Seaside Notecard

 

I bought this great seaside paper last month and it has been sitting on my table just begging to be used.  The paper is from K & Company and the designer is Tim Coffey.

I like to buy mat pads and 6 x 6 stacks since the scale is often better for cards (though some companies just cut down the 12 x 12 papers so you do need to check).

 A piece like this is easy to cut up for several projects.  

I still have two more sections that I can use as is for cards or cut up into individuals motifs (they are offset on another piece of the same paper so you can see how it was cut).

The card base is ivory cardstock in A2 size (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches).  The seaside paper is cut at 2 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches (along the lines of the design and trimmed just a tad) and it is matted on a piece of dark blue Core'dinations cardstock cut at 3 x 5 inches.  The lighter blue textured layer is cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches and is also Core'dinations cardstock.

I added some aqua or "Caribbean" twine along the left side.   I got this in a sampler pack from The Twinery about a year and a half ago.  You can see the pack I bought HERE - they now have many more colors and lots of sampler packs to choose from.

I strung a few sea themed charms from Creative Charms on the twine before I wrapped it around the card layer.  The color is almost a perfect match.

I taped the ends of the twine on the back of the card layer.

Then I shifted the charms to be near the top of the card and tied a bow around all three strands with another piece of twine and trimmed the ends.

 

This will make a nice note card for a thank you for a beach vacation visit or could be used for an invitation.  It might even work for a Father's Day card

I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

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Weekend Diversions - Library Book Sale

Every year, the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library put on a huge used book sale.  This annual event is eagerly anticipated by the residents - there are a lot of readers in Concord!

This year the sale had to be moved up a week due to the torrential rains we had last Saturday. 

A great group of volunteers helps to make sure that everything runs smoothly.  The prices are very reasonable and the proceeds support the Library.

Even if you have only lived here a short while, you always seem to see someone you know at the sale.  The books are collected throughout the year and organized into categories by volunteers.  Sometimes when you are browsing you realize that you are seeing some of the books that you donated!

Filling a bag with books is a great Saturday morning activity.  Our neighbor Cailean is a voracious reader - she'll probably be done with that bag in a couple of weeks!

The twins are nearly three and also love books.  My husband read the Piglet ABC book to Emma over and over while she rested on the bench.

Claire was a little worn out from all of the shopping - but she still managed to walk all of the way back to our neighborhood (nearly a mile).

The sale is a wonderful way to recycle books to new readers and to raise a good deal of money for the Library - and everyone has a great time.  There is even live music provided by local entertainers.  I have so many books stockpiled to read that I didn't spend much time looking at the fiction.  However, one of my favorite areas is the section with home and craft books.

Hardcover books and large trade paperbacks are $2 each - far less than the cost of a magazine nowadays.  If you have this type of sale in your area it may be well worth your time to check it out.  I thought I'd show you some of my "finds" from this sale...

Lots of great alphabets and calligraphic ornaments - I can convert some of these to cut with my Cameo.

The Art Nouveau style is one of my favorites - I have enjoyed using the Cricut Art Nouveau cartridge for several projects.  This book will give me more ideas for ornaments and lettering.

I loved the cover of this book...

..and sure enough - it was another Art Nouveau compilation.

Here are just a couple of the lovely jewelry pieces inside  - lots of inspiration to be found here.

The bee is buried in the flower - aren't the wings lovely!

This is a reproduction of the 1870 catalog of an iron work company - more design inspiration...

The address is the corner of Reade, Centre and Elm Streets in New York - I wonder what is there now?

I found this origami book with nicely illustrated directions.

Trompe L'Oeil (fool the eye) painting has always been fascinating to me - for $2, I may learn how to do it at last!

I found a couple of Christmas books - I didn't really need these but I can't resist Christmas decorations and trees..

I may even decided to add a new tree to our usual collection next Christmas.

Make  your own paper? Why not?  I seem to remember reading about doing this and starting with scraps of paper - I do have a few of those!

This rubber stamping book is older (2001) but contains lots of good information.

It was even signed by the authors.

This book is also older (2003 from Autumn Leaves) but it is full of ideas that look interesting.

Finally, I loved the dramatic cover on this book and I have a project in mind where it will be perfect!

I hope you are having a nice weekend - we had a "mini-reunion" with an old friend from graduate school this afternoon.  Tomorrow I will try to find the way back to my craft room - I really want to try out some new ideas!

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Just a little enabling...

The beginning of summer is a very busy time.  I have been off my usual schedule for posting lately - if you are an email subscriber, there may sometimes be two posts in one email.  I am also trying to get into a better sleeping schedule - after I read that not getting enough sleep can make you gain weight!  So, rather than stay up late to do a post for the next day, I have sometimes shifted to writing on the same day or evening.

There are a lot of sales going on now - here are a few that may be of interest...

Anna Griffin is having a Super Scrapbook Sale in her online store - here is a LINK to the store.  There is free US shipping and a free gift for orders over $50.  The sale lasts until Monday but some items are already sold out so if you love Anna Griffin's style, check it out!  The heart shaped acrylic albums that I gave away in my last blogoversary celebration (in the photo above) are $2.50 (regular price $15).

