Wednesday, August 10, 2011

10 things on the 10th: Photoshop Elements Tutorials

I’m sharing 10 of my Photoshop Elements and digital scrapbooking tutorials today, some are videos, some tutorials with screen shots, but all of them teach you in minutes what took me hours to learn!

Learn how to Fix your Photos in less than 2 minutes!

Find your templates with one click using the Photoshop Elements Organizer

Quickly apply the same settings to many layers in Photoshop Elements

Create a Double Page Spread for your Shutterfly Books

Install brushes painlessly in Photoshop Elements

Extract an image from its background

Use Organizer for your Digital Scrapbooking Supplies

Add dimension to your layouts with dodge and burn

Create a digital scrapbook layout with a template

Use Styles to Change the look of your embellishments

Like these scrapbooking tips? Head to Digital Scrapbooking HQ My previous 10 things posts:

Thanks to Shimelle for the meme!
What are you doing today?
Melissa

Don’t have Adobe Photoshop Elements 9? Buy it now!

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Friday, August 5, 2011

Learn easy fixes to common photo problems using Photoshop Elements

Want to have better photos?

Go from bland to brilliant using just Photoshop Elements. I’m running a free webinar – Photo Fixes for Real People on 15th August 9:30-10:30 am (+8 GMT) View in my timezone

Turn your overcast skies blue
Clean away food from your baby's face
Create a perfect group shot - where everyone is smiling & has their eyes open!
Get rid of red eyes.

I'll teach you how to fix your photos using Photoshop Elements and answer any questions you may have along the way.

15th August

Fixing your photos

9:30-10:30 am (+8 EST) View in my timezone

Cost - Free!

The workshop includes:

One click fixes for photos
Using Photoshop Elements guided editing to improve your photos
Question and answer session

All of the classes are run online using a webinar system. All you need to do is register for the workshop using the buttons below. You'll receive a reminder email one week before, one day before, and one hour before the workshop begins. You just log in with your name and email address and start watching my presentation. I am always keen for you to type questions and I answer them live via my webcam.

Can't attend?

Even if you aren't able to attend, just put in your details below and I'll keep you informed of upcoming workshops.

Sign up below to be invited to the next workshop

Want to see past workshops?

You can also purchase previous workshop recordings. Including:

Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking – Create a layout from a template in less than an hour!
Using Memorabilia on your Digital Scrapbook page – step by step through 2 ways to add real life stuff to your layouts!
Digital scrapbooking secrets: Misting, stamping, inking and more messy fun! Techniques for creating the fun look of mists, stamps and more on your layouts!

See you there.

Melissa
PS Don't forget to register

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Overheard today

Emily's been playing in her tent for the last half hour, with her new little squeal of delight featuring prominently.

Lots of chatting:

Children dancing
Mima, Emily dancing
Dolly fell down
Emily's a wiggly worm, Dolly's a little worm (from her favourite song - Doin' it doin' it)
Catterpillar out - drink some juice

Yesterday morning Emily was singing "Fly little bird" with her dolly's hat as the bird - so cute.

Written 22 July – only just found it in my drafts recently!

Melissa

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Digital Scrapbooking Layout: This I believe

This week’s challenge in the Memory Logbook is about sharing your personal truth, which was also similar to the topic in Week 10 of the Yesterday and Today class at Big Picture Classes.

Here’s my take on it:

This I what I believe. I believe in God, I believe His plans for me are beyond my wildest dreams. I believe He is in control. I believe I can be joyful in all situations, I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I believe God's timing is perfect and He is never late. I believe that my emotion can be a part of my life without ruling it. I believe God designed me to live with passion. I believe I can be loving wife and mother, I believe I can run a successful business to share my love of art. I believe I can serve others in practical ways. I believe I can lead by example and speak wise words when they are needed. I believe my creativity is a vital part of my gift to this world. I believe my positive outlook on life can encourage others. I have learnt that to be good does not mean I have to be boring. I have learnt I can hold my tongue, I have learnt to laugh at myself. I have learnt to allow the tears to come and with God's help they will turn into joy in the morning. I have learnt that each day is a new day with no mistakes in it.

Template – Ali Edwards from the Yesterday and Today Workshop Week 10

Fonts Melissa’s hand and 1942 Report

Kit Impressions of Comfort at Home and Anna Aspnes Yesterday and Today Kit from the class.

I love it when something comes back around to inspire me. And now I’ve got another layout for my Yesterday and Today Album.

I’d love to see your layouts – link me up in the comments!

Melissa

*Thank your for using affiliate links to support my blog*

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Scrap Happy Blog hop: Buy some happiness #New52

I've been loving reading Stephanie's blog about the Scrap Happy project over at Scrapworthy lives, so I was thrilled when I found out she's got a blog hop going. You have probably found me from Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking.

This month the theme is:

Buying some happiness.

I have to say this is a hard one for me, as we are on a budget right now, but recently we invested some money in upgrading our computer, so it wouldn't constantly crash when I was scrapbooking (I'm a digiscrapper and a power user!). My husband encouraged me to just buy a new hard disk rather than go through the hassle and stress of trying to back everything up and reinstalling everything.

