Egg Hunt Party Invite
By Joscie Cutchens

I created this hybrid Easter card as a party invitation, but you could easily make it into an Easter Card.

Supplies Used:
Neenah White Cardstock
Paper Trey Ink Kraft Cardstock
Tonic Paper Trimmer
Tonic Scissors
American Crafts Foam Adhesive
Target Holiday Trim
Sewing Machine
October Afternoon Alphas
Quickutz Egg Dies
Big Shot
Scalloped Scissors
Creative Charms Adhesive Gems
Printer
Miss Mint’s Color Coded Seabreeze Lemonade Patterned Paper Pack

• In Photoshop, open a new 8.5 x 11” 300 dpi document.
• Print 4 patterned papers from Miss Mint’s Color Coded Seabreeze Lemonade Patterned Paper Pack.
• I used an egg die from Quickutz to cut out an egg shape in green and in stripes.
• I trimmed the striped egg with scalloped scissors to create a strip for my egg.
• I mounted the strip to the egg with foam adhesive and added foam adhesive to the back of the egg to mount to card front.
• I added self adhesive gems by Creative Charms to the scallops. *You can use craft tweezers to apply gems precisely.

• Cut a piece of Kraft Cardstock to 5.5 x 11”, score and fold in half.
• Cut blue patterned paper to 5×5”.
• Cut a strip of dark green paper to 5 x ½”, adhere to bottom of blue patterned paper.
• Add a strip of adhesive along the edge of the green and blue patterned paper.
• Cut a 6” piece of Green tinsel and press on patterned paper, wrapping ends to back of patterned paper.
• Adhere patterned paper to card front.
• Add sentiment with October Afternoon Alpha Stickers. *You can use a ruler or straight edge to line up letters.
• Add machine stitching to the bottom of the alphas and around the edge of the Patterned Paper.
• Mount the egg to the front of the card.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my tutorial. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy! J

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”
– Phyllis Diller

Have a great day!

One of the advantages to shooting on a “point & shoot” camera for beginners is that most of the functionality is taken care of for you. You don’t have to worry about your settings or your focal length, P&S cameras, for the most part, work automatically.
Say you want to broaden your horizons and have more camera control. So you make the leap and buy a dSLR. Now a whole new world of possibilities are open to you with creative functionality. You can now make all kinds of adjustments with your settings and even choose what kind of lens you want to shoot with. The problem is, you have no idea what lens to use.

Today’s little tutorial will hopefully clear up any questions or confusion over lenses and knowing which one to use.

First let’s try and understand lens terminology. Most lenses fall into these categories: Prime (Fixed), Telephoto, Zoom,Wide Angle, & Macro. Alright, so what do they mean?

Prime Lens or “fixed” lens, means that the focal length is fixed, non-changing and does not zoom. Examples of prime lenses are 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm. Prime lenses offer wider or “faster” apertures, they’re usually smaller in size & weight and are great for portraiture.

Zoom Lens means that the focal length can be changed, usually be twisting the barrel of the lens. Examples of zoom lenses are 28-135mm, 24-70mm, 70-300mm. Zoom lenses have varied minimum aperture settings. Take for instance the 28-135mm lens, when the lens is zoomed out to 28mm the minimum aperture will be 3.5, when it’s zoomed all the way out to 135 the minimum aperture setting can only go down to 5.6. More expensive zoom lenses can offer a fixed minimum aperture of say 2.8 but you’ll pay quite a bit more for those. Zoom lenses are great for all purpose uses. They’re great for vacations when your subjects will be varied and many. Zoom lenses offer versatility without having to carry several around with you.

Telephoto Lens is a long focus lens that is sometimes a zoom and sometimes a fixed lens. Telephoto lenses are commonly used in sports & nature photography. The long focal length means you don’t have to be as close to the action and still get a great shot.

Wide Angle Lens is a short focal length lens, just like the telephoto can be a zoom or a fixed lens. Most wide angle lenses start at about 18mm. There are more specialized wide angle lenses that offer up to 10mm of focal length and these are usually called “Fish Eye” lenses and have some distortion. Wide angle lenses capture a view that is wider than the human eye and this can have it’s advantages. Wide Angle lenses can be used indoors and are often used in landscape photography to emphasize “wide open spaces”. Wide Angle lenses also offer greater depths of field, perfect for landscapes.

Macro Lens is a lens that allows the photographer to get extremely close to a subject without special attachments. Want to photograph the tiny writing on a coin? A macro lens will help you achieve that. Macro lenses have a very short depth of field and need abundant light to capture a clear, sharp image. Macro lenses offer the ability to magnify what the human eye has trouble seeing clearly.

Now that we’ve defined a few common lens types, we should discuss all the nomenclature that is on a lens which can be confusing and overwhelming for beginners.
If you’re holding a lens and looking into it, around the outer edge will be important information. This is where you’ll find the manufacturer of the lens (like Canon, Nikon, Tamron, etc) and it’s mount type. (each type of camera & brand has a specific mount type.) You will also find the focal length. Depending on what type of lens this could read 50mm or 24-70mm or 70-300mm. Next to the focal length is a ratio number such as 1:2.8 or 1:1.8 or 1:3.5-5.6 which determines your MINIMUM aperture, or in other words how “fast” your camera lens is. And usually the last number is the filter size which can range anywhere from 52mm up to 77mm on a typical lens.

On the actual barrel of the lens, usually over the focusing ring, the above info is repeated. Sometimes this will include initials like USM, IS, or APO further specifying what type of lens you have. Usually between the focus ring & the zoom ring (if you’re using a zoom lens) are the Depth of Field Scale & the Focal Length Scale.

