Category: Photography

Hi everyone! It seems like ages since I sat down and wrote a blog post! The things you've been seeing for the past week were all scheduled ahead of my trip to CHA in Anaheim! Well, I'm home now, and trying to get caught up with 'real' life and such. It's good to be home, and my brain is overflowing with crafty ideas…

The trip to CHA was amazing! I worked all four days at the Taylored Expressions booth and they had a great show. It's so fun to spend time with the people I work with online every day. They are such a wonderful group of people and I'm reminded how blessed I am that they are a part of my life. I also got to walk the show and see so many of my favorite bloggy friends. My heart is full!! I think it took three days for my feet to stop aching! LOL. It was a great trip. I tried to facebook as much as I could so I hope you checked out all my 'on to go' photos there. Whew. 

Here are just a few photos that I wanted to share from my trip! First up is a photo of all of us at the TE booth. From left to right – Stephanie, Jami, Taylor, John, Regina, Wanda, Shannon and Linda. XOXO

My MOST favorite and unique display from the show – Tim Holtz for Sizzix….

Laguna Beach, Heisel Park…

The Creative Retreat classes start next week! Thank you so much to all of you who already signed up! I think it's going to be really fun! My class project is all ready to go and I'm so excited for you guys to see it. There is no time limit on when you can sign up. CLICK HERE FOR THE CLASS INFO PAGE – and to see the sneak peeks of some of the projects. 

And here is my Sneak Peek!

Vintage Paris Valentine is the name of my class! 

I've missed all of you! What have you been up to? I hope your new year is off to a great start! I'm renewed and energized creatively and can't wait to start sharing projects with you. Thanks for popping in! 

Hi! Happy (almost) New Year! I hope and wish for many good things to come in the year 2014! New Year's is always a time to pause and reflect and take stock. For me, 2013 was a very hard year. Probably one of the hardest years of my entire life. I'm not really sad to see it go. Too much happened. I'm a very even keel sort of gal, and 2013 put me on a roller coaster ride – and I must say that I didn't really care for it. I am very grateful for what I have and the people I love. I am very strong in my faith that God is preparing me for a new chapter or a new phase in my life, and I had to walk through the "work" first. Do you know what I mean? Anyhoo, I digressed…

I am looking forward to making 2014 a wonderful year. My words for 2014 are: Compassion (to seek it and give it), Flawed (recognizing that I am flawed and that's okay), and THRIVE (because that's what I intend to do!). I don't really do resolutions – do you? What's on tap for your new year? I wish you ALL THE BEST! Let's make it a banner year! 

One of the things I love to do here on the blog at the end of the year, is to take a look back on my creative journey! Today is my four year blogaversary! Can you believe it? So many of you have been following along with me the entire four years and it's been so much fun! I continue to be so happily amazed at the love and kindness of the peeps in blog land. Warms my heart and soul. I'm so excited and happy that I get to share with you what I love to do. 

My blog is my journal, in a way, and it keeps a record of my life and my progress. So, on that note, here are some fun stats from the year. At the end of 2012 I had written 560 blog posts, received 5413 comments, had 104,000 visitors, 365 email subscribers and 362,000 total blog hits. At the end of 2013… I have written 722 blog posts, received 7527 kind comments, had 185,000 visitors, 521 email subscribers… and…. drum roll please….506,000 total blog hits! YAY! I had a secret goal to try to make it to half a million blog hits before the end of the year! COOLEST thing ever! 

Last year I started a new tradition of recapping my favorite projects from the year! I got so many nice comments about this! Here are my favorites from 2013!! 

This card from January was my entry into a Hero Arts Contest! The smaller panel on the front is actually an ATC that can come off. That map stamp is a fav, and made other appearances throughout the year! 

For February I had to choose a Valentine favorite! This card was made in a color combo I love and using Papertrey Ink supplies…

This card from March just might be one of my favorite cards I've ever made! It took me hours to punch out and glue all those layers together – but I love the result. You guys can tell I love that shade of aqua….

In April I got the nautical bug! This trend was everywhere and I adore it! This card was made using Taylored Expressions stamps and dies…

In May, I made this card for my friend May! It was her birthday card and was full of an explosion of flowers. This one was really fun to make! 

