this place

A bit late tonight but have finally done my lesson 3! This involved lots of new techniques and ways of resizing photos. We also had to make a journalling block and mat for our small photos. Really enjoyed this, it's so much easier when you just have to follow instructions!

another attempt

tried to do another layout from scratch before going on to the next class. It took me ages but I think it is a bit better than the other one!
I used a free kit I downloaded the other day.

Hard work!

At the end of our second lesson we had to do our own digi layout from scratch using several photos. I find it much harder trying to design something myself but had a go. Think I need a lot more practice somehow and a creative brain!!
All the elements on the page were either from the course or part of a free kit I downloaded.

lesson 2

Here is my next page, it's taken me quite a while to do but hopefully I have learnt a lot of new techniques!

Bonus assignment

We had to do this layout as a bonus assignment to make sure we remembered everything. I found the part about saving it in different sizes very interesting as it should make it easier for me to upload to my blog.

Lesson 1

I've just started an Up and Running class over on Jessica Sprague's site. Jenny is way ahead of me as I had to wait till mum went home.
This is the first layout and I have to say I am very impressed with the class, there is lots to learn and I can't wait to do more!

We had a lovely few days with mum despite her leaving her stick and medication behind, she seemed to manage well without either of them.
We had two walks by the sea, meeting Jenny and co for a pot of tea nad a scone on one of the days, they also came round twice to see her.
Yesterday we had a browse at the shops which mum enjoyed although I tried to steer her away from skirts and tops! She bought a few goodies to eat over the weekend and Ian was going to make sure she had something out for her dinner today. He and Peter took her back last night and stayed the night as they are going to the golf today.
Jamie stayed last night to watch the football and is now watching Smallville.
I'm itching to get on with my class but had better get dressed first!

Tried again

Was a little irritated with being unable to colour the centre photo yesterday so thought I would try again. Jenny told me lots of people were having the same problem and there was a solution on the forum. That's what's so great about these classes there is always someone to answer your question.

and there's more!

This was a page I did las week for the SLYMI challenge to scrap in threes.

I did this quick page from a free class on Jessica Spragues shop.

Final class

For the final class we had to make a 9 photo grid and add a brush.

We then had to change the photos to sepia but hide the mask over the centre photo. Unfortunately my centre photo is not very colourful so will have to try the technique again with a better photo.

The class is now finished and I feel I have learnt a lot. Photoshop is not such a scary programe now and I just want to learn more.

learning to draw!!

Peter showed me http://www.drawingcoach.com/figure-drawing-head.html this website yesterday which tries to teach people how to draw and I managed to do this face!!!! It might look a bit scary to you but as a 10yr old can draw better than me, I'm very pleased with it!!

I'm going to finish my Jessica Sprague class now and then decide on the next one, I want to keep going with it as I've started to understand what it is all about!

Day 12: Storyboards

Today we learnt how to create a three-panel storyboard with text. Another great class, I'm so sad it is coming to an end.

Had a terrible thunderstorm last night but it cleared up today and we went out to lunch in Canterbury with Peter.

Day 11

Today we were learning the technique, selective spot recolouring, something I have always wanted to do as it can make some dramatic photos. I chose this simple one for my first attempt, off to practice on more now!!

day 10

today we had to use a variety of techniques. We had to create our own clipping mask from a shape, then add in photo. Next we had to add two textures, a type overlay and type in two fonts. We finished off with the edge burning technique!

quick digi

I did this quick digi page using some free papers from Jessica Sprague.

Day 9

have been playing around with some photos to get the latest effect on Jessica Spragues class!

The idea is to edge burn, a technique which darkens the edges to pull your eye to the centre of the photo, in photoshop you had to make an adjustment layer and a layer mask.

day 8

Today we had to add texture and then type to a photo, another cool idea I will be using again! If you have a moment do look at Jenny's blog as she has been doing the class too and has some great photos.

Nothing much to report here. Peter has just gone back and we have got the housework done and Ian has mown the lawn now all we need to do is the weeding,I never seem to get on top of that!

catching up

I hate being behind in things so I had to do day 6 of my course! This was really going over the previous techniques. I resized the photo, turned it to black and white and the added textures. Brushes were used next to get the title and I also did some tinting. Hopefully some of that will have sunk in!

new computer!!

Having got really into my Jessica Sprague class my computer decided to be mean to me and breakdown! After Ian tried all ways to get it working he finally gave in and bought me a new one, aren't I a lucky girl!
It has meant I'm playing catch up with the class but I've managed to almost get up to date.
Day 4 we had to add a clipping mask to a photo.

Day 5 we had to add textures and then a frame. I really need to go back over all the classes and refresh myself so will do that later. The textures were from http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2009/4/17/a-little-dirty-8-subtle-grunge-textures.html

free digi kit

I made this layout using a free digi kit from shabby princess and a tutorial by kate Hadfield from an old copy of Creative Scrapbooking. I wanted to learn how to do a layout without using a template so this was very helpful.
Shabby Princess have lots of free kits so I'm off to download some more!

Day 3

Today we had to create a vintage hand-tinted look using adjustment layers and blending modes and then as an extra add a frame and some stars using a glowy star brush.

it is very interesting finding out what all these tools do, I only hope I can remember it all!

2nd attempt!!

Like this photo better as the background is clearer, will now have to find some free word brushes can't have celebrate on every photo!!

day two - brush tool

Day two of the class and we had to import some brushes and use on a photo, I know this photo has too much clutter in the background but just wanted to experiment will find a better photo later!

First Lesson

Here is my attempt at Jessica Spragues first lesson for her free online class. We had to add a frame and word to a photo using photoshop elements, not too difficult actually! I'm looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what's in store for us then.

Wimbledon is finally over though at one point I thought we would still be watching the final today! I was so disappointed with the result I thought Roddick deserved to win, but my favs seldom do. We don't know what to do with ourselves now, got to wait another year before it all starts again!

more digi

I finally made this album for the Jessica Sprague Stories in Hand class, I do get there in the end! I had to download the papers and print out to make the book and then had lots of prompts to print out for it, hopefully they will make me better at journalling. I did have a lot of trouble following the instructions for photoshop but got there in the end with a little help from Peter and Andrew. I then became so pleased with myself that I attempted a complete digi layout from another of Jessica Spragues prompts for this class. The template and papers etc were all created by her I just had to follow instructions again. Having gone wrong a few times and lost layers etc I finally got there, I think going wrong actually helped me as I have repeated things so many times it must have sunk in!!!

We went to Alex and jamie's sports days this week and they both did very well, it was good to see them competing and getting very involved with it all, will hopefully upload some photos soon but the internet is playing up so won't do it now.