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Retro Sketch 105

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It’s been awhile since I’ve had the chance to play around with some of the many card challenges. One of my favorites is Retro Sketch, and every week I think I’ll find time to get a card done. Tonight I was playing around with a couple of the Simon Says card kits, and made this card based on the Retro Sketch challenge.

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Only when I finished, did I realize the linky for the challenge closes in just three hours. I have to say trying to get a decent photo when it’s dark outside is the real challenge here!

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The cardstock (Bazzil) and patterned paper (Basic Grey “Fresh Cuts”) are both from the February 2014 Simon Says card kit, but I couldn’t get any of the stamps from that kit to work with the sketch. I pulled out one of my favorite WPlus9 sets, “Fresh Cut Florals” for the sentiment, and an old Hero Arts set “Big and Small Flowers” for the flower and leaves. I added a tiny pearl heart by Hero Arts as well. There are lots of April birthdays on my calendar, so I’m happy to have one card ready to go.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 11

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March is typically a very fickle month, weather-wise, in western New York, and this year is no exception. On Tuesday it was near 60°, and we were finally able to get a nice long walk outside. Yesterday this is what happened.

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Here’s my Zoom In, Zoom Out for Week 11:

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We had 18-20″ of snow. You can see that it comes up over my knees.

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Really, I’ve had enough! It was only 15° today, and although it’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow it will be another week or more before the sidewalks are clear enough to walk outside again. The roads today were still terrible. Matt has a new job with a wonderful landscape company. They plow during the winter, and Matt was out from 11 o’clock Wednesday morning until 8 o’clock Thursday morning with just a couple of breaks. Spring officially begins on March 20th, just a week away. Let’s hope it looks a lot more like spring by then!

With Sympathy

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One of my dearest friends passed away late last week. She was just 58 years old, and lost a two-year battle with a brain tumor. Although she and her husband had lived here for over 20 years, her funeral and burial was in New Jersey where all of her family lives. Five of us drove down for the calling hours on Sunday, and back home on Monday following the service. I was so glad I was able to go. She has three wonderful siblings, including an identical twin. Yesterday I had a chance to make some cards to send to each of them and her husband.

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The first two were made using a technique (Inlaid Die Cuts) featured on Day One of the Online Card Class: One Layer Cards. It’s a technique I’ve used before, but like always, I learned some good tricks which made them much easier. 

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I used Simon Say’s woodgrain card stock for the tree (“Arbosecllo Tree” by Memory Box) and inlaid it on Papertrey’s Select White cardstock. The sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Birds of a Feather.”

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The next card uses a die I’ve had for awhile, but never used. I love how it came out.

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I die cut the Morning Glory Vine by Memory Box with Memory Box’s Parsley cardstock and inlaid it on a Paper Source embossed flat card. The inlaid lavender paper and the lighter green for the leaves came from my scrap folder.  The sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Sending You” set.

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I had die cuts left over and decided to use them to make another card. It’s identical except it’s not inlaid, and the greens are reversed.

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Marie was a gardener and a plant lover so these die cuts would appeal to her. On this card I used the white tree I cut from the Select White on Card #1. It ended up being one of my favorites.

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I love the white tree against the Soft Stone cardstock by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is the same one I used for the first card. I’m entering this card to the current CASEology challenge: Roots.

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I ended up with one extra sympathy card. This one uses another die I’ve had for awhile but never used. It’s the “Leaf Column Outline” by Simon Says, and the sentiment comes from “With Sympathy” by Papertrey Ink.

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I didn’t do any stamping on the inside because I’ll be writing notes to each person. As Tracy pointed out, this is the first of our friends our age (actually younger) who has passed away. We are grateful that she didn’t suffer, and was never in any significant pain, but it still feels unbelieveable.

 

One Photo & Twenty Words

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Abi at Creating Dreams has been hosting a monthly meme for a while, challenging you to find a photo and tell about it in twenty words. I loved this photo of Skylar from Matt’s birthday and thought I’d play along this month.

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Project Life 2014 & OLW Wrap-up for February

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My Project Life album was started last August, so this is the first yearly title page I’ve created. It was inspired by this page, but there was not a lot of similarity by the time I finished.

