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Pairs: On the Bush & In the Bowl

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When we moved into this house nearly 30 years ago, a kind neighbor walked us around the property pointing out some valuable plants that might not have been recognized. One was a tree peony. Sadly, it's in our lower yard, in a corner that can't be viewed easily from the house or our patio. One year when Matt was living here, he cut one of the flowers and floated it in a bowl. Ever since, that's been our practice, so now we can enjoy the beautiful blooms for as long as they last on the tree.

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On the Bush

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In the Bowl

Project Life: January 2015

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Well, finally, I've gotten to the current year. January found us in Wilmette with Sarah and Adam, and then quickly after our return, on our way to Florida with my mother-in-law's van. 

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Last year, all my title cards were created with Papertrey Ink's Monthly Moment dies and stamps. For 2015, I switched to the Paislee Press Calendar Title cards, and I like them very much. I wish the family photo on the card showed up better on the layout. It's one of my favorites. The journaling card and the filler card are both from Papertrey's Monthly Moments Journal Collection, and the mittens were punched with a punch I bought so long ago, I have no memory of where I purchased it.

Adam thought we ought to take Caleb on a "bean hunt," so we headed to Millennial Park for the morning. Sarah thought it was way too cold, but she was a good sport, and I appreciated the opportunity for some good family photos. Caleb was fascinated with the ice skaters on the level below. This was also the weekend of Sarah's official start as Acting Associate Pastor for the Winnetka Congregational Church.

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I decided at the beginning of the year, to do another Capture Your 365, but this time soley with my iPhone. I've kept it up for 4 1/2 months now, and have learned to use quite a few of the apps I had already downloaded to my phone. When I looked at them for January, I realized they painted a pretty good picture of my life:  family, travel, and some of my volunteer commitments. This is the first page of them. The photos of the beautiful pottery are from the Cameros Collection on view at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY. It's one of our favorite museums, and we stop there whenever we go through Corning.

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I created the filler card with some patterned paper from MME, and some stamps from My Favorite Things and Live, Love, Life by Papertrey. The die is an old Spellbinders: Label II.

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The filler card here was created with some Avery Elle paper, "Sorbet," and a wood veneer from Ali Edwards. The photo of Ella and me has to be one of the very few selfies I've ever taken that I liked enough to print! I was babysitting, and the mirror over Matt and Betsy's couch proved to be a great way to get a photo without the iPhone showing.

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I was sick the whole trip to Florida. We managed to get to an Antique Auto Museum in Tallahassee (photo on the Instagram page), and drove out to St. Mark's Wildlife Refuge. When we finally arrived at Fort Myer's Beach, I basically vegged out the whole five days. Not many photos to show for it.

Project Life

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When I returned from Chicago in early April, I had nine months of Project Life pages to complete. Tuesday I finished them all!!! It took six weeks, which isn't bad considering all the other things that were on the calendar. Now my goal is to be like Becky, and get the pages done as soon as the month ends. Even with a lot of upcoming travel this summer, I think I can do that. 

Today was the perfect spring day, warm temperatures and sunny. I took a long walk to the Ellwanger Gardens, and then through Highland Park. Today was the last day of the Lilac Festival, and it was very crowded. I'm so glad we have easy access to the park when it's not under siege! Although there are a lot of lilacs in bloom, it's not yet at peak.

So sharing a layout from last December seems kind of odd, but in the interest of chronology, that's what I'm doing. You'll get a heavy dose of Project Life pages in the next few weeks.

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The title card was made with a variety of die cuts from Papertrey Ink, Savvy, and a couple old punches. I used an Ali Edward photo template to collage four photos of the Christmas decorations. I created the journaling card with some washi tape and a cute little house clip that came in a kit (not sure which one.)

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I've saved Christmas cards that I thought I might be able to use in my scrapbooks for several years, but I think this is the first time I've actually used one. The little Christmas tree made the perfect filler card.

