Happiness is.......

Happiness is....  now that's a leading question..... but it's also the theme for this month's Designer Crafts Connection First Monday post.  Basically it's to make us think about what we do, creatively, that makes us happy.

Well I love pretty much everything.  Decorative painting is probably #1 on my list, but I also like to sew, knit, crochet and papercraft.......  I've always loved making things and I had hobbies that I loved too.  I used to collect wild flowers and bird watch, but photography was, and still is my favourite.  There's something magical about being able to take a photo of a specific moment in time, then being able to go back years later and relive that moment.  I love looking back thru all the photographs I've taken over the years.   Believe me, there's a ton of them.

I received my first camera when I was 11 years old.  It was a Brownie reflex 620.  As a teen I bought myself a 35mm, Olympus Pen EE half frame camera; half frame because that meant I could get twice as many photos/slides from one roll of film.  The Yorkshire in me loved that.  I also used a Polaroid camera occasionally, but quickly found the color didn't last too long.  It was fun to have instant photos to share though.  I still have my old cameras - they must be antiques by this time.

 

In the late 70's I graduated to a 35mm Konika, then in the mid 90's a Canon Rebel.  Still love that camera.  The first digital camera I owned was an Epson, followed by a Fuji Fine Pix,  a pocket Canon and now I have a Canon Rebel T1i, or something like that...... 

If you follow the Scrapbook Memories/Scrapbook Soup TV series, you'll know that I love my digital camera.  The advantages are that I can take an unlimited number of photos, but the disadvantages are that I can take an unlimited number of photos.  Since I can edit just about anything in Photoshop,  I have a real problem hitting the "delete" button. 

Way too many of my photos are now on my computer, but I do love to be creative with some of them.  I took this photo of a Cardinal a couple of years ago and loved the color and contrast.

I thought it would look great printed on canvas and decided to use it in project I designed for Elmer's on a recent episode of Scrapbook Soup.  This is how it turned out.  You can see the TV segment here: http://youtu.be/vOKv38W36e8

  

Photos printed onto ink jet printable canvas are perfect for all kinds of wall art.  This was a photo of the ocean which I cropped to size then added words in different layers.  I also changed the color of the type and made some layers more transparent.  

Printing on ink jet transparency is another favourite of mine.  I've used photos to make transparent overlays and cropped a wide range of flower photos to make greeting cards.   There are so many surfaces to print on now, which makes being creative with your photos so much fun, especially if you're familiar with photo editing software.  Imagine being able to change your photos to black & white, or sepia then print them out onto wood paper, or fabric so you can put photos on a T-Shirt, or quilt.  A few years ago I made my daughter a maternity T-Shirt.  The slogan on the shirt read "Body by Baby" and it circled around a photo of her sonogram.  It was featured on Scrapbook Memories about 5 years ago, so you can find the instructions here: http://www.scrapbookmemoriestv.com/projects/1300/1307/1307-5.htm

I derive a lot of happiness from the photos I've taken over the last 50+ years, especially now that I can be so creative with them.  Try some of these tips for yourself and enjoy!  Y'all come back now.....

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!