4x6 Photo Love: May 2011

I am LOVIN' this class ~ and this month is no exception! Shimelle set up May's 5 4x6 layout on 2 pages this time, HERE.

As I am *still* working on my Document 2010 (I swear... I *will* get this project completed if it kills me) ~ I decided to scrap Ryan's July 4th bday that we spent at Colt & Cherry's house.

Sorry for the terrible picture... things have been crazy around here (a story for another post) so I just snapped these from the iPhone this go 'round.

~Jen

National Scrapbooking Day Challenges...

This weekend, I participated in several online challenges to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day and thought I'd post a handful of my pages here. :)

Scrapbooking Day Challenge 1: Use patterned paper for your page background.
 I used this SEI patterned page for my background and added very few embelishments to it.

Scrapbooking Challenge 2: Create a triangle
 My triangle consisted of the 3 flowers I cut out of another patterned paper.

So the challenge then: Use a border between two photos.
 I loved this challenge because made me think outside of my normal pages...

That’s scrapbook day challenge numero quatro: Create a page with the story behind a photo.
 For this challenge, I added several photos that were random so that I could explain them.

So that’s challenge five for this lovely day of scrapbooking: Try a new photo edit.
 One of the other challenges I saw this weekend was to photograph everyday things - so I made this edit based on a photo a took with my camera phone this week.

It was so much fun to take some time to concentrate on creating this weekend!!!

~Jen

4x6 Photo Love: April 2011

I've skipped March... although, I do have my photos picked out finally for that layout! For some reason, this one was easier for me to put together. This is based on the sketch from Shimelle's class: 4x6 Photo Love for April. Thanks for checking it out!!

This will also be used in my Document 2010 book for May 2010 (two birds, one stone, right?). The hidden journaling reads: Ryan and I went to visit Mark and Lindsay over Memorial Day weekend and had a blast in the beautiful beachy So.Cal. sun and weather!

~Jen

My "Pick 6" Photos...

For the last week's assignment in my photography class, we were asked to "pick 6" of our favorite photographs. Well, one thing I've learned in recent days is that while I love taking pictures, I think my true favorite photographs that I've taken are landscapes... hmmm. I wonder if it's because they don't move? :)

I also didn't want to choose some of my older favorites because they were all taken before I "knew what I was doing" (ha, ha). I wanted to choose more recent photos that I took as I learned manual mode on my camera and really focused on my technique, rather than shots I took but just got lucky on, if that makes any sense...

So, here's what I came up with:

A picture of my son taken in the doorway of my office with texture added...

My first 'real' photo shoot - a good friend's daughter for Senior Photos...

Another Senior Photo shoot with a good friend's son...

My adorable niece taken in my office...

My daughter at Christmas...

My daughter on her 12th birthday this year...

Our feedback from the class is supposed to help us decide what our style is... so I am very excited to hear what people say about my pictures. :)

~Jen

Lily Bee Designs Page

During the Creative Retreat Class, May Flaum had several awesome giveaways, and one week, I won some Lily Bee Designs product. Well, they showed up this week! I must say, this set was completely out of my comfort zone, but I decided for that very reason, I would try to tackle it! Seeing the adorable 'pennant' stickers, I started looking for some sketches with pennant or banners on them (another trend I hadn't embraced yet). Searching a few, I came upon this sketch:

At least the pictures were easy to choose! I looked up on my wall, and my eyes went straight to my son's soccer pictures from last summer.

~Jen

Week 1 ~ Additional Photos...

I truly didn't think I'd end up having the time/energy/kids to get another shoot in this weekend, but I got lucky and picked up our oldest and got some shots in Boulder. These are my favorites:

~Jen

Maggie Holmes' Advanced Photography Class Assignment #1

First of all, if you are interested in Maggie's classes, here's the link. I took the Beginner's class last fall, and now I'm taking the Advanced class. I thought I'd post my assignments here as well as on her discussion board.

This week was about choosing a location. The goal was to find a place that could have several different 'feels' within a short distance from one another. I just happened upon some fireworks shops that were painted really brightly and decided we should try there.

Here are my favorites:

I just absolutely loved the last one... I used Maggie's Sun-kissed Action in addition to a texture, in addition to the toy camera frame ~ it just turned out exactly as I pictured it when I took it. :)

~Jen

4x6 Photo Love: February 2011

I missed out on the January assignment... although I may go back and try it here soon anyway. Because this was February's, we are up to *2* photos. :)

This has to be the *brightest* paper I've ever used, but it seemed like it worked. Paper is all from the $1 bin at Target, letters were on clearance at Archiver's, and the buttons came with a package I got for Christmas. So this is probably the 'cheapest' one I've done, too.

~Jen

Trying to get creative again!

Well, I've spent my month trying to finish up some half-done projects... and instead I went ahead and started more! LOL. I've also become quite addicted to these online classes... Here's a few I've signed up for:

4x6 Love
Creative Retreat
Embrace Imperfection
And hopefully... Advanced Photography - I haven't signed up just yet... trying to justify the cost, but I took the Beginner's class from Maggie and LOVED it. I have never learned so much in such a short time!!

I'm officially done with the Picture Winter... and yet, I have 3 prompts that I haven't done. I just haven't been feeling it this week, and struggling with the prompts while also trying to get this photo slideshow done for my aunt's memorial this weekend.

~Jen