MAGGIE HOLMES Photography and Scrapbooking Blog

Blog Tour Day 5 and My Winners!

 

 

Hi again! I'm back with the links for day five of the Ella Publishing Blog Tour!

Today I am linking to Shimelle Laine and Stacy Julian.... both seriously amazing women! Can't even explain how awesome and inspiring they are! Wow!

By now I think you know the drill.... help me honor these amazing gals by visiting their blogs and also be sure to enter to win some more prizes while you are there!! Click below to say hello to today's spotlighted bloggers!

 

 

 

If you want to know what the MISA award is all about, you can go to the Ella Publishing blog here to find out all about the award, the nominees and the full prize descriptions!

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Also, I'm announcing the winners of the 10 prizes that I am giving away! So excited to announce this! All winners have been selected at random and you will each win one of the prizes that I listed before. So.... here we go..... (These are in random order and the order listed here does not necessarily coordinate with the order of the prizes.)

Angie Kyle said...

Congratulations on the recognition! Thanks for the chance to win! I would love to win your class or the gift certificate from Ella.

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 04:26 AM

Tess said...

Happy to discover your blog on the blog tour. Had a quick look around and have bookmarked to return when life slows down a little. Really want to work on improving my photographic skills (pretty much non existant at the moment)

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 05:53 AM

Erin said...

Congratulations on the nomination Maggie! You definitely deserve it and you most definitely inspire me! I am in your beginner / intermediate class starting the end of August and am so excited about it. Thanks for the chance to win some great prizes...I would love any of them.

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 06:29 AM 

Karen said...

Congratulations on making the list! Thanks for sharing your creativity with us.

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 07:00 AM

Lillian Child said...

Congratulations, Maggie! You are so deserving of this nomination!

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 07:39 AM

kimberly said...

congratulations, I know I am always inspired by your fun style when I see your projects in CK!

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 08:53 AM

krafting kelly said...

Congratulations, Maggie! I've seen your work for a while through Creating Keepsakes and always enjoy seeing your creations. I'm bookmarking your blog now. :) Thanks for the chance to win!

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 03:23 PM

Julia said...

Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition :)

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 04:25 PM

Mary Mitchell said...

I can't think of a better list of influential scrapbookers. I wouldn't be where I am today in my scrapbooking if you hadn't been willing to share share your creative passon with the world. I would be excited to win any of the prizes being given away. Congratulations on an honor well deserved.

ReplyJuly 21, 2010 at 07:42 PM

Trish said...

Congratulations on your award!! I'm a newbie here but I am totally inspired by your photos - I'm off to delve deeper.
Thanks for the chance to win - would love absolutely anything on the list.

ReplyJuly 22, 2010 at 02:33 PM

CONGRATS Ladies!! Please email me with your name, email and physical address to claim your prize!!

Blog Tour Day 4

 

 I'm back..... and I bet that by now you know what is going to happen next right?

Today I am linking to the lovely Margie and Renee...

Be sure to head on over to congratulate both of them, say hello and enter to win some more prizes!

 

If you want to know what the MISA award is all about, you can go to the Ella Publishing blog here to find out all about the award, the nominees and the full prize descriptions!

Blog Tour Day 3: Giveaway

I know I mentioned this before but being one of the 9 nominees for this award is really an honor! I have been scrapbooking for as long as I can remember and even though it is a huge part of my life, I really don't talk about it a lot (besides here on my blog). Hardly any of the people that I hang out with on a day-to-day basis scrapbook and honestly I don't even think that most of my family members really "get" what its all about and why I am so into it! In fact just last month my husband picked up one of the recent Creating Keepsakes issues and he was getting all excited that I had some layouts in there. He couldn't believe I hadn't told him and I just laughed and explained that since I have been on the Dream Team the last few years, I have actually had layouts in every issue. And I thought he knew that but he had no idea! So you really can see that I just go about my business and do my thing but I don't really make a big deal of it. 

So, getting back to my point, I guess I am still really taken back when people will take the time to stop and notice all of this and when people tell me that they are inspired by what I do in the scrapbooking world. I can remember when I first got started in the industry with Making Memories, and now all these years later, I still just feel like little old me doing my thing the same as I always have been. I still look at ladies like the other award nominees and I am in awe at them and what they do and how they inspire me! I still pinch myself when I am at the Creative Escape preview day teaching a practice run of my class to other amazing and inspiring scrapbookers like Heidi Swapp, Teresa Collins, Claudine Hellmuth, and the others.

