Got my pictures

Good morning! I don't know about you, but I think there's no better time of the year then August. Warm days without the heat, cooler nights, tomatoes in my garden, back to school shopping -love it so much. Today's LO is not about that, but I just felt like I had to mention my love for this time of year.

Here's my simple layout:

This page started with inspiration from Keisha Campbell's layout. I love her graphic look and the way she designs her pages.

And yes, my pictures have finally arrived. So, I have plenty to work with now. Apparently, they came in the mail yesterday, and my husband decided to give them to me just this morning, saying he didn't want me to stay up late again. Yeah... just don't tell him I wrote about it here.
This is the mess on my table as I was starting to sort them out:

Hope to be back tomorrow with another page. Enjoy this wonderful weather!

Photo challenge - brown

I've been a lot busier last week then expected. A whole lot! But I guess busy is better then boring. There was definitely no time for that.

Finally back with collages that we made for our last challenge. Six pictures of brown things around your house - was the theme. I could keep taking more and more pictures of brown things around my house, but then it would make a "twenty six photo" collage instead of six. Here is mine:

And I guess, I wasn't the only super busy person last week since I received only one collage by e-mail. But, I should admit, I was kind of happy that no one else send it in since Lora's collage was just so totally awesome. I loved it! Lora, the prize is yours. Here is Lora's collage:

This challenge inspires me to make a LO about our home. I hope to make it someday, but for now I'm so glad that at least my Week in a Life Project has some of that documented.

Yes, I did have some time to work on my Week in the Life Project, which happened mostly at night. I have ordered my pictures yesterday (after a long-long time of choosing, editing, planning, collage making process), and can't wait to put it all together.

See you later! Hopefully with a finished project!

Week in the Life - Saturday

I have been faithfully following up with the Week in the Life Project. This is the second year I'm participating, but the first year I'm actually up to date with the photos and journaling (well, I could do better on that part). I haven't shared my day to day pictures, since they will be in the album for you to see later, but today was special. It was a day that we shared not only with our family, but also with friends, with brothers and sisters, with people I love.

Here are just a few (a little more than few) images from today:

I just wanted to say that every time I grabbed my camera to take another picture, every time I sat down to delete the not-so-perfect ones, every moment I spent writing a few words down - it was all SO worth it.

It is so much fun to look through these pictures today. It will be even more interesting next year. And it will be a priceless history in ten years.

Layout with 3x4 pictures

Hi. As you've probably noticed before, I love photo collages. I use them in my layouts pretty often. Today's page is one example:

I ordered a "two photo" collage on a 4x6 photo. It saves time, money and let's you fit more pictures on a page. Using another collage to show you some details on the layout:

For those who have never done a photo collage before, I really encourage you to try one. It is SO easy. You may use a number of different programs for that, but I find Picasa to be the easiest -and it's free. I would like to share a few steps for those who might be interested.

You can download Picasa 3 from the Internet HERE.

When you first open Picasa, it will scan all of your pictures on the computer. Select a file with the pictures you like to work with. Click on the picture. It will be surrounded by blue frame (1) and a tiny picture will appear in the bottom left corner (2). Click little green pin icon (3) to hold your picture in place. Repeat with as many pictures you want to be in the collage.

Click on the collage button (4).

Picasa automatically comes up with a collage for you which you may rearrange and adjust to your like by moving pictures around and resizing your photos. If you like to resize a specific photo, click on it. The red frame will appear. Click on View and Edit button.

Now you can resize of your photo, rotate it, adjust colors and brightness, add soft touch, turn it black and white and much more. Save it. Go back to collage. Here you can also add borders and pick a different layout of the photos.


After you are happy with the way it looks click on Create Collage button. And the last step is Export your photo. Make sure you check Original Size in the Export option.

I think it's time for a little challenge this week. VERY EASY. No scrapbooking required. Here we go: Take six pictures of random items around your house that are of the color brown. (making it really easy) Make a photo collage of the same size pictures with white borders. Email me your photo by the end of the week. The best collage will receive a little prize!

Thank you for stopping by. I have another LO to share with you later this week.

Новая страничка

Пора будить этот блог от спячки. Мы сделали небольшой перерыв, наслаждаясь летом и всем что оно с собой приносит, а теперь из за слишком тёплой погоды мы снова сидим дома, а это значит что снова в нашем уголке создаются новые странички. Вот одна из них:

Эту страничку сделала двоюродной сестре о ее доченьке. Это милое создание так интересно было фотографировать! Она была у меня часа два, и за это время я сделала более 100 кадров.

А вот один из моих маленьких секретов. Я люблю layers на страничках, но иногда (не всегда) мне бумага очень нравится и не хочется использовать целый 12х12 лист только для тоненькой обводки. Если я начинаю искать чем заменить этот листочек, уже не тот выходит результат. Решение проблемы - вырезать серединку.

Сверху я наклеила следующий слой, с менишим отверстием. Мои фотографии уже были наклеены колладжем на белый лист, поэтому мне легко было определить размер вырезанной серединки. В этом случае она выходила за край, зная что следующий слой с краем будет соединяться:

Этот кусоче был не очень большим. Его можно было и не вырезать, но показываю что это можно все же сделать снова. В итоге, у нас хватит бумаги еще на одну страничку, как минимум.

Для того чтобы серединка не прогибалась (на некоторых краях уже было по три слоя бумаги) я наклеела белый кусочек бумаги. Следующим шел колладж с фотографиями.

Похоже что погода разрешит нам закончить еще одну страничку. До встречи!

Morning walk

There's just something special about taking a walk in the morning - fresh air, new day, clear mind... Sometimes I take my camera with me and take pictures of anything I see on my way. I love to see how these pictures differ between seasons. These are some from my July's collection:

I have two layouts to share with you later this week. Just need to finish journaling on both of them. Still can't figure it out how to start with journaling, even though I had a story to the pictures. I need to work on that.

Now, I have to go help with lunch at the kids summer camp. Got some very cute pictures there yesterday!

Taking time...

Time. Life. They always compete with each other, and I feel like I'm stuck in between those two and no matter how fun and busy life is, it seems like I get nothing done. There's only 5 more weeks of summer vacation is left. It makes me a little sad. Really? Are we really through one half of summer already? But, when I look back, there are so many wonderful memories created along the way. So many...

I came across this word art by Holly Becker on Davinie Fiero's blog and loved it!

It fits perfectly. Taking time to live life, to spend more time with my children, to see how they grow, to teach them little things, to enjoy our simple and blessed life and to get inspired!

I will be back soon, but if I'm not here that means I'm taking my time. :)

1 Июля

Как мы так быстро дошли от первого января до первого июля? Кажется что совсем недавно встречали Новый Год, но первое июля отмечает ровно половину 2011 года. Пол года. Серьезно? Я в это могу поверить только по количеству фотографий на компьютере.

От нашей семьи, вашей - желаем прекрасной второй половины Года! Наслаждайтесь каждой минутой долгожданного лета и больше проводите время с теми кто вам так дорог!

А также, девочки не забудьте зайти на Becky Higgins blog на следующей неделе. Каждый день на своем блоге она будет делать по десять giveaways! Для этого нужно будет только оставить свое имя, штат и номер подарка которым вы заинтересованны. Удачи всем!