Photo Organisation

 When I download photos from my Camera (any day I go out shooting) and from our phones- monthly (mine) 3 monthly (Les's) I put them in a holding folder labelled with the month. 

I name the photos (see below). Then I do a cull of the obvious crap. At the end of the month I back them up. 

We have two back-up drives one at home and one at Les's work which theoretically comes home at the start of each month to be backed up... that process is a little hit or miss.

On the drive they are in my photos folder under family, and then organised by decade and year. Within each year there's a folder for each month... numbered so they stay in chronological order. 

I name the photos by date. It's a little time consuming but each day is done in bulk. So you have all that months photos sort them by date select all from the same day and right click on one and choose rename.

Then name in order of Year Month Day eg; 2022 05 17 The computer does the numbering of each photo. Once again this way of naming keeps the images in Chronological order.

For the photos that I am going to upload to my Flickr account I use tags. I only use them sometimes for our family photos. Generally for events where other family members or friends are involved eg Joe and Jane's Wedding, Mary's Graduation. By tagging the photos with location, event, and names etc that means down the track other people (eg my kids) will know the who what when where. It also means that if Jane's Mum really wants a copy of some photo I took but I don't recall the date of the wedding I can just do a search for it. I really do recommend tagging photos- I just don't do it for most family photos because I take such a lot of photos and between editing, printing, sharing, and scrapbooking I already spend such a lot of time with them.

To add tags or comments you select one or more photos and then depending on what version of windows you are running a box will appear either below or to the right with places you can add information. For me tags are usually single words or multiple for terms eg 'Western Australia'. The briefer they are the better. If you want to add an address or longer detail use the comments box.

This information is called the metadata and is stored in an exif file that travels with the photo. So if you give someone copies on a drive or such other people will get the tags and comments as well. If you share it on facebook the exif file is stripped partly to protect people from accidentally sharing information like location etc that they don't intend to. 

Here are some photos I have added comments on... I have no idea why they aren't all tagged they should be as this was for my number project in 2019. It was important to me to remember where I had collected the number but didn't want it published in Flickr- Flickr doesn't publish the comments but they do add pretty much all of the rest of the Metadata.

Once you have tags and the Mother of the bride has asked of that photo with Jane (and not Joe!) this is where you search...

 

 

 

 

 Another handy function in the metadata is the star rating function... 

If you want to get around to printing more photos a super easy way to tag the ones you want to print is give them a star rating. Then you can sort the photos by star rating select the rated photos and upload to your photo printer or copy onto a stick drive to take to the store. (Side note; I print with my local Big W because I am happy with the materials and colour quality they are great. Plus a couple of the staff are super picky and quality oriented. I have turned up to find something has been printed twice because the awesome girl wasn't happy with the print. I ALWAYS print on matte paper NOT shiny!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 You can find a whole bunch of my photos here on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/122898873@N07/

And if you wonder how I got the result I did on a particular photo you can look at the exif data and gets some ideas to play around with when you go out with a camera. :-) 

Like this one... here on flickr.

 

Mystical: Heart Garland Tutorial ~ Crate Paper Fourteen ♥

  

Inspired by this heart Garland at Ikea I decided I wanted to do something more my style in time for Valentines day.

 

First- up I chose my papers from the Crate Paper Fourteen Range at Mystical.

 Grabbed some additional supplies: Craftworkz Twine (I used a mixture of colours but you could use just one), Glue Dots, eyelets and mini staples.

 

To make a Garland like this approx 3.5 metres long you need: 9 large Hearts (8.5cmW x9cmH ), 8 medium hearts (7cm x 7cm ), and 32 mini hearts (2cmW x 1.9cmH ) and 4.2m of twine (18 lengths of 23cm).

 I used a nesting die set on the sizzix but alternatively you could print 3 different sized hearts on the computer onto card to make templates to trace and cut. Because I wanted to get the most from my card I cut four hearts with each cut and used the spares on other projects.

 

I used one half of each 12x12 and cut the 6x12's down into three 6x4 sheets to die cut.

 

Be still my heart! :-) 

 

I punched a hole on each side of the hearts and then laid them on the floor large-medium large etc in a semi random order.

 

I tried to keep the two darker pinks separated.

 

I then added coordinated but contrasting eyelets to each heart for extra strength.

I placed a large glue dot on a small heart and then pressed the centre of my 23cm twine lengths into 

the glue dot.  

 

 Threaded the two ends of the twine into my hearts and then pressed the ends into the glue dot.

 

Placed another small heart on top and sandwiched  them together.

And then added two staples for extra strength. I chose to do it this way because I want to be able to hang the garland across a room and have it look good from both sides. You could just skip the mini hearts and tie the twine in a neat bow. Or if you only want to hang it on a wall just use one length of twine running it behind the hearts and tape it in place so the hearts don't move.

 Further ideas... 

• It would be nice to add a string of hearts hanging vertically on each end of the garland.
• You could embellish the hearts with the smaller hearts in a contrasting colour.
• You could embellish the hearts with large letters to spell out a name or message.
• You could embellish the hearts with anything that made your heart content.
• You could make it to coordinate with the colour theme of a wedding or a babies room. 

I think we'll pull this one out on Birthdays as well as Valentines each year- and the colours would look too bad at Christmas either.

Mystical Scrapbooks is an online scrapbook store based in Forrestfield, Perth, WA.

They have a great community and monthly challenges you can join in on and win prizes.Come and join in the fun!

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♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Taggy Blanket

I was talking to Jozlyn recently as she was holding Kellan who was busy tucking into the tag on blanket. Joz said he was totally into the tags and could find them with particular skill- I said that they actually made a baby toy blanket with heaps of ribbons around the edge acting as tags- she was interested and went looking- before she had a chance to buy one I knocked one up at home- I thought it may be a little fiddly but it's not so much....

