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Challenges

Project 64: Plum

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Project 64

This week's color at Project 64 was plum, actually a color I like quite a lot.

Wk10 March 7_13_Plum

Fortunately, I looked around and found some things that matched the crayon (and its scribble) before I went off for surgery. Today I managed to get shots of most of them. The first one is a newbie.

Ribbonw

A good friend who brought dinner over the other night, also brought a lovely arrangement of flowers for my dinner tray. Tracy said, "I think we ought to save these in case they match one of the crayon colors." Good thing he was thinking about it, because one of them is a pretty good match for plum.

IPhonew

So is my iPhone cover.

WegmansBagw

And my favorite reusable grocery bag from my favorite grocery store.  And here's my shot for the week:

Amythest2w

This is one of my favorite necklaces. I wear it on several different chains and have two pairs of earrings that go with it as well. I grabbed the lid from one of my vintage Mason jars for the photograph. Check out the other entries. I love looking through all the other photographs to see what folks have found and to "collect" ideas for composition.

 

Make-It Monday 5

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Make-itMonday

I got to this week's Papertrey Ink challenge a bit earlier this week. The challenge was to do some distressing on the project. It's not something I do often. In fact, I have a distressing tool which I used for the first time today! I must say it worked very well, although the distressing around all the edges of the patterned papers doesn't show up particularly well here.  I also took the opportunity to use one of my new stamp sets: Mat Stack #2 Collection. It's filled with very elegant designs for the mat stack and a good addition to my stamp collection.

MIMDistress

Quite some time ago, I dyed a lot of seam binding with a variety of mists. I chose the colors for the card based on a piece of the ribbon. I used another piece of the My Mind's Eye paper from the Mabel collection and one from Basic Grey's Basic Kraft collection.

 

Clean and Simple

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FTL130

I love the sketches at Clean & Simple, but haven’t had a lot of time to play along for a while. This week’s sketch is a busy cardmaker’s dream. One piece of cardstock, one sheet of patterned paper from a 6 X 6 paper pad (I used both sides of it), a piece of ribbon, two buttons, one Fillable Frame stamp, and two sentiments (one inside and one out). It was finished in about 10 minutes. I love this color combination, too.

C&S

Cardstock: Dark Chocolate (PTI), Patterned Paper: "Mabel" Stella & Rose (My Mind's Eye); Die: Fillable Frame #8 (PTI); Stamps: Fillable Frames #8 & #5; Buttons: LaDiDah (KI Memories)

 

 

Project 64: White

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Project 64

This week's prompt at Project 64 was white, so I didn't need to carry a crayon around with me.

Wk9 Feb28_March6_White

Initially I thought I would take photos of my white pitcher collection, but in the end didn't use them at all. Here's what I found.

WhiteOnWhiteCyclamenw

Aside from the leaves this meets Brooke's additional challenge of white on white which I use frequently. I bought this cyclamen for a friend, but took advantage of it before I gave it away. Here are a couple of close-up shots.

CyclamenSepalsw

InnerCyclamenw

Finally I was inspired to set up a little still life.

WhiteStillLifew

I was happy with this, but added one of Kim Klassen's textures, Gray Day Slate, with a blending mode of Hard Light at 80%, and this turned out to be my favorite for the week.

WhiteStillLifeGreyDaySlatew

I'll be submitting this for Sweet Shot Tuesday as well.

Sweetshotbutton

 

Make-It Monday 4

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This is my second post today. Scroll down for a post on Exploring with Your Camera.

Make-itMonday

This week's challenge was to use some fun foam and create your own stamp with a die cut. I had to go buy a piece of fun foam as it's not something I've ever used. I decided to buy white, thinking I might eventually color it with mist or paint. But I knew right away that for this challenge, I'd use the white for clouds. Several years ago, I bought two sheets of paper by Autumn Leaves called "Wellies and Umbrellas, and I've always wanted to use the images on a card. With the introduction of "Healing Touch Sentiments" (PTI) a couple of months ago, I had the perfect sentiment for the card.

BrighterDaysMIM2

I'm really pleased with the card, and was amused to have Matt come into the studio and tell me he thought it was one of my best cards. He spent quite a bit of time examining it and asking about the challenge. I used the fun foam to stamp the clouds with Fresh Snow ink (PTI), hand cut the wellies and umbrella, and added the foam clouds. The sentiment is stamped with Pearlescent Rust by Brilliance. They've recently become my favorite inks although I've owned most of them for years.

