Meeting My Goal

One of my summer goals ... catch up on my scrapbooking and finish Summer '05. I have one more layout of Family Camp to finish and then .... I've reached my goal!!! I return to work Wednesday so who knows??? I may speed right on in to October.

This digital layout is one I've been working on this evening. It made me a little homesick for Family Camp -- it starts tomorrow evening. We went every year from 1984-2006. Our kids "grew up" there and playing on the Winema dunes was like being in "their" backyard. We always enjoyed the speakers and their messages, the fellowship, activities and the wonderful surroundings. We did make an attempt to find lodging a few weeks ago but everything was filled. We got drenched in 1976 while staying in our tent so we were a little hesitant to give that a try again.
Perhaps next year .....

Credits:
Template: Pattie Knox, Designer Digitals -PKnox Ad Challenge 041308
Font: CK Ali's Writing, Copperplate Gothic Bold, Witchcraft
Proverbs Word Art Design -Karen Germer

Overlays

I've been experimenting with a few new things I've learned in Photoshop Elements. I wanted to create an overlay that included a word / date. Here are two examples from our summer activities ...

Summer's End BBQ

Saturday night we rounded up the family to celebrate the last days of summer with a BBQ.
Uncle Matt brought a new Star Wars "gadget" so we were honored to have Darth Vader(aka Colin) join us as special guest.
Our evening of fun included a great dinner, playing at Lafky park, enjoying our last s'more of the season and ended with a competitive game of Nerts ... which included hilarious conversation -- always a Germer family tradition!
Now as the season changes ... our work schedules, routines and the weather will change also. It's good to have summer memories ... and perhaps, a new tradition!
Credits:
Paper: Kris Myers Designs -ScrapArtist.com, Orange Stripe
Element: Nancie Rowe Janitz, Sunny Daze Mini Kit; Misty Cato, Date Bits 2- 2008
Template: Lina's Layouts Template 016
Font: American Typewriter, CK Ali's Writing, Eccentric Std, Pea Ink & Post, Pea KatieH

Good Summer Reads

This was inspired by a layout posted on one of the sites I subscribe to: {we are} Storytellers
I have enjoyed a summer of reading and listening to audiobooks. While I mostly read books, if I have a project to work on, my iPod is on ... multi-tasking ... listening and working! I even schedule my tasks and exercise around my listening pleasure!
At the elementary school where I work summer reading is encouraged for both students and staff. I can't remember a time when books have not been a part of my life ... I LOVE reading! It's a great escape and many times it's sad turning the last page of a favorite book.
I hope you have found leisure time this summer to enjoy reading a great book ....
Please share something you've read. I'm always looking for new authors/titles : )
Credits:
Template: Meridith Tiede, Moriginal Template #39
Paper: LouCee Creations; Icc Stepping Out 8
Elements: Lindsay Jane Designs; Summer Heat EL02, Amy Sumrall; asum-eplsumroo, Misty Cato, Date Bits 2 -2008
Font: DiMurphic, Pea Alisha

Focal Point

I tried something new in Photoshop Elements this evening ... "play up a focal point in your photos." I thought I would use a photo of Calleigh at the Marina from our Wallowa Lake trip this year. For added interest I used a couple of the brushes I downloaded from the internet and new fonts I've been wanting to try. The project gave me the opportunity to use something new (new to me, that is) the Elliptical Marquee tool.
It has been fun to expand my skills during my summer break. I've found a few web sites with tutorials so I think I will give it a try. I'll let you know how it goes! More to come ...

Learning New Things

After spending time today with Loretta showing her a few things I've learned in Photoshop Elements this year, I decided to go through my CK Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking magazine and try a few of the projects I have dog-eared and tagged with post-it notes. I figured now that I have worked with digital scrapbooking for a while that maybe things will make sense to me now.
Here's a picture from Wallowa of Calleigh enjoying Mt. Huckleberry ice cream. I was able to erase the B&W layer to reveal the color below. Doesn't it make the ice cream look delicious? I thought it was fitting for our day with over 100 degree temps.
Hope you are staying cool ... perhaps a frozen dessert will help!

On the Path ...

