Thursday, January 26, 2012

Photo Editing Fun!!

Hey all!!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post!  I've been busy!!

I wanted to share with you guys my new favorite website; pixlr.com!!  It's a lot like photoshop and the best part is...it's free!!  You don't even have to do a download!!  I have used pixlr.com before to make all my beautiful buttons on imCarly, but I've just recently really started exploring.  One of my friends sent me a saying that I really liked and I wanted to make it my desktop but I didn't want just a boring Word.doc for a desktop so I spruced it up;
Isn't it pretty!?  I actually had someone ask me where I got it!

So to start making your beautiful pictures, choose whether you want to use a picture or a saying to beautify.  If you are doing a picture I would suggest doing all of the editing you can on iPhoto, you can do everything you can do in iPhoto in pixlr, but it's more condensed in iPhoto which I think is easier.  Once you've decided on your project just start playing around and see what you can make!!  Here are a few steps to get you started;
  1. Head to www.pixlr.com!!  On the start up screen, I would suggest choosing "open photo editor" then you will come to a screen like this;

2.  I would suggest clicking on "Create New Image" even if you are using a photo and then just adding the photo as a layer
3.  Make sure that you have the box at the bottom that says "Transparent" checked, you can add in a white background later if you would like.  To choose your canvas size, check out the size of the area you are going to fill, if you want to upload it to a blog or website, it should usually tell you the dimensions otherwise it doesn't really matter
3.  Then, as I said before, just play around!!  Here are some things to remember when you are playing around;
  • Use the command bar on Pixlr, not on your desktop to Undo and Save
  • To insert an image go to "Layer" then "Insert Image as Layer" on the command bar
  • USE LOTS OF LAYERS, especially when you are using text, another layer will be added automatically when you add another set of text, and then to add another layer just click on the tab at the bottom of the layer box on the right side of the screen
  • To adjust the size of your canvas go to "Image" then "Canvas Size" to adjust the size of your picture go to "Image" then "Image Size", remember the image is what you insert, the canvas is your original working space
  • Make sure you keep up Pixlr until you are FOR SURE done with your image because you can't reopen and adjust the layers on an image once you exit out of it
OK!  Now you have a beautiful image or a beautiful saying, you can beautify it even more!!

 Just open a new tab, go back to the main www.pixlr.com page, and choose "Retro Vintage Effects", it's pretty self explanatory just play around!!!

You can manipulate the different sections with the odometer looking thing at the bottom of the screen.  For my saying I used "Peter" on the red section, "Redrum" on the blue, and "Dirt" on the yellow.  

Happy Pixlr-ing!!!!!!

All info from www.pixlr.com



Friday, January 13, 2012

Snow in Tulsa!

It snowed in Tulsa!!  Being from Colorado, I LOVE SNOW!!  You can imagine excitement when we walked out of the TU men’s basketball game (which we won woop woop!) and found snow falling to the ground!!!!

Naturally, I had to show these southern kids how to have a real snowball fight!!  It was also a must to document this amazing phenomenon!!  Snow in Tulsa!!  The snow was so beautiful and I had a ton of fun!!

Isn’t it pretty!?  The flowers are still colorful and the grass is still green because it hasn’t gotten cold enough here yet!

AMMO!!  We totally won the snowball fight….

Fun with iPhoto!  My camera is not very high quality so it got all smudged and foggy while I was taking pictures.  I was able to take a few fun photos using my smudge (like the first one in this series) and then sharpen them up in iPhoto, but for the most part many of my pictures were very out of focus or had weird fog patches.

Bailey’s snow angel!!  Perfection!!

I hope it snows again soon!!  This is only my first year in Tulsa but from what I’ve heard it might be a while, maybe by then I’ll have saved up enough for a better camera and those southern kids learned a little from their experience (INVEST IN SOME GLOVES!)


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Welcome to imCarly!!

Hello and welcome to imCarly! my blog documenting my adventures as a student, an athlete, and a daughter of Christ.  I decided to use my first post to tell you a little bit about myself!


First of all I am a volleyball player studying at the University of Tulsa.  We were Conference Champs this year!! Woop woop!  There will probably be a post coming up about our rings soon J.

Here in Tulsa wonderful friends, family and teammates support me; I don’t know how I could do it with out them!  I am originally from Colorado, and that is where my wonderful family lives now!  My big brother plays Basketball at Colorado School of Mines and my little sister is a wonderful high school junior just loving life!


As a broke college kid, I enjoy DIY, books, movies, photos, and BLOGGING!!  I’m so excited to share my adventures with all of you!!!  I’m new to this whole blogging thing so feel free to comment as much as you would like!!  I would love suggestions or any requests you might have!!!

God bless!!