Ring Ceremony Layout

Using the photo I edited in my previous post, along with some others, I made this layout for my son's book. This past weekend was when he received his class ring during a ring ceremony that is a school tradition. He is officially a senior now, and I wanted these memories to be captured on paper! :)

Material List

CTMH Emporium Paper Pack

CTMH Cranberry Brads

EK Success Tiny Flower Punch & 1" Circle Punch

Paper Piercing Tool

SVGCuts.com Scalloped Shapes Digicart

A little PSE fun today!

This weekend was my son's last weekend for school. every year there is a "Junior Ring Ceremony" held at St. James Chapel on the campus. This ceremony is when the Juniors receive their class ring. A senior presents the junior with his ring, and then the junior turns his ring around to signify the end of his senior year and the beginning of the senior year for the current juniors. So........Kyle is now "officially" a senior!

After the ceremony was over there was completed, several of the juniors hurried to "Senior Circle". This is the lawn area in front of the barracks buildings. There is a gazebo in the center of the circle, and there have been stone paths laid from four different directions to the center. Underclassmen are, under NO circumstances, allowed in this circle; it is for seniors only, and something that each and every underclassmen understands from the first day they set foot on campus.

I clicked a photo of Kyle at the gazebo that I just love - it shows his beautiful smile, and his face is beaming with happiness. It is as if I managed to catch the true feeling he had of becoming an "official" senior. I'm certainly not a pro photographer, so when I come home and see that shot that captured him best, I am thrilled!!

Because of the hype of the circle, others were present taking photos and I had to do some editing to make my pride and joy the focal point of this picture. I used Photoshop Elements 8 to work some magic. I outlined Kyle using my Polygonal Lasso Tool, and then "copied via layer" under the Layers Menu. I then hid the other layer and clicked over to the "Quick Edit" mode to brighten his cutout image a little bit.
Back to "Full Edit" mode, I showed all layers again, making sure that the cutout highlighted image was the top layer. I then hid the cutout image, went back to "Quick Edit" and darkened the bottom layer a little. (The goal for me here was to create more of a contrast between the background and Kyle). Once the layer was darkened to my liking, I went back to full edit, and while still working on the background layer, I chose the Gaussian Blur effect. This created a blurred, darker image for the background. I then flattened my image to the photo you see here! I can't wait to work on the scrapbook layout with this. I think I'll make it a 5x7, and after adding it to the other pictures, this will make a nice double page layout. :)

Winter Bliss Layout Page with SVGCuts.com Collection

It has been a busy, busy season! My son has been home, I've been catching up with some of the greatest friends EVER!, and I've been trying to find some time to sit down and complete some scrapbook pages I've been working on, as well as learn my new Adobe CS4 programs!  I did manage to sneak in some time to work on this sgl page layout! :) (I bought a new SVGCuts.com collection called Winter Bliss, and I LOVE it!! So I had to pull up my SCAL this weekend!) 


I have been playing with my Adobe programs, and I used a gradient map to make my photo black & white, except for my husband, to help him stand off the busy background.

From the Winter Bliss file, I used the 12 x 12 Trees file (cut at 11.5" sq). I used SU Bride Specialty paper for the negative, and The Paper Company Studio "Snowflake Diamonds" for the frame. I matted my photos on three mats that are 1/4" increments larger than the 4 x 6 photo. I used Stickles "Icicle" on the bottom white mat.
I cut the Short Icicles SVG and shrunk it down to fit my picture - this also has Stickles "Icicle" on it.
I cut the title SVG in white, and then cut a blackout shadow at .5 setting in the SU Bashful Blue color to bring the page base color forward in my layout.
I used the Snowflake 1 and two of the Snowflake 2 SVG files and a blackout shadow layer (same colors as the title), along with some more of my Stickles "Icicle" to finish it off. The top left corner of the photo frame was layered so that I had to use two pop-dots, stacked on top of each other, on the part that isn't on the photo to keep it even.



I was pleased with the way this one turned out! I just love this picture of my hubby in his snow gear! To backtrack for a quick sec - this was taken outside our garage two years ago when we had snowmobiles. We had some friends over, and spent most of the afternoon riding. It was cold, but a "good cold" and it did snow part of that day. When us "old folks" were done, we hung outside to watch the kids while we drank our cocoa (it's actually Ovaltine - I'm a HUGE fan!!! Just ask my friends! hahaha - little inside joke, there). Anyhow, he looked like a big, cold bear in his Way-too-big snow pants, so I clicked this photo on my way in to be warm! :)

Photo Journalism

I always thought it would be fabulous to try my hand at photo journalism, and scrapbooking is just that, on a small scale, I think! This is my very first "real" attempt to let my pics actually "tell the story". I'm sure there is room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with the way it worked out. I think my son will be happy with it, as well. (Afterall......don't all parents just LIVE to please their children - imagine MUCH sappy sarcasm here!! lol!).

This was a "supply light" layout. I used two sheets of designer Halloween paper from my stash, my laser printer for the journaling, and four different shades of yellow-orange cardstock for the jack-o-lantern. I did sponge the jack-o-lantern with some SU inks, as well.  For the wolf, I used Sure Cuts A Lot to trace a pdf image of a silhouette I found on yahoo images. The frame around the journailing is from SVGCuts.com Halloween Collection. The jack-o-lantern is #9 of their Jack O' Lantern Collection.

Thanks for checking it out! Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know if you think I tackled the photo-journaling part of my project! :)

New Hat

Hi, everyone!

This weekend I spent my time with Kyle at HMS. They had a weekend "off", and because he did not want to come home, I went to visit him. :) (He hates the bus rides home and back. Since it was a short weekend, I figured it would be okay for him to stay back).

One of the things that Kyle likes to do is practice his driving. I took him back on the country roads for a while this weekend, and I remembered to snap a few photos! (I usually forget!)

We also did some pumpkin carving with the other boys that were still at the school. I picked some up from a roadside wagon for $1 each! (Isn't country living great?? Can't buy them that cheap at Walli-World! er.....uh......I mean Wal-Mart!!)

Kyle wanted a cowboy hat for a long time, so we stopped a local TSC where he picked out the one you see in my photos. (Hat is courtesy of grandma's pocketbook! :) ).

It was a great weekend for this! Crisp, cool weather! I always have a good time when he and I visit (and he's growing up so fast!! SNIFF-SNIFF)

She's My 'Lil SugarBear!

This is my youngest dog, Mia (pronounced, Mee-ah). She's four. She is a very attentive little girl that loves to cuddle and have attention from her "mom". She's spoiled rotten, and we love her to bits! I took this on my deck this evening as we were heading back in the house for "cookies"! This is probably the best photo I have ever taken of my dogs!

Oh..............ignore those awesome weeds growing through the deck! hahaha - we can't spray because this is "dog territory", and they eat everything green! So, we'll pull them out when the weather kills them from the frost that's coming.