random reflections

Take Three (Plus!) Thursday & Photowalk #07

Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday post this morning inspired me to get outside with my camera. When I set the intention of completing 52 photowalks this year, I did intend to do one each week. The weather here has been so gray and so bitterly cold that any thoughts of actually going outside with the camera quickly vanished. So I'll have a few to make up later in the year. Today, although it was still very cold, was a bit brighter and with almost no wind so I decided to take a walk around our yard. We got another 8 inches of snow yesterday and last night, and as you'll see in some of the photos, there were still some snow flurries around this morning. I commented on Mary-Lou's blog that at least the new snow made everything beautiful again.

Snow on a sprig of holly; likely to show up on the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt.

Snow capping the bird feeders.

A dry hydrangea against a pure white background.

The fire pit; the Buddha's head is all that's visible. My St. Francis statue (new last summer) was blown over during one of the fierce wind storms and broke into three pieces.

Our fancy water sprinkler (which the grandchildren love). I couldn't resist taking a selfie.

Looking out across the street. You can see the snow flurries on the camera lens.

Here's hoping for an early spring. I'm pretty sure we have another month of winter to go. By the beginning of the week, the high temperatures are only in the teens again. Sigh.

Birthday Wishes

Here's the next in the series of cards created with Pink Fresh Studio's "Fleur 1" stamps and dies. This one turned out to be really difficult to photograph, but I think this photo ended up without too much glare.

The frames were die cut from glossy black cardstock, and the light reflected off of them so that in some of the photos, the frames appeared almost white. The skinny frames are from Altenew, and I adhered them at angles before adding the three blossoms from "Fleur 1." The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set "Sending You." Another very CAS card. The cardstock color is correct in the first photo but got washed out in the second one. Lighting is such a problem in this old house!

I was happy to find the "Sending You" stamps. I found the dies as I was cleaning out and organizing, but couldn't locate the stamps quickly. It's a set that originally came in a CD case, and so was stored a bit differently. I've repackaged most of them, but not that one. I finally have all my dies inventoried. All the dies associated with a stamp set are filed with the stamps now. It should prevent any duplicate buying which has happened occasionally in the past. I have quite a few stand-alone dies as well, and I organized them by category (Words, Nature, Animals, etc.) or by company. From my days on a design team for an internet store, I have a nice collection of Spellbinder dies, and of course, there's the Papertrey Ink collection of stand-alone dies. 

I'm popping this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is "Anything Goes."

The Flower Challenge: Use Your Latest Stamps--Take 2 and Seize the Birthday

A couple of nights ago, I spent the evening coloring all the images I had stamped with my new Pink Fresh Studio set, "Fleur 1." I didn't have anything in particular in mind. The next morning I set out to create some cards with the images, and I ended up with four cards, all quite different. This is definitely not my usual method for creating cards, but in this case, it proved rather interesting. You'll see the results over the next few days.  I also tried to use some of the pre-cut die cuts and card fronts I had in my stash. Today's card is another entry for The Flower Challenge to use your latest stamps, and for the Anything Goes theme at Seize the Birthday.

The floral arrangement on this card is the largest of the designs in the "Fleur 1" set. The woodgrain panel with the oval die cut was in my stash, and I added it to the front of a bright yellow card. The tiny tag is from Papertrey Ink's "Stemmed Statements" set as is the sentiment. 

The oval die cut was adhered to the yellow card with dimensional tape, and the flowers were colored with Copic markers. The tag is embellished with a piece of yellow and white ribbon that has been in my stash for years.

My first card created with this set was very clean and simple and you can find it here. All five cards that I'm made so far are quite different, and I have some ideas for other designs as well. I think this set will get a lot of use.

The Card Concept: Pineapple Party

There's no pineapple in sight on my card inspired by this week's Card Concept Challenge, but you'll see the same bright, cheerful colors---lots of fun to play with on these dull, gray days of winter. The card was also inspired by one created by Lizzie Jones for the Papertrey Ink's release of the die I used. 