June's favorite card had me keeping it clean and simple, with some awesomely cute stamps from Paper Smooches and my go-to gingham paper! 

In July I tried out a new color combo for the patriotic holidays! Gold and cream, and a gorgeous TE tamp and die cut of the USA… 

In August, I was feeling like Summer bikes! I made the daisy out of some die cuts and used some new washi tape and fun dies….Love how this one came out. 

For September I started my Autumn crafting with a gorgeous new stamp and die set from Tim Holtz. This card actually got me a mention on Tim Holtz's blog! WOO HOOOOOO! That was fun! 

More leaves for October – Fall is my favorite time of year! This time, more leaves and inks from Tim Holtz in a yummy fall palette. 

For November's choice, here is a card made using some cute apple stamps and dies…

December had me feeling inky and glittery all over when I made these poinsettia pins from the tattered poinsettia die from Tim Holtz! I made a pink one too. Totally fun project! 

And now, just a few of my favorite photographs from 2013! First up is a butterfly captured in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco… 

Some pretty pink dogwood blooms in the foothills of Northern California….

Summer Farmer's Market time….

My favorite Instagram of the year, took when we went sailing in October…

Another favorite Instagram shot of some cupcakes I made this year….

A beautiful white dogwood bloom in front of church at Easter…

Our anniversary trip to Carmel…where we saw Jonathan! LOL! 

Our last trip to the beach in San Francisco – just a couple of weeks ago. This is why I love California! My last time to see the sunset over the ocean for the year. This is so peaceful. 

Hello my sweet bloggy friends! Today I'm posting about two of my favorite things…cupcakes and paper crafting! Woooot! Up above is my FAVORITE Instagram of today's project! (Maybe my most favorite Instagram ever??) A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make cupcakes for one of my co-workers' birthdays and I really was looking for a new way to jazz 'em up! Don't know where the idea came from but I thought – how about some pinwheels! And before you know it, this project was in the works…

MMMMMMMMM….chocolate…..with chocolate!

I used this happy and bright paper pack for my pinwheels (say that three times fast)… Using all these patterns and colors automatically makes the project fun. It doesn't all have to be matchy matchy, it just has to work together. I love it. I used my Pinwheel Die from The Cat's Pajamas to make my cute wheels… Here they are all cut out. Tip: Use double sided paper!!

See how fun that paper is??? These are so simple to assemble with some brads in the centers. To put them on my skewers I used hot glue on the back.

I punched out some layering circles and stamped her name on the centers to make it personal…

Here they are in a row…

One last look at the finished project. I used silver foil cupcake liners because they do not get oily when you cook your cupcakes, and they look purty and festive!

Wanda!

Hi friends! Happy weekend! Yippeeeeee. Hope you're out in the sun and havin' some fun! TE Release Week was sure great, wasn't it? LOVE this month's new toys.

Today I'm back to share a "modern shabby chic" birthday card with you, and once again, I've featured a butterfly. Hmmmm, do I need a butterfly intervention?  Is it acceptable to want to put a butterfly on EVERY project?  Because I think I probably could do that!!  Every time I think I need just a little something else on a project, that's what I reach for. Is that bad?  Do I need butterfly rehab? Or should I just go with it? What do you guys think? I'd love to hear from you about what you think! What is your crafty obsession? 🙂

This particular butterfly is a brand new acquisition! It's part of a brand new die set from my stampy Idol Brenda Walton! Remember that I got to meet her at CHA??? YAY! Well, this was one product I really wanted and I found it last weekend at the Scrapbook store and snapped it up. The die set also has a dragonfly and a smaller butterfly. YUM.

I cut my butterfly out of this uber cool paper (no I did not stamp all those letters on there)…. Then I used a Cuttlebug folder for my background piece. The sentiments are from two different PTI sets.

This Prima flower has been in my stash for some time – guess it's time to stop hoarding flowers… Everything is edged with corduroy distress ink.

It's that time again! Time for our super fun Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge! This is our monthly opportunity for the Taylored Expressions Design Team to share what makes our stamping studios run… Each month we have a crafty question so we can share our favorite tips and tricks with you!  I LOVE this every month. I really look forward to getting the challenge from Taylor and then seeing what my amazing DT friends come up with on their blogs. Are you loving it too? I sure hope so!

