Foto Friday Week 43: Texture

Now that we've picked out a name for the baby, we need to move forward with the rest of the details. Brainstorming for her nursery space is underway, and yesterday my mom & I took a trip to Scrapbooks ETC to pick out the crib bedding fabric. I'll be putting together an inspiration board next month to share on the blog, but for now bask in the neutral, calming shades and different textures that will be swaddling Clementine every night.

Visit other girls of Foto Friday to see what textures they are taking photos of!

Meg

Hilary

Kristyn

Christine

App Happy: My Favorite Photo Editing Apps

Rhonna & Liz have both done awesome, super informational posts about their favorite apps to use for Instagram, so I thought I might weigh in on what I use to make my Instagrams a little more me.

Picfx ($1.99)
I usually start all my photos in Picfx, because I like a lot of their filters, and they crop your photos into a square for you. I like that you can adjust the opacity and rotate the effects too, so you don't have to have a grunge smear on someone's face if you don't want to. You can also add more effects to one photo to create customizable layers.

Phonto (Free)
So sweet to add text your photos, easy as pie. Also, they just came out with an update that lets you load your own fonts, so I am going to be BUSY loading my giant collection of font faves.

Snapster (Free)
I just downloaded this app last week so I don't have a ton of experience with it, but I do like a lot of their filters. There are even more filters you can purchase within the app if you get tired of their standards.

Stitched Lite (Free)
A collage app to put different photos all together. I don't use this one too often, but it's great to have since it's free

PhotoForge2 ($2.99)
So this one is a little pricey, but TRUST- you need it. It's does have filters and all that jazz, but I really use it for photo layering. Similar to Photoshop, you can start with a photo, then add layers to the photo to get your mobile digital scrapbooking on. I add my designs and my Rhonna Designs PNG files to my Dropbox Account on my computer, then I go to my Dropbox app on my iPhone. I save the PNG files to my Camera Roll, then in PhotoForge I upload the PNG layers, resize & adjust to my liking, then save again to my camera roll. It's a few extra steps and an extra app download, but totally worth it in my opinion.

So, here's a little step-by-step recipe for a fabulous Instagram photo

RECIPE

 {picfx/resize & enhance + photoforge2/frame + phonto/add text + snapster/Instant filter +picfx/bokeh}

As you can see, you can make it as complicated or as simple as you wish, you layer on effects to your heart's desire. AND, as a little present to all my Insta-happy friends, here's some lovely little frames to get you started with your Insta-glamming. Go here to download the file  -------->

Here's my Insta Art I created with these sweet new frames. If you'd like to follow along my Instagram name is rosemarywatson!

***UPDATE***

If you love these freebie frames and want MORE MORE MORE! You can visit my Digital Shop for some Happy & Bright Birthday Frames- for just $0.99!

Happy Summer Shopping List & Menu Printables

The Man has been hounding me all week to print more Grocery Shopping Lists, and I like to refresh my designs every so often, so I figured it was a perfect time for a new look. And, since I'm making them anyway, why not share them with you lovely people? 

Just download your copy of these bright little lists below, print a whole stack out and stick on your fridge! They make grocery shopping and meal planning a whole lot less daunting, don't you think?

Groceries & Menu Lists

Team Tuesday: 61 Days of Summer Scrapbook

It's Tuesday, and that means another Rhonna Designs project to share with everyone! Oh how I love Tuesdays. 

Today's sweet summer project is our family's 61 days of Summer Scrapbook. Olivia has exactly 60 days of Summer Vacation (the last day of school is plus one!) and we have been piling up the memories to add to our book until she starts school again August 1st. 

I primarily used the Nautical Chic line, there are so many fabulous elements to mix & match to create an entire book out of. I started with a kraft cardstock base and added rings to the ends to bind the book together. 

Then I printed off a ton of the Nautical Chic Papers and combined them with solid cardstock from Scrapbooks ETC, embellished with a bunch of different pieces from the Nautical Chic line. 

I'm going to fill the book solely with Instagram photos, printed off at Persnickety Prints. They print off strips of your Instas for super cheap, and you can even order them on metallic photo paper! 

We have a ways to go and a ton more memories to fill this baby with, but it's been really fun working on it with the kids. They like to add a few drawings to the book every now and then- and I'm going to have them do some journaling and fill out some surveys about their favorite parts of summer and their birthdays. 

See what everyone else is making for Team Tuesday on Rhonna's blog today! 

Countdown to Clementine: 26 Weeks

The heat is killing me so I'm grumpier than an old man with kids on his grass, but other than that everything is going good. Oh, but we do have a special announcement to make- Baby #6's name...

{Drumroll please}

I've love love loved the name Clementine for, like ever, and after much deliberation Braden conceded the victory to me on the condition that he choose her middle name. All our girls have flower middle names {Olivia Rose, Penelope Lily, Evelyn Violet, & Georgia Magnolia} so he went online and found a flower he liked, so Cosmos it is! It's unique & spunky, just like I'm sure she will be ;)

And, here's my belly progress. Growing bigger by the second.

In other news, all my Striped Baby designs can be found at my new Digital Shop {rosemarywatsoncreative.bigcartel.com}, along with my Patriotic digital printables used in the Patriotic Mini Sessions I held on Saturday. The Patriotic digital printables will be in the store tomorrow! Check out the feature on the Rosemary Watson Creative blog!

Foto Friday Week 42: Summer

Foto Friday is back, friends! I've been MIA for a few weeks (again) and wanted to finish off these last 10 weeks like a champ- complete with a logo refresh! Join me for these last ten challenges to try and expand my photo skills and experiences. 

This week's challenge is "Summer" and what we try to do here in Mesa, AZ in the summer is not die of heatstroke. It's a scorching 109 degrees and basically that means I hate life, being 26 weeks pregnant with 5 kids 5 & under going ape crazy cooped up inside all day. So, what do we do to cope? Eat popsicles of course.

Go take a peek-a-loo at all the other girls of Foto Friday to see how their summer is shaping up.

Meg

Hilary

Kristyn

Christine

Welcome To My New Blog!

Isn't it just wonderful? I gotta tell you, it took some serious HTML & CSS tweaking and now I fear my brain has turned to mush. My father is a software engineer, and I now have a new found respect for his profession- staring at code all day is pretty brain-scrambling. That's probably why when I ask, "How was work Poppa?" He always replies saltily, "Oh it was the best day ever. I hated to leave." Luckily, if I'm at his house, so are my kids; so he gets cheered up rather quickly with the twinners screaming "POPPA POPPA!" at the top of their lungs and refusing to let him put them down.

Anywhoo, I digress- THE BLOG. I've been a disorganized mess for far too long, and I finally decided I needed to revamp and get my crap together. I've created a central identity that I love (for at least a little while) and can adjust to fit further projects & seasons. Take a look around, shoot me any questions, and get ready to get your socks knocked off, because I have some big plans coming up!