random reflections

Zoom In, Zoom Out on Ella

It's already a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. Matt and Betsy welcomed Ella Renee at 9:20 Monday morning. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 20.5 inches long. If her first two days are any indication, she's going to be a good baby! Skylar seems very happy to be a big sister, but wasn't quite ready to sit for a photo with the new little sister.

 

As I write this (late Tuesday evening), Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are about two hours away from Rochester. Soon both my kids will be in the same town for four days---always a reason to celebrate.

We'll be joining Tracy's family at my sister-in-law's on Thursday for our annual feast and family fun, and spending lots of time with our immediate family through the weekend. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope it a wonderful holiday, filled with love and good times!

November 2014 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I was hoping to have several projects to share for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, but the days just got away from me, so there's just one. Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are on their way here from Chicago, and we're not expecting them until quite late, so maybe I'll get time to create another card before the hop closes. For now, I have the gift exchange tags that I make annually for the family Christmas. We'll draw names on Thursday during our Thanksgiving celebration.

This was the inspiration post for this month:

The theme for this month is snow!  Dig out your favorite snow stamps and snowflake dies.  Create the illusion of snow with glitter or mica flakes.  Make some snow filled shaker elements with beads or sequins.  Whatever you decide, get creative and create your own winter wonderland with your paper crafting supplies!    

Right now, we're expecting 17 for Christmas dinner, quite a few less than last year's record 27!  I found an set of kraft tags in my drawer that already had the strings tied on, and there were just enough. I love white embossing on kraft, so the snow theme worked well.

The snowflake stamp is from Papertrey's "Snowflake Serenade," and the embossing powder is appropriately named: "Winter Wonderland." Like the tags, the embossing powder has been in my collection for quite some time.

I tried adding a sentiment to the tags but I liked it a lot more without it. "To" and "From" are stamped on the bag, and I wrote each person's name in white pen.

I have a few minutes before I have to leave for an appointment, so I'm off to check out the contributions to the blog hop.

Jumping for Joy

I have a fun card to share for a great event. Last week I found out my niece and her husband are expecting their first child in mid-May. Maybe Aunt Karen will be lucky and the baby will be born on her birthday! I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a card in the mail, and Papertrey's Phrase Play #8 die and stamp set was just perfect.

I stamped the background with Papertrey's Ombre Builder using four different colors of ink, then die cut the frame twice and adhered them together to give it a bit of dimension. Stamping the rest of the sentiment, and layering it all on a Memory Box card was all that was left. This is just one of several great sentiments to use with this die. 

Hope you're having a great weekend. Our book group met last night to discuss November's book, The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. I really enjoyed his biography of Steve Jobs, and this was also great. It's the tale of how we've reached the digital age, starting with Ada Lovelace, Sir Byron's daughter in the 1800's. Fascinating. Although there were some relatively technical explanations, I found it very easy to read. After our discussion, we go out to eat, and enjoyed a delicious meal at Lemoncello in East Rochester. 

Today's been a busy and productive day: cleaning and organizing for Sarah's visit, and cooking for Matt and Betsy's freezer. 

Simon Says October Card Kit

I almost always find lots to love about the monthly Simon Says Card Kit. Usually I tire of kit club subscriptions after a few months, but I've never been tempted to give this one up. It's a great value, and frequently they include some wonderful extras in additon to the stamp sets and papers. In October the theme was coffee and included a great stamp set ("What's Brewing?") and a really cute die. I needed a "hello, thinking of you" card as well as a thank you card, and it was easy to come up with the cards I needed with the kit and just a few other supplies.

I loved the patterned papers, all from Basic Grey's "Grand Bazaar." For this card, I stamped the coffed cup and cut it out by hand. I used the pocket portion of a new stitched tag die by Papertrey Ink to make a focal point for the cup, and stamped the "hello" on the cup.

Then I stamped the steam and embossed it with rust embossing powder. I loved how it came out. 

The next card uses the cute little cup die that came with the kit as well as a different patterned paper.

I die cut the cup six times, three with the patterned paper and three more with Doll Pink cardstock for the heart inserts. The great sentiment comes from a Reverse Confetti set "Be a Barista" which I embossed in gold. The cardstock for both cards also came in the kit.

A friend has invited two of us for lunch early next month, so the three coffee cups seemed just right, and now I'm all set with the thank you note. I'll be entering this one at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Thanks/Thanksgiving.

