Panstoria (same coders with a new company) were the ones who wrote the software and now offer Version 4 which they are calling Artisan.  I did upgrade to 4 when Creative Memories offered it, but I had a problem with it and ended up needing to uninstall it.  I did not think I "needed" the upgrades from 3 to 4 (mostly color matching stuff plus a few other things), so I did not bother to reinstall it.  However, I probably will upgrade again soon -- but will need to get it again through Panstoria as they no longer validate Creative Memories' licenses.  If you are looking for an easy to use digital scrapping software, check out Panstoria.  I have used many different softwares for digital scrapping and like StoryBook Creator / Artisan the best.
I've used the one from Stampin' Up!, and quite a few others (five others that I can think of right now), as well as PhotoShop Elements (one of the programs quite a few scrappers use).  And, in the end, I like StoryBook Creator / Artisan the best.  And if you are interested in PhotoShop Elements but think it might be a bit too expensive, check out the FREE clone called Gimp.  Also, there is PhotoExplosion that works like Photoshop Elements and is about half the price.

If you digi-scrap, please share a link (or even links) to some of your pages.  And if you are new to digiscrapping, and would like to learn about how to do it, let me know in the comments and I'll do some tutorial posts.

Have a wonderful ___________ (you fill in the blank with whatever you want to be wonderful)  **GRIN**


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 OOPS!

I was just over at the PDW store and found out that I was wrong -- they don't have a daily download program.  (oh, these "senior" moments!  ARGH!)  I will do a bit of searching to find the other store that does offer them ... I know there is another digi-store that does offer daily downloads ... **sigh** However, head on over, they have $2 Tuesday deals and some fun Monthly Challenges ...