random reflections

OLW March Recap

I can't believe March is over, despite the fact that I spent far too many days recuperating from surgery. Nonetheless, I'm continuing to do well with my OLW:  FINISH. As you can see from the summary page, I've complete five of the twelve projects I set out to do this year. Admitedly, two of the largest projects have yet to be started.

And although I didn't complete nearly as many layouts for the Home album as I hoped, I did complete six of them. In addition, I read five books (three from the 2010 list), made 25 cards, and finished Sarah's album with all the photos from her daycare experience. I ended up redoing Matt's and have ordered a new album for Sarah's since I didn't like the way the two-up pages laid in the post-bound album. Finding a 3-ring binder for an 8X8 album has proved to be a bit difficult. Once I get hers finished I'll post them both. All in all, I'm very pleased with this project, and I love how easy it is each month to update this tag book. (Thanks, Rinda, for providing the motivation to keep track!)

On another note, I found out today that my Thank You card for the Just Rite challenge won an honorable mention (and a new stamp set!)

Picture Inspiration: Infinity (and a card)

This week's prompt was to work with diagonal lines that lead the eye to infinity. It was not an easy task. I went out shortly after we got the prompt. We had just had several inches of snow (again!) and I was hoping to find a good fence to photograph. I found one, but couldn't position myself so the line would go into the negative space. My favorite shot from this outing uses the shadows rather than the fence to lead your eye through the photo.

 

Nonetheless the diagonal is not a strong one, so yesterday I drove up to Charlotte Beach to take a photo of the pier. It's closed to pedestrians now, but I was able to get a couple of decent shots from the beach. (Let me say, however, it was really cold out there!) This one is the best for the diagonal line.

But the next photo shows the waves caused by the stiff breeze that made it so cold.

And here are a couple of shots from the archives.

Yesterday I found a tutorial on making the paper medallions I see so frequently. So this morning, rather than just bookmark it (and forget it) I decided to try it. I just got a 6X6 paper pad called Hello Luscious which I used for both the medallion and the mat on the card. I like the card, but it would be nearly impossible to send through the mail (and I think too thick for a scrapbook page as well.) Fortunately I have a friend who will get this card hand delivered on her birthday in May.

Other products: Cardstock:  Vintage Cream (PTI); Stamps: Tiny Tags (PTI); Brad: Sassafrass Lass; Dies: Big Scalloped Circles (Spellbinders) and Tiny Tags (PTI); Twine from my stash

 

 

Masculine Color Trends Challenge

I need a few birthday cards for guys so thought I'd participate in Embellish's latest challenge.

I must admit I would never put these colors together, and it was a bit of a challenge. I cased this card by Nicole Heady, and I'm pretty happy with the end result.

 

The green is showing up here on Typepad as much more muted that it is IRL (despite two efforts to correct it. It looks exactly right on my monitor). I used Pure Poppy, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse, & Vintage Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink along with Light Morning Mist from Worldwin. I embossed the background paper with By the Numbers impression plate and distressed the edges with Peeled Paint distress ink. I used three different stamp sets (all Papertrey): "Simple Sentiments," "Just the Ticket," and "Star Prints." This was an easy card to duplicate, so I made three of them.

Photography & Card Making--Two Challenges

It's not often I can combine a photograpy challenge with a card making challenge, but this week was easy. As soon as I saw the new color at Project 64, Tickled Pink, I knew it was a perfect match for Papertrey Ink's Hibiscus Burst.

 

The challenge for Make It Monday was to use Copic Markers on colored cardstock. So I pulled out one of my favorite stamp sets, Friends Til the End, and embossed the flowers with Filagree White Embossing powder. I use the Hibiscus Burst Copic Trio (RV10, RV13, Rv14) and YG03 & YG05 to shade the Simply Chartreuse leaves. A few Memory Box pearls and a Martha Stewart butterfly from Bitty Dots finished it off.

The card wasn't the only find for Tickled Pink, however.

Trying some new perspectives:

Pottery Barn flowers I noticed as I walked by the entrance this week:

 

 

Papertrey March Blog Hop

It's time for the Papertrey Ink monthly blog hop. How did it get to be the 25th already? I must admit, however, March is one of my least favorite months. I'm so ready for Spring by now, and we are once again buried under in several inches of new snow. Once April comes, I always feel like Spring has a chance!

This month's challenge was to use embroidery floss in a creative way. I decided to make some small tassels to attach to some pennant flags. I used the Pearl Cotton floss which is a little heavier, but can be found right along side the regular floss at Michaels. To create the tassels,  I used a tutorial I found here. It was very easy to follow.

This turned out to be a very difficult card to photograph so the embossing would show.  I used the partial embossing technique again which I'm liking a lot, and scored two lines at the bottom of the embossed portion of the card. The pennants and banner die for the sentiment are from the Spellbinder's Nested Pennant set. The banner line is cut from Quickutz Pennants set, and the embossed portion of the card was made with Papertrey's Tintype Impression plate. I used Papertrey's Royal Velvet cardstock and two designs from their Pacific Vineyard pad of papers. The sentiment is from the Papertrey "Round & Round" set. Finally, the pears are my faves: A Muse Creative Candy.

