Thanksgiving Card

Hi there Friends!  Happy Thursday to all of you!  Do you realize that the holidays are fast approaching.  I've been trying to focus on holiday cards and I'm sort of skipping Halloween.  My daughter has grown and now in college so I really don't have the great need to create treat bags and projects any more.  I could give them out to the neighborhood kids on Halloween but I know very well that kids will tear up the fancy bags and boxes and not even look at them.  What is important to them are the treats and not necessarily the container that holds the treats.  Furthermore, not many people send out Halloween cards so I decided this year, I'll concentrate less on Halloween items and move ahead to adult themed Thanksgiving cards.

 I decided to use the same image as the card I used a few days back.  I water colored a few of them on watercolor paper, sort of assembly style, so don't be surprised to see more cards using the same image.

 I added a satin ribbon, the Prima flowers and a die cut leaves to embellish the card.

I created the sentiment on my computer rather than rubber stamping it.   My rubber stamps are so unorganized right now and for me to look for a sentiment to fit my card only results in my turning my room upside down so I decided to save myself from having to clean up my craft room after I've torn it up,  I thought printing the sentiment was an smarter alternative.  I really do need to re-organize my room again.  Each year I will organize it and towards the end of the year, nothing is where they belong and I spend half my time looking for something.  I need to be smarter and put things back where they belong so I don't have to re-organize my room so often.  Just to let you know, I don't know the brand of the rubber stamp.  I had unmounted the stamp from its wood mount a while ago and I no longer can remember who made it.  The designer paper is by Me & My Big Ideas and the card stock by Stampin Up.

Anyway. . .that's it for today.  I'll work on more Thanksgiving card today and maybe do a Christmas card as well.  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Vintage Inspired Thanksgiving Card

Hey Friends!  Happy Tuesday!  Surprise!  I worked on an another card.  I'm actually motivated to work on cards today.  I really need to get my butt moving. . .the holidays are right around the corner.  Gosh, time sure flies quickly.  I can't believe Christmas is fast approaching.  I decided to work on a Thanksgiving card last night and this is what I came up with.

I used a vintage image for my card and crochet lace and my crochet flowers for embellishments.  Crochet embellishments are perfect for vintage inspired/shabby chic cards an projects!  I embellished my crochet flowers further by adding layered Prima flowers.  I glued to Prima flowers together and crunched them up to create the flowers.

Here is a close up of the crochet/Prima flowers.

Just another close up of my card.  If you're interested in crochet flowers.  I do create them and sell them in my Etsy shop.  I also listed this card on Etsy.

Anyway, that's it for today.  I have a few photos I want to share but I'll post them later this evening!  Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C106 Halloween Card

Hello Friends!  Happy Saturday!  Gosh, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging. . .I've gotten really lazy lately.  Actually, I've been really focusing on my photography.  I'll post a few photos that I took recently. . .maybe tomorrow.  Today. . .it's all about crafting. . .it's Crazy 4 Challenges time again!  Yipee!  This week Barbara came up with a fabulous challenge. . .create a Halloween card!  I can do that!!

* Barbara Anders
* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
*Lynda Benden
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger
*Vicki Garrett
 

Well. . .I decided to color an image. I haven't been coloring much lately.   I think I almost forgot how to color.   I need to practice coloring with my Copic Markers again.  I'm surprised my markers are still juicy considering they've been sitting on my shelf gathering dust.  I've had my Copic Markers for over 3 years and my goodness, they are all still quite juicy and I've made good use of them in the past.

I decided to use my Magnolia stamp.  They are so cute and fun to color.  Other than coloring the image, the rest of my card is basically routine. . .designer paper, ribbon, and embellishments.  That's about it!

Before I go, I wanted to let you know that I started a 365 Project account.  It's a website where you take a photo on a daily basis and upload it to the website.  I thought it was interesting to do something like that.  Because I have a lot photos from the past that I wanted to add, I've been basically retro-dating or retro-uploading my photos.  My plan is to catch up and start taking photos daily and uploading them to the website.  If you have an account with them, let me know or follow me and I'll in return follow you.  If you don't have an account with them (it's free) and are curious about it, here is the website:  365 Project 

Here is my 365 Project


Anyway. . .hope you'll play along with us this week!!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!


Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Crazy for Challenges - C4C105

Hi everyone!

It's Saturday which means the "Crazies" are back with another fun challenge for you all.  It's Crazy 4 Challenges time again!!