Of course I did have a few glitches (turning off my DVD drive in the bios and wondering why I couldn't install Windows, and having issues getting Windows 7 to activate) it was the best investment we could have made. My PC is running like a dream and I can just get things done!

I've also made this post my New 52 for the week - yes it's been a while since I posted one of them!

Now we are past half way in the year I’m still going strong with the New 52 challenge, thanks for running it Peppermint & Christine! I’m finding that looking out for new experiences is helping me appreciate that my life even more. I have to say I have many more draft posts, just waiting for me to finish them! Read more New 52 posts:

Want more of the Scrap Happy project?
Here’s the other blogs in the hop!

Have you bought some happiness lately? Let me know about it in the comments below.

Melissa

*affliliate links where possible- please use them to support my blog*

Monday, August 1, 2011

One Little Word August #OLW Blog Hop

Welcome to to my stop on the One Little Word blog hop for August. If you’ve come from Lynn’s blog welcome! The full list of blogs is at the end of this post.

July’s prompt was music. I’ve heard lots of children’s music this month. Of course Emily loves it, and I don’t mind singing along to Bullfrogs and Butterflies. I guess they fit well with my word also! Growing and changing!

I also bought God is able from iTunes, but haven’t made it past the first few songs yet!

For my album I chose to highlight one song – Doin it Doin it – Emily’s favourite.

Lyrics

There’s a bumble bee, a honey bee
Gettin’ the honey for you and me
Doin’ it doin’ it – doin’ it doin’ it
Buzzing around – helping the garden grow
There’s a little worm diggin’ around
Eatin’ dirt from out of the ground
Doin’ it doin’ it – doin’ it doin’ it
Little worm – helping the garden grow
Up in the sky there’s a yellow sun Shining down on everyone
Doin’ it doin’ it – doin’ it doin’ it
Shine shine – making the garden grow
There’s a big fat cloud and a drop of rain
It’s falling down on the window pane
Doin’ it doin’ it – doin’ it doin’ it
Splish splosh – making the garden grow
Fly fly through the sky
Little bird drops a seed
The seed grows up into a tree
A green umbrella for you and me
Croaky frogs, cats and dogs
Creepy crawlies under a log
Doin’ it doin’ it – doin’ it doin’ it
All over the world – making the garden grow
Everybody – making the garden grow
You and me – making the garden grow

I just did a little bit of trick embossing – used card embossing folder on my 5x7 page and then lining it up as best I could and repeating it at 90 degrees to the first one. That way I got 80% of the page overed. I cut and embossed a scrap and added some lyrics. A very simpel take on this month’s prompt.

Supplies:

Cosmo Cricket Honeypie Ella Paper

Cuttlebug A2 Embossing Folder, Stylized Flowers

5x7 Bind it all cream pages

Spellbinders Borderabilities

Spellbinders S4-239 Borderabilities Petite Classic Scalloped Border Die Template

I’m thrilled I’m keeping up with this – being accountable to sharing it in the hop really helps me keep my word front and centre.

Ali sends out monthly emails with a prompt for the month and you just complete it as you are inspired to throughout the month. Did you know that the One Little Word class is still open? You still have plenty of time to catch up or why not just jump in with this month’s prompt?

Here's the latest slideshow of my One Little Word album:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Did you know we have a OLW flickr group? Join us here

For more posts about my One Little Word adventure:

Want more? Check out Sam’s blog

Here’s the rest of the stops:

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog
Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/
Monica B http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com
Jamie http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com
Jill http://jillconyers.typepad.com/
Monica B1 http://Scraplifters.blogspot.com
Lynn www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com
Melissa http://blog.mshanhun.com
Sam http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/
Jenn www.studiojenn.blogspot.com
Maureen http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com
Chrissy http://getcraftywithchrissy.blogspot.com/
Jan http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com
Kimberly http://foreverdaisies.blogspot.com/
Kathryn http://www.katlodesigns.com
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog
Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com
Cassie http://craftycassiescorner.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to Margie for Organising this hop!

Happy hopping!

Melissa

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Christmas in July Crafting Fun! Day 7 #WeekintheLife

Another fun day with cleaning, prepping for Christmas in July and then crafting the day away.
After much planning we had an awesome crafty event to help us all get a head start on Christmas. We spend a few hours getting a head start on any Christmas Crafting projects (cards/decorations/etc) that usually get buried during the Christmas Season. We had festive food I'd been making all week - fruit mince pies, mini puddings, sausage and a few other goodies brought along by other crafters. Music was very festive thanks to the Shanhun’s collection of Christmas CDs.

Emily and Phill headed off to swimming lessons, leaving Sarah, Jodi, Mum, Lauren, Cait and I to craft. In between showers Phill worked on levelling the backyard, making a new top for his water damaged router table, and window shopping at Bunnings. Emily slept well and enjoyed seeing everyone too.

Dinner was prepared by Phill – chicke burgers and chips! Yum!

Quote of the Day

SWIMMING LESSONS!!! (Shouted loudly then…) Noisy!

Mummy’s ‘riends over

Favourite Photo

My stash of cards from the day.

My week in the life so far

See my flickr photos