Free Photography eBooks and SVG Sale

 

If you are interested in improving your photography skills, one of the best things you can do is to take lots of photos.  Try different camera settings and lighting situations, persuade a child or friend to "model" for you, read the manual that came with your camera (yes,really!) and explore online sites that offer photography tips and techniques.

Are you attempting to take a photo everyday (Project 365)?  Would you like some support and inspiration?  You should check out Katrina Kennedy's site Capture Your 365.  Katrina is a photographer and teacher who can help you with the technical tips and also the creative inspiration for recording your life.  Katrina offers several classes through the year - you can read about them HERE.  Her site also includes an online community where you can share with others who are on a mission to use photography to add more meaning to their daily lives.

Craft and Vision is another source of photography information and help.  They have a wide assortment of eBooks about photography and most are just $5 each.  There are also some eBooks that are free - Craft & Vision 1 is a 67 spread PDF eBook with 11 articles about ways to improve your photography and Craft & Vision 2 is a 45 spread PDF eBook with 9 articles about making stronger photographs.  You can click the links above to order any of these books.

Clearance Sale on SVGs at Lettering Delights

If you use a cutting machine and software program that accepts SVG format, Lettering Delights is offering some great deals on SVG files.  The sets are in SVG format only and will be leaving the Lettering Delights site.

There is a bundle of 100 basic sets that would cost $100  individually and it is now just $55.  This set has so many great cuts - over 1400 images.  You can find the listing of all of the sets in the bundle HERE.  The bundle sale ends Friday - that's today.

If you don't need quite so many images you can buy individual sets for $1 each.

 All of the SVG format products at Lettering Delights are on sale for $1 a set.  This sale lasts until Tuesday, April 16th - click HERE to shop the 188 individual sets that are available.

Remember, if you "purchase" the monthly freebie first (click HERE to see this month's freebies) you will received a code for 25% off your next purchase in your confirmation email - making this deal even more tempting.

The photo of the calla lily at the top of this post is one of many I took while we were in California.  The calla lily was one of my Mom's favorite flowers and she would have loved to see them growing in so many places.

Have a great weekend.  We have a holiday Monday for Patriot's Day and the Boston Marathon is also on Monday.  I hope it stops raining!

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Aquarium Photo Inspiration

 

Thanks to all of you who commented with your guesses about the locations where I took the photos I posted on Tuesday.  The answers are in the comments on that post but I'll add them here too.  We took a quick trip to San Francisco to visit our son and daughter-in-law and it was a great getaway.  I am still in "re-entry" mode with odd sleep patterns!

The first photo of the heart was taken at Union Square in San Francisco.  There is a large heart at each of the four corners of the square.  Photo no.2 is the Lone Cyprus from an overlook along the 17 Mile Drive in Carmel.  The third photo was taken in the garden of the Mission at San Juan Bautista.  It was so funny to us to see lilacs and cactus together (we certainly don't see that in Massachusetts and our lilacs are nowhere near to blooming yet).

Photo 4 is of the Transamerica building (with the distinctive pyramid shape) taken from Chinatown.  Photo five was also taken at the Mission in San Juan Bautista - part of the movie Vertigo was filmed there.  Photo 6 is the view of the Pacific coastline from Highway 1 and the final photo was taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

One of my favorite exhibits at the Aquarium was the jellyfish.  There are so beautiful and interesting to watch.  There were all shapes and sizes - some big ones in large tanks like this and some incredibly tiny types.

The lighting and the vivid blue tanks create a wonderful chance to take photos.  The gradient of the blues in the background of this photo is especially pretty.

I didn't realize that I had captured our son's profile in this photo until I started to sort and edit my photos.  The jelly fish are fascinating to watch.

This photo shows an exhibit that really caught my eye - because it involved cutting out shapes!  Sorry for the glare on the image which makes it hard to see (at least it was a sunny day). 

This closer view of one of the bottles will give you a better idea about the artwork.  The piece is called "Message in a Bottle" and it was done by Australian artist Alison McDonald.  You can see some better images on her site HERE.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend at the aquarium but we really enjoyed having a quick look around.  They have a great website HERE if you want to check it out.  If you will be traveling to this area it is well worth a visit.

The jellyfish and the amazing colors of the corals and other sea life are a great source of inspiration for future projects.  I'll leave you with a few more photos to share some of that inspiration.

I hope you have a wonderful day!  It looks like there is still stormy weather for many parts of the country so please stay safe!

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Don't Miss Layout A Day in May

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Happy Tuesday!  Did you miss me while I was away?  We arrived home late last night and I have a lot of catching up to do.

I haven't been through all of my email but I did see a couple of things that I wanted to share right away.  Lain Ehmann is offering another great free scrapinar this month that sounds like a lot of fun.

 

Windy Robinson, Paper Crafts Magazine's Go-To Gal will be the featured guest on April 23rd.  Windy will show how to create gorgeous hand-crafted and hand-embellished envelopes and mail art.  The lucky recipients and even the mail carrier will be sure to smile at something this special arriving with the regular delivery.  You can find out all about the scrapinar and sign up HERE.  Be sure to sign up even if you have a conflict on the date - a replay will be available but only for a limited time and only for those who have registered ahead of time.

The Layout a Day (LOAD) program that Lain is offering in May is nearly full.  Last month I signed up to participate in this challenge to create a scrapbook page every day for a month.  It includes 31 daily videos, 31 daily prompts, and 31 sample layouts, and begins May 1.

