Happy 4th of July!!!!

I had bought the "Ciara" stamp through Stampers' Best to participate in the June tutorial.  I didn't participate however, I had the best intentions....

Here is my card based on that tutorial which basically focuses on paper piecing.  I used the Lawn Fawn Blue Skies to make the stars (and Sakura clear glitter pen around the edges of the stars).  The paper is from Doodlebug!!! Oh My Stars. Love that paper. (I'm afraid to use it).

The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn and the background stamp is from Stampers' Best (for Operation Write Home).

Amuse-bouche:

My friend is SOOO crafty with everything she does--- Look at this cute stage she set up for her little girls.
SO Sweet!!!!!  :)


Happy 4th of July, everyone!!!

And here are the boys and Ezra. True to form, Ezra won't look at the camera!  

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!! ... featuring Any Hero Cards....

I've become obsessed with Sandy Allnook's weekly OWH video casts.  Sandy is the creator of Operation Write Home.

Before we get to my Memorial Day card, let me first show you some Any Hero cards.
They're double sided cardstock, as opposed to a full card.  Here is the information on ANY HERO cards in case you're interested in making some.
They're simple.  Sandy has a post about it with a link to her video show talking about Any Hero cards.
Click here for the post

Here is my card for Memorial Day.  In June, OWH is doing a tutorial featuring Sandy's stamp that she created for OWH, featuring her Golden Retriever, Ciara.
click HERE for more information.
The background stamp of the Star Spangled Banner is from Stamper's Best that sells the OWH stamps. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.
The coloring is copied from Sandy's video for this image....   HERE is the video link to see it.

Colored with Copics, Sentiment stamped with Jenny Bowlin ink

Happy Memorial Day from the Canine Gang...

Love notes...

Using my new Lawn Fawn stamp and Jenni Bowlin ink pads, I created this card on my Neenah Solar White Cardstock. I love this cardstock. It's so thick!!! Better than my thin Recollections paper.

Mmm, ice cream (with Glossy Accents)....

Enjoy...

Happy Fall Y'all... and some photos from our Photo Class (night) field trip

Here's a card I made using my Copics Coloring skills.... LOL.
It's my Fall Card!  (Probably my only one this season...).
I used my La-La Land stamps and Copics markers.... I'm trying to get this coloring technique down. AGH.
"Harvest Blessing" came from CardzTV's Stamp Set.

This card was sent to my dear friend Tammy, of Tammy's Spot... who I've never met but who I consider a wonderful friend here in this blogging community. Besides being an avid dog lover, she makes the most amazing cards- she uses so many techniques and infuses humor in her posts and cards.
She's an inspiration!

Sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Die cut is from Paper Trey Ink

Isn't this sweet?  I picked it up at a dog bakery on Bainbridge Island when I was up in Seattle.

Amuse-Bouche:

Tonight was our night field trip for my photo class.  It was a lot of fun.  I'll share some of the photos and techniques below however you may already know how to do this stuff....   For those of you who didn't know your cameras do these things... check out below.

I used 2 cameras tonight:  a SLR Canon camera as well as a fabulous little 'point and click' Panasonic that I bought at Costco.  If you have a SLR or you have a Point and Click--- you CAN do this.

Photo 1:

Here was are, in Newport Beach, looking at the Balboa Pavilion.  No flash.... 

Exercise #1

Now I am taking a photo of the same area (USING A TRIPOD)  but I put the camera setting on  F/stop 8, ISO 200 and taking a shutter speed of 4 seconds ( The next few photos are the same settings but the photos are taken at 8 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds). The captions will explain what the photo was taken at...

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 4 seconds (notice, more light in the photo)

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 8 seconds (much more light in photo, lighting up the scene)
*Sorry, despite using tripod, a little blurry.

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 10 seconds (much more light)... Still no flash.

 Same settings, except now a shutter speed of 15 seconds (look at all the light!)-- still no flash.



