A Different View

Here are the kid grackles again in a very different page. I saw a fantastic image in the Ad Challenge at Mscraps. I thought I'd give it a try for the birds even though my photo really doesn't have enough resolution to be as big as I made it (at least at 12x12). I really like the result, but think I really prefer the pretty, in the garden look of the first one. Wonder what you think.

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Designer Credits:
For the Birds by One Little Bird
font: Boopee

More Baby Birds

Common Grackles aren't as well known or pretty or melodious as American Robins, but they are special to us. They migrate a bit south returning by late February to our neighborhood. Their return, even though it can still be pretty wintry, is our signal that spring really is coming. They nest in pine trees behind us in a little colony. When courting and nest-building their flights and calls fill the air and warm our hearts (if not our hands.) This year two of the young birds fledged into our backyard before they were fully able to fly. One day I got photos of the adults feeding them. It was the 10th of May, a bit early for them to be out already.

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Designer Credits:
Creative Motives, July 2011 DigitalScrapbookArtisanGuild Kit, by Dee Bee Designs
fonts: 1942 report, Boopee

More Art Journaling

The art or illustrated journal concept is very close to the collage journaling classes I've been taking over the past year or two. That has been based primarily on private journals allowing for total openness and honesty. Public work is a different animal, but some things are not too personal to share. I've tried to convey a little of my ambivalence over neglecting birding in the comfort of computers and genealogy in a new page.

As often happens to me, I found myself thinking in terms of remembered song lyrics to help me express some of my feelings.
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Designer Credits:
Journal du Matin by Paprika
crow photo is mine, my photo by my DH, both airbrushed on, also blending and filters
title and some text from Meat Loaf's Paradise By the Dashboard Light
fonts: Pea Anderson, Staccato222 BT
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Deb asked about the street metal I used to collect. I used some in woven or other fiber art constructions. I gathered other found items too. One thing I enjoy (and scrapped some while back) is a collection of water worn brick and stone pieces with keys and shells added that form a constantly changing little sculpture to play with. Collage of a three-dimensional sort perhaps?

Art Journaling, perhaps

Art journaling is a hot topic among a few digiscrappers right now. I took a photo yesterday of a rusting railing being overgrown by runaway vegetation. It is the sort of thing I've always loved, but I wasn't too sure about scrapping it -- or how to do so. Then I looked at some art journal pages that had just been posted and decided that was a direction, of sorts (they claim there are NO rules in this) that I could go. So I did it and really got into it with blending and filters and ended up with something rather different for me, but I think I like it.

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I've liberally blended and filtered the page using hot wax coating, glowing edges and a tintype effect.
Credits:
all from Take Me To the Old World by Lotta Designs
font: harrison

Celebrate Summer with Flowers

Remember the winter and eagerly awaiting those first spring flowers? The crocus and daffodils arrive like gifts and a promise fulfilled. Forsythia, tulips, then lilacs and dogwood flourish making my heart light. When I spent more time in the woods I saw the same thing with wildflowers. For my sister there is the glory of the iris blooming from very early miniature dwarf iris into summer with Japanese iris. But suddenly there is an abundance of all kinds of flowers. Summer is here!

For a creative techniques challenge I've taken two approaches, one with a chrome filter and the other with a typography filter. Both are also blended. My peony page is actually a photo from June 1st, but the hibiscus had those two blooms on new growth on July 6th. It was an interesting challenge.

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Designer Credits:
Free to Fly by Vera Lim Design
font: James Fajardo

We trimmed back our hibiscus when the weather warmed up. It has put out two vigorous shoots, but only at the top. Each bloomed today, its first multi-blossom day.

I changed the large photo to sepia tone then applied a chrome filter (PSP doesn't have quite the same functions as PSE, but I did see chrome in the tutorial). It has a burn blend mode to the pale paper. The small photo doesn't have a sketch filter, but has a hard light blend and erasure.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper from Home Sweet Home by Maya de Groot
-orange paper, stamp from Rachel by LydiaK Designs
-brown paper from Not So Basic Browns by Maya de Groot
-pale paper from Family Tree by Joanne Brisebois
-doodle from Trail It by Merkeley Designs
font: FreekTure

Happy 4th of July (with robins!)

We've been having wonderful weather for the holiday weekend. Somehow it didn't even get quite that hot here on Saturday though not far away it hit a record-breaking 99 F. We've had a pretty quiet time. Watched some Wimbledon tennis, sad that Maria and Rafa both lost, watched and listened to baseball games. Tonight I guess it will be fireworks on TV.

Meanwhile I've been working on more of the July scrapbooking challenges. I've done two with photos of the American Robin nest that was built on a window ledge next door. It was on the 2nd-floor opposite one of the windows of our guest room. Two days I set up with the window and screen open to take some shots. They didn't seem to mind, but the day the little ones were out on the ledge I was afraid to disturb them. The first one has two pictures I've been dying to team up. They are in an Ostash challenge to use at least six of a list of ten elements. The other is for a web inspiration challenge based on an elegant wall display.

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For the Ostash Challenge I used these elements:
1. At Least 2 Different Photos (required)
2. A Natural Element: leaves from Fallen Sun by TaylorMade Designs
4. A Metal Element: button from First Street by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
5. Frames: white frame from Fallen Sun by TaylorMade Designs,
           cardboard frame (and wings) from I remember you by Biograffiti
           stitched frame from Oscraps Collab TrOpical
6. A Grunge/Graffiti item: paint spatter from Oscraps Collab TrOpical
8. Bullet Point Journaling
9. Typewriter Font: title in 1942 report
10.just one paper: background from Home Sweet Home by Maya de Groot
for eight of the ten elements (6 required)
fonts: 1942 report, EnviroD

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Designer Credits:
-papers from Shimmer by Kitty Designs
-lined overlay from Kraft Overlays by Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium
-border from The Gift by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Impress BT, James Fajardo

Welcome to July

I always remember July 1st as my mother's birthday. She would have been 101 today! The weather is beautiful, our house is getting painted (though they knocked off early today and won't be back until Tuesday), and there are scrapbook challenges for a new month. For some reason the color challenge to do a page predominantly yellow made me instantly think of a 40-year-old photo that I have always liked. In the parking lot at the beach on the Virginia shore I wanted to photograph a good-looking Laughing Gull. I threw out a potato chip to lure it closer. Suddenly the sky filled with a whole flock of them. Here is the picture of the first one in a very summery layout.

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Designer Credits:
-background paper from Solid and Understated Lite by TaylorMade Designs
-bright yellow and patterned papers, rick rack from Oscraps Collab TrOpical
-flower, swirl from Stamp My Heart by Kitty Designs
-floral brad from Sketchbook Artistry no. 1 by Sue Cummings
-staples from Sunrise Sunset by Fei-fei's Stuff
fonts: Sybil Green, Staccato222 BT, harrison, Boopee, Blue Highway