Our question for March is:  "You ought to be in pictures!" We all love to share our completed projects with others on our blogs, and in various online galleries. So, when the stamping ends, the photography begins.  This is a fun step for some, and a frustrating one for others. How do you take your blog photos?

Boy, where do I start with this topic!? LOL. I have been a photographer since I was 14 years old and I still keep in touch with my high school photography teacher! So, photography is actually my first creative love.  That being said, taking photos of card projects is a whole different ball game. It took me a long time to figure out a system that works for me. I tried a light box for a while (CLICK HERE) and that worked really well. The down side was storing it and getting it out every time I wanted to take a photo. What I have finally landed on (for now) is just taking the photos on my work desk! Here is my SUPER fancy set up!

You can see in the above photo that I have an Ott lite there for some extra pop. On the left is a stack of papers I keep handy for backgrounds for my photos. The photo below is what the picture looks like straight from the camera with no cropping. I like to shoot back a ways and then I can crop later however I like.

And here is the cropped version of the photo above: 

I use a Canon G11 Camera for all my photos. It's small so it fits in my purse or backpack and I always have it with me. It can be automatic or fully manual which I like a lot too. This has been my favorite camera I've ever had (and this girl has owned a lot of cameras!) I am currently in the (OCD) process of trying to choose a new camera because I've worn this poor one out!  

I like to take a couple of extra photos to show the side view and/or the layers in my card. Sometimes I know I want to see how a person made something, and I think this helps. It also helps me remember later!

Here are some card photo tricks and tips for you:  1.  For 'funky' indoor lighting: Most cameras nowadays will allow you to adjust the "white balance" on your photos. Read your manual about this! Light is measured in temperatures…from cool to warm…and that is why our photos can have a "cast" on them and look yellow inside. 2.  Try using your flash. Sometimes this is better, sometimes not, but it's worth trying. 3.  Try taking your photos from farther away and then cropping them later. This will give you some latitude with the end product. 4.   Have fun and keep trying!!  

I edit my photos with Photoshop Elements 7, which came with my laptop many years ago. The software takes getting used to (at least it did for me). I add my watermark in Elements and also adjust the color to get my photo to match the 'real life' colors as much as possible. Many of the tips and tricks I learned about Elements came from watching Youtube videos!

SUPPLIES: Moka Wanda Stamp Set, Labels Stacklets 3 Dies, Doodlebug Take Note Collection Papers and brads, Memento Inks and Copic Markers.

NOTE: All the papers and supplies I used today are from Doodlebug's Take Note Collection! Squeeee! We are doing a product partnership this month with our friends at Doodlebug and so you'll be seeing lots of this awesome, colorful paper on my blog in the next couple of weeks. I love it!

Here's your most awesome linky list for CHALLENGE DAY! 

Carole Burrage

Charmaine Ikach

Jen Shults

Kerri Mchaud

Lynnette Kauffman

Sankari Wegman

Shannon White

Shelly Mercado

Stephanie Kraft

Tammie Edgerton

Taylor VanBruggen

Wanda Guess  

Helllllooooooo! It's Monday! Did you have a nice weekend? Did you watch the Oscars? I love spending all day Oscar Sunday in the craft room watching all the pre-show and red carpet stuff. Kitty and I had a very relaxing day yesterday crafting away (or sleeping in his case). Hope you had a very good weekend.

Saturday hubs and I went out for a yummy breakfast and a drive and we were trying to find stuff to take pictures of. It's still too early for most things to be blooming. However, the one thing that is going crazy around here is the fruit trees! We stumbled upon this beautiful bunch of (I think) plum trees and we must have looked crazy standing there with our cameras snapping away! So, I am sharing some photos today, and then a blossom inspired card!

I loooooove the contrast between the dark brown, rough bark and the soft pink of the petals. Makes for an interesting subject.

I liked this one the best! (I made it my Facebook cover photo!)  

So, I got out my blossom stamps because I was so inspired by these beautiful blooms. The main stamp is from Paper Source, as is the gorgeous Asian background paper. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Kept is clean and simple…

I put some glitter on the flower centers. My words are stamped in brown instead of black.

After I stamped my images, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with the Linen Impression Plate from Papertrey Ink. Wanted it to have just a bit of texture.

