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Project Life

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There's a great quote that a friend and I keep reminding one another of:  "You can do anything, but you can't do everything." And it's so true. Nonetheless, there are SO many things I want to learn, and I keep adding projects and even new hobbies to the list. This summer I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and try to learn how to draw. It's something I've always wanted to know how to do, but I had no art instruction growing up, and therefore, little to no experience. There'll be more about this in a later post, but sketching and online sketching classes have consumed a lot of my time since July. All this to say, that I'm very behind in creating my Project Life pages. Like 8 months behind. Fortunately, I keep a daily journal, and my photos are pretty well-organized in Lightroom, so it's not hard to recap the month. Just time consuming.

May was particularly time consuming, since I had over 100 hundred printed photos from Matt and Betsy's wedding reception held on Memorial Day weekend. I ended up cropping some of the 4X6 photos to fit in the 4X3 windows which actually improved several of them. So here's a long, photo-heavy post with the May Project Life pages.

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  MayJournaling

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ClassJournaling

The photo of our church in the page above was the HDR project, and it came out great. I should have printed it on better paper for the album, but everything else was being printed on Epson Premier Presentation Matte paper. It's so much less expensive that the pearl photo paper I love from both Ilford and Canon, and usually works out just fine for Project Life. This was a fantastic class, and I learned a lot!

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The photos with Betsy's mom are so poignant. Sally felt good the day of the reception, and little did any of us know that within a month and a half, she'd be gone.  

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One advantage, I suppose, of falling behind is finding some new product that works out perfectly. I recently picked up a pack of Heidi Swapp overlays that I just love on this page.

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Invition

I scanned and resized the invitation so I could include it.

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WeekendJournaling

The cute typewriter on this card was a brush from a One Little Bird digital kit. The rest of the pages are just photo pages added to the back of the May spreads.

May Pg6

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That spread finished my first Project Life album. I started the project in August 2013, and the album ends with May 2014. I have no problem with that which surprises the obsessive-compulsive streak in me to be orderly.

I'm hoping to get a good start on June today. We are truly snowed in. The big blizzard that's crossing the country appeared to be going south of us, but turned north, and we've been getting steady snow for hours now. It's beautiful, but like many people, I cancelled the appointment I had for this afternoon. All the schools are closed, and I'm guessing we have at least a foot of snow already–no end in sight. Maybe scrapping spring/summer photos will cheer me up!

Pairs: Week 4-Opposites

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We finally got a sunny day over 20° today, so I headed off to the car wash. Not surprisingly, so did a lot of other people. I have a tag that allows me to "whisk" through the special line. Today—-not. so. much. The key tag line actually took longer than either other line, primarily because one person could not figure out how to merge into the other lines.

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Before I reached the car wash, I thought the before and after photos might make a good pair, so I pulled over in a parking lot and took a photo of my dirty car. Afterwards, I took another one. Good thing I did it quickly because by the time I drove from the car wash to the grocery store, the car was already getting dirty again. At least the salt has been washed off!

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These are hardly artistic photos, so I'll leave you with this one that I took as the car went through the car wash.

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I'm linking my pairs up on Helena's blog with others you may enjoy. I love seeing the variety of pairs that pop up each week.

January Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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The inspiration for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is hearts. That's a theme that's hard to resist this time of year.

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In my ongoing attempt to use products I've never used or haven't used in a long time, I whipped out the "One Liner" Love die. I've had this for a couple years, and I'm quite sure I've never used it. (There are two other words in the set, so it's not quite as bad as it seems.) Other brand new products include the sparkly tag which I picked up at 50% off at Paper Source after Christmas, and the gorgeous gold dot vellum by Teresa Collins in her 6X6 pad, "Studio Gold." I layered the vellum on a piece of Select White cardstock.

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The red heart is the inside heart that pops out when you die cut one of the Stitched Heart dies (PTI), and the gold arrow is a die from Savvy. And the cardstock is my favorite, Pure Poppy.

This card also fits two other challenges: Less is More which is a sketch challenge this week.

Lim #14.1 copy

And the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Have a Heart.

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We're off to the movies to see "The Theory of Everything." I think it's close to the end of its run here. There are always multiple movies I want to see this time of year.

Pairs: Week 3

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I'm linking up with Helena's meme for 2015:  Pairs. As soon as the New Year arrives, a portion of my grocery money goes to bright flowers to grace our kitchen table. It makes the long, cold winter a bit more cheerful. 

So, today, I have a pair of primroses:

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I found this cute galvanized planter a few years ago, and it has turned out to be a great purchase. It's just the right size for the inexpensive plants at the grocery store and perfect on our small kitchen table.

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You can check out other pairs right here.

