random reflections

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt 2022: Final Link-up

It's time for the final posting for this summer's photography scavenger hunt. Just this morning, I captured my last photo for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt kindly organized by Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards. My previous finds are here.

For some of the prompts, I have multiple photos to choose from. Instead of choosing just one, I'm posting them all and letting you choose which one ought to be the "winner."

I had prompt #3 on my mind while we were traveling in Scotland, and have multiple photos--many of which I like. 

I loved the plaid carpet going up these stairs in one of our hotels.

Looking down at a spiral staircase carpeted in a variety of colors.

Our first day in Scotland we walked over 7 miles out to Leith. These stone stairs were on our path.

I'm counting two items with this photos #3 Stairs and #4 Faceless Selfie:

Taken on our last day in Scotland.

This was one of those happenstance photos. I took it when Hannah was visiting us and playing with our very old Fisher Price "people." Only later did I see the "t" for #5 Looks Like a Number or a Letter.

Our hotel in Oban, Scotland was on #6 A Corner:

There were several contenders for #8 Sipping On, but I chose one from our week on Chautauqua Lake when we ate at the Ellicottville Brewery.

Try as I might, I could not come up with anything original for #9 Shapes Shape When Wet. My grandchildren get these "toys" that grow in water, but that's changing size, not shape, so here it is--spaghetti.

When we were in Edinburgh the Fringe Festival was in full swing. The Royal Mile was mobbed every day and there were street performers and hawkers all about. This one captured #10 OMG, The Shoes:

I had a photo for #22 Yellow and Blue Together for my first link-up, but this one was so much better. This is a bridge in Inverness, lit to honor the people of Ukraine.

When I was hunting for a good spot to photograph the lighthouse on the Isle of Skye under the bridge, I found this:  #13 All Gone, Empty.

And these empty fishing cages and crates in the harbor of John O'Groats in northern Scotland, near the ferry to the Orkney Islands.

Here are some Left Overs (#14) from a card making session. Here's the card.

Both of my photos for #15 Wind Power were taken from our coach as we drove through Scotland.

Out Of Place, #17, was the hardest one for me. I was talking about this hunt this morning with a friend when all of a sudden I realized I had the perfect photo right next door. Over a week ago, our neighbor put someone's hat on a pole at the end of his driveway. Our street is a popular one with walkers--it's a dead end, and has quite a steep hill just beyond our house. Whoever lost their hat, hasn't been walking here for awhile.

I also had a photo last time for #18 In The Distance, but found a much better contender:  Stirling Castle taken from the Bannockburn Memorial.

Culture, Yours or Another, #19, was a no brainer after being in Scotland for two weeks. I have several photos of bagpipers, but this one on the streets of Edinburgh captures it best.

I recently found a woman who might be able to restore my first edition copy of Charlotte's Web. This book definitely Invokes a Childhood Memory, #21, of being read aloud from early childhood to until I was well into my 40's when my father asked me if he could read a short story to me while I ironed. 

Add, 1-2 To Change the Taste, #22, presented several options, but I chose two hot sauces which definitely change the taste. The Wet Wizard one is produced by a company owned by our nephew's wife. The Korean chili paste is called for in several Asian recipes we like. I have a couple other hot sauces as well despite the fact that we're not huge fans of very spicy foods.

Alt A is Recent Purchase. I didn't have much in mind when we left for Scotland, but I did know I wanted to purchase a cross on Iona. This one was made on the island, and I'm happy to have found it.

I posted a sunset for Alt. B in the previous link-up

My choice for Alt. C: Free Choice, is a photo of Kilt Rocks on the Isle of Skye, possibly the most beautiful place we saw.

And looking behind me from the same location:

So that's a wrap! A week ago, I wasn't sure I'd have them all, but it came together at the last possible moment. Thanks, Mary-Lou for the list! I always enjoy it.

 

 

Christmas 52 Card Throwdown

I'm honored to be the Guest Designer at the Christmas 25 Card Throwdown Challenge this time around. The challenge is their Technique Challenge, and it is a bit of a challenge since I don't often made pop-up cards. 

As usual, I tried a couple different things and had a pop-up card I thought I'd share, but then I tried something totally different which I like so much better! I turned to My Favorite Things, "Present Time." One of the things I particularly like about this set was how well two of the sentiments worked for the outside and inside of the card. 

I used the largest of The Greetery's Nordic Circles for the front of the card. I started by coloring all the snowmen and the trees with Copic markers and die cutting them. I used three of the snowmen for the front and arranged them behind two snowdrifts die cut with Papertrey Ink's "In the Meadow--Snow and Hill" dies. The white embossed sentiment is adhered with some dimensional tape.

I love the inside sentiment--finally!--the presents can be opened! These happy snowmen and the tree were arranged behind some snowdrifts as well. When the snowmen are popped up, the inside sentiment appears. I'm quite sure this card would appeal to any one of my five grandchildren, but I think I'll need four more interactive cards if one of them gets this one.

