My So-Called Life

Bubbles...

A while back I was asked how I created the Magic Wand layout from my Hall of Fame entry.  The layout, created for the "innovative technique" assignment, was originally shown in the August 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes and then later, for a very brief time, some of the screen shots were shown on the CK website.  Shortly thereafter, they updated their website and most of the article/magazine content was not transfered.  I wanted to go ahead and show how I created the layout.

Here it is:


Credits:
Title Letters: Playful Spirit Kit, Jackie Eckles, www.littledreamerdesigns.com
Bubbles: Blow Me a Bubble Kit, Traci Reed, www.sweetshoppedesigns.com
Font: CK McFab, www.scrapnfont.com

First of all, I have to say that I don't normally use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to digi scrap.  I use a program called Digital Image Pro 9.0 by Microsoft.  It's an older program, and MS doesn't even distribute it anymore.  (Wah....)  I happen to love it, find it so easy to use, and so far, have found very few things that I can't do with it that I could do with Photoshop.  I know, I know...I'm going to have to accept that I need to retire this software and move on to bigger and brighter pastures, but I'm going to resist as long as I can.  I do use PS or PSE to scrap with templates occasionally (one of the drawbacks of using DIP), but like I said, I'm going to resist for as long as I can...ha!

Sooooo, these screen shots may not be very helpful, BUT I would imagine they would give some insight into how they could translate into whatever program you're using to digiscrap.  

1.  Enlarge photo to fill the entire 12"x12" canvas. 

2.  Insert a circle shape in a new layer.

3.  Use the Fill Picture tool under the Effects tab to fill the circle shape with desired photo.

4.  Drag a premade bubble shape onto a new layer over the circle photo.  Resize it so that it lays directly over it.

5.  Select both the photo and bubble and group together by locking the layers. Resize photo bubble for best placement.

6.  Repeat steps to create more picture bubbles. 

7.  Add additional bubbles for a fun effect.

8.  And to help the smaller bubbles stand out from the b&w photo, I decided to add a little pink tint to them. 

And that's pretty much it.  I simply added the title and some journaling to complete the layout. 

Nothing really fancy schmancy about it, and I actually thought it was one of my *weaker* layouts from my entry, but after it was published, I had so much positive feedback about it.  Emma thinks it's pretty cool; she keeps asking me when we can get magic bubbles like that again....

:) :) :)

Weekend Chit Chat

Emma and I spent a relaxing day yesterday just chilling out at home.  In between a few loads of laundry and other quick chores, we watched movies, read some storybooks, etc.  I think we both really needed some "down" time after some crazy harried weeks. 

I also spent a chunk of time on the computer, editing and backing up photos onto Flickr and participating in some of the fun events at Designer Digitals.  The first quarterly sale of the new year is going on right now.  You can take 30% of anything in the store right now until Tuesday morning - no coupon needed!  Lots of freebies were given away during the all-day chats yesterday; it was totally fun!!

In fact, here are the two 25 cent items (every Sunday, two 25 cent items are sold - for Sunday and Monday only) being featured today.

 

Here are some other cool new products that I'm in love with:

Anyday Kit by Katie Pertiet - gorgeous!

This Sweet Rainbow kit by Mindy is divine! :) 

And look at these new papers by Lynn!
Gorgeous texture and colors for sure.

I used these papers on a layout I did for the Saturday Scraplift.


For a full list of credits, please see here. 

Also, Designer Digitals has started a new Facebook group!  Check it out here. 

And where were the *boys* this weekend, you ask?  Well, Ryan had his first tournament of the Spring with the Banditos in Houston this weekend.  He stayed with good friends in Victoria to make it to Friday night's game until Roland could get there last night for Sunday morning's game.  He was bummed that he had to work this weekend, but work is ... work, right?  Someone has to do the news! ;) 

And since Ryan had a free day on Saturday, he went fishing (so not Ryan as he is totally squeamish of all things icky and slimy) with our friends on their boat.  Apparently, he was the ONLY one who caught something.  Check out this photo he sent me with his phone:


Notice how he isn't actually touching it?  LOL!  He made Adrian hold it. 

