Playday

Today is a playday! I know yesterday probably sounded like a playday, what with the party and all, but I spent nearly all afternoon cleaning up the chaos so it wasn't much more than another housecleaning day. Aiden and I need some down time so as soon as his morning nap is over, we're going for a walk.

Meanwhile, I can't stop inventing new photo finishes! These are SO fun! Here are a few more I have been playing with. This is the original again for comparison:




Defog Technique


Dark Chocolate Tint


Rugged Finish


The rugged is by far my favorite! I LOVE the blue tint with the blackish gray grit over the top. Totally my own custom mix - I don't think I have ever seen blue tinted photos with grunge. (Remember what I said about being original instead of copying? See, it works!!) I'm having this printed large for Aiden's room and plan on adding other roughed up photos to it. What a perfect boyish look!

I need to quit playing with pictures and get all the christmas cards & birth announcements done. Then it will be the end of the month and I'll have new scrap stuff that I need to get layouts done with.....so much fun! I really like my hobby. :) Brian, thanks for taking care of Aiden last night. It was so nice to come in the office after dinner and play until bed time. I love you!

Show Off!

Kelsey got a gorgeous card/photo in the mail a few weeks ago of a baby girl done in a cool looking colored sepia photo finish. (Why does Kelsey get all the inspiring mail? I get nothing but junk ads...) Any ways, she asked if I could figure out how to do it. I told her I could and when she asked about it again today, I sat down & whipped out some new fun photo effects. You can never have enough, especially when scrapping! This is the original:

Chocolate Finish

Colored Sepia


Worn & Weathered Colored Sepia

I used my new weathering trick to rough up the colored sepia photo. Kind of cool. Can you believe we're actually TRYING to get our photos to look old? My grandmother is freaking out about my dad's baby pictures and how they're aging and I'm attempting to get Aiden's baby pictures to look as vintage & fabulous. The grass is always greener, isn't it? LOL!

Okay, off to bed! I'm beat!

New Tricks

I finally got one nap time to play in photoshop with some of the new tricks I have learned. Way, way, way back in early summer I stumbled upon a website that had the most GORGEOUS grunged out photos. I was totally in love! I immediately tried to do my own scratchy photo aging but to no avail. I have been playing with techniques off and on until very recently it clicked and I can do it!





And these aren't even the GOOD ones! Of course, no sooner do I figure out how to do this edgy, super-unique photo treatment than I find messy, dirty, splattered edges showing up EVERYWHERE! Oh, well. I guess the only way to have something orginal is to BE original!

Will Post More, Promise!

I'm having a party in the house this morning so I can't write much but I did want to mention, for my out-of-state scrapping friends, that Miss Mint is brewing up some great holiday stuff so start watching her site towards the end of this week for the promised big freebie and all the new goodies!

I swear I will write more and post some pictures and new LO's! Check back soon!

Funny Video

The link below is to a SNL skit video that I just love! I'm sure you all have heard of Penelope. If not, here she is in all her glory:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2378t_snl-penelope

Is that not a riot?!! It just cracks me up! Brian has been bugging me to post a video on here because every once in a while I'll suddenly start speaking like her and playfully one-up everything he says. Don't forget to twirl the ends of your hair if you decide to impersonate her, too!

Hot Off The Press!

There's going to be a Black Friday sale at Peppermint Creative! One day only and I don't know what the discount will be but the new Hanukkah kit will be released - which has a great religion-neutral paper pack - and some GORGEOUS new cutesy butterfly elements are being added, too! They're adorable little mesh winged butterflies with silver wire wrapped bodies and a touch of glitter on the wing tips. Really crafty & whimsical looking! The set has them in several colors, including pink, purple & lime green!

I'll keep you posted on the sale info as I get it. Be sure to watch Miss Mint's blog, she usually will put sneak peeks and sale details there first.

Just Another Monday

Aiden can crawl but that hasn't stopped the screaming. He's resorted to VERY loud yells any time I walk "too far" away from him. The too far part changes by the hour, depending on how recent his last nap was. It could be five feet or five inches. Even worse, he's started fussing in my arms when I shift his weight and he *thinks* I'm about to set him down. All the crying is just too much for my ears to take! I give in and end up playing on the floor with him, looking around at all the little things I'd like to get done and counting down to his next nap.

I started packing for us today. Weather.com says it's going to be freezing the whole time we're in Granbury and the wind chill around the lake is even colder than the actual air temperatures. The daytime high will be in the 50's the entire time we're in town. I'm so excited about the cold weather! Tomorrow I'm going to try to pick up a cute new long sleeved something to wear while I'm up there. Still kind of in between sizes. My skinny size 6 stuff doesn't fit from 2 winters ago and neither does my huge maternity stuff from last year. It seems like I'm always filling in gaps in my wardrobe, only to find more gaps....oh, well. Aiden is dropping daytime nursing sessions left & right and I've lost weight this week because of it and had my libido return. (Brian is loving that part!) Now I just can't wait to have my body be all mine again!!!