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SNAP: the Grandchildren

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We spent more time with our grandchildren last week than we usually do. Caleb's visit combined with the arrival of Madelyn meant we had lots and lots of time together. They played in Matt and Betsy's wonderful yard, went to a splash park, went to the playground, and in general, had a wonderful time together. It amazes all of us that the minute Caleb arrives, it's as if he lived next door. Actually it's been almost a year and a half since they've seen one another. I've got a pile of photos, but I tried to find four that represented a bit of the different activities, and one that included the new addition to the family. 

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Linking up with Helena where you'll find more SNAP sets: three or four related photos.

A Happy Hello!

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The Online Card Classes are among my favorites, and I'm currently enrolled in "Heat Wave," a class on embossing. The first day was lots of quick tips for embossing with different inks, embossing powders, and different kinds of cardstock. I picked up a few tips, even though I've been embossing for nearly 20 years now. At the same time, Papertrey Ink is in the midst of their July release. They host a challenge, "Create Along with Us," where you choose a card one of the designers posts to use as inspiration. I always love Maile Belle's designs and had already pinned one of her cards. So here's an embossed design, inspired by Maile Belles, and using one of her earlier stamp sets, "Splits:  Just a Note."

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I used just half of the stamp design and turned it on its side, trimmed the white cardstock to the stamped design and fussy cut around it. I colored the petals with Copic markers, and added a sentiment from Papertrey's "Delightful Dahlia Additions." Then I adhered it to a Tropical Teal card. I'm pretty sure I'll use this design concept again.

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5 in 5: July

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Last month, I missed the linky for Sandi's monthly meme: 5 in 5: five photos shot within a five minute time frame. Kindly, Sandi linked me up after the fact, but I was determined to be more timely this month. In June, most of the photos were from the gardens surrounding our patio.  Last night when we came home from dinner, the light was just right so I went out to my cutting garden in our lower yard to take some photos. It takes awhile in western New York for the flowers to get established. The cutting garden is about 85% perennials, and 15% annuals this year. I always plant a patch of zinnias, and usually some snapdragons. The goal is to have flowers to cut and bring inside all summer long.

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I love the Shasta daisies. They bloom almost all summer long, and always look great in an arrangement.

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Last year a critter ate all of my lupine plants, so I am thrilled to have four lupines one of which is always blooming this summer.

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Last year, I bought some plant identity signs and carefully added all the plants' names to them. Despite the assurance that the ink was permanent, it turned out not to be, and I no longer know for sure what this beautiful orange flower is. I'm guessing someone who's a finer gardener than I am will be able to identify it.

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We have lots of astilbe in our shade garden, and although it provides some color there, it is much more beautiful in this garden where it gets more sunlight.

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And finally, one of my lovely zinnias.

I thought I'd add one last photo, not part of the 5 in 5 to show you the vase that's currently on the kitchen table. There's another arrangement in the living room as well.

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Linking up to Sandi at itchifingers where you can find other 5 in 5 sets.

Welcome Madelyn Tyler

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Matt and Betsy welcomed little girl #3 this morning. Madelyn Tyler weighed in at 7#13oz. Everyone is doing great. Here are some unedited iPhone photos, and then I'm off to make dinner for the other two little girls, their dad, and Sarah, Adam, and Caleb who came to spend the week, knowing they'd be here for the big event.

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Neither of the big sisters were interested in photos today at the hospital, but they were happy to meet her.

SNAP 27: A Birthday Party

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Yesterday was my mother-in-law's 87th birthday, and we celebrated with a family picnic at our house. I thought I'd share four photos from the party for this week's SNAP—a photography meme of 3-4 related photos hosted every week by Helena.

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The cake was "Chocolate Decadence" made by Leo's bakery, and it was moist, rich, and totally delicious! Skylar and Ella had left by the time we had cake, so Caleb was the only great-grandchild available to help blow out candles. Before the little girls left, however, the three great-grandchildren provided some "musical" entertainment. Caleb and Gigi had a great time together opening all the cards and notes.

Here's the card I made for Mom.

