It's Me, Sarah

'Summer Hols'

Well the weather isn't being very nice to us for the Summer holidays is it?  Actually I have just walked down the shop with the kids and we didn't need coats!! That's the first time for a few weeks.  Hopefully the weather is going to get better now.

I had a great weekend as it was the Plymouth crop on the Saturday and after a week of not doing very much because of the weather I really needed the time to myself.  I had a great time as usual, there is nothing better than going to a crop is there?  I did some nice layouts with I can't share yet but I was very pleased with them

On Saturday evening my brother Roy and his wife Theresa came over and we got an Indian takeaway and  some wine.  We had such a laugh - a really great evening.  Mark taught us all how to play a Navy card game called 'Shit on your oppo' - hilarious!

On Sunday Mark went to  play Golf in the morning and I  managed to cook a roast dinner despite suffering slightly from a very late night and too much alcohol.  We just had a nice family afternoon  watching a film and slobbing on the settee, sometimes that is just what is needed!

On Monday we had the best news in the world, believe me we are all jumping up and down with excitement and can't wait until next month (or maybe October).  I am just so happy :)

This week has been a bit of a blur following our news because it means we have a lot of sorting out, decorating, buying things and a bit of traveling to do to welcome a very special new addition to our family.

Just because I don't like a picture-less post here is a layout I did a while back as a class but as I left ScrapDreamie I don't think it will be used now so here it is:

You can't really see it on the main image but the KI Memories lace cardstock has been attached to the layout with 3D foam to create a sort of caged effect - blimey it took ages, but it was worth it because it really adds to the dimension of the layout.

I did do class instructions for this layout so if you are interested send me an email :)

Have a good Thursday :)

Action Set for Photoshop

I have a set of Actions that I have created and use in Photoshop quite a lot and I thought some other people may like to use them.  They are mainly utilities that I use to prepare my images for use on this blog but there is a nice photo softening action I created that I like to use too.

This is a list of what the actions do:

SY Centre Point - simply places guides on your image to quickly find the centre

SY Thin Border - places a thin border around the edge of your image which is really nice for defining your images on your blog and gives a nice crisp feel

SY Blog Image Preparation - I use this one all the time!  Firstly it resizes your image to 425 pixels in width then it sharpens it and places a thin border around the image.

SY Resize 400 - resizes the image to 400 pixels wide

SY Resize 400 | sharpen - does what it says, resizes the width to 400 px and sharpens the image

SY Soften Colour - Creates a nice soft version of your photograph - see examples below:

I like using these actions so hopefully they will be of some use to other people too.  You can download them HERE.

As I don't have PS Elements I am not sure if they will work with it or not - if you try can you let me know if they work?

Some Layouts

As I said the Bellaboo August kit has gone live and I really enjoyed working with this one - here are the layouts I did with the kit this month and I have got loads of stash left to play with!

My boy have fun on the beach even though the weather was far from warm!

The Bathing Beauty layout was based on a page   from a magazine which you can see the in Bellaboo August kit newsletter, that was fun to do.

These photos were really old ones of Mark's dad which I scanned.  I wanted to use them despite being unable to enlarge them any more that this - I  am really happy how this turned out as it is very minimalistic for me, actually, I love it!

What can I say, boys will be boys.

Back from our hols

Well we are back from Haven once again and we had a lovely break.  The kids had a whale of a time in the kids clubs and doing all the party dances.  The went swimming, to a big park, to the beach, did fancy dress, made things, drank slushies, played in the ball pool and the amusement area so they had a fun packed time!  Mark and I were glad to get home and sit in front of the telly!

Here are some pictures of the kids having fun:

I just have to add this last image.  We always put Ben and Charlotte down for a sleep in the afternoon when we are at Haven so that they have enough energy for the evening entertainment - it makes a huge difference to how happy they are for the party dances etc.  One day during the holiday Charlotte wasn't very happy to get up and go out for the evening - she was half pretending because she was laughing one minute and then sulking the next!  Mark went to grab the camera to capture her sulky face as it was just a picture!

I will blog again soon as the Bellaboo August kit went live whilst I was away and I can share my layouts with you.  Due to my holiday I only had chance to do four layouts this month but I have loads of the kit left and it was gorgeous so I am definitely going to do some more with it!