Diane Weber Artsy Craftsy

It Must Be Love

2012-01-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

There is a Disney song going through my head...from Cinderella...

So this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of
Mmmmmm
Mmmmmm
So this is love

Similar to the name of Maya de Groot's new kit, It Must Be Love, which I've used to scap the next Disney page (perhaps that's why I am humming a Cinderella song!).

Lots of soft woody pinks and browns, lovey elements, great word art!

This is one of the pictures taken by the Disney Photopass Photographer at Hollywood Studios, provided in digital format so I can scrap it over and over!

Additional credits - Maya De Groot Templates 4, KellyBell Designs (Disney elements)

Here is the preview for this pretty kit:

Camera Corner Self Portrait

2012-01-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

The January Camera Corner challenge at Oscraps was to do a self-portrait. I like taking self-portraits, since they almost always look goofy and are therefore good for a smile.

The first one was taken at the La Quinta hotel on the night we stayed up at the airport before flying to Kauai, and the second in my bedroom hallway to show off my new Athleta top.

Lots went into the scrapping, including some very cool brushes (the hand, hourglass definition compass and clock) which just seemed to appear in my brush palette. I guess I am still getting used to CS5.

Credits:From Anna Aspes - 12x12 Magic FotoBlenz Album 1, Portal Art Paperie No 3, 12x12 Script Tease Overlay Learn, Project 366 Word Art No 1, ArtPlay Palette Retro Holiday, ArtPlay Palette Everyday, Numbered Overlays 1, and Vicki Stegal Ransom Alpha

All of My Love

2012-01-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Valentine scrapping kits are emerging, and ones with red dots, like the new All of My Love kit from Jen Maddocks Designs, are perfect for continuing my Disney scrapping.

I did this one first, this picture of me & Ms AC in front of the Minnie & Mickey topiaries at Epcot,

Then just subbed a few pics, elements and made a companion page of me & Mr AC at the light show at the Studios.

Here is a preview of the kit full of red, pink and black papers, as well as lots of lovey elements.

Additional credits: Anna Aspnes Anna Sampler No 2 , No Reimer Reason Remember the Magic

Project 366 Scrapping Begins

2012-01-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

Yes of course I am doing Project 366, but the question is/was, how would I print/scrap it?

Last year I printed all the individual photos as 4x6's, I printed the scrapbook pages that featured some of these photos, and I intend to print a book of all the weekly layouts.

I just wasn't sure I wanted/needed to do weekly layouts this year.

But, two reasons to do so:

while a picture tells a story, a story tells a story, and perhaps even better, with more details, so as long as I write a little bit about each photo and/or each week, it is worth doing weeklies
Anna Aspnes has created some fabulous Project 366 templates and materials, which could make it really fast and easy if I didn't fuss over every little detail

And so, here we go, Week 1 of Project 366, the Year 2012, begun.

Credits:Anna Aspnes FotoInspired Layout 1, Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Ablaze, Barren Sunrise, Everyday

Oscraps Freebies

2012-01-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is a post I wrote for the Oscraps blog:

Hey, O-Fans, Diane here, bringing you the question of the day...

Did you know, there is a category in the Oscraps store for Freebies?

There are more than 10 pages of awesome Freebies available from our talented designers, waiting to be used in your scrapping! Templates, paper, alphas, wordart, elements...it's all here!

Before January gets away from us, I wanted to bring your attention to a very special Freebie, from Sue Cummings, a quick and easy template/quick grid for a year in review.

O-scrappers have done some wonderful reviewing with this template!

This colorful layout by Michael captures special moments throughout the year:

EHStudios created a Project Life page with the 8 1/2" x 11" version of the free template:

How sweet and romantic is this page by whetuu, thankful for a year with her husband:

Bush Girl focused on a very special even from 2011 in her page:

Ella_75 focused on a year in the life of a very special little man:

marijke chose the four seasons and presented images for each one:

And Elina2 gives us a year of beautiful flowers:

Don't let this one get away, and if you create a Year in Review page, please add it to Sue Cumming's Gallery so we can leave you some love!

Sue Cummings is the designer of the 52 Projects series which focuses on hybrid scrapbooking. (Check out our previous post on hybrid to find out more on that topic.) Sue's ultimate goal for the project is for us to walk away with 52 hybrid projects that can be showcased in a book about hybrid scrapbooking. Project No. 1 is the freebie listed above. Project No. 2 is also available for a low price. Four more projects will be added soon and the whole thing will hopefully wrap up Christmas of 2012. If you want to find out more or see the products, check out Sue's section of the Oscraps store.

"Freebie' banner ad created with Oscraps Collab kit Cozy, with Ransom [the Alphas] by Vicky Stegal.

Another New York Sketch

2012-01-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

Having done one New York sketch, I needed to do another. I had lots more pictures from the day traipsing around in the cold and wind of New York City on the day after Christmas, especially around Rockefeller Center.

I like this picture of us in front of the tree, and I love several of the other photos...there is something about the light and the lack of color, just a lot of silver and gold and gray. It's different from the light here in California and certainly different than in Hawaii, where the sun would wash out anything silver or gold.

Similar to yesterday, I started with a background photo, the photo of the tree in Rockefeller Center, and used a sketch filter, this time the Photocopy Filter, set on a blended mask, with the mask set to linear burn.

Then when I put the next picture on to the page, the picture of us in front of the tree, I accidentally clipped it into the masked sketch. But wow, how cool is that?? A little brush erasure around the edges and we're blended into the sketch!

The additional photos are actually placed underneath the sketch (one normal, one hard light) so you can see both real windows and sketch windows...subtle perhaps, but I love it!

A couple dabs of red to match the trumpeter and my gloves bring it all to tri-focal life.

Credits: Anna Aspnes Anna Sampler No 2, Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Strawberry Preserve and Retro Holiday.

Black & White & a Red Elephant

2012-01-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

As I looked through yesterday's photos, most from a trip to the Fillmore area of San Francisco, I was surprised by the unintentional yet dominant presence of black & white.

There was the vintage typewriter on the shelf in The Paper Source,

the Eiffel Tower umbrella in the window of a shop (and yes, it was raining, I wonder if there are always umbrellas in this window?),

and in Browser Books (love the faded rugs on the worn-wood floors, that slightly musty smell mixed with the aroma of ink, the strange lighting, sometimes dark, sometimes very bright where the spotlights were placed)...

not only good shelf space dedicated to Charles Dickens (mostly the black & white Penguin editions), but also a staff pick for David Copperfield, warming this store even further to my heart.

It was quite a cold, rainy, gray day, and even the windows of Marc Jacobs were rather dull, except for that glimpse of the RED ELEPHANT!

I tried to take a picture of the Red Elephant inside the store, but just like Wayne's attempt to play Stairway to Heaven in the Guitar Store, I was DENIED! (Really, do you really think I am going to steal your idea of using a red elephant in my business decor ?? Really?). Not be be denied, I thought, who can stop me from taking a picture of pretty Ms AC in front of the window, where one can, if one looks carefully, catch a glimpse on one red elephant. Take that, Mr. Marc Jacobs security guy (I actually do totally understand the sensitivity of designers to having their designs stolen, and therefore the need to restrict picture taking, but I really did want a picture of that red elephant).

And the last bit of black & white, the engraving on my new Marc Jacobs ring that Ms AC picked out for me:

DATUMAMORE AD DEFENDENDUM...

Given in love for Protection (sigh)

A New York Sketch

2012-01-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

I've missed scrapping, a lot. But scrapping needs materials, so no regrets about going off to Kauai for a week so I can gather more memorable materials.

Of course, I still have plenty of unscrapped memories from June in Europe, December at Disney World, and the holidays in New York.

So let's take a look at a New York sketch.

This page was inspired by an AnnaLift page done by Kathleen D of the Duomo, I think from Florence. Subsequent lifts continued to focus on landmarks. I thought about using some building photos from New York, but I loved this photo I captured of the trumpeting soldiers with the wind whipping the silvery and golden flags.

I used the Graphic Pen Sketch filter on top of a mask set to Soft Light blending, turning the opacity down to 80%. It gave me the perfect blend. I used the same mask on a full color version of the same photo, then added an extraction of the waving flags, this time with the blending mode of Luminosity.

Credits: Anna Aspnes Anna Sampler No 2, Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Strawberry Preserve and Retro Holiday.

Cold Weather Comforts

2012-01-21T21:42:00.001-08:00

When the warm weather vacation ends, there is the need for cold weather comforts, from Mr AC's creative kitchen.

Home-made soup...

And a 58-minute loaf.

Yum, but I do miss Kauai.

Cedric Came to Kauai

2012-01-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Being a traveling gnome, it should be no surprise that Cedric came to Kauai with us.

Fortunately, I remembered to take his picture!

Here he is on the back balcony of the condo at Puhio at Ka' Eo Kai.

And here on the Princeville cliffs at Sealodge.

And finally, trying to decide on whether or not to do that hike down to the Sealodge beach again. Since the big rains, it is looking a bit more slippery than it was at the beginning of the week.

The Instaview

2012-01-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

It's hard to concentrate on ones shot when this is the view to the next hole.

This is the 7 th hole at the Makai Club in Princeville.

The other distraction on these cliff holes are the albatross. These fascinating birds nest on the cliffs of Princeville, not only on the golf course but also in the neighborhoods. Seeing them fly with their enormous wing spans is poetry in motion. They are also pretty cute just sitting around.

The Day Via Instagram

2012-01-18T22:00:00.001-08:00

I love that with a flick of my finger, I can turn a nicely composed picture into a beautiful shot, thanks to Instagram.

No wonder 14 million people like it !

Here is my day via Instagram:

A walk in the neighborhood in Princeville revealed a previously unknown beach access path, from which we were able to hike down to Anini Beach.

The calm weather and water made for a beautiful morning!

Next we headed over to the beach at Hanalei Pavilion. Being a week day, it was pretty quiet, and again, such a beautiful day!

I have hardly found any seaglass on this trip, but I did find a rather unusual shell. Yes, I know it is out of focus, but I like the picture anyway.

We ended the day celebrating our anniversary at The Dolphin restaurant in Hanalei, always a favorite.

More Colors of Kauai

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

View of the mountains from the Princeville golf course, actually taken yesterday, January 16th. Today, we were awoken by a huge clap of thunder, and a poof as the power went out, just before the skies lit with lightning.

Fifteen inches of rain on Mt. Wai'ale'ale, the wettest spot on earth, brought back the waterfalls which we had not seen yet on this trip. As the falls came rushing down, the red-muddied waters flooded the Hanalei River and forced the closing of the one-lane bridge into Hanalei.

It all turned out OK, with the heavy rain breaking at mid-day, the river receding by late afternoon, the bridge finally opening in the early evening. All in all, the stuff of memories!

Zoom...Zoom

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt about it, scrapping is fun!

I love the bright colors, the elements, the telling of a story with pictures and embellishments.Presumably it shows. Doesn't it look like I had fun making this page? Yup, I did!

This is a new kit from Simply Kelly Designs called Little Stackers. It's mostly about Lego's, but unfortunately, and rather annoyingly, I couldn't find any lego pictures.

