The Kim Archer Blog

free photoshop actions

I've been playing with Photoshop, in particular Photoshop actions, over the past day or so which has been fun and yes, I'm totally procrastinating instead of doing my work!

I've been using Paint The Moon actions for a while. I love them. You can visit the website here and the Paint The Moon facebook page here where if you "like" their facebook page you can then download free actions and things!

I bought the Miracle Makeover and Essential set as a package which you can see here. I need more practice as I am only just scratching the surface with these actions! Annie, the owner of Paint The Moon has some great video tutorials on her website which I have started to explore.

I then discovered The Coffee Shop blog. Oh my. SO much free stuff to choose from. Actions galore. All for free. Where to start??? So much to download.

I've downloaded quite a few actions but again, I'm still exploring. I like the Butterscotch Vintage, Johnna's Memories of Sunshine, Johnna's Tea Party and rounded corners.

In this photo I used the Coffee Shop Memories Of Sunshine but tweaked it a fair bit to get the finish you see here..

The whole thing with Actions is to experiment, play, explore and tweak things as you go...theres a heap of tutorials and how tos out there .. and I am enjoying my exploring!!

home from cabin-ing

We are home again from our big cabin-ing adventure.

Our weekend was lovely. And just what we all needed.

Any dedicated camper would have laughed at where we stayed as it was SO NOT camping in the true sense of the word and really, I had no clue camping could be so civilised.

The cabins were very small and cute and well equipped. So it wasn't really roughing it, although I did have to squint to watch The Biggest Loser on the teeny, tiny, up high TV in our cabin on Friday night.

Here's our "street" and the cabin we stayed in (with the towel hanging off the railing) and a little glimpse of Ken sitting on the verandah reading the paper..

The kids had an absolute ball. We barely saw them as they had a LOT of new (and old) friends to keep them occupied. There were 250 people there from the Church and we were welcomed with open arms and such warmth and friendliness, considering we were outsiders:-) It was wonderful.

And it was back to the simple things - bike riding, swimming, wandering around, hanging out, chatting around a bonfire at night, BBQs, tennis and just relaxing!

These two were joined at the hip. Capri and Jemima have been friends since they were teeny, tiny..about 4-5 years old I think..and get along famously!

And I loved just sitting on the beach relaxing. Taking time out from everything and just rejuvenating and refreshing!!

 

The beach was on our doorstep but the water was too cold for me for swimming (needs to be very warm for me to venture into the surf these days..) and so rough - shore dumpers and a ton of seaweed..not a great combination for swimming.

But somehow soothing to sit and watch the waves and not feel the everyday rushing and hustle and bustle of life!

Twas a good weekend!

I've been playing with some free Photoshop Actions!! Will share some info and links etc in tomorrow's post.

secret squirrel

So. The Support Girls and I have been busy little bees, working on a very special project over the past month or so.

We can't share *just* yet exactly what we have been up to but here's a sneak peek at what we have been doing.

Stay tuned.

cabin-ing

This weekend we are going camping.

I don't do camping.

Yeah, I know, camping is the Australian way...but I don't cope well with communal shower blocks, the wilderness and all that lurks within, sleeping on an airbed in a tent in close confines and having to take all our own food supplies with us.

So we are actually, cabin-ing! (and would rather be 5 star resort-ing. ha ha)

We are heading away with close friends of ours and their Church group - they go every year and get quite a large lot of families going. Ken and Jammo have been other years and taken our four man tent (I told Ken to not bother buying anything bigger than a 4 man tent as there was no chance I would ever be in it!) and the rest of my family LOVE camping.

And I know from past experiences that some people have the Taj Mahal of tents and all the camping gear. But we aren't like those families! Just some basics.

So it's best that we stay in a cabin. I am not expecting it to be a luxurious cabin but it has it's own bathroom, power points, a kitchenette and real beds! woo hoo.

Will be hoping to blog while away..

IF they have mobile reception.

Hopefully.

show and tell

Here's what I've been working on..just a little 9x9inch - I like to create in this size from time to time and continue filling a 9x9 inch Heidi Swapp album for Capri I started last year. It's a really workable size.

lots of bits and pieces and I used my little old typewriter to type the journaling out onto a shipping tag. Plus a little layered cluster of lace and bits.

anyway..just sharing ..

i'm lovin' this pen and ink handwriting thing!

A couple more pages from my Donna workshop. I am so enjoying the pen and ink work! I just want to write on everything in my big fancy scrawl!!

and a few "scrapbooky" pages..

and some more pen an ink writing..

