be AUDacious

scrapping sports photos

Cass has just finished track season, and high school soccer starts conditioning in just a couple of weeks. It's also time for her to start training for cross-country season by logging as many miles as she can over the summer. Cami's competitive soccer team has a final tournament this summer, then they're off for a bit before beginning summer practices to prepare for the fall season. 

Around here, sports are just a daily part of life. Both of the girls are active in a variety of sports, which means that we spend a lot of time on the track, the course, the soccer pitch. It also means that I end up with lots and lots of photos from these events. The problem is that after a while, the pictures all tend to look the same. 

So what do you do with hundreds of pictures of your kids running, or kicking a soccer ball, or batting at home plate, or shooting a layup?

The biggest tip I can offer is this: Don't even attempt to scrap them all. There's nothing that can squash your creativity faster than lots of pictures of the same thing. Instead, pull out the best photos -- the ones that capture great shots, fun moments, or other memories that you want to remember, and forget about the rest. (To be honest, I delete the rest of mine, but if you want to keep them, you can easily have them printed and just load them into a traditional photo album).

Here are some options for different types of pages that I've made it a habit to scrap during our sports seasons.

A SEASON OVERVIEW: 2010 Season
Every sport that my kids participate in have some type of season-ending celebration, whether it's a school banquet or a party at the local pizza place. I like to combine those pictures with a copy of the game schedule for the season, including wins and losses, as well as any other stats that might be appropriate (for cross-country, that includes times, team results, locations, distances, and more). Pages like this, for both team and individual sports, are a great way to show growth over a period of time, and they help to capture the little details that might otherwise get lost. 

 

TOURNAMENTS AND POST-SEASON COMPETITION: I Love To Run
Whenever my girls compete in tournaments or regional and state events, I create a layout to capture the special nature of that event. After all, not every athlete gets to participate at regionals or state, so this is something I want to commemorate. 

 

A REFLECTION ON THE SEASON'S GROWTH: XC 5K
Each sport and each season brings with it a new set of obstacles. I make it a habit of creating a layout, written TO my girls, talking about these challenges and how they handled them. These layouts are a reminder of the hard work and dedication they've put in each season, and they serve as encouragement and praise. Sports aren't always about the good times, and these pages help to remember that even when it's really hard, it's worth it to keep fighting.

 

CAPTURE THE ACTION: Trackstar
I use burst mode a lot when I'm shooting sports pictures, and I loved the progression of these track shots, so I try to make sure that I scrap at least one page that focuses on the girls in action.

 

EMPHASIZE A "BIG" GAME: Run Like You Mean It
Every athlete has that star moment -- the race where he finishes in the top 10, the game where she scores the winning goal. I think that moments like these deserve their own layouts. 

 

If you've captured the pages above, here are some other techniques you might want to try, if you are looking for alternatives to the typical sports page. Some offer topic ideas, while others focus on photography or design techniques.

GIVE YOUR KIDS A VOICE: Just for Kicks
Cami had to write an article for class at school about her greatest achievement, and she wrote about making the competitive soccer team for her age group. I thought it would work perfectly with these photos from her fall season. Plus, using the article here meant that I could toss the typed copy -- one less set of papers to have to file and keep.

 

CELEBRATE FRIENDSHIPS: Run Like Girls
Some of the best friends my daughters have made have been through their sports teams. I try to create a least one page each year featuring these same friends, so that we can look back and see how much they've grown and changed over the years. Even though these pictures are just a couple of years old, Cass and her friends always giggle at how "little" they looked her. (Elementary soccer pictures get even more giggles!)

 

INCLUDE THE WHOLE TEAM: Calloway XC
I end up with pictures of more than just my daughters (I really enjoy shooting sports, and I know that the other parents appreciate getting pictures of their kids, just like I love it when they share their photos with me!) Creating a grid layout like this is an easy way to include everyone. 

 

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE COACH: Meet the Lakers
Coaches play a key role in guiding and developing players, and capturing a couple of shots of them for your scrapbook pages is a great way to remember this. Whether you've got a photo of your coach in action or a posed shot, make sure it makes it onto one of your layouts.

 

INCLUDE AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: Coaches' Award
Trophies, certificates, medals, plaques -- awards should definitely find a place in your scrapbooks. Provide some background on what the award means, and include any other details about it. One of the things I like to do is record the audio from awards presentations and include a key quote or two from the coach. It's really nice to get their words on the page as well.