I KNOW we took pictures in and around the lego store at Downtown Disney when we visited in 2010...where are they??

Well, even though I don't have lego pictures, the pictures of our ride on the Tomorrowland Raceway from the pre-Christmas trip were just the right colors for the vibrant papers and elements in this kit.

Zoom...zoom!!

Additional credits: Simply Kelly In a Circle Template, Sue Cummings Favorite Word Art, Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate and Sweet Christmas, Tharalis A Colorful Life, No Reimer Reason Remember the Magic

The Colors of Kauai

2012-01-15T22:26:00.001-08:00

There's something about an aqua velva man (I remember when we were here years ago, on a horseback ride down on the Poipu end of the island, the guide talked about how the waters looked like aqua velva...),

Makes one want to do the Tangerine Tango...

Another Day in Paradise

2012-01-14T20:57:00.001-08:00

A long walk in Princeville, with views of the Kiluea Lighthouse way in the distance...

plus the occasional albatross nesting or resting on someone's lawn...

The beach in Hanalei...

and coffee at the old Java Kai in downtown Hanalei.

The Day in Photos

2012-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

Not much necessary in the way of words...

View from lunch upstairs at the Olympic Cafe in Kapaa...

Just a couple blocks from downtown Kapaa, the wide open and beautiful Eastern shore of Kauai...

Finishing the day with a scoop of Lapperts...

Goodbye Joe-Joes

2012-01-12T20:37:00.001-08:00

Finally finished...they were amazing!

Disney Day 1

2012-01-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

We took a chance, a chance that our flight to Orlando would be on time, with no delays in getting to the resort.

We took a chance because the 18th of December was the last night for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

We took a chance, and it turned out good!

This was a special limited-admission event, held after normal park closing hours at the Magic Kingdom. The park was not very crowded, they gave out free snicker doodle cookies and hot chocolate, and it snowed on Main Street! It was magical!

There at the entrance was the train station. It was all lit up beautifully in pink and purple lights, so of course we had to stop to take a few pictures.

But when I went to scrap this picture, that purple threw me for a loop...I could not find anything to go with it.

That's when I remembered the January Color Challenge at Oscraps, in black, brown and gold tomes, and a simple flick of the colorizer filter, and the purple problem was solved!
I loved the theme they presented at the entry to each of the parks,
"Let the Memories Begin"

Credits - Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 6, Maya de Groot Santangles, Disney Elements by Kellybell Designs

In Love Simply Kelly Templates

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am In Love with Simply Kelly's new In Love templates!

They were perfect for scrapping one of the highlights of our visit to Disney World, the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade!

It was a beautiful blue-sky day in Orlando, warm and pleasant, and we managed a good viewing spot, in the shade! There was this very accommodating family with whom we shared our little space, and they shared an ice cream with Mr. AC.

The music was wonderful, the parade full and long, Mickey and Minnie showed up pretty early, with Duffy, and it was closed out by Santa. I also loved the soldiers with their blocky boots which made a wonderful clicking noise on the pavement. It was sublime!

There are two templates in the set, one with a single photo frame, and the other with frames for 10 photos (I merged the two in the center to get the whole parade title into it).

Additional credits - Kellybell Designs Disney Facebook freebies

Midway Mania Lift

2012-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Although I didn't finish scrapping Europe, I think it best to try to scrap as close to events as possible, making it a lot easier to remember, and document, the details.

And so I am somewhat randomly doing the Disney scrapping before I forget things...

Like how long we had to wait in line for Midway Mania, the best ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Since it was the day after our arrival,and the big Mickey Christmas party the night before, we decided to sleep in and get somefood in the condo before venturing over to Hollywood Studios.
But when we got to Midway Mania, all the Fastpasses were already gone for the day,
and there was a 65 minute wait. Well, we waited...for a bit more than 65 minutes.
But it was worth it!

One of the things I love about Disney is how they work the details. There were so many fun things to see along the way, like life-sized playing cards, giant dice, enormous scrabble boards and tiles.

I like capturing these details in my scrapping, reinforcing little memories.

I designed this layout as a lift of a lift, for the weekly AnnaLift at Oscraps. It looked like a template was used for the original, but I decided to create it myself, good practice at creating rounded-edge rectangles, key lines and repetitive brushes.

Brush coloring is a bit different in CS5, so more good practice.

Credits:All from Anna Aspnes - Magic FotoBlenz Template No 1A, Numbered Overlays No 1, Artplay Palette Special One, ArtPlay Palette Sweet Christmas. Adventure brush from Katie Pertiet

Week 1 of 2011

2012-01-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Oops! As I started to think about compiling my weekly layouts for 2011, I realized I had never done the very first week of the year!

Although I started my P365 photo-taking on January 1, I didn't start my weeklies until the end of March in week 12, then I went both forwards and backwards until I was almost done.

Now I am "done".

The next step is to review every page, proof it, make sure there is nothing too close to the edge, as I think I will print these in a Shutterfly book, and get the book ready, including a front and back covesr. Ought to keep me busy for a while!

Credits:all from Anna Aspnes - Always Template, Project 366 Word Art No 1, ArtPlay Palettes Retro Holiday, Find My Way 2, Everyday and Every day Word Transfers

Speed Scrapping Epcot

2012-01-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I have been able to attend a speed scrap. But even though dinner was late and I got started late, and I am working at a slight disadvantage, having upgraded to CS5 yesterday and so a little slow with the new interface, I plowed on and did a speed scrap at DHD tonight.

I needed to quickly choose a picture, so grabbed this shot of Ms and Mr AC in front of Spaceship Earth at Epcot.

Then I grabbed the latest kit I had from DHD...Agnes Biro's Berry Merry...love the colors and dots.

Additional credits - Agnes Biro Abandoned Office and Balance, Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Retro Holiday and Sweet Christmas, Disney elements from Kellybell Designs.

Pantone Color of the Year - Tangerine Tango

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is a blog post I wrote for the Oscraps blog in my capacity as an Oscraps Cheeri-O.

Happy New Year from Oscraps, and welcome to 2012, the year of Tangerine Tango!This vibrant color, chosen by Pantone as the 2012 color of the year, is defined by Pantone as

"a spirited reddish orange, to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward"

There are plenty of kits from the Oscraps store to provide this colorful energy boost to your scrapbooking.Here are just a few:

Resolutions by Kitty Designs & Valorie Wibbens

Sunset Luau by Leora Sanford

Authentic by Jennifer Labre

Backpackers 3 by Maya de Groot Designs

ArtPlay Palette No 1 by Anna Aspnes

Doodley Alpha Orange by Kitty Designs

Want to use this color palette to fill your own pages and elements?You can download a swatch exchange file (ASE) from the Pantone website. To use it:

extract the zipped ASE file
go to your Swatches palette in Photoshop
click the little expansion arrow in the upper right corner
select Load Swatches
navigate to where you extracted the ASE file
click on the ASE file and the swatches will pop into your palette for use with your Eye Dropper tool.

Want to see more inspiration use of this color? Search on Pinterest or Google Images; new items are appearing every day, especially as the newest fashion collection are announced.

I've created my own Tangerine Tango board on Pinterest to collect my inspiration.

It was easy to find layouts in the Oscraps Gallery that feature great use of tangerine colors!This one by Ella_75 uses elements by Sue Cummings at Oscraps. What better to use for scrapping Tangerine Tango than...tangerines!

This layout from Kimpson uses the Resolutions kit by Kitty Designs & Valorie Wibbens shown above.

How this vibrant color has inspired my scrapping?Here is a calendar I made for January using Maya de Groot's P365 + 1 Calendar, plus the Oscraps collabs Bold and Warm & Cozy.

Yup, I scrapped a photo of tangerines I was placing on the Christmas Eve dinner table using Tangerine Tango.

I had a great time creating this artsy journal page called Tangerine Dreams using the Oscraps collab Warm & Cozy, Original ArtPlay No 1 and ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise from Anna Aspnes, Backpackers 3, An Altered Affair and Fright Night by Maya de Groot, and from Kitty Designs, the Doodley Alpha shown above.

I hope you are inspired to brighten up you scrapping in 2012 with some Tangerine Tango!If you create something with these colors, be sure to upload it to our Gallery so we can leave you some colorful love!

The March Calendar

2012-01-05T21:08:00.000-08:00

For the March page of Ms AC's calendar, I chose a vibrantly colored picture of a village on a hillside. This very much reminds me of Vernazza and other Italian villages clinging to the hillsides of the Amalfi coast.

Once again the very simple treatment of placing the photo on a background paper with a mask, then repeating the photo with a filter.

Simple, easy peasy, crafty!

Stay tuned for tomorrow to see what else I did with this calendar page!

Creidts -Oscraps Collab Warm & Cozy, Anna Aspnes Original ArPlay No 1.

More Calendar Craftiness

2012-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Several more pages from Ms. AC's 2012 calendar, jazzed up a bit with elements from the Oscraps Warm & Cozy Collab. By having a common approach and using similar backgrounds from page to page, the 12 pages went together very quickly.

For February, a simple image, a mask, a few papers, some brushes, word art, dots, and a clock, yet so much to look at.

In addition to Warm & Cozy, this uses Anna Asnpes ArtPlay Palett Find My Way 2. Clock image from Katie Pertiet.

For April, I chose a cute print of the ever-popular owl, and note I used a similar background and the same mask, adding a twig element, a different clock, a brush and some butterflies with owl wings.

Additional credits - Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Ablaze and Encapsulate.

For May, again a similar neutral background and mask, with an additional overlay from Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise and a few more elements from Warm & Cozy.

NY Love

2012-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

For a challenge at Oscraps, to use a Christmas kit for a non-Christmas layout. Methinks this could be an appropriate Valentine!

This was a giant sculpture spotted on the streets of NY. I would have liked to have photos with us in the picture, but everyone was pretty tired of posed pictures at this point, and it was so COLD!

Credits:Maya de Groot Christmoose,Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Retro Holiday and Sweet Christmas,Anna Aspnes Winter Frames Transfers

Back to Simply Kelly Scrapping

2012-01-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

I am so thrilled to once again be on the Creative Team for Simply Kelly!

Simply Kelly's latest release is a set of templates called Simple Starters. There is no excuse for not digital scrapping when one has good solid templates to jumpstart the effort.

Now, for me, that doesn't mean I don't spend hours coming up with just the right combination of elements to make sure there is not an ounce of whitespace in sight!

The first template I used has space for 12 landscape photos. This made me think of our walk in New York, where we came upon these giant faux Christmas lights, and decided to use them as the backdrop for pictures, perhaps to be used for a Christmas card.

Well, with so many people, not all of them cooperative, a crowded sidewalk, a noisy street, cold temperatures, too many cameras, it was the typical Nasti circus!

But it made for some fun photos and fun to capture them all, good and bad, in a memorable layout.

Additional credits: Maya de Groot Christmoose, Anna Aspnes Mini Palette Mint Winter, Jen Allyson Vintage Findings Christmas.

I look forward to creating a few more New York pages using these Simple Starter templates, now available at 30% off!

