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Papertrey Pixie Challenge and Garden Update.

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I finally finished a card last night that has been on the “to do” list all of June . Why I wait until the last minute, I do not know! Karen H. posted this challenge at the beginning of the month. It’s a photo of fat quarters and we could use the square design, the colors, or sewing on our card.

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I used a
little of everything from the challenge. I deliberately did an uneven
stitch around the edge of the card, cut the scalloped squares with a
Nestability die, and added something different to each square. The
green and orange also come from the challenge colors. I colored the
flower and the button twine with my Copic markers. Thanks
for the challenge, Karen! It was a good one.

JunePixieCard
Cardstock: Kraft (PTI); patterned paper: A Muse; brads, flower, & buttons from stash; sentiment: Friendship Jar (PTI); button twine (PTI)

We went to the garden yesterday for the first time in over a week, and I was amazed at how much the plants had grown. The tomatoes are nearly as tall as my shoulder, the pole beans are crawling up the poles, and the lettuce and herbs are lush and full.

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The empty spot you see in the middle is partly the path we left to get into the middle of the garden but also where the peppers are planted. They are the only plants not doing too well.

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We brought home enough lettuce for a week and picked just a portion of
it. Before we go to my brother’s this weekend, I’ll go back and pick
some to take to him. By then there should be a couple more zucchini ready to pick. We also harvested two large zucchini which I’ll use
to make zucchini bread today or tomorrow. These goodies were an
unexpected surprise!

Computer Tricks for Cards

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Jessica Sprague, the digital guru of online teaching, offered a free class in digital card making. Being a card maker, I was intrigued by this since I have rarely incorporated digital work into my cards. I’m now using  digital elements in my scrapbooking on a regular basis, so I thought I’d try it out. The first day was a simple print and fold card. I’m not a fan of these so I played around a bit with one of the cards. For the first card I printed the pdf file and then opened the psd file and printed just the greeting and frame. I cut it out and bumped it up with 3-D tape.

Card! 

For the second card I cut out the front of the card and mounted it on Dark Chocolate (PTI) cardstock after I hand cut the scallop along the bottom. Then I added two brown pearls (Creative Candy A Muse). I much prefer this one.

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Today’s card was a print and assemble card. This card took me way too long to complete and I was pretty frustrated. First off, my scallop punch seems to have developed a dull spot right in the middle. Then I decided I didn’t like the first ribbon I applied (which took quite some time), carefully and slowly removed it and substituted another. The greeting was to be a computer generated one that said “Congratulations.” Since I rarely have an occasion to send a Congrats card of this nature, I substituted some chipboard letters (Basic Grey) which I like much better anyway. I will probably never make this card again although I rather like the idea of the scalloped “canopy” on the top of the card. None of the layers are glued down completely so they add a nice dimension to the card which is, unfortunately, hard to see in this photo.

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One of the best things Jessica’s presented in the class so far is a great card of card and envelope sizes and a good description of various kinds of papers available to card makers. 

Moxie Fab Bike Challenge

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This challenge at Moxie Fab has been on my “To Do” list ever since I saw it posted. I love this Hero Arts bicycle stamp, but haven’t put it to much use. I finally got to it today, just in the nick of time. Here are two cards for the challenge. For the first card, I stamped the bike, then cut it out with a rectangle Nestability. I left it in the die and sponged the sky and the ground. The basket and bike were colored with Prisma colored pencils, and the flowers were created with Flower Soft. After mounting the image, I added the felt cloud.

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Cardstock: Ripe Avocado & Vintage Cream (PTI); Patterned Paper: Road Map (October Afternoon); Stamps: Bicycle (Hero Arts) & Sentiment Everyday Button Bits (PTI); Flower Soft: Sage & Raspberry Fizz; tag punch (trimmed down); Brad (Kaiser); silver pearls (Mrs. Grossman); twill: Ripe Avocado (PTI); cloud die (PTI); Vintage Cream felt

For this card I stamped the image on a page from an old Little House in the Prairie book that I picked up at an used book store just for this purpose. I don’t know that I would have ever put Orange Zest and Scarlet Jewel together, but they matched the ribbon perfectly and turned out to be a good combination.

BikeOrange
Cardstock: Orange Zest & Scarlet Jewel (PTI); Patterned paper (A Muse); ribbon from stash; Stamps: Bicycle (Hero Arts) & Sentiment Birds of a Feather (PTI); Nestability label: Scrap-Mart exclusive die (Spellbinders); Prisma colored pencils

Happy Father’s Day

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This was my first attempt at making a clear card. Tracy liked it a lot, but it’s not an easy card to photograph.

