That's my little girl!

I just finally got my April issue of Memory Makers, that's my little girl their on the cover! I was so excited that they asked me to use one of my photos and make the layout! I used some of the yummy Tinkering Ink goodies! I also just found this, I helped with this idea book and on the bottom right corner, that's me and my baby Aiden! My sister Holly took the photo of us, what a cool surprise! I haven't seen this book yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else who helped did in it too! Just wanted to share this with my family and friends!

Dolls

Way too cute! Some recent favorites. I am exhausted, it's been a long day, but just wanted to post these really quick. More later...

My mother-in-law...

My beautiful mother in law is getting married next week and I got to take a few pictures of her and my soon to be father-in-law. They make a cute couple don't they? Also through in one of alora, used a gray card and loved the skin tones in the color ones of these, but don't have any sized and ready to post...yet!

baby face...

Just one today, I've got all 6 of my kids sick right now, that's why I haven't posted in a few days. I'm sick too, fever, headache etc. but no time to take care of myself today with kids who need me. Looking forward to being healthy again!

Cup of baby goodness!

I'm just proofing some pictures I took of Aiden this week in this cool teacup I found at Wal-Mart. I adore these photo's, I think I need a canvas! This is the first one I proofed so far and I can't wait to see the rest! He actually smiled the entire time, he loved it! It didn't seem uncomfortable for him at all, which is good! I adore this little guy!

Action tips...

Quick photo post and some tips for using the actions to the best of their ability.

If you understand layer masks (I really need to post a tutorial), when you get to the color poping layers you can press D (which makes the black the foreground and white the background) and then use a soft round airbrush around 50% to brush over areas of the skin (generally the lips) that might look too saturated. Sometimes you need to make a couple passes. I do this all the time when using the actions after I increase the color opacity. Hope that helps some of you, on several of the color layers, I left them low on purpose. You can increase the color and use this tip to make the skin tones natural.

Photos

A few more that were making me smile today!

My baby, he's a smiley one! We went to the mountains and I got these right before one of the kids got hurt and we had to go home. We did see a moose and several deer on the drive home, it was fun just being together! I used color wonder on the picture and the last bw is the true creamy I believe.

Love this one...

A couple more. She turned 4 today! We went out to Chuck O' Rama per her request (she likes the slurpee's). We also invited her best friend and cousin over to play and have birthday cake. I played red rover and tag with them, it was gorgeous out again today and the snow melted off for the most part. It was a good day!

Golden

I took this yesterday...I think the last one is my favorite, I really didn't think it was going to turn out because she was backlit, but I love it, she just looks golden to me. It was gorgeous here yesterday, it' s so nice to be able to go outside again and not freeze!

Actions and what they do.

Here's one of my photos with the actions run over top. I just ran them straight through, no adjustments although they are adjustable. These are from my new Color Wonder set. I love how quick and easy they are, for those of you who have never used actions before, you just load them into your actions palette in Photoshop, open a photo and press play. The action does all the work for you. There are a couple of stops that let you adjust the amount of light and color you want in your photo. Color wonder are only for Photoshop 7 and up and the Vibrant set is for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

The Boys...

Photos of my boys and another one I just fixed up in Photoshop of my little girl. I just got some seamless paper and the first photo of my baby was done using it. I'm liking it, but I'm not sure I'm liking the color. I've also finally figured out my focusing issues. I read my manual and figured out how to change focus points. Wow, what a difference! I choose where I want the focus, for the photo up top of Aiden I chose the eye closest too me. I used to have so many soft photos using center focus and recomposing. Now I've gone from 50% of my photos being in focus to 90% or more! Huge difference, give it a try! On my camera, there is a button on the back with symbols on it that you push and then while looking in the viewfinder and turning the shutter wheel, you can see the focus points change as you turn the wheel. Super easy, makes a big difference!