Jessica Sprague Class

Hello Hello Hello! I'll bet you thought this blog spot was going to be dormant forever, eh? It almost was! I came "this close" to giving it up. I went through a "spell" I guess. At any rate, I signed up for the most WONDERFUL digital scrapbooking techniques class at Jessica Sprague's website - here: http://www.jessicasprague.com/ and I've enjoyed it so much it broke my silence -- I just HAD to shout out how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the class!!! If you ever get into digital scrapbooking, Jessica's website is a must-visit. And you know what? Even if you don't scrapbook digitally ... even if you are a traditional scrapper or even if you don't scrapbook but love photography, there are great classes t0 sign up for. They are worth every penny you spend. She has a wonderful way of explaining and teaching and you learn tons. And even better -- the class information is there for you FOREVER! If you ever get interested and want some info on how to sign up for a class, give me a holler -- I'll help you.

So the picture above is my latest attempt from the class (and it's FREE no less!): it's called "Frame-Ups and Special Effects." This is from lesson 6 -- I'm way behind. Ack! The class is only 2 weeks and they're already barreling ahead to lesson ... good grief, 11 or 12 I think. Still, I really loved how this picture turned out and wanted to share. You make your photo vintage-like and then you use a Photoshop technique that sort of fakes something that they say is becoming very popular among photographers: TTV ("Through The Viewfinder").

What do you think? Do you like it? I used two textures on it: "bus stop window" created by Steffen Jakob and offered here: http://steffen67.blogspot.com/2009/07/texture-bus-stop-window-fake-ttv.html and "texture 41 ttv" offered here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasos3/3610200946/ (I can't figure out who created it but they did a great job).

The teepees are part of the Mountain Man Museum exhibit in Pinedale, Wyoming. That's where Ruth and I took the woof this 4th of July! (Man, it's really hard to reference just little Cowboy instead of both Brizzy and Cowboy. I sure miss the Briz.) We didn't go through the museum -- we just wandered around the outdoor exhibit which had life-style Native American teepees and mountain man bent-stick enclosures. They were really something. If you ever go through Pinedale, I recommend this museum. Even if it's just looking around outside. Just so you can see the difference with the technique, here's what my photo looks like "out-of-the-camera" ... hmmm ... drat. I can't move my picture down for some reason. It's at the top of this blog.

Okay, now that I've broken the ice again I'll have to post something else in a day or two, right? Next up: I've gotta tell you about a little amazing thing my co-workers Chad and Sara discovered at their cabin. Very cool! It deals with a tree and some initials carving. And after that -- guess I'd better step in where I started last year and talk about our 4th of July trip, yes?