January, A Calendar and a Collab

2012-01-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

A new month, a new year, a new calendar, and a new collaboration from the Oscraps designers!

Each year there is the challenge of what to put on the family calendars. I don't know where I got this brilliant idea, it just popped into my head. What I did was stalk Ms AC's Pinterest board, then picked some simple images to use on her calendar, in simple settings using the papers, masks and elements from the newest Oscraps collab kit, Warm & Cozy.

In the interest of time, I kept the compostion simple, created the 12 images, uploaded to Shutterfly on a Sunday morning and the gift was in my hands within a few days, in plenty of time for our first Christmas celebration on Dec 17th.

Here is a preview to this beautiful kit, full of so much pretty warm and cozy goodness!

And That's a Wrap

2011-12-31T20:31:00.000-08:00

The last of the weekly layouts, weeks 51 and 52.

365 photos

52 weekly layouts

priceless memories

Credits:
Anna Aspnes Holiday Template No 1, Artsy Layered Template No 40, ArtPlay Palette Mint Winter
Jen Allyson Newsprint Alpha
Agnes Biro Abandoned Office
Jenn Labre Holly Jolly Add On and Candy Cane Alpha

(oh, and, more than 365 blog posts this year!)

The 12 Photos of Christmas

2011-12-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

One of the 12 Days of Christmas challenges at Oscraps was to take 12 themed photos, then scrap them. The themes and my interpretations...

family - used the picture of many of us at thanksgiving (Mr AC is missing since he is taking the picture)
food - has to be lasagna, always lasagna!
sweets - I did a pretty good job of minimizing sweets this year (except for the massive amounts of snickerdoodles consumed at Mickey's Magical Christmas Party), but loved these faux sweets from the Silver Creek gingerbread house
Christmas colors - one of my favorite trees was the Union Square tree...I think I even prefer it to the Rockefeller Center tree
stockings - yup, they were hung by the chimney with care
Santa - one of Dad's creations
decorations - I love giant faux decorations, like these Christmas balls on the Embarcadero
tree - this is our little tree with its pretty lights
snow - I did not see any real snow this year, but thoroughly enjoyed the faux snow at Mickey's party
holiday lights - I learned to take bokeh pictures!
wreaths - MJU suggested hanging our little wreath on the front gate
candles - lit for our first Christmas dinner on the 17th

And here it all is, crammed onto one page!

Credits: Maya de Groot Design's Santangles and Christmoose

Granny Square Christmas Stockings

2011-12-29T06:31:00.001-08:00

Yes, Allen, I did make some of the granny square Christmas tree stockings. Thanks for the pattern, it was perfect (only I made 2 stitches at the heel to round the corner).

This was a great project for the plane ride.

I just grabbed some scraps of red, cream and green yarn, my g hook and even found my plane-approved cutter, which I believe got left with Ms. AC's sweater project, and stuffed this all in a cosmetic bag in my carry-on.

And they were perfect for embellishing gift bags.

Just wish I had had a little more time to teach the littlest crafter how to make them. Maybe next time.

The Return to Scrappiness

2011-12-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

It was a little hard to get restarted, with so many other things to catch up on, including sorting through hundreds of photos to find the photo of the day from each day of our 8-day trip. But restart I did, picking up my scrapping with Week 50.

Credits: Anna Aspnes FotoBlenz Template No 11, ArtPlay Palette Special One

The Rewards of Craftiness

2011-12-27T20:14:00.001-08:00

I loved every crafty minute of making these gnome and owl arigurumi for Molly and Lily, but the rewards of seeing them loved by the recipients... well, priceless!

A New York Moment

2011-12-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

With every visit, there is always the question, do we want to go into New York? Of course the answer is "yes", but then we don't always make it. We almost didn't make it this year...we were too tired and it was too cold on Christmas Eve.

But, since we had to drive to JFK to fly out yesterday anyway, it was not too much effort to get out early and stop on the way.

And I am so glad we did. I got so many wonderful photos!

The screen at Times Square...

How many pictures we took or tried to take, in front of the giant faux lights!

Then there were the giant ornaments...I love it when objects are blown up to giant size!

It was super windy, but very clear, making for beautiful flapping flags in the wind!

Then there were the somewhat cheesy characters dressed up for photos and a handout (note the bag...yes, I did contribute, what the heck, it's Christmas, and you have to admire the fact that a crass commercialism service was being offered. Note there was also a Minnie and Mickey Mouse, but they were not the real deal, so I passed).

I love this photo of the shoe wreath at 9 West...I didn't even realize the Radio City marquee was in the reflection!

Ah, the tree at Rockefeller Center! Wish we could have seen it at night, but it always feels much colder at night, and harder for me to venture out.

And the flags and soldiers at Rocky Center...(I love this picture for its coldness, the angle, the motion).

And the statue above the rink at Rocky Center...

The gothic spires of St Patrick's Cathedral...

The store windows...

The ostentatious Trump Tower!

Love this Louis Vuitton window featuring the Pantone color of the year!

And love this Love, hmmm, also in the Pantone color of the year...

Am I nuts, to be out in this cold windy day in my San Francisco clothes?? (Feeling did return to my feet after about a half-hour in the car).

Getting ready for New Years...

a New York moment!

The Artsy Craftsy Basement

2011-12-25T19:27:00.001-08:00

Before leaving the AC P's house in NJ, I made a trip down to the basement, Only in NJ, they call it the "cellar". In the cellar is one of the Artsy Craftsy workshops, where the figures are painted, purely for the enjoyment of making them.

I know that feeling, and know where I get it from.

And when one is no longer able to do it, it is quite sad.

Tangerine Tango

2011-12-24T21:21:00.001-08:00

Get ready for the year of the tangerine tango, for it will be everywhere, being the Pantone color of the year for 2012.

I look forward to taking many tangerine photos next year, exploring this color to the fullest!

By the way, I love my new Olympus Stylus 7040, a present from the Webers, and an upgrade from my last Olympus Stylus, which I also loved, until I broke the door to the battery and memory card compartment on the first day of our European vacation. No more risk of lost pictures, and 14 mpx of creative memories in every shot!

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve morning as the table was being set for dinner.

Cake Pops

2011-12-23T19:37:00.001-08:00

I love to witness the creativity of others, be it the imagineers of Disney creating new lands, or two sisters creating cake pops.

From the largest ideas designed to entertain millions, to a simple act bonding two sisters, creativity and craftiness is the stuff of memories.

The Castle

2011-12-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

I would love to know whose job it is to think of things to do with the castle... what color to make it, how to light it, how to entertain with it.

Here are just a few examples of the wonder that is the imagineering of Cinderella's Castle at Disney World.

During the day, it is just plain beautiful, looming large from both near and far, and captured here as the backdrop to the wonderful Christmas parade.

At night, during the Wishes nighttime entertainment, a stupendous assortment of colors and images are projected onto the castle, bringing out squeals of delight!

And when the nighttime shows are over, there is the just-plain-beauty of lights, probably thousands of lights, creating a pink, purple and silvery fantasy!

Spaceship Earth

2011-12-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

Always so exciting, the first glimpse of Spaceship Earth, always a must-do photo opportunity, here augmented a bit with an Instagram filter.

Butterbeer

2011-12-20T17:24:00.001-08:00

What is it, you might ask?

Seems like a root beer or birch beer, with a sweet creamy foam on top.It's yummy, and can only be found in the village of Hogsmead at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

It was a highlight of the visit to Hogsmead to taste butterbeer, and I liked it so much I had a 2nd in the afternoon at the Three Broomsticks.

Fantasmic

2011-12-19T18:26:00.001-08:00

Long a favorite, worth sitting for hours to see this fabulous show in which Mickey triumphs over evil!

A Magical Night

2011-12-18T19:38:00.001-08:00

Disney World never fails to surprise and delight!

The castle at night was breathtakingly beautiful, in changing hues of pinks and purples. There must have been thousands of lights making it sparkle!

Bokeh Scraps

2011-12-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

The bokeh pictures from a week ago were perfect for this week's AnnaLift challenge at Oscraps.

I love creating art like this, no muss, no fuss. Well, I have to admit I also loved getting out the heat gun, stamps, ink pad and embossing powder to decorate Natalie's Christmas card, but back to bokeh scraps...

Credits:Uses Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 40, Anna Aspnes ArtPLay Palettes Retro Holiday and Sweet Christmas, Anna Aspnes Magik Sprinklez No 2

Week 49

2011-12-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Only 3 more weeks left in this year, as always, so hard to believe. It will be by far the best documented year in history, at least my history.

Without further ado, week 49 scrapped. Since this will sit alongside week 48, I used the same template, which I quite like for these weeklies, Anna Aspnes Holiday Template No 1. Although there are 8 slots for photos, I did the same thing as I did in week 48, stretching a landscape picture across two frames.

Highlights of the week...getting some crafted projects not only done but shipped. I decided to send the gnome arigurumi to Natalie for her birthday instead of waiting for Christmas...poor kid often gets neglected with a birthday in December (not true :-)). The one will go to Lily, since Molly will also get a gnome. I hope it doesn't scare her.

Two trips to San Francisco in the week, both so much fun! On Saturday the 4th Ms AC & I went shopping and got to see the tree in Union Square against a gorgeous clear and sunny day, and on Saturday the 10th we all went up to deliver Ms AC's iPhone and went out for a super delicious dinner at Shanghai Dumplings, a recommendation from That-Sam-I-Am.

Additional Credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Retro Holiday and Sweet Christmas, Anna Aspnes Number Overlay and Magic Sprinklez No 2, Biograffiti's Itty Bitty Dates

So excited to see these weeklies printed in a book! Do hope Santa brings me some Shutterfly-bucks!! I've been a good little scrapper, Santa!

Are My Ears on Straight??

2011-12-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

We leave in 3 days for our holiday trip. 3 days!! I don't even want to think about what still needs to get done. But checked off the list is my Mickey Mouse Christmas stocking cap.

I sketched this in my notebook a couple weeks ago, then sifting through some patterns, found a pattern for a baby stocking cap. I had to adjust it, several times (rip it, rip it), but ended up with a functional and fitting cap.

For the ears, I traced the shapes onto cardboard from the cap Ms AC brought me from Disneyland several years ago, then crocheted "sleeves" around them.

When I first attached the ears, via slip stitches, they flopped! But a few more anchor stitches higher up on the back of the ears and voila!

Now there is this childhood memory song stuck in my head. It was a 45 record and I remember playing it on my record player...I wonder if it was the same record player that later used to give me a shock when I touched the metal arm, which probably was not properly grounded. Amazing we made it out of the 60s!

I'm a little doll who was dropped and broken
Falling off my mommy's knee
I'm a little doll who has just been mended
Now won't you tell me please.

Are My Ears On Straight, Is my nose in place
Have I got a cute expression on my face?
Are my blue eyes bright, Do I look all right?
To be taken home Christmas Day?

When I first came here, Just a month ago.
Brought in by a little girl who loved me so.
She began to cry, 'Til they told her I
Could be taken home Christmas Day.

Christmas time is drawing nearer, And I'm getting scared
Wish I could see in a mirror, How I've been repaired.
I'll be called for soon, But I'm worried so
Will she love me like she did a month ago.

