For many people, January represents a myriad of things – new beginnings, the end of the past year and the beginning of a new one, a time to reflect on possible changes that you want to happen in your life, a time of renewed hope for the coming year. For me, it is also a time to express love to the person that mean the most to me – my hubby. Why? For one, he's celebrating his birthday this month and I am already excited to delight him with my gift (ok, so I am a bit anxious too, thinking what I should give him). Secondly, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so love is in the air. And while I always tell anyone who would listen that everyday is Valentine's Day for us (yeah right!!!), I must admit that I do feel a little more special when I get that bouquet of tulips on Valentine's Day. J

So, for this issue, I selected a few pictures that represent beginnings and love. Instead of correcting flaws, I have decided to add a few elements to make these pictures more suitable for the layouts I envisioned for them.

Picture 1
What could represent beginnings better than a wedding? For us, this is the beginning of the rest of our lives. This was the day that we, in front of family and friends, promised our undying love for each other. This picture was taken before the ceremony, while Ariel was preparing just a few doors away from my hotel room. I love this photo and I just want to make it more suitable for the layout I have in mind. Our wedding colors are lilac and yellow so I decided to infuse this photo with our theme colors to match with the papers I am planning to use, perfect for our wedding album.

Picture 2
This photo was taken in Camiguin during our summer “beachcapade” commemorating our four blissful years together. This photo has enough space for the magic touch I have in mind.

Pic 2a.jpg – I added freehand drawing of hearts to frame my subject. This makes a clear statement that the person in the picture is the object of my affection. I've seen layouts with this look but using acrylic paint or inks.

• Paintbrush Tool (select from the paintbrush icon at the right side of the screen)>select the second smallest square brush stroke> select a dark shade of yellow from the color palette above>freehand draw a heart
• Draw a second heart using the biggest square brush stroke with Radius set at 3 and using a lighter shade of yellow
• Draw another heart but set radius to 5 and choose color white
• Note: You can draw any shape (circles are popular nowadays!), select a combination of colors and brush stroke sizes of your choice

Pic 2b.jpg – Inspired by layouts using “words to go”, I added journaling by using the rectangle tool, stroke and fill, and Text feature. Instead of full sentences, I used words and phrases to describe my hubby's innumerable roles in my life.

• Click the rectangle tool>Draw a rectangular strip>click Edit>Stroke and fill…>check Stroke>Color (Blue) >Width (1) >check Fill>Color (Blue) >Opacity (50%)>Ok
• Image>Text (or just click the T icon) >Comic Sans>Size 25>Italic>Color (Yellow) >Alignment (left) >Angle (0) >click Effects tab>Opacity (90%)>check Drop Shadow>X(3) >Y(3) >Ok>Drag text box on the rectangular strip, adjust size (drag corner of text box) if necessary
• Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add more text strips