Scrap Mettle Designs|Creative Scrapbooking with Spunk

Getting In on the Action

by Melissa on October 18, 2010

Even though I have been using Photoshop Elements for years now, I have never used actions when photo-editing a picture. I’ve heard about them, read about them, even downloaded a few free ones, but I never actually used one on a photo before. Until yesterday.

I don’t like to mess with my pictures too much, just give a little bump in contrast, maybe trim a little here and there, and sometimes lighten it up. But the photos I shot a few weeks ago of my daughter and her Homecoming date screamed for something a little more special. So I went looking for some action, I mean actions.

I’m a frugal kind of gal, so I decided to use what I have first before acquiring more actions. Fortunately, my stash included some good ones from Pioneer Woman. And here’s the result.

Before

This is straight out of the camera, no editing or cropping. I’m big on letting the kids just do their thing instead of posing them, so I caught these two in mid laugh, or mid giggle in the case of my daughter. He’s a pretty funny kid and had her laughing most of the two hours we took photos.

I loved this red door so that’s why I used a wider lens. Unfortunately, the kids couldn’t climb up to stand next to it so I had to be content with having it in the background.

But…I also want a closer shot of them so I decided to crop this photo and play with it a little.

The first action I used on it was Boost from the Pioneer Woman Action Set. Even though I thought the photo had some good color to begin with, this action really added some dramatic color.

Next, I used the Edge Burn action from the same set. Since they were positioned toward the left side of the photo, the Edge Burn darkened his face and hands a little too much, so I went over him with the PSE brush tool to lighten up his skin tone. I then went over my daughter with the brush too, to erase any of the Edge Burn action on her skin and dress.

After

I really love the result—the red door behind them is a good contrast to all the black and white and the Boost action really made the skin tones pop.

So my verdict on using actions for photo editing? Definitely a good thing!

Now I’m off to search for more action(s)!

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Basic Grey’s Scarlet’s Letter is Perfect for Teen Layouts

by Melissa on October 8, 2010

For years, I’ve loved Basic Grey. And when I say love, I mean LOVE. I own nearly every collection they have released. Some of them, like Urban Couture and Scarlet’s Letter, I’ve bought multiple packs of so I won’t run out.

So you can imagine my joy when BG began releasing their collections in a digital format. That was one happy day! Now, I’ll NEVER run out!

Since last week was jam-packed with my daughter’s Homecoming activities, and I somehow managed to shoot about 500 pictures, I thought I better get to scrapping the event, especially the dance. Since the elegance of the occasion demanded a little sophistication in the layouts, I immediately went to one of my faves: Scartlet’s Letter.

This was actually the first time I had used one of the Basic Grey digital kits, and although I love playing with paper when I scrap, I love even more how quickly I can put together a layout with the digital elements. Time is especially important when you want to scrap about 100 pictures. Total time spent on this layout? About 25 minutes. Sweet!

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on October 4, 2010

I was doing a photo shoot with my daughter and her friend yesterday and found this written on the wall in an alley downtown.

Pretty cool.

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on October 2, 2010

Don’t know what it is about this photo that gives me flutters, but I get ‘em. I think it’s the look on his face, like he’s shyly checkin’ her out. Trying not to flirt because they’re just friends, and can’t help but check her out none the less.

Teen angst caught on film…er, a digital sensor, I mean. That just doesn’t have the same ring to it, now does it?

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on September 29, 2010

Today was the Homecoming Parade at our local high school. So my husband and I dropped our daughter off at the beginning of the parade and headed off to the school where it would end.

I thought I picked a good spot along the street in front of the school, but it turned out that as the parade approached, lots and lots of young kids swarmed toward the street to gather candy. So most of my photos were full of blurry bodies running in front of the camera or disembodied arms across the shot.

It was still chaotic once we got on school grounds but I was able to get a few good shots. I loved the light in this one and how sharp the uniforms look. I almost forget how many bugs swarmed up out of that grass to chew our legs. Almost.

