Five on Friday: February 12, 2016

Brrrrrr. It's fricking cold around here! Making art is a nice thing to do when you have no desire to go outside. So how about a few things about me and mine.

1.  Jamie Oliver had a great sounding recipe that I hope to make next week. This week has been a bunch of beef meals which is not that common for us. But next week, Indian Spiced Chicken& Spuds! This should warm the cockles of your heart and belly, right?

2. There was an article in today's newspaper about things to do if you're alone on Valentine's day. One thing was museums. That has reminded me how much I like wandering a museum on my own. Maybe Metro into DC one day and do that!

3. As much as I like making fairly simple scrapbook pages, I do like the artsy style of Anna Aspnes very very much. I was honored to be featured on her blog HERE  Yay me!

4. Our library is closed til Feb 21 and I'm going to bet it will be a long long time as the roof was damaged during snow removal during the recent blizzard. However, my two holds were automatically transferred to another branch only about 3 miles away. Good work, library staff.  I thought as we were going out in freezing cold, we should get Mexican food. I only managed to eat half of this shrimp burrito and was truly stuffed.

5. I made Valentine Cards for some of the grandchildren and for the man of the house. However, I'll wait til after the 13th to show you! Not that I  think they read this necessarily but ya never know.

That's all for today! Stay warm or cool if you're in the Southern Hemisphere and have some fun this weekend!

Travel With Me Tuesday: Hilton Head 2015

The final days at Hilton Head got a more artsy treatment. I haven't done that for a while and I've missed it but I have to be in the right mood. With a visit last week from my #2 son and his girlfriend, I some how got that kind of mojo spirit. A good visit with different people and their energy in the house was just what I needed.

Tip for Tuesday: April 28, 2015

I am a bit behind in my travel  stuff so I decided to make a new category for Tuesday. Every once in a while I see something on line that is not quite a tutorial but more of a tip.

Linda classifies the blend modes that she uses the most for digital scrappinga into three categories after Normal. Normal is normal, no change at all.

Darken - Color Burn and Multiply

Lighten - Screen, Color Dodge

Contrast - Overlay, Soft Light and Hard Light

This one came from Linda Davis a CT member for Anna Aspnes.  I can't believe I never heard this in eight years of using Photoshop Elements. You can watch Linda's video over on the Anna Aspnes YouTube channel.

Another take on this whole business of Blend Modes is at PhotoshopElements.  There are more thorough explanations of the different modes in that post if you really want to get into blends. Here's how they color code them!

Hope this gets you into seeing what each of these blend modes is set up to do without too much effort. Blending really takes you to a new level with your Photoshop or PSE.

What Do You See

I saw this photo of one of my granddaughters on Facebook and found it haunting.

She usually is a ham in front of the camera. She has also learned how to put on a happy face in public. But in this photo she has a serious look, a somber look... one where she is looking at the photographer or looking right through that person.  Looking into the soul. Seven year olds see and know so much more than they say, don't they.

all Anna Aspnes products

All About Me Monday - She's a Scrappin' Fool

There are times when the scrapping bug just hits with force, and it's hit me again. Normally, I like tidy, clean, linear pages with stories that can easily be read. I believe my journalism skills are a lot better than my creative writing skills. I have loved digital scrapbooking because it does allow me to open up my creative side. I can do so many things on the screen with digital elements that I could never do on a paper.

Recently, on of my favorite designers Anna Aspnes, moved to a new store, Oscraps. There were a few more of her products that I wanted to buy...ok, a lot,  but a few at a time!...and using mainly hers for a few days really got me into a different mode. I had had a scrap break while I had done days and days of driving, and that creative energy was ready to get out. Here are some 'mainly Anna' pages.

AASPN TUT Using Gradient with Clipping Mask