New Release | Philosophy

It’s almost the end of May already! This year is going by too quickly.

I’ve added two new products to the shop this week. First is a new digital scrapbooking kit, Philosophy. Great for helping you to record little nuggets of wisdom, lessons learned and lessons you would like to pass on. What I love about this kit is that it’s perfect for recording the here and now. Often my scrapbook pages are like letters to the present day me, and the future Nicholas. Perspective shifts over the year, with experience, so recording it is just as vital as any of the other markers of time that we record.

This kit is meant to get you thinking about the things you know for sure, right now, and then motivate you to share those valuable lessons in your scrapbook pages.

Also new this week the coordinating Philosophy Journal Cards – a set of (6)  3×4 journaling cards. All of the cards are provided as both individual PNG files and a printable 8.5 x 11″ sheet. The printable file is a convenient way to print the cards at home without having to use Photoshop or any other graphics program – just open the PDF file and send it to your home printer.

Early Bird Savings

Purchase Philosophy by May 26, 2013 and you’ll save 20%, PLUS you’ll get the Philosophy Journal Cards FREE. 

Take Me Shopping!

|| LAYOUTS BY THE FLOCK & THE POLLYS ||

[Show as slideshow]

by Amy M

by Amy K

by Christine

by Crystal

by Jenny

by Julia

by Julie

by Kelly

by Leontien

by Lex

by Lisa

by Margelz

by Maribel

by Nicole

by Rachel

by Renee

by Stacy

by Sue

by Sue

by Susanne

by Amanda (Polly)

by Ana Paula (Polly)

by Anne (Polly)

by Cecile (Polly)

by Tronesia (Polly)

Photography Tips for Toddlers

Toddlers. Those tricky little creatures. They are so active. They are hard to keep up with, much less get a great picture of. Not to worry folks! I’ve got a couple of photography tips for toddlers to share with you.

I have a photography business and I occasionally take family/children shots for only my closest friends because young children are a difficult subject to photograph. Here’s what you can do:

APERTURE PRIORITY

If you have a DSLR, shoot in AV mode. It chooses the shutter speed for you and does most of the work. “But Kim,” you say,  ”don’t I want to shoot in Tv mode so I can choose my shutter speed? These kids are fast!”  True story, but I like Av mode because I get to control my depth-of-field. I’m a bokeh junkie and like to shoot between 1.8-2.8 aperture so I get that creamy background. Shooting at that F-stop usually gives you a nice fast shutter, so I don’t stress to much about it.

I can’t say enough about purchasing a 50mm 1.8 lens for your DSLR. It is less than $120 and you can do so much with it.

Now a moment of silence for some yummy bokeh.

LET IT BE … LET IT BE

Another tip is to let the child do their thing. There is a time and a place for those posed shots, but it isn’t with me. I like what I find when I look for the shot while they are doing their thing.

This little girl was running around and playing in her grass skirt, then she stopped to check out the flowers. I took the picture of her shaking her thing, because often times parents like the outtakes from the session.

Then this next photo was taken literally minutes after the previous photo. If you’re patient, “the shot” will most likely come.

GET LOW!

I know you hear people say to get down on their level. It’s true. Do it. You’ll be amazed at the difference. When you go to crop a picture in really tight, if can appear that the child is looking out and above the camera. Getting lower gets you a more straight on perspective, just like those portrait studios. I know, you’re going to have to do a ton of squats, but you really have two options: do the squats or bend over at the waist and stick your butt out. Your choice!

If you have a toddler that just isn’t having it, your best bet is to try again later. You are going to struggle, everyone will be frustrated, and the resulting photos may not represent your best work. If waiting isn’t an option, work with what you have. If the child is clingy to the parent, you can still get head and upper body shots while the parent is holding them. If they are really having a meltdown, those tantrum pictures can really be adorable – and can later be used for blackmail!

THE TAKE-AWAY

• Toddlers are mobile, moody little creatures. They make you want to rip your hair out….oh wait, we’re talking photography tips here.
• Shoot in Av mode to choose your aperture. Get your lovely bokeh on.
• Work with what you have. Be patient. Don’t force it, they will rebel. Let them get some energy out and sneak some photos in while they do their thing. 
• Finally, get down to their level. Get your squats on. You will have rockin’ photos and rockin’ legs. It’s a win, win!

Landing Soon | Philosophy

Powerful Techniques | Transforming Digital Templates

Christy here, to bring you a fun scrapping challenge!

When I first started buying digital scrapbooking supplies, I worked hard to use every kit and template at least twice.  I would open them up and then pick a current page I wanted to scrap and one from years ago using the same materials.  I haven’t done that in a while, so today I decided to try it again.  But, this time, I challenged myself to use one template for three different layouts.  I dug way back into Peppermint’s shop and chose this template from Flight Plan #1 and #2.

I loved the paper strips, the white space, and the fun way the journaling and title mixed into each other.

For my first layout I picked an old picture of my oldest from when he was almost 2 and scrapped a page sticking exactly to the template guides.

|| Materials || Crazy For You (papers and elements) and Flight Plan #1 template by One Little Bird Designs. Fonts are Mish and RachelB by Darcy Baldwin and Hobo Std.

When I was done, I loved the layout but I also wanted my next layout to look different and unique.  One of the things that I love about digital scrapbooking templates is that they are transformable.  You can make them your own or change them to fit the picture or topic you want to scrap.

I started this process by reopening the template and flipping it.  (PSE: “Image – Rotate – Flip Horizontal”)  After doing this I did need to select the text layers and flip just those layers back to normal.  (PSE: “Image – Rotate – Flip Layer Horizontal”)  I then selected all of the paper and photo layers.  (PSE: Hold down the Ctrl key and click on each layer in the layers palette)  I enlarged all of these layers I had selected and moved the text around to fit the new space.  Here is what the template then looked like.

And here is the finished layout!  This time I chose to add a bunch of different elements around the page that were not identified on the template.

|| Materials || Fresh by One Little Bird Designs & Sahlin Studio; Flight Plan #1 template by One Little Bird Designs. Fonts are Jamie by Darcy Baldwin and Charcoal CY

For my third layout,  I  started with the original template and this time I chose to rotate it.  (PSE: “Image – Rotate – 90 degrees Left)  This time, I chose to get rid of some of the paper strips and duplicated the picture shape.  I also lengthened the photo mat to go behind all of the photos and rotated the text back to normal.  Here is what the “new” template looked like:

I adore how my third layout turned out.  I changed the journaling a bit by typing it onto a journaling mat.

|| Materials ||  Suncatcher (papers and elements) and Flight Plan #1 template by One Little Bird Designs. Fonts are Kristi by Darcy Baldwin and Blackoak Std.

To show you up close how the changes work, here are the three ways I used this template:

And here are the three layouts:

Isn’t it so cool how I could start at the same place and end up with three totally unique layouts?

So my challenge to you is to try this yourself some time.  The ways that you can transform a template are really endless but here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Flip or Rotate
• Duplicate a shape
• Delete some parts of the template
• Resize some of the shapes – smaller or larger
• Add a picture or paper shape
• Change the shape of a picture shape (circle, square, rectangle, star, whatever)
• Add elements where the template doesn’t call for them
• Try taking two templates and dragging some of the shapes from one onto the other to make a combined new template
• Move some things around
• Add a border or additional background papers

Challenge Winners

Just popping in with the winners of the New Growth Challenge and the April Featured Kit challenge.  Thank you to everyone who participated!

New Growth Challenge Winner | Penny

April Featured Kit Challenge | LeslieM

Congrats, Penny and Leslie! Peppermint will be contacting  you shortly with your prize information.