Surviving February

Today was warmer, but it will take a lot to really reduce the snow and make winter fade. Here are two weeks of February as they were for me.

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Designer Credits:
-papers, emphera, word art, button, paint: Nevermind by Studio 68
-border: WoodShop MapPrints Paperie No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-transfer, frame: ArtPlay Palette Radiant by Anna Aspnes
-stitched frames: FotoInspired Stitched Frames No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-string: ArtPlay Palette Natural Instinct by Anna Aspnes
-thin frame: FineEdge Frames No. 1 by Anna Aspnes
-swirl: Scribble It by Merkeley Designs
fonts: Capture it, Lithograph, Palette, Courtney Dorkling, Blue Highway

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Designer Credits:
-gesso: Nevermind by Studio 68
-frame, rectangle brush, banner: ArtPlay Palette Radiant by Anna Aspnes
-white paper, gesso: Miss Niki by Maya de Groot
-border paper, paint, heart: They Call It Love by Re Kneipp
fonts: Lithograph, Versu, Courtney Dorkling, Blue Highway

The rest of January in photos

Week 3 pairs with the already posted week 2 in blues while weeks 4 and 5 appear in black and white. It has been a time of lots of weather contrasts. It's also been a time of interesting and rewarding times. Click on the images to see them larger and perhaps read about the days of January.

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Design Credits:
-background: ArtsyBlendz Snow Paperie No. 2 by Anna Aspnes
-stitching: All Stitched v. 2 by Kitty Designs
-glass frame, bird, journal tag: Simply Serene by Retro Designs
-swirl: The Silver Flakes by Kitty Designs
-branch: Twiggy No. 1 BrushSet by Anna Aspnes
-paint: Terra Toni by Maya de Groot
-number tag: itty bitty dates no. 8 by Biograffiti
fonts: Mufferaw, Blue Highway, (tag: Lithograph, Erie Contour)

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Design Credits:
Contrast by Maya de Groot
fonts: Courtney Dorkling, Lithograph, EwieD, Blue Highway

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Design Credits:
-papers, paint, tag: Contrast by Maya de Groot
-frame, branch, splatter: Like a Bird by Maya de Groot
-button, star, swirl, paint: Winter Whites by Tracy Martin
-brush, transfer: Oscraps Collab It's A Wonderful Life
fonts: Lithograph, EwieD, Courtney Dorkling, Blue Highway

2014: January's 1st (short) week

The first four days of January were snowy but not that unpleasant. It's only after this short week that we had to deal with the frigid air and really disagreeable weather. We did survive both snow and cold though so how can I complain?

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Designer Credits:
-kit: Oscraps Collab: It's A Wonderful Life
-white frame: Gwenifer by Jopke Designs
-photo edge: Surround It No. 1 by Merkely Designs
-number tag: itty bitty dates no. 8 by Biograffiti
fonts: Chalk, Mufferaw, Dawn Castle, (tag: Lithograph, Erie Contour)

Deer Trek - in our yard!!

It can hardly be a good sign for gardeners when deer are hanging out around our little city lots. They were quite a sight in the middle of the night/Friday morning though. While I saw the four deer, Dick only saw these tracks, but they do tell a story. We even followed them a bit in the neighborhood. They were headed up toward a main street.

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Designer Credits:
all Anna Aspnes
-template: Holiday Template Pack No. 1E
-paper: ArtPlay Palette Night Before Christmas
-alpha (4): Glitter AlphaNumberSet No. 7
fonts: EwieD, Impress BT

Heritage Photos in the Snow

Snow is predicted to arrive rather soon. Not looking forward to that, but it seems like a good time to share two pages I put together recently. The first is my mother and me when I was a baby. It sure looks cold! The song was even written the year I was born. The second is Dick's Aunt Gladys as a young woman, maybe 1939 or 1940. Her grinning in the snow always makes me smile. She was a super lady.

