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Mar 25 2013

iPhone vs. 35mm?

Posted in photothings. 1 comment

We went on an amazing vacation a week or so ago snowboarding in Beaver Creek, Colorado. We were there a week with the kids, their first time in the snow & mountains, ever. Shawn & I hadn’t been snowboarding in 12+ years so it was an exciting trip for all of us. Shawn & I remembered all of our snowboarding skills & the kids did fantastic, so talk about a GREAT trip.

That being said, the entire trip I used my iPhone to take my photos. Usually I would have used my 35mm to ensure my photos were beautiful the entire time like most other vacations, but it just wasn’t possible. I couldn’t carry my big camera up on the mountain – 1/ because of its huge, bulky size & 2/because I didn’t want it to break in the snow & weather. A few days it was snowing & 40mph winds, so that would not have been good.

The funny thing was, I am totally fine with just iPhone photos for the week. My iPhone fit inside my snow jacket pocket & was easy to wing out quickly. Are the pictures perfect? No. Are they as crisp & clear as my 35mm? No. But they record my entire trip. And I had instantaneous video in my hand, too. And I didn’t have to deal with that big bulky 35mm all week. I had access to Instagram, Facebook, etc. & all my iPhone apps of filters, etc. right there in my hand for the eves when we were off the mountain. And, I didn’t have to bring my computer to download all the photos on the go.

Look at these photos, all are SOoMiC (Straight Out of My iPhone Camera). None of them are perfect. Kind of grainy & dark, like most iPhone pics, but I LOVE them, just perfect.

But they are great because they are on the spot & I had my camera in my front pocket. I couldn’t take it out long because it was so cold, but I would take it out, snap a few photos or videos & quickly put it back in my pocket.

This is my favorite pic from the trip. It’s dark in the SOoMiC but look at it below with just a little playing around. FRAMER!

Are you doing the same thing these days? Leaving your big girl camera at home because it’s a pain? I’m finding my self doing that more & more & more. With the iPhone camera getting pretty good, I’m choosing to take less crisp, pretty photos than my 35mm to make the whole process SO. MUCH. EASIER. I think, too, that with the cameras in our phones that we use for practically everything & have on us all the time, I take so many more photos that I’m okay with many not being perfect. And, I don’t plan on blowing up many of these. The one directly above yes, my favorite. But the rest I will print 4X6 for a scrapbook, so I don’t need them humongously large in size for large size print quality.

Don’t get me wrong. I still use my big girl camera for a lot of things. My photography business, action shots of the kids sports, any kind of portrait or outside event – I’d rather have it with me for the best shots. there is a big difference in the cameras, no doubt. But, I am leaving it home a lot of the time when it’s just a pain to deal with & I know I can always rely on my iPhone. And, with all of the photos above, I will lighten them & play with them a bit before I print, but that’s OK with me.

I’ve thought about buying a smaller, good camera (Nikon L1?) that would still fit easily in my purse. But that’s another big purchase. Do I really need 2 nice cameras plus my iPhone?

What are your thoughts?

Posted in photothings.

1 comment

Dawn - iPhone ALL THE WAY!!!05/10/2013 – 5:36 pm

Feb 21 2013

iSunday: TextMask App Tutorial

Posted in instagram., isunday., tutorials. tags apps, instagram., iPhone., iSunday, tutorial 3 comments

By fun & popular demand from my PREVIOUS POST on a few new apps, here is a TEXTMASK app TUTORIAL!

I am so loving this new app so here goes. This one has a bunch of steps, so take your time…

This is where we are starting - SOoMiC (straight out of my iPhone camera)…

…and this is where we are going!

BEAUTY!

Let’s get started.

STEP #1: Open up the app VINTIQUE & load in the photo you want to use.

Use a two finger pinch to fit your photo into the crop area exactly how you like it into a square. Click USE at the top to crop your image & move on.

STEP #2: Click the FX button along the bottom of the app. This puts you in the FX or FILTER mode.

Scroll through the options until you see the BEAMED filter. Touch it to addd the filter to your photo. SAVE out your photo to your CAMERA ROLL.

STEP #3: APP JUMP!

Open the app TEXTMASK & load in the photo you want to use by clicking the bottom camera button & choosing the most recent edit of your photo that you just did in VINTIQUE.

