Skip to content

Just Sayin”

  • by

Switching from a concentrated effort on Project Life to card making proved to be more stressful than I anticipated. This card doesn't even begin to match the idea in my head when I started to make a birthday card for a good friend. I even switched stamp sets in the end. But I am happy with this card, and it gave me an opportunity to use a die that arrived in the mail about a week ago—Sentimental Splits. I resisted ordering it when it first came out, but broke down when I placed an order during Papertrey's April release. No regrets. I think it will get a lot of use.

OmbreButterfly

I created the watercolor background (on Tim Holtz Watercolor paper) for the original card, but it came in handy when I moved to creating an ombre butterfly (die cut from "Life is Beautiful") similar to the ones Laurie demonstrated in a Papertrey Make It Monday. I ended up using just two colors of ink, and sponged it on the die cut directly. I die cut a piece of vellum with the Scribbled Circle die and added a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins to finish it off. The sentiment is from Simon Says "Friendship Messages" and continues to the inside with "Happy Birthday." The "gems" on the body of the butterfly are Papertrey Ink's rainstones.

OmbreButterflyClose

I'm linking this up to the CAS-ology challenge: OMBRE.

Week 143 - Ombre

Project Life: September 2014

  • by

Although we made our annual weekend trip to the Adirondacks, the big event in September was Skylar's third birthday. I had a lot of fun embellishing the birthday pages, using stamps and die cuts from my card making supplies.

SeptTitlepage

I added a die cut and a stamp from the Monthly Moments set by Papertrey Ink to a photo this month. I like it a lot. The other noteworthy event from the month was going to our first Food Truck Rodeo at the Public Market. I don't know how we missed these all summer. This was the last one, and it was a lot of fun. There were probably 20-30 food trucks set up around the perimeter of the Public Market downtown. The choices were amazing—wings, Thai, Chinese, barbecue, sandwiches, Cuban . . . We finally decided on comfort food: mac and cheese because we'd heard so much about Mac'Rollin. It was a bit of a wait in line, but worth it. There's live music, too, and the crowd was as diverse as the food offerings.

FoodTruckCard

I found the digital stamp by Katie Pertiet to create this filler card for the Food Truck Rodeo.

BD2Page

BDpageR

I recently purchased two Market Kits from Papertrey Ink: Party Pops and Clipsters. Both came in handy. The candles and banner on the title card (from the Midnight edition of Project Life) came from the Party Pops kit. I wanted to document the transformation of the swing set from a pile of boards to the completed, and truly enjoyed, final product. And I scanned both sides of the invitation to include in the layout.

BDpage2

 The photo of Skylar before the party is one of my favorites from the whole year. By the time the party was over, she'd had enough of photos, but I loved this one of Matt and Betsy, even if Skylar is hiding.

BDCard

 This card gave me a chance to include one more photo of the birthday girl and play with my new goodies. The same banner from the previous page, and one of the Clipster clips.

I've taken a couple of days break from Project Life, but am four months down, and five to go. That's pushing it to be done by the end of the month, but I haven't given up!

Pairs: Cart and Basket

  • by

One of the few flowers beside bulbs that can withstand the fickle spring weather in Western New York are the pansies. We really needed a shot of color on our stoop so we bought a few pots of pansies this weekend.

Here they are in the cart at The Garden Factory:

Cart

And in the baskets on our front stoop. (It's too small to call a porch.)

Baskets

I had some fun editing this photo on my iPhone with the new Enlight app. It's a paid app, but I'm quite sure if I can figure it out, it will be well worth the money. For this photo, I used the "mask" tool which works much like Photoshop. I converted it to black and white and masked the flowers so they would remain in color.

I'm linking this to Helena's weekly meme: Pairs.

Project Life: August 2014

  • by

I've continued to make good progress on catching up with Project Life; not quite as good on getting the pages photographed for the blog. August found Sarah and Caleb still here; Adam joined them a few days later when he returned from his mission trip. All three stayed through the rest of the week and we spend most afternoons and early evenings with Tracy's family for the annual vacation at Conesus Lake.

Aug2page

Again, I kept it pretty simple with the Simple White photo templates, a couple Tiny Templates (#4) from Cathy Zielski, and a wooden veneer from my stash. The patterned paper for the title card is from a paper pad "Print Shop" by Studio Calico, the camera sticker is from a collection by Simple Stories, and die cuts from Papertrey Ink.

AugTitle

I seem to have a fondness for photos of Caleb walking away from us. This is another fave.