It took a bit of time and patience to put this one together, but it was worth it in the end. I die cut the "Shape Shifters Square #4" from white, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Green Parakeet, and Hawaiian Shores. I backed the white die cut with a piece of "Stick It" which meant I didn't have to glue each little piece into the die. It's like putting a puzzle together. 

I followed Lizzie's lead in putting the sentiment on vellum so the design on the card would show through. It's from Papertrey's "Ways to Say: Birthday" set, an inexpensive set with a good variety of sentiments.

Hope your Thursday is off to a good start!

 

 

Take Two on the AAA Card Challenge

Here's another take on the One Corner Challenge at AAA Cards. It really wouldn't qualify for the challenge since there's definitely a design in the white space, but I'm fond of it anyway. I used the same stamps as I did on the first card as guest designer, but chose a different color. Anemones come in so many colors. It's a lot of fun to look at the images on the internet and choose which one you'd like to try.

All the elements are the same as on my previous post with just the addition of Altenew's "Gradient Stripes" cover die. I love these anemones by Pretty Pink Posh which I colored once again with Copic markers. 

This time I added the black Glaze pen to the stamens which I like a lot better.

It's nice to have a few birthday cards in the stash. Now I need to get busy with some "Thinking of You" cards. That category is just about depleted. 

 

The Flower Challenge

I've just recently found The Flower Challenge, and finally had time to make a card for the current challenge: use your latest stamps and dies. While we were in Racine, I got an email from Pink Fresh Studio (one of my new favorite companies) offering a free set of dies if you purchased the stamps. Caleb was sitting near me, and said I ought to go for it, since I would have new stamps when I sent him a card. I don't think he realized it was a floral set. I needed a thank you note and after stamping all the flowers from the "Fleur 1" set, decided to color this simple cluster of flowers and leaves. 

The sentiment is also from a new set from Papertrey Ink--"You Made My Day," although I've had it a bit longer, I've never used it. I love how the flowers just fit around the sentiment.

I'm quite sure this combo will be pulled out again when I need a quick, CAS thank you note. 

AAA Cards: Guest Designer

I'm thrilled to be joining the AAA Cards as Guest Designer. This honor follows another one---winning the "Mostly White" challenge in December. Luckily, I was able to postpone my guest designer stint until after our January travels. The challenge for CAS Game #134 is "One Corner" with an optional twist of "Music." 

It was a bit of a surprise to me that I own very few "musical" stamps, and none that would grace a corner design. Instead I went with a relatively new Pretty Pink Posh floral set, "Anemones." One of the criteria for the AAA Card Challenge is to have significant white space unadorned with any embossing folder or design. 

After coloring the images from the Anemones with Copic markers, I fussy cut them out. I mounted the flowers on the corner of the Fresh Snow Linen card with dimensional tape, and then tucked the leaves in underneath. The sentiment from Simon Says "Tiny Words," was embossed in white on a thin strip of black cardstock. Simple, CAS for sure, and lovely, I think.

Here's a closer look at the flowers. I added some dots to the center of the flowers with a black Glaze pen, but it doesn't photograph well! Thanks to the team at AAA Card Challenges for the honor of guest designing, and to STAMPlorations for the generous gift certificate.

 

Five in Five & Photowalk #06

The weather here has been pretty frightful---snow, strong winds, and cold temperatures. Even on the days when it has warmed up a bit, the sidewalks are still too icy for safe walking. Any exercise is coming from the gym. This is about the time of winter when I begin to tire of the whole event, and yet I know from experience, there's a good 6-8 weeks of winter left for those of us in western New York. 

Fortunately, there are a few places (and times) we you can take solace---and your camera---to events and places where the organizers know exactly what Rochesterians need right now. For the next two weeks, The George Eastman Museum is hosting The Dutch Collection. George Eastman loved plants and flowers and every year imported thousands of bulbs to bring spring into his mansion. I've posted photos from this event in the past, although last year I missed it. Here are some photos from my trip on Thursday, the first five taken within five minutes for Sandie's Five in Five meme.

