Swirls and Snowflakes Sketch Challenge Card

I must have colder weather on my mind

because of the extreme heat and humidity our 

area is currently facing (I am NOT a summer person!). 

As soon as I saw the sketch challenge at 

Operation Write Home this week,

I knew what I was going to make.

I finally found the time to make and share it !

Supplies used:

White card stock

Divine Swirls cuttlebug folder

Shimmery lightweight paper

Martha Stewart snowflake punches

Rhinestones

5/8" shimmery edged organdy ribbon

I originally took time to paint each swirl with

shimmery paint, but decided not to use it

because the snowflakes really seemed lost on it.

I'll reuse that painted piece for another winter card later.

Thanks for looking =) 

Digi Photos and Albums, Tips

I've done it, I've taken over the dining room table !

The cat has, too !!!! 

Granted, the table is only used a couple times a year.

I've decided it was way past time to work on

getting digital photos printed.

Slowly but surely since the beginning of the year

I have been sorting through photos on my external hard drive.

As many as there are, I still swear there are not nearly enough

and realize there are many things I never photographed,

especially as the kids got older. They just would NOT cooperate

with having photos taken (unless they were taking selfies!).

Not to mention the many failed attempts at photographing events

only to have pictures so blurry they are worthless, memories were not captured.

What a time consuming project this has been

(seriously, it is nearly JULY already !????

where has my time gone???  "wasted" working on photos!)

and I haven't even started putting them into albums yet ! 

What a box full I've had printed so far

and I have 18 more months to go through. 

Note: Many times photos may not print out the way they

look to you on your computer monitor.

This is true of all the different stores I've used,

it never fails that many of my photos come back

far too dark. It's very disappointing and I don't know

a way around it since in the same batch, photos

can come back looking just fine. Sigh.

I've used Shutterfly (I like that you can have words printed on the back),

CVS , Walgreens and Walmart. Walgreens has the best deals

such as 10c prints the most often. I have received a couple of

free print codes to Shutterfly, but once you add in shipping

on those free prints, it is nearly the cost of having them done locally. 

Albums, oh my goodness, once I started really

looking into them I was finding so many options, 

becoming  overwhelmed with the 

pros and cons of different styles.

In the end I chose to go with pocket albums

to store more photos in less space.

The albums themselves are quite large in size,

but they will hold 400 photos in them. 

Because the brand I chose in the end offered refill pages,

I ordered a set for each album so they will now hold 500 photos.

  I searched all over, the best deals for me were found at Adorama.

I have dealt with them before with no issues whatsoever so I 

was going to order from them. In the end I did not since the 

albums they sold did not have refills available and the two

styles I was looking at didn't state the photo safety of them

(surely they are fine, but just in case ....). Plus, there was that issue

of what if there was a problem, I would have to ship it back.

So the new Michaels.com won, although much more expensive

especially when I add in my time/gas driving to the store for an exchange,

over Adorama.com which had the most budget friendly and a nice variety of albums.. 

Here are the albums I bought:

Recollections TREVOR black faux leather photo album from Michael's.

It is a two post bound album that holds 400 photos.

I'll be adding extra posts, I like having three vs two posts

because I know from first hand experience of dropping a two post

album, the pages can tear out easily (this was one of my

cons on my pros and cons list of which albums to buy.....).

Additional pages can be bought and they include post extenders.

Look for sales on them because the albums alone are $24.99 ! 

Refill pages are $3.99.

Measure your shelves first before buying albums!

They are bigger than I wanted (book bound albums are slightly smaller),

but I knew this when I bought them.

I am able adjust the height of my shelves to accommodate how tall they are.

 They will however stick out over the edge as my shelves are not as deep as the albums.

Real stitching detail, textured "leather" , a photo frame 

and a clear plastic protector.

CD pocket in back of album.

This is one of two book bound type albums I already had

and was going to purchase more of but in a 5 photo per page style.

I then decided that the other pocket type may hold up better

(like we are going to be looking at them all that often!)

and the pages can be easily replaced if they become damaged. 

I also had the thought that the cream paper will show dirt, etc easily.

Not that I would have dirty hands looking at them,

but just to be safe.

I read lots of reviews at various websites concerning each type,

both had glowing reviews as well as some negative reviews.

It did seem to me that there were more negative comments

about the book bound style though . Mainly flimsier plastic

and that pages tended to come apart at those little "welds"

causing the photos to slip.

This really is a beautiful photo album.