Exercise #2

 Using the same area, and no flash, we set our cameras on F/stop : 8 and 8 second exposure.  This means that the camera is taking the photo over 8 seconds. During this time period, my teacher was standing near the boat and flashed a strobe at the boat. He immediately then started shining a flashlight on the boat and the surrounding areas.  The strobe/flashlight lit up the boat and area.  Because the 8 second exposure took in all this, you never see my teacher (as he was moving around, shining the light on the boat and surrounding areas) but you can see the area that he lit up.
Again, no flash on this photo.  The actual scene looks like just photo #1 at the top (darkness) but because he is putting light on the boat, etc... it looks lit up)



In this technique, our teacher, had a fellow student walk across the dark sand (again, no flash used in this photo).  He walked in front of her, shining the flashlight on her-- this lit her up in the photo. (The flashlight wasn't anything big. Just a normal flashlight).  In the meantime, our camera was set on F/stop 8 and a 15 second exposure.  This means the camera was taking the photo over 15 seconds (the camera was on a tripod to keep it steady).  This is the result.
SUPER NEATO!
Again, there was no additional lighting.  The actual beach area was dark, just like photo #1 above.

OK, this is my 8 second exposure that I took on my little Panasonic point and click. I took this photo on an ISO 200, F/stop 8, with a 8 second exposure.  Because my camera wasn't on a tripod for this photo, this is what I got.  Obviously my hand was not steady during the 8 seconds...
I call this my "Electric Light Parade photo." (here comes the Disneyland music). LOL

On this photo, I had the camera on a F/stop 8, ISO 200, and an 8 second exposure (or perhaps it was 15 seconds),.... I was using the SLR and I zoomed the lens in as the 8 seconds passed.
Because the camera lens is open for 8 seconds and the lens is zooming in-- this is the STAR WARS effect we get.

And so concludes my night field trip....

Thank you and Come again....  :)

Happy Bird-Day... and some photos

Here is a birthday gift bag and card that I made for a friend of mine.  The gift bag was cut from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut cartridge.

For the card, I used a Paper Trey Ink die along with their Birthday Treats stamp set.  I colored the image with Copics.  The purple ink is Hero Arts while the red ink is Jenni Bowlin.  I thought it needed something more so I took my clear glitter gel pen and outlined some of the purple stamped image.

Here is the inside of the card, using a Hero Arts birthday stamp set ( I love this set ).



Here is my envelope stamped using the same Hero Arts stamp set.

Here is the gift bag I made using the Cricut cartridge (Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More).  The little doggie is from a dog button set found at Michael's.



Amuse-bouche:
Today, our photo class went to a farm to take photos.  We had some 'models' dress up.  I took the three photos using my 'auto-bracketing function' which essentially takes 3 photos one after the other but takes it in 3 different exposures.  Hopefully, you can tell the difference.  This gives you the option to use 1 of 3 photos rather than just the 1 photo you took.  I think the last one is the optimal photo.

Here is a doggie, Missie, who is a resident on the farm.   Of course, people were taking photos of the models and I'm chasing down the animals on the farm.

A wedding card.... and more photos from Seattle!

I made this card for a friend who recently got married. The background is an embossed Hero Arts stamp with Worn Lipstick Distress Inkpad applied.  The little wedding bells are from Stampin' Up and I wrote over the Hero Arts Soft Lilac ink with a clear sparkle Sakura pen (from Michaels).  The sentiment "wedding wishes" is from Lawn Fawn.  The LOVE stamp is stamped with Cough Syrup by Jenni Bowlin.


Amuse-bouche:
Here are some fun photos from my Seattle trip with Mr. Schrute...  Notice the culinary theme... LOL
More photos to come....

View of Pike Place Market looking south

We thought the name of this restaurant on the north side of Pike Place was funny

This Starbucks is across from Pike Place. It doesn't look like my local Starbucks. 

Fish market at Pike Place.  

Fruit Market at Pike Place. My friend bought some and really enjoyed them.

I tried this peach. They were giving samples. It was beyond awesome.

I'm sure there are some of you in the blogging community that see fruit like this all the time. This was a beautiful sight to me!

Look at those veggies!

This is like a sea creature: Broccoli Romanesco!

This is me in front of the gum wall (at Pike Place)

Rest assured, I'm actually about 4 inches from the wall....

Here we are at Chateau St. Michelle winery

SHELDON COOPER!!! :)

I love raw oysters.  It was harder to find in Seattle than I thought it would be.  I got them across from Pike Place at a place called "Jack's"

The Ghost Adventure crew did a show on this pub. It's haunted.