Are My Ears On Straight? I can hardly wait.
To be taken home Christmas Day

The Lovely Red Twigs

2011-12-14T05:58:00.000-08:00

When we go for walks in the neighborhood, it's hard for me to make progress sometimes, since I must stop and observe pretty and interesting things, and I must take pictures of them.

I just heard yesterday that the most popular iPhone app of the year, by far, is Instagram. No surprise! I had Instagram envy for a long time, longing to make the wonderfully cropped and colorized photos I was seeing everywhere. Now I can make my own.

Although I did use a filter to somewhat enhance the colors of these lovely branches, they really are quite bright coral red, especially in the light of the cloudy day. According to the label hanging from the realtively newly planted young tree, it is a coral bark maple...a fitting name!

I look forward to seeing it branch out in the spring!

Meanwhile, I used it as the subject for an "AnnaLift".
The challenge of artsy pages like this is to stop sticking stuff on it and declare it done. With limited time and so many projects still to complete before Christmas, it was time that finally made me say, "ok, good enough"!

Credits: All from Anna Aspnes: ArtPlay Palettes Sweet Christmas, Ablaze, Encapsulate, Retro Holiday, Find My Way 2, Sophistica, Twiggy No 1 (recolored to match the lovely branches of the coral bark tree), Winter Frames Transfers

Merry Christmoose

2011-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

A combo of the old and the new, old santas and the still-new view. I don't know where these tacky melted plastic Santas came from, but they appear among the Christmas goods every year. This year, I almost stuffed them back into the closet, then decided to embrace them instead, hanging them on the back fence along with the cascading lights and the view of the valley.

Unfortunately this one Santa looks right into the window where I sit and work all day and I keep getting the vaguely creepy feeling that I am being watched.

Guess I had better be nice!

This layout uses the completely adorable new Christmoose kit from Maya de Groot designs. I LOVE that moose! and the very clever alpha all stitched together.

This would have made a great Christmas card, that is if I were sending Christmas cards this year, which I am not. No time, no regrets.

Hmmm, OK, this might make the perfect Christmas card for Mom & Dad...may need to print and send, today, else it will not get done...sigh.

Christmas Memories

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

I wanted to title this story, "the red balls of Christmas", or the "giant red Christmas balls", but somehow neither of those sounded quite politically correct. I considered "the red ornaments of Christmas", but ornaments is too long of a word to pronounce, especially in a title, and the significant part of the memory is not that they are ornaments, it is that they are round red ornaments, aka balls. Anyway, perhaps not sufficiently creative, but it is still in the 6 am hour, and so I settled for Christmas Memories.

This picture was taken by Ms. AC somewhere along the Embarcadero, as I understand it, but it reminds me of a Christmas memory.

"I remember something about a silver Christmas tree, with only red ornaments on it. It may have had red tinsel too. I don’t remember there being lights on it, but it is all a pretty vague memory.
What I do remember was the red ornaments. Nothing but round red ornaments, just like those in the picture.And I still have some of those ornaments, a legacy from the 1960’s.
It seems that perfectly round, perfectly red ornaments are quite timeless."

Created for the December web inspiration challenge at Oscraps.

Uses Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 40, Anna Aspnes ArtPLay Palettes Retro Holiday and Encapsulate, Anna Aspnes Magik Sprinklez No 2 and Jenn Labre's Holly Jolly Add On

How to Quilt a Penguin

2011-12-11T14:12:00.001-08:00

So, there is this quilt, made by a long-time client, and it has penguins on it. "Of course I would be happy to quilt it for you," I said, honestly.

But, how does one quilt a penguin??

Thinking, thinking, thinking, and meanwhile time is running short.

"How can I help", asked Mr. AC.

"How do I quilt a penguin?", I asked, not really expecting an answer, just some sympathy.

"Let me take a look."

Really?? Well, OK.

The answer...snowflakes and feathers!

The lesson...answers may come from unexpected places!

Bokeh Time

2011-12-10T22:20:00.001-08:00

There was a time when I did not know what bokeh was, and that time was not long ago!

Now, it is an integral part of the holidays! No, not food...anyone that knows me knows that food is just not that interesting to me, but lights, and color...now we're talking!

From our friend Wikipedia:

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively.Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Mr. AC helped me take these photos, as I do not often (ever?) take the digital SLR off automatic mode.

This first shot of our Christmas tree was taken with a higher f stop (3.6), and so we got the hexagonal shape of the aperture in the bokeh, which I happen to think looks uber-cool.

Then I lowered the f stop )3.2) for this next shot, and got bokeh circles!

I'm excited to scrap with my bokeh, but it will have to wait for another day, for after this day of cleaning, crafts, golf and a trip to San Francisco to deliver a Christmas present to Ms AC, this artsy-craftsy gal is bokehed-out.

Whoooo

2011-12-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Whooo am I for?We'll have to wait until Santa delivers me to find out.

Free crochet pattern instructions can be found here on the Red Heart website.

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-08T06:03:00.001-08:00

Last weekend Mr. AC & I went to the Global Winter Wonderland in Santa Clara, in the parking lot of Great America. It was an interesting mix of a carnival and a light parade, pretty well done, but with a definite carny slant :-)

The light structures were steel skeletal frames covered in colored silk lighted from the inside. The silk is very saturated, making for some great color.

Although there was a Christmas theme, it featured world landmarks, including many asian and mexican landmarks, which was an interesting twist. All my favorite landmarks were well represented, including the Eiffel Tower, the Status of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canal in Venice!

One of my favorite things were the trees that changed color!

The non-Christmas colors worked well for the December color challenge at Oscraps, featuring this palette of wine, pink, mauve brown (very like my current nail polish) and deep green,

which I turned into this, using the Oscraps December collab kit, Family.

Christmas in Union Square

2011-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things on my "todo" list for last weekend was to see the Christmas decorations in Union Square. They did not disappoint! The tree was just magnificent. And while I am sure I would be thrilled with it at night, it was also perfect on a warm sunny Sunday, backlit by a perfectly blue San Francisco winter sky.

I scrapped this up super quickly for a special 12 Days O' Christmas Color Challenge at Oscraps using

Maya de Groot's Santangles Quick Pages, Maya de Groot's Santangles and Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Ablaze.

Here's a little secret...Quick Pages are quick! This particular page only had two circular slots for pictures, the rest of the page was completed flattened and uneditable. But I placed my large photo of the tree in the white space area (cause we know I do not like white space) and blended it with a mask and a color transfer, making it look like it blends in with the layers.

There are three more quick pages in this Maya Santangles set, which are currently on special, free with purchase...I should try them all!

Week 48

2011-12-06T06:15:00.001-08:00

I am really proud of the stamina I have for my Project 365, taking a photo every day, printing those photos and putting them in an album, scrapping some of the best photos, and also scrapping each week into a weekly layout.

Here is Week 48, done within days of it's life. I just love all the rich colors of the week, the beautiful day lily that bloomed in the front yard, the sunsets, the leaves!! I got to go to Santana Row for a luncheon and was thrilled with the decorations, they always make it look so beautiful there, especially on a warm sunny day, and our visit to the Santa Clara Winter Wonderland, complete with a lighted Eiffel Tower!

Credits: Anna Aspnes Holiday Template No 1 Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Sweet Christmas Anna Aspnes Twiggy Biograffiti's Month Stamps and Itty Bitty Dates No 5

Weekend at Ms Artsy Craftsy's

2011-12-05T21:19:00.001-08:00

Little bits of creativity in progress, making for a comfortable spot for work and inspiration...

work in progress on The Sweater...

leftovers from Pottery Barn Kids, given a good home.

A quiet weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's, but never void or art or craft.

Hanging the Twelve Tags of Christmas

2011-12-04T08:29:00.001-08:00

Last year I participated in a class at Memories Live On, creating the Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas. I actually had to go back in January to finish the class, as it is quite a log of wonderful craftiness to create these tags.

After Christmas I carefully put them away in a Omaha Steaks box, and yesterday it was time to get out the box and hang the twelve tags.

I wasn't sure how to hang them. Mr. AC suggested making a braid from which I could hang using ornament hooks. Ooh, make a braid!! I used 5 strands of yarn, 2 each of normal 4-ply white and red, with a thick green chenille, and chain stitched using my giant crochet hook that I use for making fabric-braided rugs.

Voila, the 12 tags are hung on the mantle in the great room.

Love these tags, and love the chunky braid!

The Gingerbread House

2011-12-03T19:19:00.001-08:00

Last night was our annual Sip 'n Shop at the Country Club, where they freely pour wine and invite us to shop for golf gear at greatly reduced prices. It's a very popular event, and justifiably; I mean the wine is free and the merchandise is up to 80% off. We came out of there with 4 golf shirts and 2 pairs of shorts for not very much money. And it was all gift wrapped for free. Gotta love the Sip 'n Shop.

The bonus of the evening was the decorations at the foot of the stairs. Last year it was a train scene, complete with golf clubs inside the cars, which was very cute. This year it was a giant gingerbread house, as in big enough that I could fit inside (I didn't, it was roped off, but I could have fit).

This was perfect for my photo of the day, since the photo theme for Day 3 of Oscraps' 12 Days O' Christmas was sweets! It also worked perfectly for the weekly scraplift, since this was my inspiration page (by Sandrine), full of red and circles.

So I scrapped the pictures toute suite with Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Sweet Christmas. It was like the scrapping moon and stars all lined up, for how perfect was the photo of the day topic, the Club's decorations, the scraplift inspiration, and this kit??!!

The very cool "gingerbread" word art is from the kit, filled with a striped paper turned diagonally. The pinwheel candies are photos from the gingerbread house, blended using a hard light blending mode, with edges erased with a soft brush.

One of the things I am most proud of is the "house" word art, which is mouse-drawn with the pencil tool. And probably the most fun element was including another picture of me and the gingerbread house, peeking out of a little circle. Note also the journaling, done in a thin column to use the lighter stripe of the background paper.

Additional credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Poppy, Anna Aspnes Magic Sprinklez.

Here is a bit more of this wonderful kit, so perfect for scrapping holiday sweets. The Oscraps gallery is just full of pages using this kit today, all so fun to look at.

Putting the Roof On

2011-12-02T21:12:00.001-08:00

I like it when a crafty project is all set up, and it only takes a few minutes, some glue, and some awesome seashell parts to accomplish this...

The roof of my mosaic birdhouse

December, Still Fall, 12 Days

2011-12-01T06:28:00.001-08:00

Here it is December 1! The weather has been strange this week with the cold cold tule fog until late in the day, then yesterday afternoon the winds came in and blew all the fog away, but man is it windy! By the time we reached the 9th hole on the golf course yesterday, the wind was blowing so hard it actually blew my ball back towards me!

So it's a good thing I got out earlier in the week for more leaf peeping, as I suspect all the leaves have blown off the trees overnight.

I got some beautiful and amazingly colorful shots earlier this week, the colors so brilliant they almost do not look real, but these are not touched up photos, this is nature in all her glory!

