Birdie Blues

Just could not resist doing the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week!  All blues and greens, my favorites!  The dessert option was birds and I used this week's sketch challenge as well.

This pretty, and rather old, designer paper was already in two of the colors:  Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery.  I stamped the bird with two shades of blue - Baja and Colorbox's Prussian Blue which is a slightly darker shade than Marina Mist.  Then I colored in the flowers with a green pencil.

Thanks for visiting today and be sure to check out all the pretty cards in this color scheme at:  Splitcoast gallery.

Ingredients:  Birds Galore from Inkadinkado; Mailbox Greetings by PTI

Cardstock:  Marina Mist, Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery

Pearls:  Stampin' Up! Pretties Kit

Cricut Cartridge:  Straight from the Nest

TIPsy Tuesday - Panorama in PSE

Do you have photos that could really be put together?  Ones that look like this:

But you would really like them to look like this?

Here is how to create a panoramic photo in Photoshop Elements.  The instructions are for version 9; however I was previously using version 5 and it is similar.

1.  Open files you want to join together in Photoshop Elements Editor.
2.  Choose File, New, Photomerge Panorama
3.  The following window will appear:

Click on Add Open Files.
4.  Click OK.
5.  The last prompt will ask you to fill in the open edges.  I usually choose No.  You can experiment and see if PSE creates something you want around the edges.
6. Then crop as desired.

There is a layout coming along with this photo.  I'm just not quite finished yet.

Thanks for joining me today!

Resolution Update

Getting Moving on Spring Cleaning - a little.

At the beginning of the year I told you about my New Year’s resolution.  It was to Get Moving.

Also, just before the end of the year I signed up for Shimelle’s class called Blogging For Scrapbookers.  Shimelle’s classes can be taken at any time and I was doing this several months maybe a year after the original class had run.  I got through about half of the class before the holidays seemed to swallow my time.  Fortunately, she is offering a follow-up class and as a precedent is rerunning Blogging for Scrapbookers.  We’re receiving the prompts each day so I can do things that I missed before or in this case give you an update.  This is day six of the class and the topic was sharing a goal.  I thought it would be a good time to update on the goal I shared in January.

So what is Get Moving?  My resolution was to do something every day to get me off the couch and out from the computer.  It was to increase my activity level and eventually improve my overall health.  I’m really lousy at exercise goals so I thought making this just to do something without having to say do so many sit-ups, or walk X amount of miles, or join a gym would be a lot easier and much more likely to succeed.  And I might get weeds pulled and my house cleaner in the process, what a deal!

One of the other things I told myself was that I would not let aches and pains interfere with my commitment.  If my knees hurt and I couldn’t walk, I would do something else.  I have made some progress.  I’ve kept a log and I actually recorded quite a lot of activities February.  I did OK in January and was pleased to see that I was improving as the year when along.  Then came March; and my commitment wavered greatly.

Now I will say that I’ve done quite a bit of walking in March as the weather has got warmer.  The recurring issue are those darned aches and pains.  I have an underlying health condition that I’ve had since I was a teenager that always interferes with my activity level.  And of course is I get older and picking up more pesky little problems which are sometimes short term and often become minor chronic issues.  Several weeks ago the shoulder pain that I was experiencing last summer came back.  The wasn’t as bad as before but it was certainly more persistent.  In fact right now I am using Windows speech recognition software to dictate to my computer rather than type.

So the gist of all this is that I have lots of excuses and I’m working hard to overcome or work around them.  I’m getting some help with my physical problems.  I still have a goal of being stronger and ultimately developing less new aches and pains.

Another thing about my resolution is simply reminding myself.  I made a scrapbook page and posted it where I would see it every day but apparently that isn’t enough. Inspiration Page Last night when I peeked ahead to see what today’s prompt would be the reminded me of my resolution.  I had a few extra minutes so I did some extra housework and really got myself moving and got cleaner floors, too.

Maybe I need to stick post-it notes all over the house!  There’s still plenty of things I can do it’s a matter of constant commitment.  

