random reflections

Happy Birthday, Matt! and December Project Life Finale

Today is Matt's 31st birthday. I'm not quite sure where 31 years have gone---passed by very quickly! I'm having lunch with him today, and we're celebrating with him, Betsy and Skylar at his favorite restaurant tomorrow night.  I'm so grateful to have them just around the corner. 

For his birthday card, I pulled out a new cover plate die from Papertrey Ink. The die is meant to be horizontal on a portrait card, but I wanted to use it horizontally. It was easy to cut it down for a 4-bar card, and I was really pleased with how it came out.

I die cut the cover plate first in Soft Stone cardstock, then four more times in Vintage Cream, Fine Linen, Classic Kraft and Smoky Shadow to inlay the stripes. I saved all the extras and I'm sure I'll come up with some way to use them. The stars were cut with the Large Holiday Shapes die from Simon Says-it's getting to be a real favorite. A couple of AMuse pearls finished it off. It may be a bit strange to submit a masculine card to a challenge on pearls, but it fits Simon Says' Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes with Pearls.

We've come to the end of the December Project Life pages. It's unlikely I'll have another month as full as this one for many months to come. Rest assured today's post is much shorter.

The day after Christmas we left for Chicago. We drove as far as Port Huron, Michigan the first day, and arrived in Chicago at Sarah and Adam's on the 27th. We celebrated Christmas with them that afternoon.

Every year the Hess gasoline company comes out with a different truck at Christmas time. Tracy couldn't wait to get one for Caleb, and its battery-operated lights and power were a huge hit with Caleb. The next day we took off for the Chicago Botanic Gardens to see the Wonderland Express. We'd been to the Model Railroad Garden in September, but for the holiday they move the trains inside and decorate for Christmas. It's much harder to take good photos as it's much more crowded. In fact, you get timed tickets for the event. I included one of the tickets with some Washi tape as a border.

You can tell by the looks on Caleb's face and his Grandfather's face that the crowds did not diminish their enjoyment! We were lucky enough to be there for an ice carving event as well. The last photo shows Caleb helping to put away the Christmas decorations. Caleb turned two on December 30th and Sarah was determined to put Christmas away before we celebrated his birthday.

This might be one of the busiest PL pages I've ever made. The title page was created with a Simple Stories journaling card, some stamps and die cuts from Papertrey Ink and two candle stickers from Michaels. The banner on the photo below it was also a die cut I found in my stash, stamped with a sentiment from a Papertrey Ink set. Caleb woke up to a huge banner Adam made and hung on the stairs for his birthday. The biggest hit of the birthday presents was a garage Sarah and I found at Pottery Barn Kids for 50% off the day before Caleb's birthday. It's provided hours of enjoyment since. 

In some ways, I prefer the stand-alone Christmas Journal, but I know I can't do that and Project Life. Since this format works so well for the rest of the year, I'll probably continue to document our December journeys in the Project Life album and forgo the Christmas Journal. I admit to mixed feelings about it, but the continuity is more important to me in the end.

December Project Life 2

Matt and Betsy's wedding was certainly the highlight of the month. I still haven't seen all the photos from the professional photographer, so these are ones I took with the exception of the family photo which Betsy and Matt gave us for Christmas.

I found the piece of wedding paper in a box with all the photos from Sarah and Adam's wedding. I made an album for them, but haven't made ours yet! They'll be celebrating eight years of marriage in May. I think I'd better put that at the top of projects to finish once I finish my purging project. The "Happy Day" banner was cut from vellum and stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey's "Sentiment Signs" set.

The Project Life cards on this page come from Simple Stories as well as two digital cards from Pixels and Company. The die cut holly is from Papertrey Ink, and I used it on some earlier pages as well.

I used a glittery snowflake sticker from Michaels on the photo I took from inside while Betsy and Matt had photos taken during the snowstorm outside. I die cut the arrow from Papertrey's "Get to the Point" dies and the little red metallic hearts strewn throughout all these pages are from Simon Says die "Holiday Shapes."

My photos from our Christmas gift exchange with Matt, Betsy, and Skylar weren't very good so I didn't have a lot to choose from. I used a digital template but I have no documentation to tell me who created it. A long time ago, I filed a lot of templates into folders by the number of photos they held, but some of them didn't carry the copyright info with them. The background paper is from a fabulous Cosmo Cricket pad called "Simple Surfaces." 

