Monkey Birthday scrapbook pages

My son loves monkeys.  Maybe it's because everyday after Dad walks in the door he rushes to change out of his 'monkey suit' into something comfy.  Maybe it's the cute monkey he earned the money to buy from Build a Bear.  Maybe it's the fact that the neighbor boy bought one just like it so they could play together.  Maybe it's the monkey blanket I made him from fleece I purchased at JoAnn's.  

He asked for a monkey party and he got one.  I finally made the paper to go with it so that I could finally scrapbook it. I'm funny that way, I like things custom.  Apparently so do my children.

Go check out the Monkey kit at CottageArts.  It's on sale during it's introduction stage.

By Laura Vanderbeek

Cottage Arts Design Team member

 Tonya Regular

Photo First Aid - Week 1 - Spot Light Level Changes - Photoshop Elements 8.0

This is for those students taking my class right now that are using Photoshop Elements 8.0  If  you are not yet taking this class and like what you are learning in this video, please go here to register. You have a few days left to get signed up for Photo First Aid.

Photo First Aid Video- Week 1 -Tint, Tone, Vignette- Photoshop Elements 8.0 Version

This is for those students taking my class right now that are using Photoshop Elements 8.0  

If  you are not yet taking this class and like what you are learning in this video, please go here to register. You have a few days left to get signed up for Photo First Aid.

Guess who is giving away a seat in my class today?

Y'all remember that I'm giving away this Bundle of Basics tonight during my Photo First Aid class 

LIVE CHAT? Well, it gets even better.  Want to know how?

Becky Higgins is also giving away a seat in my class today on HER BLOG! So head on over there and leave a comment about how much you want that seat in my class along with your name and location.

Oh and sorry, I start talkin' southern when I'm super excited about sumthin'. It's a mixture of the Texas and Alabama in me.

You're today's To-Do list additions:

#1 Leave a comment on Becky's Blog

#2 Add me as a Friend on Facebook

#3 Watch the video to learn how to enter tonight's live chat

#4 Have a wonderful day

#5 Join me at 10pm Eastern on ReneeTV - everyone will win something.

And I promise to share a few garden photos again soon!

How to visit my live chat May 11th at 10pm Eastern

If you're like me and you get confused when you get to try something new, then this video is for you.  Step by step simple instructions on how to enter my upcoming LIVE CHATS where I'll preview my upcoming class Photo First Aid and answer your specific questions LIVE!

Join me on ReneeTV May 11th at 10pm Eastern time. We will be giving away several fun prizes during that LIVE CHAT.  Want to qualify?  Just sign in and watch the chat - you'll automatically be entered. 

 If you win a prize, I'll ask you for your email address which you can share with me privately so others viewing the chat will not see it. Make sure you are paying attention or I'll have to give your prize to someone else.

What am I giving away? I'll post photos and links to each vendor later tonight so that you can get familiar with everything before the live chat.

See you May 11th at 10pm eastern on ReneeTV

What does this class cover?  It's a 4 week class and I'll be sharing step by step video and written guides: 

In the first week you will learn how to manipulate the light and color of your images. In week two you will learn professional techniques for retouching faces. In Week Three you will learn how to retouch backgrounds, clothing, and group photographs. And during Week Four you will learn current and classic trends in creating works of art with your photographic images, including sports collages.

Photo First Aid 2011

Never miss out on another class, event or discount again.

Sign up for email notices HERE.

Registration for my Photo First Aid class begins Monday - hurry because the early registration discount ends May 15th.

Oh and I'll be showing you a preview of the class LIVE online May 11th and May 30th at 10pm Eastern on ReneeTV! Show up 3 to 5 minutes early to sign in.  

Along with the help of a few local peeps and some far away, we will be having a fabulous Give Away! I will preview that on my blog on May 9th and May 28th.

Giveaway on Becky Higgins Blog!

The ever talented Becky Higgins is giving away a seat in Photo Preserves class today.  

Here's what she has to say: 

One reader will win a seat in Photo Preserves, taught by Laura Vanderbeek. This is a class to teach you how to digitize, restore, and display your old photos. Great idea, as I think a lot of us could use some guidance in this department. The class runs March 31 – April 13. Leave your name, a general idea of where you live, and maybe an idea of what your collection of old photos looks like right now. This is open to international readers as well (nothing to ship).  : )

So go leave a comment for a chance to win no matter where you live in this big world!

Cathy Zielske - Photo Preserves Class Giveaway!

The ever amazing Cathy Zielske is giving away a seat in my Photo Preserves class.  You have only today to enter so go check out her blog and learn how to enter!