Variations on a Theme

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I need four birthday cards for guys by the end of the month, and decided to do the same design, with different papers and dies for all four. All four qualify for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: It's a Guy Thing," as well as for the CAS-ology Challenge: NBUS. That may seem a bit odd, but it stands for "Never Been Used Schtuff." All the patterned papers on these cards are from new 6X6 paper pads that I picked up while traveling, and I've never used the "Sending" die or stamp from Simon Says. 

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Week 129 - NBUS

There have been lots of cards in blogland recently with the design I used. I pinned this one by Laurie last month. On two of the cards I popped the panels out with foam tape.

Guys1

Cardstock: Select White and Pure Poppy (PTI), patterned paper: "Stitched" Amy Tangerine for American Craft; die & stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

Guys4

 

Cardstock: Select White, True Black (PTI); patterned paper: Kelly Purkey "Second City" for Basic Grey; die: "Wet Paint" (PTI); stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

On these two cards, I decided not to pop the panels. I like both ways, but I think the foam adds an extra element of interest.

Guys2

Cardstock: Staples, Smoky Shadow (PTI), patterned paper: "Stitched" Amy Tangerine for American Craft, die & stamp: "Sending and Wishing" Simon Says

Guys3

Cardstock: Rustic Cream & Kraft (PTI), patterned paper: MME Necessities: Wood,  
die: "Wet Paint" (PTI), stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

Cards for guys almost always take me a lot more time than usual, but these went together fairly quickly. They're all different, but I think it's a great design for a masculine card.

Pairs: Week 2

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I'm on Day 12 of an upper respiratory infection. Enough already! It really put a damper on our trip to Florida, but it was at least more pleasant when the temperatures were in the 70's instead of the single digits!

My Pairs for Helena's meme this week:  On the Ground and In the Air.

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Although it takes nearly the whole day to fly home given the layover in Atlanta, it was a smooth flight—no delays which is always wonderful. It's good to be home, but taking some time to get myself organized for action. I'm anxious to get going on some big reorganization and purging activities as well as some online class assignments. Due to my cold, I had to cancel two events tomorrow so I have a whole weekend with no commitments. Hopefully, it will be productive.

One Photo & Twenty Words

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I'm joining in with Abi's meme to share one of my favorite moments from our recent trip to Chicago.

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Sarah has been called as Acting Associate Pastor at the Winnetka Congregational Church. Proud parents on her first official Sunday.

Since Christmas and Pairs #1

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Tracy and I left Rochester on December 27th to drive to Chicago where we celebrated Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb, celebrated Caleb's third birthday, and attended the service at the Winnetka Congregational Church for Sarah's first Sunday as Acting Associate Pastor. It was a wonderful few days, and we left just before the Arctic cold swept in. After 22 hours at home, we switched our van for Tracy's mother's van and headed to Florida. We spent three days driving down, arriving late afternoon yesterday for a total of about 2,300 miles driven since Christmas. The Arctic chill followed us all the way down. It was only 1° in Atlanta, GA. But today in Fort Myers Beach, it's in the 70's. I'm thrilled to be out of the car and in warm weather for a few days. This morning we walked down the beach and saw three dolphins swimming just off shore.

I'm looking forward to another year of photo challenges on Helena's blog. This year, it's Pairs, and I suppose you could say my first pair is another Zoom In, Zoom Out, but I think it's more a Part: Whole pairing. Just south of Tallahassee, FL is St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge. We got there just as the Visitor's Center was about to close, but a wonderful woman gave us a brief oral history before we drove out to the lighthouse.

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Once we're home again, I'll have some photos and stories to share about our travels, and an update on my One Little Word for 2015. I've been enjoying reading your blogs about your intentions and OLWs as we've traveled along.

A Shaker Star for Marc

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When my nephew saw the shaker card I made for my mother-in-law this summer, he announced that that was the kind of card he wanted for his birthday.

ShakerStar

I found the perfect patterned paper in an American Craft paper pad, "Hip, Hip, Hooray." I die cut two stars with Papertrey's "Seeing Stars" dies to create the window and frame for the shaker. I used Jennifer McGuire's tip to use fun foam as the backing for the shaker portion. Here's a link to her video; what a difference it made—so much easier, and nicer looking, too.

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I think he'll like it! Happy Birthday, Marc!

Zoom In, Zoom Out on Three!

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It's the last Wednesday, the last day of 2014, and my 53rd Zoom In, Zoom Out pairing. I've loved this project and send many thanks to Helena for hosting it this year. I'm looking forward to next year's pairings which you can read about here.

We've been in Chicago for the last four days. We celebrated Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb when we arrived, and yesterday was a day-long celebration of Caleb's third birthday. Rather than opening all his gifts from his parents and two sets of grandparents, we spaced them out over the day. He was delighted with them all.