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All by two of the cards for this layout were created with Bazzill Orange Peel cardstock. I started with the Live Simply quote which I downloaded from the “Sunny Vegan” blog, and that determined the color scheme. The top left card includes a Papertrey Ink Stitched Heart die, patterned paper by Basic Grey, and a flair from a Cocoa Daisy kit that Tracy gave me for Christmas. “Life is good” was created with a Kara Dudley digital brush and two wood veneer hearts, also from a Cocoa Daisy kit. The photo was taken by Tracy’s mom when we were in Florida, and the Evalicious tag seemed perfect.

 The second row includes a Midnight Edition card with a wood veneer arrow, my favorite typewriter die by Savvy, some cool Washi tape and a wood veneer camera, and the last card is a letter press card from a Cocoa Daisy kit.

 The card documenting my One Little Word for 2014 was inspired by cards I pinned here and here. The watercolor “paper” was cut down from a Cocoa Daisy 4X3 card. I’m not sure where the vellum arrow came from, and the “Happiness is Where You Find It” flair has been in my stash for a long time. I like the clean look of this page, and would like to figure out how to recreate it on a regular basis. 

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This notebook turned out to be a good purchase. I’ve been writing down intentions for every month, and keeping notes on how I do. I’ve used it to take notes from my online class “A Simple Year,” and have added quotes, and pasted in some inspiration pieces. The notebook title is proving to be true: write it down, and it’s more likely to happen.

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I also bought this cute planner at Target, and use it to jot down the activities of the day. Since I’m always working on my Project Life a month behind, it’s a good reference.

In February, I purged and organized our guest room. That included a three section bookcase with cupboards that yielded another three bags for the craft consignment shop, and some more books for the library book store. Another bag of clothes went off to Goodwill after cleaning the closet.

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My goal was to read four books each month. I only managed three this month. Our book group book, The Monuments Men, took much longer than I anticipated. All the members of our book group (four couples) agreed the book was interesting, but would have been better as a long New Yorker profile instead of a book. Much of it seemed repetitive and there isn’t a lot of action.  The book group went to see the movie as well, and we all enjoyed it. The movie very different from the book, so much so that none of the characters even have the same names. Although the book dragged in parts, I was very glad I’d read it before seeing the movie because I knew so much of the back story that wasn’t told.

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I also finished Louise Penney’s A Rule Against Murder, the fourth in a series of Armand Gamache mysteries. I absolutely love these mysteries, and am amazed that I’m not any further along in the series. Number five is on my list for March.

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Humans of New York was the last book I read. It’s a book of street photography taken in New York City. It’s been on the best seller list for weeks, and I finally snagged a copy from the library. The portraits are wonderful, but it’s the captions full of humor and pathos that make the book worth perusing.

It’s been so wintery here that it’s absolutely unsafe to walk outside. The sidewalks are covered with ice and snow, and the city can barely keep up with keeping the roads clear, let alone the sidewalks. I hate the treadmill, but I wrote down a goal of walking 20 miles this month, and managed to get in 21.5. If I hadn’t written it down, I’m quite sure I would have found a variety of excuses not to go to the gym.

I hoped to finish both the December and January Project Life pages, but only December was completed. I did get 19 cards created and sent most of them to friends and family. There was lots of entertaining in February, the unexpected trip to Florida, and the usual volunteer commitments as well as the annual Church Leadership Development Day. All in all, it felt like a productive month.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 10

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More flowers for this week’s ZIZO, Helene’s wonderful meme, but this time it’s tulips from the grocery store. We did a lot of entertaining over the weeken; we hosted both our book group and our duplicate bridge group. Tracy did a last minute grocery shopping for me, and I asked him to pick up some spring flowers. He brought home this beautiful red and yellow tulips. Today was sunny, and nearly 40°, but over the weekend it was near zero. The tulips were a breath of fresh air, and of course, we’ve continued to enjoy them all week.

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I used the red shade in the middle window in the kitchen as a backdrop. The shades in the side windows were pulled up all the way so there was enough light. I’m hoping to soon find some outside venues for Zoom In, Zoom Out!

Two Cards, Two Challenges

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The Hero Arts blog is having a big birthday celebration with a five category challenge for birthday cards. I recently purchased the Hero Arts “Five Line” Background stamp and made two masculine birthday cards from one piece of paper embossed in gold. I’m entering both into the “metallic birthday card” challenge.

