OUT WITH MY CAMERA

After a stonking headache, and a duvet day to recover, I am taking it easy today. The sun is shining and inviting me to go outdoors so I plan to take a walk with my camera. This is something I often do, but today I will be on the look out for textures. I am trying to create different techniques using Photoshop and I have lots of ideas but little skill. The only way I can grow comfortable and confident is by jumping in... sometimes I sink, sometimes I swim, but it's the only way to learn.
Some of my ideas have been inspired by Shimelle's 'Love your Picture, Love your Page' e-course. Sadly this is in it's fourth and final week, but fortuantly it does not end as I can continue to post photos and take part in discussions. I recommend this course to anyone interested in photography and scrapbooking. I have lots of new ideas to try, and ways of taking these a stage further. So while I'm sad I will not be receiving the daily download, I also need time to try out those I have!

The course gave me reasons and opportunity to try out Photoshop, which was great as I need a prod. I find it so overwhelming! Two books I bought have also been a great help and source of inspiration:

'Digital Expressions.. creating digital art with Adobe Photoshop Elements' by Susan Tuttle (published by North Light Books) .

'The Photoshop Elements 7 book for digital photographers' by Scott Kelby & Matt Kloskowski (Published by New Riders).

You need a basic skill of Photoshop to use the first book, so if like me you need some help with this, I have the second book invaluable. Both talk you through techniques stage by stage and I am amazed how easy some of these are, once you know how.

You can download textures from the web, while 'Digital Expressions' includes a CD with brushes , photos and textures for you to experiment with. However, I think it will be fun to create a texture collection using my own photos and techniques. So I will share some of these later. Meanwhile, the sun and camera are calling!

OVERLOCKER COURSE....

My overlocker hasn't seen daylight since the day I bought it over 4 years ago. It looked so complicated that I never got round to trying it, and it seemed such a waste. So I booked myself on a one-day course to learn the basics and gain confidence. How I wish I had done this at the outset! I was amazed how easy it was once I got the general idea, and I can't believe all the different techniques I learned. We have been encouraged to make a sampler book, and I can see a scrapbook page or two, or even a mini album in the making. It certainly was a fun day and I am full of ideas. As always, I just need time but hopefully I can organise myself and look forward to practicing with my own machine. I just hope it is as easy without Pam the course tutor to show me! At least I know I can book on further courses and take my own machine into the shop for a personal demonstration.