Thanks to the DT at Christmas 52 Throwdown for the opportunity to guest with them. It's been a lot of fun.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - Guest Designer

I'm delighted to be the Guest Designer for this week's Tic Tac Toe Challenge. Here's the board for the challenge:

I chose the diagonal from top left: Stencil, Any Sentiment, Berries. I had the perfect stencil for this: Pinkfresh Studio's  "Holiday Botanical Background." I actually made three versions of the card before I arrived at this one, my favorite:

I used four different green inks for the leaves and holly: PFS Fresh Pear, Key Lime, and Olive. The darkest green was Papertrey Ink's Pinefeather. For the red berries I used PFS Berrylicious and added a touch of Candy Apple. After stenciling, I die cut the panel with one of the nested dies in Hero Arts "Infinity Rounded Rectangles," and layered it onto a red card base.

Neither photo truly shows the pretty shine and dimension of the translucent Glaze that I added to the berries. The last touch was to take a white gel pen and add some details to the berries and the leaves. In fact, the photo almost makes it look like some of the gel pen was streaked across the berries--not! that's the reflection from the light. The beautiful sentiment is from Waffle Flower--a premade foiled sentiment from the set "Essential Christmas." I purchased two sets in gold and two in silver--one of the best investments for holiday cardmaking I've made so far this year.

Thanks so much to the TTTC team for choosing my card as a Designer's Pick and the honor of guesting for this challenge!

Color Hues #49

Tracey has given us the lovely Yellow and Brown color combination for the next Color Hues Challenge.

I started out with a general idea of where I wanted to go, but as is often the case, the final card is somewhat different. I started with a Classic Kraft card base, and played around with some different design ideas as well as some different die cut leaves and sprigs. I ended up with the Essential Arches dies by Ellen Hutson. I love that they cut both an arch and a frame. By die cutting them in two colors, you get a perfect set of arches with a darker frame.

I used Papertrey Ink papers for all of the die cuts:  Cocoa Bean and Dark Chocolate for the arches and sentiment banner.

The "Leafy Sprig" by Poppy Stamps is one that's been in my die collection for years. I originally thought I'd have a cluster of them, perhaps tied with twine, but ended up preferring just two, one from Lemon Tart and one from Summer Sunrise. 

The sentiment is from my favorite Pink & Main set: Special Day, stamped in Dark Chocolate ink on a Cocoa Bean banner die cut with My Favorite Things, Itty Bitty Strips die. I thought about adding some embellishment, but decided on a set of five scored lines behind the focal image and the sentiment. 

I'm sending this one over to the current Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge: Birthdays. 

This was actually the second card I made the challenge. I like the first one as well, but it was an almost complete CASE of one Debby Hughes made several years ago when the stamp set, "One With Nature" was released by Simon Says, so I decided to make a second card for the Color Hues blog. Here's the original:

This one was a lot of fun to make. I layered the solid and open leaves in two colors of yellow and brown on white cardstock, and then cut it down for the card. The side panel is cut from Dark Chocolate cardstock.

Then I added the tag with two die cut leaves and a sentiment from Gossamer Blue that was included in a scrapbook kit years ago. 

Be sure to hop over to the Color Hues blog to see all the creative takes on this color combo by the Design Team and our two guests this time around.

 

Sunflowers with "A Freshly Made Sketch"

If you've followed my blog for long, you know I'm a fan of Clean and Simple cards. One of my favorite designers of CAS cards is Cécile Ribon. It's her turn to design the sketch for Freshly Made Sketches, and I just had to play along.

As soon as I saw the sketch, I thought of a die, "Stitched Film Strip," from Pretty Pink Posh that would work perfectly. I still had an envelope of sunflowers left from my first go with the My Favorite Things kit, "Sending Sunflowers," so I pulled those out next.

I chose Fresh Snow Linen cardstock from Papertrey Ink and die cut a panel from Gina K's "Master Layout #1." I added the frame and then had to find a sentiment. This one from Simon Says, " Best Friend Ever" seemed just right and I embossed it in white on black cardstock and trimmed it out. All that was left to do was arrange the sentiment and the sunflowers. I popped up the sentiment and two of the sunflowers with dimensional tape and added a piece of foam for some dimension to the main panel before adding it to the card 

It's been so nice to have real crafty time the last few days, and it looks like there's some more time before the week is out. I'll be back tomorrow with the new Color Hues Challenge.

 

A CAS Sympathy Card

I found two challenges this week, both CAS challenges which I thought I could combine easily. First the AAA Cards Challenge which is asking for a one layer sympathy card. I was pretty successful with my last one layer card (it won the challenge) so I thought I'd try another one layer card again. I combined it with the Less is More Challenge which is looking for black and white.

I chose a lovely floral frame from Simon Says "Mandy's Flowers" which was one of the sets in their monthly kits a few years ago, and stamped it on a square cardbase. A sentiment from Gina K's "Natural Silhouettes" fit inside the frame perfectly.

The only embellishment was to add a black rhinestone to the center of the flower.

 A very simple card, but perfect for the occasion.