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Caleb wanted a Thomas the Train cake, and luckily a local grocery store was able to accommodate him.

Here are a few other faves from yesterday.

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Caleb woke up to this great poster drawn by his dad, and balloons on the stairway and on his chair at the table.

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This was one of his favorite gifts (and his grandpa's, too.) Both Sarah and Adam and Tracy and I bought track sets that work together to produce this amazing spread with three motorized cars that zip around the track, over the hills, and through the tunnel. There are endless combinations, and he and Grandpa have created at least four different variations over the last day and a half.

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Another big hit was a huge collection of matchbox cars we found at B.J.s. I couldn't resist and wasn't sure Sarah would appreciate them, but she found a Superman lunch box and all 64 cars fit right in it.

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Have the Happiest of New Year's and best wishes for a wonderful 2015! 

 

Card Remake

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In November I was searching my Pinterest boards for a card design for my nephew's birthday card. I found one I liked (but can't find it today after combing my Pinterest boards), and this is the card that resulted.

MasonBD

It was just OK. I used a triangle stamp from Alt&New's "Schcahtoa" stamp set. It was bigger than I wanted, but I went with it. 

Recently, I found Mama Elephant's "Trifecta" set and there was the perfect triangle! (This is what happens when you have too many stamps.) So even though, it's too late for Mason's birthday, I did a remake, and I'm much happier with it.

BDRemake

Both cards use Papertrey Ink cardstock in Select White, Enchanted Evening, and Limeade Ice. The sentiment's the same as well, from the same Alt&New set, but the second time, I selectively inked it so the words sat on top of one another.

This would make a great card in lots of different color combinations. I can't remember what colors the original was–but definitel not these colors. 

 

Merry Christmas!!!

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Merry Christmas!

We'll be celebrating with all Tracy's family later this afternoon, and in Chicago with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb over the weekend.  We had a quiet celebration with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella earlier this week, and this is just the perfect photo to wish all of you a joyous holiday!

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Zoom In, Zoom Out on the Sunset

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In a bizarre twist on the weather, it was 57° here today. Tracy and I walked over to the new College Town near the University of Rochester for lunch, and really didn't need our jackets. Just an hour ago, I heard our mail carrier start up our street. She's the best mail carrier we've ever had, and we've been hoping to catch her with a small gift of thanks for the last several days. As I looked out the window, this is what I saw. So I grabbed my camera on the way out.
 
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Fortunately for all the holiday travelers, the weather is supposed to stay warm and relatively calm through the weekend. We'll be here for Christmas, but we're headed to Chicago over the weekend.
 
You can find more ZIZO pairs on Helena's blog here.

Christmas Cards

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I'm pretty sure everyone has received their Christmas cards so I'll share the three designs I made this year. Two are very similar in design, but different in content.

FairIsle

I certainly did not need a new Christmas/winter stamp set this year, but when I saw "Fair Isles" I knew exactly what I'd do with it. I rarely use embossing on cards that I need to mass produce, but this year I used that technique on all three cards.

Blessings

This card is very similar in design, but has a more religious feel to it. These churches reminded me of the ones we saw in Santorini last year. The churches and the sentiments on this card and the one above are both from Papertrey Ink's "Holiday Home" set.

Last, but actually the first card set I made, is one with an embossed vellum tag. I've seen a lot of that on cardmaking blogs this fall, and wanted to give it a try. I could only make 12 of these since I had just six sheets of Simon Says' woodgrain cardstock. I tried one without it, and it just wasn't anywhere near as good.

Cheer

The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Stylish Sentiments: Holidays" and the tag is the Tag Sale #6.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The countdown has definitely begun! 

Christmas Crafts

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While Sarah was here over Thanksgiving, we both got a little crafting done. This year in each of the pockets of Caleb's Advent calendar there's a note with an activity or a description of something she's made to decorate his room for Christmas. On three separate days, he'll be getting (or has already gotten) one of these cute yarn trees. They're simple to make: just wind the yard around the foam cone, and hot-glue the buttons on. The cones have a flat top, however, so we decided to die cut some stars from glitter paper and attach them to the top. Problem solved!

YarnTrees

I've nicknamed my daughter The DIY Queen. Among the many tools she's acquired since this summer is a woodburning tool. I'd seen this pin on Pinterest, and was interested in giving it a try. She read that an easy way to get started with woodburning is to stamp the design and then woodburn it. The Papertrey Ink set, "Snowfall Additions," was perfect. 

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I've attached some of these to gifts, and just given a couple away. I enjoyed it so much the next time I had a 50% off coupon at Michaels, I bought myself a woodburning tool set. Sarah purchased a book of projects which I'll be pouring over while we're in Chicago after Christmas.