AugPage2

Those of you familiar with Rinda's Summer Scavenger Hunt will remember this photo of Tracy's family creating a parade for me. It ended up being one of my favorite photos from the summer.

AugPge3

The last page documents our excursion to the Strong Museum of Play in downtown Rochester. An awesome place, and there will be more photos from here later in the year. At the end of August I helped organize a picnic for the Urban Presbyterians Together, a group dedicated to supporting the ten urban churches in our Prebytery as well as incredible efforts to improve the City Schools.

 

 

Pairs: Open and Closed

  • by

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. It was a bright, sunny day so I asked Tracy to drop me off at the doctor's office so I could walk home. I hoped I would find some inspiration for Pairs since I hadn't prepared anything in advance. It's just beginning to look like spring might arrive here. There are a few snowdrops, some tiny yellow flowers, and crocus. We've never had crocus in our yard, but have decided that will change next year. We're planning to plant bulbs under both of the trees in our front yard. I just love them. I walked by some pretty purple ones under a tree, and then about three threes ahead there was another group of three. The first ones were open and the second group was closed. Here they are:

Open_blog

Closed_blog

Another block or so down the street, I came to this cluster. They seem to be a smaller variety, but what caught my attention was the wonderful backlight.

Backlit_Blog

You can find other Pairs at Helena's blog here. Today she has a beautiful pair of bright yellow flowers.

Happy Birthday, Adam!

  • by

It's been a long time since I posted a new card here. I made all the cards for March/early April birthdays and anniversaries before I left for Florida, and got this one done between our two trips. I love that the Retro Graduation and Retro Birthday die cuts/stamps work so well with the Zappy Birthday dies I bought a few months ago. This card is a birthday take on one Betsy Veldman created as a graduation card for the Papertrey release last month. It's a fun set that will work for almost anyone, but especially good for guys, teens, and kids (three of the harder groups to create for.)

AdamBD

I started with a piece of paper from the Comic Strip paper collection and cut two images of the skyline from black cardstock with the Zappy Birthday dies. The rest of the card was made with the Retro Graduation dies and Retro Graduation and Birthday stamps. I stamped the lined image on the main area of the sign with an old Hero Arts wooden stamp. The little stars were die cut with the Star Border die from Papertrey.

AdamBDClose

This gives you a better view of the dimension. 

Happy Birthday, Adam! I hope you have a great day!

I'm linking up with Virginia's View Challenge. I totally missed out on last month's since we were on the road, but I do love her challenges. This month it's Layers and Dimensions. This certainly fits.

Layers and Dimensions

 

 

April: Project Life Catch-up

  • by

Rinda has been working on one creative project each month, and I decided to designate April as Project Life Catch-up. I have the layouts mapped out by the number that need to be completed each week, and if I can stay the course, I'll be caught up by May 2.

It's not hard to reconstruct our months. My Lightroom library keeps all the photos organized, and I keep a daily journal. I have to admit, I rarely have to consult the journal. As soon as I see the photos, the stories come right back. I've decided not to worry about filler cards and embellishments. What matters to me are the photos and the stories. If I come across the right embellishment I'll use it; otherwise I'll stick to photos and journaling.

Here's June 2014:

JulyDoubleSpread1

I'm using the Papertrey Ink Monthly Moment dies and stamps to create the title cards for 2014. I have a different plan when I reach 2015. I also used the Monthly Moment stamps "celebrate" and "4th of July." Other supplies on these two pages are Tracy Larsen's Simply White templates, Cathy Zielski Tiny Templates, a template from Sahlin Studio,a die (remember) from Paper Smooches, Stitched Rectangle die (PTI), a Simple Stories 4X3 card for journaling, and a bit cut from the brochure from the Antique Boat Museum.

July1

July2

JulyDouble2

I'm not quite sure where the "hello summer" card came from. It was a freebie, and if anyone knows who to attribute it to, I'd love to know. The two journaling cards came from Monthly Moment card packs. I only have two sets, and plan to order some more now that I have a template all figured out for getting my journaling exactly on the lines! Both bits on the journaling cards are from Crate Paper: "The Open Road." 

Julyp3

Julyp4

The importance of scrapbooking became even more apparent this week. About six weeks ago, a dear friend who was 92 passed away. She'd been in a skilled nursing home with dementia for nearly two years, but was surprisingly alert on occasion. This week her husband (of 67 years), and one of our former pastors, also passed away. It seems this is often the case where one death leads rather quickly to another, and I will miss both of them tremendously. I've been helping their son go through some of their belongings this weekend, and we came across a scrapbook of sorts that includes photos of my family going back 35 years. The first photo of Sarah is when she is about two, and there are a few of Tracy and me before that. In addition to our photos, there were photos of so many couples we know from church. Some of them have changed a lot; others hardly at all. It was so much fun to go through them. Like my photos, a single photo can conjure up quite a story.

