hello tuesday: halloween + autumn links

Some things you should know:

* I did a quickie banner update for Halloween. Click over to have a little look-see.

* The cute spider is thanks to The Ink Nest, my new fave clip art source. So many cute drawings! I want every single one of her clip art sets, especially the jars.

* People tell me all the time that Max looks just like Maren. Lies, all lies. He looks like Lizzy! 

* This is Max's first camo. Hooah.
* I finished the first season of Once Upon a Time the other night and really liked it. Then last night I watched the first episode of the new season, and it pretty much lost me. A whole town's worth of people gets magically transported to our world, ok, I can handle that, but Emma and Mary-Margaret jumping back through a hat-spun wormhole because the grim reaper grabbed them by the ankles? Nope. Sorry Charlie. No can do. Besides, I'm getting sick of Charming boo-hooing all the time and having that single tear perpetually rolling down his cheek. WIPE IT OFF, BROTHER.
* The girls are going to be butterflies for Halloween. Their skirts are rad (pictures forthcoming). If I can manage it I really really really want Max to be Max.
* Lizzy's school doesn't allow costumes (yes, really) so I picked up some cute Halloween fabric for a couple of quick circle skirts. Seriously, try this tutorial, it will change your life.
* These pumpkin roll pancakes might be about to change my life. My sister made them, sans creamy stuff, last night & said they were awesome. I'm copying her tomorrow night.

gimp girl tutorial: rounded photo corners

Happy Thursday, lovely Marigoldlets! 

Here's a simple way to add vintage flair to your photos: round the corners.

Takes less than 30 seconds, once you get the gist.

Ready, go.

{new to gimp? it's like photoshop, only free. start here and here.}

First, open an image using Gimp.

Next, Select > Rounded Rectangle.

The Rounded Rectangle dialogue box will appear.

You can play with the radius percentage {how curvy your curve will be}. 

I set mine to 25%.

After hitting OK, you'll notice that part of your image {the larger part} is selected.

We want to get rid of those tiny triangles in the corners, so we'll invert the selection.

So, Select > Invert.

Edit > Clear and say goodbye to those triangles.

Now Select > None...

...now you're ready to add some deco tape and call it a day.

{you know the only reason I do this is to subject you to otherwise irrelevant but crazy cute pictures of my offspring... right?}

digital freebie: four chalkboard backgrounds

I love chalkboards.

They are huge right now, and they are an easy way to add vintage sass to whatever you're working on.

And guess what! I just learned how to make chalkboard-ish digital papers.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Have at it, my friends. 

4 low-res 1000x1000 chalkboards.

Terms of use are the usual: personal and small business use ok, not to be used in any icky material.

{I'm telling you, I shoulda been a lawyer.}

Is anyone interested in a tutorial for this? Lemme know.

Have fun chalking it up {hee hee},

and may your Halloween weekend be cavity-inducing.

design inspiration: michelle armas

I loved my old blog design, but felt like it was time for a change.

{said in wall-e voice} ta-daa!

Designing my own blog has been a goal for a long time, and I am really happy with how it turned out! Simple, clean, and colorful. The color inspiration came from Michelle Armas' delicious painting, Rosalia, which it appears is no longer available.

{Am I wrong? Somebody please tell me I'm wrong!}

I used the Gimp color picker tool to pick a large spectrum of colors from the painting, then used those colors for the text in the new header. This palette makes me drool a little...as much as I like my new blog design, I don't think I'm done with these colors yet!

Color picking in Gimp is easy-peasy and is a great way to translate color ideas into actual designs. It also means you don't have to blindly try to select the perfect colors for your project. You could use this method for Christmas cards, scrapbooking pages, blog/Etsy designs... the list goes on. 

Any color schemes you've been drooling over lately? My paint chip sample collection is accumulating + I'm always on the lookout for new ones...

loving words

Happy Tuesday, peeps. It is cold and rainy, so we are off to the indoor swimming pool!

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gimp girl tutorial: adding deco tape to photos for your blog

{Pssst! I'm giving away this tasty stack of washi later this week!}

Are you ready to get your Gimp on?? I sure hope so.
'Cause today we're gonna learn how to apply digital deco tape to an image using the program Gimp. 

Gimp is a FREE program that's comparable to Photoshop (we don'need no steenking photoshop!), and you can download it here for PC or here for Mac.

