Woops

Happy Sunday all.

I know i haven't stopped by in a while, work is really coming thick and fast with exams looming and this weekend was so busy i literally couldn't even touch a computer, yet alone blog! Lol!

so.. a bit of a catch up. I am loving my photography at the moment. These are a few of the photos I have edited and am really happy about...

As i said, this weekend was manic. This band,The magnets came to my school. How they managed to book them in I don't know, but they really were incredible. They were an acapella band, so basically used no instruments, just their own voices. One guy was purely the drum section, all through his voice! Incredible. If u get a chance, look them up and listen to them cos they really are ace...

This afternoon I went out with the boys family for lunch. It was so nice and they are really sweet to me. The boy is unbeliveably cute and sat on his bed giving me a massage as I fell asleep...good times! he he!

So, a bit of a short post, but I have to head to the land of bed now, thanks for stopping by!

Loves xxxx

experimenting..

Happy Sunday. How quickly has this week gone???!!! I can't believe I am back to skl today!

Anyway, I finished the card for the boys mum...

Really can't take much credit for it as I lifted a lot of the elements from this page by Stephanie Howell, but I put my own twist on it. I really love how it turned out so will possibly translate this into a page at some point.

After a week of pootling about in the craft area, this was my desk.. eeeekkk! Neadless to say it is now a lot tidier!

For my photography topic I thought I would do a bit of experimenting with water and fast shutter speeds. My poor brother spent yesterday afternoon throwing water about for me. I justified his efforts by thinking, "he's a boy, don't guys like this kind of stuff?" Fully justified. Well, we started with a glass (yes I do say glass) with water flying out after we dropped a mini football in. The first time was tops...This was the glass breaking after he missed! (ok, it was kind of my fault too!) But it made for a good picture! Mama was not too impressed, but it was all for the sake of a good photograph right???!

We then tried the same thing with a plastic cup, I over-exposed slightly but the effect was good so I will probably just tinker with it in photoshop back at school...I'm thinking about layering text into the water and adjusting opacity etc to make it look like words are flying out in the water splash. This the plan, in practice it could be tricky!!!

My next adventure was getting my brother to throw a bucket of water at a wall. I think he enjoyed this more!! ( after reading this he would like to add that it was actually he who came up with the idea of throwing water at a wall!) I was really happy with the results,again a bit of brightness contrast adjusting neeeded...

After doing a bit of flickr research I decided I wanted to capture a drop hitting a pool of water. After watching a fab tutorial I found on the web I set up a little mini studio with my long suffering brother holding a bag of water that dripped. I added food colouring to make the water stand out more....

As I got used to taking fast pictures, the results got better. These are a few of my fav's...

If anyone has any tips or advice on taking water shots, I would greatly appreciate it!

As ever, at school, blogging comes down to when I have time so if I don't post for a bit I'm just busy, I haven't forgotten it!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxxxxx

Scrappy goodness

Hi all. Ok so perhaps the LO's didn't get posted the next day but hey. One still needs to be finished and I have to make a birthday card for the boys mum (brownie points here! Lol! Only joking, she's lovely and i'm happy to make her a card especially as she is taking me out to lunch woooh!)

So.. I thought i would do a bit of an anatomy of a page in the style of Abi. I don't normally go in for double pages but when I have a lot of pictures that just have to be scrapped it can be helpful. Also in a really weird way double pages use up less supplies cos each side has to balance so u don't feel the need to fill up the space as much as on a single. Well..that is my theory anyway! So here it is, my double page..Quite fitting that we had a dusting of snow today! Ok, The biggest thing I find when creating a double page is trying to make it look like one thing, rather than two seperate pages with similar pictures. By using the same paper and sticking to a limited colour scheme it is clear the pages go together..

The left hand page The right hand page

On this layoutI wanted the emphasis on the pictures rather than the fact it was christmas so I used a wintry colour scheme rather than a christmassy one. I also wanted to break away from the traditional slightly, so used baby pink as well. personally when I create a double page, I find that when layering papers what was horizontal on one side works well vertically on the other. For example take the graphic blue paper, on the right it is horizontal but on the left vertical. It makes the pages correspond with each other but still look individual.

