Snow covered woods

Snow covered woods

First thing I did was to duplicate the photo and then I used Virtual Photographer Satin Steel on the top copy. Loved the coloring, but the softness was a little too much for me so I lowered the opacity on the VP layer until I got the right balance of color and sharpness. Also blended the white background with the white and blue snow flake background together until I was happy. Other than that it was a pretty straight forward LO using a template and kit.

The photo was taken early in the morning last week. I managed to get up and snap the shot before the snow fell off of the branches from wind or sunlight.

Up close...

Up close...

First I took the lace and duplicated the layer of it - then I rotated the top layer by choosing flip layer vertically. Then I lined up the two lace layers until I got the ragged edge that I liked. Merged those two layers together and then duplicated that for the bottom edge of the photo. I put the lace behind the photo and moved it until I got the effect I liked. I made the outer frame edge by making the lighter paper into two layers. Drew out the square selections by picking fixed aspect ratio and then nudging it to be even and then deleted what I didn't want. Then put the darker paper behind them and added drop shadow to the two upper layers. The word art I used two layers - with DSP carved text style on the top layer and Wow Metal 7 style for the bottom layer...

This photo was taken this month on a sunny day... the cat was sleeping underneath a very large umbrella tree plant and I woke him up and snapped a few photos through all of the foliage... he's an awfully good sport really...

Feline Masterpiece

Feline Masterpiece

Cut the strips out of the background papers for the layers. Used the magic wand on the dark paper in the kit with tolerance at around 30 on the gold and then Cntl+J to make a new copy of the gold angel and put it on top of the light background paper. Then I lowered the opacity on that so it was just visible. For the pin and the key ring I made two layers of each, put the object they interact with in between the two layers. Erased what went under on the top layer and then added shadow to the bottom layer. For the two heart locket I made the heart brads larger and then put them on a layer under the entwined hearts. The word art came with the outline of the kitty.

This photo was taken in June of 2006 and I put the date in the lower right hand corner, but you can't probably see it at this size!

Who loves a garden...

Who loves a garden...

First thing I did was to use Virtual Photographer Spice on the photo. Then I used Atomic Cupcake chipboard on the brackets. The composition is from a template. And I used Wow Rock 7 for the word art style. There is a sparkle overlay that I locked the transparency on and then brushed it a dark green and then lowered the opacity on the layer.

This photo was taken in New Hampshire in October of this past year. We spent a day at the corn maze and when I saw these gorgeous flowers I had to take a photo of them.

Story of love

Story of love...

This is a very easy layout... I used the quick click and the kit. And then I put the real element over where the blended element was on the background paper in the upper right hand corner. The only other thing I used was the Wow Metal 07 style on the word art and then I lowered the shadow depth and opacity.

This photo was taken in September which was within four weeks of when he passed. I was surprised at how well his fur looked in this photo... the poor guy felt so bad all that fall that my memory of him was that he looked much worse than this photo is...

The Orchard

The Orchard

This layout is pretty straight- forward. The only things that I did special were to duplicate the large swirl on the bottom corner of the photo and then make it as large as the layout and then lowered the opacity of it. I then layered it over the multi-colored ribbons so that they had some swirl work like the background paper too! I also added Wow Metal 15 style to the journaling and then lowered the shadow opacity and the bevel size.

I decided to use this photo with this kit because of the coloring as well as the fact that there were leaves in the lower left corner that I felt would be less noticable with the swirl over them...

Pounce

Pounce

This was straightforward use of kit with template... but I did discover something new while working on the title. First I stretched the font for the title - it's the same as the journaling font. But then I cut the title out of another background from the kit, then I used DSP carved text style on the font layer and then moved the cut paper layer under the carved layer. I really liked the effect!

And I was quite pleased with the photo... I have a heck of a time getting a shot of this cat that looks the way that I see him. Most of the photos look like they were taken of some other cat, but this one looks the way that I think of him...

Sweetheart

Sweetheart

Really nothing too special done here. Used a template and the hardest thing was picking the papers to use. Stayed with the same designer to keep the feel of the LO uniform.

Every year I tend to want to make a Valentine LO... probably because of all the wonderful kits that I see... plus, it's always nice to realize that we made it through another year together...

Happy Cat

Happy Cat

This is one of those layouts where I started with the photo and the idea that I wanted to use a circle and then worked from there. I added drop shadows to everything but the photo and the ribbon. I used DSP carved text for the Happy Cat title and the 2007. I then lowered the opacity for the date about twice as much as I did for the title... I had two layers of the vellum flower and put drop shadow on the bottom layer, then I erased where the cherish word was on the tag so that you could see it better on the top layer.

Turns out that the colors of the kits used match the colors in the quilt that I made... and when I was finished I realized that the LO composition closely matched the pattern of the quilt too... Didn't see it until I was done though...

You are my friend...

You are my friend...

This one was pretty easy... made three layers with the patterned background paper and then put the green background paper behind it. The ribbon came fitting onto the frame. And then I lowered the opacity on the vines and layered the flowers together. The word art style was Wow Organic 15.

I had been waiting for a special feminine kit to come along to use this photo. It was taken in October '06 at our 30th HS reunion. Where ever does the time go?

Worshipped

Worshipped

Used PanosFX sketch effect on the photo... took a long time getting the saturation just right for the color! Then used two layers on the edge for the photo and lowered the opacity on the second layer - used one edge layer on the background and played with opacity and shadow. On the top part of the word art I used Wow Organic 15 and on the bottom part used Wow Metal 15. There is also a 4 pixel black stroke on the photo.

I really liked this photo, but the colors were crazy! The cat in the green cat cave was fine, but the carpet is a pink color and just didn't go with anything. Also, the detail on the cat's fur is clearer in the sketch.

First Snow

First Snow

I used two photos for this LO. One was of a bunch of tree branches with snow stuck to them and the other was of the tree trunks. The branch photo was blended into the paper with the corner fold so that it was just visible. There is an overlay on the bottom paper. I used the DSP carved text style on the year and then lowered the opacity a bit. I beveled at 1 each of the snowflakes and the medium blue flake was made by blending the dark blue paper with the blue bottom paper.

I feel kinda silly being so excited by the snow... but I love the first snow of the year and I had to wait so long for it to come. Generally I'm not a big snow fan... especially when it starts piling up outside in the feet zone. But the first fresh snow fall is always something I look forward to...

Heads

Heads

The main title was made by cutting the letters out of the green diamond background paper and then using Atomic Cupcake's Painted Wood Effect. Then I added a stroke of green to the head part of the title and also to the UCDavis part of the title, which is also cut out of the same background paper and slightly beveled. For the date in the upper left hand corner I used Wow organic 7 for the October ring around the brad and then I used DSP carved text style for the year on the brad. For the journaling text I used DSP metal gold (class download) and then lowered the bevel size. I played around alot with the shadows to get them the way that I wanted them to look...

In the photo are my DS, DH and best friend from High School... I wanted to take my son to where I went to college so that he could see what the campus was like... he already has visited the campus where his Dad went to college!