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Designer Credits:
by Anna Aspnes
-background, transfer: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Tree
-card: 4 X 6 ArtsyKardz Christmas Tree
-wordart: Nostalgia WordTransfers No. 1
-alpha: Glitter AlphaNumberSet No. 6
-border: Doily Edge Overlays No. 2
fonts: Staccato222 BT, Boopee

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Designer Credits:
-papers, sparkles: Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-bells, bow, snowflakes: Santangles by Maya de Groot
-brush (the "branch"), trees: ArtPlay Palette Christmas Tree by Anna Aspnes
font: Mystical

Whining About the Snow on Saturday

Saturday was our Christmas Bird Count. Three of us met in Lake View about sunrise, hard to tell that though as it was very gray with some moisture in the air. The birds were pretty quiet, but they tend to be in small groups at this time of year. That way it can be feast or famine in counting. Before long it started to snow. That isn't necessarily so bad, but it kept it up and started to spit and sting. We moved on to other areas and sometimes the snow was heavier than others, but we kept getting coated in it. We had to try keeping it out of our binoculars so we could see too. Finally, driving back to the second car we were grateful the cemetery has stakes along the drives so we could tell we were on the road! At that point we usually move on to other sections for maybe an hour, but decided to break early for lunch. Out on the roads we saw cars skidding on the slick surfaces. At home for lunch we watched the snow keep coming down and wimped out and stayed home for the afternoon. That night I photographed the small dogwood tree next door in all its snowy glory. Thus ended the first real snow of the season for us. Today we had rain and a lot of the white stuff is gone. Sigh, couldn't it have come on any other day?

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Designer Credits:
-background: Oscraps Collab TrOpical
-frame: Old Stuff by Jodie McNally Designs
-snowflakes: Flakes Dew by Kitty Designs
-reindeer: Santangles by Maya de Groot
-snow, doodle: Oscraps Collab Winter Wonderland
-tree embossed overlay (with multiply blend): Emboss It Christmas by Merkeley Designs
fonts: Kings of Pacifica, Chicago House, Jellyka, End_less Voyage, Erie

Look out for winter?

We have a challenge based on a curious sort of Christmas card. I stayed with the basic theme of a tree image and the original colors of grays with a touch of red. I used a photo at my sister's from last Dec. 9th and did an edge effect (Find All in PSP). It really made me think of Ezra Pound's irreverent poem, "Winter Is Icumen In" and so it is titled. I am so NOT ready for this to happen and am really glad we missed the big storm on the east coast. Nevertheless, I like my result.

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Designer Credits:
-background: Photographed in Black and White by Sue Cummings
-border: Slightly Edged 1 by Merkeley Designs
-notepaper, postcard: Recollection by Joanne Brisebois
-overlay: Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-leaves: MultiMedia Leaves No. 2 by Anna Aspnes
-bird brush, bead: ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise by Anna Aspnes
-frame: ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate by Anna Aspnes
my photo altered with an Edge Effect
fonts: Cardinal, Catriel

Antidote to the Heat of Summer

Yesterday's official high temperature was 91 F. and that is much too warm for me! Especially since it was still May. Much nicer today with a good breeze and cooler temps. The new challenges are up for June and there is one to photograph FEET! I love it. It also reminded me of a page I did in March of 2008 of my feet in the snow of our driveway. It is quite a contrast to yesterday's heat.

Back in the Snow!

It really isn't rare to get big snows this time of year, but we sure weren't wanting more of the white stuff! It did create interesting photo ops though. Here is my 4th scraplift of the month with today's pictures.

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Designer Credits:
- lift of LO Artists by Bush Girl (Selena)
-background paper, birds: Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-purple paper: First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-brown paper, stitching: The Gift by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Hurry Up, Bavuese, Erie

February Pages and beyond (Project 12)

I'm keeping up (just barely) with doing a two-page spread for each month. Just finished the pages for February and am very happy to move beyond the ice and snow!

Don't forget to click on the single page images to see more detail and maybe read the text.

 

Journaling reads:

Ice and snow, ice and snow, February began with more of ice and snow. The snow piled up and ice formed. A thin coating of snow on an icy driveway showed deer tracks plainly. Ice dams formed in the gutters then killer icicles fell. Mid-month a warm up cleared it mostly away but the 20th snow began turning to freezing rain coating everything. Sunlight on the ice created a sparkling fairyland. A foot of snow fell the 25th.

