A new layout and a free QP from me to you!

Happy Mothers Day weekend!! I hope all the mothers out there have a great weekend!! To celebrate my own motherhood I created this layout with some photos I took camping in Pismo last weekend. My son loves to camp and make smores by the camp fire at night, even though he doesnt really like to eat anything but the marshmellows. LOL He thinks it is great to catch the marshmellow on fire and then blow it out. Below is the layout I created of my son roasting and eatting smores by the camp fire. The kit I used is at least 4 years old because I am working from my laptop today and using old disks I had burned a few years ago. I am not even sure the designers are still working in the field anymore to be honest but I have the information below just in case.

Credits: Nancy Kubo-Thankful Kit, Katie Pertiet-Pinup Vintage Frames

Well, not only is it Mothers day this weekend for me but its also my Anniversary weekend. Technically my anniversary is the 10th but since that falls on a Tuesday I am pretty sure we will celebrate this weekend rather then Tuesday. We'll see what happens.

I guess your wondering about the FREE QP I promised you. Well, I decided it would be nice for everyone to have a special little QP to throw some great photos of your children in and display for mothers day so I made you your very own QP of the layout I created above of my son Wyatt. You can grab that QP here at 4shared. I really hope you like it and display your childrens photos proudly. Just pop your photos into the frames and hit print. Its really simple.

Have a great Mothers day!!!

Tutorials anyone???

So I have been doing some tutorial roaming again on the world wide web and well this usually ends with me saying WOW I'm going to give that a try some day, adding it to my favorites, and then immediately forgetting about it until my favorites bar looks like a complete mess of random links to unknown subjects. Hence the greatness of the blog. I can now share my tutorial finds here with you and then locate them easily again later if and when I ever remember that they are here and decide to give them a go. In the meantime though you have them to play with and learn from.
The first tutorial I found that interested me was this great tutorial from MissBehavin @ SBG on creating a 70's photo look out of your modern photos. Since I have fallen in love with photo filters etc I found this tutorial to be extremely interesting and hope I can use it soon.
There are other ways in PS to change the look of your photos as well including using the Curves Function. I found a good tutorial on exactly how to do that as well HERE.
Ever wanted an Extreme Makeover but can't get anyone to nominate you to one of those darn reality shows? Well, do it yourself in PS or PSE by using this tutorial by DSP. Here you will learn how to make yourself or anyone else look glamorous with just a few PS tricks of the trade.
Finally at Hummies World you will find many differing tutorials including this set of tutorials which help to improve your images.
So you like the written tutorials but you prefer to have someone tell you how to do it as you watch what is being done on the screen? Then I have the perfect tutorial for you and its spectacular!! head on over to Youtube and watch this video by Brandon to learn how to enhance your photos even more. This is a spectacular tutorial believe me.
Thats all the tutorials I have for you today but it should keep you busy for a short time at least. I will end with a couple of layouts i just completed and hadnt had time to share with you.

Credits:

Misty Cato-Brushed up text & Kristin Cronin-Barrow-Go Green both at SSD. 

Credits:

Studio Gypsy- "Repository 1", "Page Fluff", "Gratitude", "Gypsy Queen", & "Industrial"

Other Credits:

Studio Rosey Posey- "Cherish"

Nicole Young- "Vintage Show Drama Queen"

Had fun doing some gardening....

So yesterday my son Wyatt and I had some fun planting some vegetable seeds. We planted carrots, spinich, green onions, yellow squash, tomatos and radishes. I am hoping to use the activity as a small educational experience. These plants probably have no chance with us in charge of their daily feeding. LOL Whether the plants make it or not I did get some photos of Wyatt while he was engrossed in planting and made this layout using a kit by Studio Manu at Scrapbookgraphics.

Its funny how you start out with a layout and have a specific idea in mind and then end up creating something so completely different. That is what happened here. I had planned on using a more simplistic layout with bright colors and lots of springy colors. Then I ran across this kit and started to play with it and wlel it just all seemed to work out so well. I may have to go back and attempt to complete the original idea later with some of the other photos now.
Thanks for looking and have a spectacular day!!!

