Some Canuck humour for ya...

This gave me a great laugh this morning... hilarious, no? ;p

I'll be back soon I hope.. I have school fair volunteer duties ( baking, wrapping, and cardmaking) to do this week along with all the other daily stuff, so I may be MIA for a while longer. Why does life accelerate to 200 MPH in November??

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drop shadow tutorial

Thanks for all the comments on my last post, mucho appreciated. :) Di, the papers on that layout are from Jillibean Soup, and the title is done with the new 'nutmeg' Thickers from AC.

I get a lot of people emailing me, asking me how I do the drop shadow effect on my layouts. If you're like me, and scrap mainly on white cardstock, your layouts will look much better defined if you add this simple trick. There's really only a few steps to it, and I think it makes a world of difference. I'm sure there's a better and faster way to do it, but I'm going to attempt to describe how I do it on my ancient Photoshop Elements program. I have version 5.5, but last May I downloaded PSE 7 trial version for the yearbook I did, and the same actions are there, just maybe not in the exact place. I really need to upgrade soon. I liked PSE 7 and found it really easy to use, so I may go that route and just upgrade online.

First, here's my original scanned layout. You can see how it looks blah and is totally floating on the white screen.

I'll omit the steps where I fix up the colours, sharpen & crop it, etc. I do that first, and then once I'm satisfied with how everything looks, I do the drop shadow last.

1. With your layout open on the screen, go to file \ new\ blank file. Open a document that is an inch or more bigger than your layout ( in this case, I made my blank file 12 x 9.5, and at 200dpi, since that's what my layout scanned at).

Once you have your blank file created, go to layer\new layer to create a new layer for your layout.

drag your layout onto the opened canvas.

Next, with the layout layer highlighted, go to your artwork and effects pallette on the right of the screen. Choose 'layer styles', and you should see a variety of drop shadow effects. Click on the one you like best, and then just drag it over to your layout and drop it on. You need to make sure you have this layer highlighted, or else it isn't going to work.

Once that's done, flatten the layers ( Layer\ flatten image), and crop your image if necessary.

The last step is saving for web, and you're done!

Here's what my final version looks like:

I used a different drop shadow on this than what I showed here, but the steps are the same. Much better!

Clear as mud, right? Let me know if this helps you and if you're unsure of any of the steps, just email me and I'll try to help. There's also a free action you can download and install if you're still having problems, but I prefer to do it this way.

Good luck!

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Long weekend plans..

 It's (Canadian) Thanksgiving here this weekend, so I'm going to be busy, busy with the kids off tomorrow and Monday. I'm hoping to go apple picking tomorrow with them if it doesn't rain. And I'm cooking a ginormous traditional turkey dinner for us which we'll have on Monday, since I have to work over the weekend. I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and usually go all out with way too much food. This year it's  the usual turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, & brocolli/cauliflower casserole for the main course,  with homemade pumpkin pie and a cheesecake of some sort for dessert. Here's to another 5 pounds gained... my mouth is watering just typing it out! And the weather is decidedly fall-ish and perfect. The leaves are coming down at a rapid pace now, and I need to get out and take some photos before they're gone.

I've been busy with assignments, but here's one I can show you of my 4th Grader. He had some issues last year, which made us think we needed to hold him back, but so far this year, he's doing fantastic, and I'm so happy and relieved that I needed to do a layout about it.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and if it isn't one where you live, hope it's great all the same!

xox

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Introducing..

my new baby. She's sleek, and Danish to boot. :) The real thing. Check out the stainless legs!


 Beautiful, isn't she?  I love her. (and I'm not sure why she's a she and not a he... but it's like that.)

I think I've already mentioned here or on FB how I've been obsessed with checking Craigslist every 5 minutes or so for the last month and a half, right? It paid off!  I spotted this one evening early last week, and I assumed it would be sold already when I emailed the guy, but I got lucky. Drove out to very east end Montreal the other night and met a very lovely guy who is as credenza obsessed as I am, go figure. We struck a nice deal, and he delivered this to me the next night, free of charge, and even lovingly helped me set it up properly. I am so lucky to always come into contact with really nice people. I'm a trusting sort, and my instinct very rarely lets me down, thankfully.
The top is haphazardly decorated with an old lamp, photo, my ipod, and Stonehenge puzzle of Bobby's. Wish I had a better decorator gene. Suggestions? And I'm on the lookout for a big abstract canvas to hang above. I have an idea of what it should look like, so maybe I'll paint one myself, if I can't find what I'm looking for... a good way to put the Fine Arts BA to use, lol..

