‘Fairies leaving their home’

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My photo for the day. Unfortunately, I tend to have a lot of weeds in my garden, but you know what they make really interesting photos. I was really pleased with the detail in this photo using my intelligent zoom. When I was young I used to think the seeds were fairies – hence the title.  Just a little whimsical tonight I think.
Tomorrow I will post some of my latest scrapbook pages from my son’s album after I have uploaded them to my Memory Manager. I am now up to James at 4 months old so I am making good progress and it is only April. With the weather turning cooler here it is a great time to stay inside and scrapbook both digitally and traditionally.
Have a great day and Happy Crafting.
Patricia

Bumble bee on snapdragon_0001.jpg

Image representing Flickr as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

 

 

My photo of the day. I have been exploring my camera and started using the A setting on the camera and discovered the optical digital zoom which gave me a lot more grunt for macro photography. Here I managed to get a brief ray of sunshine to back light the flower and because I was able to zoom in I got a much better bokeh effect without manipulating the environment. I am looking forward to learning more about macro photography at the camera club. But sometimes there is nothing better than getting out and practicing. At least with digital cameras you can view the photos and delete them as necessary before printing them off.
I would also like to add that my Memory Manager 4.0 has been an excellent tool to help me sort all my photos easily and I do all my editing and journalling in it before I upload to Flickr. It is so much easier doing this than doing it online. Plus I can also rate my photos as well so I know which ones to use when I am doing my digital and/or traditional scrapbooking. MM also has a feature where you can put the photos into an album to help you plan for doing an album which is great for oganizing in advance. I have started to also use more touch up tools as well, but that is also a work in progress and another topic for a future post.
Have a great day everyone.
Patricia

 

Enchanted digital sketch

 

Sometimes I need a little inspiration for my scrapbooking whether it be traditional or digital.  So some clever people have come up with scrapbook layout sketches that make it so easy to get great results.   One of these very clever and smart people is Chris Lothian who is has a Facebook page called Christine’s Creative Capers.  She has designed pages that we can download and use on our StoryBook Creator and get a great page in 5 minutes.

I have used the lovely photos I took off the monarch butterfly last week and teemed them up with the Enchanted digital kit and they went really well together.

This was so easy to do as all I needed to do was click and drag the various papers and photos onto the layout.  I did have to just add the paper to the scalloped strips on the sides by selecting them and then adding the paper to the selected element.  And to finish off I just substituted the flowers with flowers from the kit.  Easy Peasy!

First here is the original sketch:

Chis Lothian sketch #12

And this is the finished layout:

Butterfly Magic

This sketch is also suitable for traditional scrapbooking.  Please note that all sketches on Chris’ Facebook page is for personal use only.  

Have a great day and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Autumn is coming

Hello there

Autumn is finally here and the leaves are starting to change colour and to celebrate some rain and cooler weather at last, I have created an autumn layout on my StoryBook Creator 4.0.  I have used the Fall Appreciation 2012 kit as the colours are very autumnal.

Autumn Time

 

The layout was a sketch from an Artful Crafts competition and I inserted photo boxes to create the background layers.  Other than that this layout was a matter of clicking and dragging the embellishments onto the page and resizing them as required.  I got an honorable mention for this in the competition – I don’t think they had had a digital layout entered before.

Happy Autumn everyone in the Southern Hemisphere and Happy spring for the Northern Hemisphere.

Happy crafting

Patricia

 

I found the Easter Bunny!

Today I went out to take some photos down at the Hutt River and came across an errant bunny in the bushes around the bridge.  I managed to get one photo of it before it disappeared.  I thought the timing was quite timely especially as we have just had Easter in the weekend.  However, I could not find any Easter eggs – lol!

The Easter Bunny

While on Easter I have just purchased the Creative Memories Border Maker rustic fence cartridge and I could not resist making one last Easter card with it.  I can see myself using this cartridge a lot – and distressing it with inks as well.  This would look lovely with flowers and leaves climbing up on it on a card.  This cartridge is while stocks last only.

It seems strange to put a cute lamb on an Easter card in the southern hemisphere as Easter is a sign of Autumn for us with the changing colours of leaves and cooler temperatures (?), but it is a sign of rebirth that is universal.  I also love using the Classic Stickers from Creative Memories they are so colourful and pretty. Plus they are reasonably priced.