 

INCLUDE CAMPS AND PRACTICES: Futskilz AllStar
If you've got pictures from camp or practice, create a page with them. It's another way to document all the hard work that goes into preparing for a great season.

 

COMBINE ACTION SHOTS WITH POSED PHOTOS: Soccer Rockets
If you purchased a team and/or individual photos from a professional photographer, you can choose to scrap those separately, or you can combine them with action shots on one layout. Again, this is a great way to get an overview of the entire season. 

INCLUDE MULTIPLE PHOTOS WITH PHOTOSHOP TECHNIQUES: Genuine You
This layout is a combination of a couple I've mentioned in this post -- the reflection layout and the action photos layout. The journaling talks about  how hard this year was to transition to the varisty level after years of competing on the middle school level. For the photo, I merged 5 different action photos (taken with the camera on burst mode) of Cass. I also converted the background to black and white and kept the photo subject in color.

 

  USE PHOTO EXTRACTIONS AND TEXT TECHNIQUES: JV Soccer
I think extracted sports photos look awesome, especially against a white background with graphic text elements. In this instance, I played off the double C in soccer, because my daughter plays for Calloway County -- so I colored those two letters in red. 
CREATE A PHOTO COLLAGE: JV Soccer
There are lots of great templates that will allow you to combine multiple photos from a season into one simple layout. Even better, something like this could be framed and given as a coach's gift or presented to other members of the team.

 

CREATE TWO-PAGE LAYOUTS: Alumni Games
One of the easiest ways to scrap all those sports photos is to use two-page layouts. If you aren't comfortable creating two-pagers, use a template. 

 

$ Deals and Take12

I've got a brand new kit on sale for just $1.00 today through Thursday in my shop at DHD; I LOVE this color scheme, and once I had a few items in place, the rest just came together easily. Love when that happens!

I finished my layout for my Take12 May photos. I'm really loving how this project is coming together -- I love that I can count on the girls and Chris to grab photos for me, particularly if the 12th is on a weekend, like it was this time around. Normally, our weekends mean that we are moving in opposite directions, one for each kid, so having four smartphones in the house means there's no shortage of pictures from multiple perspectives.

I'm sticking with my plan to use the templates and papers/embellishments from my 2012 line at DHD; I love the cohesiveness that it brings to the entire project. Here's a look at the first four months of the project, all together. Awesome, right?

Are you participating in Take Twelve? I'd love to see your layouts and pictures. You can load them up in our Flickr pool, and we've even got our own hashtag on Instagram and Twitter: it's #Take12, so join the conversation!

review: postalpix

I've made no secret of having a major crush on Instagram. Of all the photo apps I have installed on my phone, this one feels the most comfortable to me. The filters are really easy to apply, and I've settled on some definite favorites. I also like having the tilt-shift option to play around with. 

I recently downloaded the Postalpix and placed my first order of Instagram photos. I ordered 60 pictures (which is their max order size) and the process was really simple. The photos arrived about 5 days later, packaged inside a typical photo processing envelope and then tucked in a mailing envelope. The images were great -- I ordered mine as 4x4 squares. The paper felt a little thinner than the typical glossy photo paper that I use when I'm printing here at home, but that might be normal for photo-processing labs; I haven't had my pictures printed at a store or lab in years.

I keep my photos displayed in this cute little fruit basket that I picked up at Anthropologie after seeing it on Elsie Larsen's blog. The 4x4 photos fit nicely inside the basket, and lots of people like to pick them up and flip through them. Every so often, I'll switch them out so a different photo is on top of the stack.

I'd like to order some of my most favorite prints in the larger sizes, just to see how well they print. I know that the photo quality on my iPhone 4S is much higher than my 4 was, so I'm interested in seeing just how large a print I can make and still retain the quality of the image.

take 12: april

One of the things that I have learned about myself over the years is that I am very good about getting really excited about a project. I make lots of grand plans and get everything pulled together and jot down lists and buy supplies. I work feverishly on it for a month, two months, maybe even three.

And then real life starts creeping in. Travel for work. Conferences. Classes and grading papers and writing final exams. All-weekend soccer tournaments, multiple track meets. Laundry, dishes, yardwork. The girls get sick. I get sick. I get tired. I lose my motivation. 

While I'm really good in the initial idea and development stages, I'm not so good with the follow-through. I know this about myself, though, and I keep it in mind whenever I begin a project like Take 12. 

