random reflections

We're Off

In just a bit, we'll be off on a long road trip. You can see the general route here on my Journey Journal which I ordered from Cracked Designs on Etsy. She kindly made me a version with just the right number of pages for our trip.

Luckily Matt is here to take care of the house, keep our yard beautiful, and bring in the mail, etc. Not having to deal with any of those arrangements has made this much easier. Tonight we'll be having dinner with my cousin in Toledo whom I haven't seen in almost 20 years.

In addition to getting ready to go, I've been taking an online photography class with Katrina Kennedy at Get It Scrapped! I don't consider myself a true beginner, and this course was billed for just such a photographer. I looked at the content, however, and knew there were topics being covered that I didn't know that much about. I haven't been disappointed. There were only two lessons that didn't have new-to-me material , and I learned a lot more about my camera. Last year I tried and tried to get a good photo of the baby robin in our burning bush. Mama Robin is back this year and thanks to my new knowledge I got a pretty good photo. I've taken several online classes. Barbara Carroll's at Big Picture Scrapbooking was fabulous and Katrina's (although not as comprehensive) rates right up there as well.

I also made some cards for upcoming events:  Sarah's birthday, my brother's retirement, and this one just for fun with one of my all-time favorite (and brand new) Paper Trey stamp sets:

Vintage Picnic Baskets come with multiple baskets and items to put in the baskets as well as a great variety of messages (some in a separate set.) I know I'll be using these a lot.

CPS 119

When we were in Chicago a few weeks ago I found a set of letterpress tags at The Paper Source. This sketch was the perfect opportunity to use one and I'm really please with it, although the color on Typepad is a bit off.

 

I layered the tag on an embossed Nestabilities rectange, used a new EK Success border punch, and three green pearls from Hero Arts.

PaperTrey Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate cardstock.

Mosaic Monday

I've never played along with a Mosaic Monday post, but I needed to do a color challenge for another site so it's fun to play along here as well. All my pink photos for May were flowers, most of them from our yard but the orchids were photographed at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens and the tulips were from Wegmans.

A Sunday Card

I finished this card just in time for Dawn's Raspberry Suite Challenge, and I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch as well. I love the raspberry and chocolate together--one of my favorite dessert combinations as well.

Papertrey Ink: dark chocolate, raspberry fizz, cream and kraft cardstock; Itty Bitty Stars; Star Prints stamps; Chai Blend Dye ink and Rustic Cream twine. Ribbon from The Paper Source, and button from my stash.

Card Challenges

In addition to making 24 gift card enclosures and 9 gift tags for our church's end-of-the-year recognition services I managed to get two card challenges done. The first is for CPS 118. I needed a baby card and this sketch worked very well. I lifted the idea for the carriage from a card Melissa Phillips posted a while ago.

Stamps and all but one patterned paper by Papertrey Ink.

The Cardalicious challenge was to use two flowers, the color blue, and ribbon.

Stamps and patterned paper by Papertrey Ink, flowers by Making Memories, and ribbon from my stash.

Tinker Nature Park

I was in Henrietta early this morning for a birthday celebration and decided to stop at Tinker Nature Park with my camera in search of some "greenery" for a photo challenge. Finding greenery was no problem:

And I found some pretty white flowers:

And a squirrel:

But what I didn't expect to see was this: