Wheeler Historic Farm Photos and Tips
Wheeler Historic Farm was another excursion from my trip to Utah. The time of day was pretty rough for photos with bright sun in the middle of the sky.
This cute barn was spotted with a heart-shaped wreath over the doorway.
Experimenting with depth of field on this flower.
We walked up to a bridge that crossed a stream and found this sign posted.
Photo Tip: Take a picture of stuff that makes you laugh.
Some old farm equipment in the field. I struggled a fair bit with the lighting on this one
Photo Tip: Keep walking around your subject to try to optimize your lighting.
A pile of logs set aside for firewood. The sun was behind the shed.
Photo Tip: Keep experimenting with that sunlight.
And more flowers. I love them.
Photo Tip: If I were to retake this photo, I’d place the flower on the left side of the frame, since it seems to be facing towards the right.
Photos edited by RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age – Book Review
Studying letterforms is one way to improve your lettering game. Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age
How this Book is Organized
The book is broken down into five styles: French, British, German, Italian, and American. Each section begins with a written description of the style and history. The description is followed by photos of historical examples with a reference page citing the sources.
Overall Impression
Lots of nice examples of scripts that you can be inspired by with your own lettering. And if you’re not a letterer, you can still enjoy the scripty eye candy.
Amazon links are affiliate.
Pen Collection: Orange
I have an obsession with office supplies and I’m a bit of a pen hoarder. One thing that I enjoy doing is swatching out my writing utensils to see how the colors compare between brands.
The Test: Each pen is used on white notebook paper and a yellow legal pad. You can click on the image below for a larger view.
The Pens: (links are affiliate) Paper Mate InkJoy 100
The Conclusion: Orange is another tough color to find in pens. The Papermate Inkjoys provided a darker ink color than the Papermate Profile on white paper, but all were disappointing on yellow paper. The two Papermate Flairs provided the darkest and boldest color.
Presents for You: Brush Lettered Lombardi Quote
I love quotes. And I love to letter them out. And I’m happy to be able to share with you!
Use for Project Life, scrapbook, art journals, or just print it out and hang on your walls. Just click the links below to download the version you desire.
Click on photos for JPG
8×10 inch Green PDF
8×10 inch Charcoal PDF
Transparent PNG
I’d love to see what you’re doing with my lettering and you can share your great ideas with others too! Tag me on instagram @randomolive and use the hashtag #randomoliveletters.
Personal use only. (Because these words are neither yours or mine to sell.)
Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to see lettered? Suggest it in the comments!
One Little Word: Sparkle
This year, I decided to participate in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word workshop. I had seen this around the blogosphere for several years and this time, I decided to take the plunge and really commit to my word.
I’m going to be journaling my responses to the prompts in this little journal that I found in my stack of blank notebooks.
One of the main goals of having a word is to incorporate it into your life and to keep it visible throughout the year.
To support the effort of keeping my (and your) word visible, I created a brush lettered art piece to hang up. To see the words I have made available, check out my shop page here
Skillshare Course Review: Digitizing Calligraphy
I recently signed up for a free trial of Skillshare membership. If you’re not familiar, Skillshare is a website that hosts a plethora of online courses, mostly in the creative skills. The first course that I took was Digitizing Calligraphy: From Sketch to Vector with Molly Suber Thorpe.
I already have her book, Modern Calligraphy
Why was I interested in this class?
As I’ve been working on both my pointed pen calligraphy and brush lettering, I’ve also been working on techniques to digitize the projects.
What I got out of the class?
About half of the lessons are about layout design (pencil sketches and inking) leading up to the second half working in Adobe Photoshop first and then Adobe Illustrator. The layout and sketching part was interesting to see because it really showed that even an expert goes through half a dozen iterations before settling on a final design.
The Photoshop component was the part I was most interested in, with Molly showing how to create true black, transparent words, and then remove blemishes for the scan, and then adjust the writing itself by cleaning up edges. After Photoshop cleanup, she moves the drawing into Illustrator to vectorize it. I don’t have Illustrator, so I didn’t end up using this information.
Overall Impressions
Pretty useful stuff. I took notes to go back to while I’m working on my own projects. I might also have it replaying while I have Photoshop open, so I can follow along while I’m working.
The links provided for this Skillshare course are referral links. If you sign up for a Skillshare membership using these links, I will receive a free month of membership. This will allow me to view and review even more courses on the blog.
