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Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages: Playing with Depth of Field

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I love playing with aperture and depth of field. For some reason when I was learning to use my SLR my understanding of aperture came pretty readily. I didn't have as much success with shutter speed. I understood the concept but it took me a long time before I could get the settings the way I wanted them. I recently bought a new box of crayons specifically for photo practice so I decided they'd be a great way to play with depth of field. I'm not sure what I'll do with the photos, but they may come in handy for a layout or something some day. I had a good time regardless.

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f/1.8

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f/1.4

There's not much difference in aperture here but just the slight change puts more crayons in focus in the first photo.

We had a great day today. We took a good friend sailing, and it was perfect weather for it. I'm really a fair weather sailor. I don't like the water to be too rough, and I don't like to be cold. The winds were coming out of the south today so it was just wonderful.

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Another pet peeve of mine is all the motor boats that create large wakes and make our little sailboat (one of the smallest on Lake Ontario) tip and bump. Today this sailboat in the distance was about our only company. Fine with me!

And one last photo for today for Amy. The stuffed zucchini was excellent. Tracy is a very reluctant zucchini eater unless it comes in the form of bread or cake. Even he ate all of his and said he'd be willing to have it again. It's not a great photo because I forgot to take the photo until we'd already dug into it. Thanks for the suggestion, Amy, we'll be having it again.

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Sunday Scrapbooking

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I've managed to catch up with the assignments for Love Your Photos, Love Your Pages. The first layout is based on a sketch from Prompt 4. It's quite simple, but it took a really long time for me to finally arrive at an arrangement of paper I liked. The photos are two that I took for an earlier assignment.

SummerGifts
Cardstock: Bazzil; patterned paper: Jillibean and October Afternoon; butterfly button: Flair (American Craft); journaling circle: Jillibean; alphas: Nerdy Glittler (Sassafrass Lass) & Mini Market Stickers (October Afternoon); date stamp (Staples)

As soon as I read yesterday's prompt about adding text or a title to a photograph I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Here's the layout I did once I got the photograph done.

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Patterned paper: Paper Loft; cardstock: from scrap file; chipboard sticker: Mama-Razzi (Bo Bunny)

I forgot to upload the layout so it can be enlarged so here is the journaling:

I have always had a good eye for color. Once I started making cards and scrapbooking my sense of design and space really improved. But nothing has improved my eye as much as taking photographs. Now I see things I would have missed totally before I started taking photos every day. I love this quote because it has been so true for me.

And last, a layout of our garden with photos I took this evening. The garden looks fabulous, and we are enjoying lettuce, zucchini, and cucumbers as well as lots of basil. There are even a couple of pepper plants that are looking much better and have developed some flowers. If all the tomatoes survived, I'll be doing a lot of canning later this summer!  The pole beans have crawled up the poles and attached themselves to the sides of the fence as well. As I was catching up with blogs this weekend I came across a series of posts on Write. Click. Scrapbook. by Moon Ko. There was lots of inspiration but even nicer, a set of free templates. As soon as I saw this one I knew it would work perfectly for a garden layout. I'm planning to go back and do one for May and June as well.

GardenLO 

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny; Journaling spot: Scenic Route; template: Moon Ko

Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages: Inheritance Layout

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This layout is based on one of Shimelle's sketches and a wonderful digital layout by Amy. After I took the photos for this photo prompt, I knew I wanted to scrap one of them. I decided that the photo with my sewing machine and my mother's tools best supported my "story."

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Patterned paper:  Basics by Basic Grey; Sticker border & tab: Basics by Basic Grey; Cardstock: Smoky Shadow by Papertrey Ink; alpha stickers: Scenic Route

If you click on the layout you will be able to read the journaling more easily. The last line seems to have been distorted by the photographer. (sigh)

Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages: Three

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The third photo prompt this week was to photograph a group of three. My mother died when I was only 20. She didn't have much jewelry, and I have very few things that belonged to her. My favorite is her sterling silver thimble which I have used for sewing for the last 40 years. The scissors also belonged to her as did this wooden spool of thread. I thought I had several of the spools of thread from her old sewing box, but I can only find this one. It just occurred to me that the needle might count as four objects–oh, well.  I decided to try some different arrangements, all with different light.

The first one was taken in my craft room on a piece of white foam board that I use when taking photos of paper craft projects. The daylight florescent lights were turned on. I always have to do some color correction and levels corrections because the light is very poor here even in the morning. Other than that, it's SOOC.