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Once again my starting point was the fabulous Papertrey Ink Make-it Market Kit: "Don't Forget to Write." The kit was a big splurge, but worth every penny. The two stitched panels are from the A2 Note Card dies by Papertrey, and I die cut the letters from Neat and Tangled's "Journaling Alpha." The stamped sentiment is from "Retro Style Birthday" (PTI).

And while I'm here, #7 for the Summertime Photography Hunt:  a family gathering, surely not the last opportunity I'll have this summer for this item on the list.

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Everyone looks a bit overdosed from the chocolate cake and ice cream, but we had a great time!

CAS(E) This Sketch

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It's been awhile since I used a sketch to inspire a card, but the current challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch intrigued me.

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I didn't start out with a plan to use a die cut for the wreath, but that's where it ended up, but I'm quite happy with it. The heart die cut from Concord and 9th is so pretty, and the Ombre Stripe patterned paper (PTI) worked perfectly behind it.

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The little bunny and the sentiment are both from the Mini-Market Kit "Wee Folk" by Papertrey Ink. The card itself is a die cut from their new A2 set cut from Lovely Lady (IRL not quite as bright as the photo shows.) I finished it off with a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

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I hadn't planned on posting this card until Thursday, but the challenge ends early Thursday morning, and I won't have a chance to write that post until later in the day. Come back to see!

 

Project Life: August-September 2015

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It's been almost four months since I completed a Project Life page. When I started back at it again this week, I was happily surprised to fall right back into the pleasure of reliving our lives through documenting them. I started a new album with these pages. I don't worry about doing one album a year. Whenever the album feels full enough, I move on to a new one. Several months ago, I ordered The Everyday Edition of Project Life from the Becky Higgins site, and ordered this album which I love.

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It came with a plastic "page protector" with a lovely printed quote.

 

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August was a quick page after many, many pages for July documenting our trip to the Canadian Rockies. I used two cards from Simply Stories "Sunshine and Happiness" set.

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September was Skylar's fourth birthday, and so there had to be a page to document her wonderful birthday party. I found some perfect patterned papers and a sheet of stickers by Reminisce called "Cowgirl"last fall that took care of all the embellishment.

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The second page documents a couple other photos from the party, the Fall Fest at Skylar and Ella's school, and the end of the 2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. I chose six of my favorite photos from the hunt, including the hardest one to find (three flags on a flagpole). 

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Here's a look at the two-page spread.

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As always, I used Tracy Larsen's Simply White templates as well as templates from Paislee Press Pocket Guide #1 and All the Stripes. I used some black and white Washi tape to create two more embellishments to carry the stripes through the layout. I'm glad to be back at it again, and hope to keep going although we'll soon have a house full of company so it won't be easy to keep on track.

 

2016 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt & A Challenge

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Today is the first day for links to Rinda's 2016 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. It's a favorite summer activity for me, and usually by this time, I have quite a few of the items checked off. Not so much this year, but I do have three.

The first one is #8:  A drawing, art project, artistic photograph, greeting card . . . created by you. I've actually made quite a few cards since the beginning of June, but here's my most recent one, and an entry to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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I used a new-to-me Simon Says stamp set called "Spring Flowers," embossed in white and watercolored with my Zig Clean Color markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Painted Petals," white embossed on a scrap of black cardstock.

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I added a few rainstones from Papertrey Ink, and mounted the watercolor piece onto some Raspberry Fizz cardstock and then onto a white card base. 

Next for the scavenger hunt is #10: a bicycle. We took our first bike ride of the season last week, riding 12.5 miles on the Erie Canal path from the Brighton town park to the Pittsford Dairy where we indulged in homemade ice cream cones. I had black walnut, and it was delicious!

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Check out my very cool basket which was a gift from Sarah last year. It's made byt the Nantucket Basket Company, and I love the shape of it. I also have a new seat this year, also a gift from Sarah. Much more comfortable than my old one.

Last for June, is #20:  Someone laughing.

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Our friends, Pete and Arlene, were here for dinner Monday night. I wish you could hear Arlene's laugh. It's positively infectious! I'm not sure what the story was, but there was lots of laughing, and I quickly got in a few shots.