I'm off to finish up some assignments, and tomorrow, working for the weekend. Enjoy the cool fall weather-  I think snow is around the corner. It is chilly out there!

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Leaving well enough alone.

I made this layout back in July or so, and after much fussing and frustration with it, put it aside in the  'to be finished at a much later date' pile. I guess it looked better in my head, and I couldn't quite translate what I wanted onto paper. So it sat there for 2 months, untouched.

Then a few weeks ago, I saw Moon's awesome layout here on the American Craft blog, loved what she did with all the stickers and rub-ons, and decided to try it on my layout, since she'd used the same Teen line on her's. I ripped off the green/teal background on my layout, stuck down the stickers and rub-ons, and it now looks like this:

 I'm thinking I should have really left well enough alone. Way too busy for my taste, and none of the cool factor that Moon's page has. Scraplifting just doesn't work for me that well, I guess. ;p But my son, god love him, adores this page, sticker sneeze and all, and that's what counts, right? What the heck, I may even go all out and add a few more stickers to really fill up that page. ;p
 Definitely NOT one of my favourites.

Have a wonderful Monday- it's Indian summer here today and I'm heading outside to take full advantage of this beautiful day. :)

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Cards for Kate & a challenge to you...

Many of you probably already read Jennifer McGuire's blog and know about this card drive for Kate, but for those who don't, you can read about it here. I can't imagine the grief and stress this family must be going through having to deal with something so terrifying. Imagine if it were your son or daughter. I can't.

I think this idea of sending cards of encouragement, good wishes and positive thoughts is fantastic, and I'm sure their spirits will be uplifted when they start receiving them. Please consider taking a few minutes out of your day to make a card for Kate or her family. Also, if you have anything you'd like to donate as a prize, ( scrap related or other) then feel free to email Jennifer- I'm sure anything will be appreciated! There are some sweet prizes being given out, as an added incentive to send in those cards. :)

Here are a few cards I've made for Kate-  are they cutesy & girly enough? I hope she likes them!

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Credenza love

I haven't been very bloggy lately. I'm sorry.


Since the kids went back to school, ( so far, so good!) I've been happily enjoying my days off alone, and slowly but surely making a dent in the clutter that has invaded my house over the past year. I'm happy to say that I'm winning the battle so far. But when I'm not cleaning and sorting, I've been obsessively checking Craigslist every hour or so for one of these beautiful babies, and dreaming of the day that I find an original one in perfect condition, for under 35$ or less. Hahaha! So far no luck, but I'm patient. How I wish that the one pictured above was a photo of my living room...

You're probably wondering why I'm looking for another credenza after I posted I got this one for free back in the spring. I'm sad to say that it met an unfortunate end in my backyard, due to the copious amounts of rain we had back in June. I had covered it with a tarp, but one particularly gusty and rainy day, it blew off. I didn't notice it until a few days later, and by then the rain had sunk in, (I'm talking non-stop, huricane-like rain) warped it pretty badly, and the (yucky) veneer sides were coming unglued. I wasn't too sad though, since this wasn't a really good piece of furniture. I have my heart set on a real Danish teak credenza, and I'll keep looking for it until I find just the right one. In the meantime, I've made myself this Flickr mosaic to drool over. They're all so lovely that I can't decide which one I love best...kind of like having several children, who you love equally, even though they're all different and unique.





1. Untitled, 2. Jens Risom Credenza, 3. trendy, 4. Credenza, 5. Vintage Union Furniture MCM Credenza, 6. Jens Risom credenza!, 7. Stow Davis Credenza, 8. credenza, 9. Credenza in the morning, 10. cameras on credenza, 11. Untitled, 12. kent coffey dresser + mannequins

I'll be back soon with a challenge and a little give-away to make up for my absence... :)

thanks for reading!
xox

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