 

 

A Test Run (Or Walk, as the case may be)

Tracy and I took a day trip to the Finger Lakes last Saturday. It was a three-day weekend here in the States, so heading to Watkins Glen wasn't probably the best idea ever, but I have a new camera and a new pair of hiking shoes that I wanted to test out. It was crowded, but we had a good time. We parked at the top of the gorge, walked to the bottom and then hiked up to the top.

When we were in Scotland, I saw a tiny Sony compact camera with a 200mm zoom lens. I was intrigued. I loved my Sony which "died" several years ago. The Panasonic that replaced it has never been a favorite. After doing a lot of research, I went to the local camera shop to see what they had to say. They had nothing but great things to say about the new Sony, and let me play with it for awhile. The next day I took my Panasonic and my mirrorless camera (which I never quite mastered) and traded them to help offset the cost of the Sony. The Sony is really tiny, but I have small hands, and the controls are familiar to me and easy to use. I'm already a fan, and never again will I be hauling a big camera around when we're traveling. Here are some photos from our hike, and a close-up from a winery we visited after lunch. It will take some more experimenting, but I'm happy with the first run.

Looking down at the glen from the top of the gorge.

So I'm quite happy with the camera, and also with the new hikers.

It was the first time I'd worn them and I had no discomfort whatsoever. With two bunions and other feet problems, they are definitely keepers! I like the looks of them, and they're water resistant which was another requirement. 

We're having wonderful weather this weekend, after four straight days of rain. My brother is here for a long overdue visit. Dane, Matt, and Tracy golfed today, and we had a lovely dinner at a favorite restaurant downtown on a patio overlooking the river. Tomorrow we're off to a favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch, a visit to a winery, and then dinner here with Matt and his family.

 

A Festive Celebration

The current Time Out Challenge: Festive spurred me on to create a card for two of our best friends who will be celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary early next month. 

Unlike many cards, this one turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it. The background of the card is a CASE of a card created by one of the most creative card makers I know, Hannelie, who created this card for the Color Hues #30 Challenge. I pinned the day I saw it, and bought the Altenew die, "String Panel," shortly afterwards. It's the first time I've used it, but it definitely won't be the last. 

I die cut the string panel twice--one in gold glitter paper and once with silver glitter paper and arranged them on a white card base, rotating the gold one on top of the silver panel. I wanted a big bold 50 and Papertrey Ink's "By the Number" which I've had for years (and love) fit the bill perfectly. I stamped the rest of the sentiment with words from another oldie by goodie, Winnie and Walter's "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy." After arranging it on a pierced oval by My Favorite Things, I adhered it with dimensional tape. 

Since the "String Panel" die is being used for the first time, I'm sending it to the September NBUS gallery as well.

Sunflowers

We bought a wonderful pot of sunflowers for our patio last week, and overnight some animal ate every leaf! Such a disappointment, although I did cut all the flowers and brought them inside. These sunflowers won't get eaten.

It's a Word Challenge at Just Us Girls this week. The word is BASKET and it came at the perfect time. I couldn't pass up My Favorite Thing's latest kit: "Sending Sunflowers," and it had just arrived.

I decided to use the sketch at this week's Freshly Made Sketches, (linked here if you're interested in the sketch), but missed the deadline by just a few minutes! It's so annoying when I let that happen. But, the challenge at CAS on Friday is stripes, and I think this works there as well.

When my friend, Michelle, receives new dies, she cuts out lots and lots and assembles them. That's not usually my style, but this time I did make a lot more than I needed for this card, so you're sure to see a few more sunflowers before September ends. The MFT kits are a wonderful value, and this one came with two sets of dies, a sentiment stamp set, as well as a patterned paper pad with houndstooth papers (see above!) I used a Stitched Rectangle from Simon Says, but otherwise everything except the kraft cardstock came with the kit. There's also a mason jar and a cute watering can in one of the die sets. The kit has already sold out, so I'm glad I didn't wait.

It's a sign of my age, probably, but I'm in need of new Thinking of You cards. I had a nice stash of them, but I'm down to the last couple. This is a start. 

 

 

One Layer Christmas

52 Christmas Card Throwdown has a challenge that I find very challenging: creating a one layer Christmas card. But knowing I needed to complete my goal to create 10 Christmas cards each month, I decided to see what I could come up with. It wasn't a particularly quick card to design. I knew I wanted to use the large image of holly and a sentiment from Simon Says "Joyful Season." The placement of images wasn't a problem, but deciding how to color the holly berries turned out to take some time. I wasn't happy with the Copics or the Tombow markers. I wasn't using watercolor paper, so that was out. I finally decided on two colors of PolyChromos pencils which worked out nicely.

On one version I added some gold pearls, but my husband vetoed those. (A stamping friend who saw it this morning, liked it however!) He also voted for the gold embossed sentiment. In order to add just another touch of gold. I used a gold pen to highlight each of the berries.

Once the placement and design were worked out, creating a set of these took little time, thanks to the MISTI. I colored the berries while watching the news! 

I'm also adding this to two Christmas card challenges where anything goes: The Merry Little Christmas Challenge, and Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.