Summer Camp

Owen started art camp this week.

New additions in the backyard

There was an old birdhouse in the backyard left by the previous owners.  When we bought our house last year, we decided to keep it.  Good thing, because here's who we saw in it today:

What a cutie.  Can't wait to watch him as he grows up.  Later we found this little guy chasing bugs on the back porch:

Long Story Short...

Here's what's happened since my last post:

I retired:

I had a baby:

We also moved back to Texas :)

Remember Me?

So it's been forever since I posted.  A lot has happened and I've scrapped most of it :)

Tips and tricks

Hello!  I wanted to share with you guys one of my tips on how to get the most of your digi stash.  Today, I'm using a messy mask in a new way.  I will be clipping it to a photo to create the following layout:

The first step is to pick a photo.  It's best to use one that has good contrast between the background and your subject.  Here' s my original photo:

Next, I converted it to black and white (Alt+Ctrl+B).  Within that menu, you can also increase the contrast as needed.  You want there to be a clear distintion between your subject and background.  Here's what my photo looked like at this point:

Duplicate this layer and turned off visibility for your original layer.  From now on, all changes will be made to this duplicated layer.  Next, I  use my magic wand tool in PSE to select the white portion of my photo and clicked delete.  This is what I ened up with:

I used the erase tool to clean up any portion of my photo that wasn't part of my subject. Here's the finished photo:

For my clipping mask I used Victoria Feemster's Daydream : Messy Mats.  I layered it over my photo and enlarged it until it covered the entire picture.  I then clipped it to my photo (Ctrl+G).  Here's the final product:

New layouts

Here are my latest:

Owen started T-ball

He went to his first practice last Thursday.