I sure hope Typepad comes out with an iPad app soon. There’s no way to alternate text with photos on the iPhone app I’m using now. I’ll be home to post this week’s color, but here are my tumbleweed shots. By chance, we were in the desert this week, so finding tumbleweed was not a problem. The real tumbleweed was found at the Painted Desert, and the rest of the photos were taken at the Desert Museum in Tucson.
This is my fourth attempt to post from my iPad. I knew it might be tricky, and indeed it is. There’s an app for the iPhone (which I’m using now, but no Typepad app for the iPad. Writing a post isn’t the problem. It’s getting photos up that are sized appropriately.
All the photos for this week’s color were taken at the Denver Botanic Garden, just a few blocks from Matt’s new apartment. He found a great one, but can’t move in until Friday. We’re leaving tomorrow morning for Santa Fe, and will be at Tracy’s brother’s in Phoenix by Friday.
Today is Deb’s mother’s birthday! (Hi, Marti!) I’m a proud member of Team Teal, a blogging and personal support group as Marti battles her cancer. My mom also fought cancer, though of a very different kind.
Although I sent Marti a totally different card, I thought I’d post a card I made for Scrap-Mart from the new pennant dies by Spellbinders.
Creating a card from the Lacey Pennants wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. I used a two-sided paper from American Crafts, so the inside matches the smaller pennant on the front cut and embossed with the Nested Pennants. The sentiment is from the Just Right “Happy Everything” set which has ended up being a very versatile set. All the other elements are from my stash.
I don’t typically post twice in one day, but I totally forgot about the blog hop until this morning. Since my April order arrived on Friday, it was the perfect opportunity to break out the new stamps. This month’s release and the theme of the blog hop is masculine cards. I didn’t order many of the new stamp sets, but I did love the Out of This World stamps, and knew I could use them for a variety of occasions.
I was pleased to discover the sentiment I wanted to use fit inside the larger cloud die. All the product in this card is Papertrey Ink except for the cardstock (Bazzill), the patterned paper (October Afternoon), and the Twinkle Stars (A Muse Creative Candy).
It’s been a while since I’ve played along with any of the many card challenges available on the web, but as soon as I saw the current Embellish challenge I knew what I wanted to do with it. As a member of the Scrap-Mart Design Team I was lucky to receive quite a few new Lifestyle (Quickutz) dies that have just been released at CHA. I love this pennant set which comes with two different “clotheslines” and three different styles of pennants. They are designed so you can use them on a scrapbook layout, but they can easily be adapted for a card. Here are the colors for the challenge–not ones, I admit, that I might choose, but they definitely work together.
And here’s my card. It’s not specifically a valentine, but I think it’s going to be used as one.
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Select White, Simply Chartreuse, Hawaiian Shores, & Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey Ink); Stamp: Simple Sentiments (Papertrey Ink); Twine: The Twinery; Dies: DIY Banner (Lifestyle Crafts); Heart punch: EK Success; Gems: Hero Arts, KaiserCraft, Reflections; Button from stash.
This week’s prompt for Team-up Thursday was “behind,” and our photos couldn’t have been much different! Nancy’s cute photo of her grandson hiding behind his piece of pizza is colorful and playful. My photo of some of the war graves in the Mt. Hope Cemetery is somber and dark. I really liked the way the flags from the grave sites peeked out between the gravestones when I photographed them from behind.
I finally got around to doing some updating to the blog sidebar where you’ll now find links to some of the challenges I’m hoping to participate in this year as well as Kat’s wonderful Exploring with a Camera series. Her blog is definitely worth a read if you’re at all interested in photography.
Kat also has a wonderful series “Lessons from Abroad”* that I would highly recommend. One article in particular,”Step Out of Your Comfort Zone,” really resonated with me. I’ve joined the local camera club and submitted photos to their competition next week. That is really out of my comfort zone!
*The link takes you to the last of the series where Kat has links to the first four articles.
“Stacked” was this week’s prompt for Team-up Thursday. I am always looking for ways to practice with my new macro lens so I piled up some Honey Nut Cheerios. I’m really happy with the focus on these, but Tracy says they’re ugly. So be it. I’m relatively new to manual focus so I don’t care if they’re ugly or not! Nancy’s stacked produce is courtesy of Wegmans food markets. One of the great advantages to living in Rochester is to be in the home city of one of the best food markets in the country. It’s something most of us don’t take for granted. “Thank goodness for Danny,” is not an uncommon remark! (Danny Wegman is the founder.)
Have a great day!
Black & white was the prompt for this week. We finally had a day that got above freezing so I went for a short walk in Highland Park. There’s always something interesting to shoot there, and I got a few shots to play with in Kim Kassen’s “Photoshop the Essentials” class which started this week. Here is Nancy’s and my shots for Black & White. Mine from the park is on the left. This is the fence that runs around a reservoir at the park. I liked the light on the horizon, and have a color version I like as much, if not better. Nancy’s mailboxes give you a glimpse of the amount of snow we’ve had around here.
