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Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

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Bloghoplogo

I've missed the last couple Papertry Blog Hops and I almost didn't get anything made for this month although I've been thinking about it since I saw the inspiration post.

September2011-3-Blog-Hop-Inspiration

I knew right away that I wanted to mimic the strips somehow, but I don't own the right inks. So I took a thin die from the pumpkin die (LifeStyle Crafts) and cut strips of Sweet Blush, Smoky Shadow, Hawaiian Shores, Summer Sunrise, and Harvest Gold and created a pattern that runs both vertically and horizontally. Then to mimic what appears to be a rectangular pattern on the right, I stamped my sentiment (Star Prints) and die cut it with Spellbinder's Classic Rectangles. I hand cut the border for the sentiment, popped up the focal image and adhered it to a Hawaiian Shores card.

WishBigPTI

Another birthday card for the stash!

Project 64: Sepia

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I feel like I'm constantly behind again. There's so much going on. So here I am, linking up to Project 64 at the end of the week again.

Week 37 Sepia

Once again the wrapper for the crayon is a different color than the actual crayon. I see shades of sepia here in these artifical flowers I bought to hang on my kitchen door once the kitchen in complete!

FallFlowersw

And in the woodgrain of my desk chair:

Woodgrainw

But my favorite from the week is Rocky, my niece Stephanie's dog. We've been visiting since Tuesday and have had a lovely time. I'll have photos later today or tomorrow of some lovely walks we've taken this week on two historic sites in Hyde Park.

Rockyw

 

Summer Scavenger Hunt 2011

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Rinda threw out a photographic scavenger hunt challenge for the summer, and I've had a lot of fun trying to find all the items on it. I still have a couple of days, but I must admit I don't hold out much hope for seeing a pirate or a unicycle before Friday. Here are the 19/21 I found:

ScavengerHuntFinished

1. A rooster 2. A town meeting  3. A castle 4. My self-portrait  5. A forest  6. My country's flag  7. A painted mailbox  8. A wooden bridge  9. A roadside memorial  10. A campfire  11. Mt. Hope Cemetery (resting place of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas) 12. Rain on the train window in Alaska  13. A tripod of handwritten messages  14. A glass and steel building (Vancouver Airport)  15. A woman sketching  16. A festival (The Clothesline Art Festival)  17. A museum (Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver)  18. A beehive  19. Graffiti art

Thanks, Rinda, it was great fun, and I look forward to another one!

Project 64: Blue Violet and LSNED 9.9-9.12

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Project64

The color for Project 64 last week was Blue Violet. I thought I had captured a few, but when I uploaded the photos, only the violet from my study window was the right color.

Week 36 blue violet

As you can see, the color of the wrapper isn't exactly the color of the crayon. In the sunlight my violet more closely matches the wrapper, but away from the sun it is a good match, I think, for the crayon color. The blues and violets seem the hardest to match up. So here's this week's link-up:

Violet2w

Next, are four more pages in my LSNED album, the above photo being one of the photos.

9.9Book

9.10Book

9.11Book

9.12Book

Off to the dentist and two more appointments!

 

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Garden Glory

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This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World gave me an opportunity to use my new Bloom Builders #3 die. As soon as I saw this delightful image, I knew what I wanted to do.

Garden Glory

I used Papertrey's Background Basics: Retro stamped in Brilliance Thyme to mimic the pattern in the chair cover and the color from the gorgeous flower pillow for the flower on the card. The center of the flower is an old button from La-Di-Dah. I often struggle to line up the background images, but this time it lined up perfectly the first time. A sentiment from Teresa Collins Celebrate finished it off.

TuesdayTrigger

Wish Upon a Star

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It's been a long time since I've participated in a challenge. I really like the sketch on the Simon Says Challenge blog, so I decided to pull out some new papers as well as some new dies and give it a go. Here's the sketch:

Doc9

And here's my card, ready for a September 5th birthday:

WishUpon

I used the new Lifestyle Craft Nested Stars for the main image, creasing them from the points to the center to give them a bit of dimension. For the sentiment, I used the LSC nested scalloped rectangle, and trimmed it to fit the sketch. The papers are all from MME "Lost and Found: Rosy" 6X6 paper pad. The sentiment is PTI's "Star Prints," and the cool "pyramid stud" is from 7 Gypsies that came in a recent Studio Calico kit.

