Calm after the Storm

Last week we had a terrible storm – the worst in 40 years and it was a very scary experience. This week though, the weather has been very calm and peaceful and I took the opportunity to go down to the Hutt River and take some photos of the snow clad mountains as a backdrop on the river. It was looking stunning today and the higher level of water makes for a better composition, I think. Mother Nature certainly gives us some rewards for the down times.
I hope you all have a great day.
Patricia

 

Autumn colours

Autumn is definitely making it’s presence felt here and the colours are just stunning. The other day I went out early before breakfast with my camera to try and get some good shots of the Hutt River in the early morning. But I did not time it too well as I didn’t take into account the end of daylight saving. So I walked down to the park and took some great photos of flowers and leaves – I will try and post some at a later date. The night before it had rained quite heavily so I had lots of nice juicy raindrops on the flowers.
I love the colours in this photo and the way the green leaf with the rain drops is sharp in the middle of the mix of Autumn colours.
I think this reminds us that there is beauty in all aspects of nature.  I will try and remember that when we are in the middle of a southerly storm!
I hope you all have a good day.
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