A Simple Moment In June

My disclaimer - I didn't take the photo. I sourced it via Google Images from here and then changed it up dramatically with filters to fit my layout.

For more simple moments, visit Alexa's blog!

Finding Your Photo Style

The week 4 assignment in Finding Your Photo Style is all about perspective. Specifically, changing your perspective to capture the same subject in different ways. By choosing a fully bloomed orange lily on my deck, I was able to create this layout that also qualifies for this week's Summer of Color week 2 challenge - orange and hot pink:

Obviously by moving around, I not only changed the angle at which you see the flower and what parts become the subject of the photograph, it also changed what appeared in the frame behind the photo (the cream colored siding, the black grill cover, the brown deck planking). I have done this before with photo subjects, but never quite so deliberately, so it was interesting to see how it changed the way I saw the flower.

Finding Your Photo Style

As if you didn't already have enough proof that I'm an online class addict...  I signed up for "Finding Your Photo Style" at Big Picture Classes.  I signed up well before the class started... The class is already into it's fourth week, but I've only gotten started with it recently.

Week One with Maggie Holmes was all about color in your photography.  I grabbed these shots of Summer color around my home:

Then I decided it would be fun to use the photos throughout this course to create a series of layouts, and came up with this:

Which also happened to work for the first week's colors (citron green and turquoise) for The Summer of Color Challenge!

Week 2 with Elizabeth Dillow was all about using photography to tell a story. I haven't yet done the photos for that. Waiting for a new event to scrapbook! (I don't want to use old photos as I think that would be missing the point of the class).

Week 3 with Tracy Clark is about seeing the light and shooting the light. I had to wait for a sunny day, but was finally able to get these shots:

I thought this one was my best for capturing light:

That's a large potted plant in our sunroom and the pot itself happens to have a really cool texture that captures and reflects the light.

Here's the layout I created for Week 3:

Having learned the fine art of creating my own template from the Clean & Simple class, this digi layout is 100% me! Even the patterned papers are recolored to fit the photos!

Clean & Simple - 9 & 10

I have to say, I'm pretty darned proud of myself at this moment for keeping up with this class and doing ALL of the assignments!!!

Here's week 9:

The assignment called for an 8.5x11 layout with a 4 photo grid of places we love, but after choosing these three, I honestly couldn't come up with a fourth that felt worthy of this group. So I edited the photo grid to change it to 12x12 layout and to allow for a 3 photo grid.  And that Jessica Sprague kraft background paper is still one of my favorite papers of all time!

Week 10 also called for 8.5x11 but since we were learning to create our own template ENTIRELY FROM SCRATCH... well, I just started off with the 12x12 background and went from there.

We learned to create our own photo clipping masks and how to use guides to keep everything lined up. I think I will now feel comfortable creating my own templates. One more thing I want to figure out though is how to put thin white lines between the photos. I know that placing photos all next to each other like this is the latest rage, but I don't love it.  We still have two more weeks to go, so I hope that lesson is coming up!

Finishing Out Get Artsy & Starting "Being Me"

I used the techniques in Week 4 to create my OLW pages for May.

Week 5 covered water colors and week 6 was about India inks.  I combined both of those lessons techniques (most of which I was very familiar with) to create this art journal layout:

The layout is actually my week 1 assignment for Being Me.  Lots of ladies are still signing up for this 52 week free course about loving yourself. Week 2 has been posted and I can say based on the first two weeks that there is plenty of good stuff happening here even if you just want to do the assignments in a notebook and not get artsy with it at all.  And if you want to get inspired, there is a good bit of creativity being shared on the Facebook group!

Having finished "Get Artsy" I can say I definitely enjoyed the class and love the layouts I created in response to the assignments. But I don't expect to see any more of these type of layouts appearing in my scrapbook albums any time soon. I prefer the freedom of using all the art stuff on art journal pages or mixed media work  where the final result is less important to me in terms of telling a story.  For scrapbooking, I think I'm really a digi girl at heart.

Story Telling Sunday - My Precious 6

I know I'm horribly late this month and I'll spare you all the excuses about how busy I've been - just know it has been a good kind of busy!

I simply can't get through a year of documenting my most precious "things" without discussing my camera.

It's a Canon EOS 60D. The entry level professional camera. It was a birthday gift from Jay to me for my birthday in 2012, so I've had it just a year now. Jay had initially bought the newest version of the Rebel, but it didn't take much convincing at all to get him to upgrade me to the 60D. And it is crazy fun to play with! And I'm still learning all the ins and outs...

I learned that if I take the lens to maximum zoom and shoot things up close (like flowers) I can get a wonderfully short depth of field with great blur and/or bokeh in the background.  I've learned what the "drive" button is for. I've learned how to set the camera up on a tripod and use the remote trigger for selfies. I've learned how to change the white balance setting to deal with different light situations. I'll readily admit that I still don't truly understand aperture, f-stops, shutter priority and shutter speed, but I'm still learning and this camera should keep me busy for years! I pick up something new with every class I take.

What I love about learning with this camera is that it allows me to see the world through my artist's eye. I see the play of light and shadow, the saturation and depth of colors, the beauty in tiny details. And this camera has the inner workings necessary to actually capture what I see. So I'm getting better photos straight out of the camera and needing less post-processing to make them presentable!  And learning to play with my camera allows me to take shots like this:

showcasing my package from Alison in the Great Big Swaps of Very Small Things. Let your eye wander through this smorgasboard of fun stuff and note all the blue and green and pink and butterflies of all kinds! I think Alison definitely has my number!

For more precious stories, visit Sian's Story Telling Sunday post.

And now I'm 52

My birthday was last week, just in case you missed it. I am now 52 years young. I don't feel old, so must be I'm not, right?!

I wanted to say thanks to all my bloggy friends for making my birthday such a great day! I had so many well wishes on Facebook.  And then there was the happy mail...

 First came this adorable card and assortment of butterflies from Jacky.  This actually arrived well in advance of the actual day and I got to just admire it for awhile...

 Then came this happy package from Deb, which arrived the day before, but which I saved until my actual birthday to open.  And I've already put some of those K&Co embellies to use. So much lovely here!

 And then this package from Melissa, which arrived a day or two after the big day.  Those fabric butterflies are so pretty!

And somewhere in the mix, this card arrived from Karen - and with her big trip, I can't believe she thought of me and got a card in the mail!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my day so special - and for stretching it out over half the month!!!

On the actual day, Jacky posted about an online class... Being Me - 52 weeks of soul-searching and loving myself.  It's an art journaling class based on a weekly prompt.  Given the serendipity of the timing and the number, I decided for to celebrate being 52 by spending 52 weeks following these prompts and allowing myself time to get messy in my art journal at least once a week - it's a luxury I just haven't given myself the time for!  The first week has just been posted, so it's not to late to join in and play along (the art journaling is optional if you aren't into that and just want to check into the loving yourself part!).