I haven't provided measurements as you can do whatever you want size wise....

1. Loop the ribbons and pin them to the 'good side of one piece of fabric so that the rough ends line up with the edges.

2. Place the second piece of fabric 'good' side down (so the good sides are facing) one your ribbon pinned piece and then pin them together.

3. Choose a spot on a side where you have a decent gap between two ribbons and then stitch around leaving that spot open.

4. Pull the blanket through the unstitched section being careful not to impale yourself on the pins.

5. Remove the pins and ensure the corners are all pushed through.

6. Top stitch around the whole blanket to finish it off and close up the hole.


As you can see I used a satin on one side and fleece on the other and a mix of satin and a more woven textured ribbon- some fat and some thinner- I wanted Kellan and his tounge and gums to have some different feelings from the 'tags' and also the skinny ribbons are a bit harder to manipulate.

The look of sadness on Kieran's face when it saw it was classic- he thought I had butchered one of his cushions!

I had some fabric left over so made a couple of smaller taggy's as well- that way Joz has something when the big one is so gooby it needs to go in the wash. (I had intended on attaching a plastic toy ring to the triangle one so it could be attached to a pushchair or car seat but I totally forgot until after I had sewed it up. :-) )

I could see these being a go-to baby gift- easy to make personalised, quick to make and cheap- and a great way to use up ribbon brought with poor judgement for scrapbooking (duh!).
♥

How to.... Using Die Cut paper as a mask.

I'm no expert at all when it comes to scrapbooking and I didn't even much like the final result on this page but I figure the details might provide some inspiration or knowledge for someone then cool!



I started out this LO with an idea to scraplift this footy page from a magazine. I originally thought I could use Kaiser felt to replicate the stars. And then I thought I could stamp the stars and cut them out and stick them behind the photos. But in the end I went with using a 12 x12 die cut sheet to create my background (I picked it up at the Warehouse ans it was still perfectly useable when I was done- and had an added funky texture from the paint.). I used Adirondack Snow Cap paint dabber but you could easily use any thickish acrylic paint with a normal or foam brush.


The first step is to stick your mask in place with some low tack adhesive. I used masking tape.

Next use the dabber or brush to apply the paint in a dabbing motion. If you pounce rather than swipe or brush on the you will be less likely to rip, or shift the mask or to get bleeding under it.

Continue until you have covered the area you intend. Then carefully lift two corners of the mask to check your results. If you leave a couple of areas still taped down you can easily replace the mask on the card if you change your mind (like I did) or want to do a second coat of paint.
I decided I wanted the whole piece of card covered so laid my mask back down and continued to dab my paint down out to the edges.



I used a piece of scrap paper under the edges to keep my table clean. Lifting the tape of the corners one by one so it didn’t shift too much.

Here’s the completed page mask on and then mask removed, You can see I have left a space for my title. At this point I left it for the paint to dry.


Here are two of the options I have for storing my foam stamps. The folder on the left utilises trading card holders which you can get at most stationary stores. It is easy to see what you have and to find what you want but takes up a lot of space and sometimes the stamps try to escape their pockets. The other option is just a zip lock bag which takes up less space but you really need to dump all the stamps out to find them!


With so many teachers having such a passion for presentation skills this technique should be taught to all kids!
When you are making a title write the whole thing down on scrap paper making sure to mark the spaces as well. Starting at the start and end of the line number the first and last letters with the number 1 and the 2nd and 2nd last with number 2 and so on till you meet the middle. Make sure to assign the gaps a number as if they were letters also. If you have an uneven number then that letter will be your midpoint. If not then the point between the highest numbers will be, in between the o and c on my title. If you have a couple of ‘i’s or ‘l’s on one side you may want to fudge your centre a little more to the opposite side because those letters are so skinny they don’t quite take up the space of a regular letter- W can work the opposite way.

I laid out all the stamps for my title and I could see that it was going to be a tight fit for the available space so I decided to stamp a sample first.
I also like to have all my stamps laid out as I am less likely to make a spelling mistake that way.

A centre finder ruler is a fantastic tool to have when it comes to doing titles! I placed mine on my sample card with the 0 right in the centre because I knew my title would span almost my whole page.


Then I started stamping from the right of centre of my LO- the ‘C’ in Stockley which I figured out above. I like to get down close to my LO and look side on to ensure I am placing my stamps correctly. I find if I eyeball it from above that I over estimate the gap.


I stamped the right hand side of my title and then went back to the centre and worked right to left to stamp the left hand side.

By comparing my sample to the space on my LO I could see it was going to be very tight. So as I was using a ransom type set I swapped some letters out for skinnier ones.
I could also see that I needed to shift my center left a little as I had more space on the left hand side.


Then I stamped my title onto the LO using the same snow cap paint as I used for my background.

I am not fussy about measuring my mats and such for LO’s preferring a quick and easy eyeball method. This hasn’t always worked out so I was pleased to find this ruler which I believe is used for quilters really cheap at my local emporium. I can set it for the depth I want my mat edges to be and go for it!

I stick my photos down and then use the ruler to line up the card in my trimmer as well.


I messed around with a bunch of different placements for my photos till I came up with something I was happy with….

I felt like my title was a bit floaty in that space so I carefully laid down the mask and painted in closer to get it a little more grounded. After that the title lost it’s punch and seemed to blend into the back ground so I added the Fired Brick Stickles to give it a bit of ‘ooomph’ and match my mat/journaling cardstock.
I added a journaling block and another small piece of cardstock on the opposite side to my photos to balance up the LO a bit and draw some more attention to my photos. Not my best LO but an effective use of the masking technique.

♥