What are you working on (in May 2023)?

[fiona cook]

On 5/20/2023 at 6:49 PM, Mary Solaas said:

The last one which was so much fun was skipped.  Let me try again to upload it (I reduced the size to 500

Thanks Mary for the explanation to your method. 

[Michele]

I had very little time to do today's daily look pic. But I had this sweet little kitten from Creative Fabrica* that I fell in love with and never used. I added a mask from Lady22 on a background from AnnieC. The font is, coincidentally, Lazy Cuties also from CF. I added very low opacity drop shadows to everything simply to get rid of the "flat" look. 

*When we celebrated the campus's 10th anniversary, I won a one month subscription for CF. I've been hooked ever since and cannot foresee ever ending it.

 

[Michele]

At first I thought about wedding dresses, then I decided baby clothes would be the most sentimental. I downloaded a kit by Janet Kemp from PS and used Carole's Hanging Photos script. I'm so glad I bought it because it takes a long time to get this result manually. And it's great that it leaves everything on its own layer; I did some rearranging. The title font is Lovely Blooms from CF and on the baby blanket I used Mix Stitch from Dafont.

 

[Marie-Claire]

4 hours ago, Michele said:

At first I thought about wedding dresses, then I decided baby clothes would be the most sentimental. I downloaded a kit by Janet Kemp from PS and used Carole's Hanging Photos script. I'm so glad I bought it because it takes a long time to get this result manually. And it's great that it leaves everything on its own layer; I did some rearranging. The title font is Lovely Blooms from CF and on the baby blanket I used Mix Stitch from Dafont.

 

This is so beautiful ! nice idea !

[fiona cook]

I have finally completed my project 'Bee Happy' so this is what I have been working on in May. I made the hanging bees for the purpose of decorative bug hotels for my garden.

In PSP I used the Fringe Effect technique from Lab13 Module 5 for the grass layer & a reverse shadow then added a texture with the grass picture tube.

I used various papers and images from the Digital Scrapbook site and studied 6 ways to add borders from the Campus Blog.

[fiona cook]

Forgot to say that the title plaque is a photo of a wooden plaque made by a crafty friend of mine using wood burning tools. She's so clever and resourceful. Quite often she uses wood she just finds lying around.

[kasany]

18 minutes ago, fiona cook said:

I have finally completed my project 'Bee Happy' so this is what I have been working on in May. I made the hanging bees for the purpose of decorative bug hotels for my garden.

In PSP I used the Fringe Effect technique from Lab13 Module 5 for the grass layer & a reverse shadow then added a texture with the grass picture tube.

I used various papers and images from the Digital Scrapbook site and studied 6 ways to add borders from the Campus Blog.

Fine and funny post:) It would look great on FB where&when people say about bees. 

[Susan Ewart]

46 minutes ago, fiona cook said:

I have finally completed my project 'Bee Happy' so this is what I have been working on in May. I made the hanging bees for the purpose of decorative bug hotels for my garden.

In PSP I used the Fringe Effect technique from Lab13 Module 5 for the grass layer & a reverse shadow then added a texture with the grass picture tube.

I used various papers and images from the Digital Scrapbook site and studied 6 ways to add borders from the Campus Blog.

Fiona, those are so cute.  what a great idea.  I have bird baths and bird feeders and this year I thought, what about the bees and the butterflies? So I have been researching a water station for them too.  I've never heard of bug hotels and will have to look that up.  

[Michele]

1 hour ago, fiona cook said:

I made the hanging bees for the purpose of decorative bug hotels for my garden.

They are so darn cute, Fiona. I love the re-purposing of the cans. Are you converting to a sustainable garden? If so, I would love to see more pics.

[fiona cook]

Hi,  Bug hotels as they call them come in all shapes and sizes and I think started out by people leaving old bits of wood and leaves in a corner of a garden so the bugs could have shelter. I've seen huge ones made of layered pallets (not PSP palette layers!) in-between which would be all sorts of organic matter. Our councils in UK place them in parks or wild areas, some made of  decorative carved wood or use bird boxes with the fronts replaced with things like bamboo, straw etc. Kids like them and it's a way of introducing them to the importance of natural areas and gardening.

Susan, you will now need to make your own bug hotel to go with your bird baths.

