random reflections

Computer Tricks for Cards

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.

 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

 

The north end of Canandaigua Lake.

The patio at Steamboat Landing.

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.

Dad and his son.

I hope your day was equally pleasant!

More Freebies

 

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.

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

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.

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.

Creativity Boot Camp: Smooth

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.

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.

 

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

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

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.

  

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.

 

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

 

Today's prompt "hush" is proving to be even more elusive.

Creativity Book Camp: Drizzle & Final California Layouts

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:

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.

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!

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

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.

And three more views of their garden.

 

 

Papercrafting

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.

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

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.

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.

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