Pairs: Seek and Find

  • by

We've been home from Chicago for a couple of days, but didn't leave until after church on Easter Sunday. Grandpa is the ultimate scavenger hunt creator for the Easter Bunny. Years ago, when our two kids were teenagers we were vacationing on Easter Sunday. I had taken Easter basket goodies with me and Tracy hid the baskets. When the kids got up, they wanted to know where the clues were. When Tracy told them we didn't have a scavenger hunt this year, they sat down, and said, "We'll wait!" So they did, and Tracy created a hunt for them.

Sarah and I found little bunny prints at Party City, and all the clues for Caleb were photographs of familiar places around the house. The hunt took him to several rooms, the pantry, and finally the basement where he found his Easter basket in the dryer.

Seek and Find

Seek&Find

 

After church, Sarah's church hosted an Easter egg hunt. Caleb had a grand time.

IMG_8169ed_blog

IMG_8165ed_blog

IMG_8172ed_blog

As always, I'm linking up to Helena's fine meme, Pairs. You can see the others right here.

Pairs: Back and Forth

  • by

We've had several nice warm days in Chicago. The crocus are blooming in Sarah's backyard, and on our walk to the playground yesterday afternoon we spotted several robins hopping about in yards, and lots of daffodils and tulips pushing up through the ground. Sarah and Adam live just a short walk from a wonderful school playground which has a section designed just for younger children. Caleb loves to go, and his favorite activity is the swing. I did a series of Burst photos on the iPhone and thought Back and Forth would make a good pair for this week.

IMG_8510ed_blog

IMG_8520ed_blog

As always, our time here has flown by, and we just have two more full days before we head home. Today it's cloudy, but the forecast for tomorrow and Easter Sunday looks lovely! (The forecast for home, however, is not anywhere nearly as lovely when we return. Good thing I have lots of inside work to do!)

Baby Shower

  • by

There is a baby shower today in Hyde Park for my niece who is expecting her first baby, a little boy. She's due the day after my birthday, so I'm hoping for a delivery a day early! I wish I could be there, but we leave (again) this afternoon for Chicago. Sarah and the youth group from her church fly to the Dominican Republic this morning for a mission trip. She's returning Tuesday night (before the youth group returns) to be back in town for Holy Week services. With both Sarah and Adam in church a lot this week, Grandma and Grandpa will be spending lots of time with Caleb. A good deal all around!

I sent the gift and card for the shower to my brother ahead of time. 

Baby

A CAS card, my preferred style. All the products except the enamel dots (MME) are from Papertrey Ink: Bitty Dot Basics, Select White cardstock, Wonderful Words: Baby die, Sheer Basics vellum, and the new Keep It Simple frames. I love that striped vellum which worked perfectly with the frame.

BabyClose

My Dining Room Ministry prepares lunch today at church, so I'm off to cook lunch before we get on the road. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post or comment while we're away, but I'll be catching up with you when we return. We got another inch or so of snow last night, and the wind is whipping outside my window. I hope Spring finally decides to make an appearance by the time we return!

Pairs: Top and Bottom, Front and Back

  • by

The last day we were in Florida, we went to visit Selby Gardens in Sarasota. One of the things I enjoy doing in a botanical garden is to look for pattern and light. Once I found one of these pairs, I started looking for others. I'm not sure which label works best for these three pairs, what do you think?

IMG_8058ed_blog

FrontBack1

FrontBack2

Sometimes both sides of a plant or flower are beautiful! I'll have more to share about our visit to Selby once I get time to edit the rest of the photos. I'm linking up to Helena's meme and off to see what other pairs were posted this week.

It’s All About Butterflies

  • by

When these cards were made I was so sick of winter I decided to break out the butterflies for some of the March/April birthdays.

ButterflyBD2

This card uses my new favorite paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder" by Maile Belles, "Life is Beautiful" dies, and some of the new "Sheer Basics" vellum, all by Papertrey Ink. I think it was Nicole Heady who created the card with this die cut technique during the anniversary release. It turned out to be pretty easy to do.