You can check out the other scavenger hunt posts right here.

SNAP: Strawberries

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I think strawberries might be my favorite fruit, at least when they're fresh from the farm market. Years ago we used to pick our own, but the local farm stand has fresh strawberries from their fields every day, so I'm willing to pay a little extra for not having to do the work. I'm pretty sure my knees thank me. On Saturday I bought four quarts and froze three of them. It was so easy, I went to the farm market at Brighton High School on Sunday and bought four more quarts to freeze. I thought they'd make a good SNAP collection, red being my favorite color.

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It's a "steps in the process" SNAP:  cleaning the fruit, drying it on paper towels, then slicing the strawberries and sprinkling them with super fine sugar. Finally, they are vacuumed sealed and popped into the freezer. There are seven bags in there. Not too sure how long they'll last! The farmer at the market on Sunday said the dry, hot weather we've been having has shortened the season. I'm hoping to buy two more fresh quarts near the weekend, before Sarah, Adam, and Caleb arrive, but if not, we can still indulge in strawberry shortcake.

I'm linking up with Helena and her wonderful meme of three or four linked photos: SNAP.

5 in 5: June Edition

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We've spent a lot of time in the yard and on the patio the last few days. Tracy's done a lot of transplanting, and clearing out in our overgrown shade garden, and it's looking really nice. I'm the mulcher, and I have about half of it done. Today is too hot and humid to be outside for long. We got a little (much needed) rain overnight, but it didn't cool things down at all, and the humidity is worse than ever. When I saw Sandi's post for 5 in 5 this morning, I knew that taking some photos in the yard would be a good solution to getting this meme done before the calendar turns to July this coming weekend. Where does the time go? 

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If you're standing in the middle of our patio looking to the back property line, this is the right-hand side of our garden. You can see beyond it the lower yard, which Tracy has just started to clean out. Shade loving plants are the ones that do well here:  Japanese ferns, ferns, hostas, astilbe, some hydrangeas, and some peonies to the right where there is more sun.

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This is the left side, many of the same plants, and our fountain which I should have turned on before I started taking photos.

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To the side of our house in the lower yard, I have a perennial/annual bed. Last year some animal ate every one of my lupines. I was so sad, but replaced them this year, and we are spraying our anti-deer spray regularly. This is the latest bloom, although we've had several of different colors already.

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Next to the house along the patio we have a bed with five large geraniums. I love that they bloom all summer, so no matter how my potted flowers are doing at any moment, there is always some good color. This year we have three of these beauties, and two solid pink ones the same color as the darker pink in this flower.

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Last, a Martha Washington geranium in a pot on the patio. I brought it back from a garden store in Evanston, IL when we were helping Sarah get plants for her patio. I loved the colors, and was afraid I wouldn't find one locally. But, in fact, I saw one just the other day when I was buying some strawberries at the farm market.

I'm linking these up with Sandi's 5 in 5 meme where you take as many photos as you'd like in 5 minutes, and choose 5 of them. I think I took 16 photos this morning. It was a snap, snap, snap event!

 

Challenge: Use Patterned Paper

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I have two bins of 6X6 paper pads, and I do use them for both card making and scrapbooking (although it's been far too long since I've worked on Project Life), but they aren't my go-to supply like they used to be. The folks at Simon Says feel the same way and this week's Monday Challenge is to use patterned papers. Both my cards today use the patterned papers that came with one of Papertrey Ink's Mini-Market kits. This one is "Still Life: Summer." I love the colors, and hope they'll issue a refill pack soon, as I've come close to depleting the papers.

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I mounted a sheet of the patterned paper on a card base of Raspberry Fizz, and added a strip of Washi tape down the side. The diecuts come already printed in the kit, so it makes for a quick and easy card. The sentiment, from "Scripted" was embossed in white on a scrap of black cardstock. 

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Although it didn't photograph well, I added some Wink of Stella to the fruits, and die cut a black shadow for the diecut word.

Here's another card, also from the kit, with just a strip of patterned paper. This time I used a preprinted tag from the kit as well as the colored raffia.