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Digital Templates: A Good Thing

by Melissa on September 27, 2010

I finally got started on my daughter’s cheerleading album. I had gathered all the stuff—papers, embellishments, album, pictures, etc.—back in the summer, but just couldn’t get motivated to begin. I think I was overwhelmed because, since she first started cheering a year ago, I was already a year behind.

And now we’re a month into football season this year! And since I got my new camera, I’ve taken a lot of pictures!

I realized that my plan, my vision for the album, may need to be revised…because of all the pictures I’m now taking! I know I don’t need to put them all in there, but I want to use a lot!

And I found a way to do that…Cathy Zielske’s The Monthly Templates.

I haven’t used templates a lot in digital scrapbooking, but I love Cathy’s style and was drawn to the idea of condensing—consolidating, summarizing?—a lot of pictures into a cohesive multi-page layout. The general purpose of the templates is to summarize the events in a particular period of time—a month to be exact, in case that wasn’t clear from the name of the template pack (and, no, the name isn’t referring to something else, that frankly, no girl wants to scrapbook about). But I saw the chance to get a lot of pictures on one layout!

And boy did I!

These are the layouts from Friday night’s game:

I took the “clean and simple” templates and grunged them up a bit to match the paper I had already purchased, which I’ll use to scrapbook her team and individual studio portraits. I even found the digital version of some of the embellishments I already bought, making it even easier to match up the traditional and digital parts of the album! Sweet!

I still have to do the journaling, but I’m hoping I can get my daughter to do it in her words. Fingers crossed!

I’ll also do one more page using the 9-photo grid template I think. Or one of the photo collages. I’m just not sure yet.

But I do know one thing: These templates made the project a whole lot more manageable!

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on September 19, 2010

Not the best picture that I shot today, but it’s my favorite.

It was nearly dark but I didn’t want to use the flash, so I put the camera on No Flash mode to see what it would do.

I love the detail in the background. The girls look a little out of focus, but I love that soft look and the natural skin tones lit by the setting sun. I took lots of pictures this evening, but was having trouble capturing how the setting sun painted the scene pink.

Total pictures taken: 71

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on September 18, 2010

My two girls! Love this shot, even though it’s a little over-exposed. I can fix that later in PSE.

My oldest daughter was home for her first visit after moving a few months ago. She was here for only two days, but I made her take some time for a photo shoot.

Of course, most of the photos were of them making goofy faces or acting goofy, so it was nice to have this one.

Total photos taken: 66.

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Photo of the Day

by Melissa on September 17, 2010

My daughter got her “studio” cheer pictures the other day and didn’t find them very flattering. So she asked me if we could reshoot her pictures. Are you kidding? Uh, yeah!!!

So we set out this evening just before sunset. First, we went to her school, because her studio pictures had been taken in a nature setting and we thought that just didn’t say “cheerleader” or “school athlete” to us. I mean, it’s not like they ever go out by a pond and cheer, right? So we took pictures in front of the entrance of the school, in front of the sign, and some general pictures of her jumping and kicking with the building as a backdrop. Several turned out really good!

And then we decided to scope out some other areas around town to take her Homecoming pictures in a couple weeks. And we ended up on this hill overlooking the town. We did some test shots, in this nature setting no less, of her still in uniform. And I’ll be darned, they were my favorite.

I still don’t think they say “cheerleader” to me, but I have to concede they were the best shots of the day.

Total pictures taken: 139

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The Angel Company “Everything” Album

by Melissa on September 17, 2010

This is one of those projects that has been languishing in my Project Basket for nearly two years…yes, two years! I think it had become BFFs with the flip-flop album.

This was a kit from a class I took back in October 2008 at the Kansas City Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention. The class was taught by instructors from The Angel Company, which just happens to be a scrapbooking company right here in my hometown. Hands down, this was the best project class I took that weekend. I mean, just look at these albums. Luscious!

The class kit included the Woodrowe Keepsake Album Kit from The Angel Company (which made two albums), as well as lots of scrumptious ribbon, flowers, and metal accents.