Camera thoughts-

The New Years Eve post was done with my new camera- a Kodak Z1015 IS. While I think the pictures are good enough, I'm not happy with the Kodak editing software... so now I have to figure out how to go back to the HP software I had, or the Microsoft editing software that showed up unexpectedly the other day. Umm, where'd that come from??

I wish I had a picture of me pulling my hair out, lol!!

Be careful if you are out tonight, please!

Happy New Year's Eve!

What better way to celebrate the New Year than to have a baby right? Thud lol, not us, silly! Traditionally the first baby of the New Year get gifts from a community~ and our hospital is no exception! We celebrate the first girl and first boy. These are the cards I made to go in the gift baskets~

The boy card is an A-2, and is the Casual Midweek Challenge #28 on the PapertreyInk forum. The sketch is by Mary K, and she published it way back in October. I saved it up to do a baby bubbles card, lol! The blue patterned paper is SU's Print Patterns Bashful Blue. The banner was cut from a Sizzix die. Of course, the bitty baby faces came from PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings set. Numbers are from PTI's monogram set; the sentiments are from Mixed Messages. The First Baby Boy words were created with PTI's Simple Alphabet. Ok, this alphabet is not simple to work with, lol, but the outcome is great! Just pay close attention when you clean them; mine have been known to disappear and then show up in the strangest place, lol! The little charm came from Wilton's wedding and baby shower section.

The bubbles are those round firm half circle thingies (they must have a proper name, but it eludes me!). The top one is cute in half, to have the baby explode out. Isn't that clever? Well, it was Michele's (Iamderby) idea, not mine! There are clear Stickles all over the banner and making smaller bubbles all over the card.



The girl card is different~ the banner holding sweet animals is a Stampin' Up! stamp. It yelled at me from the bottom drawer to come out and welcome a baby girl! The background paper is an Imported Italian or Indian one, with lots of glitter! Fran over at Frantic Stamper has papers like this one on sale this week~ actually, the sale might end today, so you'd better go check! I colored with SU markers because they have the finest tip, and the sentiments and numbers and letters are all PTI sets like the boy card. Lots of glitter on this one, too!

I typed the inside sentiment on the computer, and printed it on SU's Whisper White card stock. I hope the new mommies like them!

A Comparison

Here's a re-do of one of yesterdays cards, just to see the color comparison.

Now I am off to go read the manual, lol, and see how much better the photos can get!

Just as a first impression: The buttons are very obvious. The LCD screen is bigger than I need, and it uses lots of battery to run, but there is a viewfinder if I want that outside. It's a perfect fit for my hands, but it is a wee bit heavy (I'm not sure it could be any lighter and still have the configuration I need to keep my hands around it).

Now off to watch the DVD, and play around!

New Camera!

It's here, it's here! Camera choice was way too complex for me to think about, so I asked my DD to choose one within my budget, knowing what I wanted it to do, and here it is!! A Kodak EasyShare Z1015 IS.

Here's the first card! Let me know how it looks to you!!

Twins!

I dreamed my broken camera fixed itself overnight~ not so. I turned off the autofocus, and now it will take pictures, but it's very hard to figure out if the pictured is focused or not, lol!

This is a plain & simple but effective card for twins~ it's so sweet! I colored the duck bills in SU's Summer Sun marker, and it looks like a perfect match to the PI Summer Sunrise cs. The brads are also from SU, but aren't a perfect match. OTOH, the little bit of color difference works well. The duckies are from Bitty Baby Blessings, of course, as is the sentiment. The label is a Nestability I bought from PTI.

It was painful to have a card with no ribbon or buttons, lol, but I did it!

Spring Rain and Pure Poppy

Oh dear, I played with the colors and saturation, and I think I lost Spring Rain!

The patterned paper is from Papertrey, the new Men of Life 8 x 8 pad. The onsie is cut from the cover of the pad, lol, so the color is a wee bit different. The layers are cut from Pure Poppy with Nestabilities rectangles. 'Little One' comes from inside one of the ovals from Just Hatched, I cut out all of the sentiments from the ovals as soon as I got the set, lol! The blue ribbons are Spring Rain gingham and twill, the white is SU's 1/4 inch grosgrain; they are tied to a Close To My Heart White spiral clip.

6/40 for January, lol...