Article by: Sarah Harbuck for PeppermintCreative.com
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Want more? Check out other related posts:

• Understanding Shutter Speed
• Understanding Aperture
• Understanding ISO
• Understanding White Balance
• Understanding Depth of Field
• Understanding Basic Composition
• Understanding Natural Light for Portraits
• Understanding Camera Lenses
• Understanding Histograms
• Photography Tips: Taking Great Self-Portraits
• Photography Tips: Pixels, Resolution, Format & Memory Cards
• Photography Tips: How to Take Better Candid Photos
• Photography Tips: Night & Low Light Photography

Happy Monday! Welcome back to another edition of Mint-spirational Monday, our weekly spotlight of the best pages and projects from the Peppermint Creative Gallery. It’s been another fantastic week of pages.

Let’s check out this week’s standouts:

Girlie Nails | by Trisha
Perfect in pink! This page is girlie to the max. I always love Trisha’s clean and modern scrapping style. Great photos too. I’m a huge fan of the side by side shots showing different perspectives of the same event – which ironically was last week’s CAP challenge.

Sweet Pea | by iScrap
This page is like a burst of sunshine! I love the yellow/orange/lime color combination.
Beautiful layering and that adorable FACE (oh don’t you just want to pinch those delicious cheeks!?) Make this page a definite stand out.

Sometimes it’s Harder to Laugh | by rjcjme
The power of this page lies in the journaling (click image to view). A truly beautiful page with fantastic use of white space.

Big Boy Smile | by glumirk
Totally adorable…I mean c’mon LOOK AT THAT FACE! Love, love!

Hot Mama??? | by zachandavasmom
I just love the soft colors. A beautiful mix of purples, pinks and grey – a great alternative for a ‘girlie’ page aside from the usual pink. Plus I think it’s a little more sophisticated. Gorgeous!

Hula Hoopin’ | by rjcjme
Ohh I just LOVE this one. Such great use of color and white space. I love the addition of the paint splatters which add a feeling of fun and movement and energy to the page but I also really love the round string looped around one of the photos which I think just really accentuates the hoola hoopin’ theme!

Girl Power by mama_pajama
Lots of girlie-ness in the gallery this week! I love the funky color treatment on the photos. They are so adorable and go just great with this kit.

Laugh, Splash, Play | by wendella247
This is a really fun one. Look at those pictures. Someone is having a boat load of fun. I love the combination of the aqua, teal and pink not too mention all the fun elements. Great page!

Happy Birthday | by mj.johnston
These wine tag templates were a real hit and you can see why – what a GREAT way to give your next hostess gift a little extra oomph. Y’know that special touch that says ‘hey, I took the time to make you something fancy because I am so crafty..be jealous’. Customize to any occasion!

Thanks to everyone to posted
Keep scrapping and you might see your page here next week.

And remember…only YOU can prevent forest fires.

CIAO for now my crafty friends.

xo.

“To receive a smile, give one away.”
Happy WEDNESDAY! Enjoy!! ;)

Have a great day!

Happy Mo-Mo-Mo-Monday! Welcome back to another edition of Mint-spirational Monday, our weekly spotlight of the best pages and projects from the Peppermint Creative Gallery. I was THRILLED to see lots of beautiful pages this week. It’s always such a treat to see your pages – after all, it’s you who bring the products to life and I just love seeing them ‘in action.’

Let’s check out this week’s standouts:

Back 2 School | by rjcjme
LOVE this page! Such great use of color and layering here. Not only does the green compliment the photo but the touches of red are just perfection as red is the complementary color for green. When you use complementary colors you are pretty much guaranteed a pleasing color combination. Just a little color theory for ya.
See? Inspiration AND learning. What more could you ask for….I mean really.

Postage Card | by MaryJo
The Queen of Cards does it again. Mary Jo’s hybrid cards never fail to impress.
Just look and drool..

21 Weeks | by mama_pajama
This bright and beautiful page popped right out of the gallery. Interesting shapes and great use of color are among the reasons this page is a real stand out. I love the rectangular cut outs too. They add a little extra depth to the page.

Funny Boy | by marylee
Is this the CUTEST or what? I just LOVE these pictures. They kind of make me think of Glow Worm (remember that?) I don’t know why though, because he didn’t have glasses. MAN! I always wanted a Glow Worm, they were so cool. Maybe I’m thinking of Teddy Ruxpin. Did he have glasses? …pause while I Google…Nope he didn’t. I always wanted one of those too. I was so deprived of stupid cool toys that talked.

But I digress..

The clever recoloring of the photos to give them a sepia tint means they match this kit (or pretty much any kit for that matter) perfectly. This is a GREAT tip to keep in mind when you have a fab photo that just doesn’t ‘go’ with the colors in the kit. Turning your photo to black and white or sepia can usually solve the problem.

*invitation*| by birgit
This fun and festive birthday invitation is just makes me what to throw my hands in the air like I just don’t care. Boom, boom, boom everybody say “WAYO!”. (Dare you to click that link and not laugh…seriously, what is wrong with people?). But back to the card.. I love the colors and of course the progressive photos of the birthday girl.

Tooth Fairy Visit | by boofceil
I love the mix of kits and colors in this page plus the interesting angle of the photos
really caught my eye!

Laugh| by KiristieGai
I love how the photo in this page looks like it’s floating! Great use of elements in an understated way.

Thanks for posting ladies! Keep the creativity coming and you might just see your pages posted here next week! ;) Ciao for now muchachas!!