If you were thinking of signing up last month but didn't get around to it and missed the early bird discount I have good news.  Lain sent me a code to offer to friends and family - you can save $10 off LOAD 513 registration just by using the code FNF at checkout.  Click HERE to go to the registration page and be sure to do it right away - spaces are nearly full and the code is only good until midnight (Eastern) on April 10th (that's tomorrow!)

Here are a few photos from my trip - I think you will probably be able to guess where I was...

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Maybe I'll be able to use some of the photos from my trip for the LOAD pages - it would be great to get them finished within a month!  I hope that some more of you will take up this challenge.

If you can identify any of my photo locations (there are a few tricky ones...) just leave a comment with each photo number and your guess.  If you have been on Spring Break where did you go? 

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Easy Jewelry Making

Pendants and charms that showcase interesting papers and collages between glass are very popular.  They can be quite expensive to purchase in the gift shops.  With a few supplies from Ranger, you can make your own projects and personalize them to suit you or to give as a gift.

We had a nice time with some family members visiting from California.  Of course, we took them around to see some of the most famous places in Concord.  I've been to the Old North Bridge three times in the past week!  This is the famous statue of the Minuteman by Daniel Chester French.  He designed many monuments including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

You can see the statue at the far end of the bridge. 

After the sightseeing, we did a little shopping and found a display with many of the pendants and charms.  I remembered that I had purchased supplies from Blitsy last year and had never gotten around to making any jewelry - so when we got back to the house, it was time to do some crafting!

You can make these charms by sandwiching the paper collage between two pieces of thin glass and sealing them together with metal tape, adding a wire loop while you are finishing the metal edges.  It can be a little fiddly to do this so an even easier method is to use these pre-made frames that come in various shapes and sizes and three different finishes.

The glass is cut perfectly to fit the frames and the sizes are color coded  on the packaging so it's easy to grab the ones you need to make a set.

We used some papers from 7Gypsies and Webster's Pages.  Both companies have designs that are ideal for this sort of project.  The frames are designed to open at one corner and they are flexible enough to bend out while you insert the two pieces of glass with the papers between them.  Then you put the frame back with the thin "latch" piece holding it all together.  This metal bit should be burnished down against the side of the frame (I can see the pieces sticking out a bit on these photos - it wasn't really noticeable in person but I'll smooth it out a bit more).

On the opposite side (either side could be used as the front or back depending on your mood) we added a few words from the Tim Holtz ChitChat cardstock stickers.

These stickers have lots of common words that you can add to your projects in a typewriter font on white or kraft cardstock.  You could type your own words but the stickers make it so easy to add the words since they are adhesive backed and perfectly cut out for you already.

We also added a few tiny butterflies that were cut using a new die from Memory Box.  I am sure this die will be getting a lot of use - the tiny size is perfect for lots of projects and the negative space cut will be pretty on a card edge.

I haven't seen the frames and glass on Blitsy for a while so they may be coming up in a sale soon.  I have noticed that things seem to cycle around so you just have to be patient and watch what comes up.  There are new sales every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they go live around 11 a.m. Central Time.  If you aren't a member of Blitsy yet (it's free to sign up!), please use my link and click HERE to go to the page and register.  After you are a member, you can refer your friends and family and earn credits for future purchases.

You should be able to find the Memory Glass items at craft stores and some items are available on Amazon - just click the image on the left to go to the page where they are listed. 

This would be a fun project for a girl's night out.  You can make simple versions by using only printed paper or add lots of additional elements - as long as they will fit flat between the glass slides.

Have you made any of these little pieces of art?  Do you have any tips to share on how to make them?  I can't wait to do more!  I am thinking of designing some tiny die cuts to fit inside the frames.

I will be occupied with lots of family events until next week and so I won't be posting much - maybe a few photos or news items.  I hope you have a great week - I'll be back on the blog routine soon.

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April Fool's Day

 

It's the first of April and time to play a practical joke on someone.  Did you put salt in the sugar bowl or make green eggs and ham this morning?  If you search "April Fools Tricks" on the web you'll find lots of silly ideas.  If you have a tradition of playing a trick on someone it would be fun to hear about it in a comment.

We went to the Easter Sunrise service at the Old North Bridge as planned.  It was a beautiful morning as you can see in this photo I took after the service was finished.  We had family and friends visiting on Sunday and more visitors will arrive today so my crafting time has been limited.  I had some projects in mind that just didn't get done for this holiday so I'll save them for next year. 

Just a reminder...

Today is the last day of the Creative Memories Spring Cleaning Clearance sale.  You can see what is still available and check out the extra savings HERE on my CM personal website.  The Stork's Delivery Cricut cartridge was still available last night...this might be your last chance to get it (at $27.50 - a great price for a very full cartridge).

The digital sale on all artwork and software downloads also ends today.  If you don't use the StoryBook program you can order many of the artwork packages in Universal Format and your download will include JPEG and PNG files.  Be sure to check the format carefully when you put the items in your cart.  You'll find the Spring Fling sale HERE.  The sale prices are reflected when you add the item to your shopping cart.

Both sales will end at 10 p.m. Central Time on April 1, 2013 so there are just a few hours left to get some of these deals.

The image at the top of this post was made by repeating the colorful blue and yellow butterfly I downloaded from Twisted Papers to make another wreath.  You can find this butterfly in the Victorian Scrap section HERE.

Have a wonderful day!

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