Since I had a 12X12 layout on the previous page, I used another digital template from Keri Bradford for some of the photos from the Walker family Christmas. The title was cut on the Silhouette.

 I've seen lots of the clear shaker cards on the internet and wanted to give one a try. I used a pretty Washi tape to seal the edges. The PL card is a cut file for the Silhouette by Paislee Press, and the photo collages are templates by Ali Edwards.

More photo templates by Ali Edwards. These are really a lifesaver when you have a lot of photos you want to include on one page.

The lovely cut file "joy" is from Paislee Press, and I found both metallic papers at Michaels. They are really beautiful in real life!

But our Christmas wasn't over yet, as we left the next day for Chicago. I'll be back to share those pages tomorrow. 

December Project Life 1

I've been plugging away at my December Project Life pages since we returned in the middle of January. I finished them about a week ago, but getting the photos taken and resized has taken me awhile as well. With two trips to Chicago, a wedding, a birthday, and three Christmas celebrations, there was a lot to document. I ended up with fourteen pages so I'll be spreading them across a couple of blog posts. There were just too many this month to take all the photos and cards out of the pockets to photograph, but I did my best to avoid as much glare as possible.

This year I didn't do a Christmas Journal, but decided to put those pages into the Project Life album. I die cut the gold numbers with my Silhouette as well as the Hello, December. Along with gold, I embellished many of the cards with my Wink of Stella glitter pen, but it doesn't show up very well in the photos. I also used some Cathy Zielski "Tiny Templates" on this page. Nearly every year in my Christmas Journal, I document new ornament purchases, and some of the decorations around the house. I wanted to be sure to document Miriam's ornament exchange as well.

Here you can catch a glimpse of the glitter pen on the elf's hat, and the beautiful metallic paper for the title.

Every year I create a set of photo calendars with a template from Paislee Press to give to friends and family, and I always like to take photos of the Christmas decorations around town. The last two photos are of Caleb and his Polar Express train that Grandpa sent to go around his Christmas tree. It was a HUGE hit! The photo template on this page is from Ali Edwards.

I recently found these Becky Higgins pocket pages at Michaels. They are a bit smaller and just perfect for documenting Caleb's trip to visit Santa while I was in Chicago the first week in December.

The back side of that page documents traveling during the holidays (and my extra day in Chicago thanks to a cancelled flight), as well as my love for wrapping and decorating packages. For the first time ever, I actually had the time to use my Pinterest boards for some inspiration in the packaging department. 

Although I made about 25 Christmas cards this year, most of our friends and family got a photo card. I didn't expect us to all be together again in December so when Sarah and her family were here in August I scheduled a family portrait. It's not the greatest, but with two toddlers the photographer did a great job of getting us in and out of the studio quickly before either one lost interest. I always save the postage from the international cards I get. I love to see the variety and this year there were several very lovely ones of the Madonna and child.

The next several pages document the wedding, so I'll save those for the next post!

CASE Study Challenge & February 2014 PTI Blog Hop: Take 2

I'm back with another post today for the Papertrey Ink February 2014 Blog Hop and the current CASE study. Danielle Flanders is the muse this month, and I'm a big fan of her work. She has a real talent for combining embellishments on a card that is always so pleasing to the eye. Here's the inspiration piece for CASE Study and then the inspiration for the PTI challenge.

I used the same pad of paper as I did on the earlier card I posted---Pink Paislee's "Colorwash," but this time I took my inspiration from the starts and "happy" die cut on Danielle's card, as well as the sentiment stamped below the focal point.

 I used my new Slide Frame die from Papertrey as well as two different stamp sets for the sentiment: "Everyday Happiness" and "Wishes Come True" by PTI. The cardstock is from Memory Box, and the "happy" die cut and stars are from Simon Says. The banner is my trusty "Double Ended Banner" die by Papertrey Ink. You can't see it in the photo, but all the starts are coated with glitter with the Wink of Stella pen.

Here's a closer look:

I'm off to check out the other entries to these challenges. Always a lot of inspiration to be found! 