Credits: Vicky Stegall's fabulous Fall Frames, plus Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Autumnal 2 and Anna Aspnes Twiggy No 1 , Jennifer Labre's Serendipity

December 1 also marks the start of 12 Days O Christmas at Oscraps! Gonna be lots of scrappin' going' on!

Geranium Love

2011-11-30T07:09:00.001-08:00

The geraniums in the front yard have been such a treat, continuously blooming, relatively maintenance free, and large enough that the rabbits are leaving them alone, to bloom in neon brightness in the winter air.

I used this picture for a Camera Challenge at Oscraps to demonstrate "scale". Zooming so close I could capture the dew drops on the petals, lit by the sun.

Credits: All from Anna Aspnes: FotoBlenz Template 5, ArtPlay Palattes Strawberry Preserve, Sophistica, Seafoam, Winter Frame Transfers, Magic FotoBlenz Album

Upping My O'Game

2011-11-29T20:13:00.001-08:00

This week marks the start of a big event at Oscraps, the 12 Days O' Christmas!

Not only am I excited (and a bit confused still) about all the things going on, but I am one of the people responsible for blogging about it!

Cause...I don't have enough to do :-)

(I should be gluing tiles to a birdhouse roof right now!)

It doesn't start until December 1, but the first order of business was to get my Cheeri-O Christmas cheer on.Here is the pic of Megan and I from Thanksgiving, all dolled up with the help of Maya de Groot's Santangles kit. I especially love that button tree!

I've been looking forward to using this adorable Santangles kit from Maya, available at Oscraps:

Weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's

2011-11-28T20:19:00.001-08:00

One would think that with a 4-day weekend, there would be lots of artsy craftiness going on. Well, there was some, but somehow too many other things got in the way of being totally immersed in being artsy craftsy.

I did however get a couple more potholders made...I just love crocheting with cotton, even if I or no one else ever uses these. There is something about the feel of the thread, the saturation of the colors, the regularity of the variegation (how is that for an oxymoron?), that is somehow wonderful to have in one's hands.

I also finally got started on mosaicing that little birdhouse. How cute is this?? I used some of the Murano glass millifiori tiles from, well, Murano, around the opening, some glass and ceramic around the edges and to create some stylized flowers on the sides, and cut some iridescent china to give a more random look to the center area.

And I did take lots of pictures, including an wonderfully dewy and sunlit spider web on one of the pine trees in front of the house,

and an unexpected and gorgeous day lily in the front yard.

Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-27T15:57:00.001-08:00

Keeping up with my weeklies, I did something different this week.

For the past two weeks, I had created one layout with one photo of the day, so when it came time to do the weekly, I used that layout as one side, and put the remaining 6 pictures on another page.

But this week, with various challenges, I scrapped two pages, each with single photos of the day, the AnnaLift featuring the view of the sunset on the 9th hole on Tuesday November 22, and the member spotlight challenge from Oscraps featuring the fall leaves pictures from Monday, November 21.

I didn't really want to repeat these photos in different layouts, but didn't want 3 different layouts for the week. So I decided to combine them! Yup, just laid one right over the other, and with other a few minor adjustments, got this wonderful combo! I added a couple things...a background photo of a poppy from the facing page, a twig (from Anna Aspnes Twiggy 1) and the week title.

This left me just 5 pictures to place on the facing page, which is almost always easier to manage than all 7 on one. Besides the wonderful views, highlights of the week were Thanksgiving dinner and homemade pecan rolls.

Additional credits: Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Templates 19 and 38, ArtPlay Palette Ablaze, and Maya de Groot Home Sweet Home.

Quiet Moments

2011-11-26T05:00:00.001-08:00

Another weekly AnnaLift, this one for the week starting November 25, gave me the perfect opportunity to use my photo of the day from November 22, of the sun setting on the 9th hole. I didn't think it was the best photo at the time I took it, and I tried taking another, but with similar results...it was definitely getting too dark to take pictures.

But it reflects what was going on the 22nd of November, a Tuesday, finishing up a round of golf just as the sun is setting behind the houses on the left side of the 9th hole.

When I saw the inspiration layout from Zalaine I knew I had the perfect photo. I also happened to have the perfect kit, the same Anna Aspnes Art Play Pallette Saffron, providing the lovely yellow background.

Here is my interpretation:

Additional credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Sophistica, ArtPlay Palette Festive, ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate and Artsy Layered template No 19

Serendipitous Leaves

2011-11-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

These leaves were so beautiful, they deserve more than a single showing. Here is another capture of the beautiful fall leaves using Jenn Labre's Serendipity Kit at Oscraps.

Additional credits: Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 37, Anna Aspnes Twiggy No 1

So many beautiful papers, color and elements!

Oscraps Family Collab & Jen's Christmas Kits

2011-11-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

The latest collab kit from Oscraps and available today for Black Friday is called Family, and so I of course thought of Natalie, especially with all those pinky purple colors. This is Natalie dressed as "Natalie Zoe" for Halloween.

The huge collab kit is free at Oscraps with a $10 purchase through the end of the weekend.

More Black Friday digi-goodness, several new kits from Jen Maddocks Designs, which I combined into this fun page featuring that wonderful neon geranium in the front yard (doctored a bit with Instagram).

This page combines Quilt Templates 3, I'm Festive Alpha, Holiday Words, Holiday Cheer, Christmas Grunge and Ode to Joy, all new by Jen Maddocks and available at Zig Zag Scraps.

Thankful

2011-11-24T08:51:00.001-08:00

I have been trying to get out for a quick walk/run in the morning, to get the blood flowing and get some fresh air. It helps so much to keep me from getting stiff, bored and cranky.

On Monday of this week I was rewarded with the most beautiful morning, crisp and fresh after a washing rain, sky clear and blue, colors brilliant, and not too cool to boot.The colors of fall leaves blazing against a blue sky is just not something I can resist. I've used the photo for the last of the November challenges at Oscraps, and to express my Happy Thanksgiving wishes.

Credits: Anna Aspnes: Artsy Layered Template 37, Floral Art Brushes, ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate, ArtPlay Palette Sophistica, ArtPlay Palette Ablaze, 12x12 Script Tease Overlay Learn, Winter Frames Transfers. Maya de Groot The Art of Journaling, Jennifer Labre Gratitude, Katie Pertiet Thankful Word Art

Week 46 in Review

2011-11-23T05:31:00.000-08:00

I'm keeping up, I'm keeping up! Week 46, Nov 13 to 19, brought beautiful fall weather, a new back door and window, better to see the view, some craftiness (some little ones are getting gnome arugurumi for Christmas, and beautiful fall color!

Credits: Anna Aspnes FotoBlenz Template No 11, with ArtPlay Palette Festive Moments and Snow Paperie

Whoops, once again there are only 6 pictures here...the 7th is featured on my Twilight "Crush" page. I used the same overlay on both pages to tie them together.

Starting Up Verona, Coming to the O!

2011-11-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Now that the scrapping of Orvieto is complete, and oh by the way I did order the book of Orvieto and Padova, at 40% off!, next up is Verona.

I've already done one page for Verona, of the love graffiti in the courtyard of Romeo & Juliet,

and used the picture of the locks on the bridge over the River Adige for a 2nd page,

but Verona must start with this photo of having spritzes on Piazza Bra.

I bought this Anna Aspnes template expressly for the purpose of scrapping this photo of sipping spritzes in Verona Italy :-)

Credits:Anna Aspnes:Artsy Layered Template #28, ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise, Magic FotoBlenz Album #1 P 17, ArtPlay Palette Sunshine Bouquet,ArtPlay Palette Seafoam

And while on the subject of scrapping, I have to mention an upcoming event at Oscraps about which all us Cheery-Os are very excited!

Coming soon!

You won't want to miss this!

Weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's

2011-11-21T05:58:00.001-08:00

I'm really liking these weekend posts, as I get to exhibit much more artsy craftiness than during the week.

This weekend was full of holiday prep, but that doesn't mean there wasn't craftiness going on in the house, oh no, quite the opposite!

First up was a trip to see Twilight Breaking Dawn (for Ms AC et moi, Mr AC ran errands), taking pictures in front of the big cardboard cutouts, and scrapping the pics as an "AnnaLift" scraplift about "Crushes".

(Credits - Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 38, Winter Frames Transfers, ArtPlay Palette Ablaze from The Daily Digi, ArtPlay Palette Sophistica, ArtPlay Palette English Rose, ArtPlay Palette Poppy, ArtPlay Palette Special One, ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise)

Next up was making the 4th and final toilet seat cover, in time for National Toilet Day on Saturday! I am thrilled with how cute it looks, bringing more great color to the Mickey bath!

The big accomplishment was completing the chicken placemats for the kitchen. This is the fabric that Ms AC so sweetly bought for me from StoneMountain & Daughter. I measured and drafted and thunk till I figured out the Table Graces pattern, made a sample, then successfully executed it 4 more times. I LOVE how they look! And all the fabric came out of the stash (and coordinates with the Mickey toilet seat cover).

And there in the center of the table is my new little succulent garden, purchased at the Craft Market at the country club on Sunday. There are 5 adorable little plants in it, in a lovely yellow and black bowl.

Then there was some quilt hanging. At first I had vowed to hang my quilts better in this house, with nicer rods instead of sticks, etc. But here it is nearly 2 years later and only a couple quilts are nicely hung. So rather than continue to have bare walls and quilts all over the floor, a few got hung, with their old sticks.This one, good old Big Blossom Trio, is in the upstairs alcove (I need to fix up this alcove...some pretty new curtains, a comfy reading chair and a lamp, would be so cozy!)

And along the hallway, Moon Spots and Moon Spots II, and you can just see the sides of the 4 Diane Phalen quilt prints, finally hung, and of course quilts on the railing and landing, but those have been there for a while. It makes for a nice gallery effect along the hallway!

In the sewing room, I decided to hang Vintage Frocks. I gave the skirts a good pressing and it looks so sweet hanging there on the Provence Cream walls, above the ironing dresser, which has a new cover on the ironing surface (Mr AC did that for me last weekend).

Mr. Artsy Craftsy set up his train this weekend! I have to admit I didn't think he would get to it, nor did I realize it could be done so quickly! I helped by glueing felt pads to the bottom of the saw horses to protect the carpet (yeah, glue gun used!).

DigiMorph #4 Reveal

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since I did this layout, I almost forgot about it, but this weekend all 21 participants finished up the digi-morph and were all revealed.

I took this picture while stopped at a light on the Embarcadero after spending the night at Megan's and dropping her off to work at Pottery Barn,. This was after attending the Design Spinge book signing at Anthropologie the night before. It had been a warm and beautiful evening, and it dawned a warm and beautiful day. It wasn't until I looked at the photo carefully that I noticed the San Francisco tour bus coming into view.

Credits:Celeste Knight Weathered Frames, Agnes Biro Last Warm Day and Abandoned Office, Jen Allyson Notions Blue and Halloween Papers, Deana Rutter Necessary Office Paper, Karen Funk Shabby Valentine and In Bloom, Sara Schmutz Bicycle Ride, Jopke Designs and Jen Allyson Blog Hop and Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Find My Way.