Zoom In, Zoom Out On Something Wrong

I don't think we're supposed to get snow when some of the trees have yet to lose any of their leaves. But that's what happened this week. And I'm not complaining, because we ended up with just a couple inches over two days, and Buffalo (60 miles to our west) has up to 6 feet of snow! I was lazy and didn't get out to take photos early in the morning when it was much more beautiful, but here's what the street looked like early in the afternoon.

Even after two days of snow and wind, most of the leaves on these trees and others on the street are still on the tree!

See more of what's happening up close around the globe on Helena's blog!

Enjoy!

I had to take a break from my online class assignments this weekend to make cards for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and to send to some friends needing some encouragement.

Now there's a bit of fodder for future blog posts as well. Two of the cards used a silver metallic paper I bought last winter from Michael's for my Christmas Journal pages and I thought I'd get them posted (just under the wire) for the current Virginia's View Challenge: All Things Metallic.

I started out die cutting Papertrey Ink's Phrase Play #4 with the silver paper. After backing the "Enjoy" with black paper, and adding a strip of black and white polka-dot paper, I angled it on an Hawaiian Shores card, stamped the remainder of the sentiment and added a few sequins.

I then had the letter from the negative in the Phrase Play die, so made a second card with the same card base.

This time I used a black strip of paper to add some interest to the silver letters, a stamped ampersand from "Grand Ampersand", and "Celebrate" from "Wet Paint II" (all PTI).

I've always loved that ampersand stamp, but this is the first time I've been able to put it to good use.

It's amazing how fast things can change. A week ago today we broke record high temperatures (near 80°). Today we have near record low temperatures with a wind chill of 7°. Fortunately, we did not get the record snows just west of us. My friend's son has over 5 feet of snow in his driveway, and it's still snowing. The Thruway is closed from here to the Pennsylvania border! I hope it all gets cleared up before folks need to travel for next week's Thanksgiving holiday.

Yea, for Retirement!

One of my best friends retired October 1st. We went out to breakfast the first morning of her retirement and I gave her the retirement card I'd made then. Last week a group of us took her out to dinner. Each of us chose a different Alex and Ani bracelet to give her, and I made a tag to match the Alex and Ani bag.

The black tag was in my draw of tags, but I'm not sure who made it. The "Congrats" die is a new one from Penny Black that I've been eyeing for a long time, and picked up at Buffalo Stamps and Stuff in early October. That, a few gold sequins, and some gold & black twine (also in my stash) was all I needed.

As I told her the day she retired, the best I can wish her is that she will enjoy retirement as much as I have. I really had no idea how wonderful it would be!

With Sympathy

Recently, a good friend of mine lost her mother. Another friend and I drove to Elmira for the funeral. It was a beautiful funeral mass that celebrated a long life, well lived. I thought Papertrey Ink's "Mums the Word" would make a lovely fall sympathy card.

I stamped the mums with Terra Cotta Tile ink and the off-stamped them for the shadow images. The sentiment is a very old wooden stamp from Savvy. The stamped panel was "framed" with Terra Cotta Tile paper and adhered to a card made from Ripe Avocado cardstock.

Although there are still many leaves on the trees, it's beginning to feel more like winter than fall. There was enough snow to stick to the ground for a little while. I'm not ready.

 

A Baby is Coming!

In about ten days, we'll be welcoming the newest member of our family. Matt and Betsy are expecting another little girl, and her due date is November 24th. Recently, a small group of friends and family "sprinkled" Betsy with some love and some "fun gifts." Here's the card I created to go with the plush bunny I purchased for her.

This was a quick and easy card using two stamps sets from Mama Elephant: "Carnival Cupcakes" and "Sentimental Borders." I cut out the little bunny and adhered it with some dimensional tape, added a few pink pearl hearts by Hero Arts, and called it done.

Looking forward to seeing some friends over the weekend, and relaxing----almost no commitments for three days!

Zoom In, Zoom Out on the Mastodon

This afternoon I went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center on a sketching assignment. I can't say I was terribly happy with my progress for the assignment, but I did enjoy wandering around the museum. It's been quite a few years since I've been there. The mastodon exhibit is quite something. About 15 years ago or so, mastodon bones were found in a field not far from Rochester. My neighbor is a palentologist, and the Director of Collections at the museum. He was responsible for the excavation of the skeleton.  After it was completed, he came to talk to my fifth graders who were absolutely fascinated by his experience---and the bones he brought to show them!

I just had my iPhone with me, and couldn't get a good zoom in of the skeleton, but was more successful with the model Mastodon across the way.

The two men walking by the exhibit give a good sense of the size of the mastodon.

 

It's hard to imagine a herd of mastodons roaming about in this area, but indeed, they did.

Head over to Helena's blog for more Zoom In, Zoom Out photos!