Nancy and I “fell off the wagon” when it came to Team-up Thursday during the fall. Nancy was doing a lot of traveling, and then the holidays were upon us. We’re back at it, and our photos really represent two different seasons. Nancy’s colorful bikes make me wish for spring or summer. It’s been snowing here all day, and we have at least another foot of snow. I got a shot at the birds at the birdfeeder, but decided on the icicles hanging from the kitchen window since it was much easier to make a diptych when the photos are in the same orientation.
But for fun, here are two shots of the birds at the feeder in the front yard. They’ve been swarming there all day.
And the birds in a row.
In Rinda’s last post about turning 50 and being fabulous (she’s fabulous, for sure!) she asked how we felt about our age. I have long since passed 50, but I must say I am very happy being the age I am. Being retired has opened up so many new possibilities, and opportunities for new experiences. So we’re off again. My mother-in-law had a hip replacement in November. Reluctant to give up her annual three month vacation in Florida, but recognizing she shouldn’t sit in the car for so many hours, she came up with a plan. Tracy and I are driving her van with all her needed supplies for an extended vacation to Fort Myers, Florida, and then we’ll fly home in a couple of weeks. We’ve left a week early so we have time to stop and visit friends and family along the way. We’re just south of Pittsburgh, PA this morning and will be with friends in Charlotte, NC for the next two nights. Matt is home taking care of the house, so it’s just a perfect little road trip. We’re hoping to visit friends in Asheville, NC, Hartwell, GA, and Stuart, FL. We’ll spend a day in Atlanta visiting favorite spots from the the many visits we made when Sarah was in seminary there, drive down the coast of Florida, and spend a few days with Tracy’s mom in Fort Myers before we fly home. Although we left in lake effect snow showers, it appears to be clear driving the rest of the way to Charlotte.
Before I left I needed to get a few projects completed. One of them was cards for three guys who have birthdays shortly after we return. I totally cased a card of Nicole Heady’s and made three of the same card. I’m really happy with it (of course! I love Nicole’s designs) and it would work for almost anyone.
We also purchased thank you gifts for the people we’re staying with on the trip and I wanted to make some tags for the gift bags. I used my new Love Lives Here stamps. As I suspected, they’re going to get a lot of use.
And, finally, a notepad for a seamstress we’re visiting.
Time to hit the road if we expect to be in Charlotte for dinner. I’m not sure if we’ll have internet access the next few days, but if not, I’ll be around to visit your blogs on the weekend.
I hope your day is filled with good times, much laughter, and love of family! Enjoy it all!
Here are the winners of the October Afternoon paper pads. To see a complete list of the winners from the Scrap-Mart Blog Hop, head over to the Scrap-Mart Blog. We hope you had a great time hopping along and got some inspiration for holiday crafting. The winners here were:
Kaylyn said…
Decorating those boxes is a great idea. I love the paper and colors you used.
December 03, 2010 at 06:13 PM
Susan said…
OH wow sooo cute!!
December 04, 2010 at 06:52 PM
Congratulations! You'll find information about how to claim your prize on the Scrap-Mart Blog.
I have an absolutely wonderful brother. Aside from some pretty minor spats as children, we’ve always gotten along well and enjoy each other’s company. We don’t often have much time together, but talk on the phone regularly. Today is his 60th birthday, and although I won’t be there to help celebrate, I do know a huge birthday feast is being prepared. Here’s the card I sent.
The idea for the card came from two different cards I saw online, one by Nicole Heady and another by Ingrid Danvers. I die cut the Fillable Frames 4 from the center of the Dark Chocolate cardstock and then embossed it with Papertrey’s Woodgrain Impression plate. I rubbed some Walnut Stain Distress Ink over it to bring out the grain. I adhered that to the Blueberry Sky card base with dimensional tape, and after stamping the Frame with stamps from Fillable Frames 4, Birthday Bash Sentiments, and Outline Alphabet I adhered it to the cardstock. Here’s a closer look.
It seemed a bit stark, so I added some Dark Chocolate Twine and a Dark Chocolate button to finish it off. I like the sentiments on the inside, too.
The top one is from Birthday Bash Sentiments and the bottom one from Fillable Frames 1. I love how the sentiments and images from different Papertrey sets work together. It makes them so much more versatile.