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The second photo was taken in our bedroom which has light from the same direction as my craft room, but there are three large windows rather than just one. Nonetheless, I had to turn on the lights to get a good exposure here as well, so I set the white balance on tungsten. Our yard is almost completely shaded and light is always at a premium in the house. I set the three objects on an old hymnal that belonged to my grandmother. She inscribed it in 1881.

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The last photo was taken in our den which is in the front of the house and has two small windows. Since one window faces east I didn't have to turn on any lights here. I arranged the three objects on my sewing machine, and except for sharpening didn't make any adjustments to the photo.

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I'm quite sure I'll be scrapping one of these photos this weekend.

Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages: Photographing Florals

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I was away for the first four days of Shimelle's class, and it will take awhile to catch up. It was a lovely morning here and rain was forecast for later (and did, indeed, arrive) so I decided I should get the outside photo prompt of florals done. My Shasta daisies are beautiful right now so I decided to work with them. Shimelle suggested taking the photos from different angles and perspectives so that's what I tried to do. None of the photos were altered in PSE except to sharpen them. All were taken with my 50mm 1.4 lens. I'm including the aperture settings for my friend, Nancy, since she and I had a discussion about them earlier today. As always, I'd be interested in hearing which ones you like the best. Here are eight of them in no particular order:

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1.  f/1.8

Daisies2w
2.  f/8.0

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3.  Having the bee arrive was truly a lucky accident!  f/8.0

 
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   4.  f/1.8

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5.  f/6.3

Daisies8w
6.  f/8.0

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7.  f/1.8

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8. f/2.2

Road Trip

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Tracy and I arrived home from a five day road trip Wednesday night. Yesterday I took off with three friends to Auroa, New York for lunch at Pumpkin Hill and a trip to the MacKenzie Child shop. Today was equally busy:  my botanical drawing class, visiting a friend, and then grocery shopping. I managed to get one of the three photo prompts completed for Shimelle's class which I'll post as soon as I have them edited. I hope by the end of the weekend to be caught up with the class.

Our first stop was in Hyde Park, NY to visit my brother, his significant other, and my two nieces. We started out with a great Thai dinner, did some hiking (in incredible heat!), and celebrated the Fourth with a cookout. I didn't take many photos. Maybe it was the heat, but I did take a few on our hike through Poet's Walk near Red Hook. There are some great views of the Hudson River and the Kingston Bridge.

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Stephanie&Kevin
My niece, Stephanie, Kevin, and Rocky

Drinking
Water for Rocky

From Hyde Park we drove to Woodstock, NY. I hadn't been there in over 30 years, but it hasn't changed a lot. We had a lot of fun browsing through the little shops, and had lunch at The Garden Cafe.

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After lunch we took off for Lenox, Massachusetts and the James Taylor and Carole King concert at Tanglewood. It was well into the 90's when we arrived at 2:30 and folks were already lining up for the show. The gates didn't open until 4:00 so we continued into town and found a great deli where we picked up sandwiches and a bottle of wine for our picnic on the lawn. We got back to the grounds around 3:30 and once the gates opened, found a decent spot in the shade without much difficulty. Although we were a long way from the stage, the video screens and fabulous sound system made it seem as if you were right up front. This was the third show of the weekend, all of them sold out at 18,000 folks per concert. It was a sea of people, but a very warm and friendly crowd. We had great conversations with "neighbors" both before the concert and during the intermission.

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The concert itself couldn't have been better. I saw both James Taylor and Carole King in concert when I was in college and they were just as great as ever. They've assembled a great band (Jame's original) as well as backup singers and they sang all the old favorites. The special treat was a guest appearance by YoYo Ma who came on twice after intermission to accompany them on Sweet Baby James and You've Got a Friend. What a fabulous surprise!

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On Saturday we drove to Vermont, had breakfast at Up For Breakfast, our favorite breakfast spot, and spent quite a while at Northshire Books. I picked up a copy of Allegra Goodman's new book, The Cookbook Collector, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Also added several more books to my Amazon Wish List. If only I could read as fast as I can find new books! Tracy and I laughed when we saw this sign in the sidewalk outside the book store. I'm not sure how we've missed it before.

