A Selfless Act

by Patty McCarthy

You don’t realize how much you need and miss your family until your marriage falls apart and you are provinces away with your children.  Life throws us some major curves at times; Lord knows I’ve been given my share of them over my lifetime.  In March of this year, I filed for divorce,  and in June, I made the difficult decision to sell my home, quit my job and move back to my family for the love and support I so needed to make it out of a terrible situation.

I had worked with a 22 year old girl, whom I will call Tamara.  We had worked together for 2 years but it was the last year of our working relationship that we began to become closer friends.   She looked up to me for guidance and I loved her ‘tell it like it is sarcastic attitude’.  Her Mom began working at the same establishment around the time our relationship began to blossom.  We all developed a new found friendship and began socializing outside of work.  The news was difficult to share.  They of course were happy that I was going to move and be closer to my loved ones but were grieving for the loss of our day-to-day interactions and my hilarious antics that brought smiles to their faces and the music of their laughter.

As the weeks ticked by and moving day was getting closer, I began to dwindle my to-do list down.  I sold most of my paper scrapbooking supplies because there was no way I could take them all with me. After all, they hadn’t’ been touched in years.  Professional mover costs would be high enough without all that extra added weight.  Tamara and her Mom, Lisa helped in this regard too.  They bought scrappy supplies and spread the word to their friends about the goldmine of goodies that I had for sale. $1400 and a weekend in the heat later, I had accomplished what I’d set out to do.  Now, it was just endless boxes  to pack .

August arrives and  I come home from my last day of work to a phone call.  My driver was calling to give me a time and exact date when my furniture would be picked up.  I was glad in one sense because I knew all the harassment, fear and anger would be almost behind me and on the other hand a sadness that I was leaving some dear friends behind.   Where had the last 6 months gone?

The time had come, August 12,  for me to say my goodbyes.  The furniture has been loaded and will be heading down the Trans Canada very soon to its new destination.  I stand on the sidewalk looking at a few of my friends who have come to say goodbye and give me one last hug.  I had tears in my eyes and I was so determined not to cry until Tamara asked if she could unlock my truck.  She told me that she had a St Christopher to hang around my rear view mirror to keep my boys and I safe during our 3400 km drive across Canada.  I was so taken aback by her love and caring.  As I sit and write this I have tears running down my face thinking about how she gave up her only silver St. Christopher medallion on a chain to give to me.  I stroked and held that medallion many times over the course of my travels and I felt so at peace knowing that I’d be safe.  The trip went off without a hitch, I arrived home on my birthday, of all days, and was reunited with my parents.  My furniture arrived a few days later and everything was still intact and unbroken.  How could I be so lucky?  AND my house sold!

I sit here every once in a while and look back on where I’ve been the past 8 months.  The emotional roller coaster I’ve traveled and the strength I needed for my children.  It is a miraculous thing that we women have such inner courage and even with daily struggles we still manage to come out on top, day after day.  Faith can help to accomplish some pretty amazing things.

I don’t remember the last time I attended church but I thank my lucky stars every day for the people that I have in my life.  I do chat regularly to the ‘big guy’ and thank him for blessing me with such amazing friends.  I know that sometimes I think that it is a miracle that I’m still standing but I know deep down it is because  I’m a survivor and that I have such amazing people like Tamara and Lisa in my life who have loved me unconditionally.

Today, the St. Christopher still hangs in my truck exactly where Tamara put it those few months ago. I’m constantly reminded of her selfless act and the bond of our friendship that can never be broken even though we’re miles apart. The memory puts a smile on my face and warms my heart.

Using the Shear Filter

By Michelle Bradshaw

Sometimes as you are scrapping a page, you have an element you wish to use, but its shape is not quite what you had in mind. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are powerful programs containing many items to use to manipulate photos, or elements that come with a digital scrapbook kit. I was scrapping a page the other day using the wonderful Comic Strip Funnies by Alissa Jones. I found a perfect template in Spiral Templates by Meagan’s Creations.

The flow of the template agreed with me, yet the cute little banners to accent from the kit were not at the same angle as the template. Then I remembered the ‘shear filter’! I’d not used it in a while and thought I would share, in case you’ve not discovered this powerful filter.