Project 64: Cadet Blue, Forest Green, and Raw Sienna

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I had no way to post during our vacation, but occasionally I was able to get on the internet long enough to read email. If it was the weekend, I checked the color of the week for Project 64 so I could keep my eye out for the colors.

Project64

The most recent color was Cadet Blue, which is really as gray as it is blue. On our last day in Fairbanks, we took a paddleboat tour down the Chena River until it meets the Tanana River. Since glacier deposits color the Tanana River a steel gray color (Cadet Blue) there is an interesting marbling effect where the rivers meet.

MergingRiversw

Our lovely guide at a recreated Athabascan Indian village wore a native dress (I didn't write down the name of it)–also in a print that was mostly Cadet Blue. Here she is demonstrating a horn used to call moose into the area.

BriannaHornw

Forest Green was everywhere in Alaska. This photo was taken outside of Skagway on our way to Klondike Summit.

KlondikeSummitRd1w

Raw Sienna was also evident in lots of places. Here it is in a woodpile ready to heat a home during the long, cold Alaskan winters.

Woodpilew

And a pair of snowshoes and a pelt hanging on the front of a log cabin.

Snowshoes-Peltw

Fanatical About Botanical Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

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I have a card for the new Moxie Fab World challenge, botanicals. The Garden Variety stamps by Papertrey seem a perfect match for the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden papers. Edited to add this to the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.

GardenVarietyMercy

The butterfly is part of the patterned paper, but I added some stamped grass to the bottom of the frame and some gems for some dimension.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Rustic White (Papertrey)
Patterned Paper: Butterfly Garden (Pink Paislee)
Stamps:  Garden Variety (Papertrey)
Die:  Seed Packet Frame (Papertrey)
Ribbon: Paper Source
Gems from stash

Project 64: Sea Green

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Week 27 Jul4_10_sea Green

I've put this post off as long as I can hoping something better would show up for last week's color. Sea Green was the hardest one yet for me. Several folks posted sea glass, and I have a jar filled with sea glass from our first trip to California fifteen years ago. None of my sea glass is quite right, but the jar itself is the closed thing I have to sea green. Since it's nearly translucent, it's harder to see in a photo. It's much closer to the crayon sample than the crayon wrapper.

SeaGreen2

You can find more Sea Green here.

Project64

Embellish Nautical Challenge and Summer Card Camp

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Earlier in the spring, I was the lucky winner of a new stamp set from Craft's Meow called "It's a Shore Thing." When I saw the Embellish Nautical Color Challenge, I knew I'd found a way to use these cute stamps.

Nautical_ColorTrends

Although someone named the colors as brown, red, navy, and light blue, the darker blue is not quite navy in my book. Fortunately, I found an Adirondack ink pad (Stream) that was exactly the right color.

FloatBoat

This is Week 3 of Summer Card Camp, and I'm actually on track with my first card with the new color combination which seemed perfect for my niece's son who is turning two.

Week3-colors

Here's my card. I was happy to get to use these fun Papertrey Ink products.

Two

It's a bit hard to see but both the red mat and the taupe circle are cut and embossed with Nestabilities.

InsideTwo

Supplies:

You Float My Boat
Cardstock:  Neeah Solar White, Memory Box light blue
Patterned Paper: Bitty Stars (Papertrey) & clouds cut from Quite Contrary (MME)
Stamps:  It's a Shore Thing (Craft's Meow) & Tiny Treats: Valentine (Papertrey)
Light Blue marker:  Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Look Who's Turning Two
Cardstock:  Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Kraft (Papertrey) & scrap from stash
Patterned Paper: "Night Light Jack" (October Afternoon)
Nestabilities: Classic Rectangles & Small Classic Circles (Spellbinders)
Die:  By the Numbers (Papertrey)
Impression Plate: By the Numbers (Papertrey)
Stamps:  Birthday Bash & Big Birthday Wishes (Papertrey)
Twine: Pure Poppy (Papertrey)
Star punch; McGill

Celebrate with New Shoes

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FotoFlexer_Photo-CFC10

I thought it would be fun to play along with Casual Friday's challenge this week. I quickly found a shaped card I could cut with my Silhouette, and I know just who will get this card in the fall for her birthday.

HighHeels

The Silhouette cards come together so quickly. The only challenge on this one was to figure out how to get the sentiment on the inside. I printed the sentiment on coordinating cardstock on my computer and then used the "stencil" that was left after cutting the card to trace around the shoe. I handcut it and adhered it to the inside. The shoe was cut with white cardstock and then covered with patterned paper on the outside. I hand cut the high heel from more textured cardstock. The Prima flower was colored with a BG11 Copic marker and distressed with chalk inks. Wish I could wear shoes that look like this!