February 2014 PTI Blog Hop: Take 1

It's the 25th of February already and time for the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink. My goodies arrived early in the week, and I was anxious to put some of them to use.

Here's the challenge inspiration piece, and the charge was to create a springtime card--with spring-like images or colors. 

I chose colors primarily and used a pad of lovely papers I picked up over the Christmas holiday--"Colorwash" by Pink Paislee. It's a good antidote to the cold, gray weather we continue to endure in western New York. We got a few hours of much needed sunshine yesterday, but there's not much in the forecast for the rest of the week.

The Spring Moss cardstock was a good match for the colors of the two patterned papers I chose. I've seen a lot of patterned papers used in layers set at an angle and thought I'd give it a try. I originally had the tag at an angle as well, but carefully took it off and replaced it after I saw it in the photograph. Every now and then, the photograph shows a design flaw that simply must be fixed. The Tag Sale #9 die is a new purchase, but the stamp set used for the sentiment and flower is one of my old favorites, "Daydreamer." This will be perfect for one of my friend's spring birthday.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 8

Friday night Tracy and I attended a member's only party at the George Eastman House. Each time they install a new exhibit in the museum, they invite the members to see the show the night before. There's always music, some food, and this time a lecture prior to seeing the exhibits. The new exhibits are photographs of two relatively closed religious groups--the Amish and the Hasidic Jews. The photographs of the Amish were nearly all in black and white, while the ones from Israel were in color. Both presented compelling photographs that demonstrate the unique characteristics and habits of these groups of people. You can read a bit more about the exhibits here and here.

For this week's Zoom In, Zoom Out, I decided the zoom in was better shown first. 

I love the use of the tiny photographs to create a mosaic of George Eastman. This is a permanent installation in the lobby as you enter the museum. I'll be going back again to capture some of the beautiful flowers in the George Eastman House during their annual Dutch Connection. We walked through Friday night, but you need daylight to take the photos.

A Challenge, and Feeling Lucky

I have a thank you note to share for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Get Krafty. As I was looking through some paper pads for a piece of patterned paper, I came across this polka-dot pattern from Fancy Pants' "Ectera." As soon as I saw it I remember the "Get Krafty" challenge. I wanted it to be CAS and this is the result:

After I’d glued down the banner, I wished I had die cut the “thank you” from it as well, and done an inlaid sentiment, but I wasn’t willing to try to pull it off. 

It’s not often that I win anything, but recently I’ve been lucky enough to win not one, but three, awesome prizes through blogging and the internet. The first was a seat in the BPC, Organizing FUNdamentals on the Simple Scrapper site. This class was the impetus to totally purge my studio. I didn’t participate in the class actively after the purge since I'd already given a lot of thought to how I work and how I wanted my supplies to be organized. Their excellent worksheets simpy confirmed my decisions.

Now that I've purged so many of my supplies I have some empty drawers and a lot of empty containers, so I was able to make better use of my space. For example, my acrylic blocks for stamping used to be in a basket (which occasionally dumped itself onto the floor), and now they’re in a drawer right under my work table. Perfect! I’ve been working with the new organization for a week or so now, and I’m really happy with it. I was able to make better use of some of my empty containers, and  the only products I bought were these from The Container Store. 

I had the drawer and top unit on the right, and knew that I could organize everything I have for Project Life by adding the middle unit and another small “shelf” and drawer unit. It holds all my Project Life supplies, some office supplies, and memorabilia I may want to add to the album. As an added benefit,  each component is easy to move to my desk while I'm scrapping.

My second lucky win was on Melissa's blog where I won a lovely new die from Simon Says. I quickly made a card with it to send to her, but didn't take the time to photograph it as we were leaving for Florida the next morning. 

Then Saturday I scored a big win on the Papertrey Ink site during their big anniversary release party. I love making cards for their anniversary challenges, but we were away for nearly the whole party. Nonetheless, one of my comments was randomly drawn for a $70 gift certificate. So now I have a few new goodies that should be arriving by the end of the week!

In the meantime, I'm continuing to purge. This month's project is our guest room. I've cleared out one cupboard and two drawers. This month is flying by, so I'm going to have to dedicate some serious time in there!