It’s been quite a lovely day. Tracy and I started the day at the Brighton Farmer’s Market. It’s becoming a weekly habit, and we bring home the nicest organic fruits and vegetables. Today I bought a beautiful bouquet as well. We then picked up a student from the school where Tracy worked for 25+ years, her sister and mother and brought them to church. Our church hosts a tutoring program at the school and a group of sixth graders read a poem and talked about their plans for the future this morning during our Focus on Mission. Church was followed by an ice cream social which marks the end of our regular schedule for the year. During the summer we operate on a different time frame and without the weekly presence of our fabulous chancel choir.

Tracy spent the afternoon working on the boat and practicing some golf shots while I got in some crafting time. This evening Matt joined us and we drove to Canandaigua Lake for dinner at Steamboat Landing. We had reserved a table outside overlooking the lake. It was warm, breezy, and just right for a lakeside dinner. The food and service were excellent, and we had a great time.

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The north end of Canandaigua Lake.

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The patio at Steamboat Landing.

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The guys. Prime rib for Tracy and chicken wings for Matt. I had a wonderful seafood combination of crab cake, grilled scallops, and shrimp. I was surprised to see the sun flare when I uploaded the photo, but I kind of like it.

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Dad and his son.

I hope your day was equally pleasant!

More Freebies

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Staycation button 

Thanks to Cheri, I’ve signed up for yet another class, and like
Creativity Boot Camp it’s free, and it’s easy to sign up. I had just
found Kim’s blog in the last week, but hadn’t paid close attention to
the Stay-cation post. I’ve read great things about her online courses, so I’ll be looking forward to this once the July courses are over.

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Tonight Jessica Sprague is hosting a blog hop with 33 participants. At each site will be a free digital goodie. It starts at 10:00 ETS tonight and runs through Sunday night. I think there are prizes if you collect all the digital goodies. 

I won’t get my last prompt for Creativity Boot Camp up until tomorrow. I got to exercise class this morning, then to my Botanical Drawing class, and finally hosted lunch for two of my college friends. This is the third time this week I’ve entertained, so Tracy is taking me out to dinner tonight. We’re off to Consesus Lake and the North Shore Grill. It’s an absolutely perfect day for it! My friends and I sat on our patio chatting for most of the afternoon.

So, about the Botanical Drawing class. You might remember I received a wonderful gift from my friend, Mary, at Christmas. Once I had all these drawing tools at my disposal I felt compelled to do something about it. I have never had a formal art class. My first high school didn’t offer any, and when we moved to New York my junior year, I had several extra courses to take if I wanted to graduate on time. So last week I began an eight-week course in botanical drawing given by the local garden club. I was dismayed last week to discover there are only two of us with no drawing experience, and it quickly became apparent that group instruction was not going to be part of the plan. The instructor’s portfolio is stunning, done in colored pencil. We were each given a plant to draw and I survived the first week with one tiny sketch I felt was worthy of a beginner. The rest: nothing I would share even with my best friend!

Today was better. I read some material during the week, and started off asking a few questions about technique. The reading also helped me understand where to start. The group of women (most of whom come to all or many of these courses) are very friendly and nice, but everyone concentrates on their own work. As I went I asked some questions and got individual help, so I think I’ve
figured out how to operate in this class. Once I got a few drawings done today, the instructor told me to add some colored pencil. Frankly, I thought it would be weeks before I got to that stage, but it wasn’t so bad. I ended up with a drawing I might share with my best friend.   And some day, maybe, there will be something I’m willing to share here. Today’s post on Creativity Boot Camp was just perfect for this experience. I’m printing out the commitment and setting aside a little drawing time every day.

Friday Challenges

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Just by coincidence I was responsible for posting two challenges today. The first one was for the Scrap-Mart blog. My challenge is to create a layout or a card using only cardstock and papers from just one manufacturer/line. If you’d like to play along, you can post a link here or on the Scrap-Mart blog. One of my favorite paper lines right now is PinkPaislee Starlight which I used on this layout about the importance of being in the photo yourself.

JustUsNoFrame

All the papers and the alpha stickers are from the Starlight line. I used my Slice to cut the stars and the brackets and stitched around the photo frame. I did another layout last week that meets the challenge and uses papers from the same line.

I consider myself fortunate to belong to a very supportive group of women on a photo board, and it’s my turn to post the challenge there as well. I decided on the word “fresh” since we’ve been buying the first fresh strawberries and wonderful fresh asparagus, lettuce, spinach, and radishes from the local farmer’s market. I put a few strawberries in a lovely cup I bought at Antropologie a few weeks ago. I knew I’d find some photographic uses for it.

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Creativity Boot Camp: Smooth

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Still stymied by “Hush” and although I have a good idea, I don’t have the needed prop!