February was more than ice and snow. I started another session of collage journaling on the 7th and don't forget Valentine's Day! Dick's oat bran muffins kept coming and genealogy meetings were always on tap. Thankfully I felt well finally after the January cold or whatever. We warmed up enough to see some spring flowers and enjoy being outside. When the cold returned we even found four Mute Swans and Bald Eagles on the lake.

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Designer Credits:

-papers, circular mat, button, bow, circular frame: Love Poppies by Celine Designs

-snowflakes: Winter Escape by Creations by Tinamarie

-date tag: itty bitty dates no. 7 by Biograffiti

fonts: Amienne, Lithograph

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I've also done the third installment of the Oscrap's members spotlight scraplift and this time I'm featuring an aspect of Spring! Yesterday a clump of crocus next door had a ton of flowers all in bloom at once. It looked great and I hope this captures that feeling of exuberance.

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Designer Credits:

life of LO photo no 53 by neat freak (Lorraine)
-paper, flowers, border: Sunrise.Sunset by Fei-fei's Stuff
-frame: Family Ties by Fei-fei's Stuff
font: harrison

After the Snow Storm

It was bright and sunny today, but we have ice dams in the gutters and water was dripping into a window well, so winter is still having its way with us. It did look nice but was rather icy. Still, we got nothing compared to many other places. Today's photo is in a very simple layout, but I like that plain look for the impact of the photo. I am really pleased with the comments on my Desolation Row page! Thank you for the encouraging words.

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Designer Credits: Family Ties by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Sybil Green, Mufferaw

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

Another Winter Day

It wasn't so cold today and I am feeling better, so we stopped by my sister's house to check on things and water the plants. Everything was fine and I took pictures of things in the snow. We saw lots of tracks there of rabbit, squirrel, deer, etc. but none were as sharp as the one in the tiny photo which was at our house, likely a local cat. I'm not too keen on using tiny photos, but went with that aspect of the freebie template. The result is another two-page spread for the Fei-fei's Stuff Designer Spotlight Challenge. I first posted it left and right per the template, but decided I had to reverse them like this:

As always, remember to click on the images to see them larger. If you look at the individual pages, you should be able to read the text easily.

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Designer Credits: all Fei-fei's Stuff:
-template: Outlined No. 4
-photo corners and circles recolored from the template
-papers, stems: Like Home
-plant drawings: Profiles No. 2
fonts: Elric, Bank Gothic Medium BT, Amapola, Tahoma

Watching a Nest

We got lots more snow today and even more is predicted. Then they are talking about colder temperatures coming. Isn't winter fun? NOT! Today I was happy to scrap an old pair of photos from summer time. In 1995 I did follow up of the nesting birds in Lake View from the work we did in 1983. I published a booklet about them after that. One of the most interesting things I discovered was this Red-headed Woodpecker nest where the birds raised one family and then tried a second nesting though apparently not successfully. I spent a lot of time watching this pair and grew quite fond of them. I wrote a little article about them and you can see it here.

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Designer Credits:
template for January CopyCat Challenge featuring Maya de Groot (madigirl)
kit: Winter Escape by Tinamarie (Val C. Designs)
fonts: Baveuse, Lemon Chicken, Amienne

Driving in the Snow

The snow started coming down early in the afternoon and made our driving not fun! We drove to my sister's, from there to the airport on a freeway that was not well cleared. Good thing we had allowed plenty of time. Her flight to California was only a little late and she is now out of the ice and snow for a time. We still had a distance to travel back home along different roads. They weren't in good condition either, but at least we were mostly ahead of rush hour. We saw a few minor accidents along the roads, but nothing serious. It was slippery out but for a change the other drivers were pretty cautious and courteous. It wasn't quite white knuckle driving, but Dick thought it was not nice. I did take some pictures through the windshield of a massive church complex that always intrigues me and that looked different in the snow. I used this one for a photography challenge on the subject of balance.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper (color altered), red-brown paper: Bohemian August by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-gray papers, rub on, chrome tag: Fresh Start by Ashalee Wall
fonts: Futura Lt BT, Big Top, Dawn Castle

Let it Snow: Holiday Concert

Dick is one of the guitar players in the group playing guitar and uekele. This year their holiday concert came after the monthly potluck, but everything was set up in advance. They have a good time and the audience gets to sing along. This is the only time I really get to hear him play.