My envelope maker arrived in the mail this weekend!!! This was one of my favorite things from CHA last month. And, I love it even more now that I've used it. SOOOO easy. It's from We R Memory Keepers. I chose a piece of 12×12 cardstock (with blossoms of course) to make a matching envelope for my card. Took one minute!!!

Here is my finished envelope. 🙂

Thanks so much for popping in today. I hope you have a great week! XOXO 

NO! Not me! Hahaha. Today is my wonderful husband's 50th birthday! Wooot Wooot! Hey, how did I get married to an old guy? All kidding aside, I met the hubs when he was 30 and now, here we are, 20 years later! He's a good man and I'm very lucky to have him. For his birthday he got a new laptop and some clothes, which is just what he wanted. And, we spent the day on Saturday in San Francisco shopping and taking pictures. The hubs was born in San Francisco, so it was a perfect place to spend his birthday weekend. I thought I would share his birthday card today. Do you guys remember his 49er card from last year? 

We all know I'm a total girlie girl, so masculine cards are sometimes hard for me! My card for the DH was inspired by this cool camera paper. It's kind of retro and funky and cool…and the hubs loves photography… I went around the craft room picking up things to put together and came up with this!  

The number dies are from PTI, the swirl die is from Lifestyle Crafts and the hearts are dies from Tim Holtz for Ranger. I picked out a nice sage green and used lots of distress ink and black to pop the contrast.

I had to put some hearts on there – to represent us! The birthday sentiment is one I've had for AGES! I used my edger distresser thingee on the papers…

Lots and lots of layers on this one! Check out that cool camera brad!

Saturday was my first time trying out my new camera. It was a hard photography kind of day, filled with all sorts of lighting challenges…indoors, flourescent, outside at night….whew. I want to share my favorite shots from the day with you!

Life is like a box of chocolates…. 

San Francisco Centre Mall

Bloomingdales

Dome at San Francisco Centre Mall…They were projecting different colors and snowflakes onto the dome and it was gorgeous! My favorite was this blue/purple combination!

My new camera has some cool creative filters that you can use directly while shooting. Yay! One of them is this neato star filter. This is a Christmas ornament on a tree in Bloomingdales.

Flags on Market Street

Carolers in front of Nieman Marcus

This is truly the contrast between old San Francisco and new San Francisco!

Flowers for sale on the street. I love these fresh bright tulips…pops of color on a foggy day!

Christmas window beauty!

Look at these delicious clouds! It was foggy all day and then right before sunset the sky cleared. This was taken from the 8th floor of Macy's at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant up there.

Our table for dinner was right by the glass partition. LOVE this reflection of the clouds in the glass!

My absolute favorite time of day is right before it gets dark, when the sky is blue, and the lights come on. Here's a view down onto Union Square, with the ice skating rink, and the giant tree. Can you spot the famous Transamerica pyramid in the background?

Always have to have at least one cable car shot!

Here's the view back towards the City from Treasure Island. GORGEOUS night! The Bay Bridge is to the left. The four lit up buildings are the Embarcadero Center. The Pyramid had a bright blue light on it…

Here's my cool star effect again!

Thanks for coming by to check out what's up today! Hope you are enjoying everything great about the season! XO

Hi sweet bloggy friends! Grab a drink and settle in because this is a LONG post! LOL. Lots of pictures and cards and everything to share today. I'm going to talk about my current obsession with Washi Tape! Are you on the washi bandwagon yet? I got it bad! It started with buying just a couple of rolls here and there and then grew into a big bucket full of pretty tapes! Sunday it was a cloudy day perfect for hanging out in the craft room all day. I decided to make it a fun washi project day!

First I got inspired and pinned lots of new pins to my WASHI PINTEREST BOARD. That got my creative juices flowing. I love looking at Pinterest! I found so many pretty pictures of washi tape and decided to take some of my own pictures of the tapes. I love the graphic nature of the circles and all the colors together. This first collage picture I did with my iPhone so I could post it on Instagram! That's a whole other obsession!

Here's my whole collection…but it seems like there's room in that bucket! (Maybe I need more?)  

After I had fun taking photos, it was time to come up with some projects! I used these tapes for my first card…

Those fun hearts are made from washi tape!