I’ve been cooking and baking today as a group of neighbors are coming to dinner this evening. Eggs seemed to be a perfect answer for today’s prompt: SMOOTH.

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This is one of three beautiful seagrass baskets I’ve purchased on our trips to Kiawah Island and Charleston.

Like several other blogging friends, I took advantage of Shimelle’s early registration and signed up for her new course. I always enjoy them. I was away for nearly half of the last class so I’m looking forward to keeping up a little better with this one.

 

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Jessica Sprague is also offering a new class that is FREE. She’s really the best I know when it comes to digital scrapbooking and photo editing classes. I’ve never been disappointed in any of her classes. This one is on cardmaking. I’ve never done anything digital with card making aside from printing a digital paper once or twice, so I’m very interested in what she’ll be teaching in this class.

Creativity Boot Camp: Full-Bodied

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I was gone most of yesterday and last night, so I’m a day behind with this prompt. My first thought when seeing “full-bodied” was red wine, but that seemed too obvious. Tracy suggested coffee, remembering some commercial where they talked about the coffee being full-bodied. So while I was grocery shopping I checked out all the coffee brands. None said “full-bodied” on the label, but one of the bulk coffees used the term in describing the coffee so I took a shot of it with my point & shoot. I also bought a few beans so I could compose something like this. Sadly I couldn’t get both words, “full” and “bodied,” into the frame

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But this morning when I was setting the table for guests tonight, I looked at the hydrangeas on the table and thought, “Wow, full-bodied flowers!” So here’s the one I’m posting on Flickr and two others. I’d be interested in which of the three you like the best.

  
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This is the one I’m posting on Flickr. I ran Pioneer Woman’s Lovely and Ethereal action on it.

Here’s a version just sharpened, not a big difference.

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And one with the Soft and Faded action. Makes me think of dried hydrangeas.

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Today’s prompt “hush” is proving to be even more elusive.

Creativity Book Camp: Drizzle & Final California Layouts

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This proved to be one of the most difficult prompts. I didn’t want to photograph rain (although it was forecast for today), and this morning decided I use honey drizzling into tea. Easier said than done. I took a ton of photos (and needed Tracy’s help to hold the honey dipper). I got only three decent shots. This one is my favorite:

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I have finally finished the California album. I still need to do a little piece for the album cover, but the last of the layouts is finished. Here’s the title page. I couldn’t decide quite what to do, but ended up using a Cathy Z. digital template to do a summary layout.

TitleLO

Cardstock: BoBunny; patterned paper: Queen & Co.; epoxy button: Queen & Co.; digital template: Cathy Z’s “Monthly”; digital paper: freebie from Katie Pertiet of Designer Digitals

This is the last of the “story” pages. When we were in Pleasanton one afternoon, I bought Sadie a new ball. To say she was disinterested, is putting it mildly. Then Sarah got the idea to put some peanut butter inside the ball. Well, Sadie’s interest certainly perked up!

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I love these little dogs from a piece of Basic Grey “June Bug” paper. All the rest of the papers are Scenic Route as are the alphabet stickers.

Creativity Boot Camp: Ornament

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As soon as I saw the prompt I thought of our friend’s amazing city garden. When you’re in their garden it’s almost impossible to believe you’re in the middle of the city, but you are. Rick has collected quite a variety of ornaments, made the columns that support many of them, and built all the stone walls by hand. It’s truly an amazing place. Marcy is the keeper of the flowers and plants, and they are just as wonderful.

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And three more views of their garden.

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Papercrafting

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I have a couple more pages to share as well as some cards I made for my friend who is retiring. I’m sure she’ll need a supply of thank you notes so I made two of each design and packaged them up in a clear plastic box.

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Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI), blues from stash; patterned paper: “Wisteria” (Basic Grey); stamps: Fillable Frames #4, Delightful Dahlias, & Mega Mixed Messages (PTI)

Package
I have these wonderful plastic boxes, but I have no idea where I purchased them. They are perfect for a set of cards. Add a ribbon, flower and a gem and it’s done.

The first of the layouts I did in a Basic Grey class at CKC Buffalo. I’m not a fan of doing pages without the photos but when I was going through the pile of photos from California these seemed to work. The page layout from the class included multiple tags which I eliminated.

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Patterned papers: Basic Grey; Spellbinders tag die; buttons (PTI)

One of the best things about staying in California for a week is the time we have to just hang out together.

