Custom passport stamps

As you read in my previous post, my family is doing a weekly Parks Passport photo book this summer.  To give it more of a passport-y feel, I came up with the idea of designing my own stamps in photoshop.  I have only done the first two parks that we visited so far.

The first is Wilson Park.  I used a photo of the castle that they have at the park for the center.

The second is a park in our nearby town of Johnson.  The park itself does not have a name nor does it have any special feature to make it stand out.  However, the park is right next to the old post office so I made this stamp look like an actual stamp.

I found a tutorial on Youtube about making the stamps.  They are actually not that difficult and I just saved them as brushes in case I needed them again later.  

Hopefully I will remember to post a few update screenshots of the pages that I have done already in the next few days.

Parks Passport

While going through Pinterest looking for fun things to do with my daughter this summer, I discovered this gem.  We have visited two parks so far.  Every Friday is our park day.  Some of our parks are better than others and since the town we live in doesn't have very many parks I am including surrounding towns.  This is the original post that I found on Pinterest.  The photo will link back to the original blog not my Pinterest.

Summer park passport: make a map of all the parks in the area/after you visit the park, mark it on the map/note favorite features in the DIY book/take a picture next to park sign.

I have already began making the photobook that will go along with this project.  This is a screen shot of the cover.

I make all my photobooks using BookSmart.  I have three or four books that need to be printed and about six ongoing books.  I am thankful that I do have these books.  Earlier this year my computer crashed because my hard drive was thrashed!  I lost all the photos that I had taken in 2012 because like an idiot I had not backed them up on disks.  I was very thankful for the fact that I already had the 2012 book done so that at least I will have the memories in the book.  If I hadn't had the book I would have gone completely insane.  Any photo-moms out there can tell you that the photos are almost as special as the children themselves.  My husband was afraid when he called to tell me what had happened to my computer.  He had already arranged to sleep at his mother's house just in case I was so angry that I kicked him out.  He is the tech support guy in our house (and among everyone he knows... right now he is on the couch working on a laptop for someone from his work.) and he knows how I am with my photos.  It did not come to that since he was able to recover my books.  But alas, my photos are gone forever.

Moving on... I designed the cover to look like a real passport.  I am still undecided, but I think that it needs a crest in the middle.  Real U.S. passports have an eagle.  I don't think I want to copy a real passport but it needs something.  

I will post more screen shots as I start working through the book.

Happy creating!!

Sunday Scavenger Hunt

I am so glad that the internet has returned to my home.  I can now begin participating in weekly photo prompts and start writing on the new blog that I started just before the internet disappeared the last time.  This week I am taking part in the Sunday Scavenger Hunt hosted by Ramblings and Photos.  Here is how the topics translated themselves in my family this week.

Dishes

Okay so it is only really one dish.  My sister-in-law's birthday was this week and we all went to lunch together.  Ice tea with lemon... condensation running down the glass.  Beautiful.  Art to a southerner.

Favorite Color

My favorite color is pink which just happens (by no real coincidence) to be the color of my new Knockout Rose bush.  I have yet to keep any plant that I have planted alive.  I am hoping that my knockout rose makes it through.  The day after I planted it the wind decided that it hated the town I live in.  Currently there is a max of two blooms left with petals.

Sunflare

The sunflare is almost not a sunflare but it is the closest that I got.  I was not shooting with the prompts in mind and I have been trying to be mindful of the sun's location while shooting.

Expression

This is my sister-in-law.  This is her "I'm a diva in my new Ray Ban sunglasses" look.  She is a dork.

Sticky

My daughter loves stick on tattoos.  This very pretty tiger was almost impossible to get off her arm.  She tried to wash it off herself and it became very sticky... very.  We ended up using windex to remove it.


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