Can't wait til he is back home tonight....miss my boy when he's gone! 

Valentine's Day Weekend

Well, Valentine's Day wasn't the big romantic deal I had originally hoped it would be.  Unfortunately, real life intervened.  That's not to say it wasn't a nice weekend because it definitely was, but the date movie and romantic dinner will have to happen another time. 

Ryan ended up having a tournament this weekend, and his friend Adrian spent the weekend with us as he was playing in the tourney too (and he lives about an hour and a half away).  So on Saturday, while the *boys* were at the game, Emma, Grandma Connie and I went to see Coraline.  What a great movie! The work that went into making this - wow!  The 3-D effects were really cool too.  I do have to say that it was a bit suspenseful; Emma grabbed my arm several times during the movie, but she really loved it.  I really liked the music too.  Be sure and visit the website; it's really fun, and you can do this to a photo:
 

I'll have to go back and try a photo of myself too. 

Before the movie however, Em was feeling kind of icky and was running a low-grade fever.  On day 6 of her super strong antibiotics, she should NOT be running a low-grade fever...sigh... poor kid!  We're going to finish the meds and then see what's what at her follow-up appointment.  She had a low-grade fever this morning too. 

After the movie, we snapped a few pics - the only pics I got of Valentine's Day 2009.

Since she's been restricted on spending time outdoors (because of the windy weather), she reveled in getting to be outside for a bit. 

Big brother made it home just in time for a picture too.

After the boys cleaned up, we went and had dinner at Wings-n-More - the kids' fave restaurant.  Afterwards, we rented a couple of movies and had a quiet evening at home. 

I did get a beautiful card and giant box of candy from hubby, so that was very nice! 

Today was all about cleaning and catching up with laundry...ugh.  The boys headed back to the field, and Em and I hung out between cleaning.  I also finished a layout for Designer Digitals.  As soon as I post it online, I'll be sure to share it here. 

In the meantime, here are some other layouts that I haven't shared:

These vintage heart frames by Katie Pertiet practically begged me to do something with these baby photos of Emma.  Ooo, I miss my little monkey!  For a full list of credits, please see here. 

And I created this page of the kids with their Grandpa Felipe.   A year before this picture was taken he suffered a major heart attack, found out he had glaucoma, diabetes, kidney failure, etc. He was basically at death's door and the doctors didn't even want to attempt surgery. Finally, one doctor took a chance and performed triple bypass surgery and also repaired a leaky valve. He's in pretty great shape now, and I'm so thankful that he's there for Roland and the kids.


For a full list of credits at Designer Digitals, please see here.

And now it's back to work tomorrow.  Monday...Monday....ugh...

More MAMBI

Whew!  Just finished decorating about 4 dozen Valentine cookies for tomorrow.  Some are for the teachers at Emma's school and some are for work and yes, some were for dessert tonight, lol!  Hopefully I'll remember to snap a couple of pics before they are all gone. 

And as promised, here are some more of the layouts I did for Me and My Big Ideas.

Recognize these photos? ;)  This is an 8"x8" page created with the We Are Blessed 8"x8" scrapbook kit. These papers and elements are gorgeous and perfect for family photos. (Ignore those glue goops on the page...I'm too lazy to go edit them out, resize and reload the layout - thank you!)

And using the Travel paper pad and another Soft Spoken banner, I created this layout:

With this same paper pad and a different Soft Spoken set, I created this St. Patrick's page using photos of my very witty and talented friend Susan's kids and their St. Patrick's Day activities. 

And one more 8"x8" page using the 8"x8" Sports kit.

