Aren't they beautiful?

Here are two of my first efforts taking pictures of the twins with my new lens.  Of course they were uncooperative and they are not as sharp as I like my photos, however, they are that new natural-small focus area look that I'm looking for.  Aren't they beautiful?

This is Addison Miles.

Here is Abigail Jo.

50 mm 1.4 lens

Oh my gosh. . . I love my new lens.  I just got it in last night and shot your typical furniture, shoes, kitchen stuff etc. Here's what I got with no effort.

I can hardly wait to try it out on my grandkids.

Wedding Updates

Here are some more wedding layouts.  I've finally finished the book and have given it to my daughter-in-law to show off.  We have come to an understanding that we will have joint custody of the 80 page ($$$$$$) scrapbook.  I was very excited that I will not have to duplicate one for me.

I soooo love these photos of my son, Derrick. They show his personality.

The quote . . . I love. 

It says it all. 

"To the World you may be one person,

but to one person you may be the World."

These are candids of the groomsmen. My other son, John is the GQ in the sunglasses.

Jaelyn, John's daughter, my beautiful granddaughter made the perfect flower girl.

Pumpkin Patch

Well, I have finally visited enough blogs that I realize that you don't only have to post layouts. . .photos are cool too. So, although a little late, here are some cute photos of Gavin & his sisters at the Pumpkin Patch. (Margery, thanks for the tip about the Covenant Church. It was perfect.)

Imagination Studio gone scary

The twins, Abigail and Addison, visit the Imagination Studio to try to let Granny, me, get some good photos in their costumes.  Well, that didn't happen, but here are some that I did get.  Aren't they precious? They weren't too sure about the surroundings and I got no cooperation.

Addison, though, is a busy body and had to check it all out.

Abigail, however, just wanted out!

She was quite happy once she escaped and continued to cause havoc around the store.

All that said. . . the studio was awesome and made some really great photos.  Look for a Christmas setting soon.

Karen "oh my gosh" Russell

Oh my gosh, I have a new idol. I took Karen Russell's 9 hour photography workshop this weekend and I am so pumped.  I learned so much and she inspired me to REALLY learn my camera.  I ordered a 50mm 1.4 lens for my camera before noon on Monday.  I can't wait for it to come in.  I still can't believe that she doesn't use flash. I am the flash queen. I use flash inside, outside, in the sun, in the shade, all the time.  This will really be a challenge. After listening to Karen, I think that using a wider aperture without flash could be the answer to fill in the gaps and bring it all together and force me to learn to use my camera to it's potential with confidence. You never know . . . I might even practice shooting in Raw. Wish me luck.

Here she is, up close and personal.  She is awesome. Wonderful personality. She is for REAL.

Monica, I just loved this picture of you.  Do you have one almost like it of me?

Photoshop Class

Heh guys and girls, don't forget the free Photoshop class this Sunday, October 26th at 12:30pm.  We're gonna learn how to retouch photos, like changing this:

to this!

We'll  learn all about the retouching tools: spot healing brush, healing brush, clone tool, dodge tool. We'll also learn when to use each one and the options available with each, such as brush size, hardness and opacity.

Don't miss this series. I teach it the last Sunday of each month at 12:30pm at Treasured Memories (of course). There is no charge for the class. Photoshop is my passion and I want to share it with you.  I would love to see everyone be able to create better photos. I guarantee that it can help you to improve your photos. Join us. All you need to bring is yourself.

Grand-daughters

Here's a layout with the twins in my Mom's (hence, GG for Great granny) backyard.  If you look close, there is lots and lots of sewing on the layout.

I just love these pictures of Jaelyn. They show her many personalities: girlie, rough & tough, lovable, stubborn and beautiful.

Some more Wedding Layouts

The center photo says, "Two souls with but a single thought,  Two hearts that beat as One".

The red flourish glitter paper made a perfect background. The Maya road chipboard flourishes were painted white and "dotted" with red stickles.  Flat-back pearls were placed along side the flourishes.

The Toast: I love the photo to the left which has the champagne bottle and hand in focus and the bride in the background blurry.  Across the top of the photos says "Each day I Love you more!".  The upper left & lower right corners are decorated with the Quikutz diecut and Prima bling flourishes. 

More Red, Black & White Layouts

This is, of course, the happy couple cutting the wedding cake.  The quote is the famous "Love does not exist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction" inspired by the last photo.

These photos were again taken by my 17 year old niece, Natalie. The quote says "Daughters hold their mothers hand for a few years, their hearts forever." The beautiful flourish on the left of the page was created by the Prima "Build a Swirl" acrylic stamp.

My Fairy Princesses

This is Kamryn. She is the poor neglected granddaughter that you didn't even realize that I have.  She is my son, John's daughter and Jaelyn's sister. I've been very neglectful, but I promise you will start to see more layouts with her.  Isn't she a beautiful princess.

