Project Monday

Happy Monday and happy Memorial Day to you Americans!!!  For my project this week I made a minibook using the Pink Ninjas May Kit, *Scarlet Begonias*.....which I personally think has a very Anthro feel.....SO fun!  There are quite a few photos in this post, so sit back, relax, and hopefully you'll enjoy a little inspiration from me to you : )

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Carrie

Your Appointment with Friday

Out for a walk.

I actually try and do this for each season.....go out for a walk and just take pictures of what I see.  I find that it helps me think a little more creatively while looking through the camera lens because I really have to hunt for the things that I think are pretty to photograph.  Sometimes it's a wide scale of whatever setting I'm in, but most of the time it's the little details that bring a smile to my face : )

The photos above are from last week up at Snowbird.  Amber and I went on a guided nature walk down in the canyon.  I knew I wanted to take pictures of what I saw but honestly during this time of year to me everything looks the same up there.  Rocky brown dirt and trees with little bits of green starting to peek through here and there.  So, as you can imagine, at first I was at a loss of what I should photograph.....that is until I came across the only patch of flowers I saw during our entire walk.  All I needed was that little bit of color to spark my curiosity and let my imagination go.  After that I saw things a little differently.  Instead of just seeing a rocky path surrounded by trees, I saw a lovely canopy of trees that arched over our walkway kind of like it was framing where we should go.  I saw how tiny we were compared to this large canyon, and noticed the contrast of the detail in the tree branches to the snowy capped mountains in their background.  I noticed my sister enjoying the view of the old silver mine ruins as she shivered from the crisp morning air.

This week I hope you get a chance to go out for a little walk with your camera and see if it sparks your creativity.

Enjoy your holiday weekend lovely people!

Love, Carrie

SNOWBIRD

This month I have been a lucky girl.  The Pink Ninjas asked me to guest for them using their May kit, Scarlet Begonias (which is a lovely kit of red, yellow and green).  If you missed it you can see my first layout for them HERE, and of course on the Pink Ninjas blog : )

For this layout, I wanted to use these instax I took while in Snowbird, on the first day it snowed while we were there (there was already lots of snow when we arrived).  I had just got out of an early morning Tai Chi class, and decided to catch some of the magic that comes with Springtime snow.  It just so happens that this lovely day was also my sister, Amber's birthday.....how perfect is that!?!  I had a blast slowly walking back to the lodge (from another building, in my shorts no less), snapping away (with both my cameras) at all this soft, fluffy white stuff.  And when it came time to put a layout together these were the first photos I thought of.  Most recently, I have been using spray paint on the background of my layouts, but for some reason watercolor felt better for this page.  Maybe it's because that's what snow looks like after it's melted and dripping down the side of a wall.....who knows!?  Anyways, it was really fun, and there were so many yummy things to layer, it made this kit is super easy to work with.....which is always nice : )  Have an awesome week peoples!  <3 Carrie

 

This is the nighttime view from our third floor hallway looking out the large wall of windows up at Snowbird.....and below is an idea of what the inside of the lodge looks like.....

Ryan and I just returned home from a handful of wonderful days there, and I have so many fun photos to share.  If you haven't seen the latest prompt over at Bubblegum Life, there are a couple shots similar to these but from inside the hallway.  I think it's really pretty there.....a lovely place to relax and stay for some fun in the snow.  And yes, there was snow!  LOTS of it!!!  It even snowed on my sister, Amber's birthday!  SO perfect : )  I will be sharing more photos from my trip as the photo prompts from Bubblegum Life come up each week, but I have a few extra, so stop by tomorrow to see a new layout using some instax I took up there, and then later next week for pics of the view from our balcony.  Happy Sunday, everyone!  <3 Carrie

Your Appointment with Friday

Welcome to another lovely Friday, and the beginning of a new weekend!  This week's photo prompt is.....