Ode to Joy, Ode to Love, Ode to Verona

2011-11-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

Allow me to wax poetic as I show my latest scrapbook page of a pile of locks in Verona Italy and an awesome and vibrant new kit from Jan Maddocks Designs.

Ok, end of poetic waxing, for the images do all the work here...

The fine print...

This is a bridge in Verona over the river ...People profess their love by writing or carving their initials on a padlock and securing it to a romantic location.

Seen in many places in Europe...Paris (this photo from Paris Daily Photo...I know I have one, but couldn't find it, so perhaps it's just in my head),

Along the Cinque Terre in Luguria, Italy...

And the kit... Ode to Joy by Jen Maddocks Designs debuting at Zig Zag Scraps today.

Grateful for the View

2011-11-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Still not tired of it, still want to take so many pictures of it, still scrapping it, my view of the valley! This was taken from Morningside Drive while on a walk in the late afternoon last week. I love how the whole valley turns golden with the setting sun. It is indeed the good life we live up on this hill!

This picture was perfect to scrap with Jennifer Labre's new kit Gratitude at Oscraps. The gold, purples and burgundy were all the colors in the photo, and the elements perfect to convey how I feel about it.

I only wish I could have used a little more of the turquoise, but maybe next time.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

2011-11-17T20:56:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I saw something, somewhere on the web, about The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt. I wasn't sure what it was all about, but I was intrigued.

The site Get It Scrapped sponsored a webinar with the author of The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, Caroline Preston. Caroline has one of those voices that you want to read you a bedtime story. I was rapt, listening to her adventure and process in putting together this book.

As soon as the webinar was over (I listened patiently, while doing nothing else, for over an hour!) I purchased the book. Caroline showed many pages during the webinar, and I thought she was giving away the whole deal. When a very thick package arrived in my mail box this week, I wondered what it was...a book, but what book did I order that would be this thick?

Then I opened it and began to marvel anew at this book. I have no affiliation, I just happened upon something that I think is so incredibly cool and creative and innovative and unique. It is probably best categorized in the genre of graphic novel, but done in the style of a vintage scrapbook.

But this was not done digitally, it was done by pasting real snippets of vintage ephemera onto pages that were then photographed and made into the book. I can hardly imagine the amount of work, and applaud this creative effort.

I am not done reading it yet, but it is hard to put down. I invite anyone similar intrigued to go to Caroline's site and check out her info on how she created the book. Oh and according to the author, much of the ephemera was purchased on eBay.

eBooking Orvieto & Padova

2011-11-16T06:32:00.001-08:00

Now that I am done with scrapping Orvieto and Padova, I thought I would put together a quick book and see if I could add up some discount codes to make it a good deal.

As it turns out, I wasn't able to add up the codes, but I can still share the book and save it for another discount day.

Only had to put together a few additional pages, a title page, of me sitting on the wall overlooking the countryside...

... and front and back covers, which were just modifications of existing pages. I do hope I can a good discount, as this looks so yummy and colorful!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

Week 45 Scrapped & Recapped

2011-11-15T18:49:00.001-08:00

I am so busy being artsy-craftsy and a Cheery-O, I have hardly had time to scrap!

Torn between working on more photo books, as they totally suck me in with the '2 days only save 50%' stuff, and keeping up, I chose to do my next weekly, Week 45.

A week ablaze with color and little excitements. While this may not be New England, we certainly have our fair share of beautiful fall color in the trees, warmed by the glow of the all-too-early setting sun. It's nearly dark when we finish our round of golf at 5 pm.

Tod’s new car is working out well, with all it’s cool features like pretty lights.

A Cooper hawk spending a little time on the back fence, an interesting use of elevator door space for advertising, and the Harry Potter movies on the Family Channel.

There is one more picture that is in a companion page to be revealed next week along with a new kit from Jennifer Labre at Oscraps (hint...rich colors coming!).

Credits: All from Anna Aspnes

FotoBlenz Layered Template No 11
ArtPlay Palette Ablaze (from The Daily Digi files for November)
ArtPlay Palette Autumnal 2
ArtPlay Palette Special One
ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate
Numbered Overlays

Weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's

2011-11-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

Super nice weather on Sunday meant the artsy craftsy accomplishments were somewhat light this weekend, but helped by the continuation of the Harry Potter movies on the Family Channel. Yes, I own the first 7 movies and have #8 on my Christmas list, but somehow I cannot resist when they are on TV, plus, Chamber of Secrets is out on loan, and, TV versions tend to have scenes not included in the DVD releases, and, they show behind-the-scenes stuff, and I don't have them all on blue ray, etc, etc, Anyway, my little artsy craftsy accomplishments included:

completing and ordering 3 photo books of our European adventure from Snapfish. Two are for gifts and the other a keepsake for myself. I took advantage of the buy 1 get two free offer!

finally deciding to rip out the outermost border on this cotton cloth; still not sure if I will use it, but oh how I love crocheting with cotton! and I love this yellow color!

starting a new crocheted potholder with triple thickness of cotton...so chunky!

making this cute little gnome arugurumi, another present

a couple of blocks on the double wedding ring

a hem on this simple fabric runner that I bought at PIQF two years ago...I think maybe it needs a crocheted cotton trim? And another pressing! But I love the soft warm yellow that looks beautiful with the golden yellow color of the kitchen.

tore the house apart looking for the Table Graces placemat pattern which I think will be the best option for using this chicken fabric Megan bought for me at Stone Mountain & Daughter. Did not find it, but did find the pattern for the chunky cotton crochet pot holder and the toilet seat covers!

found some fabric for the last toilet seat cover in the house, for the Micket Mouse bathroom. I hope to have it done in time for World Toilet Day which is this coming Saturday (I am not making this up).

Oh and yes, I did do some scrapping, but mostly in preparation for future releases at Oscraps, so those will not be revealed until it's time.

Scrapping Up Padova

2011-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

I finished up the last of the scrapping of Padova today, capturing a couple of views of the Scrovegni Chapel. When I read about the Scrovegni Chapel, with it's restored Giotto frescoes, I wondered if it was worth the effort. We needed to make a very specific advanced reservation, show up at least 30 minutes early, etc, etc.

Well, it was worth it. Not a huge fresco fan, but the walls of this chapel read like a colorful graphic novel. It was amazing. The realism was impressing and the colors beautiful.

There were no pictures allowed inside the chapel, so I only have photos of the outside, but I found an online image to use to try to convey the very graphical storytelling nature of these frescoes, each episode in its own panel, circling the entire chapel, floor to ceiling, all around..

Credits:

Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Sophistica

Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Strawberry Preserve

Maya de Groot Terra Toni

So here is what Padova will look like all together, side-by-side, if I ever create that massive book of Europe 2011.

Cheery-O at Oscraps

2011-11-12T09:04:00.001-08:00

It has always been important to me to be involved with a community of like-minded individuals...feel like I have said that before, perhaps right here, but still true.

There are so many digital scrapbooking sites and communities out there it is overwhelming. I started out and learned so much at Jessica Sprague, I love all the people and challenges at Design House Digital, although I haven't visited in a while, I loved the speed scraps at Scrap Matters, and find so many beautiful things at Designer Digitals. Then there are some new sites I've been enjoying, Plain Digital Wrapper and Zig Zag Scraps.

But I have find my home, and it is at the "O", as in Oscraps.

I've talked about Oscraps lots, since that is where the sweet and talented Maya de Groot sells her designs. Maya is kind and generous enough to have me on her Creative Team.

And now I have become a part of the Oscraps big creative team, the Cheery-O's.

I love that name, and I love the "O"!

Here is my new Cheery-O avatar. This, my favorite picture, is the one Yvonne took of me at Claire's when we all went for new piercings for Laura and Laura, and I busied myself with trying on hats and glasses.

The background is from Maya de Groot's Terra Toni kit, and the frame provided by Oscraps.

I have to once again admit I am not a big fan of blinkies...I am convinced these kinds of things give one headaches, but it is the thing to do in the scrapbiz, and it is awfully cute, my Oscraps Cheery-O blinkie.

Critters at the Creek

2011-11-11T07:01:00.001-08:00

There is often entertainment, aka distractions, right outside my big picture window. Yesterday it was provided by the birds, the big birds. I love to watch the big birds of prey, they are so majestic and confident looking, like this big Cooper's Hawk that landed on the back fence for a look around the hillside.

He stayed for quite a while, moving from place to place along the back fence.

But then the crows got wind of him. The crows seem to hate the hawks. Well, the crows seem to hate everyone. Whenever I hear a crow ruckus, there is bound to be another creature in the area, so they are a good alarm for wildlife sightings. They circled and charged and squawked until the hawk got tired of it all and flew away.Here is one feeling quite satisfied with himself, having secured the area as a crow-zone.

Determined to stay out of the fray, this little guy is practicing the credo, "if I don't move, no one will see me".

iDSD & the Flower Market

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was international Digital Scrapbooking Day. Yes, such a thing exists. There were so many sales and events going on it was a bit overwhelming. I did take advantage of a 30% off sale to pick up a few templates and goodies from Anna Aspnes' store at Oscraps.

Today there was a challenge at Oscraps to make a layout with the goodies purchased on iDSD weekend, and here it is.These are pictures from the flower vendor at the farmer's market from last Sunday. I love going to the flower vendor booth, even if I don't buy anything. I love how they dye some of their flowers with food coloring, making them even more vivid than nature intended. I love that they sell bunches of flowers for $3, making it cheaper than a cup of coffee to have fresh flowers in the house. And I love that I can get vibrantly colored pictures at the flower market.

Credits:

Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 36

Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 37

Anna Aspnes ArtsyBlenz Snow Paperie 2

CopyCat Grasses

2011-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Created for the November copycat challenge at Oscraps, this simple picture of the grassy hill at the back side of the 3rd hole has me smitten. I just love the form of the fading and flattened grasses, and the upright purple spikes of something that I think is lavender, although I am not sure. The combination of browns and purples is just lovely and so soothing.

Credits:

The template provided by Oscraps already had many of the little squares merged so all I needed to do was clip an enlarged and repeated photo in, with some papers in the additional squares.

The background is a merge of papers from Maya de Groot's Backpackers 2, which lended the lovely purples and blues, and Terra Toni, which is mostly about brown, but has the wonderful herringbone texture that I was able to blend on top.

The bird, branch, paint splotches and 100% Natural word art are also from Maya's Terra Toni.

Added to the background are some art strokes, brushing and bokah from Anna Aspnes Magic FotoBlenz Album, a few flower accents from Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Find My Way 2, Anna's free Fall Word Art, and Anna Aspnes Script Tease Learn 1 overlay.

Week 44 Warm to Cool

2011-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Probably destined to be the last really warm week of the year, Week 44, October 30 through November 5, started out super warm. In fact, I was quite hot in my gnome costume on Halloween.

But then a little rain came and it cooled off considerably.

And so I divided my weekly layout into a "warm" side and a "cool' side.

On the warm side is that shot of the hill alongside the 3rd hole again that I featured in the Oscraps copycat challenge, and yet another picture of my view out the back, processed via Instagram. In fact this is my very first Instagram photo from my new iPhone 4S.