Before we get into today's challenge, as this week is a sponsored challenge, we need to introduce this month's sponsor which is Creations by AR. Adela has some awesome templates on her site which I know the "Crazies" have had fun playing with for our challenge this week. The templates come in all formats: PDF, SVG and DXF so that you can use them with your electronic die cutting machines or cut by hand if you don't have a machine. This week's winner will receive two templates of their choice from Creations by AR.

Adela has also offered our blog readers a 10% discount on all her templates during this challenge so that is from September 17th to September 23rd. All you need to do is use the code: challenge10 when you go through the check out.

Now it is time for our challenge, Barb is back with another fun fall themed challenge for us all! This week all you have to do is create a card or project with a pumpkin on it in some form. It can be a card or 3D project.

Stop by Crazy 4 Challenges blog site and check out the awesome projects created using Creations by AR files or stop by the crazies individual blogs:

* Barbara Anders
* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
*Lynda Benden
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger
*Vicki Garrett

Hope y'all have a wonderful Saturday!!

 

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Photos of the Day - Mr. and Ms. Dragonfly Photos

 

Hi Friends!  I've been focusing on photography for the past few days.  I do a lot of crafting and it's sometimes nice to step away and do something different.  Taking photos takes a bit of patience and the right opportunities.  There's this one dragonfly that always like to hang out on a particular plant in our yard and everyday when I step out in our backyard I would see him just hanging out but I usually don't have a camera with me so the other day, I saw him just having a grand ole' time hanging out on his special plant.  I ran up to my craft room upstairs and grabbed my camera and took a few photos of him.  The last 2 photos are the photos I took of him the other day.  The first 6 photos are of photos of 2 dragonflies that I took today.  Today, Mr. Dragonfly decided to bring along his girlfriend. 

All the photos were taken with my Canon 70-300mm telephoto lens at 200-300 mm macro.  I'm about 4 to 5ft away but zoomed in.  The macro capabilities allow the closest distance at 4 to 5ft at 200 or 300mm zoom or it won't let me take a macro photo.  The photo above is actually at 300mm macro and it's not a cropped shot.  It's the actual closeness of the dragonfly.  I did crop the right end of the photo because it was off centered but other than that, the shot is the actual shot of the photo.

Honestly, I can't tell which is the male or the female.  One is fuzzier and fatter than the other so I'm assuming the bigger fatter one is the male.  I believe in nature other than in humans, isn't the prettier one the male?

I think this is the female.  She is a little thinner and smaller.  I was able to take a great shot of her tail and at a different angle.

This is at another angle. I know I posted a lot of photos but I wanted to show the different angles of the dragonfly.  It's not often that a dragonfly hangs around and let you take photos of them.

This one is actually cropped but not by much. Once you crop a photo, you sort of start to lose the details of the photo.  I wanted to share this one because she's smiling at me and sticking out her tongue. . hehe!  I believe the dragonfly eyes are to their side. . not sure. .

I wanted to share this one because Mr. or Ms. Dragonfly was hanging out at the end of the plant. This was actually a difficult shot to take because the wind was blowing and the dragonfly would sway as the wind blows and I could not get my camera to focus.  A close up shot at a distance is difficult to take especially without a tripod because the lens have difficulties focusing when the object moves and my unsteady hands causes the camera to shake.

 

These two last photos are photos I took the other day of Mr. Dragonfly. It was later in the afternoon so the plant caused shadows on his wings due to the direction of the sun when I took the photo.

Here is the last photo of Mr. or Ms. Dragonfly.  I like this one because the dragonfly is nicely centered.  I really had fun taking these photos.  Maybe I'll do a bit of crafting today now that I've gotten my photography fix for the day!

Hope you like the photos!  Hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C104 Fall Colors

Hi Friends! Happy Saturday! It's Crazy 4 Challenges time again and this week Barbara came up with a great challenge for us this week! Fall is right around the corner so this week Barbara's challenge is to create a card with the following colors: Orange, Olive Green, Yellow, and Brown. Hope you'll play along with us this week. Stop by C4C and check out the awesome cards the crazy gals created or stop by their individual blogs:

* Barbara Anders
* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
*Lynda Benden
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger
*Vicki Garrett
 

Whoa! My photos are huge. . .I'm still trying to get used to the larger size. There is actually one size down but it's too small. I wish the new Blogger interface allowed an option custom resizing.  I think I may go back to the old interface and editor. I miss having the option to customize the size of my photos. Anyway. ..about my card. I'm not sure the brand of the rubber stamp that I used. I had unmounted it from it's wood block a while ago and I no longer know who made the stamp. I stamped the image on to watercolor paper and colored the image with SU Markers and did a bit of watercoloring. I sort of pulled the colors out from the image and colored my back ground as well. 