I have yet to find a really great comprehensive source of Gimp tutorials, but so far I've been able to figure most stuff out with Google + a whole lot of trial and error. The more I experiment with the program and with its different tools, the more proficient I feel.
I think that the best way to learn is to DO, so let's dive in & get DOING!

In the course of this tutorial, you'll learn how to:

Use the rectangle select tool

Copy + paste

Work with layers

Scale images

Rotate images
Autocrop images

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Let's rock it.

To get going, open Gimp.

See the very tippy top of the screen, where it has the Apple menu and X11 and Applications and everything? Ignore that.
You'll only use the menu you see at the top of the blank gray box.

Next, we'll open the main image you want to work with.

Go to File > Open, 

find the photo you want to work with {in my case, the washi pic}, and open that bad boy up.

Here's what we have so far.

Now we'll whip out the washi. A karate chop with your non-mouse hand is encouraged but not required.

Go to File > Open,
find your fave deco tape file (I strongly recommend the freebies at Pugly Pixel; that's what I use 99% of the time), and open.

Time to select the piece of tape you want to use.

In the Toolbox at the left of the screen, double-click on the rectangle select tool.
Move to your deco tape window and click + hold + drag the mouse over the piece of tape you like best.

Now we'll copy and paste that piece of tape into your main image.

In the deco tape window, go to Edit > Copy.
In the main image (in my case, the deco tape photo), go to Edit > Paste as > New Layer.
Yay!

Notice a few things:
The deco tape is huge as compared to the photo. We'll resize that in a sec.
See the Layers window in the upper left hand corner? We've got 2 layers right now: the tape and the photo.
Each layer can be edited and manipulated separately. If I mess around with one layer, it won't affect the other layer(s).
More on that another time.

Time to resize the tape.
You can close the deco tape file now if you wanna.
Look at the Layers window and make sure the tape layer is selected.
{If you want to resize the photo instead, knock yourself out; just select the layer with the photo in it.}

In the Toolbox, double-click on the scale image tool.
As you hold down the control key, click + hold + drag the mouse until the tape is the size you want it.
Holding down the control key preserves the length/width ratio of the image.
As you do this, a Scale window will pop up (mine is at the bottom of the screen).
Hit return OR click Scale in the Scale window.
See? You've got options.

Almost there!
Let's rotate the tape.
I mean, of course you can leave it as it is. Or you can get sexy with it. Your call.

In the Toolbox, double-click on the rotate image tool.

Click + hold + drag the mouse until the tape looks nice to you.

As you do this, a Rotate window will pop up (mine is at the bottom of the screen).

Hit return OR click Rotate in the Rotate window.

Now we'll fit the canvas to our layers. 

See how my deco tape looks like it's been cut off at the top?

No bueno. To fix it, go to Image > Fit Canvas to Layers. 

Poof! It fits.

Now we'll prepare the image for posting on the web. This is easy.

To flatten the image (i.e. convert it from an image with layers to just an image, no layers), go to Image > Flatten Image.
Now autocrop the image to get rid of any unnecessary margins.

Go to Image > Autocrop Image.

Ahh, pretty.

This is optional, but I like to do it -- let's scale the entire image to an optimum size for your blog.

Go to Image > Scale Image.

Enter your desired pixel width, press the tab key, and hit Scale.

For this step, it's handy to know how wide your main blog column is {the place where your posts go}. Mine is fairly wide at 850px.
Depending on the effect I'm going for, I scale my images to between 600-800px wide.

DONE!

Lastly, save your image. If you don't add a file type to the end of the file name, Gimp will save the file as an .xcf file, which means that when you open it again later, it will open up as a Gimp file with all your layers preserved and everything. 

If you want your image to be a .jpg file so that you can upload it to your blog, just type .jpg at the end of the file name.

I usually save 2 copies of my images -- one as a .xcf and one as a .jpg.

After you hit Save, some more dialogue boxes will pop up. 

First one: hit Export.

Second one: slide the ticker to 100 and hit Save.

YOU DID IT!!

Now go slap some deco tape on all your fave photos.

Let me know if you end up using this -- I would really really love to see what you come up with!

I know it looks like a long tutorial, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to deco-tape your pics in 3 minutes flat. For serious.

We've got lots more to learn, so get practicing {cracks the whip}.
Let me know if you think of something you'd like to learn! I don't know everything (ha), but I'm always looking for ideas.

