Mar 17, 2014 | Wildlife |
Normally I blog about the birds each spring. I have Eastern Bluebirds that nest each year in my back yard and raise their family. They seem to return every year. I’m a little behind on sharing with you here on my blog. I did share some on my Facebook page – it’s pretty easy to take a photo inside the bird house with my iphone and then post to Facebook. The pictures of the birds I take with my Cannon Rebel XTI and apparently I haven’t downloaded photos from there in a while which means I haven’t shared them either. Yesterday I downloaded all the photos – over 500 – of various things from the last year. And today I’m going to share some bird pictures with you. I’m so ready for spring and they are too!
Mama bluebird in the house. This was the week she was laying her eggs.
2 Bluebird eggs in the nest on March 8th
Taking a break and getting some water at the fountain
She laid 5 eggs again to start the year. This was taken on March 13th.
the Hawk was in the yard recently
Cedar Waxwings come in large flocks and land in the trees. They are migrating north but seemed to linger here longer than normal this year.
The Cedar Waxwings like the blossoms.
Cedar Waxwing’s at the fountain. Brightly “dipped” wings in red and yellow on the tail.
I hope you enjoyed these photos today of the birds.
Mar 16, 2014 | Cards, Punch Art, Sale-A-Bration 2014 |
When Skies are Gray like today you need a little pick me and this little card might be just the right thing!
We have had pouring rain ALL day so it is a very gray day here at my house. Everyone is home – no golf for Greg today. I was sort of waiting to post this card on a rainy day and I guess this is it. This card was part of my Sale-A-Bration class last month. I have seen many people make the sunshine using the little Banner Punch – this is my version. I went with a Summer Starfruit colored sun – I used the Sweet Sorbet Designer Paper for the center of the sun and then used the Banner punch to make the sun rays. Here is a tip for how I added the rays to the circle – think of a compass and add one banner at North, East, South and West. Then fill in between each of those with two banners. That was the easiest way for me to get them somewhat evenly spaced around the circle.
One of the many cards that I saw with this sunshine idea included clouds made from the Cupcake Punch! What a great idea – I’ve actually used that before – remember the stamp set with the hot air balloons from last year – I added clouds to that one. But sometimes you forget until someone triggers you. My clouds are Smoky Slate on this card.
The stamp image is from the See Ya Later stamp set. I used Stampin’ Write Markers to color the stamp, but also stamped the large Happy in the Summer Starfruit so it could be cut out and popped up.
You make me HAPPY when skies are gray. What a nice thing to say!
Mar 14, 2014 | In Colors, Occasions Catalog 2014, Sale-A-Bration 2014, Scrapbook Pages |
I created a scrapbook layout with the Sweet Sorbet Collection from Sale-A-Bration. I used the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series paper and the Accessory Pack along with the See Ya Later stamp set. Here is my 2-page 12″ x 12″ scrapbook layout.
The colors included are Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit, Basic Black, and Whisper White. Here are some closeups of the clusters of elements….
After I took out the cork pieces that I was using I decided to try punching out from the scraps that were left. I was able to use the Itty Bitty Punch pack and punch extra little flowers to add on my page. I just used a Black Marker to add a dot in the center of each flower.
There is a punched heart border across the layout with flower sprinkled in. The flowers are from the Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch.
I tied bows with the colored Baker’s Twine from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory pack and added them to my page with glue dots. To keep the ends from unraveling I tied little knots.
A couple of the In Color Boutique Details were added to the page too – Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding were part of my color scheme. If you have been a Paper Pumpkin subscriber you would have received a free gift of these in one of the last few kits – I think they came in the January kit.
The page is ready for pictures and journaling to be added. What do you think about the layout?
Thanks for stopping by.
Mar 12, 2014 | My Digital Studio, Scrapbook Pages |
Last night we had one of our MDS Digi Crop nites near my house. We meet at a local restaurant that has wifi (not that we necessarily need it but we do use it while we are there). That’s one of the nice things about the My Digital Studio software it is loaded on your computer and you don’t need to be connect to the internet to use it and create with it. You need the internet connection to download digital content that you want to add to your software, or to send your completed project to the printer. Or if you want to share your creation on a social network. Most of us shared our creations last night after we finished them. Here is mine
The challenge we had last night that Cindy came up with was this –
- start with a sketch or template (I started with a Rounded Corner photo template – it had 2 photos, I deleted one and made the other one taller)
- add punches (my background is actually a square punch, and the letters for ETOWAH are punches)
- add a photo with rounded corners (it was already in the template)
- use only 3 colors (plus white or vanilla) (I color matched the dark blue and yellow to Ryan’s uniform, also had white and the the overlays are watermark as the color choice).
Everyone finished – even me – yes that laugh at me because I don’t necessarily get mine done while we are there. But I did last night and I was even late getting there.
On this page I tried out a Double Mat trick on my photo – a long time ago it was asked could you create a double mat on a photo – well the MAT option only allows one. But what came to me in a dream (no really it did) was this – create the photo with the mat that you want. Make a copy and paste in place and the second one create the second mat. Adjusting the size so that one mat is larger than the other. The larger one needs to be the one in the back. It was quick and easy to do this since you don’t have to check the sizes or anything just adjust the number on the MAT. There are other ways to accomplish the look of a double mat but this was what I did.
Have a great day!
Mar 11, 2014 | Big Shot, My Digital Studio, Paper Pumpkin, Tell Me Tuesday, Weekly Deals |
We have had a few beautiful spring days! I have been taking pictures of the birds and flowers and today took a quick trip to Gibbs Gardens to see the daffodils. I have to download all the pictures off my big camera so that I can start posting them.
Here is the Stampin’ Up! Tuesday news….
You can go straight to my online store – SHOP HERE.
- Two Brand new Photopolymer Stamp sets – Sweetie Pie stamp set and Sweetie Pie Frames stamp set – something brand new designed by one of the Stampin’ Up! Employees – Cindy who works in the Communications department. See these are other new arrivals – HERE.
- New Weekly Deals 3/11 – 3/17 – This weeks deals…. BIG SHOT deals!!
- New My Digital Studio Downloads – New stuff this week….
- This will be ending soon! Paper Pumpkin New Member special has been extended through March 31, 2014. If you haven’t previously joined Paper Pumpkin there is a special for new memberships – join now and you will get a free pack of 2012-2014 In-color Markers with your welcome kit! I need one more membership to earn a free sneak peek stamp set from the next annual catalog. Are you my next member?
JOIN TODAY – just CLICK HERE – to go to the sign up. And you can see ideas with past kits by visiting my Paper Pumpkin Idea Pinterest Board. - Sale-A-Bration is ending soon – don’t miss it!!! 1/28 – 3/31 – It’s our biggest event of the year! For every $50 you spend you get a FREE Sale-A-Bration gift! Shop, Host or Join.
I hope you found something fun in the things I listed above!
Order online at my store any time – START HERE.