Receiving this award is a big deal to me not only because it is an honor but because it really is nice to see that what I do is making a difference and that it is inspiring to others.... we all want to feel like the things we do matter and especially things we pour our heart and soul into on a daily basis. It truly means a lot and I do want to say thanks to Ella Publishing and thanks to all of my online friends and the followers of my blog that have been hanging out here for years paying attention and joining me on this amazing journey! It feels great to be able to share this (and everything else I do) with all of you and with so many people that do "get" it and that do feel the same passion for taking photographs, creating art and preserving our memories!

Ok, I didn't mean to get all gushy... now onto the giveaways! The fun part! I am so excited to be a part of this blog tour because there are lots of amazing prizes up for grabs! When I read all of the details about the tour and the giveaways I was literally blown away! It's not very often that you get 100 chances to win.... and such great prizes too! 

I will be giving away one prize from each of the nominees, plus Ella - that's 10 prizes in all that you can win here on my blog. You can enter to win by leaving a comment on this post. The winners will be selected randomly and each winner will receive one of the listed prizes. If you are dying for a certain prize over something else you can include that with your comment as well but there are no guarantees. You will have until Friday at 10am MST to enter.

Here's a list of the prizes:

• A $20 gift certificate from Ella Publishing Co.

• Two digital-scrapbooking template packs (20 templates) from Cathy Zielske

• A six-month Paperclipping membership from Noell Hyman

• A “Play Date” product pack from Jenni Bowlin

• A place in either a beginner photo-editing class or a beginner digital-scrapbooking class from Jessica Sprague

• A spot in the “Beginner/Intermediate Online Photography Workshop” from Maggie Holmes

• “Paper Girl” and “On Holiday” product packs from Margie Romney-Aslett

• A $50 gift certificate toward any class on reneepearson.com from Renee Pearson

• A place for you and a friend in both “Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages” and “Journal Your Christmas” from Shimelle Laine

• A place in either Elizabeth Dillow’s “Inspiration Defined” or Karen Grunberg’s “Book of Stories” from Stacy Julian

The other stop on the blog tour for today is Jessica Sprague. Be sure to head over there for more chances to win and to congratulate her!!

 

Also don't forget about the ebook: Time to Scrapbook! 9 busy women share 27 tricks for fitting it in which includes exclusive layouts created by each of the nominees along with lots of personalized tips and fun information! You will love it! 

 

And finally, if you are new here and you have no clue what I am even talking about you can go to the Ella Publishing blog here to find out all about the award, the nominees and the full prize descriptions!

 

Blog Tour Day 2 and a Utah Photo Shoot

Moving right along with the Ella Publishing Blog Tour, here are two more links to two of my fellow nominees and there are more prizes up for grabs today! 

Click on the links below to say hello to today's spotlighted bloggers and enter to win! 

 

 

(Jenni Bowlin will be posting later tonight so her info may not be up yet.)

You can learn more about the MISA award, the other nominees and the blog tour at the Ella Publishing Blog. (They have a special section for the award! How fun is that!) 

Keep checking back each day for more links and more prizes!!!

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Today we are staying inside and avoiding the heat! I am editing images from some photo shoots that I did while we were in Utah. And it is making me miss the green and trees and the beautiful weather!

        

  

 

 

 
 

Ella Publishing MISA: Blog Tour

Hi there! I'm back with some fun and exciting things going on this week in light of the 

Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010 award that I mentioned in my last post.

This week we are doing a blog tour with lots of fun giveaways!! Exciting right? 

You can help me honor my fellow nominees by visiting their blogs throughout the week. (I will be linking to them each day). You could win one of 100 cool prizes! Yes, I did say 100!! First up we have the Ella Blog and Cathy Zielske. Click the links below to say hello to them and enter to win today's prizes!

 

You can learn more about the award, the other nominees and the blog tour at the Ella Publishing Blog. (They have a special section for the award! How fun is that!) 

Keep checking back each day for more links and more prizes!!!

A Few Things to Share...

First up - It's time to draw a winner for the Clickin' Mom's giveaway....

Jenny said:

Thanks for hosting such a wonderful giveaway! I've always wanted to join Clickin' Moms! One thing I'd love to learn to do is how to properly use off camera lighting.

Congrats Jenny! Email me with your info to receive your prize!!

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Next - Some updates regarding my Online Photography Workshops.....

1. The advanced class starting next week is now full. The next advanced workshop will be offered in early 2011. Dates will be announced and registration will open within the next couple of months. If you are interested and want to get a spot in the next class please email me to be added to the waiting list. Those on the wait list will receive advance notification emails and priority registration.

2. The next beginner/intermediate workshop is almost full. There are a few spots left but it is filling quickly. Please register now to guarantee your spot! I may or may not offer one more beginner class before the year is over. That is still up in the air and more details will come on this.

