A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a new blog that made me absolutely, positively giddy! It’s predominantly a scrapbooking blog with a sprinkling of cupcakes and travel and other craftiness. Making me even giddier was the little detail that the blogger is an American living in London, so I felt instantly connected – like we were automatic friends because we’re probably the only two scrapbooking Americans living in England, right? (I know I’m definitely not right, but sometimes it just feels like I’m the only one!) Her designs, layouts, tutorials, and just general splendor have definitely inspired me. The photo she posted of her stack of near-700 4×6 prints, along with the monthly class that she’s running during 2011, have motivated me and now I have my own stack of near-400 4×6 prints just waiting to be scrapped (which just about covers November and December 2010). I spent last week cleaning up my office and organizing my scrapbook supplies and today I even went so far as pulling together all my Christmas papers, stickers, and embellishments. My point is, we’re talking serious inspiration and motivation.
But, before I dove into scrapping Baby’s First Christmas this evening, I thought I’d take the plunge and give one of Shimelle’s challenges (from the great National Scrapbooking Day/Weekend this past weekend) a whirl. I’ve seen challenges posted on other blogs and have always, always been intimidated by them. But, this particular photo editing challenge seemed completely approachable – afterall, Shimelle even posted step-by-step instructions.
This first is a photo I took in Giverny, France in Monet’s garden. Monet’s home and garden are so, so beautiful and I have several hundred pictures of willows and flowers making it hard to choose just one to play around with. But, I do love yellow:
And here’s the edited photo I got from playing around with a few things on Picnick in flickr, following Shimelle’s instructions exactly:
I couldn’t stop with just one photo edit (I’m afraid that this is going to be very addictive!). I decided to choose my favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower that I took on our trip to Paris in August 2009. It was a bright, extremely hot August day:
I’ve always liked this picture because I thought it was perfect – the bright, blue sky, the green trees…and then I played in Picnick and got this even brighter and prettier picture:
So what if the sky *might* just look a little fake. This photo editing business sure is fun. I had to do just one more before calling it quits. This photo was taken at the very near-to-where-I-live Palmer Park. I remember taking this photo during our first spring here, totally in awe of how these trees were completely bare one day and seemingly overnight they were bursting in color:
And here’s the edit (again, following Shimelle’s instructions):
I’m feeling absolutely thrilled that I’ve actually edited a photo (three, even!) using more than just the crop feature; I’m feeling absolutely proud that I’ve gone ahead and given a blog challenge a try; and I’m feeling absolutely inspired to begin scrapbooking our family’s special Christmas (tomorrow).
It is now time for an episode of The West Wing and a bit of ice cream!