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We celebrate Christmas twice, once in Rochester on Christmas Day with Matt & Betsy and all of Tracy's family, and then again in Wilmette with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

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The top card was created with a Silhouette file, and an old sticker from Michaels. Once again Cathy Zielski's Tiny Template came in handy for some journaling.

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The big event in Wilmette is not Christmas, but Caleb's birthday which comes very quickly after our Christmas with them. There wasn't a party, but he had a wonderful day! Adam found a grocery store that created a Thomas Train cake for him; just what he ordered! 

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You might remember a craft exchange among bloggers several years ago. Alexa sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies, including these metal letters that spelled out Caleb's name. She probably wondered if she was ever going to see them put to use! The balloons were die cut from a Simon Says set of balloon dies.

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The adorable "three" clip is another of the goodies sent by Alexa. I cut a small slit in the Simple Stories journaling card to hold it.

Now that I'm caught up with Project Life, I'm on to the next BIG undertaking: purging! I've gotten a good start on my studio. Despite the fact that I got rid of at least half of what I owned last year, it's clear there is still way too much stuff here for one person to use. I think it was Ali Edwards who said it's so much easier to make decisions when you have fewer things to consider. I've eliminated almost all my patterned 12X12 paper, I kept just one container with papers I thought I'd use for Project Life or card making. Embellishments have been cut in half as well, and today I packed up 3/4 of the button collection I'd accumulated to take to the paper crafting charity shop. They'll be happy to see me. 

The rest of the house is in pretty good shape from last year's purging, but our basement and attic haven't been touched! We will have been in this house 30 years come September and I'm guessing we'll be into the fall before this project is completed.

 

Pairs: Bud and Flower

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Last week for Helena's meme, Pairs, I had three photos because I couldn't choose. This week I have just one photograph with both bud and flower. I love the lilacs in Highland Park. They are just beginning to pop out, but I think I like them just as much when they are budding as when they are in full flower. 

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You really can't tell the exact color the lilac will be from the bud which is a different hue. Both are lovely.

Project Life: November 2014

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It's been a few days since I've had time to make any progress on my Project Life pages. I've switched gears a bit, and am working on getting all the photos printed for the last four months I need to do to catch up. I'm hoping by this time next week, I'll be done. Meanwhile, I do have photos for the November layouts, so it's time to start sharing again.

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I rarely do a page with all black and white photos, but I love how this came out. Most of these photos were taken in the hospital by a professional photographer, and we have both color and black and white versions. I converted the rest to black and white, and used Papertrey Ink's new Mini Market Kit and Monthly Moments stamps and dies to embellish the page. I love the pink and gray with the black and white photos.

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Tracy gave me a three month subscription to the project life kit at Cocoa Daisy a year or so ago, and I still had this card from one of the kits. The letter stickers are from Hobby Lobby, and the little bird is from Wee Folk. This photo of Betsy and Ella is one of my faves.

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It's not often that both my kids are here for Thanksgiving, but thanks to Ella's arrival, Sarah, Adam and Caleb arrived from Chicago to spend a long weekend. 

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We spent a lot of time at Matt and Betsy's taking turns holding the precious baby!

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It's hard to tell, but the die cut on the Paislee Press journaling card (Simon Says Stitched Circles) and the die cuts here (Paper Smooches) are cut from a bronze metallic paper and have a beautiful shimmer to them.

 

Happy Mother’s Day

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It's Mother's Day here in the States, and I've had a lovely day—flowers, phone calls, Face Book compliments, and a lovely afternoon at my sister and brother-in-law's where we celebrated with Tracy's family.

I made just one card this year—for my mother-in-law. You couldn't find a more devoted mother anywhere, and she extends her love and devotion to her daughter-in-laws and son-in-law as well.

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On my last trip to Buffalo Stamps and Stuff I picked up a Penny Black set ("Kind Words") that has a wide variety of sentiments. This one for Mother's Day is just perfect. The frame is cut from patterned paper by Amy Tangerine "Plus One" with the Monthly Moments Slide Frame die by Papertrey. I fussy cut the little flowers from "Happiness in Bloom" and adhered it all to the card front after scoring five lines. Two enamel dots filled the flower centers.

