camera phone crazy (and a journal page)

i am really having too much fun with my camera phone and the little photo app.  it takes your original photos and turns them into instant works of art! it makes them mysterious, moody or just plain fun.

so here are just a few photos documenting the first few weeks of summer.  we've celebrated birthdays (above, a friend of mine's son just turned two!)

we've gone for walks. (and gotten a few cuts and scrapes along the way)  this photo was altered in iPhoto on my mac.  i just played with the contrast, saturation and some other buttons. randomly switched them to the left or right.  just to see what would happen.

we've hung out in the park in the shady grass and had picnics and played in the water.

even my sweetheart came out to join us one day!  this one reminds me of those old tintype photos or really any photo from the late 1800s that are starting to fade away.  (i wonder how our photos and scrapbooks will hold up over time?)

 

   

here's sureya in the sun, soaking wet from running through the fountain.  just wanted to compare the original with the two different altered versions.  

 

i LOVE this one!  the colors remind me of partially-exposed film photos from the 70s.  

love the antique look of the light here.  you know, you don't have to have an app to do all this funky stuff to your photos.  you can also use photoshop and just tweak all the buttons (like for exposure, contrast and the hue, saturation, etc.  just randomly start moving the buttons around and see what happens!)

oh, and, yes. i have still been journaling a little each day.  i'm still in love with summer. except today we had a little falling out.  it was 95 degrees in the shade here in super-humid san jose.  so i went from loving summer to almost wishing we were back to spring.  but i know when the leaves start to change and the sun starts to set earlier each day, i will be wishing for my summer to return once again!

i'll have to do a separate post on portable printers and other fun alternatives to digital cameras.  thanks to my readers for some great suggestions! (follow up post coming soon!) :)

phone photo fun (say that 3 times real fast!)

ok, i was a little slow to jumping on the smartphone bandwagon, but now that i've discovered the free app "little photo" for my android, i totally GET it now.  and i LOVE my phone. it is my new camera.

(above is a shot of a box full of vintage sheet fat quarters from a recent swap i did with the vintage sheet patchwork swap flickr group!)

it can take regular old photos and age them, make the colors all funky, make them look like they were taken by an old camera, etc.  fun fun stuff.  i will be experimenting a lot more in the near future and posting my results on the blog! 

now i just need an awesome, mini portable printer so i can add my photos instantly to my journal! any recommendations? ;)

also, be on the lookout for an upcoming mail art swap...i'll make some examples and post the info and take signups soon!

Summer has officially started!

here is a little peek into my june journal.  i made it in my online class "get those creative juices flowing" with amy tangerine at big picture classes.  she taught us how to make these super simple scrappy journals.  LOVE it!!

i never think ahead to do "before and after" page shots, so here goes.  above is a page in the june journal.  just basic scraps of paper, labels, journaling cards, etc.

and voila! after adding sticker letters, journaling and doodling.

here's digging deeper into the journal.  the pages are made of scrapbook paper (cut to 8.5" x 11" and folded in half) and folded tags, envelopes and other odd-shaped papers.  fold 'em all up, sew 'em down the middle (hand stitch or machine stitch) and you've got yourself a super speedy journal ready to go!

flop a flap over and reveal little hidden messages and other secret surprises!  here is a hot air balloon sticker from 1979.  i bought a package of totally unused dennison stickers from ebay.  still wrapped in cellophane with a Kmart price sticker of .79 cents!  awesome.

can't get enough of online journaling classes these days.  especially if they are FREE!  found out about this awesome summer journaling class through a recent commenter (thank you, nathalie!)  check out "in the sun" with natalie malik (a different natalie!).  she is posting a prompt a day and i'm excited to start following along!  above is the start of my SUMMER TO DO LIST.  and i'm happy to report that i've been doing a lot of them already!

today's journal page went from playful to serious!  i was camped out in my usual spot with the girls and we were having a blast.  i was journaling in the shade and the girls were running in the grass and splashing in the fountain.

 anyway, we were surrounded by an incoming group of college freshman attending their summer orientation.  i saw a friend of my stepson's (wild coincidence!) and he was all smiles in his group, newly graduated, ready to conquer the next big educational challenge in life.  then it hit me.  my stepson will not be one of these fresh new college-bound faces.  he has chosen not to pursue the path of higher education (for the moment) and will instead enter the workforce with a high school diploma.

suddenly, i felt like a complete failure as a parent.

a little conversation with friends and some journaling helped me realize that everything will be OK.  plenty of people take time off after school to figure out what they want to do next in life.  no need to rush a young person into something they don't feel ready for.  i know, it will be fine.

and onto a lighter subject...here is a little sneak peek at a recent washi tape postcard swap i entered over at mescrap with lay hoon.  i love postcards. i don't know why i don't write them more often!  especially when you can make your own.  anyone up for a MAIL ART SWAP?  let me know in the comments below.  we'll swap some postcards around the world.  let's get this summer party started!!

cute colorful etsy treasuries

what do you do to pass the time with a sick child in the middle of the night?  you create an etsy treasury, of course!  these are just a few of many from my favorites list.  get well soon, little one.

YUM! Some summertime journaling...

just a quick little blog post...i've been super busy with three graduations this week! my little sister, my niece and my stepson!  and 3 days in a row, too!  BUT, in between all this fun graduation madness, i wanted to post a few journal pages ...

excuse the out-of-order sequence, but they all pretty much happened in the month of may.

and they are FULL of my most favorite supplies.  a mix of old and new ephemera.  tags, labels, stickers, washi tape.  all the usual goodness.  some have more white space, others are plastered with color and pattern.  just playing with different styles.

oh, and i had to include this photo of my FAVORITE new mini journals from cavalini & co.  (they're coming out with some of their own washi tape, too. check it out on teesha's post here). they are like moleskine journals but with awesomely CUTE covers. (there are different themes like, too. this one is the numbers set). they come in packs of three and the inside of each are different kinds of paper (one is blank, one is lined and one has GRID paper!!)  eeee! i am giddy just thinking about the possibilities.  such a craft nerd, i know. ;)  and i'm glad you understand. :)