I was watching 60 Minutes last night - after my cleaning spurt.  Andy Rooney was going on about things everyone tells you are good for you that often contradict one another.  He said he was waiting for the study that tells you ice cream is good for you.  Me, too!  That would be one healthy commitment I wouldn't need to be reminded of.

First Hike of the year

There weren't many leaves on the trees the day we took this first hike of the year. We didn't care we just loved being outside one day in February. I used lessons from Nichol Migourk's classes at 2P's  to make this layout particularly the March scrapbook stamping class focused on using rubber stamps.

For the border, I used a rubber wheel which I've mounted as a cling stamp.  I inked the image with various shades of browns for a semi-distressed look.  The clouds are stamped with acrylic stamps from Hampton Arts because I didn't have an cloud paper that matched.  I embossed them in white embossing powder.

This border meets the challenge by using traditional wood mounted rubber stamps.  In February, lots of trees are bare so I just stamped some trunks as well as some with a little greenery.  The border is also filled in with Cricut images from Straight from the Nest.

I ran out of 'e's on the sticker sheet.  Isn't that always the way?  So I handwrote 'the'

This was a really fun page to put together.  I've had it on my table all week adding papers and embellishments to the pile as I thought of something.

Thanks, Nichol, for the inspiration.  I'm really enjoying all the monthly classes at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Check out their classes and events page  here They have some special card making stuff coming up in April.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Trendy Trees from Stampin' Up!; Whooo Loves You from Hero Arts

DSP:  Lemon Grass by Crate Paper; green from Little Robots collection by My Mind's Eye; sky paper from Fancy Pants Delight

Cardstock:  Pumpin Pie, Old Olive, Soft Suede

Ink:  same as cardstock plus Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand and Dark Brown by Colorbox

Stickers: Crate Paper and Nutmeg by American Crafts; labels from K & Company

Metal:  Making Memories

Stampin with Paint

This week I've been adding to the card stash with a lot of birthday cards. For this card I used techniques from Jennifer McGuire's stamping class last year at 2P's. The floral image is stamped with white metallic paint. Then I went over the image with various Ranger Distress inks. I couldn't remember which kind of paper worked the best. I tried both photo paper and Stamping Up's Whisper White. In the end I think I like the SU! paper the best. 

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you will come back.

Ingredients: stamps: Kind and Caring Thoughts by Stampin Up!

Greeting by Cloud nine

Ink: peeled paint, tumbled glass, tattered rose by Ranger.

Pearls by stamping up 

Paint:  Anitas

TIPsy Tuesday - Blended Sentiment Label

For both of these cards, a white or ivory background for the sentiment would have been a little stark against the pattern paper.  So I softened the look by stamping a very pale image in the background.  The video below shows the sentiment for the top card which starts with a simple white rectangle that gets punched, distressed and stamped for a more custom look.

Watch at  YouTube


Thanks for watching!


Ingredients:

Stamps:  Kind and Caring Thoughts by Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock:  Soft Suede, Whisper White

Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Rich Razzleberry by SU!

Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo by Ranger

Designer Paper:  Indian Summer by Basic Grey

Embellishments:  Vanilla Hardware by SU!; ribbons by SU and Basic Grey

1980 Something

It may be spring of 2011 but I've been reliving Christmas of 1980 Something with this old Polaroid of me at my former workplace.  Although I worked for the same company for 14 years I have only three photos in my possession taken in the office.  I believe this one was given to me by a friend of my husband’s when she was moving and going through some of her stuff.  I’m grateful to have it as it is brought back a lot of fond memories.  Over the last few days I’ve been trying to figure out when this photo was taken.  I used as many clues as I could get from the background and narrowed it down to either 1988 or 1989.  I let the journaling capture my thought process and as a result touched on a lot of what my life was like at that time.

