Blog Banner...

If you get my blog posts through email or on your phone, click on over to my blog to check out my new banner.  It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

 Here are some of my others from the past year...I couldn't find all of them because I have a new computer and I'm not so hot at filing things properly.  

That is all!

It's Wednesday...

I started this post with "How is it Tuesday already?" and then realized it is actually Wednesday...OY...I lost a day in there somewhere.

We are in the midst of planning some birthday parties around here.  E's is in February and this year's theme is Minecraft.  Have you heard of it?  E is fan and has enjoyed playing it on our PC.  Now that he got a Kindle Fire for Christmas, he has been playing it on that.  Common Sense Media describes it like this:

"Minecraft - Pocket Edition sets players in the middle of a randomly generated world that has no structures, other people or objectives. Players must build a shelter and other buildings using resources they harvest from the world. The game encourages creativity -- and can be played in a monster-free mode, to encourage that free thinking (rather than having to worry about being attacked). A secondary mode gives you unlimited resources, letting you create anything you can dream up and fly around the countryside viewing your land. "

Here is the invite that I made in Picasa.

Because I was having his invites printed and didn't want to waste a side, I included a black and white photo of him.  Now, after the party, all the invited guests will have a 5 x7 picture of my little man.  I had the invites printed at Overnight Prints.  They are inexpensive, but high quality.  I definitely recommend them. 

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Lost time is never found again. 
Benjamin Franklin 

A New Year

The new school year is here and it makes me so very anxious.

Making cute posters to hang in my classroom does help with the first day jitters though. I created this using Picasa.

Face Lift

My blog was in need of a face lift, and I must say, I'm quite happy with the results. Typically, I get bored easily and like to change my header every month, but the last one has been up for at least 2. With the return of work and school upon us, I'm thinking this one may be there until Christmas, but we'll see. For now, I'm happy with it.

"Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship."

Buddha

Blog Header

So, I was all excited about my new blog banner. When I was making it, I thought it was pretty cute, and then, I posted it. I'm not liking it so much anymore. It looks drab and boring compared to last month's.

But, guess what....we have to deal with it for a few days because I'm not starting another one right now.

"Always live up to your standards - by lowering them, if necessary."

~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

PS Stayed tuned...new blog header coming Monday.

***Edited*** Now that's better! Definitely brighter than this.

Blog Headers

I learned how to create blog headers by reading Sarah's blog, Clover Lane.

At the beginning of the new year she does a post of all her blog headers from the year. I decided to "steal" her idea (it's a compliment to her, isn't it?) and post all mine, well, most of them anyway.

If you are interested in making your own blog header, follow Sarah's instructions...they are great! Check out her post with all her headers...fabulous!

"Bad artists copy. Good artists steal."

Pablo Picasso

DIY Digital Scrapbook Pages Using Picasa

Although there are thousands of programs available to do digital scrapbooking, it's often difficult to find the time to look at all of them and learn all there is to know. Recently we had our third homestudy and I had to create an album; I needed to put something together relatively quickly so I ended up completing scrapbook pages using the collage feature in Picasa. You can view some of my pages in my previous post.

I've never really done a how-to in reference to something technological, so bear with me. (Thanks to my hubby Vic for introducing me to the snipping tool)

1. Initially you may want to select some "papers" and such online. You could do a search for free digital scrapbook downloads. Some good sites for freebies are Two Peas in a Bucket, Designer Digitals, and Shabby Princess. Obviously, you could also purchase papers to use; many are very inexpensive and the beauty with digital is that you can reuse them over and over again.

To me this step is the hardest part because there are many, many things to choose from and it can get overwhelming.

2. After downloading these files of scrapbook materials, you will then need to import them into Picasa as you do for all other images.

3. Next you can begin the process of creating your collage. Having an idea of what you'd like your layout to look like prior to beginning is helpful, but not necessary. You can always back track if the need arises.

4. You will begin by selecting the pictures and papers you'd like to use in your collage. Hold the ctrl key down as you select and you can put them into the collage all at the same time. The pictures do need to be in the same file to use the ctrl key. However, do not worry, there is another way to get pictures from multiple files onto the same collage.

5. You are then brought to your collage page. You will need to select the size for your collage. Although 12 x 12, 8 x 8, etc are not options, you can create a custom aspect ratio by scrolling all the way to the bottom after selecting Page Format.

6. Next you enlarge your selected image or paper to use as your background.

You can also do this by selecting settings, going to background options and click on use image.

7. To select more images that are not currently shown in your clips folder, click get more and this will bring you back to all your Picasa files. Select the images you want to use and then click Back to collage at the bottom right of your screen.

8. Drag your images into your collage, arrange and resize.

9. Click Create Collage

10. If you'd like to use this image as part of another collage in order to overlap more than one paper or background, you can crop your image.

11. Next, save as a separate image so you can then use it as part of another collage.

12. You can then repeat the collage process again by selecting your images. Your previous collage is now an image that can be used when creating another collage. (I think I'm confusing myself by this point) In the snip below I selected my images for the collage and then chose one of the images as my background. Next you will have to delete the smaller image still visible on the top.

13. Create collage (again)

14. Next you can add text as you please. You are able to change the size, font, style, alignment and transparency of your text as well as rotate it however it best suits your page.

And there you have it, merely a 14 step process. It may seem overwhelming at first, especially with my somewhat cryptic description. It really isn't all that bad. I learned by experimenting and some trial and error. There is definitely more than one way to do things and as you practice, you may find a way that works better for you. Hopefully, this will at least give you a push in the right direction. This is a basic page to start off, but you can make them as simple or elaborate as you'd like.

Happy Creating!