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And finally I am beyond excited that I finally get to share this with you:

 

To be included on this list among all of these amazing and inspiring women that I have followed and been in awe of for years..... well it is just such an honor! It truly is! Check out all of the details by clicking on the button below and then click on the Most Influential Scrapbooker Link at the very bottom of the page.

And then there is the ebook that they created in light of this... well it is simply stunning! Talk about inspiration -- to have layouts along with fun and helpful information from each of these ladies all in one place is just more than I could ask for. And then to top it all off, I couldn't believe it when I got the proof in my inbox and saw my layout on the cover! What a sweet surprise!

 (Click the image to see more details about the ebook)

Again, I am humbled, honored, and just over the moon excited about this! :)

Next week we will all be hosting giveaways on our blogs so be sure to check back! You will not want to miss it!! It is big!! For now be sure to browse around the special section of the Ella Blog dedicated to this award and don't miss out on the Time to Scrapbook ebook either. I know you will love it!

Another Year Gone...

I found myself looking back at some old photos tonight and can't get over how much Emily Jane has grown this last year! I took these almost a year ago and can't believe how much she has changed!

 

 

She just turned three this week and while I love the age she is at now and I adore everything about her right now, I also can't stand the fact that another year is gone and she is turning into a little girl.

It's one of those things that I have a hard time figuring out in life... always looking forward with excitement about growth and change and what lies ahead and yet always feeling equally sad about how quickly it all gets left in the past and wishing I could somehow slow it all down or even freeze us in time.

   

 

I guess that's what a picture does -- freezes things for us in a sense so that we can look back and remember.... but I can't get over the longing to be able to jump back there for a little while... just for a bit -- to squeeze those cheeks that are not looking quite as chubby lately... or to have her be excited and anxious about holding my hand while crossing the street instead of wanting to run off ahead.... or just to sit and be with her -- taking it all in, soaking it all up, savoring and treasuring every single second and making sure that I would know how quickly the moment would be gone.

Giveaway: Clickin' Moms

Hi again! Hope you are having a great week so far!

As promised, I am back with an AWESOME giveaway!

 

Clickin' Moms is a community of women who have a passion for photography. From amateur family photographers to hobbyists and seasoned pros, we help each other and provide the support necessary to move each member's photography to the next level. Clickin' Moms features informative and easy to understand tutorials on photography, post processing and managing photography businesses. Clickin' Moms also hosts entertaining contests and photography challenges with exciting and valuable prizes. With over 8,000 members, you will learn, inspire, and be inspired. If you aren't hooked on photography already, we will make sure that you are soon!

I am new to Clickin' Moms myself but so far I have loved it and it seems to be a really great community! I am a vendor sponsor on their site as well which means I will be hosting giveaways and such for my Photoshop Actions and Online Photography Workshops that will be offered exclusively to the Clickin' Moms members! Lots of fun things going on over there all the time from what I can tell!

And now for the giveaway details: 

Clickin' Moms is offering a year's subscription to one of you!! How amazing is that? To enter to win, you need to post a comment here on this blog post and tell me something you would like to learn about photography... you will have until Thursday to enter and then I will be back to draw the winner! Good luck!

Studio Calico July Kit: Continental

So I know I am super late in posting these since I was out of town most of last month but I thought I would still share them anyway.... 

Here are my layouts for the July Kit.... as is typical for me, they are a combination of all the kits. The main kit is still available here, but all the add-ons are already sold out.

First up is "Emily"... this one was inspired by a page from one of the Ella Publishing ebooks... the details are found on the Studio Calico blog here along with a link to the specific book that we all drew inspiration from. I absolutely LOVE the label stamps from SC that I used on this page. They are designed to work perfectly with this label punch! So clever!

  

Next is "No Matter What"... while I was up in Utah I met up with one of my most favorite friends ever... Loni Stevens. I met her through scrapbooking years ago and we have stayed close friends ever since. She's one of those friends where no matter how long its been since we have talked or hung out, we can always just pick right back up and have the best of times! We can be talking about serious things one minute and laughing our heads off the next... We took a bunch (maybe a few too many haha) pictures with my instax camera so I thought it would be fun to do a layout with some of them and talk about our friendship.

   

And finally "too fast" which is about Matthew and how he is growing up too fast! I didn't use a lot of punches or even any mists this month because I created these while I was in Utah and didn't have my full arsenal of supplies! (now that was a little hard!) But I did use the Round Binding Edge Punch and the Double Embossed Dotted Lace Punch. Both of these are faves so when we decided to stay in Utah longer and I had to have my mom send up my kits so I could create my layouts, I made sure that she included those in the package! I knew they would work with any layout! 