Pots of Helleborus lined the hallway from the photographic museum to the mansion. In the pots, they were not terribly impressive, but . . .

. . . close up they were lovely.

Looking down on some beautiful Fox Trot tulips.

Flowers in the atrium.

And always one of my favorites, the clivia.

One of the challenges I've set for myself this year is to try to use the different cameras and lenses I own. I finally mastered the controls of my Olympus mirrorless camera in January, and all the photos I took on the trip to Disney World and Wisconsin were taken with the Olympus or my iPhone. The last few years when we've traveled I've taken my Sony Cyber Shot RX10, lighter than my Canon Rebel, no interchangeable lenses, but a great zoom. What's been neglected is the camera I relied on for years--my Canon Rebel and my favorite fixed lens the 50mm. So that's what I took with me on Thursday. I was surprised at how much heavier it is, and how much I've come to rely on Live View and a zoom when taking photos. It forced me to "see" things a bit differently than I've been accustomed to. 

The bank of flowers (mostly tulips) in front of the organ in the Conservatory.

Even more flowers upstairs overlooking the Conservatory.

A Purple Rain Amaryllis

And last, a collection of narcissus in front of windows showing the snowy landscape of the outside gardens.

 

Too cute---Five More Valentines

I made all five of the grandchildren identical valentines this year, and I love how they turned out! 

They were easy to put together thanks to Betsy Veldman's design for the Potbellies (Papertrey Ink.) She designed several different versions--a Santa, a reindeer, and a unicorn, but the penguin was my favorite and I thought it would make a great valentine. I love the sentiment that she included in one of the sets. Perfect for Valentine's Day. The only thing I added was a puffy heart to each of the tummies. 

I wasn't sure what to fill the tummy with. Chocolates might not have made it to Wisconsin, and gummies (the kids' favorites) would have probably stuck together. I found these mini Starburst, and even if the kids didn't like them, they were the right colors, and they stay separated.

In case they wanted to try the candy, I die cut a Lawn Fawn "zipper" on the back of the penguins. I've had the die for awhile, but this is the first time I've ever needed it. 

I love Valentine's Day, and I love creating cards for it. These were definitely the most fun this year.

Happy Valentines Day!

I have two more valentines to share today, and some more for another post tomorrow. Today's cards use the positive and negatives of the same die. The first card was inspired by Dawn McVey's card during Papertrey Ink's December release. 

I used My Favorite Things nested heart dies to cut hearts from Pure Poppy (my favorite PTI color,) Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Pink, and Lovely Lady. Then I layered the hearts, one on the other, using dimensional tape. I love the way it came out. The sentiment is from the Hero Art's January kit which I embossed in white on a strip of black cardstock.

When I finished the card, I had three hearts laying on my desk, and wanted to make a valentine for the sixth grader I tutor twice a week. 

Once again, I used my favorite Pure Poppy for the card base and the largest and smallest of the hearts. The white panel was created with an old Cuttlebug embossing folder on Fresh Snow Linen cardstock which was also lying on my desk from a previous project. This was definitely the quickest of the valentines I made. The sentiment is from an oldie but goodie: Papertrey Inks "Tiny Treats: Valentine."

I layered these hearts with dimensional tape as well.

I'm entering these at Papertrey Ink's new Win It Wednesday challenge. Laura Schmidlin is hosting a "favorite" there. Last week it was a favorite stamp; this week it's your favorite color of cardstock. Pure Poppy wins hands-down!

I'm joining The Card Concept "Love is in the Air" as well.

If you celebrate Valentine's Day, I hope it's a good one. We went out to dinner to celebrate on Saturday night. We had a fabulous meal at one of the best Italian restaurants in town. I was chair of the planning committee that hosted a Presbytery-wide conference on Saturday. We had over 200 people register, and most of them attended. We decided celebrating Valentine's Day early had a double advantage. I was definitely not interested in cooking that night, and Valentine's Day can be crazy at a restaurant. We're having meatloaf at home tonight---one of Tracy's favorites.