2012 in review – Happy New Year!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 15,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Brushing up on my Photoshopping Skills

I apologize for the lack of posts recently… I just started a second job and trying to juggle work and a baby doesn’t allow too much time for hobbies! My mom asked me to Photoshop some images of her work to which I gladly obliged (it’s been a while since I have had time to practice). Ever since I can remember, my mom has been painting and repainting everything in our house. Here’s a peek at some of her creations:

Isn’t she talented?! :)

Project #20: How to Make a Chalkboard on Photoshop

Hello all!

I was requested to create a website banner for a mobile application training site for the business I am working for. It was challenging to think of something original and I decided to design a chalkboard-esque banner since it represents learning. This is the banner I made:

To start off I formed a rectangle and coloured it green to create my background. Then, I layered another rectangle on top and stroked it with a thick border and coloured it brown.  In the “Blending Options” I chose to “Bevel” the border in order to make it look realistic. The next step was to make the background look chalky and dusty which I did by choosing an appropriate brush and taking down the opacity and flow.  Finally, I found the chalk text -which is probably the most important part of the design- on Font Squirrel (it’s called Eraser)… Gotta love free fonts! :)

Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you know that I’m still alive and I will try to update my blog more regularly!

Desk Makeover

Hello WordPress Universe!

I am really excited about this project! It all started when I found this old Ikea desk on Kijiji for $20 (& that included delivery!). The shape is great and I loved that it was real wood however, it had a couple scratches and the tone was a little “blah”.

My colour inspiration came from this lovely buffet table (which I found on… You guessed it! Pinterest):

I went to The Home Depot and spent $25 on a roller, small paintbrush, sandpaper and some CIL Semi-Gloss paint.

The rest was easy enough.. I sanded down the furniture, wiped it clean and did a couple coats. The key to this project was patience and letting the paint dry before the second coat! I didn’t wait quite long enough and ended up scraping off some of the first coat in the process… Ooops!

I am in LOVE with my new desk; Now I just need a beautiful iMac to set on top of it!

Thanks for reading :)

Fabulous idea! Make your own real life Pinterest board!

KOLA Designs

I have had this project in mind ever since I joined Pinterest, quite some time ago.  I immediately titled it “Pinspiration!”   I completed the project in February but finally got around to getting it mounted and picked it up last week.  I just love how it turned out, and the staff at the photo studio seemed to love it too – we weren’t sure they were going to give it up lol!   I was so excited to take photos for you that I didn’t even dust off the print before I took them – just ripped off the plastic wrap and snapped away!

How did I do this?  Well… one of the first boards I started adding to on Pinterest was my “Inspiration” board, where I would add inspirational and motivational quotes – some serious, some humorous.  I was ending up with quite the selection and decided that…

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Home Office Inspiration

Like everyone else, I have been consumed with browsing Pinterest lately… It even brought out a side of me that is interested in interior design (which I never knew existed!). I’m still not crazy about the manual labour that goes into decorating however, I enjoy looking at pictures. Currently, my dining room table is doubling as a desk but I’m working on it! 

Here’s a collection of drool-worthy workspaces:

Project #19: Triangles (Photoshop CS6 Beta)

I came across this image on Pinterest and thought it would be a fun and easy project.

You might recognize my original photo (I’m not much of a photographer unfortunately):

To create even triangles, I traced the Triangle Symbol and used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to trace the shape.  I copied and pasted some parts of the image to different locations in addition to adding some coloured and patterned triangles. (I got the patterns for free from the Creative Market.) This is my finished product:

Project #18: Make a Poster (Photoshop CS6[!])

Typographic Posters have me slightly obsessed lately so I decided to take a stab at making one myself with the Photoshop CS6 Beta.  To be honest, I can’t really tell the difference from the 5th edition although I’m a fan of the black screen and it seems to be a little more intuitive. What really inspired me to create something with Photoshop were these Herringbone patterns that I received (free!) for signing up with Creative Market:

I wish that I could paint all my walls and furniture in Herringbone and be surrounded by it all the time! Gorgeous.

This is the poster that I created:

The fonts are all recent downloads (Outlier, Ostrich Sans & Code Light) & I used a Grunge image from Creative Market to add some texture to the circle behind the word “YOU”.  All in all, I’m pretty happy with the result and it was a fun way to spend my Saturday night! Haha

:)

Reassuring Coffee Infographic

(Pinned by Rachel Patterson)

WordPress, I missed you.

Hello!
It feels like it has been forever since I was last able to post! We went up to Yellowknife to visit family for a couple weeks and the internet connections up there are less than favourable (as was the weather haha).

   

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  While I was gone I was nominated for TWO awards and I am so excited and flattered! Jessica Thornburgh nominated me for a Liebster Award on her blog and Lynda Crawford (not related as far as I know!) nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award :) On Jessica’s blog you can find everything from Home Decor DIY Tutorials to her Oil Paintings to Logo Designs & Lynda can take a picture of anything and make it look cool. Take the time to visit their blogs, I promise you will not be dissapointed!

As for me.. I just downloaded the Photoshop CS6 Beta trial which I am stoked to test out & I will hopefully be posting some new projects in the not too distant future!  I have also been somewhat obsessed with Interior Design lately and some of my decorating projects may find their way to my blog. You can see my collection of inspiration on Pinterest if you are interested in Home Decor.

Thanks again to everyone who has been visiting my blog & nominating me for awards! It means a lot!