April ended up being one of those months. The 12th happened on a day when I was sick, followed by three days where I continued to be sick and both Chris (stomach bug) and Cami (strep) also got sick. (Cass took her turn earlier in the week). As a result, there wasn't a lot of documenting happening on the 12th. That's where the most important aspect of any project like this comes into play: FLEXIBILITY.

You have to be flexible. Because life happens, right? So you have to be willing to let go of some of the expectations and let go of perfection. You have to be willing to fudge it a bit. My 12 photos were actually taken over the course of four days, and I'M OKAY WITH THAT. I enjoy this project too much to let a minor bobble like this throw things off-track. After all, this (for me) is about documenting REAL LIFE. Here's a summary of my April Take 12:

Watering plants is something new for me. Before my grandparents passed away, I didn't own any houseplants. But now we have five (yes, FIVE! and they are all still ALIVE!). I've read that it's better to water in the mornings, so that's what I do.

This was Spring Break, which meant Cami got to watch a lot more TV than normal. (Plus, we were all sick, so there was a lot of lying-around-on-couches and watching crap TV with that as well). She loves our Roku because she can stream episode after episode after episode of cartoons like My Little Pony. I hate our Roku for the same reason.

Easy lunch -- frozen pizza. Make sure to cut out the BoxTops to send to Cami's school.

Planking: an internet sensation that's just now caught on in the Neal household.

I'm traveling to Mayfield every day right now, teaching a hybrid Blackboard course and doing some COMPASS/ACT prep with seniors. It's easiest just to pick up my car from Transportation at the beginning of the week and return it on Friday, rather than doing it daily.

Rat-snuggling. This happens frequently in our house. It is a strange thing, but Peanut Butter really does love to cuddle. He is most content sitting on the girls' chests or shoulders and grooming himself. 

The sun is up, which means I've got the blinds open, letting the daylight stream in and trying to banish some of the fug that a houseful of sickies creates.

Every day, I spend a couple of hours here -- reading and writing emails, blog posts, forum posts. Designing layouts, kits, advertisements. Grading papers, posting lessons, updating assignments. It's such a big part of everything that I do.

Working our way through a couple of Easter baskets. The chocolate bunnies have been de-eared. The Cadbury eggs are all gone. The Peeps are dwindling quickly.

Amoxycillan -- I am so proud of Cami for taking this nasty mess without fuss. She doesn't like it at all, but she doesn't fight us over it either. She knows that it is necessary. 

Strep throat looks like this. Grandmother quilt, couch pillows, and quiet time. She even took a couple of naps over the past few days -- she's feeling much better but even daily activities wear her out quicker.

Trying to keep up with the amount of bedding needing to be washed this weekend has almost worn our poor washer out. Trying to contain the germs from three different illnesses at the same time has worn me out as well. 

take twelve: special themes and other options

Have you been playing along with the Take Twelve Photography Challenge on the Ella Publishing blog? If you're just now thinking about joining, it's definitely not too late! This is a project that you can start at any time -- the "twelve on the twelfth" format is actually much more flexible that you'd think at first. If you didn't get a chance to snap twelve photos (or more!) on January 12th, here are a few options for still joining in the project during the month of January:

• Select any day of the month that works for you -- the 5th, the 14th, the 28th -- and take your photos on that day
• At the end of the month, choose twelve photos from your photo stash and use those to create an overview of the month's activities
• Put the internet to work for you -- if you don't have photos from a particular day, grab screenshots, Facebook status updates, tweets, or other digital images and use them instead of photos
• Do you have creative kids? Use their artwork or let them recount your month, comic-style 
• Opt for a February (or March or April) start and document your 12-of-12 from that point for an entire year

If you'd like even more ideas for your photo options for this project, pick up a copy of Ella Publishing's Take Twelve Guided Inspiration Kit. It's chock full of photo checklists for each month, plus great variations on the Take Twelve concept. One of my favorite parts is that each month, in addition to featuring a photo checklist, the book offers a theme with related photo tips. 

As you can see, January's special theme is "collections." I love the idea of photographing and capturing all the things that we collect, so yesterday I spent some time seeking out the various collections in our family. It wasn't hard to come up with twelve photos; I tried to keep things evenly balanced, although you'll see that Chris doesn't really collect as many things as the rest of us do (maybe it's a girl thing? Or maybe his hoarding gene isn't as dominant?!?)

credits: My Favorite Things 2 kit by Gennifer Bursett; numbered journaling list from My Favorite Things kit by Gennifer Bursett; fonts are LiebeErika and Pea Sugar Noodles

No matter how you choose to play along with the Take Twelve photography challenge, we want to see your photos and layouts! You can upload them both to our Flickr group and if you're sharing via social media (Twitter, Instagram, etc.), make sure to use the hashtag #take12. For easy reminders about Take Twelve monthly contests and other events, sign up for the email reminders too!