5 Baby Cards from Blog Hop Inspiration!

On last night's Blog Hop, Lori showed 3 baby cards using the 'silk' something or other technique with tissue paper. You can see her cards here. Now, I have no idea what the technique entails, but I do know I loved her cards! Today was a baby card day, so when I got up this morning I went right to her site!

When I was done making 5 cards and done dinner, I shook my ailing camera, told it where it was going if it didn't behave, and pushed all of the buttons it has. Interestingly, when I turned off the auto focus, the funny noise went away and the picture came into focus! It lasted long enough to take these photos! Yay!

The first card is almost an exact copy of Jen's, using Papertrey's AquaMist and Lemon Tart. Of course, the baby onsie on all of the cards is from Bitty Baby Blessings. Instead of the tissue she used, I used a patterned vellum, on top of the polka dots from the Print Polka dots pad. The vellum here is not from Papertrey, but they do sell a similar one. Both ribbons are the twill, it ties a bow so well!

I kinda liked the button, so I did a similar print from Print Polka dot, using the big dots and small dots like Jen did, but kept it simpler, and used more buttons. Layers were cut with Nestabilities rectangles. That's a bit of SU's Linen twine through the button holes.

Next I thought I'd better do a girl kind, so used Sweet Blush. I'm almost out of the larger polka dots, so used only the small. I went back to Jen's cards, but did a different set of layers. The Ripe Avocado went through the CB using the Swiss Dots EF. The oval layers are Marvy Punches, just sliced down the middle. Lol, it looks cuter IRL, with all of the ribbons and a random button!

For the yellow, I stayed very simple. Actually, with them all sitting next to each other, this one is the most visually pleasing. Lemon Tart and Ripe Avocado are wonderful together!

Lastly is another Sweet Blush, this time paired with Berry Sorbet. It may be hard to see the colors in the dots, but there is a green one in there; the Spring Moss ribbon is the perfect added touch!

Only 5 cards in one day~ seems like I should be able to make more than 5... why does it take me so long??? I do have one using Spring Rain and the Men of Life papers, but it isn't even close to being done!

December Blog Hop: Trash!

Blog Hop?? Already??

Actually, I've been thinking 'trash to treasures' a lot the past few days, but with no camera to photograph, I thought I was doomed. Then, word came that Santa might be bringing me a camera, so I started to think of things to make...

On Christmas Eve we do 'crackers', and as the paper pieces were being thrown away, I saw them in a new light.


See the popped crackers?? They have little toys inside, which we pretty instantly throw away, so don't ask me why we do them~ I guess we love to wear the little paper hats inside, lol...



How do they look as favors?? I punched the Marvy pink scallop circles in Pure Poppy, and cut the torn crackers into pieces. They were already a tube, and you can see how the tubes were cut to allow the middles to fold in. I hope I'm making sense. I then glued the cut parts to the punched circle, and done they were!! These crackers have pictures in one direction only, so I am only able to get two favors from one cracker- since the bottom section has no cut edges to glue. Still, I had a dozen crackers, so I could get 24 favors from them. If I wanted to dig in the trash, that is!!

Oh, and if you are thinking Santa brought me a camera with bad color images, it's not true. I am still camera-less, sigh.

Moonlit Night

Not sure why the photo looks 'warped' in the middle, lol...

I created this during a PTI Blog Hop a while back, but now I forget what we were talking about to stimulate me to try this. Vellum, I think.

The background is Summer Sunrise ink on Lemon Tart cs. The clouds are blue ink-sorry, forget the color- swireled on vellum. The moon is a piece of alcohol inked paper punched out. the vellum was torn, and Tombow'd down. then, trees from SU's Lovely as a Tree were stamped in Versafine Onyx Black. Stars were added with a white Signo pen. The whole shebang was layered onto black.

Retrospectively, I wish I had edged the piece in black, then layered it on a dark blue or a different color. A couple of brads would add some depth, too.

Pioneer Woman Survives!!

Yes, we have power again! 5 days without was the longest I think I have gone in recent memory, lol, and I survived! With the DH away, I was alone for half of it. When he got home he was aptly impressed to learn I still had water to spare, the fire had only gone out on the warmest day and I did that to shovel ashes out, and that I made 'drip' coffee instead of boiled. hey, I just heated the water on the wood stove and poured it through the little mesh basket on the dripolater!