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We had lunch in Middlebury, VT and were in Burlington by late afternoon. Our niece, Jasmine, had made reservations at the Blue Bird Cafe for dinner and it was fabulous. I failed to take any photos, however. The next morning we had reservations for breakfast at the Shelburne Inn at Shelburne Farms. What an amazing place! Here are a few of my favorite photos:

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The view from our table; because it was so hot, the view of the lake and hills beyond in New York were covered with haze.

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The view from the road.

Shelburne Farm is a working, sustainable agriculture, farm. They have a herd of Swiss Brown cows that they milk to create wonderful cheeses. They have daily tours, many children's activities, and opportunities to participate in the working of the farm.

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The barn and cheese making facility is almost as beautiful as the inn.

Unrelated to the farm, but also wonderful, is the Shelburne Museum. It was too hot to take in all it has to offer, but we spent quite some time at the Ansel Adams exhibit which was air-conditioned. This is the third Ansel Adam's exhibit we've seen in as many years. Each one has been wonderful with a different focus. I had never seen many of the photographs hung here. About a third came from the collection held at Mount Holyoke, a third from the Johnson Museum at Cornell (I had no idea they had a collection of Ansel Adam photographs), and a third from the private collections of the Wallace Stegner family. We did take some time to visit a small collection of Warren Kimble paintings and to tour the steamboat "Ticonderoga."

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The staircase in the Lighthouse where the Warren Kimble exhibit was hung.

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I always envision documenting these trips and posting day by day, but it never seems to happen. So thanks for hanging in there on this long post!

Team-up Thursday: Water

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Nancy's been on a trip out west so this is our first post in a couple of weeks. This week's prompt was "water," and Nancy sent me a photo she took last week in Yellowstone (bottom). Since I didn't have any brilliant ideas for water locally, I went to the photos we took last summer in Yellowstone and found this one (top) of water spilling over a falls in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. This was originally a landscape photo but I cropped it so it would be portrait like Nancy's. I think it improved the photo overall.

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Papertrey Pixie Challenge and Garden Update.

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I finally finished a card last night that has been on the "to do" list all of June . Why I wait until the last minute, I do not know! Karen H. posted this challenge at the beginning of the month. It's a photo of fat quarters and we could use the square design, the colors, or sewing on our card.

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I used a
little of everything from the challenge. I deliberately did an uneven
stitch around the edge of the card, cut the scalloped squares with a
Nestability die, and added something different to each square. The
green and orange also come from the challenge colors. I colored the
flower and the button twine with my Copic markers. Thanks
for the challenge, Karen! It was a good one.

JunePixieCard
Cardstock: Kraft (PTI); patterned paper: A Muse; brads, flower, & buttons from stash; sentiment: Friendship Jar (PTI); button twine (PTI)

We went to the garden yesterday for the first time in over a week, and I was amazed at how much the plants had grown. The tomatoes are nearly as tall as my shoulder, the pole beans are crawling up the poles, and the lettuce and herbs are lush and full.

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The empty spot you see in the middle is partly the path we left to get into the middle of the garden but also where the peppers are planted. They are the only plants not doing too well.

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We brought home enough lettuce for a week and picked just a portion of
it. Before we go to my brother's this weekend, I'll go back and pick
some to take to him. By then there should be a couple more zucchini ready to pick. We also harvested two large zucchini which I'll use
to make zucchini bread today or tomorrow. These goodies were an
unexpected surprise!

Computer Tricks for Cards

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Jessica Sprague, the digital guru of online teaching, offered a free class in digital card making. Being a card maker, I was intrigued by this since I have rarely incorporated digital work into my cards. I'm now using  digital elements in my scrapbooking on a regular basis, so I thought I'd try it out. The first day was a simple print and fold card. I'm not a fan of these so I played around a bit with one of the cards. For the first card I printed the pdf file and then opened the psd file and printed just the greeting and frame. I cut it out and bumped it up with 3-D tape.

Card! 

For the second card I cut out the front of the card and mounted it on Dark Chocolate (PTI) cardstock after I hand cut the scallop along the bottom. Then I added two brown pearls (Creative Candy A Muse). I much prefer this one.