Next, I wanted the pages to have similar design elements. In this case it was the trees which I rather like! Lol! They indicate christmas and emphasise the wood in which the photos were taken! (Aslo they were nice and simple!)

Obviously on the left hand side I used a larger tree because there was more white space. This creates a focal point for the rest of the page and leads the eyes to the trees on the next page.

I always like my pages to have something that draws the elements together so that they look connected. Here I used yarn stapled horizontally and vertically which also adds texture.

Embellishing on this page was kept to certain areas. On the big tree I wanted to give the effect of sumptuious decoration so layered up paper, chipboard and glittered paper. I then wanted to echo this on the right hand page so it look balanced. Therefore I added a line of similar embellishment...

Finally to offeset the graphic title I used my own handwriting to journal...

So there you have it. This is completly subjective, just my thought processes as I make a layout and what I try to do to make it look balanced. How do you think through a page?

Off topic of scrapbooking, look what arrived in the post yesterday... my upgrade! Yes my new toy was part of the reason there was no post yesterday eeek! You know what is most exciting about it? It can plug into a computer and registers as a mass storage device, so basically u can load any file to it in like 3 seconds!!!!! My gallery is now full of photos and layouts!!! happy times!

Anyway, back to school soon, grrr..

thanks for stopping by!

Loves xxxx

Some photography fun!

Happy Wednesday all.

I have done nearly all my work now! wooooh which means, guilt free scrapping!! i have got a page nearly done and another that needs a picture taken of it so stop by soon to see some LO's! Just got back from a driving lesson. Did hill starts and roundabouts! I actually really enjoy roundabouts, once you have figured which way to indicate and which lane u have to be in, it's pretty straightforward (well not literally, pretty curvey!!! LOL)

For the first time in a long while the sun is poking his head out so I decided this had to be the moment to take some pictures! My photography topic is image and text. Thanks so much to all of you who gave me links to awesome websites!

So.. a few of my first experiments! eeek! obviously they need a bit of touching up, but I'm pretty happy with them. He he!I had fun with this one! Thickers have so many uses! Lol!

After taking some pics I went upstairs to find the kitten that isn't a kitten fast asleep in a sunwarmed bundle.. isn't she just so sweet?! (theo was off draped over someones knees!)

She has to have the fluffiest tummy ever but I couldn't get a picture because she wanted cuddles and kept nuzzling the camera! Lol!

Thanks for stopping by check back soon for some scrapbook loveliness!

Loves xxxx

Inspiration

Hi all.

I said I would blog yesterday. Abi forgot she was going to London and didn't get back till 10.30 by which point she was just a little tired!

Ok, i will now stop talking in the third person and show you some lovely pics from our day out. Oh n just as a little aside, I have a crazy amount of work this hols and whilst doing that and trying to fit in driving lessons, scrapping has to take a back seat. I am still doing it just little and often so a page takes longer to complete. Photo's of LO's will come. I promise!

A few of my favourites from the day...looking up to the ceiling in covent garden. Love how geometric this picture is. A street performer who was truly brilliant. A lot of fiddle playing, clapping and dancing around. One of the many beautiful old fashioned signs.

And as I said a bit of inspiration for today. I bought this poster in The Saatchi Gallery and fell in love. The alphabet is fab but isn't the colour scheme amazing? I can really see these colours used on a spring themed page especially coupled with Kraft paper. Would love to see any pages inspired by these colours....Pink, Green, light blue red and brown. I also love the detail in white.

Another bit of colour and texture inspiration..These are a bracelet and a neckalce of my mums. The colour scheme is so elegant and the shapes are lovely. I also love the gossamer ribbon. Would love to see LO's made with these colours, patterns or shapes..Black, silver, dark blue and grey.

Hopefully will post more tommorow, thanks for stopping by.

