My New Computer

Well I finally purchased my new computer. There were a lot of specials out there for Thanksgiving and black friday. And if I was just looking to do digital scrapbooking a few of them would have been just fine.But...I am also a gamer( mmorpg,Oblivion,World of Warcraft,Adventure games,London's hellfire) and that was the problem. I needed a GOOD graphics card. And there was none to be found in any specials or store including BestBuy,CircuitCity, or Costco and Office Max. So I ended up custom building it at Dell. Estimated shipping date is Dec. 6th--St. Nicolas Day! My son helped me alot to know what to get, esp. the graphics card.He sent me to Tom'sHardware.com to see how important a decent graphics card is and how they were rated by tiers from best on down.!! I haven't been able to play Oblivion because my present graphic card is so bad and I am looking forward to that.

My PSPug Work

Scrapbooking & Old Photos

I will be so happy when I get my new computer.It is almost impossible to do 12x12 layouts.That hourglass just doesn't want to stop running.I have discovered if I scrap at 8x8 which is the size I print I can scrapbook most things .Boy, it will be unbelievable to be able to scrap fast! Brent is going to help me buy my computer since he is looking for a new one too.I have one in mind at Dell already.Waiting to see if any specials come out or if Costco etc. have what I need.No hurry cause this computer working- just too slow for digiscrapping.

Most of the photos of my kids were taken in the 70's .Photos's taken in 60's & 70's are the worse quality in history of photography.Something to do with type of film etc used at that time. My photos reflect this.They are unclear and fading . I understand one technique to use with these poor photos is to take just part of the photo to use.(Can put on elements,use as background paper , etc.

I need a new computer

I don't know why I am so hesitant to just go and get one.I think it is because it is so much work to get hooked up to ISP ,redo addressbook & favorites etc that once running you have for years.But that is not it either.I just want to get one that will be up to par for several years and that means no specials or deals are available.This one working good just too slow for my digital scrapbooking.And of course my video card is not good enough for the lastest high end gaming.Therefore upgrading ram and video card not cost effective.

Happy Halloween

I made this pumpkin from scratch and it wasn't easy!

The tutorial I used was an older version then my program

and alot of the instructions did not work.I wish corel would get with it on their user site and update the tutorials for the newer versions.Sally says she is going to get me photoshop elements for Christmas.After wasting so much time trying to do this tutorial it might not be a bad idea since there are so many more tuts for photoshop. I did read on scrapgirls web site a comment by Ro the founder of the site that the new photoshop elements version 6 is out but has removed some actions dig.scrapbookers use a lot and if this is the case PSP in the future may be up in sales. I gotta tell Sally to get version 5 if she still thinks she wants to buy me this for Christmas. I am conflicted about changing programs because of the learning curve and I feel loyal to PSPug site.

Stone Accents Studio - Heritage Layout - Weddings

Stone Accents Studio - Heritage Layout - Weddings: " Heritage Layout - Weddings Hi, I'm happy to tell you that your Wedding LO had the most comments! You are the winner of the Heritage LO of the Month for September. You will be recieving an email with a coupon good for $5 off of any of Pillowgirl's kits. Thanks for joining the challenge and Congratulations! __________________ Hugs, JanW.

SLP at PSPug

SLP is a self learning program at the PSP users group web site. I have spent hours doing the tutorials and learning alot. I started with learning layers ,text, making background papers,elements.frames,airbrushing,gradients,selections,vectors,masks and more. If only I could remember how to do everything!
Now I am doing photo enhancement work .Learned how to fix photos using layers ,brightness/contrast,curves.As far as I have gotten but more lessons up to do.I had some photos I took this summer that turned out too dark and auto or smart fix did not improve them very much.I thought the photos were a lost cause.Then with this SLP lesson I was able to get a pretty decent result using curves! I was delighted.
I have a second web page with comcast just for for my PSPug work.

PaintShopPhoto x1

This is the program I use . My understanding is this program does about 95% of what AdobePhotoshop does.Adobe Photoshop Elements is a lighter version for home users . Most tutorials for digital scrapbooking are written for these programs since Adobe is the standard.

Photoshsop elements is more limited than PSP. There are many sites and tutorials for PSP users. Many tutorials for Adobe can be converted to PSP use. Paint ShopPro Users Group is the best place to learn PSP with many tutorials to learn the program . I am active on this site.
http://www.pspug.org/

StoneAccentsStudio

This site just started about 3 months ago by JulieO and I happened to come across it at almost the begining -which is a rich experience to see a site grow from infancy to maturity. Two weeks ago Julie had the grand opening of the store.It was a fun day with lots of free gifts and games to play. It is so neat to get to know the designers and visit their blogs and websites. That is why I have again visited my blog which I have not written in for a few years.Glad to see it was still active. I did have some trouble retrieving the password etc. but did manage somehow to get back on. I saw one of my layouts for a challenge( on SAS) on Terrell's blog! ( one of the SAS-y designers) which was astonishing to see! I have been doing a few of the challenges on the site. I check the site everyday.I am spending way too much time on the computer.

