Another layout and a useful PSP tip

When I first bought Paint Shop Pro (PSP) XI I would sometimes get confused about where I was supposed to install certain things. If I tried to install a new frame the site would tell me to put it in the Picture Frames folder. Makes sense, huh? Too bad Corel replaced the sensible and straightforward folder labels with a numerical system in version XI. Who knows why. ::shrugs:: At some point I came across a list of which number corresponded with the old folder names. I found it in a PSP group on CafeMom. It has become a great tool of mine so I would like to share it with you.

Former PSP Folder Name - PSP XI Folder Name

• Brushes Corel_01
• Bump Maps Corel_2
• Deformation Maps Corel_3
• Displacement Maps Corel_4
• Environmental Maps Corel_5
• Gradients Corel_6
• Masks Corel_7
• Patterns Corel_8
• Picture Frames Corel_9
• Picture Tubes Corel_10
• Preset Shapes Corel_11
• Selections Corel_12
• Styles Lines Corel_13
• Swatches Corel_14
• Textures Corel_15
• Mixer Pages Corel_16

Hopefully that helps someone out there.

I was on a roll last night and had to scrap one of my favorite pictures of my son since I found the perfect kit to do it.

This is a great western or equestrian kit by Thaliris called Equitation.
The fonts used are Blackjack and Wild West Shadow.

Wow, 2 posts in 1 day...

While browsing through the Gallery over at Hummies I came across this page by Magnolia57 that I loved. I had just gotten my daughters class photo yesterday so I guess I thought it was perfect timing and couldn't resist jumping right into it :)

Here is Magnolia57's original layout. Feel free to leave her some love!

And here is my version of it. Now please bear in mind the fact that I felt it necessary to block out the kids names and faces. This is a current picture and I didn't feel comfortable posting other kids faces and names to the public. So it doesn't give the full effect.

The yellow paper on the bottom is from cafe Digi's Lifes Journey
The font is Pristina
The frame I made myself using colors from the page.
I used a texture that was preloaded into PSP

I knew I'd cave..

Yup, I scrapped the new pictures. *L* But I compromised with myself. I made myself do an older picture too. Oh, and guess what ... I lost another two lbs this week. I would love to maintain a 2 lb a week loss, it would be perfect. I don't want to lose it too fast, it tends to go back on easier that way. Two pounds a week would put me at goal in about 4 months, perfect for my July vacation : )

Here are my newest pages ...

Here is what I did with the tooth pictures ...

This one was a mash of different kits...
Layered Template by Andrea Gold (temp #205)
Flergs blue paper (Deacon's Closet kit)
Digital Crea pink paper (Little Flower kit)
Cafe Digi Purple paper (Life's Journey)
Scrappin Texas Style elements (Tooth fairy kit)
Amandas DS Freebies blue notepaper recolored (Note Paper)
Verena Karolyi white notepaper (you_are_beautiful kit)
Font is Minya Nouvelle

And here is a picture from when my daughter was about 7 or 8 months old. The girl always had her tongue out!

This was done for the Technique Challenge (Knock Out Ribbon) over at Hummies World
All of the papers and elements came from Ellies ScrapKit Challenge - Autumn
The frame was made from one of the papers.
The font is Papyrus

Perhaps I found that inspiration I needed :)

My baby girl is getting so big. I spent the morning making calls to plan her 6th birthday party! Seriously? SIX? And if that wasn't bad enough, last night she lost her first tooth. She was SO excited! I was so happy that it happened at home so I could get pictures *L* I even have it on video this time. She came up to me and said Mommy, I think it's REALLY loose now! Sure enough, it was sticking way up and ready to go. So I jokingly asked if she wanted me to pull it out. To my surprise she walked out of the room to get a tissue. So I put down the video camera and pulled it out. It came out so easy, even I was surprised. So out come the video camera and the D40. We went out for pizza as a mini-celebration of her getting so big. She was so excited to put the tooth under her pillow she was ready for bed 45 minutes early! So here are a few of the pictures I took. I can totally see me forgetting all about that promise I made myself to scrap the older stuff first and scrapping this today : )
Oh, and BTW...I am kinda proud of myself too! Notice the difference in her skintone between the two pictures. The first one was on auto and the second picture was taken in Program mode with the exposure and White balance readjusted by me. Admittedly it could be a bit sharper but I am still very happy that I was able to change things to make the picture come out more the way I wanted it. I mean, my daughter is Irish but lets not be ridiculous in thinking she is THAT pale *L* Then again, maybe she is and I am just in denial..either way I like the second one better *LMAO*

Where is my Mojo?

