Five Favorites

One option in today's prompt from Shimelle was to post some links to favorite sites on the internet. I use Bloglines to subscribe to a long list of blogs that I enjoy. Some days there are lots of posts to read; some days I only skim the blogs; other days there isn't as much action. I get a lot (if not most) of my inspiration from blogs now. It's cut down on the number of idea books I buy, and I'm seriously thinking about letting a couple magazine subscriptions go.

My first favorite is a site I learned from Jessica Sprague during a class on her site. (A list of great class sites might be next.) It's vi.sualize.us. This is where I save and tag all the cards, photographs, and scrapbook pages I see on the internet that I love or where there is a detail, perhaps, that I'd like to use on a card or a scrapbook page. The tags work really well, so if I'm looking for a birthday card idea, I search "birthday" and all the birthday cards I've saved show up. As I've added to my pages I've gotten better at the tagging. I think I have over 200 pages of ideas. Some day I'll clean some of them out, but it hasn't gotten overwhelming yet.

The next two sites are blogs hosted by card makers who I really admire. Debbie Olsen's cards are exquisite and the details are wonderful. She also posts tutorials on coloring with Copic markers which I am trying to learn how to use effectively. Nicole Heady is one of the owners of Papertrey Ink, my very favorite source for stamps, paper, ribbon, and buttons. Nicole has a superb sense of style, and I love almost all of her creations.

The last two sites are photography sites. I've been following The Shutter Sisters for well over a year now. Now only is the photography inspiring, so is the writing. It's also a good source for information. Words to Shoot By is a new site for me, but I love the idea of taking one word and finding images to fit it. I also love the way they use triptychs to showcase the photos. I'm off to check out some links posted by my classmates.