Team-up Thursday: Everyday Beauty

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Teamup

It's hard to believe it's Thursday already. The days are flying by! This week's prompt was Everyday Beauty. I walked around the house and took some photos of things that give me pleasure. (No cameras, since I posted those yesterday.) Nancy sent the photo of the wreath on her deck with the note that, "This beautiful wreath has been on my deck since early Dec. and has looked pretty much like this every day!" We can't decide if all that snow for three months is a good thing or not! I chose my MacKenzie Child clock for the diptych. It's the same shape as Nancy's wreath, and one of my favorite things in my studio. Sarah and Adam gave me a gift certificate for my birthday last year, and I knew exactly what I wanted. You'll see by the other photos, that I'm a fan of MacKenzie Child as well as black and white checks!

EverydayBeauty

Just for fun, here are the other contenders:

RedSuitcasesw

A stack of red paper suitcases that hold Papertrey ribbons and twill and a collection of Letterpress tags.

HeartBoxesw

Folk art heart boxes on our bedroom bookshelf.

KitchenShelfw

This funky sheep was sent to me by a good friend. I've had the birdhouse for ages, and bought the MacKenzie Child cream pitcher about a year ago. If (when) we redo our kitchen black & white tiles are on the wish list.

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CoffeeTableTray2w

And two shots of the tray on the coffee table in the living room.

 

Three Things

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Sweetshotbutton

First off, my shot for Sweet Shot Tuesday (and P52). It's the same shot I used for Team-up Thursday, but it was my favorite of the week.

InTheDistanceSLw

I also like this one, taken the same evening.

ReservoirLightHLEdgeBurn60w

Second, a layout I completed for Shimelle's 4X6 class on 2Peas, that I also posted on the Scrap-Mart blog. I usually wait until they've posted there before I post here.

CuresLO

CuresLOJournaling

I followed the sketch pretty closely and used a lot more product than I usually do on this layout. I made the pocket from two of the dies in the Spellbinder's Creative Book dies. I used a new Quickutz die for make the rose from Vintage Cream felt that I sprayed with a Perfect Pearls mist. I cut "Cures" from the Calendar cartridge with my Slice, and used embellishments from October Afternoon, Jillibean, Pink Paislee, and a Scrapbook Circle kit. I'm hoping to get the next sketch completed in the next day or two.

And finally, an update on my One Little Word: FINISH. Here's the February page in the tag book.

  FebTagBookUpdate

And the record page:

TagBookFebIndex

I'm very pleased with this month's progress. I finished two big projects (Sarah's Birthday album which I never listed on this record page, and Matt's Rossie Album–which I'll post soon.) I finished all the lessons for Kim Klassens' Essentials Photoshop class where I finally grasped the concept of layer masks. I've been quite successful in using them as well. I'm taking a Silhouette 101 class at My Creative Classroom which has been terrific, and I'm current on all the lessons there. I read one book from my 2010 list and finished our Book Group book as well. Now I'm into Cleopatra:  A Life, which is the Book Group pick for March. I fill out a project card for almost everything I make, and there were 27 of them in the February envelope.

Project 64 and Happy Birthday

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Project 64

Let me tell you how excited I was to see that my photo for indigo was the winner last week on Project 64! Totally unexpected and totally delightful! I had lots to choose from last week, but this week was a different story.

Wk8 Feb21_27_Lavender

This is lavender, although almost no one I've talked to this week would give this pinkish crayon that label. When I went to the box of crayons to look for my idea of lavender, I pulled out wisteria. Perhaps purple mountain majesty would be close, or even mauvelous. This seems way too pink, and it's a strange pink. I've carried the crayon around all week again.

As it turns out I was staring at some lavender all week without it registering. Several of the flowers in my Valentine's Day Bouquet are very close. By the time I realized it the flowers were fading, but I had taken an earlier photo.

ValentineFlowers2w

Then Saturday night as we were leaving to go to dinner at friends, I noticed the cap to the Woolite for Dark Clothes.

WooliteCapw

It's nearly a perfect match. But my favorite is the tulips I bought for the kitchen table. And yes, I held the crayon next to them in the grocery store. I wonder what people think . . .

Tulipw

 

Today is Matt's birthday. Happy Birthday to one of the kindest, nicest men I know. He's . . .

MTWBD11

MTWBD11Inside

Cardstock: Simply Chartreuse & Pure Poppy (PTI), navy from stash; patterned paper: "Campfire" (October Afternoon); dies: Numbers (PTI); stamps: Big Birthday Wishes (PTI), Williamsburg Numbers and Punctuation (Technique Tuesday); star punch; Chamomile Tea Dye ink (PTI)

 

 

 

Papertrey February Blog Hop

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Bloghoplogo

This is my second Papertrey Ink post of the day—a bit unexpected. Maybe it's this:

  Snowblowingw

Or perhaps I've just lost track of time, but today is the Papertrey Blog Hop, and I nearly missed it. Fortunately we're snowed in so I had time to get my card made. The photo above was taken about 9:00 this morning and it has yet to stop snowing. Matt's been plowing since 7:00 am and says there's no end in sight.