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The first is a simple card made by punching two tags from the Tag Sale #5 one in chocolate brown and one from the stamped piece embossed in gold. I added some American Craft Thickers for the sentiment and a simple gold brad to connect the tags. I’m also linking this to the new Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Tag It!

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For the second card, I cut a strip of the stamped piece and adhered it to a Hero Arts kraft card. I embossed a tag from Papertrey’s 2012 Birthday Tags in gold for the sentiment. Here’s a closer look:

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My brother-in-law and my niece’s husband both celebrate their birthdays this month, so now I’m all set for both occasions.

Welcome, Baby!

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It’s not often I have reason to create a baby card, and even less frequent that it corresponds with a current card challenge. But this week’s challenge at Addicted to CAS is “BABY,” and the daughter of a good friend of ours has just had a darling baby boy.

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I used a premade Archivers square card for the base. The paper-pieced elephant and sentiment are from “Bitty Baby Blessing” by Papertrey Ink, and the balloons and die from “Heart2Heart: 2,” also by Papertrey. Clean and simple, for sure.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 9

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George Eastman loved flowers and filled his mansion with them every winter. He kept wonderful records of the bulbs he ordered, and each winter the George Eastman House and Museum fills the conservatory with flowering bulbs. There are actually about 10 times as many flowers in the conservatory now as there were at any one time during George Eastman’s day. He had fewer flowers at a time, but over a much longer time period. No wonder, since winter seems to last forever here! 

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These flowers are actually in a hallway that overlooks the gardens and connects the current museum with the George Eastman House.

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The conservatory (Eastman also enjoyed hunting and brought this elephant head back from a safari.)

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The organ has recently been refurbished, and there are Sunday organ concerts on a regular basis; free with your museum ticket.

But the flowers that attracted me the most were the clivias. I was unfamiliar with them, but there bright orange color is simply gorgeous.

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I’m linking this to Helena’s Zoom In, Zoom Out meme which I have enjoyed each and every week this year. 

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Happy Birthday, Matt! and December Project Life Finale

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Today is Matt’s 31st birthday. I’m not quite sure where 31 years have gone—passed by very quickly! I’m having lunch with him today, and we’re celebrating with him, Betsy and Skylar at his favorite restaurant tomorrow night.  I’m so grateful to have them just around the corner. 

For his birthday card, I pulled out a new cover plate die from Papertrey Ink. The die is meant to be horizontal on a portrait card, but I wanted to use it horizontally. It was easy to cut it down for a 4-bar card, and I was really pleased with how it came out.

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I die cut the cover plate first in Soft Stone cardstock, then four more times in Vintage Cream, Fine Linen, Classic Kraft and Smoky Shadow to inlay the stripes. I saved all the extras and I’m sure I’ll come up with some way to use them. The stars were cut with the Large Holiday Shapes die from Simon Says-it’s getting to be a real favorite. A couple of AMuse pearls finished it off. It may be a bit strange to submit a masculine card to a challenge on pearls, but it fits Simon Says’ Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes with Pearls.

We’ve come to the end of the December Project Life pages. It’s unlikely I’ll have another month as full as this one for many months to come. Rest assured today’s post is much shorter.

The day after Christmas we left for Chicago. We drove as far as Port Huron, Michigan the first day, and arrived in Chicago at Sarah and Adam’s on the 27th. We celebrated Christmas with them that afternoon.

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Every year the Hess gasoline company comes out with a different truck at Christmas time. Tracy couldn’t wait to get one for Caleb, and its battery-operated lights and power were a huge hit with Caleb. The next day we took off for the Chicago Botanic Gardens to see the Wonderland Express. We’d been to the Model Railroad Garden in September, but for the holiday they move the trains inside and decorate for Christmas. It’s much harder to take good photos as it’s much more crowded. In fact, you get timed tickets for the event. I included one of the tickets with some Washi tape as a border.

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You can tell by the looks on Caleb’s face and his Grandfather’s face that the crowds did not diminish their enjoyment! We were lucky enough to be there for an ice carving event as well. The last photo shows Caleb helping to put away the Christmas decorations. Caleb turned two on December 30th and Sarah was determined to put Christmas away before we celebrated his birthday.

