Illustration Friday--Glamour

I recently found Illustration Friday recently from a link on Rhonna Farrer's blog and decided to partake in this challenge. Please be gentle...I'm not an illustrator...just a doodler. The theme this week is Glamour. Thanks for looking!

Coffee

It's no secret...I love coffee. Addiction is a strong word...but I love the smell, the taste...I look forward to it each morning.

When did it begin? College. I was going to a school that built it's own coffee house on campus. My first visit was a turning point in my life. It was late in the day and I was leaving the union after choir rehearsal and noticed it was open. The choices! This wasn't my mom and dad's coffee. I puchased a vanilla mocha...and I remember the smooth, sweetness and the warmth through the paper cup. I was hooked. Each day I stopped there before class and soon I was calling my parents because I had no money left for food.

Of course, I realized I couldn't drink coffee-house coffee each day because I'm not a rich person, especially in college. I tried making my own at home...not the same. But, I love a good cappuccino from Starbucks or Pilora's, a local coffeeshop.

Years later, I'm married and in Brazil for New Years. I had a wonderful time...the sun, going to the beach in January...but the coffee. I had been cutting back, but the Brazilian's know coffee! They have cafezinho, (click the link to learn more about it), it's a kind of like an espresso. So, So good! When I got back to the states, I stopped drinking coffee completely, except for my occasional cappuccino, because nothing compared!

My quest for great tasting coffee at home came to an end this weekend. My parents bought me a Senseo coffeemaker for my birthday. Yum! This thing brews one mean cup of coffee...frothy and rich. Maybe a little more expensive than using a drip machine...but I haven't bought a cappuccino since I received it. Not that I can give up my cappuccinos, completely, but I can now enjoy a great cup at home.

New Toy

Well not really new...but I'm still playing. For Christmas, my parents got me the Wacom Graphire4 (4x5). Did I need it? No of course not, but I love it! It makes it easier to make selections in Photoshop Elements. I also have more control erasing and distressing photos and digital papers and using the dodge and burn commands. Tonight I wanted to explore the bundled Corel Painter Essentials. The idea of creating paintings from my photos really appeals to me and using filters in Photoshop doesn't always give me the look I want.

Anyway,
this is the product of my experimenting and the original photo. I'm excited to continue experiementing with this program. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of documentation or books on this slimmed down version of Corel Painter. I'm just doing a lot of trial and error.

Learning so much

I have a real big problem...when I get into something...I get into it! I LOVE digital scrapbooking! But I'm spending so much time at message boards and other blogs! There is such a wealth of information out there. I have been so inspired by sites like 2Peas, Scrapbook Bytes and The Digi Chick.
As I mentioned before I LOVE the book Designing with Digital by the Autumn Leaves designers. I joined the corresponding Yahoo group where we do lessons from the accompanying CD every week. We just finished lesson 5, which was a kind of a review of the last few lessons. Last night I created this layout about my dogs playing in the snow using Laura Alpuche's Jack Frost kit from The Digi Chick. I love the colors of this kit! The fonts I used are Willing Race and Persimmon, both downloaded from the Internet.

New Blog

Today's my birthday! What a fitting day to start my new Blog!

When people ask me about myself, I have to say my strongest attribute is my creativity. I love to create! My passions run deep...I'm into scrapbooking, knitting and writing. Recently, my focus has been on digital scrapbooking. I've actually done it for a few years, but I just got Autumn Leaves Designing with Digital, which is an awesome book! I look forward to using this blog as a creative forum.

Credits for layout: Kit-Cabaret by Rhonna Farrer (Designing with Digital extra CD); fonts-P22 Cezanne and Hootie!
Note: This layout was inspired by Rhonna Farrer's Magnificent Mexico layout in Designing with Digital.