It isn't actually an album of Capri, although it looks like it from my photos. Rather, it's an album of the family..I just haven't finished the other pages featuring other family members!!

Will share soon.

our donna adventure. part two

So Sunday morning, bright and early, Lisa and I headed back to Tuggerah for our second Donna Downey class - Inspiration Journal:Creating a Visual Diary.

And what a treat we were all in for.

This was a totally hands on, freestyle, dive in, create and don't think too much about it type class. I must admit I loved the freedom of the class..and the fact there were no right or wrong ways to do things and that we were encouraged to try things out and embrace our creativity.

 The idea behind the visual diary was to try out new techniques, have fun, play with different products and ideas and build a resource you could come back to time and time again when working on other projects.

We all received a beautiful fabric covered, handmade by Donna art journal with lots of different pages/tags/envelopes just  begging to be decorated! And we brought along our own stamps, inks, papers, ribbons, buttons, fabrics etc..

The first thing Donna did was direct us to pick a page, any page and start from there. She encouraged us not to always think we have to start on the first page of a journal! I liked that line of thinking.

And then the fun began.

Donna would call out some instructions..pick a page, any page and add ANY colour of paint to it.

OR choose another page and add a piece of patterned paper, some fabric and some "garbage" (pretty packaging etc)...OR pick up a charcoal pencil, choose another page and draw something, anything on that page.

And then came the twist!

About an hour into the class we were asked to clean up our space, close our journals, stand up behind our seats with our journals (I thought she might be going to have a show and tell or something??? I was clueless!) and MOVE TO ANOTHER SEAT in the classroom. Any seat - as long as it wasn't at your own table.

Whoa.

And then we had twenty minutes to "play" with all of that person's stuff! I found that HARD! I was more than happy for whoever sat in my seat (it was the lovely Sherry!!) to use my stuff as I'm happy to share :) BUT I found it hard to use up someone else's things - especially when I didn't know them at all. What if they haven't even used this fabric yet? What if these buttons are their favourite? What if they have been saving these embellishments for a special project? What if they have only just bought this product?

Too many what ifs but I eventually settled myself down and enjoyed the process!

I do love that it gave us a chance to think outside the square, use products that we may not usually use and to try out some new things but I felt a bit weird using someone else's supplies!

I did LOVE the birdcage stamp though!!!

All in all this was such a great class. Donna is a fabulous teacher and very talented lady! It was a pleasure to be in her classes over the weekend and just what I needed to be honest! Great company, creative work, Lisa's chocolate and a lovely table of friendly and welcoming ladies!

We also learnt little techniques along the way like how to make fabric flowers from circles of fabric, image transfer using acrylic paint and scrunching, wetting and heat setting patterned paper shapes!

I've been busy with my Friday night project today in an attempt to get it finished. I'm not quite there yet but will share what I've created tomorrow.

See you then.

 

Little houses make me happy

(Edited - I must add that I didn't make these little houses!!! I found them on Flickr via Pinterest and wanted to share.)

Aren't these cool little fabric houses.

All lined up.

They make me happy!

   
Source.

I'll be back later today with my next instalment of our Donna Downey weekend! AND I have some things to share as I have been very busy creating more pages for the project we started in Donna's Friday night class!

oh how I love anything aqua.

I am drawn to anything clever, aqua, pretty or make it yourself so these glorious paint your own inexpensive vases fitted all of those categories.

I SO want to make my own little collection too.

Source.

See the mini step by step tutorial here.

 

Getting arty

Friday night Lisa Pate and I headed off on a painting/inking/misting/arty adventure to Pages 2 scrap at Tuggerah where we met the lovely Donna Downey and a whole heap of other like minded people!

me, Donna and Lisa.

It was lovely to catch up with some familiar faces - I knew heaps of girls there, having taught them over the years or just from getting out and about in the scrapping world..and it was great to get messy and inky with paints and things.

We sat with a lovely group of friendly girls!! Donna was fabulous as usual and entertaining and we got to have a really good play with inks, paints, fabric, stamps and all sorts of bits and pieces!

I tackled some fancy nancy writing using a pen and drawing ink...my first attempt at hand lettering and I loved it and hope to use this technique again and again... Here's my ONLY finished page so far...

I never do hand lettering on my pages, ever, so this was a first for me and I loved it! I am keen and eager to finish my little mini album of mixed media pages and I'll share when they're done!

Lisa and I are off to Donna's art journal class today!