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 7

We made an unexpected trip to Florida this week---just three days. We got word that Tracy's stepmother who we visited last January in Florida has been diagnosed with rapid-onset dementia. She was a vibrant, energetic woman who just a few months ago was still teaching piano and voice lessons, directing musicals, and singing in choirs. We had no idea what to expect, but she did recognize Tracy right away. I'm not sure she knew who I was the first visit, but she might have remembered me by the time we left. That's about all she remembers, though. She has no idea where she is, what's happening, and no coherent recall of past events. It's a pretty frightening disease. I'm glad we got there while she still knew Tracy.

The weather in Florida was truly a pleasure--generally 60° higher than the corresponding temperature in Rochester at any given time! We mananged to get some nice walks in on the beach, and Tracy's mom drove over from the west coast to visit for two days. The first pair of photos was taken on the beach. These are pilot gulls, and they always stand together in a group facing the wind.

Tracy's mom has always wanted to go to the Morikami Japanese Gardens, so one afternoon we drove down there. I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, but I just love them.

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I'll have more photos to share from the gardens in a day or two. I'm linking these to Helena's Zoom In, Zoom Out meme. The minute I got on the beach and in the gardens I started looking for good subjects for this meme. Such fun!

Happy Valentine's Day: Frugal Still Life #6

Happy Valentine's Day! It's cold, but sunny so no complaints here. This week Cheryl McCain challenged us to do some food photography for our Frugal Still Life assignment. Registration for this self-paced class opens tomorrow (check her side-bar). I can highly recommend it. It's been lots of fun, and encouraged me to try some new things.

I made some dark chocolate salted almond clusters to take to some friends, and thought I'd try using them for the still life. Here they are ready to be delivered with the tag I created using some Papertrey Ink patterned paper ("Simple Valentine"), two Papertrey Ink tag dies, and my favorite double-ended banner die. The sentiment is from a new Reverse Confetti set:  Crushin'.

 As always, I played around with some different perspectives.

I scattered some unchopped almonds and some coarse sea salt, two of the only three ingredients in the candy.

I loved Cheryl's photo with the texture. I usually don't think to even play around with these, but I think I like this shot the best. It's a Kim Klassen texture called "Scrapit."

 

Here's the recipe. Easy as pie.

1 bag dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli's)
1 1/2 c. coarsely chopped unsalted roasted almonds
a pinch of coarse sea salt

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler (you could use the microwave), stir in the almonds and a pinch of salt. Drop by small teaspoonsful onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets and sprinkle with a bit more salt. Refrigerate until firm. 

I'll be back tomorrow with my Zoom In, Zoom Out shots. It's been a crazy week, but I had some good photo opportunities.

 

Valentines

It's just a week now to Valentine's Day, and typically I'd wait until then to post these, but since there are not one, but three, heartfelt challenges going on right now, I'll post them early. All of them meet the requirements for Simon Says Monday Challenge: Love Notes,

the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Have a Heart,

and finally, the Addicted to CAS challenge: LOVE.

When I opened the January Simon Says card kit, I didn't think I'd ever use the main image, a little googly-eyed monster. Then I remembered I have a two-year old grandson who loves monsters. Tracy wonders what he'll think of it. I hope he likes it. All the materials for the card except the "Bubble Talk" dies and stamps by Papertrey Ink are from the January kit.

I didn't think Skylar would be particulary charmed by a little monster, but I did think she'd like a shaker card. I followed the directions Laura Basson gave in her video here. It wasn't anywhere as near difficult as I expected, and I'm really pleased with it. I used the Spellbinders "Nested Hearts," and a new die from Simon Says "XOXO Border." The patterned paper is from the "Simple Valentine" paper pad by Papertrey.

Last, a card made with my newest stamp set by a new company Winnie and Walter. As soon as I saw "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy" set I knew I get a lot of use from it. They offered free cut files with the stamp set and I used both for this card. It was really hard to photograph, but I hope you can see the beautiful metallic red paper I used to cut "happy."

I used another new die from Simon Says for the inside sentiment.

 

And since each of these cards uses a new product (#1 stamps, #2 XOXO die cut, and #3 stamps and cut file), I'm linking up to the new Simon Says: Work It Wednesday Challenge: use something new.

Thanks for stopping by!