Of course the twins, Abigail and Addison also make precious fairies.  I bought these little Anne Geddes Fairy dresses at the only Anne Geddes retail store at Disney in Anaheim. I just couldn't resist.

Wedding Layouts

A very simple layout using Glimmer Spray Mist, Tattered Angel Stencils, some wooden flourishes from Kaiser Craft and some Heidi Swap Bling. The pictures were taken by my 17 year old niece, Natalie, who spent the day with us taking all those "scrapbooky" photos.  These are of the Bridesmaids helping the bride get dressed.

More photos by Natalie, these are of the rain the afternoon of the wedding. You see. . . it was supposed to be an outdoor wedding.  What do you expect on a Friday the 13th wedding.  Anyway, the rub-ons were absolutely perfect, there mention knowing the difference between what's important and what's not. Although both Moms fought to keep the wedding outside, the Bride was totally content moving it inside, because the only thing that mattered was that she was marrying the love of her life today.

This is a beautiful scene of the Bride's parents turning over their daughter, Kris, to my son,  Derrick. The layout is simple however each corner consist of layers of rub-ons, wood fourishes, diet cuts (cut with the Quick Kutz Revolution) and Prima bling.

More Wedding Layouts

This is one of my very favorite layouts. I think it's because the photos are so fabulous and because it shows how very much they are in love and have always been.  They were truly a match made in Heaven and Derrick has been my "Gift" from above.  I love them both so much.

This was a very hard layout because it was only three photos and off-centered, no to mention that I'm in one of them.  But nothing a little ribbon and some bling can't remedy.

This was one of my 1st layouts and although it's so "NOT ME" (too much white space), I really like the way it came out. The bride wants to add some journaling about her search for the perfect dress. . . I think that would be appropriate.

More layouts coming soon.

Latest Project

For those of you who know me, you've always seen me scrapbooking my grandkids. Well, I have a new project.  My middle child and joy,  Derrick got married to the love of his life, Kristen Moore, on June, 13, 2008 and I am scrapbooking the wedding. Wow,  what a change from kids pages.  It's a little simple, but elegant from what I'm used to.  (A lot of the songs in my playlist are from the wedding.)

 Here's the first inside page. . . and there will be more posts to come.  Enjoy as I have.

New Post

Oh my gosh! I'm a BIG girl now. I actually have internet at my house. Finally, now maybe I can blog . . . if I can remember how.

I guess that you would figure that the 1st thing that I would add would be my Designer's Eye VII class layouts. For those of you who took the class, you've already seen them, so thank you very much for attending. For those of you who didn't,  I hope that you enjoy these layouts.

Some more twin pictures. You just want to pinch them.  I love the way that the ribbon came out on this layout.  It is mixed with a variety of different machine stitches.  The white space was a little different for me, but it just worked here.

Gavin (age 5) last year in the pumpkin patch. His "cute attitude" was somewhat encouraged for the pictures, but didn't they make a cute layout.  The little pictures at the bottom where cut from a wide angle shot of the "plant nursery" to add some fall color.

I really like this layout for it's simplicity.  I used bubble-wrap and white paint as a background for the focal photo.  Woooo, hand journaling again.

This layout is of my grandson, Gavin playing soccer.  It was scary and fun cutting up the photo.

Jaelyn again,  Miss Personality. This layout says it all,  she loves to pose and show off for the camera. . .well that is, if she's in the right mood.  This was actually my 1st time to use Stickles.  I loved it and got a little carried away.

Whoops, Jaelyn again. I guess that I better start  taking more photos of her sister Kamryn.  Anyway, I love Jaelyn and her Daddy.  Their admiration for each other is unbelievable.  They love to spend time together.   More hand journaling, and check out the chipboard letter scraps as a page element.

O.K. here's Gavin at his 6th birthday party at the Bowling Alley.  He IS NOT one to pose for the camera. He's at that age where I basically have to follow him around and try to snap an occasional shot.  This "grunge" layout was inspired by my friend Monica who seems  to make it look so easy.  The good thing is that you can't mess it up.

Oh my gosh, do I love my twins, Addison and Abigail.  It took so long to get them  to cooperate they just fell asleep.  Here the key is clustering and transparencies.

I titled this layout "All Girl" because, in my opinion it screamed "GIRL" with all the ribbon.  It was awesome to see so many people having the  "designer's eye" to see beyond the "Pink". Some people used this layout to create dog layouts, christmas layouts and even Harley Davidson layouts.  You go girls!

These are beautiful photos of my lovely granddaughter, Jaelyn. However, they only show one side of her personality.  The layout on the other hand displays everything contrary to my usual style.  However, for some reason I really like the empty space, it really draws your eye to the photos. Crooked photos at that. . .and each at different angles as well as the title which is so hard for me to do.  And hand journaling. . .oh my gosh, what was  I thinking. I hate  my handwriting, but I love the personal touch on this layout. Hope you enjoy seeing me "out side of my box".