Video Voice-Overs

To all my fellow video editors out there, I've recently found a way to include voice overs into my edited videos along with the music of the video using Windows Movie Maker. This is the first time I've tried this editing style and found it to be quite powerful and meaningful to the video's meaning.
Here's what I did:

1) Record voice over (I just used my Canon Power Shot camera).

2) Copy off of your camera's SD card to your computer. Put in a folder of your choice.

3) Convert the voice over video to MP3 format. I use Any Video Converter and select my conversion format. You can find a free download of AVC here.

4) Open Windows Movie Maker - Import Audio - Find your new MP3 voice over (I still use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 because I can't stand the Windows 7 version) I downloaded this version free here.

5) Edit the mp3 with parts of the video and pictures you'll be using at this point of your finished video project.

6) Once you have how you would want your voice over to look in your finished video project (minus the music), save to your computer as it's own video file.

7) Open your main video project in Windows Movie Maker. Import the video voice over you just created under "import video".

8) Input into your project at desired spot of the timeline.

9) Adjust the voice over volume by right-clicking on the voice over video in your timeline and selecting volume. You can adjust your music volume the same way by right-clicking on the music in your timeline. I had to play with this a bit to get the music and voice to fit together right.

10) Repeat the first 9 steps for each voice over you want in your main video project. Then save your final project! 

I understand this is probably clear as mud, but feel free to leave me questions and I'll do my best to answer them! I hope to eventually include pictures with these steps, which would probably help. I was very excited when I figured out how to incorporate voice overs into my videos. It is a great tool to making your videos more meaningful, informative and interesting. Check out the first video I did this with below:

(Dominican Outreach Trip, 2012)

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Write for a Career...Someday.

I long to write and write well. I long to sit and just write all day long. Write a blog. Write creative ideas. Write new characters. Write about things that inspire me. I just want to write.
Writing for money would be nice. I hear you have to be REALLY good to do that though.
Maybe I'll write devotionals, and actually sell them.
Or a book of my less-than-classic poems.
I could just come up with a new story and turn that into a novel - maybe even a series.

Someday, maybe I'll write and be paid for it...

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Smash Booking: A New Craze?

So I've recently been intrigued by this apparently not-so-new scrapbooking style called Smash Booking. I must admit, I am an avid scrapbooker who uses anything and everything in my books and receives some of the best comments and cringes from fellow scrapbookers who either admire or worry about my work. Smash booking, however is right up my alley.

I ran across many pins for this on Pinterest, and at first glance, my belief was the "slambook" you see on "Mean Girls". But upon further investigation, I saw it's a very creative scrapbook junk drawer for anything you want.

Too bad I didn't know about this before I began wedding/reception planning. I have a composition book I kept notes in, but definitely nothing as cool as this. I cut out tips for invitations, food, decor, favors, etc and kept them in a folder, but having a Smash Book to put them in would have been neat, plus I could have kept it for years to come. =) I might still make one.

Check out the Smash Book youtube link to educate yourself further about the book if you want.

Here are some of the cool lay-outs and inspirations I found on them too:

There are some fun things sold for the Smash Book too. I'd probably use a lot of my scrapbook stuff I already have accumulated over the years.

This is probably a hobby I'll end up getting into very soon. =) I could have a book for so many areas of my life. What a fun, way to journal and keep ideas and cool things you come across in magazines, or to keep movie ticket stubs, cards, whatever in! Pin It