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The patterned paper was added to some white cardstock, then die cut with a Simon Says "Stitched Rectangle" (could be the most used die cut set in the house). Then all was mounted on bright green cardstock. I used a new-to-me Distress Stickles, Clear Rock Candy on the peaches, which photographed much better than the Wink of Stella.

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Linking up with Simon Says "Monday Challenge."

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SNAP: Eastman Vibes

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Once a month during the summer, the Eastman Museum hosts a concert in their beautiful gardens. Last Wednesday was the first one. The group was from Louisiana playing cajun tunes, so it was a lively event. In the first photo, you can see the band on the right, and members of the audience dancing on the left. We arrived just as the gates were suppose to open, but judging from the crowd that had already chosen their spots, it must have opened early. We were lucky, though, to run into friends as we came in, and enjoyed their company as well as the music.

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All the photos were taken with my iPhone so there aren't any close-ups of the band. I did try to get photos from different perspectives which give you a sense of the crowd and the beautiful grounds at the Eastman Museum. You can purchase a meal from a food truck at the museum, or bring your own, which is always our choice. A bottle of wine is also encouraged, and we are happy to oblige. It makes for a very pleasant evening.

Linking up with Helena, as always, the gracious hostess of SNAP!

CASology: Congratulations

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This week's challenge at CASology is perfectly timed for high school graduations. Today is the graduation ceremony for Brighton High School (our local school), and I needed to make a card for one of the graduates. Brighton's colors are navy and gold so that determined the color combination. I originally bought Papertrey Ink's "Retro Style Graduation" because I wanted some of the stamps for the addition set, "Retro Style Birthday," but I was grateful to have the set for this card which came together pretty quickly.

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Everything except the numbers came from the stamps and dies for "Retro Style Graduation." Stamping the die cuts is so much easier now that I have figured out the best way to use my MISTI. Papertrey Ink's die are usually solid dies so they can be a bit more challenging (to me, anyway) to place correctly on the stamped image. The MISTI solves it perfectly. The numbers were all die cut twice from the Headline Alphabet in navy (WPlus9) and twice in Summer Sunrise and then layered to create a shadow effect. 

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Brighton's graduation ceremony used to be held at the Eastman Theater, quite an elegant setting. Now it's at the Rochester Institute of Technology's field house, which I don't think I'd like as much.

I'm linking to CASology's challenge for Congratulations.

Week 203 - Congratulations

Happy Father’s Day

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It's Father's Day, and I made cards for three of the "very best" dads I know:  my husband, my son, and my son-in-law. All three of them spend as much time with their kids as they can, have great relationships with their children, and are loving, caring parents. The best there is, truly.

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I started with Avery Elle's sentiment set, "Handwritten Notes," and then add "DAD" die cut and stamped with Papertrey's "Headline" alphabet. I die cut the sentiment with a Simon Says "Stitched Circle" die and mounted it on a piece of black cardstock that I scored three times on the top and the bottom.

We had a nice Face Time chat with Adam, Sarah, and Caleb, and we spent some time with Matt and his family this morning after church. Betsy's niece is an accomplished Irish dancer and her troupe was performing at the Brighton Farmer's Market. Ella was entranced.

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I love this photo of Nadia with her gorgeous hair flying behind her as she danced. The fast foot work is amazing!

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It was almost 90° at noon when they were dancing so they stayed as close to the shade as they could.

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This ought to be my Memorandum Monday post (my first Irish dancing performance, but surely not my last!), but by then Father's Day will be over. We're actually celebrating Father's Day again tomorrow with a combined Father's Day and Graduation party at Betsy's father's house. Hope you've had a great weekend!

SNAP: Stairs

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Helena set up a wonderful meme for this year:  three or four related photos. I'm really enjoying participating each week, and usually have several photos from the previous week to link together. There were no particular photographic events last week, so I looked to a list I made early on of possible subjects. One of several subjects I often choose to photograph is stairs, so I looked back over the last few month, and relatively quickly came up with:

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The top two photos were taken in March at the Art Institute in Chicago, the bottom left in New Orleans in April, and the one on the bottom right at the Eastman Museum here in Rochester in February.