On the Emma front, she is doing a lot better.  Still a bit under the weather, and I'm still having to give her treatments and medicines, but hey, she took a vision and hearing test at school today and passed with flying colors!  I was afraid the ear infection would prevent her from passing the hearing test, but it looks like I was worried for naught.  I, on the other hand, am trying to fight this stupid sinus infection still.  It's a little better each day, but I wish I were better NOW. 

Oh well...at least tomorrow is FRIDAY, right?  Still need to do some Valentine's Day shopping for Roland and the kids.  I still haven't come up with something romantic and clever for Roland..hmmm. 

Have a great Friday (the 13th - eek!) folks! 

Me and My Big Ideas at CHA-W

I was thrilled to be asked to create some pages again for Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI) for their booth at the recent CHA-W.  I hope to share the pages over the next few days...

Using their gorgeous new Baby Boy specialty papers and Baby Boy and Father themed Soft Spoken accents, I created these two layouts:

I loved how the papers were versatile enough to create non-baby boy layouts too.  ;)  Look at those handsome guys.  I like to call them "Me" and "Mini Me" - ha! 

On the homefront, I took Emma to the doctor yesterday.  Yup, she's definitely wheezing, AND she has a "nasty ear infection" AGAIN.  She had one in November when she was battling bronchitis.  It seemed to heal, but a couple of weeks later, when she kept telling us she couldn't hear things well, we discovered that she had a double ear infection.  Poor thing - she spent almost a month being sick.  She'd been okay for all of January only to get sick all over again now.  The weather here has been nuts, and the winds are kicking up all kinds of allergens.  I'm trying to fight a sinus infection myself - lovely. 

Anyway, she seems to be on the mend already and back to school she goes tomorrow.  Crossing my fingers that we get some decent sleep tonight! 

A Magical Saturday

Emma was invited to a birthday party yesterday.  Her allergies and asthma were beginning to flare up the day before from all the crazy winds we've been having (mine too!), but we decided to go anyway.  The theme of the party was magic, and there was supposed to be a really cool magic show, and I knew Em would love it. 

After some yummy pizza, the kids were seated.

Emma was *very* excited!

The magician's name was Crazy Paul.  He's been around for a while doing kid parties in my hometown, but he has also had an act in Vegas, has a part in an upcoming movie and was just invited to be on Conan O'Brien in April. 

He turned this bird into a little chihuahua (Emma's favorite part) and did many other sleight of hand tricks.

But he did some tricks that were *really* impressive. I cannot for the life of me figure out how he did this one. He brought out this 6 paneled chalk board and wrote down 3 things across the top then covered them up with these little flip cards.  Then he randomly picked out a child from the crowd, asked her if she had a pet (she had a dog and a cat), then he asked her to pick one and tell him the name.  She said her cat's name was Garbo.  So he wrote it down under the first square and said, "hmmm...that's right."  Then he picked me out of the crowd and asked me to give him 4 numbers.  I did, he wrote those down and said, "that's right" again.  Then finally, he asked another child to pick a card from a deck of cards and to write in herself the card she drew. 

Then he flipped all the cards over and revealed what he had first written on his chalkboard.

Uhhhhh....how'd he do that? 

And then, this was the big mind-boggler....he asked one of the moms for her wedding ring - her very nice wedding ring.  He put it in a box and shook it really hard.  Then he did some hocus pocus, opened the box and the ring was gone.  Before he had started the trick, his assistant had brought out 3 oranges on a tray behind him.  He now brought out the tray to the front and asked the mom to pick one of the oranges and start to cut it open.

Then after she made the initial cut, he asked her to split it open with her hands facing towards the audience so we could see. 

Yup...the ring was INSIDE THE ORANGE.  INSIDE the previously uncut orange.  I mean, I'm sure it was an illusion somehow, but I don't know how that even worked!

Then he made it appear as if the ring were going through his hand and dropping into hers.  She even asked him to do it again because she didn't get it the first time, and she was right there!  Later, we asked him what would have happened if she had picked another orange, and he said the ring would have been in whichever one she had picked.  Wow.....