Vanishing Points

I really like this photo prompt because it's all about perspective.  I took these photos of the hallway on our third floor up at Snowbird at night, to remember the scale, textures, lighting, and all the colors of the exotic Persian rugs that lined it's walls.  My nephew also helped fill this happy space.  We would walk along these halls multiple times a day to go in the outdoor hot tub so we could soak in the excitement while it was snowing outside.....to get to our cars so we could drive down into the city to go to the zoo.....to go play in the arcade.....and lots more!  We had a blast!!!

When you go to take your photo, think about the space your in and if there are layers where the perspective would benefit from using vanishing points.....and then just try it if you think so.  In general I find it difficult to be happy with my photos that are not lit with natural light, but I decided to try it anyways with these, and I think I'm happy with the end result.  The point is to just go for it and try different things.  Have fun with it.....and enjoy the process : )  I hope your weekend is excellent!  See ya Monday....

Love, Carrie

Project Monday

Hey friends : )  I knew right away i wanted to do a Chinese inspired page with cute little flags for this pic. I had a Chinese inspired 12x12 album that i store all the pages that match that theme that i never use so i drew from there. I wanted the recipe to look like a scroll pinned up on the wall so i used gold wired thred-like ribbon and some eyelets. I distressed the edges of everything to give it a little old world feel. I found the warm colors to be quite and comforting yet represent the picture. Hope you enjoy lovies!!

Love, Stephanie

Your Appointment with Friday

Hi lovely people and happy Friday night!  Well, right now I am sitting on my bed snuggled up with Pumpkin at a Lodge in Snowbird.....and there is snow everywhere!  It's beautiful!!!  I decided that since I'm on vacation to take a week off from Bubblegum Life, and so you lucky people get to be inspired by the sweet and talented Stephanie Kelley from My Creative Brightside : )  And she has chosen the perfect photo prompt!  So without further ado, her is her inspiration.....

Comfort Foods

RECIPE FOR EGG DROP SOUP

serves 4

    4 cups chicken broth

    2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

    2 large egg

    4 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions for garnish

Steps

    - Beat eggs in small bowl - set aside

    - Heat the broth in a small pot and bring to a boil

    - Stir in soy sauce

    - Return to a boil then turn off the heat

    - While stirring soup in a fast circular fashion with a fork,
       slowly pour in beaten egg

    - Continue stirring until egg gets all cool and kinda stringy &
       that's it

    - Serve in a bowl with the green on top or panko crumbs which is
       what i did in the picture

The things we find comforting are in such a wide range from chocolate covered cherries to deep fired pickles :) I know it is a rather strange dish to call my comfort food but egg drop soup and i go way back. I have always had a fascination with ethnic foods and strange cuisine. My father used to feed me fresh octopus and frog legs when we would vacation in Mexico. So that being said its only natural that i would end up taking comfort in the gooiness of this tasty soup. I would sometimes go to China Wokery when i had a bad day and either sit alone and enjoy this, if my pride let me, or get a huge take out carton to enjoy in the comfort of my own home. Now, i have finally gotten up the courage to make my own and i must say it was quite comforting!! Lets see what your comfort foods look like!!

Lovingly,

Stephanie Kelley ( & Carrie )

SOFT LITTLE SHEEP

A sweet friend of mine had me design these soft little wreaths to give as Mother's Day gifts this year.....

I just adore the cute felted sheep!!!  And I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday!  Enjoy your week!!  <3 Carrie

Project Monday

Happy Monday to you : )  Today I get to share with you the finished project using my pop-art photo.....

These are invitations made for a friend.  Her little girl is having a birthday party next month that is artist themed.  At the party they will be painting and doing crafts, so they wanted a similar theme for the invitations.  I used a paintbrush and some ribbon for the binding, attaching two pieces of paper together to make the base of the card.  To decorate the front and back, the little girl and I had a fun afternoon splattering paint in lots of fun colors.  I even used a photo I took of the birthday girl for the pop-art on the front.....I hope they like them (I am dropping them off today).

Have fun creating, and I hope your week is excellent!

