Christmas and New Year just passed us by. That's because my three year old daughter, my only child, got seriously sick for the first time. She had a major case of eye infection which caused the bacteria in her body to rise to scary levels. She had very high temperature and was already chilling. She could not eat and she would vomit her milk. When we took her to the hospital, she was immediately admitted and she had to go through several examinations. She was pricked, injected, examined, and had to have a tube inserted in her hand (dextrose) for support in medication and nutrition. It was such a scary scary time for me. We were just released before new year's eve but she is still being monitored. Being the mom that I am, I cried endless tears and unconsciouly wiped my eyes with the same hands that comforted my little daughter. And so now, I have the eye infection! But I still am thankful that Nicole is better now.

I appologize for not being able to answer emails, not being able to participate in the forums, and for just being out of touch. I will catch up with everyone once Nicole is better.

Hope everyone had a happy new year.

Iris

Happy New Year everyone!! 

Last night we had our annual Radtke Family New Year's Eve party.  I've never really been a big fan of going out on New Year's Eve so our little family celebration suites me just fine! 

So, I started to scrap some of my favorite pictures from last night and it got me thinking... do any of you scraplift yourself???  I have a set of digital templates based on some layouts I did last year.  I've had them for quite some time and never used them.  I just couldn't help but think, why would I want TWO layouts of the same design in my albums?  Well... today I challenged myself to use one of the templates to see just how much the two end products would look alike.

So... here is the original....

and here is the one I did using a template based on the one above...




Same basic style but I don't think they'll get confused in the album or look too repetitive, do you? 

Supplies: 
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Template:  Tracie Radtke Signature Series Set @kissedstudio.com
Background Paper, green paper, ribbons and staples:  Lisa Whitney @scrapartist.com
Stamped Alpha:  Nancie Rowe Janitz's Shmootzy Alpha No. 4 @scrapartist.com
New Year's Doodles:  Kate Hadfield and Jacque Larsen's Let's Celebrate @the-lilypad.com
Photo frame on larger photo:  Nancy Comelab's Realistic Photo Frames - Vintage 1 @the-lilypad.com
Cardboard Tear:  Linda Gil Billdal's Cardboard Flip and Tear @scrapartist.com
Fonts - Arial and Arial Black

Hope your 2008 is off to a wonderful start!!

Tracie

I am sitting here trying to figure out where the past four weeks went. I often marvel at how fast time goes as an adult. I remember as a kid, it seemed like Sunday afternoons lasted forever but now I long for them and wish they WOULD last forever! It just seems like we just started the month and now it is almost over.  I supposed moving the week before Christmas might have something to do with it! We were so focused on getting our new house done that Christmas took a little bit of a backseat. But then the move came and then BANG it was Christmas and now the end of the year is almost here.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and that Santa brought you everything you wanted. :)

Here is a fun project I made using Provo Craft supplies. A little Santa door hanging.

Happy New Year!

Greta

No...I don't design for any of these companies.  No...I was not given these products.  They were purchased by me and I fell in love with each and every one!

1.  Fiskar's Fingertip Craft Knife

There is no way I can describe how this tool works...so I took a photo of it in my hand to show you:

I do a LOT of craft knife work in my crafts...this knife is soooooooooooo sooooooooooo comfy! It just seems to be molded to your hand!  I cannot give enough praise for this tool!!

2.  Doodlebug Sugar Coated Chipboard Alphas 

The colors are gorgeous! Fabulous size! Letters range from 1" to 1 1/2".  Each package comes with 3 of each vowels and s and t, two of the rest of the letters and INCLUDES 4 hearts, 4 brackets, 1 exclamation mark, 2 &, 3 semicolons, 3 periods, 3 flowers, and 2 asterisks.  Love these letters!

3.  American Crafts Vinyl thickers

American Crafts alpha stickers have always sported the best fonts!  Then...to feed my love for dimension...they created thickers.  The newest material...vinyl.  Initially I had thought that the vinyl would be a very thin material.  BUT...when I received my order...they are as thick as the foam thickers and have such a LOVELY texture!  It looks like "real imitation" leather.  (Anyone know which 80's movie that phrase comes from??;) lol

4.  Glitter

No company specifically...any glitter will do.  I have a new found love for all things that sparkle!