Amazon links are affiliate.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone: Chapter Title Cards
As I’ve said before in my 20 Things About Me post, I’m a big Harry Potter fan. I started reading when the 4th book hit the stores and have been hooked ever since. With the launch of each of the remaining books, I would prepare by re-reading from the beginning up until that point. And with the release of each film, I would re-read from the beginning up until the book being adapted and released that year. And then, sometimes, I’d just get myself sucked in all over again.
I recently re-read the entire series, so I decided to continue my brush lettering adventures by lettering out the chapter titles.
I’ve made the titles into 3×4 cards that you can use in your scrapbooks or art journals. Just click on the image below to download for free!
Presents for You: Brush Lettered Emerson Quote
I love quotes. And I love to letter them out. And I’m happy to be able to share with you!
Use for Project Life, scrapbook, art journals, or just print it out and hang on your walls. Just click the links below to download the version you desire.
Click on photos for JPG
8×10 inch Merlot PDF
8×10 inch Charcoal PDF
Transparent PNG
I’d love to see what you’re doing with my lettering and you can share your great ideas with others too! Tag me on instagram @randomolive and use the hashtag #randomoliveletters.
Personal use only. (Because these words are neither yours or mine to sell.)
How What I Do Between 8 to 5 Benefits You
I’m a Teacher
- I care about communicating the best information to you and aiming for you to learn something or have a main takeaway.
- I’m dedicated to learning (both yours and mine).
- I enjoy seeing people experience that lightbulb moment when they understand something more clearly now than before.
I’m a Researcher
- I like evidence and getting to the root source of information.
- I will do my absolute best to make sure that the info I provide you is accurate and beneficial. This means outbound links to sources.
- I’m always exploring new ideas and methods to share with you.
Are you a blogger with an alternate job? What skills from your day job do you transfer to your blogging?
Digital Project Life Layouts: March 2014
Project Life is my preferred method of scrapbooking and I’m hoping to provide you with some useful tips for either documenting your own lives or putting together your own pages with minimal fuss.
Here’s what I’m going to emphasize with the layouts I share:
- The random stuff I like to capture and document for myself.
- The simple approach to Project Life that I take. There are a lot of photos and very little embellishment and journaling.
- The way I organize some spreads into themes or stories.
You can click on each image below for a slightly larger view.
Capture Idea: Actual rainfall. A rare occurrence in these parts.
Capture Idea: Ok, how could I pass up that famous Oscars selfie? You can apply this to other major news screenshots in your area. Maybe the local paper or a national headline.
Story Idea: I’m a little quirky. I like to be photographed with giant oversized toys and things. So I tend to collect a set of them over the month. I just put them all together in one side of the page here. You can do this for any other series or collection of photos that go together.
Capture Idea: During one work day, my husband and I were texting each other back and forth with random pictures of our offices. Sort of like a dance-off, but totally not. So I just picked three from each of our offices and put them on one page.
Story Idea: March was when I started learning calligraphy and I took pictures of my practice sheets. I put them all together here with some other artsy resources as a reminder of my progress.
Capture Idea: I took a picture of a new hairstyle I was trying out. Might be fun for you to do the same, if you end up wearing that hairstyle a lot later.
Capture Idea: Any new and fun toys in your life? We started collecting these Lego figurines from the Lego Movie.
Simplicity Point: Got lots of photos? Fit them in 3×4 slots. Use minimal journaling.
Story Idea: This whole spread was our trip to Arizona.
Simplicity Point: I had a lot more pictures than this from the trip. But limiting myself to one page helped me get it done and in the book.
Capture Idea: Going on any tours? Get a picture of the tour bus or vehicle.
Capture Idea: On the highway, we saw an Olive Ave, so of course I had to get it! Maybe you’ll see road signs with your name too and you can start a collection.
Simplicity Point: Type your captions directly on the photos.
Simplicity Point: Just write a quick hit list of what you did on the trip.
Resources:
Photos edited with RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Templates by Cathy Zielske: 01, 02, 05
Fonts: ABeeZee and Klinic Slab
Kits: Plus One Mini Kit, Seafoam Edition, Kraft Edition
For more info on my general approach to Project Life, check out this blog post.
Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. She’s awesome. Go visit her website for more information or watch her 3-day course on CreativeLive.