JustHanginLO
Patterned paper: Making Memories, & “Weathervane” October Afternoon; stamps: Trajan alphabet (PTI) on Sticky Back canvas (Ranger); canvas alphabet: “Fa La La” Making Memories; journaling sheet: Making Memories, sticker “Urban Prairie” (Basic Grey); Spellbinders Standard Tag; buttons (PTI); digital template “Photo Clusters No. 12” (Katie Pertiet @ Designers Digitals

Creativity Boot Camp: Fly

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The truth is I hate to fly. My family will attest I am not at my best on the day of a flight. I fly because it gets me where I want to go, but I would much rather drive—even across the country. That, of course, is not often practical and is, in fact, as expensive as flying. One way I entertain myself as we take off is to take photos. Once we’re in the air, I rely on compelling books (must be a page turner) and crossword puzzles.

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The New York City Harbor in March.

I like the horizon and the deepening blue sky in this one taken over the Rockies on the same flight. 

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There was an inspiring post on Write, Click, Scrapbook this week that I finally got around to reading this morning. Since I had a little time before I went to the retirement luncheon, I pulled the photos from my photo walk into a template and finished the layout this afternoon. I decided against any journaling, but put the class title and date of the photo walk on the back of the layout. It doesn’t get much simpler than this.

PhotoWalkLO
Paper: Ambrosia (Basic Grey); chipboard letters: “Licorice” (Cosmo Cricket); chipboard camera: “Mama Razzi” (Bo Bunny); digital template: Pri Rocha Designs

Creativity Boot Camp: Fluid & Photo Walk

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Here’s my take on fluid:

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It was a really nice day so I got to Park Ave. for a little photo walk. I took a lot of photos, but here are my favorites.

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One of the first things I saw was this fence which reminded me of Charleston.

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The windows on this old building had been covered with metal. It’s now rusted, and I liked the contrast of the ivy.

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This is Oxford Street and these are all magnolia trees which are stunning in the spring. I love the streets that have the malls down the middle. Our first house in the city had one, but not this nice.

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This made me smile. It’s in the window of an optician.

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I loved the lines of this bench and the brick sidewalk.

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I’ve never been in this deli, but it certainly appeals to me.

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And last, I loved the reflection of the trees in the table tops.

Still Crafting

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In between working on the prompts for Creativity Bootcamp, taking care of the garden, going to a wonderful photography show featuring local women photographers, volunteering, and the usual exercise classes and chores, I’ve managed to get some cards and layouts made. The first is a card for a friend who is retiring this year. There’s a luncheon for her on Saturday. I’m hoping to get a set of thank you notes made to give to her as well.

JBCongrats
This card was inspired by a card by Jennifer Buck featured on the Jillibean blog. All the products used on it are from Jillibean except the card base and the ribbon.

And another one because I had more paper on the desk to use.

SendingSunshine
Patterned paper: Old World Cabbage Stew (Jillibean); rickrack: Bean Stalks (Jillibean); sentiment: clear stamps (Jillibean); dies: Spellbinders cherry; embossing folders: Cuttlebug “Swiss Dots” & Sizzix “Birthday Set #2

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And three more layouts for the California album:

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All Pink Paislee “Starlight”

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All “Mama Razzi” by BoBunny except for the stamp (which it looks like I’d better redo–a bit slanted, I fear)

And my favorite of the three is about our walk along the stream at the UC Davis Arboretum:

Arboretum 

Patterned paper: Fruitcake (Basic Grey), Basics (Basic Grey) & “Today” (Scenic Route); cork alpha (unknown); Craft Paper alpha stickers (Colorbok); label stickers: Basics (Basic Grey); digital template: Cathy Z Layered Template No. 13

Creativity Boot Camp: Grow, Baby, Grow

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Today’s prompt was an easy one. 

Here’s a shot of the first tomatoes in our garden:

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Typically I take my point and shoot to the garden, but today I took my SLR with the Tamron 28-300mm lens. This was shot at 120mm; f 5.6; 1/200, ISO 100. The zoom on this lens really takes pretty decent macro shots. Close up you can even see the “hairs” on the tomato stems.

I was happy to see that the slugs seem to be gone, but found two snails attached to the new lettuce plants. We read in our organic gardening book that both coffee grounds and ashes repel slugs and snails so we took some of both and spread them around the perimeter of the bed. They warned not to use too many coffee grounds as they are quite acidic.

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We also got a fence up around our plot today. You can see the tall “plants” beyond our plot. They are weeds! There are only three plots that haven’t been claimed in the community garden and two of the three border ours. I’m hoping the mulch around the plot will help keep down the spread of weeds, but each time we go we need to dig out a few. If the plants have as deep a root system as our weeds, they will do well!

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The only thing ready to pick were some tiny arugula leaves, two kinds of basil, and some cilantro. We used the Thai Basil in a shrimp and tomato pasta sauce tonight. It has a lighter flavor than the typical basil, but is quite nice.