I already have a small pile of  regular 12x12 scrapbooks

that I bought over the years to put pet photos

in. I have yet to do that! 

I ordered some pocket pages for those as well

to hold more photos. They don't fit perfectly so I will

need to use my Cropadile to punch new holes. 

Now here are some tips:

~Even if a marker/pen says it is 

safe for writing on the backs of photos,

that is not necessarily true. Be sure to check

the ink first before stacking photos on top

of each other if you are writing on the backs.

Also, different photo papers react differently

to the inks, so test all photos first. I've found most

print services include a "photo" that is your order summary

so test out inks on that piece before taking a chance on ruining a photo.

~If you are writing on the backs of the photos with a ball point pen,

be sure to do it in a hard surface and don't press too firmly.

If you use too much pressure or the photo you are writing on is on

something soft, such as a stack of photos, you take the chance of

"embossing" your handwriting onto the front of the photo.

That is, the pressure from your handwriting will cause

raised up areas on the front side if you are not careful.

~As you are printing out your photos, if you are not placing them

into albums right away, be sure to organize them in a way that makes

sense to you then keep them stored safely in photo boxes to avoid damage.

I have mine done chronologically and some special events are in their own envelope.

~ You may want to consider adding the word "printed" 

to the file name of the digital photos you have printed out.

I did this so if I should ever need to replace photos or 

go back through the digital files to think about printing more,

I'll know which ones I have already done.

~ You may want to copy the digital files you've printed to a 

compact disc and insert it in the albums as a backup.

Some albums come with sleeves made into them for this.

~Back up all digital files from the hard drive to discs !

I do this for all of my photos, numbering each disc

and adding the photo folder names and a brief description

in a notebook that I keep with the binder full of discs.

I even made a second set of discs to keep at my parents house

in case of a catastrophe at mine. That way, if something

horrible happened and I lost the computer, discs, photos,

I would still have digital copies at their house. 

This includes old negatives that I scanned.

I don't want to save all of my photos online.

~There are numerous ways to organize your photos on your computer

just as there are many ways to organize your photo albums.

Store all of your photos in one folder on your computer/external hard drive. 

You would then make subfolders as you like; mine are by years.

I simply save my files based on the date shot, 

using the year / month / date file name format.

I haven't taken the time to add tags to them, shame on me. 

I then add on a couple of words to describe the main subject,

such as Christmas, a pet or kids name, birthdays, etc. 

As for my albums ? I'll have one for each pet then pretty much

jumble all the rest of the immediate family photos in chronological order. 

 We took two "big" vacations over the years (yes, sadly, only two!)

that will have their own album as well. 

~ If you are doing any photo editing, be sure to edit copies , not the original.

I've learned this the hard way and yet I still goof up at times!

You can do a search online for hundreds of websites offering 

photo organization tips as well as free software for editing!

Baking Frenzy for Father's Day

I am no master baker, 

not even a mediocre baker ;)

I don't know that I have ever seen a "twin" egg !

There were two yolks in the large egg on the right.

The egg on the left is a regular large egg from the 

same dozen. 

Making muffins (box mix) for breakfast 

I then spent the rest of the morning baking three desserts 

(and making a big ol' mess !) for the dads:

Brownies (box mix) with walnuts and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

I wanted to have the kids sprinkle powdered sugar over 

die cut letters D A D since the brownies were for their dad, 

but they wanted no part of it. I could have done it myself...

Fresh peach pie (Betty Crocker recipe) my brother in law requested.

That was supposed to be a tie on his pie,

but I don't know what I was doing - 

it looks like a fish! 

First time I've made a basic peach pie and it was pretty good! 

My dads slightly burned fresh apple pie

(Betty Crocker recipe).

I felt so bad for burning it and had no time to 

go to the store to get more apples, make another.

Despite it being burned , it tasted great and the apples

didn't get too mushy like they do sometimes !

I cut D A D into the top of it.

Since it was a bit burned, the colors coordinated

with the card I made him =) 

I did make one thing healthy to take to the family dinner: a really large salad with home made dressing,
a family favorite. Here is the recipe; it is a Roman type dressing.

It went well with the beautiful gargantuan sized home made lasagna and cheesy garlic bread my sister made. I think the dads enjoyed their meal and desserts =)


Thanks for looking !

Father's Day Card

This card was created based on sketch challenge #226 at Operation Write Home.

