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Casual Friday Challenge & Papertrey Ink Make-It-Monday

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I haven't played along with a Casual Friday challenge in a long time, and it's been even longer since I participated in a Papertrey Ink Make-It-Monday even though I do look at them each week. This week, however, the two fit together perfectly. Casual Friday's challenge is to create a card based on your blog header. Since Random Reflections is the blog, and I almost always have a photographic reflection as my header, the Papertrey Ink technique of creating reflected sentiments couldn't have been more timely. I was quite pleased with my first attempt at this, and know I'll give it a try again.

ReflectedWishes

I started with stamping the sentiment (Think Big Favorites #16) in Smoky Shadow ink and then doing the reflected sentiment.Then I used the Herringbone Impression plate (PTI) to emboss just the top half of the card front. I found the perfect patterned papers in the 6X6 Calico Classics paper pad (Studio Calico) and used the Happy Hexagons cover plate (PTI) to cut and arrange the hexagons. A small strip of one of the patterned papers and three woodgrain stars (Studio Calico) that I colored with Copics finished the main card. I mounted it on a Smoky Shadow mat, and then on a card made from Soft Stone (PTI).

Layout: Summer Scavenger Hunt

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Ever since I saw Jackie's mini-book for her summer scavenger hunt photos, I've been thinking about what to do with mine. During Rinda's final check-in, I visited Irene's blog and was inspired by her photo collages of her photos. I found a Paislee Press template that seemed to meet my needs. Since there were slots for 24 photos, I included a couple of the multiple shots I took for some items on the list. I'm quite happy with how this came out and glad I found a way to document one of my favorite projects.

ScavHunt1

ScavHunt2

The journaling:

ScavHuntLOClose

And though it's hardly ideal, the only way I could figure out so that you get a sense of both pages together:

ScavHuntTog

Cardstock:  Bazzill; border:  Hambly transparency; alpha: American Craft Thickers; camera:  Hambly rub-on; journaling dot and Flair button:  Ormolu; and journaling card:  Technique Tuesday.

ColourQ Challenge 156: Fall Birthdays

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Cqc156

I have six birthday cards to make for October and nearly as many in November. As soon as I saw the most recent ColourQ challenge I knew I wanted to get started with making the cards. These are such beautiful fall colors. It's been really difficult to find time to craft recently, and the last several cards I've made have taken much, much longer than usual. This first one was no exception. And despite color correction in PSE, I can't quite get the colors of my card to show accurately. The raspberry is a bit darker than the challenge color, but the lighter orange leaf is much more true to the challenge than it appears.

FallBD_1

I started by cutting the leaves with my Silhouette (all American Craft cardstock). Then I embossed a Rustic White card (PTI) with the Woodgrain Impression plate (PTI) and adhered them all on an orange textured card (American Craft). The border was also cut with the Silhouette and the sentiment and twine are both Papertrey Ink.

I had some leaves left on my desk and decided to make a second card. This one doesn't meet the challenge requirements because I added the black frame cut from one of the Fabulous Frame dies by Papertrey Ink.

FallBD2

The leaves seemed a bit flat in this one so after I had arranged everything, I added some Tim Holtz Distress Stains. I'm not sure I like them, but it's a done deal. The banner was cut with the Double Ended Banner die from Papertrey Ink, and the sentiment came from "Birthday Basics." I used the Herringbone Impression plate on the Rustic White card and added a few AMuse Creative Candy pearls.

Thanks

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I needed a couple thank you notes. The first one was inspired by two posts. The first by Sian about Flair buttons. I use Flair buttons regularly on layouts, but never think of using them on cards. Not any more. The other post was Melissa's about Washi tape. I own a small assortment, and don't often remember to use it either.

WashiThanks

I'm pretty sure the Flair button is by Ormolu, but I'm not sure where the Washi came from. Most of my stash came in Studio Calico kits, but I also bought a few rolls in May from a great little store in Portland, OR called Collage. The card is one from Impress that I've had for years.

The next card uses a stamp I bought this summer at an Archiver's Store in Georgia. It's an exculsive stamp made for Archiver's by Hero Arts. I know I'll be able to use it again and again for quick and easy thank you notes.

ThankYou

The fabric tape is 7Gypsies, and again, it's been in my stash forever. The card is one of my favorites from Memory Box. The colors are beautiful, and the insides are white. Perfect for writing a note to a friend.

Take Twelve: September

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I still have Take Twelve for August to scrap, but I got this layout done this weekend. I still haven't found a way to photograph a two page spread effectively. If anyone has a good process, I'd love to hear about it. Take Twelve seemed overwhelming this month because, truthfully, there wasn't much happening that day. I had just decorated the house for fall, however, so I decided to take 12 shots of some of the decorations.