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I'm linking this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Let's Get Sentimental." 

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If you're celebrating Mother's Day, I hope it was a good one!

Happy Retirement

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It's 90° as I write this. We've gone from winter to spring to summer in less than three weeks! It won't last, but I never complain about the heat. It does seem odd, however, to have turned on the air conditioning in my car this early in May. We won't do that in the house for awhile as it always cools down nicely at night in the spring.

We're off to help our friend, Bill, celebrate his retirement tonight. I hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

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I started with a piece of white cardstock that I scored on the scoreboard every half inch. Then I used the Sentiment Splits die and backed the split with patterned paper from the Mini Market "Clipsters" kit from Papertrey Ink. The "Oh Yeah" die and stamp are from the same kit as is the sentiment on the bottom of the card. The starts are left over from die cutting the Simply Stars cover plate a long time ago. I layered three of the "Oh Yeah" dies to get some extra dimension.

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I find it hard to believe given how many stamps sets I have that there are very few (I found two!) sentiment stamps for retirement. This one is from one of the first sets I purchased from Papertrey many years ago, "Mega Mixed Messages." The "Cheers" die cut and stamp are from Retro Birthday.

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I'm linking this up to Virginia View's latest challenge "Layers and Dimensions."

Layers and Dimensions

Lots of Thanks

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I needed three thank you cards—quickly! Luckily I found two in my stash, and this one came together very quickly by going through my stash of already stamped and colored images and pre-cut die cuts. I'm not sure I would have put this together starting from scratch but I like it quite a bit and think I'll use this design again.

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I started with Papertrey's "Building Blocks" cover plate die in True Black and adhered it to a white card. Then I stamped the sentiment with Simon Says "Thanks" set. The "Delightful Dahlia" was already colored with Copics and fussy cut, so all I had to do was pop it up with a piece of dimensional tape. 

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My friend is a fan of florals and pink, so I think she'll enjoy this card. 

Pairs: Zoom In, Zoom Out

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This might be the first ZIZO pair for the year. I've been trying to be more creative, but this just works when it's flowering trees that are the focus. Monday I posted some photos from our walk in Highland Park on Sunday night. I saved these three (yes, one more than a pair because I couldn't choose) for this week's Pairs.

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Zoom Out:

 

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Although most of the trees are labeled in the park, I neglected to note exactly what kind of flowering tree this is. Next time I'm there I'll look. (Thanks to Cheri, I can tell you now that it's a Kwanzan Cherry tree. She has one in her backyard–lucky lady!)

Spring has Sprung

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It takes a long time for Spring to arrive in Western New York, but after several days in the 70's and 80's it is here. Last night after dinner, Tracy and I walked to Highland Park. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, it is a fabulous place, and less than two blocks from our front door. According the website, there are over 1200 lilac bushes, 35 varieties of magnolias, and many azaleas, rhododendron, and gorgeous flower beds. The pansy bed supposedly has over 10,000 plants and was totally redesigned this winter. The lilacs are just beginning to bud. Hopefully, our warm weather will continues because the annual Lilac Festival begins on Friday. Visitors won't be disappointed, however, because the magnolias and flowering trees are simply beautiful. Here are some highlights from our walk:

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I've saved a couple photos for Wednesday's Pairs posting, and I'm likely to be back with some photos of the Lilac Festival in the next week or two.

 

Project Life: October 2014

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October saw us on the road again, off on the postponed July trip to Petoskey, MI and Door County, WI. A friend of mine lives in Milwaukee and vacations regularly in Door Co. and a friend of Tracy's made a winter trip to Petoskey and we were intrigued. Of course, we ended up in Wilmette for some time with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

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I finished September's layouts with a Design G page so went with a smaller title card: Papertrey's Monthly Moments die cut, some stamps from the July Monthly Moments set, and a piece of Washi tape on a Becky Higgins' Midnight card. The photos (clockwise) from top left are Petoskey; my friend, Nancy and her friend, Mary; the lighthouse at Muskegon, MI; Peninsula Park in Door County; and a dramatic sunset after a cold, windy, rainy day in Petoskey. (The photos look a bit out of focus here, but it's the photo of the pages causing the problem.)