Your screen will show like this with the words “HELLO WORLD” already in a white mask with most of your photo hidden (below).

NOTE: If you have used the app previously, the mask should default to the most recent version of the mask you used, so yours may not look exactly like mine.

STEP #4: Now we’re going to adjust the MASK only. Click on the white box across the bottom of the screen. The box shows the color of your mask as you can see above.

In this photo directly below, the app is showing you a few things:

1. The MASK you are using is a square, the top right hand shape.

2. Other options for the shape of your MASK are shown in the right column, scroll down. You can touch them to see what happens to the MASK & your photo underneath.

3. Color options of your MASK. The top three sliders are ways to play with & mix COLOR, I’m sure familiar to many of you. The bottom one controls the OPACITY of the MASK or how see through it is.

STEP #5: In my case, I am going to leave my MASK white but adjust the OPACITY to 34% or wherever you like yours to make it more clear. It will look like a haze over your photo in the square shape we chose. I love my photo underneath so I want it to show even with the MASK on top.

If I had chosen a different shape (one below the square), the opacity would have only changed on the MASK, not the photo. The photo would have shown through at full opacity in the areas not covered by the MASK.

Are you with me? Click DONE.

STEP #6: Now we’re going to change the FONT, SIZE & LEADING of the text.

Touch the box containing the words “HELLO WORLD” & some text options will pop up across the bottom.

STEP #7: Touch the box that says TEXT & type in the wording you’d like across your photo. It can be one word, more than one word, whatever you want. Don’t worry too much about it’s spacing if it looks funny, we can adjust it in a second. I typed the word CHOCOLATE.

STEP #8: Here you can adjust all your additional controls of the TEXT. FONT will give you options to change the font style. A bunch of fonts come with the app (the tab FONTS across the bottom.) You can also add more into the app through iTunes (Click HERE for a TUTORIAL on adding in fonts to apps through iTunes.)

The ones you add into the app will be shown in the MY FONTS tab across the bottom. And RECENT shows the most recent fonts you have used in the app.

STEP #9: Now that you have chosen your font (I chose MAGNUM that I added into my app through iTunes), you can adjust the SIZE & KERNING of the TEXT using the three buttons on the right.

1. The first one adjusts the SIZE of the text. Touch it & move the slider left or right to make your text bigger or smaller. If you are planning on adding a frame to your final photo, remember to leave room along the sides to add the frame without it interfering with the text.

2. The next button (in above photo, middle) allows you to also use the slider but adjust the spacing between the letters horizontally in your text (KERNING.)

3. And the third button, you can adjust the spacing between your lines of text vertically (KERNING) not between the letters.

Play with these a bunch to get your text exactly how you like it. You may need to go back & forth between the buttons to get the exact look you like & make everything fit.

When you’re happy with your TEXT, tap the screen again to go back to the screen where you started except now you have a MASK on top of your photo!

Touch the button on the bottom right & SAVE out your photo to your CAMERA ROLL.

STEP #10: Here we go…now we’re APP JUMPING again!

Whenever I create an Instagram, I usually have some kind of idea what apps, looks, frames I want to use in the photo to get it where I want it at the end. Not always, but many times. And in most cases, the order of the apps you use absolutely make a difference in the final product of your Instagram. In this case, I did not want my bokeh on my frame so I added the bokeh before the frame.

So knowing that, I knew I wanted to give this photo some kind of soft texture or depth, so I went to one of my all-time favorite apps, LUMIE.

Load in your most recent version of your photo into LUMIE.

STEP #11: I didn’t want to add anything too crazy since I didn’t want it to distract from my masking, but a little bit of pretty, soft bokeh would add one more layer & depth. I clicked on the second row, middle bubble of softness.

STEP #12: Now LUMIE has beautiful bokeh, but using it can be slightly tricky if you veer far. It will default to the MOVE button bigger than ROTATE (across top), which is what you want.

Touch the screen & move your bokeh around your photo until you find the right placement for it. I tried to not put too many of the dark bokeh across my MASK so it didn’t blur it up even more.

If you want, you can try to touch the ROTATE button & move the bokeh around in a circle & that works great. But, you can’t ROTATE & then MOVE it or it will go back to its default placement where you started.

When you’re done, hit OK & save out your photo to your CAMERA ROLL again! (I chose to export it without the frame it offers.)