Loves xxxxx

A Very happy Abi

Hi,

Woke up this morning. Heard my family laughing and the sound of my mum cooking pancakes for breakfast. It's good to be home! The kittens (who aren't kittens any more) are loving having us back cos they get a lot of attention and cuddles. Theo literally sprawls himself across whoever is sitting on the sofa! Went out for a family lunch today which was lovely so I am now nice and full, got a some new wool and am looking forward to knitting in between the crazy amount of work I have to do..grumble grumble! Lol!

So...a bit of a catch up is in order, me thinks?!

Ok. So last week I went on an art and photography trip to London. We visited the Tate Britain and the Saatchi Gallery. The latter was definitely my favourite because one, you could take pictures inside and two, it was on Kings Road! Shopping! Lol! So a few pics...This wall was covered in clay letters spelling our Ghandi's famous speech. Perfect for my photography topic! (I caught this women walking past and loved how the picture turned out)

What is this??... (Can u see the little figure of me in the spatula???!!! LOL!)

....it's this!! Pretty funky! This beautiful deer was made out of glass balls. I know modern art isn't everyone's thing but I find it so interesting and you've got to love these little chairs made by school children across the country! We walked into town and found these two lovely statues on a little alleway. Art truly is everywhere if you look hard enough. And, a bit of inspiration in a shop window. Love how these photo's are set out and the pictures themselves. Definitely a scrapping idea.

This week has been pretty standard, a lot of work and everyone getting tired and grotty but at least we are at half term now. I have been experimenting with some photos for my photography using the rose I got from the boy. I am hoping to edit these in photoshop with a poem I am studying in English...

Love the middle one with the water droplets.
Hope everyone has had a good week, stop by tommorow for a few inspiration pics....
Loves xxxxx

A Few Sentances

Happy Thursday all. my current favourite picture of the boy and me from the ball. (love this man!)

I cannot get enough of the glee soundtrack!

I have to go to bed now...grrr.

BUT, it is the last night of this half term, soooo.... tommorow more blog posts (hopefully!)

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Loves xxxxx

The ball!!!

Happy Sunday

Again, apologies for not stopping by sooner. A MANIC week. Good news though is that it is half term on friday so more time to blog, scrap and drive!!!

So, a bit of a run through of the week. Monday we got the long awaited topics for our photography exam. They release them now so we have about 3 months to make a portfolio. The topic I chose was Image and text. How cool is that???!!! Scrapbooking here i come!!! I have been doing a bit of research of typography artists, if anyone knows where I can get some inspiration I would love some advice. Below is my first attempt, just messing around with fonts etc. The week pootled along with work work and more work. Yesterday was my crazy hectic day. We rowed at Wycliffe head in a coxed girls four. It was beyond freezing. (I had seven layers on!) and cos I am the cox I was sitting still for like 3 hours! Good news though, we came third in both divisions! happy times!

So..the ball!!! Where to start??? It really was incredible. Lived up to all the expectations! it was casino themed so we had a giant house of cards, red, black and white balloons, place names were playing cards and the tickets were poker chips.

We had pre-dinner drinks with my houseparents..(yeah I'm the little one on the right!)

and then the boys came up to collect their dates. The boy....oh my word, he looked so handsome. He gave me this beautiful rose and...

The most beautiful bracelet. It is stunning. Amazing too because he had no idea my dress was black and white before he bought it! Spooky!!!

As I said there was a giant house of cards... Prizes were also awarded for best dress, best shoes, best gentleman and guess who won cutest couple??!! eeeekk.....!I haven't got many pictures of the night as the lighting was awful and I was enjoying myself too much. The meal was lovely and during we pudding we had opera singers. Then there was a balloon drop, fireworks and a disco which was tops!!!!! Thought you might wanna see this picture!... (sorry the quality isn't great but we had one of the girls taking proper pics so as soon as I get a copy I will put it here!) Ahh!! He was so lovely! I went to clear up this morning so managed to plunder a few bits and pieces that will definitely be used for a scrapbook page later on!!!

so, an eventful week, photography trip tommorow as well-the fun never stops! Thanks for stopping by!

Loves xxx