I’m keeping a list of the Picture the Holiday prompts, and as I have time and inspiration, working on capturing them. I decided I wasn’t going to pressure myself to get it done day by day. It’s a good thing: Sunday I went to Buffalo for a class with my friend, Nancy, and had dinner with friends; Monday I had my first dental appointment for a new crown, did some crafting with Nancy and Mary, saw the ankle specialist, and went out to dinner again; yesterday I drove through a snow storm to get my oil changed (not my smartest move), did some Christmas shopping, had lunch with a friend and met two other friends for a drink before dinner. Fortunately, today was much less busy, and I finally got a few crafty things accomplished.
But before I get to those, an update on the ankle. The specialist does not think it is broken; just a bad sprain. He gave me a much better brace which has already made a big difference and prescribed some physical therapy which I started today. I go back to see him in six weeks.
Today’s Picture the Holiday prompt was “Reflecting on the Season.” We were to photograph a reflective surface. Every year I struggle to take decent photos in our very dark house without turning on the lights or using a flash. This year it’s going much better because I’m using the tripod. Of course, I knew that would help, but have always found using a tripod cumbersome. I’ve been working on it now for about a month, and like most things, practice does improve your performance! So I’m happy with this photograph.
Here’s another take on the same prompt:
December 4th’s prompt was You Hold the Key. We were to photograph something that helps us gain new perspective when the bustle of the holidays begins to seem too much.
For me, curling up on the couch with a cup of tea in my favorite Christmas mug and a good book is one way to refresh. I love the lights on the Christmas tree, and it’s my favorite time of year for snuggling in on the couch. Justice is our next book group book, and it’s very thought provoking.
I finished several pages in my Christmas Journal today, and have a couple more started. I should be caught up by the weekend.
Without the transparency:
The journaling reads: Entertaining at Christmas time is one of my favorite things to do. Our house is just the perfect house for Christmas decorations, and it doesn’t take a lot for it to look festive. Our dining room table expands to seat twelve, but it requires using plywood leaves that Tracy made years ago. It’s hard to find a tablecloth the right size and shape, but this year I found one on the Williams Sonoma website that it just perfect. I wanted a bright red table runner and Target had just the thing–and very inexpensive. I found the red sparkly chargers at Target as well. The holly china was purchased years ago from a discount department store when they went out of business. I have enough for twelve and it gets used every year. Tonight our book group came to dinner. We had our usual lively discussion and a great time.
Even though we got our tree on the first of December, I decided to do my annual tree hunting spread on Day 4. Here’s the journaling:
Tree hunting was a lot more interesting this year. While we were in California we went to Rancho Siempre Verde, south of Pescadero, to cut down a tree for Sarah and Adam. It had rained off and on all day, but the sun finally came out just as we arrived at the tree farm. It was, however, incredibly muddy and all of our boots were caked with several inches of heavy clay mud. It didn’t stop Sadie from having a great time, though.
The trees at Rancho Siempre Verde are not your typical “perfect” tree, so it took some time to find one everyone agreed on. Although there’s not a photo here, the tree looked lovely in their living room, and was just the right size.
Before we ever came home, we had decided not to cut down our tree. We didn’t arrived home until the first of December, and we were entertaining our book group on the weekend. Good decision. We arrived home to pouring rain that turned to heavy snow by noon. we deicided to try Grossman’s Nursery where we had found beautiful poinsettias last year. Not only did they have trees, the trees were inside and dry! We found a perfect Fraser fir, they baled it and put it inside the van so it didn’t even get wet on the ride home. It was a different experience this year, but both tree hunting expeditions worked our really well.
This turned out to be a very long post!
This card was posted yesterday on the Scrap-Mart blog. I have lots to be thankful for and many, many people who should receive this card. The outpouring of support and kindness during the last few weeks has been overwhelming.
Here’s the commentary from the Scrap-Mart blog:
Although the coloring of the image appears to be intricate, the Indian corn kernels can be colored with Copic markers by just touching the individual kernels with the tip of the pen. The lovely image is from the Just Rite “Autumn Blessings” set which I colored with Copic markers and then cut out. I embossed the kraft cardstock and card base with a Quickutz embossing folder, and cut one piece with the Exclusive Scrap-Mart Square/Oval die. I used the next biggest die to cut a piece of Amercian Kraft Earth Tones textured cardstock, wrapped a ribbon around it and layered the two pieces. I used American Crafts “This to That” dimensional adhesive to bump out the focal image. The tiny Quickutz tag was perfect for the small “with thanks” sentiment.
Make sure to mark your calendars for December 3rd when Scrap-Mart is hosting a Holiday Blog Hop. We have an amazing line-up of guest designers including Sharon Harnist, Debbie Olson, Heidi Blankenship, Angela Barkhouse, Stephanie Kraft, Stephanie Barnard, Maren Benedict and more. There are awesome prizes to be won, as well, including a Making Memories Slice Elite. I own an older Slice which I love, but the new Elite has some great new features and much improved cutting abilities. Don’t miss a chance to win one!