1. Open the element you wish to bend onto your LO. Be sure the layer is active. (For ease of visibility, I’ve closed the other layers of my LO.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Rotate the element so it is vertical. Edit> transform > 90 degrees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. From the menu bar – Filter > Distort > Shear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the dialog box opens, the element appears as well as a vertical line above it on a grid. Use your mouse to push or pull the direction of the curve. Press ok. If the amount is not to your liking, simply un-do and start over or, repeat the filter’s action, by ctrl [cmd on mac]+f.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There can be as many anchor points as you wish depending on the effect you wish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is my page: Notice the slight curving to the banner, compared to the original element.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This filter can also be used to warp frames, photos and various shadow effects. It can give a feel of motion. Go easy with it. Start slow and experiment.

I would love to see what you create.

Happy Scrapping.

Michelle

 

 

 

 

 

Monday ONLY!! Select items are 50% off!! Visit the ScrapMatters Shop for more details!!
*Sale runs 12am-11:59pm ET. HURRY! What are you waiting for!?! *

Our African Adventure

by Stefanie (Eyeore)

Getting to visit a private game lodge at the amazing creatures out in the wild was  everything I could  have hoped for and more. Seeing and hearing the lions within a stone’s throw of the vehicle, having a 8 gig memory card and my trusty Nikon. I felt blessed beyond measure and totally in awe of God’s creativity.

I know that I needed to get my eyes tested when everyone else in the car can see that red rock over there as an elephant before me. However I believe that even if my eyes had seen him, my brain would have said  Ellies aren’t that red – they’re grey!We watched as he dug repeatedly with the back side of his front foot, scraping and

scraping, unearthing a root similar in size to a sweet potato and then tapped in on his right tusk a few times before chomping. I suppose if you’re eating that much crunchy stuff all the time those extra sandy bits won’t freak you out like they do me. He looked permanently half asleep. The naughty bull ellies get injected to prevent them from coming into must and causing trouble with the ladies and Shamwari’s guests. Male ellies have a head that is rounded. Female ellies have a more angular shape to their heads, 45 degrees.

This beauty walked right passed us. I snapped many pics.  She walked past showing that side, I could have reached out and touched her, but chose not to.

This baby was less that a month old and we were told was still learning to control his trunk. He kept trying to catch the tail of the baby in front of him. Naughty little bugger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet and such a gentle giant. Round head =boy, even though it may look like a girl.

These beautiful buffalo cost R400 000 each so when the wild dogs took to killing them for sport the wild dogs were shipped off Shamwari and the buffalo were secluded to begin breeding and increasing their numbers again.  They don’t look very bright and apparently give no warning before they charge (think Rottweiler) so the ranger stayed far far away from them.

Then from further away we saw these. Some snuck into the water as we approached but these stayed and watched us, unnervingly.

We were coached on the differences between male and female warthogs. Either way they are ugly~. The females had beards and the males had two lots of wart-like protrusions on their faces. Fred began calling them bacon boys.  Here is female with beard -enough to scar Fred for life.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of what was one of the most exicting trips of my life!

Welcome to another Saturday of Gallery Standouts!  It’s fall where I live and it’s definitely fall in our gallery. The rich colors and Halloween themed layouts are plentiful, as you can see from this sampling of gallery standouts! Check out the wonderful layouts nominated this week!

Amber started off the GSO thread with this first layout by Ophelia (navaja77). “Those clusters are just yummy, and I love that striped bg paper! “  The layout composition is perfect to show off tse adorable photos of her little girl!

Next is another well clustered layout.  Amber had this to say about Jill’s  (Juno) page, “Love the colors here and her elements are so perfectly placed! Totally rocked it!”  I really like how the colors stand out on the newspaper background!

Juno chose this fun Halloween page by Joanna (cutiejo1) and said, “LOVE how she placed the pics on the tree and the placement of the elements. Just perfect!” Joanna combined the lifts of two layouts to create her layout!  Check out this month’s GTL with a Twist to give it a try!

Michelle (msbrad) wanted to make sure we saw these next three layouts!  She chose Caroline’s layout for the lovely background paper and the fantastic layering!  The Scrabble tile title works perfectly with the beautiful colors and her photo is really fun!

Next up we’re treated to Carol’s (Iowan) cute little granddaughter on a masterfully clustered layout!  I love the blended photo background and spritzes of paint! The pumkin poem is a nice touch to go with the title and theme!

Lastly, we have this really cool layout by Chris (porkchops mom)…check out how she combined an illustration with a photo! The framing and photo treatment add to the awesomeness here!