Michelle, I try not to use insecticides or such like chemicals and make compost for the garden from vegetable scraps and also get a bit of exercise digging the heap over. We have a smallish lawn that this month I have let grow wild as encouraged by the environmentalists to help wild life thrive mainly for pollination purposes, so called 'No Mow May'.  It doesn't look tidy but it's not a problem. Now you've given me a couple of subjects 'vegetable garden' and 'No Mow May' for other scrapbook projects. Hopefully I won't take so much time doing those ones!

[Michele]

Fiona, if I had a garden, it would be filled with wildflowers. Can't wait to see your new projects.

[Ann Seeber]

1 hour ago, fiona cook said:

so called 'No Mow May'.  It doesn't look tidy but it's not a problem.

I fully support this effort to reclaim the wild plants for the pollinators. Tidy lawns now make me shudder.... ?

[Susan Ewart]

4 hours ago, fiona cook said:

Hi,  Bug hotels as they call them come in all shapes and sizes and I think started out by people leaving old bits of wood and leaves in a corner of a garden so the bugs could have shelter. I've seen huge ones made of layered pallets (not PSP palette layers!) in-between which would be all sorts of organic matter. Our councils in UK place them in parks or wild areas, some made of  decorative carved wood or use bird boxes with the fronts replaced with things like bamboo, straw etc. Kids like them and it's a way of introducing them to the importance of natural areas and gardening.

Susan, you will now need to make your own bug hotel to go with your bird baths.

Michelle, I try not to use insecticides or such like chemicals and make compost for the garden from vegetable scraps and also get a bit of exercise digging the heap over. We have a smallish lawn that this month I have let grow wild as encouraged by the environmentalists to help wild life thrive mainly for pollination purposes, so called 'No Mow May'.  It doesn't look tidy but it's not a problem. Now you've given me a couple of subjects 'vegetable garden' and 'No Mow May' for other scrapbook projects. Hopefully I won't take so much time doing those ones!

Thank you for the explanation on Bug Hotels , it's really quite interesting.  I inadvertently followed your no mow May objective too.  I love dandelions and lately have been photographing them.  I put a "no-mow" decree on the the backyard (to my husband) and it was gloriously yellow and the seed heads were stunning,  until the wind blew them away, and I cut some to photograph (soon to be in a layout).  I had also read that bees hibernate in the ground and they need the dandelions as the flowers aren't out early enough.  I did not know this.  My husband was saying he hasn't seen as many bees on the dandelions as there usually is.  How sad is that.  

This year my tiny garden (I am a terrible a growing things)got a soil refresh and I was lifting up some small paver stones and there was an ant colony. I felt bad so I put the stones back and covered over with the really fine soil/dirt they seem to make .  So, they still had their solid roof, then I used the cement pavers to mark the edges of the ant "garden" section and that's where the little brown birds go for their dust bath.  They dont like the garden soil but they love whatever it is the ants make.  Also the Magpies and Crows will use the ants to eat the mites off them (there's a word for it, but I forget right now).  

 

[Susan Ewart]

3 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I fully support this effort to reclaim the wild plants for the pollinators. Tidy lawns now make me shudder.... ?

I'm sure my neighbours cringe at my "lawn" it's mostly weeds.  Weeds are green, it's look the same to me as when it's mowed.  I wont allow pesticides on the lawn that animals go on, I have reluctantly allow ant extermination around the perimeter of the house as I do not like ants in my house, thankfully the "ant garden" where the mound is for the birds is out by far end of the garage in the back yard.  

[MoniqueN.]

On 5/10/2023 at 10:59 PM, Susan Ewart said:

I havent made a tag yet.  An unexpected passing away of my sister-in-law's mother on Sunday had me working on my condolence layout instead.  Whew, that goodness I was able to go back to the Build A Kit workshop to the frame section and follow the instructions again.  I used Lab 13-1 again for the shape, hearts looked weird inside hearts so i used circles.  Frame is using Add borders from the master class Framing 101.  My photo, and fonts are Romantic Serif (title), Sea Gardens (words in the template) and Audaciti (journaling).  The title does have a bevel to help it stand out a bit, also has a very small shadow.  reduced opacity on the title and journaling because black was too contrasty. I used the selection tool to fit my words in on the left side.  the right side I just used a right aligment as it looked better that way.  

Nothing bad to report with PSP 2023.  today it outshined me and any issue's I had was my dull brain at work and not paying attention.

 

Very nice lay out, the occasion isn't. Sorry for your loss.

