random reflections

Retro Sketch #48

Retro Sketch is one of my favorite challenge sites, so I thought I'd get a headstart on my valentines with this week's sketch.

I received the February Simon Says Card Kit late last week, and was anxious to put some of the pretty papers included in it to use.

Everything except the cardstock (Staples) and the wood veneer heart (Studio Calico) came from the kit. The pretty, soft papers are from Glitz's "Hello, Friend" collection. The hearts were cut with the Spellbinders Nested Hearts dies and the stamp is an OLD one, by Printworks, I think. I colored the heart with some Berry Sorbet ink from Papertrey, edged in Fresh Snow ink.

52/50: Week 4

At the last minute, my resolve broke, and I signed up for Candice Stringham's "Flash of Brilliance" class at Jessica Sprague. I'm already glad I did. Tracy bought me a Canon Speelite 430EX for Christmas two years ago. I've been moderately successful with it, but had a lot of trouble at a recent Presbytery event. In just the first week, I've learned quite a bit.

Betsy and Skylar came to dinner last night, and Skylar was willing to let me practice a while. Here are some of my favorites, all taken with my 50mm lens.

This little girl is almost always happy and agreeable.

She loved crawling up into the rocker . . . 

. . . and was able to rock herself. She didn't want any help!

But she was willing to sit in Tracy's lap and rock.

Although she doesn't have many words yet, she can surely let you know what she wants, and she understands all kinds of directions. She's also very good at signing for what she wants.

It wasn't easy to pick, but I'm linking this one up at P52 this week. I love the catchlights in her eyes and the expression is "so Skylar!"

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Today's the day of the January Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink. I loved the inspiration photo and knew right away what I wanted to do.

It turned out pretty much the way I hoped but it took three tries. I embossed the flowers with white embossing powder and colored them with a variety of Smooch paints. They have a luminous quality that I've always liked. It took multiple coats to cover the black with the kind of color I wanted.

Here's the card:

I started with True Black cardstock, and embossed the "Stitches and Swirls" with white embossing powder. The sentiment is from Birthday Basics Sentiments. After coloring the flowers and leaves with Smooch, I mounted the focus piece on a card made from Pure Poppy. I added pearls from Queen and Co. to the centers of three small flowers.

Then Fancy Folk Art arrived in the mail, and I had to try another technique I saw on Cristina's blog during the release. I die cut the focal image from True Black cardstock, colored the main design with Copic markers on X-Press Blend cardstock, and mounted it behind the black card.

I like this one even better. The sentiment is also from Fancy Folk Art. You can find more inspiration here.

Two Cards; Two Challenges

I had two challenges in mind as I sat down to create two birthday cards for upcoming birthdays. The first card uses both the challenge to create a long and short (tall) card at CAS-ual Friday as well as the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge. It turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than I anticipated, so the second card is just for CAS(e) This Sketch.

Here's the first card:

Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; patterned paper: Lime Twist "Out of the Blue" (MME); stamps: "Super Star" (WPlus9); die: Double-ended banner (PTI); white embossing powder; Gelly Roll glitter pen 

And here's the card just based on the second challenge:

Same supplies as above without the patterned paper, and the addition of a star by Jenni Bowlin

So far I'm managing to keep up with the two challenge/two cards a week I set as a goal for this year. I'll be back on Friday with another card for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. I know exactly what I hope to do. Let's hope it works!

52/50:Week 3 and Florida Birding

Here's this week's photo for 52/50. It's been closely cropped, I was amazed how clear the details were when I zoomed in on the photo so our birding friends could identify it. The birds along the stretch of beach where we walked every morning are totally nonplussed by the human beings walking along the shore. They stand still and let you get incredibly close for a photo. I used my zoom lens at the Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, but took photos for two mornings on the beach in Ft. Myers Beach with my 50mm lens, and was amazed at the photos I managed to get. I'm linking this first photo to Kent Weakley's P52.

A Double-crested Cormorant (50mm)

I thought I'd share some of the many bird photos I took at both the wildlife refuge and along the beach. Our friends are responsible for the fact that I know which bird is which!

An Anhinga drying his wings. (zoom)

This Great Blue Heron walked out into our path as we walked to the beach. (zoom)

A group of Royal Terns (50mm)

A Roseate Spoonbill and heron. I was so excited to actually see a Roseate Spoonbill. They were all a long distance off, so using the zoom was essential.

White Ibis (taken with my Canon S95, a point and shoot)

This, according to fishermen on the beach, is Walter. I got a great photo of him one morning and inadvertently deleted it. I was so bummed, but the next morning as soon as we walked onto the beach, there he was. He stood perfectly still for multiple portraits. Walter is a Great Blue Heron. (50mm) 

American Oystercatcher (zoom)

A flock of White Pelicans at the Wildlife Refuge (zoom)

Cormorants on posts. Just as I got ready to take the first photo, one of the cormorants flew away, but when we walked back up the beach all the posts were filled. (50mm)

A Yellow-crowned Night Heron (zoom)

In all we saw 29 different species of birds while we were on the trip including two American Bald Eagles (too far away for my zoom) and a number of Sandhill Cranes in fields as we drove across Florida from the east to west coasts. I'm quite sure there's a scrapbook page(s) about birding in my future.