I have decided to put off buying a camera until after December 26 when the credit card rolls over, lol. If I don't post often between now and then, you'll know it is either because the Holidays are keeping me busy or gosh, I haven't any photos to share!

No Power!!

It's true, things are a bit rough in my neck of the woods. We've had no power since Thursday night. The power company 'scout' came up our dirt road today and said he thought they would have us back on line on Tuesday. The lines from my DD's house to the pole are almost touching the ground, so we can't go live until they get them back tight to the pole. Since we heat with wood, staying warm is not an issue.

So! It's taken the pressure off getting a new camera, lol, but I am sorry I have no uploads for you! Keep checking back, and hopefully on Tuesday I'll have something new to share!!

Snowflakes!

My SIL gave me some package wrappers her business used last year; they were punched out snowflakes, they had a score line, and slots in the middle to run ribbon through. I made a card with them, back a few pages, but had this idea in my mind.

I just folded them the intended size, and punched out a few extra snowflakes. SU's whisper White matched quite well, so I made 3 purple sized Marvy snowflakes. I stamped those giant flakes with PTI's Snowfall flake in glue, then added glitter. A SU bling brad is in the middle of each. Those are put on the center where the ribbon slots were. Inside are red tea lights in square tea light holders- just a little smaller than the paper square, which is good for flame control! The large mirror tray came from Michael's, and white snowflakes are all around. I may put fewer flakes on when I put it on her table tomorrow while she is at work!

Red, Brown & Aqua

One of the Casual Midweek challenges over at the PTI forum was to use Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, and Aqua Mist. But gee, I need boy baby cards this week and I really wanted to use Spring Rain instead! So I used Aqua Mist at the bottom for water, and Spring Rain for sky. The boat is from the new Men of Life set, but the baby face is from Bitty Baby Blessings- as is the sentiment! My failing camera has a lot of settings on the top, but none of them say IRL. I wish it has a setting that would show how it looks In Real Life, lol.

Going out tomorrow if the weeather holds to start the search for a new camera- sigh- I'm looking forward to better pictures, but not shopping and paying, lol!

Sorry...

Two apologies: I haven't posted in a week- work has been in my face, and golly, with Christmas coming, I couldn't say no! We've had 3 people from my shift quit, one without notice... so I've been working some open shifts. My DH and I try and live very simply. Being on dial up and having no cell phone means you can't go on the computer when you volunteer to be on call.

My other apology is in case you have seen the pillow case before. I made it for a PTI Blog Hop
back in the fall, so thought you might like to see it now. I stamped the images from Believe on white muslin (not cream) with Versafine ink, heat set, then colored in with Prisma markers, being very careful to stay away from the black lines as the markers did bleed a little. I contemplated buying some fabric markers, but never did. It might have been a better idea!! I have no idea how this is going to wash, and I may end up doing it by hand. The fabric is from a few years back, it is designed by Debbie Mumm. I liked the final project, with or without stamping, and I now have fabric for a dozen more pillow cases!

The DH is away for a week... Today my plan is to make 6 wreaths and deliver them, do the dishes, keep the fire going, clean the Living Room, decorate the Living Room, make 4 baby cards, make a dinner for 5 and take it next door to watch the Patriots football game (we don't have a TV, so I have to buy the football games with food, lol!!).

Think I"ll make it??

Papertrey Cash & Carry challenge

I thought since today the PTI Design Team is showing their 'Cash & Carry' projects, I would show mine as well! For the past few years the DD's and I have made Black Friday a fun event... we meet late on thanksgiving for sale circular perusing, sleep a little, then head out at the time the first store we want to go to opens. Last year I think it was 3 or 4 am, but this year we were at toys R Us at 5:15! Heck, 5:15 is practically a regular day! All year I plot, plan, and save so I can give them some cash so the shopping can just be fun, and to not worry about how much is being spent. Of course, they also need something to keep lists, receipts, and cash in!

I started this year's planners with coupon holders from a dollar store. The blue sky is PTI's blue metallic, stamped with SU's White craft ink with PTI's Polka Dot basics. The Santa and Tree come from PTI's Believe set, and were colored with Prisma markers. The Bank of Mom sentiment was started on the computer, then Believe was stamped on top, and then the B from Believe was inked to make the B in the word Bank. papers are from PTI's Vintage Holiday 8 x 8 pad.