Easter card

 

The sentiment on this card was last weeks freebie from Creative Memories that I printed off from my StoryBook Creator, as well as the background paper.

Materials used in this card:

Creative Memories Cardstock – Green Apple

Creative Memories Stickers – Easter

Creative Memories Border Maker – rustic fence cartridge

Creative Memories Reflections Digital Kit

Creative Memories freebie sentiment

I hope that you all had a great Easter.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

Nature at it’s best.

Welcome back.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and taking the time to like my posts.  It is lovely to get all the feedback about my crafty endeavours.

Today I am combining my photography with my digital art.   Yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful weather to go down to the Hutt River and take some photos.  The scenery is just amazing there and I managed to get some great photos.  Today I have done a very simple artwork with my StoryBook Creator 4.0 and will look at getting this made into a photo panel to hang on the wall.

Hutt River

 

Unfortunately, some of the photo was lost translating from a 6 x 4 image to a 12 x 12 image, but the photo is still great.  I did not want to play around with it too much and lose the great colours and depth of field.

Here is my original photo:

The Hutt River looking towards the Tararua Ranges

 

In the middle of winter I can look back at this image and it will remind me that winter does end and that summer will come eventually.

To create this all I did was use a full-page photo layout and then just added the freebie sentiment.  Took all of a couple of minutes to do.    How simple is this!  And what a great gift it would be as well.  I will look at making this into a card as well and do something very similar.

Incidentally, despite the glorious weather we are still in drought conditions and we have severe water restrictions which may hamper my photography around my little garden – or it may not… I might see some very different and interesting shapes out in the garden before the big dry ends.

Have a great day and happy crafting

Patricia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Greetings

Hello

In between going out with my camera I have been busy doing more Easter cards to sell at a local wool shop.  I have used mainly the Creative Memories products, but my Cuttlebug and embossing folders have come in handy to provide a textural effect.  I have a list of all the products used after the images.

Here are my cards:

Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card Easter Card

Materials used:

Creative Memories Cardstock – Apple Green

Creative Memories Cardstock – Cloud

Creative Memories Cardstock – Yellow

Creative Memories Classic Easter Stickers

Creative Memories  Absolutely Fabulous scrap patterned papers

Creative Memories Reminisce paper flowers

Creative Memories Epoxy Stickers PS I Love You

Creative Memories Rotary Trimmer – straight, zigzag and scallop blades

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – ovals

Creative Memories Border Maker – Twinkle Chain cartridge and Picket Fence Border

Creative Memories downloaded freebies embellishments

Creative Memories – Reflections paper that I have printed from my StoryBook Creator 4.0

Cuttlebug embossing folders – Swiss Dots, Elegant Frame, Combo Welcome Baby

Easter Stamp – Effie Glitzfinger St Louis Design – I have had this stamp many years.

My Favourite Things Die-namics – Fancy Flourish

Please feel free to contact me if there are any questions about any of my creations.

I hope everyone has a great Easter.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

 

Pinterest Inspiration

Hi there

Following on from my Facebook digital art I decided to do a layout for Pinterest.  I have got a lot of inspiration for my crafts from Pinterest and this is my acknowledgment of the influence it has on my creations.  I have still managed to make the page pink, despite Pinterest having a red logo.  If you haven’t guessed it yet my favourite colour is pink and if I can I add pink somewhere I will.  A rose also managed to sneak in on the page as well.   I have copied and pasted the logos of Pinterest from a Google search. For further information about how I achieved this layout please head over to my Digital Creations page.

Pinterest Digital LayoutHappy crafting

Patricia

 

 

Facebook Friends

Hello

This digital layout is dedicated to  my special friend and Facebook friend Jo.  She is loving my digital creations and asked that I do this layout for her.  I hope she likes it.

Facebook Friends layoutMy next project will be a layout for Pinterest.

Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Pink and Black Music Digital Layout

Welcome back.

I am still working on the digital chic theme and this time I have used music as my theme.  I love the combination of pink and black and I have put in my own flower photos.  All the embellishments on this layout is free including the background paper from http://freevintagedigistamps.blogspot.co.uk.  There are lovely vintage papers and ephemera on this site and free to download.

Digital music layout

Have a good day and Happy Scrapping.

Patricia