STEP #13: One more APP JUMP!

Open the app VINTIQUE again & this time load in the newest version of your photo that has the bokeh on it & click USE. No need to adjust its size since it is now a square, unless you want to crop it again.

I knew I wanted to stay with a vintage look for a frame for this yummy Easter chocolate so I went back into VINTIQUE.

Click on the button across the bottom of the STAMP with a T in it, then click the left FRAME option.

Roll through the frames until you get to this gorgeous lace one, FRAME 7. Touch it to add the frame to your photo.

Just perfect. Isn’t it pretty?

Touch the box with the arrow in it across the bottom to SAVE out your photo to your CAMERA ROLL.

And that’s it. Four APP JUMPS but we did it!

It’s ready for Instagram!

How was that? I know it was a bunch of steps, but is TEXTMASK more clear now?

ENJOY YOUR FRIDAY, EVERYONE!

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Posted in instagram., isunday., tutorials. tags apps, instagram., iPhone., iSunday, tutorial

3 comments

Sarah Runyon - Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing! 02/22/2013 – 11:44 am

Kasandra Mathieson - Sunday…..how fun! Thanks for sharing…love what this can do. The only problem I had was finding frames in Vintique, they wanted me to go to the store and then when I did still couldn’t seem to download any….still love my picture though.02/26/2013 – 3:46 pm

strona firmowa - Hey there, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, terrific blog!04/09/2013 – 10:10 pm

Feb 19 2013

iSunday: INSTAGRAM APP INSPIRATION!

Posted in instagram., isunday., tutorials. tags apps, instagram., iPhone., iSunday, phonto, tutorial 2 comments

Hi my FAVORITE Instagrammers!

I’m finally getting this blog post up. Life gets busy sometimes & I have not gotten this finished & I have been lagging, so my apologies. This is a good one & a TUTORIAL at the end so…read on!

DO YOU NEED SOME NEW INSTAGRAM INSPIRATION?

Lately I have been feeling like my Instagrams look the same ol’. You know, I use the same apps, same lighting, etc. Granted I LOVE the way those pics turn out & love my fav apps, but I was needing some inspiration & something new to change up my photos. So I searched the app store & came up with these app beauties…

THREE new apps & some new fonts!!

(FYI, now I always buy the $ full app version instead of the FREE LITE versions. I usually have trouble with the LITE versions & end up buying the full versions anyways, so now I save myself some time from the beginning. I think a few of these apps below have LITE versions if you want to give them a shot first!)

The first two apps, SHAPE+ (search SHAPLUS on iTunes) & SHAPELY, are similar.

I initially started out using SHAPE+ to frame my photos into some simple shapes using overlays to cover up the portion of the photo you don’t want seen & put the rest in a shape, like a heart, badge, star, flower, etc. SHAPE+ is vey simple & easy to use to do just that. You load a photo, choose the shape you want or choose RANDOM or SHAPE across the bottom of the screen to go through choices. You then hit NEXT or BACK (to change your shape to something different), adjust the frame you want (either a shaded border or none) & you’re done. So fun. If you want o get even more tricky, there is an EDIT button on the bottom that offers you things like EFFECTS, TEXT, DRAW, CROP. Simple, easy, cool.

For the heart above, I took a plain red image created with BUBBLEFRAME (FABULOSITY app – you must buy this one, too!), added the heart bokeh, pulled it through SHAPE+ & then added the awesome RHONNA DESIGNS INSTAFONTS in BUBBLEFRAME (big graphic) & PHONTO ( small graphics) afterwards. ADORBS.

Same thing with AMAZED. I saved out the plaid graphic from BUBBLEFRAME, added the bokeh, pulled it through SHAPE+ & then added the big RHONNA DESIGNS INSTAFONTS back in BUBBLEFRAME & the little ones in PHONTO. A few extra steps in the right order makes a HUGE difference!

LOVE is the same order of operations, but the background is a photo of a piece of scrapbook paper used as a photo.

Fun, huh?!

Then after reading on Instagram, fun @rosemarywatson (FOLLOW HER!) found a similar app for shape overlays called SHAPELY. I immediately checked that one out & it is way cool, too. Thanks @rosemarywatson!