Been A Long Time since Last Post

Gosh it has been so long since I used this site.
I have gotten into the world of digital scrapbooking.
[IMG]http://www.stoneaccentsstudio.com/forum/

4th of july 2004

Again this year an absolutely wonderful family event was planned.Credit this year goes to my sister Babs and my nephew Russell.Russ opened up his lake home to the whole family. He was such a gracious host!!! Two pop up tent trailors plus two tents were erected around his house . I myself got to sleep in the house in one of the 3 bedrooms.The longer I was there the more I enjoyed being there.Waking up early and sitting on the deck with Joanie drinking hot chocolate and watching hundreds of gulls on the lake was a gorgeous site to behold.My sister Babs really worked to make this a fine time. She made several trips to the lakehome bringing extra tables ,putting up a screen across garage and cooking two big meals to share for the rest of us.Mikki came with lots of decorations and set up a table of treats that all the kids just oggled at as they passed . Many nieces & nephews came with all kinds of fireworks.Andrew thought he was pretty funny when he lit off two hugh stink bombs. The local town offered lots of activities .Shopping at the craft show (great stuff), lots of garage sales, a parade, street dance, neat restaurants and local fireworks were just a few.I stayed only till Sat.eve.It was hard to leave all the fun. Off I went to the Redfox Cove events. There Jessa and Brandi were in a kiddie parade after which the firetruck sprayed the kids with the firehose followed by community picnic.Divine Swine came again this year with a hugh pig that they schredded for sandwiches. Slam dunk,jumping tent,ducks in water.penny throw ,three legged race,volley ball, pinata ( sponge bob this year)etc. were played.Door prizes given out and lots more. A live band played and it could be heard over the entire neighborhood given a festive mood. The day ended for me with the family swimming in the community pool decorated for the fourth. Jessa thought she was pretty funny trying to tip grandma off the float-something she learned at Russ's the day before!! Later that eve a bomb fire with raosted marshmellows and fireworks would be had but I went on home.I watched the big city fireworks from my back yard.Beautiful.Firecrackers and firebombs going off all over the place. The sky lite up all over .It was really neat.Then to my pleasant surprise I discovered that several amazonbasin members were online and eager to play a game .So I brought my pally and joined them . My pally was killed by those oblivian knights a few times. I guess I am suppose to switch to blessed hammer and concentration when I see them.But how? my hotkeys are already full with other switches.Oh well I'll figure it out.

Father's Day

Seems like I am having trouble with this blogging business. I just wrote a long eulogy to my father and I clicked something once and lost the whole post.Dang
My dad was a very generous man.Once he gave away our bikes to a poor family.We weren't using them much anymore. I never missed mine. When I was in grade shool one year about a week before Christmas he took my sister Barbara and I along to the hardware store. We could look at the toys while he took care of his business and then when he was done he surprised us and said we could get something! Times weren't so commercial like now.This was really special.I got a craft set of six pictures to color in with pens and then you went over the coloring with a wet brush. Mom later framed the pictures and I had them in my bedroom for a long time. I wonder whatever happened to those pics?? When my parents took me to the cities to start school we got lost but we also made it to Dayton's and my dad bought me a beautiful new dress. It was a white cotton blouse and skirt to match with light blue ruffles in the outfit. My dad was very proud of me for getting on the student council in high school. He was proud of me for going to nursing school.He danced with me at my high school prom .It was the only time I ever danced with him. He was eager to have discussions at the dinner table.He was fun.For our birthdays he would bring home a hugh grocery bag full of just treats for the birthday girl only.This was of course besides the birthday gift!(There was a grocery store in my dad's building that he owned and worked in).He did this too for St. Nicholas Day.He would pretend to be St. Nick and knock on windows and doors with gingle bells.We would be screaming with delight running from window to window trying to catch a glimpse of St. Nick.Then we would open the door and find a grocery bag for each of us with our name on it full of treats-pop,crakerjacks,tangerines,olives,candybars and more!!! When he was much younger than I am today , while in the hospital having a chest x-ray I was went with him . He was having shortness of breath.He looked up at me and asked "Am I dying?" I answered " Yes you are Dad" The rest is history.

My first attempt at logging

I posted my first blog the other day but it did not publish etc. Now it seems I have two blog pages of which one doesn't work and I don't think I can delete it??? Oh well this computer is costing me alot of real life time!! I will get it figured out someday. I had a nice introduction to my blog but now after about three attempts to publish it ; rewriting it each time I no longer have the energy to do it again.So I will just continue and go along each day and see what developes.