Thanks for checking out today’s Gallery Standout Showcase!

~Dolores

Getting the focus perfect in our photographs is something that we all struggle with. If you are particularly frustrated, or just hoping to improve, these tips should help!

1. Faster shutter speed. When you end up with a blurry photo, the culprit is often your shutter speed. The shutter speed is just what it sounds like: how long the shutter on your camera stays open to expose the sensor to light. If the shutter is open too long (a slow shutter speed), your camera can’t “freeze” the image and you end up capturing movement instead. Setting your camera to sports mode (usually a little running guy) will make your camera choose a higher shutter speed.

On your DSLR, you also have the option to use Shutter Priority mode (and manual mode, of course), which allows you to choose your shutter speed.  When photographing people, you usually don’t want to let your shutter speed fall below 1/125, or even higher if you are photographing something fast-moving, such as sports or toddlers.

2. Give your camera more light. One of the reasons your shutter speed might be slow is that there is not enough light for your camera to work with. This means that the shutter needs to stay open longer in order to get a correct exposure. Open the curtains, go outside, or use a flash (if you absolutely have to).

3. Choose your focus point. If your camera has the option (if you have a DSLR, it does), change your settings so that YOU choose what the camera focuses on, rather than leaving it up to the camera. On my camera, this option is called single-point auto focus and can be found in the “custom settings” menu (on my Nikon D80) or the “shooting menu” (on my D3200).

(Ignore my grimy screen!)

Once you have changed this setting, you can move the focus point around in your viewfinder. This way, you can be sure the camera doesn’t accidentally focus on the background instead of your subject. (TIP: This does not work in any of the auto modes, but it works in manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, and program modes.)

You can see that in this photo, I moved my focus to the point over my son’s eye, rather than leaving it in the center or letting the camera choose. If it was in the center, it would have focused on the peacock. If my camera had been in auto, it might have chosen the peacock feathers to focus on because they offer such great contrast. Which brings us to….

4. Focus on contrast. Cameras see everything in terms of light and dark and they need contrast to focus on. If you point your camera at a blank white wall and press the shutter button, it might try to focus for a second, but then it will give up because it can’t “see” anything. This also happens if it’s too dark for the camera to detect something to focus on.

Our brains are drawn to faces and, more specifically, to eyes. When photographing people, the eyes are where we usually want to focus. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to have the eyes in focus, but the eye is a great source of contrast.

The camera’s love for contrast also means that you have to be conscious of what is in the frame. Be aware of focus-stealing objects and settings. If you know you are going to be taking pictures of your son, you might want to avoid dressing him in a striped shirt. If  you stand your friend in front of a brick wall, make sure she stands a good distance in front of it so the camera has an easier time focusing on her. In the peacock picture above, you can see that, because my son is a good distance away from the contrasty peacock feathers, they weren’t in danger of stealing the focus (as long as I had my focus point in the right place).

5. Don’t make your depth of field too shallow. The “depth of field” is the area in your photo that is in focus. The setting that has the most influence on this is the aperture. The larger your aperture is (or the smaller the F-stop number), the smaller your depth of field will be. It’s tempting to set the aperture as wide as possible for that great blurry background, but remember that it makes it harder to nail your focus when you do! If you shoot wide open, your depth of field can be less than one inch, which means that if your subject moves even a tiny bit, you will miss your focus.

6. Practice, practice, practice! When I was first learning to use my camera in manual mode, I would take more than 100 pictures a day! You don’t have to be that crazy about it, but if you use these tips and practice often, you will see an improvement in the focus of your photos.

Monday ONLY!! Select items are 50% off!! Visit the ScrapMatters Shop for more details!!
*Sale runs 12am-11:59pm ET. HURRY! What are you waiting for!?! *

Indoor Plants 101

by Patti

I have always been envious of those people who can grow indoor house plants and have the beauty of colourful nature throughout their home.  I am not one with green thumb abilities and usually kill every flower that I get my hands on.  I know I’ve shared stories with my friends of yet another house plant biting the dust and finding its way to the garbage because of my skill inability to grow indoor plants.  I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Now that I’ve recently moved and am close to family who do have that knowledge base for plants, I’ve decided that I need to add some colour to my décor if you will.  It isn’t only about the beauty of the plant but the health benefits that I’m seeking as well by wanting to learn how to be more successful in growing flowers and plants.