SHAPELY is similar to SHAPE+, but offers some totally different shapes to load your photos into & choices to add borders, colors & textures to your shape. It offers you two separate loading zones that were tricky at first to use. You can pull in a photo on the left loading zone & adjust some inner borders/parts of a shape on the right loading zone. I’m still playing with it.

And lastly, the one you have asked me about on Instagram…TEXT MASK!

Can I get a WOOP WOOP?!

TOTALLY new fun app to play with!

This one is similar to BUBBLEFRAME & PHONTO in that you can load fonts into the app through iTunes, so remember that.

After you have perfected your photo in all your other apps, last but not least load it into TEXTMASK. Type your words by touching the text box & adjust the font, kerning (space between letters in a word), size, how the text is justified (right, left, centered). You can then move your text around your photo placing the mask wherever you find the most interesting on the photo. It gets a bit tricky to not lose the details of the photo underneath as you move your font around. I have tried a bunch that didn’t turn out nice so play around until you get the hang of it. Choosing the right photo underneath is the biggest challenge.

One trick I have found is to use the thicker, bigger fonts like SNIGLET & ANTON (both come with the app) & then I loaded in my own BEBAS through iTunes. The bigger, wider fonts offer you more area to see through the mask to your photo making it easier to see what your photo is of.

In both of these photos above I beautified my photos in a few apps before I pulled it through TEXTMASK, then added the barcode font & pink banner in PHONTO. The top one is a picture of the sky with a tree that you can see enough to know what it is. The bottom photo was one of my son’s Valentine heart sun catcher. You can barely make out the hearts that were so cute so that’s why I titled it PINK instead of something else. The PINK word makes sense with the photo since you can’t see the suncatcher or barely even all the hearts.

TEXTMASK also offers some awesome layout shapes for your mask & the option to change their color.

FAV FONTS THIS WEEK. LINK THROUGH & DOWNLOAD AWAY!

I thought these thicker fonts might work good in TEXTMASK…try them out & let me know.

BEBAS - http://www.dafont.com/bebas.font

LOVE LETTERS - http://www.dafont.com/love-letters.font

MAGNUM - http://www.dafont.com/magnum.font

SUPERFLY – http://www.dafont.com/superfly.font

TEXT MASK TUTORIAL HERE!

I love seeing all the AWESOMENESS on Instagram from all of you, so I know many of you don’t need it.

You are INSPIRING me with all your IG happiness!

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Posted in instagram., isunday., tutorials. tags apps, instagram., iPhone., iSunday, phonto, tutorial

2 comments

Donna G. - I for one would love to see your tutorials! Thanks so much for doing this post!02/21/2013 – 12:17 pm

Cindy - Thanks for the app advice! I have seen your work on Instagram just today and really liked it, so I had to check out your site and Rhonna Farrar!02/21/2013 – 7:42 pm

Jan 31 2013

My #OLW. January.

Posted in inspiration., scrapbook. tags olw No comments

Remember a few weeks back I spoke about my #OLW (One Little Word) in THIS POST? And I had my family members come up with their own #OLW’s like me?

An #OLW is a word you choose for the year to focus on, work on, kind of like a New Year’s resolution. But it’s only one word. So much easier to work with. Scrapbook artist ALI EDWARDS coined the scrapbook idea years back. My word for 2013 is STEADY.

At the same time of the previous post, I signed up for ALI EDWARDS’ ONE LITTLE WORD CLASS through BIG PICTURE CLASSES. I had never done a class like this before, one that reflects on myself, that combines scrapbooking (I love) with deeper thought that I usually do. And it was about me…not my kids. I thought it would be a different kind of project & one I wanted to try since this year is going to be great & why not start now?

So I did. Each month I get a new prompt & project from Ali via email which I do at my own pace. There is a gallery & message board set up online in the class home page.

January’s project included taking your #OLW & creating 12 cards about your word that relate your word to your life & how you want to improve, change, etc. I loved the process. It was hard at first to find where you want to make your life adjustments, but fun at the same time.

My 12 cards of STEADY-isms are:

1. STEADY health, 2. STEADY exercise, 3. STEADY parenting, 4. STEADY eating, 5. STEADY shopping, 6. STEADY 40, 7. STEADY photography, 8. STEADY love, 9. STEADY time, 10. STEADY crafting, 11. STEADY relaxing, 12. STEADY iPhone.