Tutorial and other great information

So I have been checking out a lot of the other blogs around town this week. I have found some great blog trains going on and another great tutorial was shared with me as well. This is one I will probably find a use for a lot myself. LOL
First let me give you the link to this great tutorial over at "The Lillypad". The tutorial teaches you how to deal with those troublesome dark circles under your eyes. No not by getting more sleep or applying more foundation, but by simply erasing them "POOF" gone in Photoshop. Check out the great tutorial HERE. I am sure you will find plenty of uses for this one.
Next I have located a few awesome blog trains this month and thought I would share the links to them here on my blog. The first train starts with the whole concept of fighting piratism in digital scrapbooking and picks up the pirate theme. How many of us love or have children that love pirates? Well grab your grog and head on over to the "Blog Train Blog" to plunder all the treasure you can. Leave some for me please!

Next another great blog train currently in motion but probably coming to an end soon is a beautiful springy kit. You can start the train HERE with a list of all the fab designers who participated in the train at the LDS website. Grab this last one fast as their April train should be arriving in the station soon and the goodies from March will depart quickly.

Have a spectacular day!!!

A couple new layouts

Hello everyone! Its been a crazy month here at the Salmon house. My son Wyatt is in another performance at the Star's Dinner Theater and today is performance day. I took a couple photos Thursday with my Cell phone of him in his costume for the show which turned out pretty good. I am hoping to get some good shots of the whole cast today. Here is a layout I completed with the photos of Wyatt at dress rehearsal.

I wanted to make a layout that was more masculine and I think the baby blue and brown really worked well for that. Credits: Sue Cummings "Basics"

Next I delved back into my Italy photos and pulled out this awesome photo of Burano Island off the coast of Venice. When I visited Venice I fell in love with this wonderful island which was full of color and so beautiful.

While on Burano Island my Aunt Mary and I stopped to have lunch and listen to a musician playing and singing in the outdoor restaurant. We also got to watch some older ladies creating the famous Burano lace. I think this was probably the best meal we had while in Italy to be honest. It was pretty good. I decided to use another photo as the title of the page so I wrote out the title Burano in a large black font. I opened my photo in my layers and placed it over my text where I wanted to photo to lay and then on my font layer I selected the font. I then reversed the selection, went to my photo layer and deleted the portions of the photo outside of the selection. I applied a stroke of about 15 I think and voila!! I used the blended templates collection by Studio Rosey Posey to create this layout.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you have a spectacular day my friends!!!

How do I create a Title?

So I bet a lot of you are like me and are always having trouble deciding how to create the "title" of your layout or design. I always have a hard time finding the right font or the right style or just figuring out what I want my title to say. I ran across this list of Title Tutorials at "The Daily Digi" and I think they are all great! Check them out and have some fun with them: http://thedailydigi.com/title-techniques/.

I completed another layout as well that I wanted to share with you all while I am here. This layout is created with those awesome templates that I got at SBG and told you all about by Studio Rosey Posey. They allow you to take a great photo like the one below and blend it into your BG of your design. They inclide all the directions for "clipping" your photo into the layout which creates the great blended effect. Its simply AWESOME and you can create a whole layout in a matter of minutes. I bought the pack of 13 templates at 50% off and got them for $9.75. You don't have to buy the big set of them you can buy them individually as well. HERE is the set I bought though.

Wild Flowers at Wind Wolves Preserve 03/19/2010

This layout is of the wile flowers from last year at Wind Wolves Preserve near my house. I went out there over the weekend and the flowers are not out yet this year. Bummer is the ranger said they didnt think it was going to be a good wild flower year for us. I'm going to have to try and find flowers somewhere else I guess.

Credits:
Re Kniepp: School Add on (BG Paper)
Studio Rosey Posey: Blended Templates
 
Well, we are on our way out this weekend for a camping trip to the coast. It is suppose to rain the whole time, but it is our first camping trip this year and we promised Wyatt we would take him so off we go to Pismo Coast Village with the RV. Wish us luck. Maybe I will find some wild flowers there huh?
 
Have a great weekend!

In Rome.........

Well, I am back to my Italy photos again and trying to get a couple more done so I can finally get that album done I wanted to make. I just finished this one of the fountains in Piazza Navona my favorite piazza in Rome. It was so beautiful and just pouring over with charm and artisans. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch here of Pizza Margarita while enjoying the view.

In Rome.....

Credits:
Studio Buttercup Templates: Basic Buds Vol. 4
Viva: Spring Love
Studio Oh: Shades of Blue
Studio Re Kneipp: Be Free (Freebie)
Studio Miss Vivi: Tea or Coffee
Studio Rosey Posey & Tangie Collab: Being Me