Good Monday, folks!  How’s the weather where you are?  Here, in sunny Florida, we have been having RAIN!  Lots of dark, heavy clouds, the low rumbling of far off, then, nearby thunder, with intermittent thundershowers – the kind of day where you still need the lights on.  Great napping weather!  I know!  I have been test-driving it!  LOL

Today is the first day of school for the children.  I surprised myself with tears as I watched our youngest, my granddaughter, go out the door for her very first day of ‘big’ school.  With her big brother, a fifth-grader, encouraging her, her steps to the truck to go became less and less sure as she started out.  For days now she has been so excited!  Her new outfit sat on the ready for a week now.  Her cousins even did her hair yesterday in preparation for her big debut.  This morning, with her over-sized backpack and her new look, all the excitement culminated into a definate hesitation about mid-driveway.  Suddenly, she wasn’t as sure.  Big brother urged her on enough to get her in the truck and off they went.  Mom reported to me after dropping them off that she didn’t quite want Mommy to leave her.  She has been used to a day care, where both children have gone since birth.  In that closed, little world, she fit right in.  Now, she has a bigger world to fit into.  She has her brother to guide her, though, he has just this year to guard over her, as he goes on to a Middle School next year.  I’m not really worried about her.  This was just first-day nerves.  She is a pistol!  So, I wiped my tear and went and crawled back between the sheets and listened to the rain fall until I napped.

Key-Stroke Shortcut

I’d say, let’s learn another keystroke shortcut.  This one is uber-easy!  When you want to reset the foreground colours to black and white, which are default, click on “D”.  This will put black as foreground and white as background.  Need those colours reversed?  Click “X”.  That’s all there is to it!  There are no modifier keys for these.

Did You Know…? 

Now, you might wonder when you will ever need to use just black and white.  Masks require black and white.  When you place a mask on a layer, it does nothing since it is white.  All of the image it is attached to will be visible.  Once you apply a brushstroke of black to any spot on the mask, that part of the image will become transparent.  Poof!  Invisible!  It’s hidden!  If you erroneously ‘hide’ any part, all you have to do is hit “X”, to switch white back to foreground, and brush over the spot.  Your image will become visible again!  This is where black and white, and the “X” key, come in.  I do most of my ‘erasing’ with a mask in this manner.  I do this when ‘isolating’ an element from an image.  Once I have everything ‘erased’ that I want, then, I can apply the mask.

Here is an image I whipped up that shows the layer with the mask and a brushed circle on the mask.  Note how the space under the black is invisible?  That is what masks do!

I’ve been putting together a list of places you might find enjoyable, but, will post that later this week.  I do want to tell you about one, though.  A Vegas Girl at Heart is a blog where the author relates stories of her family and her life with pictures and amusing anecdotes.  Melissa puts her spin on nice, little goodies, as well.  I like her style!  I found some cute ‘Washi Tape’ pieces recently.  She had been hinting of something really big.  BIG, BIG!   In her most recent ‘Friday Freebie’ she revealed the big surprise – an entire collection of retro elements for Project Life.  While Project Life is not her baby, so to speak, she answered the need for a set of usable elements for keeping up your own project.  Melissa has put together cards of several types, an alpha and even brushes for anyone to document their lives.  Seeing all of her goodies makes me want to participate in PL!  Maybe, one day.  Her offerings are labeled ‘Retro Project Life Kit’ and can find it here.  She has arranged everything by category for downloading – NINE, in all, I believe.  Then, she has other fine components you may purchase from her Etsy shop.  Go check it out.  What I like about this kit is the ‘retro’ look.  The style reminds me of my youth when ‘modern’ was creepy-looking.  LOL  I didn’t ever care much for those clean lines and minimal styles.  To me, it looked cold and un-home-y.  In retro-spect, I love it.  I just didn’t like it when it was new!  So, go!  See what I write about!

Finally, today Miss Edna and I have two more parts for you from our August freebie, “Vintage Garden”.  Last week we gave out the QP’s.  This week and next we give you the papers and elements for you to design your own layouts.  I gots to tell ya, this was fun!  I went way above and beyond our usual target size.  Though the downloads are around 40-50mbs each, they unpack to right at 100mbs each!  I don’t think you will mind.  But, if anyone has any problems with downloading these sizes, let me know and I will accommodate you.

Below are my previews.  The first one, the ‘elements’, will link you to Part 3 and the ‘papers’ preview will link you to Part 4.  I still separate everything by papers and elements in the preview, but, each part has an assortment of each.  Then, below that, you’ll see Miss Edna’s preview.  Click on it, if you haven’t been to her blog yet, and go collect her parts.

Part 3

Part 4

Miss Edna

There ya go!  Until next week,

Smile!

Hugs,

Su