random reflections

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: First Check-in

Tomorrow's the last day of June, and today is the first check-in for Patio Postcard's Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. The hunt runs from June 1 to the last day of summer. It took me awhile to get going, but I have seven of the items on the 20 item list to share.

The Rosiness of Red. I spotted these beautiful roses on the Landmark House and Garden Tour the second weekend in June.

Wings: Another beautiful butterfly from the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Glorious Green: Hannah in her new yard in Wisconsin.

An Unexpected Reflection: Standing in the kitchen at the house Tracy's family rented for a week, I spotted the reflection of the lake in the oven door.

Pretty in Pink:  Stunning roses at Trader Joe's

Picture Postcard Perfect:  Sunset on Honeoye Lake

And finally, a card to share that I think would qualifiy for "Pedal Power." I made this card in June just before leaving for Chicago to send to Sarah's father-in-law, an avid biker. I'm quite sure he doesn't have a basket on the front of his bike, but I loved this small image from a new stamp set by Pinkfresh called "Itty Bitty Elements." 

I stamped five bikes across the bottom part of the card, and then die cut a sixth bike to color and pop up in the middle. I already had a sentiment die cut in red from Papertrey's "Penned Elegance" that said, "let's celebrate." It was quite easy to trim the "let's" away from the celebrate. I added a strip of patterned paper from MFT "Black and White Stripes" paper pad and a thin strip of Pure Poppy cardstock.

I'm quite sure I'll find other candidates for some of these selections before the end of summer, but for now, it's a start. I have another 13 to find.

 

 

Take Three Thursday: Butterflies and Blooms

Sunday we spent a couple of hours at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. There are several things I will miss on the North Shore now that Sarah and Adam are moving to Wisconsin, and the Botanic Gardens are high on that list. We visited a special exhibit called "Butterflies and Blooms," and I thought three of those photos would fit right in with Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday meme.

This butterfly landed among many of the blooms.

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If you look closely, you'll see two butterflies on this beautiful orange flower.

This butterfly was almost transparent.

I have to admit the butterflies were easier to photograph than my grandchildren who weren't much interested in having their photographs taken!

Less is More: An Item from Your Bits Box

This week's challenge from Less is More is to use a bit from your "bits box." I have multiple envelopes filled with bits that didn't make it to a card when they were created. For this card, there were actually two:  the card itself where I had die cut a circle in the front of the woodgrain cardbase (Simon Says,) and the beautiful butterfly from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Hope."

To create the card, I die cut a circular frame from two Simon Says "Stitched Circle" dies from Raspberry Fizz cardstock. The sentiment was stamped inside from the "It's the Thought" set (PTI), and the butterfly attached to the side.

Here's a peek at the inside:

I need a few more challenges like this to use up my stash of "bits."

 

 

A Variation on Take Three Thursday

I've gotten way behind in posting some of the cards I've made recently, so I thought I'd do a variation on Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday and share three thank you cards. All three cards feature florals and die cuts.

 

Here I started with the beautiful Shape Shifters: Circle 1 die from Papertrey, using just two of the three pieces to use as a focal point for the leaves from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms which I colored with Copic markers to match the Hawaiian Shores card base.

The sentiment is from Papertrey's Gathered Garden set. I tied the the three leafy sprigs together with a piece of my favorite white silk ribbon and added a few sequins.

For this card I started by die cutting a piece of white card stock with the Stitched Rays die by Reverse Confetti. Then I die cut one of the Pierced Round Top dies (also Reverse Confetti) so the stitched rays radiated from the left-hand side.  A die cut vase from Papertrey's Vogue Vases and more florals from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms were added. All were adhered to a striped piece of paper from my stash of single papers and then to a Licorice card by Memory Box. 

There wasn't an easy way to add a stamped sentiment so I die cut one from the Swooshes set by Papertrey.

 

For the final card, I scored an Amethyst Allure card at every 1/2 inch and added two die cuts by Papertrey Ink: "thank you", and the February Corner Adorner stamp and die.

I used some foam dots to the Corner Adorner to add a bit more dimension.

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Here's hoping it's a good one for you!

 

Happy Father's Day!