If you like Anna Griffin's style, you are probably also a fan of Webster's Pages.   If you don't spend all of your money at Anna's sale, you can buy this huge group of products in the Webster's Pages Warehouse sale starting Monday (while supplies last).  This photo from the Webster's Pages blog shows a great group of products that retail for a total of $129 - for just $25 - pretty irresistible!  Here is a LINK to the Webster's Pages website for the sale on Monday.  I am not sure what the shipping will be for this sale - you can find out on Monday.

The Nick Kelsh Photo Tips site that I told you about a while ago (HERE), has a special offer too.  Nick has written a book called How to be a Dad and has also made a DVD companion to the book.  There is a Father's Day special for a free subscription to the photo tips site when you purchase the How to be a Dad book and DVD set.  The price is $19.95 which is the usual subscription price for the Photo Tips site so if you are looking for a nice Father's Day gift for a new Dad - this could be it.  You can get all of the details HERE.

Ella Publishing Co. has some new photography related items for sale - the first is a new book by Rebecca Cooper about taking great photos of real life moments.



They also have a set of 8 Photoshop actions for Photoshop(PS) and Photoshop Elements (PSE) that are featured in the Real.Life.Photography. e-book.
 


I use the Creative Memories software programs but I know a lot of people use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements so these Simple Fixes: Actions for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements may be helpful to you.



Ella Publishing has also bundled together three photography ebooks for a special price - get the  Photography Ideas Bundle with three books for the price of one!

Lettering Delights has hundreds of graphics, fonts, SVGs and cut-it sets on sale until Father's Day (sale ends at midnight on June 18th).  Most items are $1 with SVGs and cut-it sets at $2.  If you first "purchase" the monthly freebie, you will get a coupon for 25% off your next order with the freebie order confirmation.  Click HERE to go to the sale pages.

(I am an affiliate for Ella Publishing and Lettering Delights - I have no relationship with the other sites mentioned above).

It looks like we will have some nice weather for the weekend - I hope to go to the library book sale that was postponed from last weekend and then get our deck furniture set up - I think we may finally be done with the thick green pollen from the pine trees.

My days have been a little crazy and I have piles of almost finished projects that I need to photograph and then I can share what I have been up to.  I also have a few more of the projects form the Tim Holtz weekend to show you.

I hope you have a great weekend - we will be seeing an old friend from graduate school on Saturday and helping with a few more moving chores Sunday afternoon.

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Wedding Anniversary

In addition to graduations and Father's Day, June is the traditional month for weddings.  Today would have been my parent's 65th wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately, we lost my mother 16 years ago - just short of their 49th anniversary.  When I look at the photos of my parents on their wedding day, they seem so young (they were 23).

You may remember reading about the veil headpiece that my Mom wore for the wedding.  It survived packed away in a box all these years (the actual veil disintegrated over time).  If you click the photo above, you can see the beginning of the story of how I reused some flowers from the headpiece to make the ring pillow for our older son's wedding last September.

This is the finished ring pillow - there are six flowers from the headpiece attached to the vintage linens that I used for the pillow.  You can click this photo to see the details about making the pillow.

When my parents were married, there were not the thousands of photographs taken that you would find for a modern wedding (and obviously no video or slideshows!).  I only have seen a few photos from their wedding day.  My Dad's two brothers stood up for him and my Mom had a close friend and her younger sister Cora as attendants.  I always thought it was interesting that the attendants wore white and carried red roses. 

I made these simple digital pages by scanning in the one photo that I have in a frame.  When you don't have many photos, you can always crop to highlight certain parts of the photo and use the closer cropped views for your pages as well.  I used the Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0 program to make these pages.  The papers, ribbon and embellishments are from the Enchanted Digital Power Palette and the "wedding party" phrase is from the Divine Wedding Digital Kit.  (These are both available in universal format if you use another digital scrapbooking program - Enchanted UF and Divine Wedding UF).

My sister and my niece both wore my Mom's wedding gown when they were married - I wonder if someday it will be worn by a fourth generation?


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Indoor Flower Photos

I tried something the other day - just a little experiment...  A few irises had fallen over in the garden so my husband brought them in and put them in a vase on the kitchen island.  There are some bright lights above the island and they really made the flowers glow.

I wanted to take some photos of the light on the flowers but the background of the kitchen was far too distracting.  So I grabbed a 12 x 12 sheet of plain black cardstock to use as a backdrop.

I found out that you could angle the paper to reflect the light differently - in the shot above, I was leaning the paper back a bit so the lights over the island were hitting it directly.

When I tilted the paper a little bit forward, I could get this dark black background.  Unfortunately, by the time I tried this, the flowers were already starting to wilt - they just don't last very long at all inside.

I think the effect is very dramatic.  Next time I will try setting up the tripod to make it easier to get a very sharp focus (it is hard to work with one hand on the camera and one holding the paper!).

I've been busy sorting and tossing all sorts of things around the house.  I've started in the kitchen, but no room is safe!  I had a few things in the back of the cupboard that expired quite a while ago...they are gone and now I have more space!

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