In talking to my knowledgeable 91 year old Grandmother this morning, she informed me that the Spider Plant, Ivy’s and Christmas Cactus would be great starter plants to yield success in growing for non-Green Thumbers like me.

The Spider Plant:

Tips for Growing Spider Plants

 What are the light requirements for spider plants?

Medium to high light, but no direct afternoon sunlight.

How much water do they need?

Spider plants need to dry out between watering. They have large, fleshy storage roots that store water, so don’t overwater them. It can lead to rot.

Do they have any special temperature requirements?

They are happiest in the same temperatures that make you comfortable

Do spider plants need much humidity?

Spider plants find our homes too dry in winter and need to be misted frequently indoors to prevent attacks by spider mites.

Info taken from the following website, for more specific information check out:

http://www.bachmans.com/Care-Handling/Plants/divHomePage.html?cnb=Plants&categoryCode=01&pageIndex=_pageIndexToken_spiderPlants  

Ivy’s:

Five Tips for growing the perfect Ivy:

• Mist the leaves a couple of times a week. Lack of humidity can cause them to dry out.

• Water the plants appropriately. “It doesn’t need to sit in a puddle, but it does need to stay moist,” Check the soil by sticking your fingertip beneath the surface. If the soil is moist, wait to water. If it’s dry, wet it down.

• Maintain a good temperature. Cooler temps are fine.

• Watch your light. Ivy plants will grow in low light, but they will not thrive in low light.  Ivy will do best in bright, indirect light. Keep the plants close to a sunny window but not in direct sunlight.

• Invest in insecticide. Ivy can be susceptible to infestation, including spider mites.

Information from: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jan/15/five-tips-for-growing-ivy-indoors/

Christmas Cactus:

Light: Moderate light, partial shade and some direct sun in winter from eastern exposure.

 Watering: Keep soil evenly moist. Mist frequently.

 Fertilizing: Once flower buds form, apply a high-potassium fertilizer every 2 weeks.

 Special hint: Repot each year after flowering.

Like to know more: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/tips-christmas-cactus-care

Out of the three plants listed, The Christmas Cactus is my favourite and I’m eager to go visit Grandma and try my luck at the one she has waiting for me.:)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope these few tidbits will turn you into a Green Thumb and perhaps you might want to snag a Christmas Cactus to do your ‘countdown’ to the holiday season with its beautiful blooming flowers.

Cheers,

Patti

Hi!  I’m back with another week of Gallery Standouts!  Our members never seem to run out of talent to keep the ScrapMatter gallery brimming with masterpieces!

First up, Denise chose this very sweet layout by Jenn (jenn7). Denise said, “I am in love with this beauty by Jenn – I just think her use of whitespace is so powerful on this layout. LOVE!” The word art, flower, and gorgeous frame all caught my attention and that of others in the gallery. I really like that it was captured on a once in a lifetime date, too!

Amber chose this beautifully layered layout by Dotcomkari for its colors, the layers and that beautiful photo treatment! The gallery comments also mention the wonderful journaling shared with us!  The cropping of the photos is really nice, too.

JillW treated us with this beauty chosen by Debby, who said, “It looks like that background paper is an extension of the photo picking up on every color from it. And that photo! I think she scrapped this just perfectly.” I like how Jill’s journaling is shaped to fit in with the clustering!

If you’re getting ready for Halloween, you’ll want to make note of this layout by katiecreates!  Amber said, “Such a fun design choice to have a central photo cluster on that circle background!”  That’s what caught my eye, too.  The background and circle frame just draw your attention to the adorable little witch!

Next up is a super photoless layout using some items from this month’s Mix A Kit by a different Jenn (jennamy82) .  The stamps and paint splats really create a great backdrop for the clusters and journal block!  If you struggle with photoless layouts, look no further than Jenn’s layout for inspiration!

Last up is also by a Jenn, but this time (jk703)…lots of Jenns this week in the GSO thread!  Amanda nominated this fun layout and said, “Fantastic photo and journaling plus I love how the page composition kind of even makes me think of moving… organized but not perfectly even edges.”  The layout is perfect to show off that priceless photo!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Gallery Standout Showcase!  Please feel free to leave love for any or all of these gorgeous layouts!  And if you find something you really love in the gallery, please add it to the GSO thread to give it a special shout out!

~Dolores