I added Prima flowers a few embellishments.  The sentiment was actually printed from my computer.  Believe it or not, I could not find any of my Thanksgiving sentiment stamps.  It drives me nuts having to look for specific sentiments so I decided it was much easier to just type it out on the computer and print it.

My watercoloring looks a bit messy close up but I intended it to look that way. . .I wanted it to look like watercoloring and sort of just swished the colors all over the paper.  The messy look was intentional. . hehe!

Anyway. . that's it for today.  I had fun making this card. . .I think I'm going to make more Thanksgiving cards!  Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Photos of the Day

Hi Friends!!  I don't have anything crafty to share today just a bunch of photos that I took during our time at the beach during the Labor Day weekend.  When I don't craft, I like to take photos.  I have a stock pile of photos that I want to share but I'm not sure if anyone who reads my blog want to see photos.

Just a little detail about my photos.  I have a Canon Rebel XSi and all of the photos except for the first photo in this post were taken with a "wide angle lens", specifically the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens.  This lens is perfect for landscape photos. The first photo above was taken using my cel phone, believe it or not, but I corrected the photo's exposure and did a few color correction using Adobe Lightroom 3.  Unfortunately, you can only do so much correction to a photo.  You can see the difference in the colors that the photo was not taken using my camera.

The beach was pretty crowded but people weren't allowed to swim because of the huge waves and strong rip current the day we were there.  The photos were taken at the Oceanside beach in San Diego.

This photo was taken at the end of the pier and looking towards the beach.  There's a restaurant at the end of the pier so we decided to walk down and eat lunch there.  There were a lot of people fishing. . .I think they were catching mullet and sardines.

Just a photo of my daughter.

This is an angled shot of the pier.  This photo was actually taken with my standard Canon 28-105mm lens.

I love this shot of the lifeguards racing down the water to rescue a surfer.  They were flying at top speed.  The lifeguard in the back was literally flying off the water and bouncing up and down which I believe must have hurt a lot.  These lifeguards are amazing.

Awww, look at this rescue dog.  He was shaved and had a Mohawk.  I missed taking a photo of his tail which was really fluffy.  He's so adorable.

Just a wave shot.  The waves don't normally get too big here so this was actually a great opportunity to take photos of waves.

I'm originally from Hawaii where there are HUGE waves so to me, these waves were not big waves at all.  Actually, it would be considered small waves but in San Diego, I guess they don't get too many large waves so it was a big deal here.

We didn't stick around for the sunset but it was setting a little when I took this photo of the pier.

Here is a wide angle shot of the pier.

The pier and the beach were nearly empty of people when I took this shot.  It was getting a little chilly by California standards.  We don't tolerate cold temperatures very well.

Just a footprint shot.  It's footprints of a little kid that was walking on the sand.

Although it was a little cold, my daughter decided to eat ice cream so I took a silhouette photo of her eating her ice cream.

Of course, I had to take a shadow shot of me an my daughter.

That's it for today.  I may share more photos tomorrow.  Not of the beach but other photos that I took recently.  Hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Crazy 4 Challenges C4C103 - Back to School Card

Hello Friends! It's Crazy 4 Challenges time again and this week Barbara came up with a great challenge! Now that the kids are heading back to school, why not a school themed card? Yup. . .the challenge this week is to create a school related card!  Hope you'll play along with us this week.  Stop by and check out the cards the design team created at C4C or stop by their individual blogs:

* Barbara Anders
* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
*Lynda Benden
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger
*Vicki Garrett
 

Hey. . .if you're a blogger, did you notice the new blogger interface when blogging a post?    I like the additional features . . .it's just a matter of navigating through them but I'm beginning to like it.  My photos are larger because there are only 4 sizes available whereas the old editing version allowed you to adjust the size to whatever size you want.  That's the part I don't like about the new editor so when the new editor was given as an option with the old interface I never updated it.  With the new interface, you're not given the option to use the old editor, it's only available with the new editor.  Oh, well. . .I guess you'll have to put up with super large photos. . .:)

There's no stamping on my card.  Just scrapbook embellishments.  I didn't want to dig through piles of rubber stamps to look for an image that fits the theme for this week so I decided to work with the embellishments instead.  I actually have a ton of scrapbook embellishments because there was a time when I had grand plans to create scrapbook layouts but it never really happened.  I should use the embellishments more often on cards. . .either that or sell them.  I have to think about it. . .I hate getting rid of things then decide later when I've sold them that I really did need them.

Anyway, that's it for today!  I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend so far!

Etsy Shop: Inspired &Unscripted

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