Card2

Today's card was a print and assemble card. This card took me way too long to complete and I was pretty frustrated. First off, my scallop punch seems to have developed a dull spot right in the middle. Then I decided I didn't like the first ribbon I applied (which took quite some time), carefully and slowly removed it and substituted another. The greeting was to be a computer generated one that said "Congratulations." Since I rarely have an occasion to send a Congrats card of this nature, I substituted some chipboard letters (Basic Grey) which I like much better anyway. I will probably never make this card again although I rather like the idea of the scalloped "canopy" on the top of the card. None of the layers are glued down completely so they add a nice dimension to the card which is, unfortunately, hard to see in this photo.

Card1

One of the best things Jessica's presented in the class so far is a great card of card and envelope sizes and a good description of various kinds of papers available to card makers. 

Moxie Fab Bike Challenge

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This challenge at Moxie Fab has been on my "To Do" list ever since I saw it posted. I love this Hero Arts bicycle stamp, but haven't put it to much use. I finally got to it today, just in the nick of time. Here are two cards for the challenge. For the first card, I stamped the bike, then cut it out with a rectangle Nestability. I left it in the die and sponged the sky and the ground. The basket and bike were colored with Prisma colored pencils, and the flowers were created with Flower Soft. After mounting the image, I added the felt cloud.

Bike2
Cardstock: Ripe Avocado & Vintage Cream (PTI); Patterned Paper: Road Map (October Afternoon); Stamps: Bicycle (Hero Arts) & Sentiment Everyday Button Bits (PTI); Flower Soft: Sage & Raspberry Fizz; tag punch (trimmed down); Brad (Kaiser); silver pearls (Mrs. Grossman); twill: Ripe Avocado (PTI); cloud die (PTI); Vintage Cream felt

For this card I stamped the image on a page from an old Little House in the Prairie book that I picked up at an used book store just for this purpose. I don't know that I would have ever put Orange Zest and Scarlet Jewel together, but they matched the ribbon perfectly and turned out to be a good combination.

BikeOrange
Cardstock: Orange Zest & Scarlet Jewel (PTI); Patterned paper (A Muse); ribbon from stash; Stamps: Bicycle (Hero Arts) & Sentiment Birds of a Feather (PTI); Nestability label: Scrap-Mart exclusive die (Spellbinders); Prisma colored pencils

Happy Father’s Day

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This was my first attempt at making a clear card. Tracy liked it a lot, but it's not an easy card to photograph.

It's been quite a lovely day. Tracy and I started the day at the Brighton Farmer's Market. It's becoming a weekly habit, and we bring home the nicest organic fruits and vegetables. Today I bought a beautiful bouquet as well. We then picked up a student from the school where Tracy worked for 25+ years, her sister and mother and brought them to church. Our church hosts a tutoring program at the school and a group of sixth graders read a poem and talked about their plans for the future this morning during our Focus on Mission. Church was followed by an ice cream social which marks the end of our regular schedule for the year. During the summer we operate on a different time frame and without the weekly presence of our fabulous chancel choir.

Tracy spent the afternoon working on the boat and practicing some golf shots while I got in some crafting time. This evening Matt joined us and we drove to Canandaigua Lake for dinner at Steamboat Landing. We had reserved a table outside overlooking the lake. It was warm, breezy, and just right for a lakeside dinner. The food and service were excellent, and we had a great time.

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The north end of Canandaigua Lake.

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The patio at Steamboat Landing.

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The guys. Prime rib for Tracy and chicken wings for Matt. I had a wonderful seafood combination of crab cake, grilled scallops, and shrimp. I was surprised to see the sun flare when I uploaded the photo, but I kind of like it.

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Dad and his son.

I hope your day was equally pleasant!

More Freebies

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Staycation button 

Thanks to Cheri, I've signed up for yet another class, and like
Creativity Boot Camp it's free, and it's easy to sign up. I had just
found Kim's blog in the last week, but hadn't paid close attention to
the Stay-cation post. I've read great things about her online courses, so I'll be looking forward to this once the July courses are over.

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Tonight Jessica Sprague is hosting a blog hop with 33 participants. At each site will be a free digital goodie. It starts at 10:00 ETS tonight and runs through Sunday night. I think there are prizes if you collect all the digital goodies. 

I won't get my last prompt for Creativity Boot Camp up until tomorrow. I got to exercise class this morning, then to my Botanical Drawing class, and finally hosted lunch for two of my college friends. This is the third time this week I've entertained, so Tracy is taking me out to dinner tonight. We're off to Consesus Lake and the North Shore Grill. It's an absolutely perfect day for it! My friends and I sat on our patio chatting for most of the afternoon.