And on the cool side, the first rain dripping on the back window, and lots of other "cool" stuff, like my Halloween costume, my new Tom Clark gnome, the fun chain-stitch Christmas trees I made one evening, and Mr. AC's new Ford Focus Hybrid.

Credits:

Anna Aspnes MultiFoto Template No 9

Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Encapsulate, Barren Sunrise, Autumnal 2

Anna Aspnes Artsy Blenz Snow Paperie

Maya de Groot Backpackers 5 and Terra Toni

Ashalee Wall Rhiain and Vintage Alpha

Karla Dudley Digi-Essentials brushes

Padova Window & A Lift

2011-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

When I selected the favorite photos from Padova for scrapping, I included two photos, the very first two I took (I think), of a shoe store window with hot air balloons. You can see my reflection in this first one, and that's Mr. AC with the map on the left.

I loved the look of this window, perhaps because it reminded me so much of a similar window in Bruges from when Ms. AC and I bopped over from Paris in March of 2009.

Turns out these pictures are perfect for a scraplift and advancing my progress on the European vacation scrapping.

The original layout, by mrstoa, has a beautiful vintage photo, scrapped in lovely seafoam colors with simple elements. But I was stumped on how to lift because

a) I don't have any vintage photos,

b) I couldn't really come up with anything that would work with the color

But then I focused on the 'time flies' title, and, thinking about the window photos from Padova, I had my subject!

A single photo (well, the second one is blended into the background, but not as visible), a monochromatic background, a few elements and brushes, and voila! Scraplift!

Credits:Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Find My Way, Encapsulate, English Rose, Barren Sunrise, Anna Aspnes Script Tease Learn 1, Anna Aspnes Magic FotoBlenz Album, and Maya de Groot's Terra Toni

Week 43, Backpackers & Terra Toni

2011-11-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

My main requirement for scrapping week 43 was to use more of Maya de Groot's Backpackers 5 and Terra Toni. I just love the hand-crafted backgrounds, neutral tones, and oh the paper-collaged frames and flowers! These make an artsy layout so simple to accomplish.

Photos weren't necessarily spectacular in Week 43, the last full week of October, from Oct 23 to 29, but still they show a lot going on...crafting, making my Halloween costume, getting the fence painted, and enjoying the view, as I do every week, make that every day.

The 7th photo is blended in to the bottom of the page. Lane from Custom Exteriors told me he needed a picture of the window he is replacing. Not only does it make a good "before" shot of the window, but once I looked at it I realized it is beautifully reflecting the view on a lovely day.

Additional credits:Anna Aspnes MultiFoto Template No 9 plus Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Encapsulate and Ashelee Wall's Vintage Alpha.

Padova Market & Harvest Moon

2011-11-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to see thriving markets in the squares of Padova...imagine how many pictures I would have taken! And we would not have had the time, given our appointment to see the Scrovegni Chapel, to fully explore St. Anthony's, Scrovegni, and also two full squares of thriving markets. So perhaps it was good that it was a feast day and most of the markets did not materialize.

There were some beautifully colorful stands of fruit, vegetables and flowers, and the arcaded market of meats, cheeses and other good-smelling and looking things.

These layouts use a new kit from Jen Maddocks Designs, Harvest Moon. The wonderful earthy bokah'ed backgrounds were perfect to show off the brilliant colors of these market pictures. The fun little banner had almost the perfect number of flags (one extra got chopped off). The frames and maskl are from Jen Maddocks Frames Template, with the addition of a few elements from Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Poppy and Autymnal 2.

In this second layout, actually done fiurst, I used some masks from Jen Maddocks H{all}oween kit, carefully covering up the spider on the edge. I like the way the mask fractures the photos, lining up with window frames and tent poles.

Here are the previews from the kits primarily used in these layouts (click to go to one of Jen's stores):

St. Anthony's of Padua

2011-11-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up in Newark New Jersey, I went to St. Anthony's school and church. St. Anthony was an important saint. I always remembered him as being the patron saint of finding things. So if you lost something, you prayed to St. Anthony to help find it.

Fast forward 40+ years, and here I was again going to St. Anthony's, this time not in Belleville NJ but in Padua, known in Italian as Padova, Italy. Padova is not far from Venice, and quite on the way from Verona to Stresa. We made the quick side trip to see St. Anthony's and the Scrovegni Chapel (more on that later!).

Just as the duomo was to Orvieto, St. Anthony's is to Padova. The day we visited was a feast day of some sort, so St. Anthony's was mobbed. The basilica was spectacular, chock full of incredible art from the 13th century to the present. And it was crowded! There were long lines of people to see, and touch, the tomb of St Anthony, and a mass was being conducted at the same time. Then there was the gift shop, with throngs clamoring for a piece of Anthony-ana, and dozens of Anthony stalls outside the church, which, by the way, is in the country of the Vatican.

It was all quite an interesting mix of devout Christianity and crass commercialism. I contributed to both - I touched the tomb and bought a few Anthony medals (and now I am wondering where those medals are...I need to pray to St. Anthony to help me find my St. Anthony medals.Being a gray day, and no photos allowed inside, I didn't get many pictures of the experience. But did get a few of the church.

A bit about my page design:

Getting these effects is a simple matter of blending. For the main church picture, I used my lasso with a large feather radius (50 pixels) to make a rough selection, then applied a vector mask. The blending mode is set to multiply, which pretty much eliminates the background gray sky and helps to isolate the outline of the church. Placing the postcards behind the church helps with the isolation of the wonderful forms of the domes and spires.

For the bottom image of the church, this is a photo from a front-on angle, set to vivid light and a low opacity (~50%) which lets all the forms and textures of the lovely papers to show through and adds some wonderful color. To reinforce the color, I added an orange leaf. Note the repetition of this color in the flag (multiply unfortunately takes away the red and green of the Italian flag) and the postmark.

This is scrapped with two new kits from Maya de Groot Designs, Backpackers 5 and Terra Toni.Postcard imagery is from Maya de Groot's The Art of Journaling.

You Say Padua, I Say Padova

2011-11-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Padova was just an in-and-out, on the way from Orvieto to Stresa, just enough to see the highlights. It was a slightly drizzly day, and, as we later discovered, some feast day or holiday, so the markets were sparse.

Here in Piazza dei Signori, which was supposed to be the site of a thriving clothing market, only a few lonely stands were braving the weather. But all one has to do is put on the imagination cap to see this as full of Italians out picking amongst the goods.

Meanwhile, it was easy to enjoy great views of the architecture in the piazza, including this royal palace with wonderful zodiac clock, scrapped with the perfect Encapsulate kit from Anna Aspnes and Dido Designs, which is full of clock-like imagery.

I did a fun little something on this page, rather subtle, but something I will likely use again, now that I have discovered it. I repeated the photo of the palace in the background, turning the opacity way down. But having done that, it was no longer possible to pick out the Venetian lion on top of the column. We spied the Venetian lion immediately, having learned all about him on our trip to Venice.

So I did a quick lasso grab of just the tower and lion with a high feather radius and plopped this on top of the low-opacity layer, adjusting the size so it blends in perfectly. I love the effect!

Additional credits - Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 12, Anna Aspnes Script Tease Learn

Orvieto & Out

2011-11-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I won't say I am finally finished with scrapping Orvieto, lest it be misconstrued to seem like I want it to be done. I enjoyed every minute or revisiting our trip to the perfect little hill town with the glorious duomo, and will relive it wonderfully through these scrapbook pages.

The last two pages highlight the best and the typical...

the best being the glorious duomo...

the typical being a balcony covered in flowers.

Both of these layouts use a beautiful new collaboration kit from Anna Aspnes and Dido Designs called Encapsulate. It is full of time imagery, which I so love. The lovely imagery and brushes lends quite an ethereal quality to both layouts.
The duomo picture was altered via a Hipstamatic tutorial I found on the Photoshop elements site, and the balcony picture was altered via a Instagram tutorial from the same site. Yes, I know the rest of the world just takes Instagram pictures with their iPhones. But I really enjoyed learning how to do this with lots of filters, masks and adjustments.

So here is all of Orvieto, scrapped out side by side, and it is on to Padova and Verona.

A Gnome is Not Santa Claus

2011-11-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited about my Halloween costume. Once Mr. AC came up with the perfect blue jacket, I knew I was set. I worked hard on beard, eyebrows, and the rest of the costume. I was excited about answering the door to trick-or-treaters.

And then the "Hey it's Santa" stuff started. What? Santa? What is it with you kids, how can you not know the difference between a GNOME and Santa? Am I wearing red? NO! Does Santa wear a pointed hat? NO!

After trying to explain this to one little girl, I finally gave up, gave her some candy, and wished her a Merry Christmas.

Then there were two boys, one of whom, like others, addressed me as Santa. The other boy said, "that's not Santa, it's a garden gnome". Thank you! And I did thank him, with a whole handful of candy.

So, perhaps my costume wasn't as successful as I thought it was.
But it was fun, especially getting pictures of the garden gnome sneaking around the garden...

...and taking a little nap in the back yard...

Weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's

2011-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's funny, I don't feel like a did a lot this weekend. Good thing I take so many pictures!

First, the painting of the back fence. Strictly speaking, all I had to do was call The Painter and verify the color and sheen with the homeowner's association (who did not know anything about the sheen, and provides a color number that only works at a certain store, only they don't tell you that...ok, enough on THAT subject).

Mr. AC had a LOT of prep work to do to enable the painting, taking down years worth of overgrown bushes and weeds to expose the fence, and more of the view!

The Painter & His Assistant did a fabulous job of knocking it off on Saturday. I like this picture because it shows the before and after color (that's how much fading occurs with 13+ years of neglect), as well as the fall colors on the trees and the view of the somewhat smoggy but beautiful Silicon Valley.

Then there was some baking and cooking going on. Ever since I downloaded my free copy of the Pumpkin Cookbook on my Kindle, I was keen to do some pumpkin cooking. I like to use the Kindle app on my iPad to view recipes in the kitchen.

These Harvest Loaves, made with pumpkin, cranberries and nuts, are delicious!

Made an extra loaf to bring to lunch at Ms. AC's on Sunday.

Although I still have some last-minute details to complete, I worked on my Halloween costume. No, I'm not going anywhere, and I don't even like to answer the door to the trick or treaters, but I like making stuff, and am pleased with my hat and beard (still working on those eyebrows).

While browsing through JoAnns on Saturday, I came across this huge skein or pretty yellow and white cotton kitchen yarn. I just love cotton kitchen yarn, and as it was NOT on sale, I could use a coupon! This is the start of some kitchen cloths...don't know if I will use them as such, as this is SO pretty, but I will enjoy making them.

A new member of the gnome family arrived this weekend, a Tom Clark gnome called Birdie. He popped up into my recommendations on eBay while I was looking for gnome costumes, beards and hats. He is going to be an inside gnome, but he needed an airing out, as I did not think to check whether he was from a smoke-free home (the issue was more in the packaging...he was cleared to come inside today).

Ms. AC celebrated the Halloween weekend as a pumpkin...which gave me an excuse to play with my newly-acquired Photoshop Instagram skills, especially since the messaged phone photo was pretty dark and blurry.