 

Simon Says Challenge with Washi Tape

The current challenge at Simon Says is to use washi tape on a card. While I was making cards yesterday, I pulled out a little tin of Washi tape I'm using in my History Project notebook, and made a quick thank you note to send to my mother-in-law's friends who were so kind to us when we were visiting Florida last week.

Most of  my Washi tape has arrived in kits and I'm not sure who the manufacturers are for these. The cute little wood veneer arrow is from Studio Calico. I colored it with Brilliance Rocket Red ink by Bri. The sentiment is a very old one from A Muse that I embossed in white. I may well be back with more Washi cards before the week is out. I still have two more birthday cards to make that must be in the mail by Monday.

Three Cards, One Challenge

When I first saw Retro Sketch 46 I didn't think it would be a particularly easy sketch to work with, but I was wrong. I needed a retirement card for a party tomorrow as well as a thank you note and a birthday card. I pulled out a new 6X6 pack of patterned paper by Fancy Pants and some black card stock I picked up at Archiver's while we were on our trip and got to work. Here's the sketch:

And here are my three cards based on it:

Cardstock:  Bazzill Prismatic; patterned paper: Paper Loft; dies: Labels 12 (Spellbinders), Holiday Shapes (Simon Says; sentiment: Framed Out #1 (PTI)

Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; Patterned Paper: The Good Life paper pack (Fancy Pants); sentiment: Silhouette file; vellum (PTI); two-inch square punch

Cardstock: Bazzill Prismatic; Patterned Paper: The Good Life paper pack (Fancy Pants); die: Labels 12 (Spellbinders), Holiday Shapes (Simon Says); Sentiment: "Framed Out #1 (PTI)

It was 82° when we left Florida Wednesday night. Today it was 17° when I met some friends to breakfast. A rude awakening! I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge. I'm slowly making my way around to read everyone's blogs and catch up on Storytelling Sunday.

52/50: Week 2

I'm down to the wire to post to Kent's P52 site, but not because I was taking photos at the last minute. In fact, all the photos here were taken in Annapolis, MD on Monday. Since then, however, we've been without internet service so there's been no opportunity to post (or comment on blogs.) We arrived in Ft. Myer's Beach yesterday afternoon to stay with Tracy's mom and her friends for four days. The weather is fabulous, and Dick and Carolyn (Ellie's good friends) are experienced birders so our walk along the beach this morning was not only beautiful, but educational. I'll have photos of that later.

Here are some photos from Annapolis, all taken with my 50mm lens.

I loved this old wooden Native American outside a honest-to-goodness cigar store.

Loved the textures of the ropes hanging at the end of the pier.

The sea gull isn't the attraction for me here as much as the reflection in the upper right of the photo.

A view of the Capitol Building.

But this is my favorite. I love the colors, the lines, and the reflections of this building along the main street. I'll be linking this one up with P52.

52/50: Week 1

It's highly unusual that I would post twice in one day, but I found a new photography project for the year this weekend and wanted to link it up to Kent Weakley's P52Sweet Shot Tuesday. The link closes tonight, so I need to be speedy. I found this project through a Photo Jojo post which took me to this site. The premise is to take one photo every week for a year, shooting only with your 50mm lens. I love my 50mm and need some inspiration to continue on with Capture Your 365, so once a week I'll be using my 50mm and linking up with Kent's blog.

Since I was down to the wire, I limited myself to our yard this morning. This is what I found.

I'm linking the last of these to Kent's blog though I debated about the other hydrangea thinking the composition was better. Ended up thinking the focus on the snow was best here. Which would you have chosen?

Storytelling Sunday: Pick Your Precious

Sian has been hosting Storytelling Sunday for quite some time, but this is the first time I've joined in. She has a theme for the year, and I'm excited to tell the stories of some of my precious belongings. You can read more about Storytelling Sunday here, and link up your story here.

My old-fashioned Santa wasn’t the first precious object I thought of when I read about Sian’s plans for Storytelling Sunday this year. But as I put away Christmas decorations yesterday, I decided that he would be my first item to share.

Santa was one of the first major purchases I made for our collection of Christmas decorations. Tracy was selling jewelry at a craft fair for his father, and Sarah, who was just a toddler, and I went up to pay him a visit. When I saw this Santa at one of the booths, I was immediately smitten. I loved his kind eyes,

his darling sack of toys,

and the cute Christmas tree tucked under his arm.

Sadly, the price tag was too high for our budget at that time, so I wandered on. When we got back to the jewelry table, Tracy asked if there was anything out there worth seeing, so I told him about the Santa. He handed me the cash and said, “Go get it.” I’ve always treasured this Santa, and he’s had a prime spot in the living room ever since, some thirty years now.