2012: product line and take twelve layout

I've got a simple new product line coming to Design House Digital over the next couple of weeks. The first release are these easy-to-use photo templates, perfect for scrapping your Take Twelve Photo Challenge pictures. These templates can be used to easily create a digital layout of your Take Twelve photos; you can also use the templates as a way to share your photos on your blog each month. In addition, these templates are flexible enough to use for printing and scrapping the traditional way, too. There are four photo templates: 2x6, 3x4, 4x3, 6x2 (that's width by height) and they come in two styles: square corners and rounded corners. 

Each template comes as a layered .psd file, meaning that each square is on a separate layer. Using these in Photoshop or PSE is really simple. Just open the template, and then open your photos. Place one photo above the layer where you'd like to have it located in your photo grid. Resize your photo as necessary, and then click Ctrl G to "clip" your photo to the template square. Make any adjustments to the location and then click Ctrl E to merge the two layers together. Repeat these steps with the rest of your photos, and then merge all the layers together. Here's a tutorial from the DHD blog to help you out.

Here's what the templates look like in action. I used the 4x3 template with rounded corners; I chose the 4x3 orientation because my photos were divided into morning, afternoon, and evening and this arrangement let me keep them grouped in that way. The other products I used are a brief glimpse at some of the products you'll see in next week's release in my digital shop. My plan is to use these items throughout the year on my Take Twelve Challenge. 

Speaking of the Take Twelve Challenge, have you signed up for Ella Publishing's reminder email yet? It only takes a few minutes; fill out the required fields and make sure to check the box that says "Take Twelve Project." You'll be sent monthly email reminders about the Take Twelve Photo Challenge, and you'll get some great opportunities to share your photos and win prizes! Also, don't forget to check out the Ella Blog today to see how other team members are scrapping their Take Twelve photos.

Take Twelve: January 2012

We ended up having a snow day today, so I'm really late on the blogging front. (The snow, sadly, was nothing to get really excited about. While it did snow quite a bit yesterday, much of it melted because we had temps close to 50 the day before that. Still, temps dropped below freezing last night, and much of the melted snow then freeze, which resulted in today's snow day. Ahh, the joys of living in the South.)

First things first, here's the winner of the Ella Publishing Take Twelve Guided Inspiration Kit: 

Janet, email me at audneal at gmail dot com and I'll get your redemption code to you right away! 

Thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn't win a copy in one of the many giveaways going on, Angie is offering you a chance to take 10% off your purchase off the Inspiration Kit or the Take Twelve Templates with the code PROCRASTINATOR. 

Here's a look at my 12 photos for the day. Just a few notes about my process: I had planned to take a photo an hour -- just a random collection of whatever was going on at the time my phone reminder went off. Instead, my photos are grouped into morning, afternoon, and evening. That just ended up making more sense with the rhythm of my day. These are processed through Instagram, but I took them with just the regular camera on my phone, so I have plain, unfiltered files to use (if I want) on my layout. I like having the two options -- Instagram is fun for blogsharing, tweeting, and even Facebook posts, but I prefer having unfiltered images to use on my scrapbook layouts. 

Morning: As I was dropping Cami off at school, the cold rain was just beginning to turn into snow. The first thing I do at work each day, after booting up my laptop, is check my agenda to see what needs to be done; much of my work involves planning for upcoming projects and presentations. Just a quick shot of three of my favorite things: my Fossil Key-per tote, my gray Converse sneakers, and corduroy pants. When I left for lunch, it had been snowing for several hours, covering the bushes, ground, and cars.

Afternoon: Beatrice spends much of our lunch hour just lying on the rug, near us. A random shot from my living room: a vintage typewriter I found for $5.00 -- I love the faux wood detailing and the red spacer key. Cass was all smiles when I picked her up from school this afternoon. Snow kept lightly drifting along the edge of the car windows; I was amazed at how downy it looked, rather than icy.

Evening: Cami came home with this little monkey toy from the school's 4th/5th grade Jamboree. I spent the evening catching up on some laundry; it's so much easier to fold it as soon as I take it out of the dryer (why don't I do this more often?) Any time we go into Cami's room now, the ratboys run to the bars of the cage to see what's going on; they've become quite nosy. I headed to bed fairly early, mostly to warm up and to spend some time reading; I finished one book and made it about halfway through another before falling asleep.