Love, Carrie

Your appointment with Friday

OK.  So I know it's not Friday.....things got a little crazy this week....but here I am finally, with a new photo / photoshop prompt.....

Photo Into Pop-Art

Above is the finished pop-art, and below is my original photo of a sweet little girl I know.....

I wanted to use this mini photoshop project as the prompt for today so I could document my process (for future use) and also share it with you too : )

This idea all started with a friend asking me to design a project for her, and me deciding to try the whole pop-art thing for it.  And the first thing I want to mention is that my process with photos/photography and photoshop is just my personal way of doing things and options on what's easiest for me......I am sure that there are lots of other opinions and ways that are different and work great.  

1. That being said, when I opened up the original photo (above), the first thing I did was to remove the background and create a separate layer for it, so the background and the girls face (the main image) each had a separate layer.  
2. Next, I had to touch up her face quite a bit as far as adjusting the brightness and contrast, shadows, etc....and found that it would have been easier to make this photo into the desired pop-art if I had taken the photo with either little to no shadows on her skin.  So that is what I would do differently if I had to do it over again.  To get the finished product I ended up removing all the shadows from the left side of her skin and leaving only minimal on the right side, while at the same time leaving as many shadows as possible in her hair.  It was definitely a learning process.
3. Once I had the original photo prepped, I desaturated the main image layer (her face)
4. Then on that same main image layer, I used the "cutout" (Filter, Artistic, Cutout) filter to create 4 layers of gray.  So when the cutout filter tool pop up, you want to choose 4 for the No. of Levels, 2 for the Edge Simplicity, and 2 for the Edge Fidelity.
5. From here I was pretty happy with mine, but you may want to play with the levels and or edge simplicity a little more.
6. Next, to add the colors I just used the paint bucket tool (because I wasn't sure how I wanted the colors on her face to look), but if you want each shade of gray to to be the same color, it is probably faster to just use "Select, Color Range".
7. Last fill in your background layer with whatever color you choose with the paint bucket tool.  I kept my background the same color as the lightest shade of her skin so that her neck and shoulders would blend nicely with little effort on my part.

And that's it!  It's actually pretty easy and fun!!!  If you end up trying it, I would love for you to link me up and/or add it to the Bubblegum Life Flickr group : )

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's!!!  And I hope you all have a lovely day!  I'll be back tomorrow with my finished project.....

Love, Carrie

SPARKLES

So I went to the beach for a few minutes yesterday and shot a couple pics (for a project I am working on).  Everything sparkled.  It was beautiful......so I thought I would share some sparkles with you too.   I love the ocean.  The sound of it.  The vastness of it.  It's lovely shades of blue.  How it cools your skin on hot days.  I have even been thinking about giving myself a "go to the beach for 7 days in a row" challenge.  What do ya think?  Is it time to buy a beach umbrella?  <3 Carrie

PHOTO IN A DAYDREAM

Guess what?  I have a new layout up over at Bubblegum Life for my Project Monday!  I know it's been forever since I did a traditional layout....and is was sooooo fun!!!  Plus I was lucky enough to use this awesome May kit from the super cool Pink Ninja Addicts to create it.....

Have a lovely rest of your day today!  <3 Carrie

Project Monday

Hi everyone!  This week my project is brought to you courtesy of the Pink Ninja Addicts : )  I used their May kit *Scarlet Begonias Oner-Upper* to create the layout for my photo in a daydream.....

I decided to layer some fringe since it kind of reminded me of grass, plus I think it's really fun.....

And the *Scarlet Begonias* kit comes with these awesome frame overlays.....LOVE.....

Yellow is one of my favorite colors.  It's so cheerful and happy.  Just how I felt laying out on my Mom's soft pastel quilt, relaxing on the bluff.  Originally when I started to create this layout I was going to have it be very monotone, but alas, my creative juices led me in another direction (which it usually does) and I kept adding more and more colors.....the last being pink which I feel really pulls it all together.

I hope you are inspired to work on some fun crafts today!  Enjoy the rest of your day!!!

Love, Carrie