Phew...all that, and there aren't even any pictures of golf, progress on my double wedding ring quilt, priming of the birdhouses (more on this soon!), lunch with Ms AC & That-Sam-I-Am, a perfectly timed catch of Twilight on TV, and the start of another round of watching the Harry Potter movies in prep for our trip to Harry Potter world at Christmas.

Just another weekend at the Artsy Craftsy house.

Almost Done with Orvieto

2011-10-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Getting to the last of the photos selected for the must-include-in-Europe-scrapbook list.

I can never resist taking these shots of streets and alleys in hill towns, and ordinary villagers going about their business. This town made such an impression on me, which I get to relive when I open the photos in Photoshop and think about how to arrange them to tell a story. Not may words necessary here, this is simply a story of wandering up and down the hill, in and out of the streets and alleys, wondering what is around the next turn, behind the shutters and doors, behind the windows.

And this is the story of being in a hilltown in the morning as it wakes. Journaling reads:

Many people visit the hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria in a flash, coming in on a quick tour, walking the streets, poking into the shops, having a quick meal, then catching the bus. If that’s all one has time for, it is worthwhile. But there is nothing like the specialness of waking up in a hill town, watching the town wake, the people come out, opening their doors and windows and shops to another day, a day hopefully filled with tourists, but also filled with the life of the town, time to do some quick errands, time to catch up with the neighbors, life goes on in these tiny villages, perhaps oblivious to just how special it all is. How special is the morning in a hill town.

Credits:Template is a combo of Anna Aspnes Project 2011 template #4 and Magic FotoBlenz Template 7, plus Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Saffron Villa and Special One, Anna Aspnes Travel Word Art and Jen Maddocks Tell Your Story.

Orvieto View & Poppies

2011-10-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

With all the October challenges done at Oscraps, let's see if I can make progress on scrapping Europe.

I love these pictures, showing the views, and the poppies in the fields as we walked the rupe trail around the tufa hills on which the old town of Orvieto sits.If it seems like I talk and scrap about Orvieto a lot, it is because I loved this little town.

Credits:Jen Maddocks Enchanted masks, with Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Autumnal and Poppy, plus Anna Aspnes Descriptives Word Transfers

San Francisco Heart Journal

2011-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

The last of the October challenges at Oscraps was the Creative Techniques challenge to do an art journal page lift of a page from Bush Girl.

I chose this page, as it spoke to me immediately of San Francisco and the famous Tony Bennett song.

Even for art journaling, I like to include photos. I had a set from September 18th that I hadn't yet used, although some of the shots are the same shots I take every time I am at Ms. Artsy Craftsy's on Twin Peaks.

It was super warm that day, and we went for a walk in the neighborhood so I could take a closer look at the mosaics at the Rooftop School across the street. With the sun setting behind us, I snapped a photo of our shadows on the sidewalk.

I love how the shadows juxtapose on the city images, surrounded by a heart. The heart is a simple custom shape, clipped with a collage paper (from Maya de Groot Designs Collage Papers) and erased with a few brushes. The San Francisco word art is another extraction from a photo I took at the Embarcadero in April.

I wanted to incorporate additional elements from the original, like the wing brushes, the staple and brad, but I think I already have enough going on.

In addition to Maya de Groot's Collage Papers, which appear in the heart as well as the lower left corner, I used masks and stitches from Anna Aspnes Magic FotoBlenz Album and the background paper is from Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Barren Sunrise.

October Reflections

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

I love reflections photos, and haven't had occasion to take any in a while. Last week I tried taking a couple of reflections in the pool and spa, and got some really nice results! I think they look quite Monetian!

I decided to use one of the photos for a Web Inspiration challenge at Oscraps. The challenge photo was a lovely shadowy fall scene, with Halloween decorations in the foreground. So I used a background/foreground concept to place the reflection photo in the back (turned 180 degrees) with another more focused photo, of some of the last of the Rose of Sharon blossoms in front of the fall foliage that shows through the back fence.

The "Reflections" word art is simply the word typed out using the TrueType font Porcelain, then repeated, flipped vertically, with the opacity adjusted down to 30%. I tried rasterizing the reflected title and applying a Gaussian blur, but that made it blurry :-)

Credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Autumnal 2 and Seafoam, Anna Aspnes Magic FotoBlenz Album, Anna Aspnes Fall Wordart overlay, Jen Maddocks Enchanted

Week 42 Scrapped

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with the weeklies, hot off the pres is Week 42.

Since I did Week 41 as a single page, I wanted to do Week 42 as a single to keep the balance. I also used the same rounded corner shapes for the photo masks, tailoring them to the partly portrait and partly landscape orientation of the photos.

Once again I found a nice grouping among the photos, a couple about quilts, a couple about people, a couple about flora with a pizza thrown in.

Credits - original template design, papers and elements from Anna Aspnes Autumnal 2, Jen Allyson Vintage Findings alpha.

Crafty Flop and Banner Revival

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

My weekend pumpkin crafting project was, unfortunately, a complete flop.I've seen many cute pumpkins made from books, and somehow, stupidly, I thought I could make one from a phone book.

Don't try this at home...it doesn't work!

I grabbed a random piece of cardboard and drew a pumpkin shape.

Then I traced the shape onto the phone book pages and cut out a few pages at a time.

It made a bit of a mess, cutting up the pages, but it didn't take all that long, and I did it while simultaneously doing other things. I loved the way it came out, shape wise, and was excited about painting it orange.

But alas, it would not even begin to stand :-( So my crafty pumpkin from a book project was a flop. I haven't tossed it in the recycle bin yet, hoping some brilliant idea will come to me to save this and turn it into a pumpkin.

It was fairly craftily depressed about this, and needed a pick-me-up. I've been wanting to find the crafty fall banner I made several years ago. That was the year we decided to spend Thanksgiving at Kirkwood. We'd done that the previous year and it was so fun, especially when we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow on Thanksgiving morning.

The second year tradition of thanksgiving at Kirkwood involved additional people, some of whom were reluctant, because there wouldn't be sufficient decorations at Kirkwood to make it look like Thanksgiving. So I made some trips to JoAnns and rummaged through my fabric to make a fall banner. We brought a tablecloth, some mini pumpkins, faux fall foliage, and the banner, and decorated the place festively. Then the banner came home, got put with the fabric, and when we moved, who knows where it went.

I looked around for it last weekend but didn't find it. But with Mr. Artsy Craftsy's help to remove some bins from my sewing room closet, I found the banner. And hung it on my fireplace, after first locating the stocking holders in the hall closet with the Christmas decorations, and only a tiny accident of a stuck foot, lost balance and a scraped shoulder. The things I do for crafting!

Sorrento Scrap Book Complete

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

My latest Shutterfly book, this one a 25-page digital scrapbook covering Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, including Positano, Amalfi Town, Ravello and Capri, is complete and ordered.

It was mostly free thanks to an offer from United Airlines, just had to pay for the 5 extra pages, but these were 20% off of 20% off, thanks to sales and coupon codes.

The one frustration...Shutterfly's new Custom Path is a great interface and super easy to use, however, not all styles, which of course seems irrelevant in a digital scrapbook, offer a full bleed cover, which is important to us digital scrapbookers.

Their help page on Digital Scrapbooks said to use the Everyday Classics style, but that one doesn't have a full-page picture cover....maybe it did at one point, but it doesn't now. If you use New Custom Path and want a full bleed cover, use the Modern Black style, and there is an option for a full-page picture cover with text, and if you leave the text blank, you will get a full page cover.
This is only an issue for the front cover. Other styles have full bleed on the back cover.

I'm glad I finally figured this out, because although I made this book with the Classic Custom Path, this option is supposed to go away in January 2012. Plus, I like the interface of the New Custom Path much better!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

Pages in the book are made with the digital scrapbook templates and kits of Jen Maddocks, Maya de Groot and Anna Aspnes.

Remembering the Orvieto Market

2011-10-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Getting back to scrapping one of the highlights of our European adventure, Orvieto, and one of the highlights of Orvieto, the trip to the market. Like most hill towns in Tuscany and Umbria, once or twice a week a market pops up in one of the village squares. Besides the usual fruit, flowers and vegetables, the market in Orvieto featured tables full of vintage linens, providing hours of interesting browsing, for me at least.

Credits - Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered Template No 7, ArtPlay Palettes Strawberry Preserves and Poppy, Jodie Lee Junk Mail Brushes.

Diane Weber Artsy Craftsy

It Must Be Love

Camera Corner Self Portrait

All of My Love

Project 366 Scrapping Begins

Oscraps Freebies

Hey, O-Fans, Diane here, bringing you the question of the day...

Did you know, there is a category in the Oscraps store for Freebies?

There are more than 10 pages of awesome Freebies available from our talented designers, waiting to be used in your scrapping! Templates, paper, alphas, wordart, elements...it's all here!

Before January gets away from us, I wanted to bring your attention to a very special Freebie, from Sue Cummings, a quick and easy template/quick grid for a year in review.

O-scrappers have done some wonderful reviewing with this template!

This colorful layout by Michael captures special moments throughout the year:

EHStudios created a Project Life page with the 8 1/2" x 11" version of the free template:

How sweet and romantic is this page by whetuu, thankful for a year with her husband:

Bush Girl focused on a very special even from 2011 in her page:

Ella_75 focused on a year in the life of a very special little man:

marijke chose the four seasons and presented images for each one:

And Elina2 gives us a year of beautiful flowers:

Don't let this one get away, and if you create a Year in Review page, please add it to Sue Cumming's Gallery so we can leave you some love!

Another New York Sketch

Black & White & a Red Elephant

A New York Sketch

Cold Weather Comforts

Cedric Came to Kauai

The Instaview

The Day Via Instagram

More Colors of Kauai

Zoom...Zoom

The Colors of Kauai

Another Day in Paradise

The Day in Photos

Goodbye Joe-Joes

Disney Day 1

In Love Simply Kelly Templates

Midway Mania Lift

Week 1 of 2011

Speed Scrapping Epcot

Pantone Color of the Year - Tangerine Tango

The March Calendar

More Calendar Craftiness

NY Love

Back to Simply Kelly Scrapping

January, A Calendar and a Collab

And That's a Wrap

The 12 Photos of Christmas

Granny Square Christmas Stockings

The Return to Scrappiness

The Rewards of Craftiness

A New York Moment

The Artsy Craftsy Basement

Tangerine Tango

Cake Pops

The Castle

Spaceship Earth

Butterbeer

Fantasmic

A Magical Night

Bokeh Scraps

Week 49

Are My Ears on Straight??

The Lovely Red Twigs

Merry Christmoose

Christmas Memories

How to Quilt a Penguin

Bokeh Time

Whoooo

Winter Wonderland

Christmas in Union Square

Week 48

Weekend at Ms Artsy Craftsy's

Hanging the Twelve Tags of Christmas

The Gingerbread House

Putting the Roof On

December, Still Fall, 12 Days

Geranium Love

Upping My O'Game

Weekend at the Artsy Craftsy's

Thanksgiving Week

Quiet Moments

Serendipitous Leaves