MCP Actions has a fantastic lens giveaway contest on her blog right now. I would love to win one of these! Why do I want this lens? It does it all - close up or far away - and crystal clear. What more could you ask for?

Follow THIS link to find out how you can enter. And while you're there check out her incredible selection of Photoshop actions. 

Good luck!

Marcie

ps... anyone tried Technorati 8vu4p3ya9w ? What about Cooliris?

Happy 4th of July! Do you have big plans for celebrating the 4th? I plan to go to my cousin's house and have lunch with my dad and our extended family. Hopefully we can avoid the topic of politics since I'm one of the rare Republican's in a crowd of vocal Democrats.

I plan on taking lots of pictures and catching up on the latest news.

Need help taking pictures of fireworks? I have tried to take fireworks pictures in the past with no success. Hopefully the tips below will help me get my first ever usable fireworks shots. Here are a couple of helpful links.
10 Fireworks Photography Tips by Scott Bourne
How to Photography Fireworks Displays by Darren Rowse

Enjoy the weekend,

Marcie

Don't you love it when you see something and it just clicks? Well that's how I felt when I saw the monthly roundup idea on Katie the Scrapbook Lady's blog. The basic idea is to ask and answer some general questions and record them somewhere as a quick and simple way to keep a monthly journal. I love the idea because it is simple and concise but still showcases a whole month of activity.

Here's my June Monthly Round up
Supplies Used: Something Blue Studios/daguerreotype3/ MostlyAntiquePhotoTextures ;
KPertiet/Notebook-6/NotebookPaper; Floral Illustration by GD Ehret from an out of print book (Public Domain); Idea for Monthly Roundup from Katie the Scrapbook Lady
Fonts Used: Centruy Gothic and Ma Sexy

Jessica Sprague will be celebrating the 2nd birthday of her awesome digital scrapbooking website with a week long party and it all starts tomorrow. The week of celebration begins  on Monday with open registration for a free photo editing class.

I'll be there and I hope to see you there too!

Marcie

The scrapbook challenges continue at the Spraground! I have had so much fun making these pages! And since taking Stacy Jullian's Library of Memories class I feel a new freedom to only scrap the ones I want to scrap whenever I feel like it! The other 483 pictures (LOL) I can put into a photo album scrapbook or just put them into a photo album for the family to enjoy.  Here's my day 1 and day 2 layout.

Day 1 - 5 Things I love about summer (only 5?!)
Supplies used: A.Aspnes DD challenge template 28Sept08; KPertiet Cheristhed Artistry#3 paper, KPertiet Color Challenge Flowers 15Mar09.

Day 2 - Creative Cropping: Show only part of the picture {Note I realized after I saved this that I didn't add a date or any journaling so I definitely need to go back and edit this page. The details are that these are pictures from Zach's high school graduation in May of 2006.}
Supplies: Everything from K.Pertiet: Paper - Cotton Easter_yellow; Overlay - FreshlyWornOverNo3_1; Template - EverydayInspiration28Dec08

I have a confession. I thought NAPP stood for National Association of Professional Photographers and I wanted to get a membership. But imagine my surprise and delight when I found out it really stood for National Association of Photoshop Professionals!! Now I really want a membership!! So if you're interested HERE'S a link to a great website that is offering a chance to win a 1 year membership and 2 autographed Scott Kelby books. By the way I just have to say... Hello, my name is Marcie and I'm addicted to Photoshop. :-)

Have a great day!

Marcie

I have had so much fun participating in the challenge layouts at my favorite digital scrapbooking website - www.jessicasprague.com. I can feel my creativity growing daily. So come on and join us!

Marcie
PS... For the month of June the creative ladies at Jessica Sprague's website are hosting a challenge a day and I'll begin posting those pictures later today.

Here are my final 4 layouts for the 7 Days in May challenge.

Day 4 - Use a song as your journaling.
Supplies used: A.Aspnes Hipster Plumes Kornes No3 brush, Remittance Girl - Make It Old Brush for paper background; Paper made by me using a gradient and the brush work. Botanical from public domain.
 
Day 5 - Tell a secret about yourself. My secret? I'm part of a very large family with a fun tradition.
Supplies used: K. Pertiet Best of Times Layered Template,
KSchueller CozyChristmas:_Snowflakes-Grenn, Solid-Green, Snowflakes-Blue, Solid_Red, DiagStripes-Blue

Day 6 Color Combination Challenge
Supplies used: Color theme from challenge, GValkyrie-SuddenlySpring Brushes; KPertiet - OnInsideFramesNo2_5; NRJanitz - Bella Background_8; KPertiet Journal spot (recolored); AASPN_FloralArt3 brushes

Day 7 Scrap a photo that you have never scrapped before.
Supplies: Everything except the journaling strips from the Photogenic kit by PaisleePress/ANeal; Journaling strips by KPertiet - unknown kit.

I just read that Google searches for "scrapbook/scrapbooking" are down. You can read the full blog article at Scrapbook Update. This is something I've been thinking about and discussing with my scrapbooking friends. So here is my question have those of us who enjoy scrapbooking as an art as well as a hobby created a vision of scrapbooking that is too hard to live up to? In other words, have we made the simple concept of sharing pictures/stories so overwhelming to the general public that they simply gave up?? Could another possible reason for the downward trend be the sheer volume of tools and stuff that major retailers and magazines suggest is required for scrapbooking? I enjoy scrapbooking as a means to record my family history and as a creative outlet. It makes me sad to see the industry struggling so much. 

So what's the answer? I think Stacy Julian has taken a step in the right direction with her Photo Album scrapbooking concept. Stacy's point is that in this digital age we have entirely too many pictures to actually scrapbook in the traditional sense. So what is Photo Album scrapbooking? It's simple really. Just use any type of photo safe photo album and  insert your pictures but leave a couple of slots blank and add journaling or decorations. You have now completed a photo album scrapbook! What are the benefits of this type of scrapbooking?? First - you have a finished album of pictures to share with your family. Second - since you have an album with some of your pictures in it you are now free to make a page or two about your favorite pictures from the photo album scrapbook. Finally, you can let go of the guilt of too many pictures to scrapbook in a lifetime. Want to read more about Stacy Julian's photo album scrapbooking? Check out her blog Altogether Too Happy or visit the Big Picture Scrapbooking classroom.

I would love to hear what you think about the future of scrapbooking.

Marcie

Come join in the fun at Jessica Sprague's website! We're doing 7 layouts in 7 days! I've completed the first 3 and it feels good to be creating again! On my 3rd layout I used a new technique that I learned for creating torn edges.

Come join us!
Marcie

Here are my layouts for the challenges...
1st challenge - use the template (Supplies: Template by LivEDesigns, Paper by Anna Aspnes - FloraArt

2nd Challenge - follow Jessica's Photoshop Friday tutorial (supplies used: Papers by LivEDesigns, Clock brush by CGibbons)

3rd Challenge - Make a layout about something special to use that is a "thing" and not a person. (Supplies used: Papers by M.Terasawa EverdayInspiration 21Dec08, KPertiet Bracket Paper, KPertiet - Fastner)

free_high_res_texture_126, originally uploaded by calebkimbrough.

It's Free Texture Tuesday at BittBox! Check out this amazing Experimental Grunge texture by Caleb Kimbrough. Here's a link to the original post. http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-texture-tuesday-experimental-grunge/