I'm Still Here

"Self Portrait as Sugar Skull"  Acrylic on canvas 18" x 24"

MORE TO COME SOON . . .

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Photo Editing

Can't find time to play in your journal but you've taken lots of photos?  You can still let your creativity flourish by being creative with photo editing. 

Here are some of the photos I played with over the past two weeks using free, online photo editing programs.

After a couple modifications to the photo below, and a couple keystrokes using FotoFlexer, Voila! I've got a neon Nick!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little cropping and color boosting brought this Thai restaurant character to life. 

Multiple functions in iPiccy helped to re-create this photo of Nadia.

This photo of fruit taken at the West Side Market in Cleveland looks even more luscious cropped and colorized using iPiccy.

And here are the newlyweds, Nick & Heather!  More cropping with some other photo effects and desaturation make this photo feel soft and nostalgic. ( Congratulations to the new couple!)

 

 

 

I've used other free, online photo editing programs such as Pixlr (which is what I've used most frequently over the past few months) and PicMonkey.  Each program offers different items that I enjoy using, and I'm just beginning to become familiar with each of these sites.  I'll try to do a more in-depth review of each specific site in the coming weeks.  Do you have a favorite online photo editing program that you enjoy using?  If so, tell us all about it in the comments section of this post!

I hope you're finding lots of time for creativity whether it's in your journal, at the easel, with your camera or - just in your head!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Monday's Musings

I've been having a wonderful time with family.  Mike and Nadia were home from California for a week's visit, and Nick & Heather were married!  We spent every moment that we could together, enjoying each others' company, and it gave me so much pleasure to see my sons together again.  It's been over a year.

We spent a lot of time "in the streets", including a day exploring Cleveland landmarks such as the West Side Market and Ohio City, lunch at Slyman's and the East Ninth Street Pier.  We spent an afternoon at beautiful Presque Isle in Pennsylvania, and we had breakfast at Mary Yoder's in Middlefield.

That hasn't left much time for playing in my journal, but I have taken hundreds of photos in the last two weeks.  I've also been playing with these photos on several online photo editing sites that I'll review at a future date.  Here are some of my efforts.

Well, apparently I'm NOT going to share any photos with you right now.  It seems I can't get any other photos to load so I don't know if it's a blogger problem or what.  I'm trying not to flip out.  Really.

In the meantime........

CELEBRATE* LOVE* CREATE 

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Make Poetry Tiles!

Have you ever played with poetry tiles or magnetic poetry before?  I think it's both fun and thought provoking to arrange and re-arrange these little word tiles into poetry.  There are several sources of online poetry tiles to explore, but why not make your own to incorporate into a journal page?

I created my tiles in  the Paint program by first making the little "tiles".  Then I entered the text, and lastly, I filled in the background with a light gray to further isolate the tiles.   I took my laptop out on the deck and randomly typed words that came to me as I abandoned all my senses to the beautiful afternoon.

To get you started on your own poetry tiles, I'm offering my set for you to download and use as you would like!  I printed my words as two 5" x 7" sizes for my 4" x 5" journal.  If you're using an 8" x 10" or larger journal, I suggest printing them out as a full page.  Don't see a word you would like to use?  Make some of your own tiles to add to them!  It doesn't matter if the font or size is different - it will just make it more interesting.

I hope you're having a fabulous day, and I hope the promise of spring is blooming among your flowers too!  If you create a page using these tiles, be sure to share a link to your work in the comments section of this post.  We would all love to see what you do with them!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Monday's Musings

NO MATTER WHAT

 THE DESTINATION,

MAKE CERTAIN THE JOURNEY IS FABULOUS!

 CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE