Wacom Tablet

So, I've been playing with my tablet... I've been using it instead of a mouse to navigate normal stuff like checking e-mail and browsing websites so I could get used to it... I've edited a few pictures and designed a logo using it. Then I tried actually writing with it. What fun that is! I've always wanted to be able to write on my photographs, but a mouse and the touch pad on my laptop didn't really cut it. Writing with the pen tablet is insanely fun. It truly is just like writing with a pen.

I ended up getting the Craft Version of the Bamboo Fun tablet. The Bamboo Craft came with the software that comes with the Bamboo Fun (Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Win/6.0 Mac, Corel Painter Essentials 4.0, and Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 WE) but it also included some other things for digital scrapbooking (a DVD with how-to videos, Scrappin with a Tablet book, embellishment CD, and a few other goodies). When I found out about digital scrapbooking on the Wacom website, I thought it was pretty cool. Plus it would make for some neat banners and headers for websites.

I haven't gotten around to checking out the how-to videos or the embellishments yet, but the previews for them seem like they'll be fun to work with. The writer of the book is a digital scrapbooking artist named Amanda Dykan. The how-to videos are done by another artist named Jessica Sprague. I love the header on Jessica's page. Their designs are pretty inspiring and can be translated into inspiration for actual artwork, design, and web design besides just inspiring digital scrapbooking.

xoxo
- Cait

Windows 7 F.A.Q. Logo

The other day I got a Wacom Tablet... It was part of my birthday present from my Mom. I picked the craft version because of the "extras" you got in the bundle. I'd have more to play with then, plus digital scrapbooking looks like fun! I've been messing around with it a bit tonight. It's actually pretty fun. The tablet is kind of strange to use vs. a touch pad (what I've always used on my laptop) or a mouse. I'm starting to get used to it and it's a lot of fun thus far. I can't wait to get more use out of it!

So, my manfriend started Windows 7 F.A.Q.com and kept asking if I'd make him a logo of sorts for it. After asking me a bunch of times over the last few days I actually got to work. It's been awhile since I really got into Photoshop - as in using gradients and such. For years I've mainly been using it to edit photographs and maybe adding a bit of text to things. It was a bit of a pain in the butt figuring out where everything is. Plus, I'm using Photoshop CS4 now vs. Photoshop 7.


This is the first thing I came up with... It ended up really growing on me. Too bad he didn't really like it!

xoxo
- Cait

Today

It's 11:11PM, I guess that means I had the chance to make 3 wishes today. Yes, I still make wishes when I blow out birthday cake candles - which I got to do a few hours ago. I had a great birthday. Last year's birthday was insanely uneventful. By that, I mean that I didn't go out and I was actually home by myself the whole time. I was taken out to lunch today and took a bunch of photographs and my mom took me out to dinner. Tomorrow (Saturday), I'll be going to dinner at a place I've only been to once before with my dad last year. The food was great, so I'm pretty excited.

Right this second I'm insanely tired though. Being outside in the sun for more than a few minutes starts to wear on me. Oh, and I think I got a little sun burned. I guess that's the curse of being fair skinned.

xoxo
- Cait

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my birthday... I'll be turning 24 at 7:05 in the morning, which my mother reminded me of tonight. I don't have any big birthday plans this year, I really wish I did though. I haven't had a birthday party since I was 10 years old or something like that. I'll be going to dinner with my mom and we'll have cake and do the present opening kind of thing.

I did get a present earlier today. This afternoon UPS dropped off a box from Amazon.com - which turned out to be from my friend Patty. It was really nice of her to send me something since she's up in New York and can't just hang out with me whenever she feels like it. I know if she was around she would have baked me come cupcakes or a birthday cake and we would have went to get drinks in New Hope or something like that.

I spent most of the afternoon today visiting old teachers of mine. I was dropping off some jewelry pieces for the student show that's coming up in May. I also picked out one of my printmaking teacher's prints as a trade for fixing two pairs of earrings for her. I need to either find time tomorrow or over the weekend to cut mats for 3 prints from my zodiac constellation series. I should also photograph the pieces and scan them.

Right now, I need to go and paint my nails!

xoxo
- Cait

Photoshop CS4

I've been meaning to make a header for this blog for awhile now... I just never got around to it, and with good reason! I just spent several hours - at least 4 - finding and editing photographs to use and then building a header that I actually liked. Now, my brain is tired. I decided that I really need to get a Wacom tablet for long sessions of photo editing and Photoshop work. I usually just use the touch pad on my laptop, but that's getting insanely ridiculous to do - especially when you have over 1,500 new photographs to go through!

Speaking of those 1,500 photographs - that's only a small collection of all the photographs I have in folders waiting to be looked at. I need to spend a few days checking them all out... Delete some that I don't like, edit some that I love, save some for later editing. The task of doing that seems so daunting that I keep putting it off. I have photographs from different places around Bucks County, Pennsylvania, food photographs, photographs of myself, and photographs of someone I happen to love.

I need to get to the photo editing pronto, because I have a billion more photographs to take! I really need to stop filling compact flash cards instead of actually working with the pictures. It just happens to be quicker to save the photograph loading till later. It would also be fun to find out how many photographs I've actually taken since getting my digital SLR - It's a Canon 40D and I love it.

Would someone please dig me out of this avalanche of digital photographs?

xoxo
- Cait