One of the cool things to do with washi tape is to layer them over each other so you can combine the patterns and colors….

Here's a close up of my washi hearts!  

To make the hearts I got out the red and white chevron washi and put down several strips of it on a piece of the back of an old notepad. It was thick like chipboard, and white, which was perfect.

Next I ran the sheet of washi through my Big Shot with some pretty heart dies from Tim Holtz…

Aren't they cute?!

Isn't this an adorable little fabric tag from Basic Grey?

For my next project, I got out the crazy 80's neon washi tape! And that black and white chevron? ACK! So perfect for bright projects!

I just got this adorable Oh Snap! stamp set from There She Goes. I LOVEEEEE this!! I colored my fun camera in with bright funky Copic colors. Rich black is the perfect touch to ground all this neon.

Here's the card base. I snipped the ends with my scissors to make little flag/banners.

Oh Snap!

This last card is a clean and simple washi project. I used a simple manila square tag and some pretty colors. I made the little tape and pearl pennant. I like how the striped washi made gingham when crossed over itself! (an added bonus to any project!). I used some pink ink in my blo-pen to add some spatters. Nice and easy.

Smile! 🙂

Okay, hope you haven't given up on me yet…one more project…

Some cool tags! Not sure what to do with these yet…maybe attach them to the front of a card, or tie them on a present. I'll think of something!  

Thank you so much for coming by my blog and for sharing in my fondness for the washi. Do you have some tapes? What do you make with them? Do you have a favorite kind of craft you like to make with your tapes? I'd love some more ideas! Best wishes for a blessed day! XOXO

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a fabulous week! Here it is Wednesday already…and that means only three days until FOOTBALL starts!!! Woo hoooooo! Cannot wait for this weekend and going to the first game of the season and enjoying the start of Fall activities! But, I have to make it through the rest of the week first! LOL. Today I'm sharing a card set I made with this AWESOME stamp set from Stampin' Up…Keep Calm! My dear sweet friend Patty sent this my way and I LOVE it! I have had it sitting on my stamp desk for a couple of weeks waiting for the chance to ink it up. I couldn't pick which image and saying to use…so I used 'em all!

A couple of weekends ago I found these great clear plastic cases for cards at one of the craft stores. They are so nice and I think I'm now inspired to do more of this kind of thing. What a nice little gift for a gal pal! It's also fun to decorate the front of the box!

I made six cards in all – two each of three designs. Kept it simple and clean….

Here's the stamp set:

 Blings!

Of course, this one is my FAVORITE!

Enjoy the rest of your week my bloggy friends!!! Stamp on!!! 

Hey everyone! Warning….long post ahead….lots to share with you today! How are ya? Hope the week is going along well for you! Here it is, Wednesday already! Today I'm sharing some of the pictures I took of sunflowers on Saturday and a card to match! 

About two weeks ago, we were driving to San Francisco, and along the way we saw this giant field of beautiful sunflowers. We didn't have our cameras, and didn't have time to stop, so we made a mental note to come back and take some pix later. Well, Saturday morning we got up early, grabbed a Starbucks and headed to Davis to see the sunflowers! Last week was over 100+ every single day, and guess what? Those pretty little sunflowers shriveled up and died! I was so bummed out that most of the flowers were brown and sad…. I did manage to take just a few pictures though. Next time we have to be prepared!

When I decided to post the sunflower pictures, I thought….I need to make a sunflower card too! So today I have a card I made with all PTI goodies to match my photos. Hope you like.

Can you see all the hot air balloons? It was such a pretty, still morning. Perfect for a balloon ride! Just over those mountains is the world famous Napa Valley!

So much texture in these pretty gals…the petals, the leaves, all of the beauty is there, even though they're dried up!

I found one little clump of fresh and bright flowers….filled with bees!

Does this give you any indication of how hot it was here last week!? EEEK.

So, here is my card for today! All the products, stamps and dies are from Papertrey Ink! Love getting all that stuff out and playing. I just happened to have these big brown buttons in my stash.

So fun to make all these layers of flowers. The leaves are cut from a petals die! The little words are a PTI stamp too. I love that Happy Birthday font.

Lots of layers and dimension on this card!  

