Scanning from old photo versus negative...

I am working on an anniversary scrapbook and creating layouts for every year we have been married. In December we will celebrate our 32nd anniversary. I had a lot of layouts to do so I decided to work backwards so I could start with my digital photos. After those layouts were done I started scanning in my photos. It actually was going along quite well until I got to 1981. All of my photos (except one*) had faded to a reddish dull color. I edited it in Photoshop but the results were not that great. It occurred to me that  my scanner has the capability of scanning in negatives so I went on a hunt for the negatives. It took me a bit of work but I did find them. I went through all the negatives that were dated 1981 but the photo I wanted wasn't there. My eyes fell on the humongous pile of non-dated negatives! It was a daunting task but I persevered and luckily found the negative for the photo I wanted. I could not believe the difference in scanning from the negative. The color and sharpness was so much better.

Here is the photo from 1981 that I scanned in

Here is the photo after I edited it in Photoshop

Not bad but on the layout it just looked washed out.

Here is a scan from the original negative

Much better!

After a little tweaking in Photoshop here is the final picture

And...here is the layout that I used the photo on

Although scanning from the negative was a little more effort, the results were superior. I have now added organizing my negatives to my long list of things I want to do.

*Do you want ot know the one picture that was not fade?. It was an Instamatic Polaroid picture. Go figure!

Journal in your own font...

I love journaling in my own font. A couple of years ago, Darcy Baldwin, created a font for me that I use all the time. Using my font gives a cohesiveness to my layouts and it is my words in my writing! I love the quality of Darcy's font and recommend her services.

Today, I found out about FontCapture a beta site that will create a font in your handwriting for free. I have no idea as to the quality of the font but for those that may be on a strict budget, this might be a good opportunity to get a font in your very own handwriting! Just click on the thumbnail to go to the site.

Flower page challenge over at ScrappersGuide. Take a photo of flowers and turn it into digital art using filters, opacity, blend modes, etc. Create a page using your flower art as all or part of the background.

 

My layout using my rock cactus photo for the flower page challenge.

Credits:

Gina Miller Cottage kit from the September Premier

Fonts are Papyrus and DJB Canay

The journaling is a bit fuzzy in the web version. It reads:

I've had what I call my "rock cactus" for years. I was so thrilled when it bloomed. I guess it just needed time to get a little root bound. It blooms in the day and closes up at night. It is such a delight to see.

~ May 2008 ~

The Great Escape!

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site! http://bit.ly/FWcud

Great Escape Meme

1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be? I would love to go to Paris


2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car? Anything from The Jersey Boys CD


3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do? Fly to Paris for dinner

4. What is your guilty pleasure? Glass of red wine and chocolate


5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home? Tahiti

6. Last book that you couldn't put down? A Thousand Splendid Suns

7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch? 10 Things I Hate About You (I love the scene where Heath Ledger sings "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" on the bleachers)

8. What is your favorite local escape? The outlets


9. How do you escape on a budget? A picnic on the river


Best food you've ever had while on vacation. Pismo burgers when we are camping (everything tastes great when you are camping!)

DST birthday gifts...

"HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! The designers in the digital community wish to make your day extra special so they've got a TON of fabulous gifts for you! Have a wonderful day and happy shopping!!"

This was the beginning of my birthday email I received from DST (Digi Shop Talk). So I went shopping and bought myself a couple of birthday gifts...

A free template from Wendyzine Scraps at Scrapbook Graphics

Two kits at 70% off from Kari Hentzelt at Scrapbook-Bytes

So make sure you enter your birthday in your profile over at DST!

Have a happy day!

We all matter...

I love Penelope's post from yesterday. We all need to hear this...check her blog post out HERE

I matter, you matter, we all matter and we have wonderful stories to tell through our scrapbooking.



Have a happy day!

Some photos I love

I lost my blog header yesterday. As I was looking through my hard drive for the original file, I found a folder of these pictures I had taken a while ago. I just loved these photos but I don't remember why I have them in a folder all by themselves.  Unfortunately, I think my blog header is gone forever. One day I'll re-create another one. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the photos that bring me enjoyment!

The view from my friends deck

Ocean view at Bodega Bay

 

Some flowers from my yard

 

 

 

Dymo Label Freebie

 

Dymo Label Alpha *Freebie*

Click HERE to download the file

Recipes for Scrapbook Success

I noticed that when my daughter was home this summer, she tended to like the paper scrapbook pages versus the digital scrapbook pages. I've never been much of a paper scrapper. The best pages I have were done at crops where I had input from more experienced scrappers. I decided I wanted to improve my paper scrapping so I am taking May Flaum's Recipes for Scrapbook Success class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I've done three "paper" layouts so far. I have to say that I think I am a better digital scrapper than paper scrapper.
                                                                                                                                                                                                               

This is a sample of journaling on journal cards. The layout was a make and take from the Sacramento Scrapbook Expo. 

 

This is a  sample of paper strips in the middle.

This is a sample of journaling on drawn lines. 

The first week of class was about photo arrangement. 

The second week of class was about paper arrangement.

The third week of class was about journaling.

And the fourth week of class will be about ??? maybe embellishment placement? 

I am sort of excited to get back into scrapping. I have many projects from Scrapbook Expos that I have never finished. I am now motivated to pull them out and get 'em done!

I haven't given up digi scrapping though. I am keeping current with my scrap last month layouts. I really like the format I am using this year. I will post some layouts in a few days.

I am also working on a special anniversary project. I am doing a page for every year we have been married. Which will be 32 years this December. I am working backwards because it was easier to start with my digital photos and I have calendars going back to 1991. I have complete 2008 - 1990 so far. The bad news is that my calendars are gone so I have to rely on photos to remind me of what happened that year. The good news is I keep getting younger with each layout:) I am posting my layouts at Scrapbook Graphics for their 2009 Photo Book Challenge. Here is my gallery if you want to take a peek.

Where's my header

I was playing around and adding a blog list and then rearranging some things and now my header is gone!!!!!

Yikes, I set the blog up so long ago, I don't even remember how the header got there in the first place!

Be back later...

I'm back....
So I totally changed the template but that doesn't help. I edited the header and added the quote. The quote shows up by the blog title "Canay's Corner" doesn't show up.

I posted a question in the forums.

tada...I went to customize and clicked on Revert widget templates to default. At least now my title appears. I don't know what happened to my custom header but that is ok. I sort of like the lefty template and I will just stay with the generic template for now.