Take12_1

Take12_2

I decided the layout really didn't need any journaling. I put the photos together in PSE without a template this time, just arranging them on a grid. It turned out pretty well. The background paper is more BoBunny Dots, and the cardstock for mats and letters is Terra Cotta Tile by Papertrey Ink. I cut the letters with my new Memory Box dies: Typewriter. As soon as I saw them on Jennifer McGuire's blog, I knew they were a "must-have." They'll be perfect on cards as well. The leaves are Amy Tangerine by American Craft and the buttons from a collection by Papertrey Ink.

Lemons

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I finally found some time this weekend to scrap. Ever since Adam posted these photos I've wanted to do a layout. The tiny letter stickers provide the journaling, "The pictures tell the story." I think the last photo sums it up, "What were you thinking, Dad?"

LemonsLO

LemonsPhotos

I used BoBunny dots for the background, always one of my favorites! The corrugated letters are Jillibean stained with the Tim Holtz Wild Honey. The tiny letter stickers are by Jenni Bowlin. All these supplies have been in my stash for quite some time. I cut the lemons with my Silhouette, and backed the slices with vellum.

LemonsClose

Birthdays

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Yesterday was Skylar's first birthday. She's walking, has four teeth, and is still just a delightful, happy little girl. The two photos of her aren't the best as the light left a lot to be desired, and I'm so reluctant to use a flash. (I ought to get over that!) She was more interested in the bow than the package or what was in it. Pretty typical for a one year old.

SkylarPackagew

SkylarBow2w

Here's the card I made for her:

SkylarBD

Cardstock: Simply Chartreuse and Select White (PTI); patterned paper: A Muse; glitter paper: American Craft; dies: By the Number, Double Ended Banner, & Tag Sale #3 (PTI); Stamp: Big Birthday Wishes (PTI); ribbon from stash.

And a peek at the inside:

SkylarBDInside

Stamp:  Heart2Heart 2 (PTI); patterned paper:  A Muse and American Craft (glitter); small scallop die (PTI)

At the other end of the spectrum, a dear friend of ours turned 81 last week. Here's the card I made for him.

BirthdayWishes

Card:  Paper Source; Stamps: 2012 Birthday Tags, Fabulous Frames, & Background: Herringbone (all PTI); button: Pure Poppy (PTI)

2012 Summer Scavenger Hunt

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It's the official end of summer today, and thus the end of the summer scavenger hunt hosted by Rinda. You can see her post here. This year I managed to find all 21 items and posted about them here, here, here, here, and here.

My first find for the border item was the international border between Canada and the United States. As Tracy and I traveled this summer we tried to capture all the border signs for the states we traveled through. We never saw a border or welcome sign in Kansas (coming or going), and although I'm quite sure we took photos of the welcome signs in Ohio and New York, neither show up in my Lightroom folder for the trip. But here are 16 more border signs:

BorderSignsw

I loved hunting for the items on Rinda's list and am already looking forward to next summer's edition.

August Photo-of-the-Day

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I'm somewhat amazed that I've continued to take a photo every day for the last eight months. I can't say it's always been easy, and there are evenings when I really need to scramble, but it's so satisfying to see them all arranged on a layout. These calendar templates have prompted me to do a recap (somewhat like "My Month in Numbers") of what I've done and accomplished each month. This month was all about travel, and the tag hiding under the layout has a summary of all the places we visited during our three week trip. I just barely managed to get it all on the two sides of the tag.

AugRecapLO

I was quite pleased to see this map paper in this month's Studio Calico kit–perfect timing. The ribbon on the tag was also from the kit. The two dimensional stickers are Amy Tangerine by American Craft and the Flair Button is by Ormolu. The woodgrain Thickers are also American Craft.

AugJournalingTag

Feel free to skim (or skip) all the journaling, but I thought I'd add it in case anyone wondered about the trip. Photos are coming. Every day I make some progress on culling and editing them. I bracketed most of my shots in Rocky Mountain National Park, and now have to learn how to use the PhotoMatix software I purchased earlier this summer. Here's the August recap:

We were on the road for three weeks in August. Like our previous two big trips, this one met or exceeded all our expectations. After a lovely weekend, with Carol & Gordon in Charlotte, we drove to Atlanta to babysit with Caleb while Sarah & Adam worked at a conference. While they were visiting with friends on Monday night, Tracy & I splurged on a fabulous meal at our #1 restaurant, Canoe. 

We spent four relaxing days at Shelter Cove on Hilton Head Island. Sarah and I did some serious shopping at the outlets, we took Caleb to the pool and to the beach, and we enjoyed some great food. We spent our last day together at Zoo Atlanta. 

