Thursday, November 30, 2017

Planner for Chiro-Sis

"Puffins!"  my sister exclaimed. When she saw this bird watching notebook, I knew I would be making it her new planner! Loyal readers of this blog may remember the planner I made out of a potato chip bag for her for 2017. This was a bit easier!


Here's the front cover:
I put a blank label thingie over the title, so she can write whatever she wants.


    Spine:
    You'll notice I do the Travelers Notebook elastics.

    Inside:

    Loyal readers of this blog will remember the post I did on the Waterlogue app that transforms photographs into watercolour pictures. Now you can see all the finished puffin pictures incorporated.

    First insert is an 8" X 11.5" picture with Tyvek backing, painted brown:

    A coupla quotes from Joe Dispenza and Bruce Lipton:

    Weekly spread on 2 pages:

    Puffin pix from Pixabay:

    I put a surprise Rowan pocket in her notebook:

    I made a Gratitude journal for her with another photo from Pixabay, Waterlogued:
    Mum loved penguins, so I thought she'd appreciate this wintery picture in lieu of  the usual Xmas graphics.
    Scroll down to the end of this post for a free graphic to make your own December Daily Gratitude Journal.

    One of my (many) favourite quotes from John Morgan:

    "GRATITUDE IS A DECISION OF THE HEAD AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART."
    This came to me in a meditation . . . on gratitude.  :-)

    Monthly calendar from the Dollar Tree:

    Another Waterlogued Pixabay puffin, turned into a pocket:

    Back pocket, which I reinforced with Tyvek:

    Back of book:

    Here's the card I included:



    Tea (of course)!


    Here's a video flip-thru:

    Here's the December Daily Gratitude graphic:
    Just right-click to save.  :-)

    Tuesday, November 21, 2017

    Waterlogue

    My sister saw a bird watching book that I got with puffins on the cover and she squealed. "Ooooh!  Puffins!"  So I decided I would make her a new planner with it. Everyone in my family has coasters featuring the artwork of Emma Ball, that have been gifted after trips to Orkney. I wanted to use her artwork in Ruth's planner, but I didn't feel right about about using it, even for personal use. But I wanted watercolour puffins.

    So I went on Pixabay for free graphics, and found one non-photographic graphic, but the rest were all photographs. And then I started thinking that there had to be an app for turning photos into a watercolour painting. So I looked on the google, and found Waterlogue.

    It's FANTASTIC!

    Pros:
    • Only $4.99
    • Easy to use; point and click
    • Has different variations and choices
    Cons:
    • No choice in where to save; it just saves automatically to your Photos folder. However, you can copy and save to a different folder, so that's what I do. It took me a while to figure that out, tho. So, you're welcome.  
    • Not the best with people, unless it's a close-up. 
    Here are a few I've done. First up!  Puffins!


     


    This was the illustration on Pixabay:

    But then I thought I'd see what would happen if I Waterlogued it:
    COOL!

    Bird illustration:

    Aaaaand Waterlogued:

    Of course I had to play with some dogs!  

    Here's Bingo:

    Bingo doing Sphinx Pose.

    Baby & Bingo:

    Here are a couple different treatments for the same photo:


    Buddy on my lap:

    Baby on my lap:

    Baby & Buddy:

    Buddy:

    Bingo and Reggie, pre-beagles; taken with iPad:

    Hannah Banana:

    This one is stunning!   Lulu:

    Here's Tabby Bobcat:

    There are several choices within the program with names like "Natural," "Bold," and "Illustration." 

    Here's Reggie with 3 different options:
    Bold.

    Natural.

    Illustration. It adds lines. 

    Here's a random cow I took a pic of back in my River House days:

    And some Nature pix of my old road:








    And some city pix:



    This is the altar at my church:

    Here's a photo I took when I first started going to St. Luke's. This couple walked in and went to a front pew and knelt down together. I just thought it was so sweet and happened to have my camera, so I snapped a quick pic. 

    As it turns out, I became friends with them. This is Mary and Larry; Mary is in the Knitting Guild and a dear friend. Larry was a state trooper for many years and, sadly,  just recently passed away.

    Here are 3 treatments of the same photo. I've forgotten the names, but here you go!



    These are from the Juniper tree and Autumn pix I just posted:







    Tulip polar tree with 2 different variations:
    "Vibrant."

    "Natural."

    People

    The program does better with close-ups. Here's my nephew:
    Vibrant.

    "Natural."

    "Luminous."  (I  think)!
    Here's where it doesn't do such a great job. Here's Mum watching an episode of Hoarders:

    Here's how it turns out:

    This is the "Illustrator" variation:

    Color Bloom:

    After all this, I decided to take a photo thru all the variations!  So here you go:

    Original:


    (Apologies for smaller size, this is as large I can get it).

    Here they are without labels. Feel free to use for personal or commercial:

    And I'll leave you with a sunset, Cape Charles beach pic: