Frozen Expanse, Subtle Signs of Life

These photos are from the lakefront yesterday. Today we have light rain and snow is trying to melt, but it has a long way to go yet. The page used a template from this month's copycat challenge.

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Designer Credits:
-template: Copycat Challenge by Timounette based on Paddling by Ann06 
-background, gesso, stamp, bead: Nevermind by Studio 68
-edge: Surround It - 1 by Merkeley Designs
fonts: James Fajardo, Lithograph

Celebrate Winter Gulls on Icy Lake Erie

This page is another painting my photo. This is a January scene of gulls at a power plant warm water outflow. They gather there when the lake is freezing up. Unusual ones show up then.

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Designer Credits:
-background: ArtsyBlendz Snow Paperie No. 2
-brush: ArtPlay Palette No. 10
-brushes: ArtPlay Palette Sophistica
-word art, stars: Oscraps Collab Winter Wonderland
font: Vladimir Script

Summer Sail Redone

This week there is another makeover challenge with a summer theme. For some reason I really wanted to work on a page from four years ago of a sailboat on a July evening. At the time this is what I said about it: "After working hard all day we took off for the lake this evening and saw lots of interesting birds and this sailboat heading into the reflected sun on the water." The new version slightly reminds me of Turner watercolors and their "tinted steam." Here are the before and after versions.
Before:

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Designer Credits:
-background: Pam Lefors - Rustic Orange Paper Pack
-bracket shapes: Dana Conditt - A Little Independence Bracket Album
-flower doodles, staples: Fran - Euphorbia mini kit
-cord: Kalina - Adventurine mini kit
fonts: HansHand, Bahamas, Mystical, Alte Caps
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After:

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Designer Credits:
all Anna Aspnes
-background, fish button, overlay stretch: ArtPlay Palette Vitality
-photo mask: ArtPlay Vitality FotoBlendz
-overlay, brush: Oscraps Collab DandeliOn
-map: Travel USA No. 1 BrushSet
-overlay lines: SkinnyLined Overlays No. 2
fonts: HansHand, Lemon Chicken, GoudyOlSt BT

More Ice in the Sun

I took a lot of pictures of the icy creations on the 4th and here are two more. I did this page for a creative techniques challenge, this time a year in review of all the topics covered last year. My main one was a photo within a photo but also used a high pass sharpen filter (on the small photo and overall on the web-sized version) and did a little cluster work. The large photo has a hard light blend mode. I call it "Glisten and Glow."

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Designer Credits:
Santangles by Maya de Groot
fonts: Dali, Corbel

Light of a Late Afternoon Sun

Last week we went out one sunny afternoon and found fantastic ice formations along the lake. In the warm light of the late afternoon sun they looked enchanted. We birded west to the lakefront airport as the sinking sun created a colorful sky. At the airport we saw three Short-eared Owls up and hunting. I took lots of photos of the ice and sky and have created two pages from them so far. The ice photo was done for the January color challenge which featured just such warm colors. The sky photos were my attempt at this week's AnnaLift.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper, brown strip: Italian Coffee Blends by Creations by TinaMarie
-other papers, paint splotches, stitching, flower: Terra Toni by Maya de Groot
-floral stamp: Fallen Sun by TaylorMade Designs
fonts: Snell Bd BT, Shotgun BT

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Designer Credits:
all Anna Aspnes
-paper, brad: ArtPlay Palette Santa Nicholas Add-On 1
-edging, brush: ArtPlay Palette Ablaze
-outline brush, frame, transfer: ArtPlay Palette Sophistica
-leaf brush: Etched Leaves 1
-text brush: ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate
fonts: Pea Anderson, More Enchanted Prairie Dog, KrooKed

October Shore, the lake looked good

A challenge this month used an effect in Photoshop or PSE to outline an object. Paint Shop Pro doesn't seem to have that tool, so I used another method. I had this lovely photo of a boat basin on Lake Erie from October. It has been blended for more drama and I really like the effect and the way it goes with the lovely patterned paper. The cloudy sky reminds me of our very wet year. They don't predict much more precipitation the remainder of the year, but our average annual rainfall is around 39 inches and we passed the previous record in the fifties on October 19th. Currently we've had sixty-some inches for 2012! The ground is simply soggy.

Anyway...I'm very happy to have completed another larger size drawing, but I'm waiting for daylight to photograph it as I did with the last one. It is a bit different, but still the same idea.

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Designer Credits:
-patterned paper, gray paper: All Hallow's Night by Leora Sanford
-elements, brushes, transfers: ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate by Anna Aspnes
fonts: Kaster, France

Reflect on a new technique

This month's creative technique challenge contains a surprisingly easy tutorial on creating a water reflection to a photo. I had a lot of fun doing this one, a pedestrian bridge over a freeway along the lakeshore. The bridge isn't ON the water, but quite near. The tutorial (HERE) on creating a reflection was great and led me to use this photo from a rare snow-free day last February.

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Designer Credits:
-papers, word art: November Rain by TaylorMade Designs
-doodle: Trail It by Merkeley Designs

Another Winter Scene (and scraplift)

Five members are featured in an Oscrap's spotlight this month and I think I will try to lift all of them as their galleries are lovely. For my second one I've used a February photo from Lake Erie. It was above freezing that day following a real warm up. Later that day the snow began and turned to a lot of freezing rain. That led to the sparkling ice pictures I've already posted. The journaling reads:
Lake Erie froze this winter, nearly completely with two and a half months of near constant snow cover. Mid-February we got some thawing but for the brief time that lasted the shore ice remained and boat basins like this were frozen shut - 20 February 2011

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Designer Credits:
-lift of Journey to Remember by sue.falstaff 
-papers, buttons: The Gift by Fei-fei's Stuff
-glass circle, ribbon: Fresh Start by Ashalee Wall
-flourish metal: Winter Escape by Creations by Tinamarie
-blue frame (part of): Ohana by Biograffiti
-doodle: Sunrise Sunset by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Lemon Chicken, 1942 report, Erie

More Ice from December

The ice formations along the lake in December were so incredible. I have more photos than I had scrapped, so decided to use some for another double page layout with sort of a positive/negative image look. I'm not sure about it, in fact, redid it once, but I do like the photos. Here at the end of January it just keeps snowing a little every day (at least we didn't get socked like the DC and NYC areas!) I am so looking forward to something other than the two months of constant white.

The images will look better if you click on them to see the larger version.

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Designer Credits: 
-patterned paper and fabrics, buttons, screw, alpha: First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-pale papers: Stamp My Heart by Kitty Designs
fonts: Angel Tears, Brisk

Icy Lakeshore Makes Fancy Designs

Saturday we were looking for birds, but lots of people were along Lake Erie to take photographs. Well, of course, I did that too. It looked quite impressive and imagining the weather that created it was pretty impressive as well.

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Designer Credits:
-template (including mask): Template challenge by Armina @ pickleberrypop 
-background paper: ptitesouris - Feerie de Noel, Part 2
-star overlay: Sekada - Feerie de Noel, Part 2
-feather, ribbon: Soval - Eros
-flower: Lady Papillon - Spicy Winter
fonts: Davida Bd BT, Mufferaw, Kristen ITC