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This might be one of the busiest PL pages I’ve ever made. The title page was created with a Simple Stories journaling card, some stamps and die cuts from Papertrey Ink and two candle stickers from Michaels. The banner on the photo below it was also a die cut I found in my stash, stamped with a sentiment from a Papertrey Ink set. Caleb woke up to a huge banner Adam made and hung on the stairs for his birthday. The biggest hit of the birthday presents was a garage Sarah and I found at Pottery Barn Kids for 50% off the day before Caleb’s birthday. It’s provided hours of enjoyment since. 

In some ways, I prefer the stand-alone Christmas Journal, but I know I can’t do that and Project Life. Since this format works so well for the rest of the year, I’ll probably continue to document our December journeys in the Project Life album and forgo the Christmas Journal. I admit to mixed feelings about it, but the continuity is more important to me in the end.

December Project Life 2

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Matt and Betsy’s wedding was certainly the highlight of the month. I still haven’t seen all the photos from the professional photographer, so these are ones I took with the exception of the family photo which Betsy and Matt gave us for Christmas.

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I found the piece of wedding paper in a box with all the photos from Sarah and Adam’s wedding. I made an album for them, but haven’t made ours yet! They’ll be celebrating eight years of marriage in May. I think I’d better put that at the top of projects to finish once I finish my purging project. The “Happy Day” banner was cut from vellum and stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey’s “Sentiment Signs” set.

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The Project Life cards on this page come from Simple Stories as well as two digital cards from Pixels and Company. The die cut holly is from Papertrey Ink, and I used it on some earlier pages as well.

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I used a glittery snowflake sticker from Michaels on the photo I took from inside while Betsy and Matt had photos taken during the snowstorm outside. I die cut the arrow from Papertrey’s “Get to the Point” dies and the little red metallic hearts strewn throughout all these pages are from Simon Says die “Holiday Shapes.”

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My photos from our Christmas gift exchange with Matt, Betsy, and Skylar weren’t very good so I didn’t have a lot to choose from. I used a digital template but I have no documentation to tell me who created it. A long time ago, I filed a lot of templates into folders by the number of photos they held, but some of them didn’t carry the copyright info with them. The background paper is from a fabulous Cosmo Cricket pad called “Simple Surfaces.” 

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Since I had a 12X12 layout on the previous page, I used another digital template from Keri Bradford for some of the photos from the Walker family Christmas. The title was cut on the Silhouette.

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 I’ve seen lots of the clear shaker cards on the internet and wanted to give one a try. I used a pretty Washi tape to seal the edges. The PL card is a cut file for the Silhouette by Paislee Press, and the photo collages are templates by Ali Edwards.

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More photo templates by Ali Edwards. These are really a lifesaver when you have a lot of photos you want to include on one page.

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The lovely cut file “joy” is from Paislee Press, and I found both metallic papers at Michaels. They are really beautiful in real life!

But our Christmas wasn’t over yet, as we left the next day for Chicago. I’ll be back to share those pages tomorrow. 

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I’ve been plugging away at my December Project Life pages since we returned in the middle of January. I finished them about a week ago, but getting the photos taken and resized has taken me awhile as well. With two trips to Chicago, a wedding, a birthday, and three Christmas celebrations, there was a lot to document. I ended up with fourteen pages so I’ll be spreading them across a couple of blog posts. There were just too many this month to take all the photos and cards out of the pockets to photograph, but I did my best to avoid as much glare as possible.

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This year I didn’t do a Christmas Journal, but decided to put those pages into the Project Life album. I die cut the gold numbers with my Silhouette as well as the Hello, December. Along with gold, I embellished many of the cards with my Wink of Stella glitter pen, but it doesn’t show up very well in the photos. I also used some Cathy Zielski “Tiny Templates” on this page. Nearly every year in my Christmas Journal, I document new ornament purchases, and some of the decorations around the house. I wanted to be sure to document Miriam’s ornament exchange as well.

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Here you can catch a glimpse of the glitter pen on the elf’s hat, and the beautiful metallic paper for the title.