It's gone. The desire to scrap and take pictures is strong. But I just can't seem to do anything. I started 3 different layouts yesterday only to delete them. I wonder if my problem is that I promised myself I would go back and scrap the stuff from when my daughter was a baby and work my way forward. Back then I thought my camera was wonderful, I was so happy to have a digital camera. It was a Toshiba PDR-M25, 2.2 megapixels, 3X's optical zoom. I thought it was fabulous. Boy was I wrong! The pictures are terrible looking back on them. So much noise, so few are correctly exposed. It takes so much PSP work just to make them somewhat OK. It's frustrating. Check out this picture...what should have been a great family moment is a dark grainy mess.Technically this next one is a different pic but it had the same problems. The original was so bad (as you see) it wasn't worth keeping. I had to play around with it and the best I could do was this...
When you have to play around with every picture it gets old fast. Can you believe they still sell that camera for $150 - $200!!! I guess (which I did not realize at the time) this camera is designed to support optional lenses and filters similar to a SLR. But if the camera itself takes crappy pictures who cares if it can use a wide angled lens. You'll end up with a wide angled crappy picture *L* Why pay $200 for this when there are SO many other great cameras on the market? I had 2 Kodak Easy Shares and both were far better than this. The biggest problems with them are usually exposure but there are ways around it (which of course I learned AFTER using my DSLR and gaining more knowledge of photography). It is amazing what you can correct with White Balance. And that "way too bright" flash on the newer P&S cameras...put a coffee filter over it! May not look as pretty but your pictures will be so much better.

I'm rambling, sorry. Let's recap...if anyone knows where my Mojo is, can you please send it home? And please don't buy a 7 year old model camera...it makes no sense..technology has come SO far in those years! Oh yeah, and I have gotten spoiled with all these "great right from the camera" pics I take with my Nikon D40.

Wow! What a weekend!

I got one of the worst scares of my life this past Friday. I got a call saying my Grandma was admitted to the hospital because she had two blocked arteries. My best friend just lost his Grandfather about 2 months ago after he went in with a blocked artery. So that was the first thing on my mind. I was supposed to be going away this weekend and I was afraid to go. Then we heard that they wouldn't do anything until Monday and I decided to try and keep my mind off it by still going (I wasn't very far away, only 2 hours). I'm happy to say that I managed to have a very good time this weekend and more importantly that my Grandmothers cardiac cath went PERFECT yesterday!

It just wouldn't end....

Wow, my son just would not get healthy! He started with a chest cold, that became an ear infection, he wasn't even done with his antibiotics before he came down with a nasty stomach bug, and then he finished off (I HOPE!) with a virus that gave him a fever of 102 for no explainable reason. In this same time period my daughter had the chest cold, I came down with Strep for a THIRD time this year, and then my daughter ended up catching the stomach bug from my son and missed two days of school. As you can tell, it's been a rough 3 weeks+. Things are looking up now though : ) All 3 of us seem to be on the road to health. My husband treated me good on valentines day for once. He brought home a rose and 2 carnations (one from each child), a box of the Dove Truffle hearts I love so much and he took me out to dinner at one of my favorite Italian places. Not so good for the Weight Watchers I started but I refuse to lose out on important things like time with my hubby because of a diet. I need something I can stick to. I lost 4 lbs last week by the way. Yay for me.
I am so excited! My sister is watching my kids for me so I can slip away for a weekend with my friends. It's my BFF's 30th birthday this coming week and he wanted to go to a casino for the weekend. I've never been to one so I am looking forward to it a great deal. After the last 3 weeks I am in serious need of a break.
I only managed to get one layout done since last time (sad huh?) I was slightly inspired by valentines day.

All papers and elements came from the Collab Kit called "Love Actually".
I used a template from "designs by Luisa" (No TOU)