Truck image, Hero Arts Past Times
Sanded and Crackling background stamps, Stampin' Up!
Happy Father's Day, All Year Cheer 2 stamp set, Stampin' Up!
Vanilla, Kraft, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso card stocks
and inks, Stampin' Up!
Gold embossing powder and Versamark ink
gold mini brads
sponged ink along edge of Kraft card




TIP: Use removable sticky notes to ink portions of a rubber stamp if you do not have a marker to easily put ink where you want it. I cut a sticky note to cover HAPPY and DAY in order to ink FATHER'S with Versamark ink then removed the sticky notes to stamp FATHER'S onto the Chocolate Chip banner. You could do the same thing to ink HAPPY and DAY, but it was easy enough for me to just dab ink from the corner or my ink pad onto each of those words.

Thanks for looking =)

Flag Day

My facebook timeline cover I created

using a photo of my front porch, a digital scrapbook kit

by JMC Designs

and Photoshop Elements.

I don't use fb often ,

but I do enjoy making covers !

Thanks for looking =) 

Full Moon Friday the 13th

I tried and tried to get a photo of the full moon tonight and no matter what I did (well, I did not use a tripod as I have been unable to locate our old one we used for video camera use), it would not work. Ack! I used the same camera settings, even went to the same window to prop the camera on the sill, no luck.

I guess the few shots I managed to FINALLY get of a full moon (well, nearly full) two nights ago, blow,  are all I will get. SO happy that I did finally get my very own pretty decent photo of a full moon though - and me, having no idea what I am doing, either! I got lucky.

I was so tickled to see the detail in the photo when enlarged on the computer. Granted, it is not perfect, but it is the best, most detailed photo I've ever gotten of the moon ! It's normally just a white blob in photos. I don't think it is too bad for just a "point and shoot" person .

I used a Nikon D5000 with a Tamron 18-270mm lens.

I just kept turning the dial to various settings, both preset and the manual settings. I'm not really sure what one got the photo.


Thanks for looking =)

Bright Happy Birthday Cards

I found these premade Happy Birthday card embellishments at my local

Big Lots store a couple of months ago.

Using bright colored card stocks, an embossing folder,

stamps on the last card and polka dot ribbon on the pink cards,

I created a cheery set of cards to donate to 

Operation Write Home.

How many of you have Big Lots stores in your area?

Has your store reorganized their "departments" and

gotten rid of the crafty stuff like ours has ?

Makes me sad that ours no longer carries

crafty things - it was the first department I

went to every time I visited that store.

Thanks for looking =) 

Graduation Card

A fairly quick graduation card. This is the first time I've used the Chevron punch! Because it uses a couple of punches and a die, I'll enter it in the June ODBD Challenge at Operation Write Home to use punches and dies on cards. This card will NOT be sent to OWH, but since I already had it made (not posted yet) and it fits the challenge criteria, I decided to link it up.


Supplies used:
Whisper White card stock
Scrap of blue/gray card stock, unknown
blue/gray organdy ribbon, dollar store find a long time ago
Rectangle die
Chevron and Tag Topper punches, Stampin' Up!
Brocade Blue and Night of Navy markers, Stampin' Up!
Word Play and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets, Stampin' Up!
Alphabet embossed piece was a leftover from another project
Clear drying liquid glue and Martha Stewart glitter for along the edges of the stamped panel
Pop dots/stampin' dimensionals


Thanks for looking =)

It's gonna be one of those days.................

So as I was making muffins for breakfast this morning, I managed to make quite the flour mess -
looks like it might be one of those days. Great........................

Sketch Challenge Card

My take on sketch #227 at

Operation Write Home this week.

There are two variations of the sketch

and it is part of a blog hop.

Mine is a bit different than the sketch,

but follows the basic idea.

Rather than an extra strip of paper at the bottom

edge of the card/sketch, 

I chose to run my card base through a Texturz plate

then embossed a single line at the top of the

embossed polka dots the plate made.

I really should have stamped the red flower

on watercolor paper as the inks changed colors

to oranges on that white card stock

that was given to me. I at first thought

my inks were going bad, but have deduced 

that it is indeed the inks reacting with the 

white card stock for some reason.

The card stock was by Georgia Pacific

and my sister thinks she bought it at Walmart.

Supplies used:

Awesome fancy new to me Spellbinders die

Circle die, Nestabilities

Butterfly punch and Papillion Potpourri stamp image,

Field Flowers stamp set, inks and

polka dot Texturz plate, Stampin' Up!

Vanilla and white  card stocks 

sponge 

aquapainter

Hand cut banner

Thanks for looking =)