Heart of Worship

Culture shock in church happens not only when one enters another country, but it even happens within one's own country. There is something so magical and enlightening about solid, powerful worship. What makes worship so powerful one day, and so irrelevant another day? Maybe it's all about the mindset.
Heavy humidity wafted through the church as we listened to the music of the Canaan Church in Los Alcarrizos, Dominican Republic. Many of us didn't understand a lick of Spanish, so we stood when everyone else stood, and sat when a majority sat. The tunes were the same, but the words completely different in many of the songs. For some reason, it didn't matter that we didn't understand. The power of the people worshiping around us, raising hands, singing loud, and clearly not ashamed of themselves made it one of the best worship services I'd ever been a part of, even though I couldn't understand half of the words.
It's all about your mindset.
Do you go to worship to see what sorts of feelings it can give you? Or, do you worship to show God that you are more than capable to give Him what you have, no matter what people around you are doing, or who's staring, or what kind of music is playing? He knows you are created to worship.
It was such a different atmosphere returning to the US and attending a worship service back at our church. Many people stood there through the songs. Many others sang along, reading the words on the screens. Others sang with their eyes closed, trying to feel God's presence. 1 or 2 had their hands up, if not for a verse, for a line of the song. Why the difference? Why the shame? Perhaps it's a rebellion of the music type. Perhaps laziness. But certainly not the true meaning. It's what we can get, not what we can give. If the song doesn't move us, we won't raise our hands. If the other guys aren't singing, why should I sing? What if people think I'm showing off, or being a maniac?
Who cares?
God cares.
He's the only one we should care about in worship. Not whether or not it's a contemporary song, or hymn. Not about what other people are doing or where they're looking. When did we become entitled to pick the songs we deserve to sing to God?
Where is your worship focus? Is it about what you get, or what you can give? Pin It

Trust in You Alone

These past few days have been the most challenging and up and down hours and minutes of my life. Our whole Dominican trip was a roller coaster ride.
Coming home was more the same, with an even bigger decline. Today was hard, to put it lightly. I was grumpy, emotional, confused, and even had doubts. God is growing me in ways I never anticipated and I have to trust in Him alone to get me out of the valleys of life, especially this one. I need to allow Him to do His work in things that I can't fix or control. This is SO hard for me.
I'm scared, but I know that God has it under control. Pin It

For Better, For Worse...

I can't believe that I am now a married woman. I have certainly learned a lot! There are so many blessings that have come about because of married life, and realizations I didn't have as a single or even engaged woman. Things like the beauty of living with your partner as a married couple and waiting until you're married to be intimate that have been the hugest blessings to us. I've always questioned our society and the standards it's let slip when it comes to the gift of marriage and how it has taken the sacredness out of it. There is something just so beautiful about having those things in the bounds of marriage and treasuring them with no one other than your spouse. It is well-worth the wait!
There are also hardships in marriage. Especially when it comes to finances and schedules. It has been a struggle for me to not see my husband day in and out. It is hard to get up at 8 and go to work, knowing that when you get home, your husband JUST left for his day at work, and barely being able to stay awake late enough to spend time with him, let alone see him each night.
Then there is the whole honoring your husband above others. How do I make others happy when the hubby doesn't agree to something they want? I'm such a push-over and will give in to anything to get someone off my back, but Mark won't take it, and he'll fight it out. I LOVE that about him, because it will help me grow. It is an adjustment and it's hard to get today's society to realize that your spouse comes first in the decisions, especially your husband.
These are things I've learned over the last 2 weeks or so. All very amazing and God-inspired realizations. I am such a happy girl, who is blessed beyond belief to have the perfect guy for me in my life. Pin It

God, Please kick me in the right direction....

I can't really put into words the feeling inside of me. There are things I can't talk about, but would love to talk about, things I don't know how to talk about, and things that I don't want to talk about. Luckily, God knows my feelings and struggles.
I don't want to be thrown into drama that isn't mine, chaos I didn't create, and feel like a burden. (Just a few more cryptic things for you to process.)
Standing up for myself is hard. I hate ticking people off, and I hate confrontation. Yep, I'm a sissy. I believe certain things are unfair, but I suck it up and take the blow to keep peace.
I have plenty of life decisions to make this week. I just wish God could literally kick me in the right direction, but I guess that is when faith wouldn't exist.
Prayers would be awesome. Pin It