From my craft table

Yesterday, I had OH so much fun getting my friend, Kim, going on creating a Project Life album for her granddaughter, Harlow.  Kim is using the Blush edition (purchased through HSN's special) and the Baby edition.  I have a few items I had purchased through AC Digitals that she might find hanging out in her book, too.  And anything I have that's pink...

So, here's what my table currently looks like:

My sixteen year old just came back from an awesome band trip to New York City, and his scrapbooking mama has been patiently waiting.  Well, not so patiently.  So, you see my week for Project Life, currently under construction, and stuff for his PL mini album strewn about.  I got a lot of great ideas from this crafter's You Tube videos as to how she created Project Life pages for a trip to NYC.  At first, I thought, "How will I fill this album?  It has a lot of pages!"  Now, I am more at ease with the idea that it need not be filled just with pictures.

One thing that I will be using in the album are screen shots from the Tracker Lite app we used.  We got it mainly to make sure if he lost his phone we could try to track it down.  We also found it was great fun to live vicariously through him and see where he was visiting. My brother insists I am being neurotic.  Maybe.  But look what I can now put in the scrapbook!  I have these printed on cardstock and cut to 4 x (almost) 3" to use throughout the book.  Corners rounded, of course!

So there you have it---my works in progress!  Hopefully, I will get some major craftiness in over the next few days.

And another....

Just today, Becky Higgins posted yet another lovely iPhone camera app: Camera+.  First of all, the app takes a pretty sweet photo...better than just taking it with the iPhone camera app.  It gives you a 9 x 9 grid in your field of vision, which helps greatly when establishing your focal point (rule of thirds, baby!).  I used what is called FX Effects --> Magic Hour for the photo of Max below to even out the contrast.  This effect had a slider that I could use to determine the degree of the effect.

The best part: for a limited time, the app is 99 cents!  Woot!  Now my Nikon is completely nervous.

Falling in Love with Easy

So, let's discuss how long it would have taken me to find the right Photoshop actions to alter this photo.  How many steps did it really take me?  1.  Uno.  Un.  O-N-E.

Hello, Instagram app for my iPhone. 

Instagram comes with a variety of actions that can make your pictures unique.  This one is called Nashville, and I like it for two reasons.  I love the frame that makes it look like a slide.  I also love that it changes the contrast so that the photo looks older.  Sometimes, vibrant colors are overrated.  What I want this photo to do is capture a memory that is fleeting.  I would not use this action for everything, but for this picture, I think it's perfect.

Another app I love is one I used with this photo.  

It's called PS Express, a mini Photoshop.  I actually purchased the full-blown app rather than just use the free one, so you know this is serious business.  Here's what I love: I can take a cruddy picture on my iPhone: poor light, hand shaking, too much movement, whatevs.  I can crop it, straighten it, rotate it, flip it, alter exposure/saturation/tint/contrast, make it black and white, use actions for sketch, soft focus, sharpening, and reducing noise, and choose effects (more actions) and borders.  All from this "app that could."  Then, when I am done, I can save it to my phone or upload to Facebook/Twitter if I desire.

I used soft focus on this pic of my guys at the park.

My poor Nikon D60 is getting a little jealous.  Every now and then, I pull it out.  But, for the everyday when I cannot lug that sucker around, I love my iPhone and these apps.