The 26 Days of Thanksgiving

Ok, I'm a bit late on the bandwagon here, but there is a Facebook thing going on where you post once a day something you are thankful for. I'm going to take it a bit further, and do something like Ali Edward's "December Daily" album. While I love the idea of recording our holiday season and traditions, I'm not sure the December Daily is the approach I want to take.

Recently, I got our family albums all organized and set up so that I don't feel the need to scrapbook chronologically (Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom system, AMAZING!!!!), and my photos are organized in the same way so that I can feel free to pick and choose what I want to do. This allows me to either create pages for our category albums (The Story of Us, People We Love, Things We Do, Places We Go) or mini-albums like my annual Halloween album (I'll post picts of last years and this years soon). I can now find any photo, any memory, pretty quickly. It will allow me to pull pictures for the following idea...

The idea for my "26 Days of Thanksgiving" is to make a simple mini-album with what Shawn, myself, and Oliver are thankful for every year; what an amazing legacy to give our son as he grows! Since I might not get to it ASAP, I'm going to use this lil ol' blog to post my picts with my "Thankful For" statements, and it allows me to do some blogging for all of you (ok, only like three people actually read this anymore...I've been bad at posting since school started!)

To get the ball rolling, here is my first "page"

November 1: Carrie

My Memory. I am so thankful to have a memory like a steel trap. One that helps me remember exactly what my son's voice sounds like when he's making gestures like this:

Which is pretty funny, since I didn't even go that day with Oliver and Dad to the fair! "No, no, mine tractor!" still rings in my head when I see this picture. Thank You God, for a memory that allows me to keep what is important right in my mind.

FREE photo editing class!

Run, don't walk to this site!

http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=976:free-photo-editing-class&catid=1:latest&Itemid=148

Jessica Sprague is known as the final name in digital scrapping (which I don't do much of, I like the creative process associated with the "real" thing, but the photo editing and enhancing is something I do A LOT). She is offering a free class in using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to add frames, masks (really cool way to shape your photos or add a grungy effect, see below...), and layers to change the look of your photos. I have all of her books, and she is really user friendly. If you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, it's a great FREE FREE FREE class starting July 6th. You have to register 22-28th of June, but then you can access the class content starting on the 6th at your own pace.

Even if you don't have Photoshop, you can download a 30 day trial and this is a good way to see if it's something you want.

For my local friends, if you like, I'm more than happy to spend an afternoon with you showing you some of the basics and some fun EASY tricks with it. Let me know! Oliver has been taking monster 3 hr afternoon naps, so we could eaisly sit in my little yard with laptops and have some fun!

Here's an example of some of the fun things you can do (be sure to click on the photos to see the effects better):

SOOC shot: (straight out of camera, thanks Pioneer Woman for that little abbrevie!)


Then, just some quick levels and hue/saturation adjustments. Not too much, it was pretty good to begin with.

First clipping mask that I love, a torn edge look.

Probably one of my all time favs right now, this grungy scratched up look. Gives it kind of an "old photo" feel.

Number one thing to remember, this is easy and fast! So, who's in on the class with me?!?!

One more example with the grungy mask; I used three copies of it and layered it all onto digital scrapbook paper (sick sick obession I have here, isn't it?!??!)

So much fun!

I just checked Ali Edward's blog about her GREAT "A Week in the Life" project. Basically you document every little nuance of your life for one week, photos, notes about what you did, and collecting "stuff" like receipts and notes you wrote to people. Kolby-it would be such a cool project for you! I'm going to do this next week, but I had commented about involving Kori, Oliver's daycare provider.

So cool-Ali Edwards actually answered my question! OK, it's a silly thing, but she's a big one in the world of scrapbooking and it was kind of like my brush with fame. HA!

Wow, this world of blogging really starts to make you feel connected with the world. In a simple click, I can share ideas and comments with people around the world and they ANSWER! Just think about the possiblities...