Be Mine!

Be mine Valentine!

Hope you're having a WONDERFUL day.

I can't take credit for these cute Valentine cards. I did make changes to them.

And we glued Crunch hearts to the front of them below their names.

I wish I could share the link but I can't find it now.

Anyway, I hope your heart is filled with love for your friends and family!

It's about time I scrapbooked again!

Click on the scrapbook page to see it larger:

I've been trying to figure out how much I'm capable of and how much rest I need.  I always take longer to recover than normal.  Of course when they said 6 weeks, they meant 6 weeks before returning to a full time job.  That doesn't mean 6 weeks until you're 100%.  But I'm feeling well enough to keep up with the laundry and well enough to get the kids off to school, run a few errands, etc.  I crave sleep starting about 1 p.m. but the mornings are pretty good.  The sunrise this morning was gorgeous!  

Yesterday we went target shooting.  Tyler did all the work setting up the targets and such.  I shot my little .22 rifle a few times and sat down once I felt sore.  Tyler shot his hand gun and then helped our daughter shoot the .22 (she's got amazing aim). On our way back down the canyon I spotted a bald eagle in a tree near the river.  We stopped and Tyler took a few gorgeous photos.  Take a look at his facebook page to see them.   

All that fun and excitement tired me out.  I got my daughter off to school this morning and drove my son into town.  Grandma picked him up so I went home and scrapbooked the rest of the day.  What am I scrapbooking? Our family vacation. Our first family vacation. That's an example page up above.  I've worked long and hard to finally get my groove on this book.  I love scrapbooking for my own family.  I don't have to worry about what they think.  They love them and look through them often.  I love looking through them because the photos take me back.  I feel happy while I scrapbook and when I look back through my scrapbooks.  I haven't been scrapbooking as much as I used to and this helped me get my groove back.  It's simple with the photos as the emphasis.  I'm already 62 pages into it and think it's going to be a two volume book (hopefully not 3 but could be close).  Shutterfly can print up to 100 pages per book I think - of course I'm used to working with a whole bunch of different album companies so don't quote me on the 100 pages, it could be 70. 

I've also been busy with my new family history blog for my mom's side.  It's going so well I'm having a hard time keeping up but it will all work out! And now I'm going to get some of that sleep I've been craving.

Telling the story

I'll let this simple and quick page tell you about my day. Font: CK Ali's Hand. Elements drawn by me in Illustrator. Click on it to see it larger.

And I really like  how this image turned out. It's just the imperfect and carefree pile of tomatoes in my window sill but it tells a story not only of accomplishment (20 total pints of pico made with my tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, red and yellow onions grown from seed).  It's also of the overwhelming feeling of having a lot that still needs storing for the winter. I guess I will learn how to bottle tomatoes after all. Feel free to use it!

It's fall and that means ...

I get to enjoy my favorite season once again.  Like I said earlier I have been working on a branch for my wall.  It sort of looks like the one below except with more branches on it and red leaves for fall.  

I began to wonder if some of you would like some of the pieces I was working on that are not going on my wall.  They would be great for scrapbooking.  Just click on each piece.  Then download it from there.  It's a transparent .png so you will not have to worry about cutting out the white.  Bonus!

And this oval frame - well, if you've taken my Photo First Aid class and finished it - there is a whole lesson on creating silhouettes from photos.  So here you go - a frame for those silhouettes.  Now I am thinking I need a Silhouette cutter so I can cut these out of vinyl and place them on my wall but I'm looking for a 48" cutter. Any suggestions. I even want to make some fun creepy images for Halloween decorations.  I don't like creepy creepy, just fun creepy. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Tomorrow I will share a photo of what I am working on for my wall ...

Details

I'm sure a few of you might be curious as to what kind of cancer I survived.  It was a huge tumor inside my chest.  Hodgkins Lymphoma to be exact.  I went from the base of my ribs to the middle of my neck and it was 3 inches wide.  At the time (I've been in remission for 3 years) I had a 4 year old daughter and a 4 week old son.  But here I am a few years down the road.  I have a whole bunch of firsts that I've been able to do since finishing the 6 months of chemo and 5 weeks of radiation.  I found out that I like my hair short. I taught my daughter to sew, we made aprons together.  I sewed my daughter's baptism dress.  I went hiking and trail running and LIKED it. I landscaped the west side of my house - FINALLY! I held a baby robin in my hands and took care of him 'til he could fly away.  I took my kids to the library. I photographed the Relay for Life one year and participated in it this year. I successfully grew garlic, jalapenos, tomatoes, and cabbage this year. I froze and also canned green beans I grew in my own garden.  I went shopping on the Magnificent Mile. I finally found a fresh salsa recipe that I LOVE. I went for my first ride on a ferris wheel.  I went to the Opera and liked it.  And I taught a photo retouching class online this summer and had a blast.  Don't worry it's coming again this fall. I love my 'extra life' and am so grateful for it even with all its ups and downs.