And then for the last trick of the night, he had the birthday girl stick her head in this mini guillotine (after he had demonstrated celery stalks being cut in each hole).  He put another piece of celery in the hole below her head, then jammed the blade through.  Of course, her head wasn't cut, but the celery underneath her head was again cut in half. 

I think the kids LOVED this one - I'm sure partly becaue THEY weren't up there. 

All in all, it was a great party.  The mom really played on the magic theme and that was so fun.  Besides pizza and salad, juice boxes and fruit, she dipped big stick pretzels in chocolate and the ends in white frosting to make them look like magic wands.  The kids sat on *magic carpets* (big rectangles of felt with the ends cut in a fringe) for the show, and the goodie bags were actually black top hats filled with confetti, candy and a plastic magic wand.  Ever since we've been home, Emma's been asking us to show her magic tricks.  Fun times...

Of course, now the little critter is battling hard against her allergies and asthma.  Her fever yesterday afternoon and last night was almost 103 degrees, ugh.  We had to break out the vaporizer and the Vicks as well.  And you something, I've heard for a while now that if you put Vicks on the feet of someone who is coughing, the coughing will stop.  I finally tried it last night.  Right before she went to bed, I rubbed a good amount of Vicks on her feet and then put socks on her.  She coughed for a couple more minutes, but then she barely coughed the rest of the night.  OMG - it totally worked!  And she pretty much coughed nonstop yesterday - through all her treatments even.  We're doing that again tonight....

I got the approval to show some projects I did for me and my big Ideas CHA-W, and I'll be showing some of those this week!  Have a great Sunday! 

Exhausted

I can't believe that I made it through today!  I've been working like crazy the past two weeks in getting ready for an annual youth art contest at the Museum.  We had a record-breaking 643 entries this year.  Can you imagine receiving all those entries, making sure we had the appropriate copies of each form, making sure the student forms were signed, entering the information online when the teacher didn't do it correctly, etc.  Then numbering each work to correspond with the number on the form, installing all 643 pieces, creating labels for each work, making sure the essay accompanied the work, creating vinyl titles for each of the 13 categories.....

You get the picture I think. :)  And today we held a huge family day event and awards presentation for these students at the Museum.  Last year we had just over 900 people attend; this year we had 1226!!!  I was literally shouting into the microphone so the audience could hear me.  When I had tested it earlier, sans people, you could hear me just fine.  With all those people there, it was like they literally absorbed all the sound and only certain "hot" spots could hear me.  Now I'm a little hoarse...ack! 

Seeing all the work was totally inspiring though; I can't believe how talented some of these kids are!  They also had to write a brief statement or short essay (depending on grade level), and I definitely had some favorites.  There was one little girl in the 1-2 grade, wet media category who painted a sweet little mermaid upon some rocks.  Her essay read, "The beautiful mermaid rests on the colorful rocks.  Some people don't think mermaids are real, but maybe they just haven't been discovered yet."  I just LOVED that little essay - so innocent, so sweet, so like something my own daughter would say. ;) 

Anyway, I'm glad it's over, and while I am totally deserving of the day off tomorrow, the next project deadline is looming so I probably won't.  :( 

I did manage to create another layout on Saturday though.  Don't ask me how I did it as crazy-busy as I have been, but somehow it came together fairly quickly.

And now that I'm looking at this again, I'm cracking up over our crazy temps.  These photos were taken just a couple of days ago and the temp was 38 degrees.  We warmed up to 81 degrees today - just 4 days later!  Another cold front is coming in with the sunrise tomorrow, but it's only supposed to get to the mid 60s.  Fun, huh?  Wish it would get colder and stay colder or just go ahead and stay warm for a good chunk of time.  This back and forth of temps is nuts!

For a full list of credts (all from Designer Digitals), please see here! 

Happy Monday all!