I'm ready for a break...plus I just got my car back after 2.5 wks ?!?!? for a scratch on the side door so I'm ready to get back into trips to the charity shop in the ongoing decluttering saga. Otherwise, I'm up to date.
I was sick for 2 weeks, but managed to stay current. Then my sister came and we went to Disney World for 2 days. We shopped, went to the beach, ate out, did sister things for a week. Then my brother came to visit for a week. I was so behind, but I managed again to get caught up. I think one thing that is on my side is that my husband is in Pittsburgh for the winter, so I have no one else bothering me and wanting me to do things while I'm scrapping.
I'm amazed that we're heading into the final week. It has been a blast. I can't believe I am all caught up. It has seemed a little easier this year, or maybe I'm just not stressing as much over it. It's been super fun, even those layouts that force me outside of my comfort zone to try something new, or scrap in a different style.
I'm 5 full layouts and 2 half-layouts behind. The silhouette challenge is really throwing me for a loop.
I've done 21 but I've decided that, unless a challenge comes up now that really appeals or will teach me something new, I'm done.
I got mine on accident. Walking by my daughter's unlit room, the cat was on the bed in front of the window. I closed her door so that the light was only behind the cat and voila! Maybe you could do the same thing with an object, a pet, or a child? LOL Sometimes the pets and children don't cooperate though. Ha!
That's awesome! I love happy accidents. Did you use a phone or a "regular" camera? My DLSR has been out of commission and I can't seem to get the settings right with my phone and the photos end up with too much detail. If you've got any phone camera tips, I'd love to hear them!
I used my phone camera. I have a Google Pixel 3XL. It was so smart that it kept wanting to turn on "Night Sight" and I was like noooo, I don't want you to fix this. LOL My first round of photos after I found her in front of the window were taken with my daughter's bedroom door open. There was still too much light coming in from the hallway and living room, so I shut her door and that really got some dark conditions and I was able to get a good silhouette but there was still too much light on her and a lot of noise/grain. I then brought the image into Lightroom and increased the darkness values. You can do that in Photoshop by going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS and then moving the sliders to increase the blackness. Hope that helps!
Co-incidences!..... I just had a chat via conversations with Rebekah and said if needed to she should use Levels in her software. she was concerned it was not allowed.
@honeyandcheese @A-M Adjusting levels to increase blackness is a minor edit in my opinion. I still had to take the photo to get the silhouette. However, let's confirm with Courtney to be sure I'm not overstepping here. LOL I might be having to redo my layout. @bestcee Just for comparison, here's my original: And here's the edit:
I agree. Adjusting it minorly like this is still trying the silhouette concept. As you can tell on Cheryl's, it's a minor adjustment. The silhouette is still there, the levels just brings it out more.
So, with my phone (Android) I touch the brightest part of the photo, where the light is. Like in front of the TV: I touch the tv. The camera adjusts for that light and silhouettes whatever is in front of it. Hope that helps!
so sorry to hear this Julia.. you are only 10 down. You can do it.. it really is neat to complete all 31... I have participated and completed every one ... it was MOC6 that I ended up winning the Polly spot. Regardless... finishing is a great accomplishment. WHat can we do to make you excited to continue to the end?
I am officially behind! We went to my dad's this weekend to celebrate his birthday (2 hours away, so we spend the weekend there). I "looked" at the challenges on my phone to get an idea of the challenges, but no scrapping when visiting family. I've worked on catching up today, but I'm feeling rushed, and not sure if I'm liking my pages. But they are more memories scrapped...so they will have to do. Now to wait to post them since they are for releases.
Thank you so much, ladies! Hearing I could adjust a bit like that was HUGE and I finally got my layout done! @gonewiththewind, @A-M, @bestcee
I'm caught up. It is hard to believe how fast this month went! Wow. It is easy for me to stay caught up because my mornings have a block of free time.
Thanks for your encouragement Christa. I finished MOC the last 3 years. Some challenges are pushing my 'sharing limits' and whilst the organisers have kindly offered work arounds, it got me thinking about why I'm doing this. I've been scrapbooking for a very long time and I realised I've drifted a long way from the original reason I started, and I need to return to that. Doing online challenges isn't achieving those goals. Very few, if any, of my MOC layouts will ever be printed. So challenges that teach me a new skill are still up for grabs but I think I need to focus on some projects that tell stories and actually get them printed.