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Designer Credits:
Creations by Tinamarie: Winter Escape
fonts: French Script MT, Erie

Still Cold but less snowing - Plus Holiday Lights LO

So far not so many schools are listed to close on Tuesday, so we'll see. There doesn't seem to be snow falling now and it isn't even blowing around quite so much. It is only 15 F though, so not too nice out there.

I got a freebie template with circle cuts last month and finally found a photo I wanted to use in it. The lights are from mid-October when there were lots of colorful leaves. The lights were orange for Halloween. Now the tree is bare as you could see in a post last week but it does have white lights for Christmas now. Still pretty, but I wish it were warm again!

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Designer Credits:
-Circle Cut Template by kym
-dotted paper, stitched design, birds: Deb Ammerman - Early Bird
-top paper, plant elements: Thaliris - Romantic Story
fonts: Kunstler Script, DomCasual BT

More Snow and the schools closed

Yesterday the temperatures dropped and it started to snow. It is still snowing though we don't have that great an accumulation but the blowing keeps it covering roads and drives. We are currently down to 16 F. The local schools closed today and just about everywhere around us. That also means our community center and the part of it that is the Senior Activity Center is also closed. Dick was looking forward to their last guitar session before the holidays and his computer room tutoring every Monday, but had to stay home. Of course he was very happy not having to go out in this weather. Are we SURE it is still the first half of December?

There was a previous attempt at the textured photo challenge that I didn't post. I like the look of the finished layout that looks a bit like a piece of old tapestry. The photo doesn't really come out well though, the robins in it rather obscured. But the colors are nice and I feel like having it to look at here on the blog. There was snow on the ground the day I took the picture, but only lightly and not visible up in the tree.

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Designer Credits: 
-Fei-fei's Stuff: Crazy Beautiful
-dark paper: Fei-fei's Stuff - Something Pop
fonts: iNked God, Kastler, Corbel

A Break in the Snow and Remembering Warmer Days

Yesterday we dug out my sister's car that needed to get an e-check so she could renew its license plates. Though there was a lot of snow, it was a bright sunny day. Today is mostly gray, but above freezing! They are just waiting to hit us with more snow on Sunday and then give us very cold temperatures. I think winter started in way too fierce and early!

Meanwhile, there is a challenge this month to use either an action or texture on a photo. Since I use Paint Shop Pro, that pretty much leaves me with the choice of texture. I tried one but didn't like the result. But I did find a photo that had a very dull background (cut grass) and used a photo of leaves as the texture over it. It was so nice working with these black-eyed susans and remembering warm days. The photo is actually from October 18th when I was photographing Halloween displays, so sort of late for these summery blooms. I used one copy of texture photo with lighten blend at 52% opacity topped with another copy in overlay blend at 30% opacity. The dark centers of the flowers were erased from both texture layers. The photo sure got more interesting.

You can see the change that the texture approach made in these original photos:

Designer Credits: kit by Ashalee Wall: Fresh Start, fonts: Ahnberg, Kristen ITC

So much snow!

For several days we missed significant snow while areas nearby got lots. Today we got snow and snow and more snow. The photo is of the neighbor's dogwood tree that acts as one of my signposts of the seasons. For our holiday greeting, be sure you've seen this post.
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Designer Credits:
Kitty Design: Shimmer
fonts: Hans Hand, Humanst521 BT

Yesterday I was delighted to get another super fortune in my fortune cookie. But Dick said, "Yeah, they got mine wrong too." At least it got me to dig out the previous one about artistic talent that I kept because it was so neat.
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Designer Credits:
Deb Ammerman: kit Early Bird
fortune cookie photo: stock photo
fonts: Bravo, Calligraph421 BT