Here's this month's challenge:  

This month we decided to dedicate the Blog Hop to scallops!  We want to see your best use of scallops, of any sort, on a project!  This can include scalloped borders, offset-scallops, stamped scallops,  scalloped mats, scalloped frames, layered scallops, scalloped tags or anything else you can dream up! You can use dies, patterned scissors or even circle punches in a row to achieve your special look.

Here's my take on it:

HappyBDBlogHop2.25

I made a shaped card with the large scalloped Nestability dies, then used a piece of MME's Stella & Rosa patterned paper pad that I picked up yesterday for the mat. It was cut with a square Nestability and then punched on the corners. The checked scalloped (Papertrey small scallop die) border is also from the MME's collection. I die cut a Fillable Frame #4, stamped the border and message with Brilliance ink, and added the butterfuly from Love Lives Here with a bit of the Harvest Gold twill taped behind the heart. The rhinestones are from Hero Arts.

Make-It Monday 3

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Screen shot 2011-02-25 at 11.01.41 AM

I'm a bit more timely this week with the Papertrey Make-it Monday challenge which called for using Scor-Tape to create glitter strips on the card.

MIMGlitterStrip

Select White cardstock (PTI); Stamps: Make a Wish and Make a Wish Additions (PTI); Brilliance inks; rhinestones by Kaiser Craft.

Sweet Shot Tuesday and P52

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Sweetshotbutton
P52-125

It's the day to choose the best shot from the last week. My favorite shots are, again, of flowers. Tracy gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. It was filled with gorgeous flowers and each side of the bouquet was different. Nonetheless I feel like that's all I post (with the exception of the Project 64 photos) so I chose this one for Sweet Shot Tuesday and P52 this week.

Pancakesw

I made apple and walnut pancakes from this mix on Sunday.

PacakeMixw

It's time for another trip to Ithaca as there's not enough left for another batch. We had it with our favorite Boar's Head bacon cooked in my beautiful red cast iron skillet that Tracy gave me for Mother's Day last year.

Baconw

Fortunately for our waistlines this is a pretty rare treat, but the perfect breakfast for another cold, snowy Sunday morning.

And because I can't resist, a few photos of the Valentine's Day flowers.

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ValentineFlowers2w

Lily2w

DaisyRosew

 

 

Project 64: Indigo

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Project 64

  Wk7 Feb14_20_Indigo

This week's color at Project 64 is indigo. Indigo has always been one of my favorite colors. It was very easy to find in our house:

  IndigoCollagew

1. Our couch 2. Bowl from Mexico 3. Ornate bowl my father bought for his mother when he was stationed in the Coast Guard during WW II 4. Our mantle decorations: indigo candles from Target, indigo in the quilt; indigo pitcher 5. My mother's indigo cut glass vase 6. Jug with indigo design and indigo flowers 7. Indigo and yellow vase

And another indigo bowl with blueberries:

BowlofBlueberriesw

Truth is there are other examples in nearly every room in the house. I doubt there'll be another color that's so prevalent here.

Make-It Monday 2

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MakeItMonday

My intention is to make a card for Papertrey's Make-It Monday challenge each week. We've been so busy finishing the work on the dining room and living room that I didn't even start the card until after dinner tonight. I wanted to try Nicole's technique of shadowing with the Copic markers as well as using the vellum sentiment strip. I'm happy with the shadow technique but only mildly satisfied with the overall card, but that's not a surprise since I'm doing this at the last minute! I scored a frame around the Raspberry Fizz cardstock with my Martha Stewart Scoreboard and used a piece of striped vellum from my stash for the sentiment. The pearls are Memory Box, but all the other supplies are from Papertrey Ink.

Sweetpeaw2

 

Team-up Thursday: Blue

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Teamup
I keep a little list on my desk of things I think I'd like to photograph. Blueberries has been there for awhile, and although we usually have some in the fridge I hadn't gotten around to it. "Blue" was the perfect excuse, and you'll see another shot of blueberries soon for a second challenge. Nancy took this shot of her brilliant blue pitcher in front of a photograph she took of blue flowers.

BlueDiptych

Now, I'd like to see a bright blue sky, but although we have much warmer temperatures forecast for the next two days, there's no sun in the forecast.

 

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday and P52

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Sweetshotbutton

I'm using the same shot again for Sweet Shot Tuesday and P52, and yes, once again, it's a photo of a flower. I can't help it, they're the only thing around here that has any appeal by mid-February. This rose was part of a larger bouquet I bought at Wegmans, the local grocery store. Tracy surprised me with a beautiful arrangement of many different kinds of flowers yesterday, so I'm sure there'll be another one next week!

  RoseMacro2w

Here's a shot of the whole bouquet. These are such a bargain and last for days!

Bouquetw

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