What Is Old Is New Again

Hi!  Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post.  I'm sorry for being away for so long but this time of year is always really tough on me and I've had to take some time to regroup and find my center again.  Now that things are settling down I'm feeling much better and I've missed you guys. :-)  Thanks for hanging in there with me.

I'd like to share with you something fun I've been working on today.  A few weeks ago my trusted old printer finally gave up the ghost and after a lot of research I finally have a shiny new Canon Pixma MG8120.  If you're looking for a high quality mid-priced multifunction printer/copier/scanner I highly recomend it. 

One of the things that really sold me on this particular printer was its ability to scan negatives and slides.  You see, before I started doing digital art I studied photography.  This was way back in the days of film and I have boxes of negatives and slides that have been gathering dust for, oh, about 20 years now.  Today I started scanning.

What is so exciting for me is that now, with the help of my computer, I can take some of the negatives that I had previously rejected because of bad lighting or bad backgrounds and give them new life.  Take this image for example:
This is a shot I took of my brother about 18 years ago.  The image on the left is straight out of the scanner.  I loved this portrait for its composition and especially for his expression but it is full of technical errors.  Besides being old and discolored, his face is way too dark and could that sky be any more boring?  I don't think so.  I won't even mention the giant piece of wood jabbing him in the head.  But, hey, I was still learning so I made a mental note to work on my lighting skills and pay more attention to the background in the future and I threw it in the reject pile and moved on.

But now that I have new skills (and a new film scanner) I have finally been able to create the image the way I had imagined it all those years ago. I love you Photoshop!! :-)

A big Thank You to lrargerich @ Flickr for the sky

Ode To A Muse

I am beyond excited to tell you about the new kit, Ode To A Muse, by Holliewood Studios and Finecrafted Designs!  Two of my favorite designers have joined forces to pay homage to one of my idols, and theirs, Maggie Taylor.

If you are not already familiar with Maggie's work you can take a look at her website here.  Her images are poetic, surreal and astonishingly beautiful. 

Thank you Hollie and Evelyn!!  I had so much fun playing with this kit!!

Happy Halloween!!

Please see my Flickr page for credits

It's That Time Of The Year

There are some people who LIVE for Christmas.  Me?  I live for Halloween.  I know, what a surprise.

I have been so excited working with all the new kits coming out of DeviantScrap in celebration of this most wonderful holiday.  If you love Halloween as much as I do, take a few minutes and check out Welcome To My Nightmare and Haute Halloween by Holliewood Studios, Good Evening by Finecrafted Designs, and One Ghostly Night and Halloween Word Art by TotallyWild Dezinez.

Here are a few images that I've been working on.  As usual, please see my Flickr page for full credits.

 

Archangel

Sometimes you just need a little eye candy. ;-)

Please see my Flickr page for credits

Heritage Photos

I love creating images with vintage photos.  There's just something magical about them that you don't find in contemporary photography.

A few years ago, I inherited a group of old family photos from my Grandmother, some dating back to the late 1800s.  I look through them every now and again and then I put them back in their box, but recently I've decided that they need to come out and see the light of day.  So, my scanner got a workout and then they went back into their box safe and sound.  Don't you just love technology?

In this first image, I used a photo of my Great-Grandfather (he's the one in the middle) and his siblings from the early 1900s and I placed them on one of the new Dramatic Backgrounds by Holliewood Studios.

Please see my Flickr page for full credits

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I'm related to this woman but I love her.  She has such a great smile and looks like someone who loves adventure and doesn't care about the rules. I thought this old photochrome image from the Library of Congress fit her perfectly.  Now that I think about it, it's possible that she's one of the little girls in the image above.

Please see my Flickr page for full credits

I love that I'm able to honor their memory by letting them live again in art.  I plan on creating quite a few more of these so stay tuned! :-D

Scrapbooking

Like a lot of expectant mothers, when I first found out I was going to have a child I suddenly became very excited about learning how to scrapbook. This was long before digital scrapbooking was the norm.  That's what "good" Mom's did.  It wasn't enough to just take pictures and throw them in an album.  You HAD to make cute pages with coordinating papers and doodads and whatnots, right?  So I bought some books and even went to a scrapbooking party and bought papers and rubber stamps and ink and everything.  I was ready.  Just bring on this baby!

Well, then I had a baby.

Long story short: I never did open those packs of paper or assemble those rubber stamps.

Now, 9+ years and two kids later, I find myself surrounded by scrappers.  How funny is that?  Actually, I think it's pretty cool.  I am so inspired by the incredible art I see every day in the DeviantScrap gallery.  I feel like I have a second chance to start documenting the experiences of my children in a more artful way.

I chose to jump at that opportunity with the latest releases by TotallyWild Dezinez.  The following images incorporate Masks #1, Fabric Blend Paper Pack, Little School Clusters and Funky Frames as well as elements from the following kits by Holliewood Studios:  Toy Box, A Rose is a Rose, Wild Kingdom: Butterflies and The Collector.

I few weeks ago, while I was cleaning my garage, I came across the box with those old scrapbook papers and rubber stamps.  They're going to be perfect for the art journaling projects I'm working on now. Everything happens for a reason, right? :-)