A break from our usual programming...

So, I have about 20 (literally) layouts that I need to upload but...I just didn't feel like it tonight. Tonight, I just wanted to take a little break and share some things. First of all...I was SO sad and shocked to hear that my beloved Mr. John Hughes passed away suddenly today. A heartattack at the age of 59...so sad. My life wouldn't be the same without "Pretty in Pink," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and the list goes on. Such a sad day. Thank you, Mr. Hughes, for sharing your talent with us. I was and will always be a fan. K...enough of the sad stuff...

A lot of you know that my son started playing football last week. Wellllll....after three practices, he decided that he has fun playing football...but he wasn't having any fun. Plus, he hurt his leg on the third practice and it's still bothering him so that might have worried him a bit. But, I did manage to snap some pictures during one of his practices! Yay!! I bought some fabulous photo overlays by Emily Powers today at We Are Storytellers and had a chance to play!! :) (By the way...sadly, WST is closing. But the good news is...everything is 50% off!!) Anyway...here's my little man at practice:

Straight out of the camera...I was digging it!

And here it is with a subtle overlay:

He caught me...oops!! Having mom take your picture at practice is like, SO embarrassing, dude. He's such a handsome young man. Wish he'd let me take more pictures!!! Maybe one day. ;) And...of course, I have to share a little picture of Sydney. This one is a little more vintage feeling. She had her favorite pale pink lip gloss on and it reminded me of the retro model looks so that's the look I wanted the picture to have....

It felt so good to actually get out with the camera and just play. And then get back into Photoshop and actually play with the pictures without scrapping. I have some senior portraits to do soon so I need to get out and practice some more!!! Thanks for letting me share!! And check out WST...they have some seriously good deals on some awesome photo overlays and actions. I'll share all the layouts soon....have a good night...and go watch your favorite John Hughes movie for me. ;)

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Fun with...Panty Hose???

I've been playing with my camera a lot lately even though our photo-a-day challenge is over. I've still been carrying it around and trying things out. So...I broke out the panty hose the other day. Wha??? What do panty hose have to do with photography you ask?? {hehe!} Let me explain...way back in the day when I had a manual 35mm camera (gasp...remember those?? hehe!) I was very into the idea of filters. I wanted to try them all. Someone...I wish I could remember who...told me to take an old pair of panty hose, cut off a little piece, and put it over the lens and use a rubber band wrapped around it to hold it on. They told me that it was a great way to get a nice soft focus. Well...I gave it a try way back then and took some pictures of my brother on his Harley that I just loved. The panty hose gave the sunlight reflecting a nice star effect and it gave the picture a soft focus. So...I thought I'd break out the old panty hose and give it a try with my digital Rebel!! I wanted to find something that had that same sort of sunlight reflection going on just to see if it would have the same result. So these pictures are for demonstration purposes...not for their fabulous-ness. {hehe!!} I just wanted to show you the effect. So, here's the photo without any panty hose on the lens:

And here's basically the same shot with the panty hose filter:

Imagine that on a nice beachy scene...the star effect and the color would add a vintage feel. I kind of like that!! And then I did a little color adjusting in Photoshop just to show what it would look like if you don't care for the vintage tone:

It still has the star effect but not the color. So what do you think?? Think you'll be grabbing some panty hose and giving it a whirl?? I'll try to get some better examples...preferably with people in the photo. :-) And I did some more playing...this one is super simple and very retro. Remember the old photos that have the burnt edges...vignette type-pictures?? Well...I took a piece of black posterboard (but I'm sure cardstock would work) and poked a hole in the center about the size of a pencil. I put it over my lens and...

It looks like I did that in photoshop but I didn't. That was straight out of the camera. I know it's not an effect for everyone but I was having fun with it! So there are a couple cheap and fun ideas for you to play with the next time you grab your DSLR. Just remember to make sure the panty hose are stretched nice and tight over your lens. (Boy does that sound weird!!) So have fun with it and I'd love to see what kind of pictures you get with your panty hose and cardstock!! Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by!!

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Open Mind for a Different View

(Anyone recognize the title?? Little tip of my hat to James Hetfield. It's from Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters.") Our word of the day for the photo-a-day challenge yesterday was "angle." So I decided to go for a different view for my picture. It's a picture of a simple little daisy but if you had seen me precariously perched practically on my belly trying to get the sun positioned just right behind that simple little daisy....geesh!! Maybe someone should've snapped a picture of that!! hehe!! But I did like the shot that I got...here it is:




And someone marked it as a favorite photo on Flickr...that's a first for me!! Woohoo!! And here are a couple other faves from our last week or so...

Our prompt for that one was "blue." It's just a big ol' golf umbrella that I borrowed from DH and set in the yard with the sun behind it.

And the prompt for that one was "round." I just love the marbles!! Must be the kid in me! Oh...and I almost forgot to mention our "Summer Camp" challenge happening at AC Bailey Designs. We have some really fun sketch challenges and a really cool member challenge from Brandy. We'd love it if you'd come over and check it out!! Thanks for letting me bombard you with pictures today!! Did I mention I'm loving this challenge?!?! Have a great day!!

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More pics and a new page...

Our word for the ACB photo-a-day challenge for today was "color." It was hard for me to decide what to photograph and then once I started snapping...it was hard to decide which one to choose. But that's the one that I settled on. I wanted to use leading lines and I wanted it to be pretty strong so that's why I chose that one. But here are a couple more that I liked, too.

And...I actually finished a scrapbook page the other day that wasn't digital! Can you believe it?? The picture doesn't really show the little details like the Stickles that I added here and there but you can get the general idea anyway. I used some Sassafrass Lass papers from the fabulous AC Bailey May Kit of the month!! It is such a wonderful kit!!

I think I dulled my knife with the handcutting on that one! hehe!! But I had fun with that one! It started out on red cardstock but that made it a little girlie so I switched to the brown. So that's some of the fun stuff that I've been dabbling in lately. And did I mention that Tab & I finally got that crazy yearbook finished and it is now in the printing process!! *whew!* Tab really stepped up to the plate and knocked that one out! Thanks, again, Tab for all of your hard work!! I hope everyone is having a great day!!! Thanks for visiting!!

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