Christmas: how we celebrated

Christmas was pretty low-key, which is the way we like it. Our weekends involved a couple of different activities while the girls were still in school. Chris and I are lucky enough to get two full weeks off for Christmas break while the university shuts down, so it makes for a nice break. 

This year we headed downtown for an event called Dicken's Alley, which was a recreation of an old English alley, with a blacksmith, a foodseller, a storyteller, mule-drawn wagon rides, and even a pickpocket who gets locked up by the constable. The girls were able to do a few little crafts -- making reindeer food and writing a letter to Santa -- before we admired the newly lit Christmas tree on the court square and then headed home. The next morning was the annual Christmas parade. We're always amused at the variety of "floats" that make up our local parades each year: 20+ emergency vehicles, all with sirens blaring; Corvettes, antique cars, motorcycles, old tractors; church and community organization floats, decorated in a variety of themes...You really never know what you're going to find. If you're a kid, you can usually end up with pockets full of candy too. 

We also make a trip to Nashville every year to visit the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Millions of lights decorate the hotel atriums and the grounds. We head down early so we can shop at our favorite used bookstore (McKay's), then grab a bite to eat at Outback. This is our way of celebrating our birthdays too, since mine is on the 23rd and Chris's is on the 26th. One of these years we'd love to actually get a room at the Gaylord and stay overnight; the girls in particular want a room with a balcony that overlooks one of the decorated atriums.

We also decorated our tree; we usually end up waiting until just a couple of weeks before Christmas because we get a live tree each year. That hasn't always been our habit; we had a fake tree when the girls were younger, but after moving three different times, it just didn't hold up. I prefer a real tree, so I'm glad we made the switch. When I was growing up, my parents owned 40 acres of land, and my family would head out onto our own land to cut our own tree each year. It's one of my favorite Christmas memories. Even though we don't cut our own tree (we buy it from Lowe's), I love the fresh smell in the house. We also add a new ornament from Opryland each year; the girls pick one out while we're in Nashville. The rest of our decorations are a mix of vintage (mostly family heirlooms from childhood) and handmade, like the circle garland I keep hanging on our windows.

The girls were so pleased with and grateful for the gifts they received. Despite being 15, Cassidy was so easy to shop for this year. Several of her gifts were obviously panda-themed, and she got some really cute clothes as well.

I'm not sure there was a kid alive who was more thrilled with her gifts than Cami was. Cass bought her the Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall CD/DVD combo, and Cami's face just lit up when she opened it. Her latest LaLaLoopsy obsession was fueled by two new dolls, and -- after two years of being her sole Santa request -- she got a pair of fancy rats, appropriately (???) named Peanut Butter and Cheese. (Those names have been in the works for YEARS now, seriously). 

My pile of gifts were impressive too: the PJ20 collection (book, CD, DVD) the newest Cassandra Clare novel, a new phone case, new Chucks in the prettiest gray color, as well as a new lamp for the living room. (Cami was sweet and put it together for me, since I was sick at the time). 

We spent the week after Christmas with Chris's family in Memphis. It's so wonderful to be able to bring everyone together for a full week of playing Wii games, eating great food, telling stories, and just spending time with each other. It's always one of my favorite weeks of the year.

 

...gonna rise up, find my direction magnetically...

Kentucky State Cross-Country Meet, Kentucky Horse Park, two nights in Lexington, Cassidy's 15th birthday, dinner at Outback, shopping at Joseph Beth Booksellers, giant cookies and hot chocolate, nature's bounty, the campus of University of Kentucky, a rental car to Frankfort, developing English curriculum frameworks, academic meets and practice, a Thanksgiving potluck, a College Fair and a parent workshop presentation, Foo Fighters documentary, getting hit by a deer in one of the fleet cars

two quickies to share

Are you familiar with Geninne's artwork? I am amazed at her watercolors, and her studio is perfect. PERFECT. Each month, Geninne offers up a lovely desktop calendar. It makes me smile to have her lovely little birds fluttering across my screen. Even better, this month featured San Francisco (Alcatraz Island), one of my most favorite places to visit EVER.

Also, related to yesterday's post, I came across a RT by Holly Black, alerting me that one of her short stories was available on the Storyville app. A quick search brought me to this subscription app that offers a free short story (from a forthcoming collection) once a week to subscribers on the iPhone or iPad platforms. It's a great way to preview the collections and a fantastic way to have a little bit of story waiting to be read each week.