When we left them at the airport, we headed toward Denver. We enjoyed our stay in lovely Birmingham, AL.  We visited Vulcan Park, the Peanut Depot, and spent a morning at The Civil Rights Institute. The next morning we visited the National Historic Site at Central High School in Little Rock, AK. After reading Elizabeth and Hazel:  Two Women of Little Rock on the way to Atlanta, I was particularly moved by seeing video interviews with The LIttle Rock Nine. The only other book I managed to finish this month was Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. 

We arrived at the stunning Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville about 2:00. After three hours in the galleries and a short walk on The Art Trail, we had dinner at Eleven, the museum restaurant. The salmon with blackberry salsa was the best salmon dish I’ve ever had. Then it was a day and a half of driving across the plains to Denver.

We had a great time in Denver with all the Collins. When Matt finished the practical exam for the national landscape certification Saturday morning we left for Boulder. Boulder is one great university town. We walked the Pearl St. Mall, sipped beer at the Avery Brewery, and took a short drive around Boulder Chautaqua. We spent two days in the Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking one day and driving across the park the second day. In Estes Park, we had a great dinner at Twin Owls Steakhouse.

On our drive home, we spent a morning at the Amana Communities in Iowa, and started planning our next adventure.. All told, we put 5,417 miles on the van and enjoyed it all.

Before we left, I managed to squeeze in a night volunteering for RAIHN and three lunches with friends. We hosted a dinner with Tina, Bill, Gary, and Chris as well as our book group. I participated in the Liberate Your Art swap, receiving six postcards from around the globe when I arrived home. Quite a lovely August!

 

 

Liberate Your Art: Part 2

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Today is a blog hop for the participants of the Liberate Your Art postcard swap hosted and executed by Kat Sloma. I posted about my participation here, but today I'd like to share the postcards I received in the swap. I only know of one person who received one of my postcards, I'm hoping I'll find some of the other recipients today.

PostcardsSet1

From left to right: lovely colored pencil works from Angela in Pittsburg, PA (I love how she photographed two pieces of her art with a collection of her colored pencils surrounded them), an incredible drawing from Eliz Burton (I tried repeatedly to log into her blog but was never able to, so I'm not sure where Liz lives), and this beautiful painting with such lovely colors by Lisa Wright.

PostcardsSet2

From top to bottom: More beautiful colors; I believe this is a photo of one of Elaine Miller's fiber art pieces. She has three blogs and you can link from one to the next. Elaine hails from Portland, OR. Next, a delightful drawing of tubes of paint by Tracey Fletcher King in Australia. I want to be able to draw like this! And last, but not least, one of Kat's gorgeous photographs from Corvallis, OR. 

Clicking through on any of these links will take you to some amazing art and photography. You can check out other participants in the blog hop here.

Happy Cards

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It seems like I've had far too many occasions to make sympathy and get well cards this year. Today I have two cards to share that celebrate happy events. The first is for a friend who retired this year from a career as a school counselor. When we saw her over Labor Day, she was just beaming at the thought of a carefree fall.

RetirementCard

When we returned from our trip there was a Papertrey order waiting for me. One of the items was the stamp and die set called "Fabulous Frames" which I quickly put to use on this card. There was a thread recently about how often you combine different stamp sets. Frequently, in my case. I also used "Button Boutique," "It's Official," and "Daydreamer" on this card. The card itself is a Memory Box card—my favorite as they have a white interior.

While we were in Denver, Matt took the practical exam for a national landscape certification. The written part of the test was taken in early August. This is quite the exam, and costs $450! The practical exam started at 7:00 am and lasted about five hours. Each section is administered by a different instructor and covers all aspects of landscape work and design. It's a challenging exam, but this week he found out he had passed. I thought it warranted a card.

Hooray

Another Memory Box card that I cut down to be square. The sun rays are from "Super Star" (WPlus9), the sentiment and die cut from "Wonderful Words" (PTI). I added three little star gems from A Muse and die cut the corners of the sentiment panel with a very old corner punch.

Ten on the Tenth: Crystal Bridges

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The tenth of the month surely does sneak up on me. I have lots of the photos (I took over 1,000) edited and many deleted but I'm not ready yet for a 10 favorites post from our road trip. One of the places we were really looking forward to visiting was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art  in Bentonville, AR. We were not disappointed in the least. Here are 10 shots of this amazing museum. The architecture and many trails are worth the visit, but the collection of art is also wonderful. We spent four hours here, and could easily return and find much more to see.

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CrystalBridges1w

A view of the museum as you come in from the parking lot.

Galleryw

The space between two galleries.