So the Answer is...

They both need PRESERVING!

And guess what? That's exactly what my next class is about.  

Do you have stacks of old photos? Are they decaying at a rapid rate? Do you want to learn how to preserve these precious family heirlooms for generations to come? Then this is the class for you.

Photo Preserves
Digitize, restore, and display old photosOctober 6 - October 19, 2010
Instructor: Laura Vanderbeek
In this two-week class, intermediate Photoshop and Photoshop Elements users will learn how to digitize, restore, share, and display (thank you Krysta) old color and black & white photographs. Enroll now to take advantage of the "Early Bird" discount of $10 off (almost 30% off). Go check out the Supplies tab to see all the free goodies we are including!

Video Chat live with Laura at ReneeTV on Thursday, September 9th at 10:00pm Eastern Time

Join me for the live chat where I'll be giving away one:

E-scapeandscrap Prize:  

History Starts Now Elements and Papers   (worth $11)

Multi-Tasking

In fact that's what I'm doing right now! I am waiting for photoshop to chill out while I update my blog and remind all of you that class begins June 2nd - so if you haven't registered yet the time is drawing short.

In that past 5 weeks I've recorded 52 Video lessons, edited them all, and typed up a written guide for each and everyone one of them.  This class is packed full of knowledge that is geared towards the beginning to intermediate photoshop or photoshop elements users.  That means if you are a mom who loves to take photos of your children, or if you're a hobbyist photographer and would love to learn more on editing photos, this class will be perfect for you!  

Anyway, looks like photoshop finally made up its mind.  Hope you'll join me for class.  You're going to love it!

Win a seat in my 4-week online Photo First Aid Class!

My class is Online at ReneePearson.com so anyone can enter.

It's for MAC and PC users alike! I even share shortcuts for both.

You can sign up for a Photoshop CS4 (earlier versions are OK too) class
OR
Sign up for the Photoshop Elements 8.0 version

If you haven't had the opportunity - head on over to my photo blog and leave a comment under this post.

Want to enter more than once - share it on your blog, twitter, or facebook and add the link as a comment HERE.

You can even learn how to make a sports collage like the one above!

Here's my big Announcement!

Photo First-Aid with Laura Vanderbeek
Photographic Enhancement & Retouching Solutions

We're pleased to welcome professional photographer Laura Vanderbeek to our roster of teachers at ReneePearson.com.

In Photo First-Aid, Laura shares professional techniques that will take ordinary photographs to a whole new level. You'll learn the same step-by-step process she uses to create artistic photographs for display in her clients' homes and albums. You'll also learn how to manipulate light and color and even save a few of those photos you thought were unusable. Laura also shares methods for retouching photographs of groups, including problem areas such as clothing, backgrounds, turned heads, and perspective.

After Photo First-Aid, you'll be able to turn your photographs into works of art you'll be proud to share and display.

Laura will answer your questions and talk about her class at ReneeTV on Thursday, April 22 and on Thursday, May 6 at 10:00pm Eastern Time.
Learn more...

ReneePearson.com

Announcement - Tomorrow!

Come back tomorrow for my big announcement!

Here's a hint

Digital Scrapbook Experience - Friendships

I had an absolute blast at DSE and I'll write more about it later. It was a dream come true to teach for them. Here is a page I made about friendships. I was excited to finally meet Tiffany Tillman and Lori Anderson. I spent a lot of time talking with Anna and making sure we both got our wheat free meals! It was comforting to see someone who else who fights with food intolerance/allergy issues. And I can't tell you how much I adore April. She's brilliant and she loves being a mom. She is super easy to talk to. It was as if we had never been separated by the miles. She is an incredible friend and the kind of person that makes me feel at ease with who I am.

In the photo below:
back row:
April Anderton, Candice Stringham, Tiffany Tillman, Laura Vanderbeek
front row:
Lori Anderson, Jessica Sprague
other:
Anna Aspnes

Digital Page Link for DSE students

Here is the link for this page under what's new at CottageArts.net

Don't forget to enter the code your received at DSE to make it FREE!



Free newsletter sign-up and order/download tutorial at CottageArts.net

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