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. 

Goodbye Canay's Creations...

At the end of this month, I will be taking down my website Canays Creations.

My husband retired and I've been looking at the budget especially the
repetitive monthly charges. I find I post (sporadically) on my free blog and
never go to Canays Creations anymore. It doesn't make sense to keep paying
for something I'm not using. It is a good time to clear clutter out of my
life and simplify.

I will still be scrapping and posting to this blog so I don't think the closure will have a negative effect on anyone. A few freebies will be lost but they are so old that I doubt they are useful any longer.

This is the start of my spring cleaning and it feels really good. Next I want to tackle my closet. Now that might be a nightmare!

LOM templates...

I have created psd templates of my title page, dedication page and two section pages. Click HERE to download the zip file. Please be sure to read the pdf info file for information about the templates. I hope you find these useful. Happy scrapping:)

The Camera Evolution Continues...

Remember this layout all about my camera evolution? The saga continues...

Lacey's camera broke so I gave her my SD500 which was just like hers. I thought I would be happy with just the S3IS 12x optical zoom camera. Well, what I discovered is that I really missed a small little camera in my purse at all times. I was missing so many shots because I was out somewhere and didn't have a camera with me. So I did some research and decided on the brand new Canon Posershot SD990 IS.

Duh duh, duh da...

I've read Pros and Cons on the reviews. My reason for choosing this camera instead of one of the less expensive models are:

• the high pixels allow me to crop in on a shot and get a pretty decent closeup
  
• its larger sensor lends a hand to low light shooting and captures some beautiful images
• the red eye issue is much improved over the 550
• it has full manual control (not that I use that, but it is possible!)
  
• it has automatic face recognition
  
• it fits nicely in my purse or pocket

I really love this camera. It really does do a pretty good job in low light conditions which I seem to be in frequently. I have to say that I do feel guilty about the Rebel that sits on my shelf. I even purchased a DVD on how to use the Rebel. It is still in the wrapper sitting on the shelf. It's not going anywhere and one day...soon...maybe after LOM...I will give it a go. Until then, I am tickled pink with my little point and shoot that is in my purse ready to use in a moments notice.

Design Your Life...

I just checked and I have not posted since last November. Let's see that is five months ago.

Since November, I took Cathy Zielske's Design your life class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. We learned all about balance, color, white space, typography, lots of Cathy's clean and simple design tips, etc. We also created a lot of layouts...


The class ended on Christmas Day so I got a little behind during the holidays. I used the month of January and the beginning of February to get caught up on the class. It was a great class and Cathy is an excellent instructor. Her knowledge and humor are so contagious. I would never hesitate to take another class with her. She really helped my enthusiasm and my confidence as a scrapbooker. Her weekly videos, pdf files and audio files have provided me with a great resource that I can use over and over.

Then no sooner did I finish up with that class, I started the Library of Memories Class (LOM) with Stacy Julian. I wrote a blog post back in August titled Photo Freedom aka Getting Photos Organized. This LOM class basically teaches everything from Photo Freedom step by step. I am having so much fun. I already embraced a lot of Stacy's non chronological attitudes but didn't really know it. She has helped me define what photos I want to scrap and how to have the photos organized in a system that I can retrieve them for scrapping whether digital or paper. And then her four album system for storing layouts is brilliant. This is a sixteen week class and I have totally committed to it. I have taken a break from blogs, digi scrapping sites, and other classes so I can embrace LOM and get the most out of it.

Here are some framework pages that I made for the All About Us album...


I actually have quite a few more frame work pages made for the other albums (Places We Go, Things That Matter, and People We Love) but haven't uploaded them to flickr yet. I'm realy pleased with the way they turned out and I will share them when they get uploaded.

So that's what I've been doing with scrapbooking lately. Having fun and learning lots of new things.