Here are all my die cut flowers…

Okay, so for good measure, why not throw in my favorite Instagram photos from the weekend too?! You know how much I love my iPhone camera! Have you gotten hooked on Instagram yet? You really must try it! It puts cool effects on your iPhone pictures and then you can share them on facebook and Twitter too. Very fun…and addicting!

Okay peeps! I think that's enough stuff for one day! Thank you so much for coming by to visit my bloggy blog. Enjoy the rest of the week and I'll see you soon! XOXO 

Hello there blog friends! Happy Friday from me to you! I'm berry happy it's Friday and berry happy to share this post with you today! Have you had enough of my berry silly humor yet? Okay, I'll stop. But I was cracking myself up right there! LOL. Summer means strawberries and also cute crafty and tasty treats made with strawberries! I have both a card and a treat to share with you today. 

I made a card using some awesome Papertrey Ink products, and then I'm also sharing my way of making chocolate covered strawberries – I made some this week for a co-worker's birthday.  I hope you have a super fun weekend of Summer stuff planned. Whatever you do, make it memorable!

Here's my card, using Papertrey Ink's Strawberry Patch stamp set and the ultra favorite Quatrefoil Die. All the paper is cream cardstock, not white, for an antique feeling. 

I went through ALL my flower doo dads and couldn't find one I liked for this project, so I made my own out of some gingham paper and a punch. I scrunched it up to make it vintage and then added a brad and a pearl. The brad was colored with my Copics to match exactly to my other coloring. The sentiment is also PTI. 

Here is a close up of my layers – cream + cream + cream = yummo! I like how this looks and I'll probably do this again.  

Here is my Copic palette:

Now for the snack section of our blog post today! Yay! I wanted to make my friend KS some strawberries for her birthday on Wednesday. Hadn't made them in a while and it just sounded so good. Strawberries are in season and there were some beauties at the store…Here they are all washed and ready to go.

Tip #1 – make sure the berries are 100% dry before dipping them in chocolate! If there is any moisture, the chocolate won't stick and the chocolate may seize on you.

Here they are after their first dip into some semi-sweet melted chocolate. Tip #2 – use good chocolate and add a smidge of Crisco to the melting chocolate – it makes them shiny!

And here they are after a little white chocolate drizzle… Tip #3 – let them cool in the fridge completely before adding another layer or a drizzle. Otherwise it all oozes together.

Yup, they were just as delicious as they look!!! You know I had to eat the ugly ones…. Only the best survived the process! Hee hee. (Kinda like eating the rough edges off the rice krispies treats – yeah, you know what I'm sayin')

To package them up for work, I used my trusty cupcake carrier. I put the berries into some pretty, small size cupcake liners so people could pick them up and have some way to hold them…. 

Thanks berry much for coming by today – you're berry sweet to do so! Okay, I'm done now. Have a great weekend!  

Hi everyone! How was your week? I hope it was a good one for you! My week went by in a flash, as weeks off work usually do, but it was a fun and productive week for me. I still have one more week until I start my new job so the hubs and I are going on a road trip to Palm Springs! It is about a nine hour drive from our house so we'll load up the car and head out early on Sunday morning. I can't wait to be warm and to relax and do nothing. This makes me happy…

Today's card is inspired by Palm Springs (at least in my own interpretation!) I always think Frank Sinatra, mid century vibe, lounging around the pool, cool furniture, bright colors, etc. So that's what got this card idea flowing. First I picked out a bright coral paper and then matched it with crisp white and turquoise! Lots of color coming your way right now! 🙂

That quatrefoil patter again….I love it! So graphic and crisp. The die cuts for the quatrefoil, the letters and the frame are all from Papertrey Ink (PTI) and the butterfly die is from Memory Box. The paper is from American Crafts' Tropical collection.

I added some turquoise blings to make it spark-alay!

Here are some other things that made me happy this week! On Wednesday I got to have a nice four hour lunch with my friend Jane and meet her new puppy. This picture makes me happy.

The tulips and daffodils are blooming in our front yard…this makes me happy….

A sweet orange kitty on my stamping table makes me happy….

I hope you have a marvelous weekend! Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks start on Monday next week. Lots of goodies for you, including a stamp set that I designed! (YAY!) Hopefully I will get some cool photos to share next week too, of our road trip. Thank you for stopping by my blog and take care!