Patiow

An outdoor patio (and another outside staircase for the scavenger hunt.)

LookingOutw

The views of the grounds from the museum are lovely.

LookingOut2w

Elevenw

The restaurant, Eleven. We had one of the best dinners of the trip here.

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The grounds are as beautiful as the museum. There are many trails, but we only had time to walk the Art Trail.

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Pathw

And another trail for the scavenger hunt. 

Tracy and I both agree that Crystal Bridges is worth a special trip if you are anywhere near Bentonville. We would definitely go back.

10-things

You can find links to more 10 Things on Shimelle's blog here.

Summer Scavenger Hunt: The Final Finds

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When we left for our trip I had just two photos to find for Rinda's Summer Scavenger Hunt. I knew finding one of them wouldn't be a problem, but in the end, I found both and a little extra, too.

#12 was to find "A maze, labyrinth, or trail." Since we were going to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, I knew I'd find a trail for sure.

Trail1w

This trail ran along a stream hiking back from Emerald Lake.

Trail2w

I think this trail was on the way to Alberta Falls, but I'd have to go back to Lightroom and check the photo sequence to be sure.

That satisfied the requirement, but the next day we stopped in Winter Park, CO and Matt spotted this:

AMAZEw

It wasn't the kind of maze that I was looking for, but it fit the bill. I love that my family and friends are on the lookout for the scavenger hunt items when they're traveling with me.

Maze1w

#21 was to be a photo of you with something that symbolizes your nation. We've had a lot of good conversation about this one over the summer. One of the possibilities was a photo with a piece of apple pie. I wasn't quite sure where the saying "as American as apple pie" came from so I looked it up and found this explanation online:

"As American as apple pie" is a common
saying in the United States, meaning "typically American" However,
the expression (its full form being "As American as motherhood and apple
pie") is clearly metaphorical, rather than literally ascribing an American
origin to either apple pie or motherhood, since both motherhood and apple pie
predate the United States. To some, the saying expresses the feeling that the
concept "America" is not just geographical, but is instead – along
with motherhood and apple pie – something wholesome.

While we were in Hilton Head, I stopped a bakery to pick up some desserts for dinner. When I saw the apple pie, I knew I had my photo. Thanks to Adam for taking this great shot.

ApplePiew

So there it is. Last year I lacked two items, so I'm pleased to have found them all this summer. I want to find some way to document this project, so that's the next and final challenge. I love this project, and hope it continues again next year. Thanks, Rinda!

Casual Friday Challenge & Updates

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First off, a post for the current Casual Friday challenge which is a Back to School challenge. I'm really grateful that I'm not going back to school. As much as I loved teaching, I love retirement more. I needed one more thank you note for friends we visited while we were away, and thought the notebook paper and pencil filled the bill for both the challenge and the card.

NoteOfThanks

Card:  Hero Arts; Stamps: Happy Trails (PTI) and pencil (Judith); die: Fabulous Frames (PTI); punch: Knock-outs (American Craft) and Copics.

And now for a bit of an update and a few projects I finished before the trip. We got home a day earlier than we planned, and it was a good
thing. Tracy’s stepfather was admitted to the hospital a week ago. At first it
appeared that an ulcer was causing the difficulty and some medication and new
diet would be the answer, but then he suffered a heart attack in the hospital. It
was touch and go for several days, but he seems to have turned a corner in the last
36 hours. My mother-in-law is sleeping here as it is closer to the hospital
than my sister-in-law’s where they have been living since their bed and breakfast
burned in February. The family has gathered round and is providing almost 24
hour coverage at the hospital. That and getting ourselves back into some
semblance of a routine has taken up our time since we've returned.

Before we left, I wanted to prepare a hostess gift for the friends we were staying with, and I wanted it to be local products. A friend had given me a bottle of lemon olive oil and honey and garlic balsamic vinegar from a shop in East Rochester which we have loved. They encourage you to taste whatever you'd like, and are ready with all kinds of suggestions. It was wonderful! I ended up buying myself a bottle of the basil infused olive oil and have used a good portion of it already. Next on my list is a bottle of the raspberry balsamic vinegar.  These bags have the basil olive oil, a white balsamic vinegar and homemade pasta in them.

Bags

And a closer look at the tags:

Tag1

Tag2

One of the friends we're stayed with is a young couple with a new-to-them house, so we picked up a Home Depot gift card for them as well. Staying with them was so much fun. Dan's parents (also friends of ours and from Rochester) happened to be there for some of the time as well, so it was a great get-together.

ThanksGiftCard

It will be a few days before I make the rounds of all the blog entries that you’ve posted while I’ve been away. I’ve read many of them, but I hope to be back into the familiar routine by the end of the week.