Thursday 11 March 2010

Having Fun with Text on Photos {using Picasa}






Remember I had a resolution that I was going to keep up to date with my monthly printing? Um well...I'm almost there {new HP Photosmart Plus touchscreen wireless printer & all - just sayin'...} 'cos the other one really just rolled over & died eventually, but didn't give up without a fight, so I persevered for ages trying to resurrect it...gave up in the end... so...while I've been spending so much time in My Pictures & Picasa, I've been playing about with TEXT on a few of the photos, & am very happy with the results.

Make sure you download the latest version of Picasa {literally just google "Download latest version of Picasa" & follow the prompts, because the new version gives you access to your complete library of Fonts {& of course you all know where to go - Da Font & Kevin & Amanda are just 2 of the free font sites out there}& if you check my "tutorials" label I have a post in my archives detailing exactly how to download a font. The older version of Picasa only had a handful of different text options.

Cami & her kitty - not a great photo but the sentiment says it all - portraying a relationship.

At last I have a decent photo of Cami & her best friend of the last 4 years - taken impromptu at KFC on a Friday afternoon while grabbing lunch {our weekend treat!}

The volcano I made with Reilly a couple of weekends ago. I used an old piece of plywood as a base {a square} - used a glue-gun for all the adhering - adhered a 2 litre coke bottle to the base, filled with the ingredients minus the active one {that causes the eruption - the white vinegar!} then positioned a large square offcut of fabric over the top of the bottle, securing with an elastic band, the pulled the fabric toward the base, making sure to create folds as I went along, to imitate the rivulets & gulleys present on real volcanos. Underneath the fabric we positioned some scrunched up newspaper balls {bound with masking tape} to stop it drooping too much. I trimmed the fabric into a straight line underneath the base on all four sides then glue-gunned it all around & finally covered the base with a square piece of fabric slightly less than the base measurement for neatness. Now who DIDN'T want to know all that LOL! You never know when you may need that info you know!

Need to do a page on the "Sleepy Eye Syndrome" characteristic of the Tilbury's {from my husband's side}.

The only time I can get a photo of Jack these days is when he is caught unawares...

I love our 2010 Fifa World Cup Mascot - Zakumi - he's one seriously {bad-taste in a good way} cool dude!

I took the opportunity to bling out my phone when Shane went away recently - he wasn't impressed!

LOVE this photo above...and the sentiment says it all really...words are powerful! Loooooooove that man!!!

Good old Gateway - our local shopping haunt - one of the biggest malls in Africa - the biggest square metre wise I think - we so appreciate it after living our lives with virtually NO SHOPS before we left Zim 4 years ago.

Our house - right now this picture makes me want to scream - we are now having legal problems getting the property transferred into our name - I have no doubt that it will happen eventually but right now the lawyer is doing a great job delaying it, presumably because it buys the previous owner time needed to renovate her new place, meanwhile we are unable to get started on ours, some people...how do they sleep at night I wonder???





7 comments:

Carol B said...

cool
strange that we haven't bumped into each other at gateway
ag how frustrating to wait for your reno projects to begin

Jessy Christopher said...

Have to agree with the sentiments on the photos!! Thanks for sharing ur life with us. Oh no, I hope u will get ur hse soon. Hang on there dear :)

Shayne said...

Great pics Helen. Love your mobile!

I love adding text (have you see my scrap blog: http://scrappy-time.blogspot.com) all my daily pics have text added - i simply used Photoshop tho.

Hope the house sorts itself out soon. xx

Lynette Jacobs said...

Love your pics with the text added.

I am sure that everything will work out with the house in the end:) Stay positive.

tania said...

ahh no! sorry to hear about your trouble you having with the house. love the photos!!

topkatnz said...

Looks like you are having a few 'Project Life' moments? ... are you gonna scrap these photos, or just put them in the slip in pages?

Ella Swan said...

Thanks everyone, yes the house saga is so painfully slow. Initially I had access for a couple of hours on 2 occassions but now she has told me it's not convenient next week as she has people staying - and now that we have had to hire another lawyer to police the first one it's rather akward so I won't be back...not to mention that with temps in the mid 30s & all the airconditioning off on both occasions I've been there it's simply unpleasant anyway & I can't commandeer the remote as yet! So I've given up on trying to progress that way & am concentrating on fighting the legal aspect as it really is too drawn out now - over 2 months - & we have made all our plans around mid-March based on what we were initially told. I know it will all work out in the end but I wanted to avoid being disorganised & chaotic & now I may have no choice, and that is frustrating when it is through no fault of my own ;-( Shayne I haven't popped in to your scrap blog in a while now but I remember you also added text, yes, will have to make another visit soon! Heidi I have been taking the everyday type photos for a few years now - since reading Ali Edward's "Life Artist" quite some time ago. My photos were a source of frustration for me until I got Picasa & last year I was always behind so didn't do much with text. I haven't decided on whether to scrap them or put them into the divided page protectors yet to be honest. I never think too far ahead lol...too much worry just for today usually!