So, about the Botanical Drawing class. You might remember I received a wonderful gift from my friend, Mary, at Christmas. Once I had all these drawing tools at my disposal I felt compelled to do something about it. I have never had a formal art class. My first high school didn't offer any, and when we moved to New York my junior year, I had several extra courses to take if I wanted to graduate on time. So last week I began an eight-week course in botanical drawing given by the local garden club. I was dismayed last week to discover there are only two of us with no drawing experience, and it quickly became apparent that group instruction was not going to be part of the plan. The instructor's portfolio is stunning, done in colored pencil. We were each given a plant to draw and I survived the first week with one tiny sketch I felt was worthy of a beginner. The rest: nothing I would share even with my best friend!

Today was better. I read some material during the week, and started off asking a few questions about technique. The reading also helped me understand where to start. The group of women (most of whom come to all or many of these courses) are very friendly and nice, but everyone concentrates on their own work. As I went I asked some questions and got individual help, so I think I've
figured out how to operate in this class. Once I got a few drawings done today, the instructor told me to add some colored pencil. Frankly, I thought it would be weeks before I got to that stage, but it wasn't so bad. I ended up with a drawing I might share with my best friend.   And some day, maybe, there will be something I'm willing to share here. Today's post on Creativity Boot Camp was just perfect for this experience. I'm printing out the commitment and setting aside a little drawing time every day.

Friday Challenges

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Just by coincidence I was responsible for posting two challenges today. The first one was for the Scrap-Mart blog. My challenge is to create a layout or a card using only cardstock and papers from just one manufacturer/line. If you'd like to play along, you can post a link here or on the Scrap-Mart blog. One of my favorite paper lines right now is PinkPaislee Starlight which I used on this layout about the importance of being in the photo yourself.

JustUsNoFrame

All the papers and the alpha stickers are from the Starlight line. I used my Slice to cut the stars and the brackets and stitched around the photo frame. I did another layout last week that meets the challenge and uses papers from the same line.

I consider myself fortunate to belong to a very supportive group of women on a photo board, and it's my turn to post the challenge there as well. I decided on the word "fresh" since we've been buying the first fresh strawberries and wonderful fresh asparagus, lettuce, spinach, and radishes from the local farmer's market. I put a few strawberries in a lovely cup I bought at Antropologie a few weeks ago. I knew I'd find some photographic uses for it.

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Creativity Boot Camp: Smooth

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Still stymied by "Hush" and although I have a good idea, I don't have the needed prop!

I've been cooking and baking today as a group of neighbors are coming to dinner this evening. Eggs seemed to be a perfect answer for today's prompt: SMOOTH.

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This is one of three beautiful seagrass baskets I've purchased on our trips to Kiawah Island and Charleston.

Like several other blogging friends, I took advantage of Shimelle's early registration and signed up for her new course. I always enjoy them. I was away for nearly half of the last class so I'm looking forward to keeping up a little better with this one.

 

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Jessica Sprague is also offering a new class that is FREE. She's really the best I know when it comes to digital scrapbooking and photo editing classes. I've never been disappointed in any of her classes. This one is on cardmaking. I've never done anything digital with card making aside from printing a digital paper once or twice, so I'm very interested in what she'll be teaching in this class.

Creativity Boot Camp: Full-Bodied

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I was gone most of yesterday and last night, so I'm a day behind with this prompt. My first thought when seeing "full-bodied" was red wine, but that seemed too obvious. Tracy suggested coffee, remembering some commercial where they talked about the coffee being full-bodied. So while I was grocery shopping I checked out all the coffee brands. None said "full-bodied" on the label, but one of the bulk coffees used the term in describing the coffee so I took a shot of it with my point & shoot. I also bought a few beans so I could compose something like this. Sadly I couldn't get both words, "full" and "bodied," into the frame

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But this morning when I was setting the table for guests tonight, I looked at the hydrangeas on the table and thought, "Wow, full-bodied flowers!" So here's the one I'm posting on Flickr and two others. I'd be interested in which of the three you like the best.

  
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This is the one I'm posting on Flickr. I ran Pioneer Woman's Lovely and Ethereal action on it.

Here's a version just sharpened, not a big difference.

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And one with the Soft and Faded action. Makes me think of dried hydrangeas.

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Today's prompt "hush" is proving to be even more elusive.