It's Father's Day in the U.S. Lucky me, I have three terrific fathers to create cards for on this special day. I'm celebrating with just one of them this year--Tracy. Adam is in St. Louis at the Presbyterian General Assembly, so we're in Chicago helping Sarah with Hannah and Caleb as well as helping her clean out and organize for a move later this month. Matt is celebrating at home with his three lovely daughters, and I know Betsy is making it a special day. We'll celebrate again here when Adam gets home later this week, and in Rochester when we get home.

First up, the cards for the younger dads.

I had another stamp set on my desk, and this one by Simon Says "Ice Cream Dream" was stored on the back side of the envelope. I thought it would make a fun card, and I'm happy with how they turned out. I started by stamping, coloring, and fussy cutting the ice cream bars. I embossed a frame on a piece of Neenah Solar White with the Papertrey Ink "Mix and Mat Postal," and then added a computer generated sentiment to the bottom. 

Next I added the ice cream bars with some adhesive dots, and adhered it all to a card with some Hawaiian Shores "Bitty Big" striped paper from Papertrey. The last touch was some Glossy Accents on each of the ice cream bars.

I went with a golf theme for Tracy's card. He's been a golf enthusiast for many years, and enjoys golf once a week with two friends. 

This is my usual CAS style, based on two cards I pinned a long time ago---here and here. I found the card base--an Amuse paper-in my stash, and die cut the Mat Stack 3 (Papertrey) from Memory Box "Apple Green" paper. The golf ball was embossed on white, and in real life looks just like a golf ball. The texture just didn't show up in either photograph. Both are from Papertrey Ink's "On the Links" set which has come in handy for quite a few masculine cards over the years. 

"Dad" was die cut from a Memory Box alphabet that appears to have gone out of production. The rest of the sentiment is also from "On the Links," and was stamped onto the banner from "Tag Sale 10" by Papertrey.

We've celebrated this afternoon with ice cream cones from Hartigan's, a local ice cream shop with homemade ice cream. It's 97° here, so we were lucky the ice cream shop wasn't too crowded. If we'd had to leave with the cones, they would have melted long before we could have eaten them! Hope it's a bit cooler where you are.

 

Five in Five: June Reds

It's been twelve days since I posted. It was an unintentional break, and I do have plenty to share from the #100DayProject, but not today. It was raining on the 5th, and I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to get out for five shots in five minutes to join in with Sandie's Five in Five monthly meme. Yesterday was gorgeous, though still very cool for June, and I managed to take and edit the photos, but ran out of time to write a blog post. 

Last month I posted five shots of the emerging signs of spring in Evanston/Skokie while we were visiting Sarah. This month I'm sharing photos from our yard and garden. Once I had a selection of shots to choose from, I realized I had five in different shades of red. 

First, some stunning dahlias. We have two good-sized pots of them on the front porch, and they are blooming profusely.

For the past several years, I've tried unsuccessfully to grow lupines in my cutting garden. When we were at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I noticed they had planted lupines in many of their containers. We now have lupines in three different containers---two in the front and one on the patio. Of course, after doing that, the lupines from last year showed up in the cutting garden for the first time. I am thrilled, and have a beautiful vase with lupines and snapdragons in the living room.

Two years ago, we planted this beautiful red rhododendron on top of the wall to the side of our house. We're thinking of moving it away from the house a bit, hoping it will have more room to spread out.

Much to my surprise, I found this clump of carnations blooming among the weeds in one of the beds that has yet to be cleaned out. I'm hoping they will spread out over the years to come.

Last year, I found this amazing plant at one of the garden stores. It was already quite large, so I called Tracy to see if we could find a place for it in our shade garden. This year it is close to 5 feet tall. I know I have the name of it somewhere, but can't put my fingers on it. I know this is #5, but here's a close-up of the blooms.

You can check out what other folks have found for their 5 in 5 right here.

I hope to be back with more consistent posting soon. When I look at the calendar for the last two weeks, I'm not surprised that blogging took a back seat to all that has been going on. The rest of June, however, doesn't look much different. We have a house guest who arrived on the first and will be here until Monday. Next week is the annual "week at the lake" for Tracy's family. We'll only be here for part of that before heading out to Chicago for our last visit before Sarah and her family move to Racine, WI where she will begin tenure as a co-pastor (with a friend!) at a Presbyterian church there. We're going out to help with Caleb and Hannah while Adam is away for a week, and hopefully, help organize and purge for their move at the end of the month.