Rinda asked what kinds of adhesive I use on intricate die cuts. On this card, I used the Xyron sticker maker with repositionable adhesive. Frequently I use permanent adhesive, but I knew positioning all these die cuts would take more than one try. On this card, I used my American Craft This to That dotted tape runner. I've never found a tape runner I like as much as this one, so I always have a supply of them in the closet. For the leaf border, I just applied adhesive selectively along the border so some of it appears three-dimensional.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  American Craft & Memory Box
Patterned Paper: "Home Grown" (3 Bugs in a Rug)
Flower:  Prima
Chalk inks: Quick Quotes
Copics

Moxie Fab Border Challenge

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I have a more shabby chic card than usual for the current Moxie Fab Border Challenge that ends tomorrow, but I'm quite happy with it. The challenge asks that you use a border in an innovative way. I usually think of borders as going across the card horizontally or vertically, but in this case running the die cut border diagonally proved to be much more pleasing.

JustANote

 I started with a cream card and die cut the Leaf Border by Lifestyle Crafts from textured cardstock. I decided it needed a dark mat and used my favoriet dotted patterned paper by Bo Bunny. The sentiment is from Just Rite’s “Charmed” die cut with the matching dies from Spellbinders. I  distressed the mat with some chalk ink as well as the three Prima flowers. The green ribbon is from my stash.

Summer Scavenger Hunt

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Rinda is hosting a Summer Scavenger Hut on her blog. I signed right up and have found a few things on the list. First on my list is the rooster. I have a little red rooster that sometimes sits on my kitchen window.

  WoodenRoosterw

Then this weekend I saw this handsome fellow walking around the yard of one of my brother's neighbors.

Rooster1w

Tracy and our contractor had to present the plans for the new bow window in our kitchen remodel to the town's Architectural Board, so here's a photo of a town meeting. The plans were approved, and we hope the process will begin early next month.

TownMeetingw

Next is Warner Castle, currently home to the Rochester Civic Garden Center. It's on a street near Highland Park, where we walk nearly every morning.

WarnerCastlew

Finally, for today, a commerative United States flag hanging on a city house on one of our walking routes.

Flag

Project 64: Red

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This week's color is my favorite color:  red! So I took a few photos and put them into a collage.

RedCollage

And then this weekend, I found this rooster wandering about the yard of one of my brother's neighbors. I just love his red comb.

Rooster1w

You can find more red here:

Project64

 

 

 

Three Months: One Little Word (FINISH)

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Even though I was three months behind in recording my progress for OLW, it was easy to do. I keep records of all the cards and layouts I do as well as any crafty projects. My reading list at Shelfari is almost always up to date, and this little tag book is probably the best record-keeping device I've ever made.

We're now half-way through the year, and I have finished five of the twelve projects I listed in January. I have to admit that I don't have much enthusiasm for a couple of them, but perhaps I'll get motivated again come fall. One of my goals was to seriously limit the new classes and projects I took on. I've done reasonably well until June when I signed up for three new classes: Night Photography, Copic Coloring, and Summer Card Camp. Frankly, I don't regret signing up for any of these, as I'm enjoying all of them. But there's not time enough to do all I'd like to do for those classes to say nothing of getting going with the old ones! I've finally edited all the photos from our April/May trip, so I hope to get the Travel Album done by the time we leave on our next trip (just 3 1/2 weeks from now). I don't expect to make much progress on old projects until at least September.

April

May

June

Nonetheless, there have been quite a few accomplishments on other fronts, some of which I've recorded above. The biggest one is a fitness goal that just got established when I finally recovered from surgery and the sprained ankle. By the time all that was over, I had twelve pounds to lose (eight of them have been a constant battle for the last three years). I finally got really serious and I've lost 5.5 pounds in June, and Tracy and I've walked 53 miles! I've also starting a new weight lifting routine at the gym, focusing on upper body strenght. Considering the diet and the amount of exercise, I'd hoped to see a few more pounds go by the wayside, but I know the older you get, the harder it is to get that metabolism going!

No one ever told me how hard it would be to prioritize all the things you want to do in retirement! Maybe a few less hobbies and obligations would help, but there's nothing I'm willing to give up quite yet, so it will continue to be a balancing act.