Some of these are more serious than others, but that’s how I roll. I can’t be serious all the time…impossible.

And I won’t way much about the STEADY-isms I’ve chosen. I’m sure I’ll be going through some of them in more depth during this exciting #OLW process.

I used some beautiful AUTHENTIQUE papers & embellies on this & some small doilies & staples. I love how it turned out.

Can’t wait for next month (which is actually tomorrow!) to see what February’s project is.

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Posted in inspiration., scrapbook. tags olw

no comments

Jan 30 2013

Christmas Scrapbook is done!

Posted in scrapbook. tags October Afternoon, scrapbook 3 comments

Christmas Scrapbook is COMPLETO, in January! I know it’s almost February, but not QUITE yet!

I’ve tried to do my December album daily, but the stress of it makes me crazy since I’m already going bonkers that time of year.

For this one I used products from a favorite company – OCTOBER AFTERNOON’s, Make it Merry Collection.

ADORE!!

I machine stitched throughout this one & used a bunch of my index prints for the front cover. Added some fun to it!

I added a bunch of solid colored cardstock pages to make the book longer since I ran out of patterned paper. I glued a doily down on almost every other page & sewed at least one stripe on each page of a different paper to give it some dimension. Love the doilies.

I used mostly Instagram photos since I have so many & they are some of my favorite shots. I ordered them through SHUTTERFLY. I ordered my Halloween photos at the same time to save on the shipping costs.

So guess what? My Halloween scrapbook is next using more OCTOBER AFTERNOON!

I always love OCTOBER AFTERNOON‘s fun embellishments & beautiful papers that show so much energy & color & fun. I love buying an entire set of their stuff, it always looks so fabulous together.

I don’t have a local scrapbook store anywhere around here, so when I order stuff, I have to order everything I need for a specific project. I needed a few more goodies this time around so I used buttons & some paper flowers I already had. It came out sweet & cute. I do have a Hobby Lobby, but they just don’t have the array of tasty scrapbook supplies a good scrapbook store does, you know?!

And, I ordered this all months ago. Do you do that? Most of the time I order stuff before I know exactly what I’m going to make with it & then always wish I had additional items. Oh well.

I bought a CINCH binding machine a few months back & hadn’t used it yet, so this was my first project with it. I love it.

I have used metal rings from Office Depot for years to bind my projects & was so tired of them. This CINCH was such a fun change.

You literally hole punch your pages following the directions on the product. Insert a binding wire & ‘cinch’ it together.

I did do all my sewing & gluing of papers down first, then hole punched everything & then added all the photos & embellies. After it’s bound you can’t undo it & have it stay pretty, so that’s one trick.

Here are the OCTOBER AFTERNOON MAKE IT MERRY supplies I used:

12X12 Collection Pack – papers & all kinds of beautiful stickers, alphabets.

Doo Dads – pretty paper embellies.

Tin Pins – 6 cute & shiny sticky pins.

Miscellany – package of cut-outs, buttons, ribbon…so much fun stuff to work with.

Peppermint Mini Market Stickers – I love adding single words to my pages for impact.

To/From Washi Tape – Adorbs!

Label Stickers

I always buy the Collection pack & Miscellany. FAVORITES!

I order most of my scrapbook supplies from either Two Peas in a Bucket or Scrapbook.com. A lot of this collection is sold out online or I would have linked you to each product.

I bought OCTOBER AFTERNOON‘s Halloween set, WITCH HAZEL, when I bought VERY MERRY. I had to have both.

Halloween is actually my absolute favorite holiday of the year & I have some fantastic plans for that scrapbook. It’s next! WITCH HAZEL is amazing.

Enjoy.

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Posted in scrapbook. tags October Afternoon, scrapbook

3 comments

Kim - Gorgeous!!! You did a fabulous job! I have this same kit waiting for me to start it…lol you have inspired me to get at it! 01/30/2013 – 7:48 pm

Sunday Grennan - Thanks, Kim! Have fun with it. I’m about to start Halloween!01/31/2013 – 4:52 pm

janis - Hi Sunday!

I love the book! I too like to just use an entire line to put a project together. Thanks so much for sharing! janis aka scrappymum02/06/2013 – 4:44 pm

old.