2006 September | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for September, 2006

September 28th 2006

Scrapbooking Techniques & Tips - Personalising Your Backgrounds

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One of my fave hobbies is Scrapbooking. So I thought I might run a series of Scrapbooking Techniques & Tips on the subject. If you find this useful, I’d really appreciate you leaving a comment so I can get an idea of whether it’s worthwhile continuing with this or not.

Here we go.

When you have a special photo and you really want to ‘showcase the moment’ try scanning an item of clothing that the subject was wearing in the photo and using it as your background for the layout. It doesn’t matter if there are creases or seams or pockets in the scanned image; that will only add to the uniqueness of the background.

My suggestion would be to scan at the highest resolution that you can. Then using your photo editing or drawing software (Photoshop Elements 4 is my weapon of choice), open a new file with a transparent background in the size of your layout. I usually pick a resolution of 300dpi for a good quality print.

Drag your scanned image onto the new file (it appears as a new layer in PSE4). You can then move it around to find the best section to cover your background layer. You can Shift-drag on the corner of the image to reduce the size if necessary but don’t worry if parts hang off the edge of the background layer.

Once you’ve positioned the image as you like it, crop it to the size of the background layer and build your layout.

The example below is a photo of my daughter dressed for her formal in her last year of High School. The background is a scan of the velvet dress she wore on the night.

Jack has left the building

In response to popular demand (that means you Heather) it’s time for another music related post.

Went over to the Greyhound Hotel on Sunday to watch Ian Bland finally emerge from the shadow of his alter ego (and some might say, arch nemesis) Jack Rabbit and launch himself as a solo performer. It was a good performance and, in a first for Ian, it even started on time!

With a strong Aussie Country type flavour, Ian played his own material ranging from the haunting Kilkunda Wind (personal favourite) and The Drifter (strong social comment, another favourite) to the desperate Beer With No Pub (yes, I’ve got that the right way around). Ian has a very distinctive voice which lends itself well to the narrative style of song and everyone in the Pub enjoyed his act … as did I.

So hopefully we’ll see and hear more of Ian in the coming months.

Wattle Festival

The Annual Wattle Festival on the first Sunday of September (Fathers’ Day) heralds in the Spring.

This is a great little community festival held in the township of Hurstbridge on the fringes of Melbourne. The whole of the main drag of the town is given over to it, with stuff spilling over into local parks and playing fields. A Steam Train plies between Diamond Creek and Hurstbridge making a connection with the area’s pioneering past. With the bright gold of the wattle trees adding rich colour to the streetscape, even a dull day (eg. last Sunday) is injected with the atmosphere of Spring.

One of the highlights for Allan and myself was the vintage car and motorcycle display in the railway station car park. Wow, those babies are big! Beautifully painted and polished bodywork, shining brass and chrome, and cars the size of trucks.

There were displays of working steam traction engines (never thought I’d be interested in watching that for any length of time), carnival stuff and an animal petting enclosure for the kids, stage coach rides, an art exhibition and sale, antiques and gift shops, market stalls, musical acts scattered throughout the town and of course FOOD.

Hurstbridge is well endowed with food related shops and eateries and these were augmented last Sunday with barbeques everywhere selling everything from shasliks and vegie burgers to the ubiquitous sausage and onions in bread. But my favourite was definitely the Home-made Chocolate Coated Wattle Seed Ice Cream. Oh Yeah!

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