  

And since I am so late in posting these I already have the August kits in my hands and they are super fun!! There are some stamps that I am in LOVE with so be sure to check the sneaks on the 13th so you can be ready to get your hands on the ones you want before they are gone!! I know it's no fun to tease but I just had to say something about them! :)

P.S. I have an AWESOME giveaway coming up soon so keep checking back for that!! You don't want to miss it!

Advanced Online Photography Workshop: Q & A

Hi there! We are finally back home from a long and super fun vacation (with some photography work mixed in). I absolutely LOVE Utah this time of year. The weather is beautiful (except when it was raining almost every day for the first week) and it is a photographer's dream because there are a ton of beautiful and fun spots to shoot at! I took my kiddos out multiple times to take pictures of them and to justify it I had to keep reminding them and everyone that once I return to Arizona, the outdoor, on-location photo shoots will literally come to a halt because it is sooooo hot here right now! So, my kids were actually quite good at cooperating.... but probably because they knew they would be off the hook for a while! 

Well.... off the hook for the more formal planned photo shoots that I love to do with them. Of course they know that I will still be taking tons of candid shots of them as per usual! :) They are never completely off the hook right? Especially since we have 3 birthdays this month -- Tyler's, Emily's and mine! Which means lots of festivities! Not to mention the fact that it is summer so we will be doing more fun things than usual!

Anyway, I will definitely be sharing lots of the Utah pictures in the weeks to come but for now I wanted to answer some questions that I have been receiving about my Advanced Photography class that I teach online. I have been getting lots of emails lately with the same questions so I figured it would be best to answer them here where you can all get access to the info!

>> Yes, the class that starts this month (July 19th) will be the LAST Advanced course I will offer this year. I have a Beginner course scheduled for August and then I may or may not teach one more beginner class. But this will definitely be the last Advanced for the year. So... that means if you want to take it, sign up now! I would hate for you to miss out if you are planning to take it this year.

>> If you don't make it into this next class, you can definitely be added to the wait list by emailing me. As soon as I open up the dates for 2011, the wait list will be the first to know and will receive priority registration before it is opened up to the public.

>> The detailed week-by-week course outline can be found here on my photography workshops page. There are also some more question/answers at this same link. The outline spells out everything we will cover during the course of the workshop.

>> I do teach the editing portion of the class based upon what I do and what makes up my workflow. I use Lightroom and Photoshop and so those are the platforms that I teach from. If you have Photoshop Elements you will not be able to do every single function that I am able to do in Photoshop. However, you will be able to do a lot of the things and some things you can do but just a bit differently. Also, what has worked well for many of my past students is that they downloaded the free trial of Photoshop right before the editing portion of the class. That way you can follow along with everything I do and then decide if it is worth the investment for you or if you want to just stick with PSE. We also have an invaluable private message board where those with PSE can share info and tips/tricks for completing the steps that I do in Photoshop (since sometimes the functions and/or location of things is different in PSE).

>> Yes, I do really share all of my insider tips and tricks as to how I edit my photos. I share my complete workflow from start to finish and I share things like my sharpening methods, how to add in a fake blue sky, how to edit back-lit images, etc.

Here is a good example of an image that shows a lot of the things I teach in class....

This is the "before" image that is SOOC (straight out of camera):

 

And here is the image after my editing (using techniques that are all taught in the Advanced class):

 

Here is a shot with the two images side by side so you can see the before/after a little better:

 

And here's a brief run down of what I did:

Adjusted white balance in Lightroom, Ran a noise reduction filter, Added a fake blue sky, Selectively lightened the front of his face to even out the lighting a bit and bring more life to his eyes since it was back lit, Ran one of my actions, Darkened and popped the colors in the image selectively so as not to make the subject look unnatural, Sharpened and resized

Again, that is in a nutshell and all of those things are explained in detail in the class. I have also added video tutorials to my Advanced Workshop in which I show you step by step how to do many of the more difficult techniques. They have been a huge added bonus to the class which all of my students have loved and found very valuable!

And to answer a couple final questions...

>> The link to register for the next class is found on my Workshops Page. There are still some spots left so if you want to join us, we would love to have you. 

>> I will definitely be sharing feedback from past students. I have been compiling the emails and notes I have received and they will be a part of my new website (which is in the works!). For now to sum it up I would say that my students who have been looking to go pro have found the class very helpful and an invaluable resource in that aspect. Also those not looking to go pro have loved it equally as much just for the sheer knowledge of being able to edit their photos and really take them to the next level. If you are looking to create the images that you see on photographer's websites, then you are in the right place. I do share all of my techniques that get you from that SOOC image to one that is worthy of blowing up really big to display in your home!

I hope that covers it all! If you are still wondering about anything, just email me! See you in class!