5.  Fancy Pants Fashion Sense Pins

They add just the right touch!  I love these embellishments!!

6.  Luxe Designs :: Color Me

Such fun whimiscal designs!  So much fun these are!  I even love them as is:D

I look forward to browsing the new releases for the year at CHA Winter:D

Here's to a FABULOUS new year to you and yours!

Love, Tracy Austin

Merry Christmas everyone!

Iris

--caroline

Okay, so I may be starting the recovery a little early this year, but Christmas is going to be very relaxed compared to the last few weeks...and I can't wait. Just a low key day down our way this year. I  had to forego the tree, and the decorations, and the cooking (!!) as we finally moved house and there is just no way to be organised to do it all..not to mention that the last fortnight I worked 122 hours (Looks like a lot when you actually write it down. I'm sure the people who do the time sheets at work looked twice as well.)

Anyway, the big move has occurred and I am REALLY looking forward to getting my scrap room done (more like half a room, but better than just the dining table.) But there are some tragedies that have occurred...both of my cameras have been misplaced in the move! I am certain that they are packed in boxes somewhere and that they will turn up when I start to get stuff unpacked. This means, though, no photos of the new place, or any of the cool scrapping finds that I have come across while doing the Christmas shopping (the one part of Christmas that I have managed to attend to). Sorry, people. In lieu of this just scroll around this blog and look at the eye candy provided by the other girls. Amazing. Such talents - and all of them just great people to get to know. Merry Christmas, MMM 2008!!

And every one else, Merry Christmas! I hope for all of your sakes that things are quiet and peaceful..and that your cameras are not languishing unused somewhere in a mountain of boxes!!

Amelia

I absolutely love the photos that I took of my daughter this fall. Everything about them is great—the look on her face, the outfit, the poses—everything but the lighting. Augh! It just wasn't the right time of day when I took the shots. I really wanted to use one of the shots to frame and give as gifts to the Grandparents this year, so I worked on "fixing" my favorite shot to make it work.

The original (the background turned out grey/blue and my daughter is too dark):

How I fixed this photo (in Photoshop CS):

1. Convert to grayscale: Image/Mode/Grayscale, then convert back to RGB: Image/Mode/RGB.

2. Adjust levels:  Image/Adjustments/Levels (adjust sliders to get desired contrast).




3. Duplicate background image. Set layer to Overlay and adjust Opacity (I like the look of this, makes the whites and little brighter and the blacks a little darker).



4. Flatten image.

5. Adjust contrast in face by making a selection of the desired area and giving that selection a Feather of 20: Select/Feather/20. Then adjust levels:  Image/Adjustments/Levels (adjust sliders to get desired contrast).



6. In a new layer and make a selection of the skirt and give the selection a Feather of 20. Fill the selection with desired color: Edit/Fill/Foreground Color. Set layer to Overlay and adjust Opacity.



7. In a new layer, use Brush tool in Airbrush mode to airbrush blush onto cheeks. I used an opacity of 10%.



8. Sit back and enjoy your Photo Fix! This was my final image after doing a little more tweaking in some of the above steps. What do you think? Do you think the Grandparents will like it?



Amy

I feel like I am so far behind this year!  However, today is my day to "let go".  Today is the official start of our Christmas with my parents' arrival this afternoon.  Whatever isn't done, just isn't going to get done... so I might as well just enjoy what I did get accomplished!

Speaking of what I did get accomplished.... I actually got cards done this year!  (last year we moved over Christmas so I didn't get them done)

Here are our cards....

front:

inside left:

So I don't take up too much more room... the inside right is some wordart with our Christmas greeting and our names.  The back has our new contact information.

The card was made with the Merry and Bright Collab kit at Scrapartist and Lauren Reid's Wonky Templates at Oscraps.com.

Happy Holidays!!!

Tracie