ButterflyBD2Close

The next card uses one of my favorite papers from "Watercolor Wonder." It reminds me of the little embellishment clusters that some of my favorite scrapbookers use on their layouts, but so much easier.

ButterflyBD

I die cut the solid butterfly from an old Papertrey Ink pad I hadn't used in quite some time called "Pretty Pastels." The lovely sentiment is from "Inside and Out: Birthdays" by Papertrey.

ButterflyClose

It turned out to be very difficult to photograph, but the vellum is covered with tiny polka dots.

After two weeks in the sun, I'm hoping for an early spring in the northeast!

Project Life: June 2014

  • by

There won't be any scrapbooking done in March since we'll be away more than we're home. Once we get settled in again, Project Life needs to rise up to the top of the priority list. June was a pretty quick month to put together. It only needed two pages.

June2Page

Sarah and Caleb left at the beginning of the month after being here for Matt and Betsy's wedding reception. I love the photo of Caleb pulling his suitcase down our front sidewalk. It's always so poignant when he leaves!

JunePage1

A week later, I left to go to Detroit for the Presbyterian, USA General Assembly. Our head of staff was standing for moderator. Sadly (for the Presbyterian Church, and for John) the election did not go his way, but I learned a lot about how the larger church functions, and enjoyed my time in Detroit with my church friends.

JunePage2

Abi asked on a recent blog post, if her readers really felt like adults, or did we still feel like kids. I'm so far into adulthood, that I guess it's a moot question. Nonetheless, I really did feel like there was a shift when Matt and Betsy asked us to their house to celebrate Father's Day. I love to entertain, but it was so nice to be asked to celebrate with them. And I just adore the photo of Matt and Skylar. I don't know what the topic of conversation was, but it's clear they both were taking it seriously.

June marks the month of the beginning of Farmer's Markets in the area. Before then there isn't enough local produce to warrant the market. We make weekly trips to our local Brighton Farmer's Market, and almost always, make a trip to the Ithaca Farmer's Market some time in June. Taking photos at the market is one of my favorite things to do. 

When this post goes live, we'll be on our way home from Florida. It's been in the high 70's and low 80's the whole two weeks on Longboat Key. Rochester's temps are still varying widely from the 30's to the 50's. Matt says the snow has melted off our roof, but not from the yard. It's going to be an adjustment!

 

A Reason to Celebrate

  • by

Recently a friend celebrated her 65th birthday AND her retirement. We had a great time at her open house, and took this card and a bottle of wine.

Card&Wine

The card turned out to be a snap to make. I picked up Teresa Collins' Studio Gold "Create a Beautiful Life" paper pad at Joanne Fabrics a few months ago. I gold embossed the sentiment from "The Big, The Bold, and The Party" by Winnie and Walter, and added that panel to another patterned paper from the same pad.

Celebrate

 

The gold embossing powder turned out to be an almost perfect match.

CelebrateClose

The wine tag was created with the "Uncorked" dies by Papertrey Ink, some gold and silver papers from The Paper Source, and a strip of same paper used for the card. And, of course, some sequins.

CheersTag

All I can wish for someone who retires is that they enjoy themselves as much as I have since I retired! A former colleague told friend of mine who was considering retirement not to be in any hurry, since retirement was "lonely and boring." I felt so bad for her. I'm never bored, never lonely, and fortunately, neither is my friend who retired in October and is having a fine time of it.

We're off tonight to celebrate a wonderful vacation at The Dry Dock. Our friends, Bonnie and Ed, who just happened to be here on Longboat Key with us for several days took us there the first week we were here. We loved it, and already know what we're going to order this time around. Can't say I'm very excited about heading back to the cold. Matt tells us a lot of the snow has melted, but as I expected, there's still snow on the ground. Hard to imagine, sitting here looking out on the Gulf of Mexico in the bright sunshine.

Pairs at The Ringling

  • by

One of the top items on our To Do list for this vacation was to visit The Ringling Museum. We spent the afternoon at the Circus Museum, and walked down to Ca'D'Zan, the Ringling mansion but never made it to the art museum which we know is fabulous. Obviously, we'll need to come back to Sarasota another time to visit the art museum and go on the house tour.

I'll have more on this excursion when I do my vacation recap, but on our walk from the Circus Museum to the mansion we passed a grove of banyan trees. They never fail to amaze me and I thought a look up and down (or more appropriately "high" and "low") would make for a good pair for Helena's meme.

High

Low

And then we discovered this hiding among the roots of another banyan tree.

IMG_7995_blog

Off to check out the other Pairs at Helena's.