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Every year I create a set of photo calendars with a template from Paislee Press to give to friends and family, and I always like to take photos of the Christmas decorations around town. The last two photos are of Caleb and his Polar Express train that Grandpa sent to go around his Christmas tree. It was a HUGE hit! The photo template on this page is from Ali Edwards.

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I recently found these Becky Higgins pocket pages at Michaels. They are a bit smaller and just perfect for documenting Caleb’s trip to visit Santa while I was in Chicago the first week in December.

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The back side of that page documents traveling during the holidays (and my extra day in Chicago thanks to a cancelled flight), as well as my love for wrapping and decorating packages. For the first time ever, I actually had the time to use my Pinterest boards for some inspiration in the packaging department. 

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Although I made about 25 Christmas cards this year, most of our friends and family got a photo card. I didn’t expect us to all be together again in December so when Sarah and her family were here in August I scheduled a family portrait. It’s not the greatest, but with two toddlers the photographer did a great job of getting us in and out of the studio quickly before either one lost interest. I always save the postage from the international cards I get. I love to see the variety and this year there were several very lovely ones of the Madonna and child.

The next several pages document the wedding, so I’ll save those for the next post!

CASE Study Challenge & February 2014 PTI Blog Hop: Take 2

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I’m back with another post today for the Papertrey Ink February 2014 Blog Hop and the current CASE study. Danielle Flanders is the muse this month, and I’m a big fan of her work. She has a real talent for combining embellishments on a card that is always so pleasing to the eye. Here’s the inspiration piece for CASE Study and then the inspiration for the PTI challenge.

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I used the same pad of paper as I did on the earlier card I posted—Pink Paislee’s “Colorwash,” but this time I took my inspiration from the starts and “happy” die cut on Danielle’s card, as well as the sentiment stamped below the focal point.

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 I used my new Slide Frame die from Papertrey as well as two different stamp sets for the sentiment: “Everyday Happiness” and “Wishes Come True” by PTI. The cardstock is from Memory Box, and the “happy” die cut and stars are from Simon Says. The banner is my trusty “Double Ended Banner” die by Papertrey Ink. You can’t see it in the photo, but all the starts are coated with glitter with the Wink of Stella pen.

Here’s a closer look:

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I’m off to check out the other entries to these challenges. Always a lot of inspiration to be found! 

February 2014 PTI Blog Hop: Take 1

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It’s the 25th of February already and time for the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink. My goodies arrived early in the week, and I was anxious to put some of them to use.

Here’s the challenge inspiration piece, and the charge was to create a springtime card–with spring-like images or colors. 

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I chose colors primarily and used a pad of lovely papers I picked up over the Christmas holiday–“Colorwash” by Pink Paislee. It’s a good antidote to the cold, gray weather we continue to endure in western New York. We got a few hours of much needed sunshine yesterday, but there’s not much in the forecast for the rest of the week.

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The Spring Moss cardstock was a good match for the colors of the two patterned papers I chose. I’ve seen a lot of patterned papers used in layers set at an angle and thought I’d give it a try. I originally had the tag at an angle as well, but carefully took it off and replaced it after I saw it in the photograph. Every now and then, the photograph shows a design flaw that simply must be fixed. The Tag Sale #9 die is a new purchase, but the stamp set used for the sentiment and flower is one of my old favorites, “Daydreamer.” This will be perfect for one of my friend’s spring birthday.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 8

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Friday night Tracy and I attended a member’s only party at the George Eastman House. Each time they install a new exhibit in the museum, they invite the members to see the show the night before. There’s always music, some food, and this time a lecture prior to seeing the exhibits. The new exhibits are photographs of two relatively closed religious groups–the Amish and the Hasidic Jews. The photographs of the Amish were nearly all in black and white, while the ones from Israel were in color. Both presented compelling photographs that demonstrate the unique characteristics and habits of these groups of people. You can read a bit more about the exhibits here and here.

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For this week’s Zoom In, Zoom Out, I decided the zoom in was better shown first. 

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I love the use of the tiny photographs to create a mosaic of George Eastman. This is a permanent installation in the lobby as you enter the museum. I’ll be going back again to capture some of the beautiful flowers in the George Eastman House during their annual Dutch Connection. We walked through Friday night, but you need daylight to take the photos.