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I scanned two pages from my travel sketchbook to show our itinerary, my favorite photos of Caleb at the garden center and Kohl's Children's Museum, and ended up with two photos from our stop on our way home to meet our friends, Karen and Mike, for our annual weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

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Halloween

I had fun creating the cards for the Halloween spread. I used an OLD piece of Scenic Route patterned paper for the title card with some equally old Doodlebug border stickers, and a stamp from Monthly Moments on a Keep it Simple Frame die cut. I die cut the Journal Card #5 from a piece of patterned paper from the Lawn Fawn "Beachside" paper pad and layered it over a contrasting piece from the same set. The cute little owl is by Doodlebug that I picked it up recently in a lovely little store near Sarah's. 

Caleb tried on his Halloween costume which I made for Matt when he was little. The only alteration needed was to hem the pants. He practiced his roars for us, as well. When Halloween actually arrived it was cold with hail. After three houses, he announced he was ready to go home. Candy was definitely not worth slogging through the terrible weather. When I asked on Face Time about trick or treating next year, he said, "NEVER!" We'll see.

It wasn't great here, but not quite so bad. No surprise, Skylar was Elsa from Frozen, and had a better time than Caleb. The pumpkins are Matt's creation; every year he gets a little more creative with them.

The second page of the layout is just photos from the trip. Door County is known for it's lighthouses as it extends into both Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We visited several of them. Here are a few more photos I added at the end of the month's pages.

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Although it's hard to read, the third photo on the left-hand page is of the plaque at the 45th Parallel which we crossed twice on this trip. It marks the theoretical half-way point between the North Pole and the equator. The hot dog on the right-hand page is a Chicago Dog–which I actually had in Petoskey, MI. It turned out to be the best one I've ever had. (I've eaten three of these calorie-laden dogs now, and I'm quite sure there are more in my future.)

Today is International Scrapbooking Day, and with some time off to go to spinning class, and walk down to Matt's to get our bikes out of his garage, I expect to be working on Project Life. It's May, and I didn't quite meet my goal of getting caught up. I did, however, finish all the pages for 2014, so there'll be more spreads to share soon.

Pairs: Part to Whole

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When I flipped my birthday calendar over to May, I was somewhat taken aback to see that I needed 12 birthday and anniversary cards, and only one or two appropriate ones in my file. I took some time off from Project Life and got busy. The first night, I grabbed a stack of scraps from my pile and die cut a whole group of "happys" with Papertrey Ink's "Wet Paint" die.

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Then I set to work designing some cards. I finished all twelve, but can't post all of them yet, since some of the recipients read my blog regularly. Here are four–three are a variation on a theme.

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All the cards are in their envelopes with the dates they need to be mailed, so today I'm back to working on Project Life. I don't have many commitments this weekend, so even though tomorrow is May 1, I'm still plugging along, hoping to catch up soon!

Songbirds

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When I need a quick card, I often reach for my Songbird die cuts. When I first purchased this stamp and die set, I die cut multiple pieces and can usually put them together to make a quick card. 

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The folk art nature of these dies seems to lend itself to kraft cardstock. I love the pop of bright yellow gold and orange against the brown.

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For the second card, I die cut the Phrase Play #6 in kraft and layered it on a cream card base. Then I tied a piece of twin (from my very cool antique-looking twine holder) and layered a branch with a bird with dimensional tape.

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The sentiment also comes from Phrase Play #6 (Papertrey Ink.)

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Both cards fit the current Virginia's View challenge of Layers and Dimension, but I'm just linking up this last one for now.

Layers and Dimensions

 

Just Sayin”

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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.

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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.

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

Week 143 - Ombre

Project Life: September 2014

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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 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.

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 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!