[fiona cook]

4 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Thank you for the explanation on Bug Hotels , it's really quite interesting.  I inadvertently followed your no mow May objective too.  I love dandelions and lately have been photographing them.  I put a "no-mow" decree on the the backyard (to my husband) and it was gloriously yellow and the seed heads were stunning,  until the wind blew them away, and I cut some to photograph (soon to be in a layout).  I had also read that bees hibernate in the ground and they need the dandelions as the flowers aren't out early enough.  I did not know this.  My husband was saying he hasn't seen as many bees on the dandelions as there usually is.  How sad is that.  

This year my tiny garden (I am a terrible a growing things)got a soil refresh and I was lifting up some small paver stones and there was an ant colony. I felt bad so I put the stones back and covered over with the really fine soil/dirt they seem to make .  So, they still had their solid roof, then I used the cement pavers to mark the edges of the ant "garden" section and that's where the little brown birds go for their dust bath.  They dont like the garden soil but they love whatever it is the ants make.  Also the Magpies and Crows will use the ants to eat the mites off them (there's a word for it, but I forget right now).  

 

Susan, I was out walking today and saw a bug hotel near a farmyard so I photographed it for you.

[fiona cook]

7 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I fully support this effort to reclaim the wild plants for the pollinators. Tidy lawns now make me shudder.... ?

Oh Ann, so glad there are others who feel the same as me about lawns. Interestingly where I have been walking in the unmown grass I have created a natural path. Probably all the dandelion seeds blew to my neighbours though, which won't please them!

[Susan Ewart]

5 hours ago, fiona cook said:

Susan, I was out walking today and saw a bug hotel near a farmyard so I photographed it for you.

Wow this is awesome.  I think I know what to do.  I had a Mountain Ash that is rotting, in fact a branch just fell off and part of the truck has mushrooms think we will take off the dying bits and I'll make a little pile of them for the bugs.  The birds used to make nests in the trunk but it got too unstable for them too.  I can let it go back to nature, it's in a part of the yard that nothing grows and no lawn mowing happens there.  Thank you for taking this photo for me.  

[Mary Solaas]

S is for St. Nicholas.  Finally getting back to my alphabet challenge from 2022.  The font for St. Nicholas is Ballpark.  Santa Claus is from Creative Fabrica and his coat was colorized red because my daughter said it looked like a motorcycle jacket.  The holly leave and berries are mine from a previous lab as a paint brush (so I colored the berries separately), the poinsetta is a picture tube.  The silver glitter paper is from Donna Sills stash that she shared with us earlier this year which I colorized as silver - the red one I colorized wouldn't work here.  The font for Santa Claus is Brandish.  I think the St. Nicholas statue picture was from Wikipedia.  The frame around it I developed with selections, etc.

[Anne Lamp]

For the background I adapted "Spring landscape with flowers" from  Creative fabrica.   The Alphabet is one that is on the $1 special (at least it is still there today 5/27) The butterflies are mostly from C F also but some may be from other places.  Mostly I just wanted to use that beautiful Alpha. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by Anne Lamp
Photo did not post

[kasany]

1 hour ago, Anne Lamp said:

For the background I adapted "Spring landscape with flowers" from  Creative fabrica.   The Alphabet is one that is on the $1 special (at least it is still there today 5/27) The butterflies are mostly from C F also but some may be from other places.  Mostly I just wanted to use that beautiful Alpha. 

It seems summer here:)

[Susan Ewart]

On 5/26/2023 at 11:16 AM, fiona cook said:

Oh Ann, so glad there are others who feel the same as me about lawns. Interestingly where I have been walking in the unmown grass I have created a natural path. Probably all the dandelion seeds blew to my neighbours though, which won't please them!

so, DH Rob (darling husband Rob) and I was out in the backyard and we were looking at what part of the Mountain Ash is dead and what is still alive (that we would keep, because I love it and because it's a bird favorite and part of the squirrel highway to the next yard).  I told him about the bug hotel and he was like, no problem.  I guess after 35+ yrs together, he just goes with the flow.  Gotta love it.

[Cassel]

17 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

I told him about the bug hotel and he was like, no problem.  I guess after 35+ yrs together, he just goes with the flow.  Gotta love it.

And you can combine that with a gnome house too!

[Susan Ewart]

3 minutes ago, Cassel said:

And you can combine that with a gnome house too!

Only if I can hire you as my builder. ?

[Ann Seeber]

I had this photo from a friend and decided to display it this way. She gave it the title.