Journaling:  

If only I could get a good look at the requisite Siecor Quality charts on the wall, I would probably be able to date this photo at least to the year.  I can still come fairly close.  I'm wearing my favorite aqua green cotton cable sweater from The Limited (I had one in peach, too) – probably bought on layaway with me paying a little each Friday night.  Since the gift I’m opening is wrapped in red, let’s assume it is Christmas.  My desk is remarkably clean and orderly most likely due to a rare office cleaning spell.  I have a training manual or perhaps some training materials I was creating on my desk.  Based on the lights above the cubicle and the furniture I would say this is the office I moved into when I went to work for Norma in the main area of the IS department.  The chair doesn't help the dating process because I moved that burgundy chair from Budgeting to every office I had in IS to Training.  I suppose it was with me nearly the entire 14 years.  The linen Windsor wall hanging would've been a gift from some of our English friends.  And finally the most telling part of the eighties is my very curly hair thanks to Connie’s perms about every five months.   I know I did not have those curls on Christmas 1990 so it must be a year or two earlier.

It was rare for anyone to catch me in that cubicle as I was always on the go all over the building helping people with their computer problems or conducting a class.  You also can’t see my next door cubby neighbor in the photo.  The one thing the same – he and I still share the same space – and I still have the neater desk – though not by much.

So amidst spring chores around our house Saturday, I got to put the finishing touches on this layout for the Counterfeit Kit challenge  link to website.   This was my knock off of the Studio Calico Kit at right.  I used all of the papers from my counterfeit kit and one of the Thickers.  For the other chipboard letters I used some Basic Grey unfinished chipboard, painted it, and coated with Glossy Accents.  I often mix my limited collection of paints to get a color that matches.  This is similar to some new American Crafts Thickers that were in the original kit.

The kit had some crochet flowers and I crocheted my own.  The October Afternoon doily paper and a crocheted flower remind me of one of my favorite hobbies at that time which was –surprise!  -crocheting.

The kit also had some wood grain paper.  I used my wood grain stamp on card stock for the Cricut cut letters.

This was a really fun exercise as I really do like to shop my stash.  I did find it a challenge though to work within the items that I had selected to match the kit.  I think the only thing I cheated on was the vintage brad in the middle of the flower.


And yes, I used the original Polaroid even though that is a definite no-no in scrapbooking.  I've scanned it into my computer and it will go in my next backup.  I just couldn't resist the real thing.  Besides my skin looked so good in that slightly faded photo!  Allow me my rose colored memories.

Thanks for visiting today!  I hope you will join me for TIPsy Tuesday tomorrow.  I'm planning a video tip.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Fabulous Flowers by Hampton Arts; Designer woodgrain by Hero Arts
Ink:  Dusty Durango, Summer Sun, Bermuda Bay
Cardstock:  More Mustard, Ruby Red, Really Rust
DSP:  Recipe Box from Cherry Hill collection, Thrift Shop 8x8 pad by October Afternoon, yellow check from Paper Studio; Red print from My Mind's Eye
Brad:  Vintage Brads by Stampin' Up!
Chipboard letters:  Basic Grey
Thickers:   by American Crafts
Font:  Blackjack

Drama Queen

This card was such a drama queen!  Honestly, I nearly called off card class because I got so frustrated getting this to come out like I wanted it, too.  Ironically, it is darn close to how I envisioned.  The papers, stamps and I just went round the world and back to get to this place.

Project notes:

• The medallion gets its color from the method similar to "Black Magic" which Splitcoaststampers did a tutorial on last month.  Rather than coloring with markers, I used pastels.  First, stamp an image in white craft (pigment) ink on a dark background and then heat set but not emboss.  I then went over parts of it with two colors of pastels.  Just a little goes a long way. 
• To get color from the pattern paper without the pattern being overwhelming, I layered two pieces of the same paper with a little punched border in between.
• This is a tri-fold card with the flower grommet holding the fold together.

It was really quite simple once I tried on lots of colors and arrangements.

Thanks for visiting today.  Hope you have a wonderful 'season change' weekend wherever you are.

Ingredients:  Stamps: Medallion by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  White Craft Ink; Stampin' Pastels in Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo
DSP:  Indian Summer by Basic Grey
Cardstock:  Melon Mambo
Brad:  Oriental Trading