*kissy kissy!!*

uplifting download: he'll go with you

Welcome, Life Made Lovely readers! It's so nice to have you here!

With all the comings + goings of summertime, I've been thinking a lot about busyness, schedules, 

and trying to spend more time doing stuff that, you know, matters.

Sometimes it is hard for me to choose. 

What I should do -- what I want to do -- what He wants me to do -- 

they don't always align. 

But I do know that I can have Him with me, no matter what.

{click here to download}

Whatever life is handing you right now -- you can have Him with you.

He can help you.

He knows you + He loves you.

Isn't that just the greatest?

I think it is!

Hope you enjoy the print -- I'll be back soon with some super vintage finds.

I hope your week is off to a beautiful start, my friends!

pinterest, print edition

Thanks for the sweet comments + e-mails yesterday. I'm doing a lot better today, thanks to lots of rest + blessings over the weekend. Good thing, too, because my little chickies need their mama! They have been so sweet the past few days. Little kids are so amazing in their capacity to just roll with it. Most of the time.

So I like to keep a design idea notebook handy here at home. Here's a few recent pages that I keep going back to for inspiration (sometimes it helps me visualize what a pattern might look like when I actually draw it on paper).

If you're interested in pattern design, try Built by Wendy Dresses. It is my go-to book for a starting point when I'm drafting any kind of pattern, dress or no. I think it is a totally worthwhile purchase!

Speaking of which, the Pretty Blouse pattern will be available on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog on June 16th! I'm super excited/nervous. I still have a little list of kinks to work out, though, and they need to be done in 2 days! Eek! Better get to it...

Smoochies!

uplifting download: scripture power

Lizzy started going to Sunbeams (Sunday School) this year, and since then it seems like she's been singing non-stop. I LOVE it. She makes up her own songs, too. Most recently I heard her singing in the bathtub:

There was a little rag

She lived at the bottom of the sea

Swim round, swim round, swim round...

*Melt my mommy heart!* Anyway -- Scripture Power is a big favorite around here. Even Maren sings along sometimes. I found an uber cute + clever music video of the song if you haven't heard it before (or even if you have). The chorus goes:

Scripture power(!) keeps me safe from sin

Scripture power is the power to win

Scripture power; every day I need

The power that I get each time I read.

My day always goes so much better when I read my scriptures first thing. Tempers stay down. Voices speak sweeter. Everything is a little bit brighter, a little more saturated, a little more focused.

Feel free to download any (or all!) of the designs below, or you can print a 4-in-1 that's the perfect size for bookmarks. And let's stick to non-commercial use, k? And (ee!) guess what - I whipped up a button for these little freebies (see last week's here). I have so many more ideas that I hope to share with you. Grab the button and link up if you want!

Now get out there with your scripture power!

uplifting download: good, better, best

Happy Tuesday, guys! I'm excited to post this fun little freebie. A while back, Dallin H. Oaks gave an address called Good, Better, Best that's all about priorities.

Because it isn't always a choice between doing something naughty or doing something good.

More often our choices are whether we'll do something good (read a novel?), something better (play with my kids?), or something best (serve my neighbor together with my kids?).

To sum it up simply:

"We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families."

That message has been on my mind a lot lately, so I made a little reminder -- stick it on your fridge, pin it in your laundry room, give it to a friend -- I hope you like it!

my life would suck without you

I came across this print on Etsy last week and totally freaked. This is exactly the kind of thing R and I would say to each other.

I put it above our bed (with a nail! and a hammer! see, I really can do it), which space has been in need of some TLC. Behind the print is just a super-starched piece of fabric. Easy peasy fast!

new ways to stay up late

I am just hopping with excitement. Today I discovered Gimp, which is like Photoshop, only free -- for reals -- like with all the fancy tools I don't know how to use and everything.

Then (thanks to Heather) I discovered the gorgeous (free!) clip art at Pugly Pixel, whose blog you can bet your booty went straight into my Google Reader.

Last night some inspiration came around 10 pm (doesn't it always?) so I stayed up late to sew. R stumbled out of the bedroom somewhere around 11 and mumbled, "You're staying up late, aren't you?" Yep. Crochet doilies, layers, ruffles, necklines, vintage details...all going into some new designs for springtime in the shop.

That is, if I can quit plastering digital deco tape all over everything long enough to get a little shuteye.