 

 

Team-up Thursday: Spring & Picture Inspiration

It's Team-up Thursday. Nancy and I have missed the last couple of weeks. She's traveling, but I'm the real culprit. Our photos couldn't be much different, but then our environments are much different right now. She's in sunny (and hot) Florida. I'm in snowy Rochester. In fact, she says it's a lot more like summer than spring where she is. Her photo was taken at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The colors reminded her of spring. Mine was taken here and represents the HOPE of spring despite the several inches of snow we got yesterday. These are winter aconites. They're the first flowers in our yard to bloom. Sadly, they're in the back so we don't get to enjoy them much. By the time, we're out in the yard, they're gone.

I got behind with Picture Inspiration as well, but I'm really enjoying this class at BPC with Tracey Clark. In addition to motivating me to take photographs, the gallery is a constant source of inspiration. I'm also taking Kent Weakley's Photography Composition e-class which is wonderful. Yesterday's lesson talked about how to look at the images you admire to discover those elements of composition that contribute to your love of the image. As I have long recognized, each of us see images very differently, and what appeals to one person may not have the same appeal to another. The key to good composition in photography is to figure out what you love so you are happy with the images you create. After all, most of what we photograph is for our personal pleasure or memory books.

A week ago the prompt was motif. Tracey's continued with her exploration of pattern and rhythm. Here's part of the definition--"a distinctive and recurring form, shape, figure, etc, in a design, as in a painting or on wallpaper." I immediately thought of our hand caned chairs that belonged to my great-aunts.

This week's prompt was "stacked," which was already a prompt for Team-up Thursday a while ago. I did post my cheerios photo again, but also two new ones.

The kayaks stacked up along Irondequoit Bay last week before our recent snow. The bay is still covered with ice in many places, so it will still be awhile before they're in the water.

And these gorgeous measuring cups from Pier One that I first saw on Deb's blog and then found on sale. They've found a permanent spot on my kitchen counter where we can enjoy them as well as use them.

 

 

JustRite Friday Challenge: An Act of Kindness

This is the first time I've participated in a Just Rite challenge although I've long been a fan of their stamps. This challenge comes at a perfect time since I depleted the entire stash of thank you notes on Monday after writing all the friends who have helped us out since my surgery.

I combined two Just Rite sets for the focal point: the square frame come from the "Hope" set which I then cut and embossed with a Nestabilities Label One die (Spellbinders). The circle and border come from "Just a Note" which I cut with a Nestabilities Circle die. The bow is made from my favorite ribbon from The Paper Source. It's two-sided satin which makes it so much easier to tie. The tiny pearls (which match more accurately IRL) are A Muse Creative Candy and the two stick pins came from a Scrapbook Circle kit. The beautiful papers are more My Mind's Eye; this time from the Hattie paper pad. The card base is Aqua Mist from Papertrey.

Clean and Simple Challenge 132

While I was recuperating, I spent a lot of time surfing the internet and got the urge to participate in some of the MANY challenges on the internet for card makers. The Clean & Simple sketches have always been a favorite of mine. Here's last week's sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I started with Papertrey Ink's White Select cardstock and die (Papertrey) cut three flowers with Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest, and Hawaiian Shores felt. The rickrack, ribbon, and buttons were all items from my stash. The patterned paper is from the Emma's Shoppe 6X6 pad by Crate Paper. The sentiment is from Floral Frenzy (Papertrey). I haven't used this set in a while. The inside sentiment reads "You're in my thoughts today." I have a friend who had a hip replacement this morning, so this will be on the way to her as soon as we know where she'll be for rehab.

Two Challenges

I've been following the CASE Study challenge for several months, but finally created a card for the current challenge. Each week they provide a card as inspiration. As soon as I saw these delightful card with sailboats, I knew I wanted to play along.

I just ordered this sailboat/sentiment stamp by Unity and it came last week. I knew it would be perfect for this challenge.

Cardstock: from my stash; Patterned paper: "Mabel" by Stella Rose (My Minds Eye) & Celebrate (Teresa Collins); Stamps: Celebrate Webster's Pages (Unity); Twine: The Twinery.  I colored the sailboat with Faber Castell Stampers Big Markers. Although it's hard to see each star in the sentiment has a tiny pearl I colored with a B37 Copic marker.

Although I had the card made for last week's Make It Monday in time to post last night, I didn't get it photographed. I guess you can blame March Madness. The Syracuse game was only seen here on digital TV so I had to watch it downstairs. They lost in a rather sad game with nearly 18 turn-overs.

The challenge last week was to emboss just a part of your card. I used the Woodgrain Impression Plate by Papertrey Ink and embossed only the right hand side of the card. I'm also linking this to Creative Every Day where the theme for March is "nest."

 

I used new papers from 7 Gypsies Conservatory 6X6 paper pad, stamps from Cavallini and Papertrey Ink with a bit of distressing and distress inks from both Tim Holtz and Papertrey. The cardstock is Ocean Tides by Papertrey.

Project 64: Scarlet

I didn't get out much this last week, but my first foray outside the house was last Thursday when Tracy took me to the lake for lunch. I knew I wanted to make a quick stop to take a photo of kayaks along Irondequoit Bay for the prompt this week at Picture Inspiration. (That post is coming.) As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Tracy noticed these three kayaks--all scarlet--a much more orangish red that I would have imagined.

I always think of Snow White's evil stepmother with scarlet lips which (in my picture book) were a deep and bluer red. So this week I have just two offerings for scarlet. Hopefully, this week will be a bit better and I'll be up and running again.