I took this photo on our hike with Colin while camping at Wallowa. I wanted to capture a picture for a layout and since I have been reading Proverbs this summer I had something in mind. It was fun getting a little creative with fonts and trying something new.
Tuesday we decided to hike after the thunderstorm had passed through. The warm sunshine gave us the motivation to get on the trail. We headed up the Mt. Joseph trail with the bridge as our destination. We stopped at a viewpoint to see an elevated view of the lake, ate snacks while sitting on the bridge and had the pleasure of watching the horses pass by on the trail. We counted them ...17. We had front row "seats" as we made room for them to go by. Colin did great on the trail but he was a little concerned on the way down about the "monsters" in the woods. We stopped for ice cream on the way back to camp ... a great reward for reaching our goal. The temperatures had elevated to the "swimming" zone so it was down to the lake to cool off.
A precious day ....

















Credits:
Fonts: Bambino, CK Ali's Writing, Cooper Black, Diesel, Artistamp Medium, Bloktype, Pea Lacy Chunky, American Typewriter, Pea Jenny Script
Overlay: NRJ Freebie Inked Edges

Thanks, Cindy

Saturday night we enjoyed a great time at the Dehaze's -- the night before Cindy flew back to Missouri after a three week visit.
The caption reads:
"Friends and family gathered for Cindy's last evening in town. We enjoyed some competitive games, delicious food, tempting desserts, and great coffee made to perfection by Pierre.
Cindy gave me my birthday gift ... “Civil War Nurse Barbie.” Such a fitting gift from a nursing student -- what a wonderful addition to my collection! Always reminding me of the special person who gave it to me."
We all miss you so much ...

Credits:
Template: Template 29 -Jilljackscraps
Paper: Color Me Solid 08 -Michelle Coleman, Little Dreamer Designs, Cafe-digi paper 2a -Paper Life Journey
Font: American Typewriter, Fabulous 50's

Great Catch, Cindy

Matt and Cindy had the opportunity to attend a wedding of one of Cindy's childhood friends while she was visiting here for three weeks. I've heard rave reviews on how awesome they looked together ... and by the pictures I have to agree.
Way to go Cindy ... she caught the bouquet! Great catch ...

Credits:
Font: Cricket, Constantia, American Typewriter
Template: D'nia Stella Acauan, template 5
Paper: cafe digi lj pap2a -Paper Life Journey, J
ulia Kit-Brown Vine PP -Digitreats/Princess Pamela
Elements: Ribbon -AWP Pink Coffee Cream Ribbon 2,
Flower - AWP Pink Coffee Cream Flower 3, Vicki Parker@ A Work In Progress

A Week of Wallowa ...

We snapped 830 photos while at Wallowa this year ... wow, that will fill an entire scrapbook album : ) ... and out of all those photos I think there were 3 of us together. I will need to make note for next year -- take more pictures of us as a couple.
Once the storm cleared we had amazing weather the rest of the week. I reached my goal ... wearing shorts all week. BUT Chris wins the prize by wearing shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt even when the temps dipped in the evening ... bbbrrrr!
During the week we took Colin on a nice hike to the bridge on the Mt. Joseph trail, enjoyed the rodeo, Rae & I sharing our birthdays (on the 24th) together for the first time, drifting on my floatie -- just enjoying the mountain view. It's a great group and we had an awesome time spending the week with everyone. The Bible says, "Laughter doeth good like medicine" and after a few fireside chats over at the Myers site ... I think we were all healed of whatever ailed us : )
This year it took seven shots to get a group photo ... we even had to "photoshop" Brad in since he was in the shower for our photo session. You'd never know by the photo ... good job Walt!

We're already busy planning next year's trip. While packing up and leaving at the end of our week, Colin said he wanted to "stay forever" and I have to say I agree with him. For us Wallowa is like "coming home."

Creating and Experimenting ...

Michelle & Brian gave me the new Digital Scrapbooking magazine for my birthday and I found instructions for the technique I mentioned in a previous post.
I created a few word templates and picked out just the right photo from our recent Wallowa trip. I can see how this could become addicting ... maybe scrapbooking our camping trip using a different word on each page : )


Well, back to more designing, creating and experimenting .... there's so much to try in this magazine!












Credits:
Digital Scrapbooking Magazine 8&9/08, Jenny Seiler
Font: CK Ali's Writing