Leaderboard

Here is the postmark I created for this page. I often create postmarks, as I find they are a wonderfully novel way to record dates, names of birds and other useful information. The background paper is from Ann Aspnes designs, mega bundle. Where I used different layered papers, blend modes, opacity. The mask is my own. The frame is Carole's freebie.

I use postmarks quite often and I use either a script from Carole or I make them myself if I want something different. I had no specific layout in mind at this moment because the Calendar Workshop is starting tomorrow and today I had guests. However I probable will need some new postmarks for my Xmas cards and that is what I made, they are a bit different and with the festivities in mind.

Maybe not so much postage, but sort of, since the finished card will look like a mailable card - they are being hand delivered. This will be the the piece that will affixed to the belly band that wraps around the wedding card (pocket fold card with envelope like flap that wraps around the card) that I'm making for my niece's besties wedding...and the reason I haven't been as active in the campus lately. I will redo the hearts since they weren't a vector and have being problematic to work with. I ended up making a vector version. I'm still in the sampling phase and finally found the cover weight paper I will use since what I really want just isn't available in Canada right now (despite Neenah having a mill in Canada). It's a bummer as I had to reduce the size from the more traditional 5x7 format. The card required 13 inches to construct so I had to get it down to 12" and use a scrapbook paper. Nothing will be as nice as Neenah's Classic Linen in 110-130 lb cover, but this other one I got will do.

This week we had very mild weather but also rather humid. One morning when I saw that the garden table was moist which provided a nice backdrop for the vibrant cyclamen on it.

Week 42 The starling and the sheep. We were visiting Corbridge Roman town and in the field alongside the site were some sheep and a few jackdaws. Then this solitary starling landed on one of the sheep and stayed for a few minutes. I love the way they both look quite regal.

Diamonds in the sky. I have been playing. I took this moon photo this morning and added a diamond circle around the moon with a cass diamond picture tube chain.

My last playing until the workshop beginning on Monday.

I love this Sharla. Are you in the UK? My friends just moved to Scotland (on the Moray coast in Nairn) and they send me photos. The birds are so cool, lucky to have jackdaws. They also sent ones of a Rook. Wow, what a prehistoric looking corvid. I love the speckled starlings and just was told that's their winter coat or something. When I lived on the Westcoast (Canada) we had starlings (invasive species there) but they were just black-ish that I noticed, I wasnt as into birds then).

Getting my pictures ready. Can't wait.

Using an available outdoor prop to highlight the subject in this shot has worked perfectly. In my view creating a 'quiet demeanor'. Taking eye catching photos involves more than just pointing and shooting.

Here's my Week Forty One for Sunday Oct 20 - My two daughters and I did a day trip to Mohonk Mountain House resort in Ulster County on Wed Oct 16. It is a huge hotel and recreation complex constructed in the early 1900s by the Smileys, a Quaker family from Maine. There were originally 2 beautiful quarries, Mohonk and Minnewaska, which they owned and they eventually added 17,000 acres to preserve the land in perpetuity. The family still operates Mohonk as a resort though the two hotels on Minnewaska burned down. This is probably one of the most famous areas to be photographed in Ulster County, NY. You can see the hotel in the distance on the left. My daughter, Debbie, took this photo when they were hiking.

Week 42 I had to check to see if I was in the right week or working ahead (hahaha, that would NEVER happen for me!). This is the red joker, same style magnet as the black and same photo since the photo I chose for it didnt work out. I started out looking at gradients for the background then used the one at the bottom, I forget the name...radial? I added many repeats and didnt like it so then I started running down the list of Distortion Effects, piling them on top of each other. Sometimes I'd duplicate if I liked something, and use the duplicate to keep going. I ended up in the Reflection Effects with Kaleidoscope and played around until I got something I liked. This reminded me of some kind of knit fabric. On the text for Week Forty-Two I had it original in the yellow color like the other two vectors which I rasterized and gave a bevel and drop shadow to. I thought it looked a bit boring and flat so I duplicated the raster layer and selected the text and used the background pattern as a pattern and filled the letters, then I used a blend mode to make it a similar color to the background yet still stand out enough to be readable. The texture doesnt show well because I had to really compress this to get it to upload here. It will eventually be on FB at the full size, soon as I get around to catching on the posts there.

Week 41 I used the pattern in PSP (purple plaid). 3 layers of it, all at different angles and sizes, then blended it and thought it looked like a faded scratched up paper. I add a small amount of noise too. I used the same color text as I did on Week Forty and this time I used a blend mode (screen) and thought it looked like it was printed on that paper and was scratched up like the rest of the paper. I had previously made the sticker which only had one layer of flood filled pattern. The color was changed in the sticker outer ring and the background to suit the image.

Week 40 I used two different green watercolor papers (CF), desaturated them, then colorized to suit the blue rim on the cup/saucer (then went and darkened them with a blend mode so maybe it's not so matchy-matchy with the rim anymore). As mentioned I used a blend mode (I think multiply) on the two papers. then added a PSP texture effect (texture) and to my surprise it looked kind of like stone. I used the cutout effect on WEEK FORTY, but it looked horrible on the smaller text and outline, so I added a small inner bevel to them and a small shadow as well. No more buttons, I'm doing stickers now. I didn't know if the Lifted Photo script would lift anything round so I tried anyway. Some orientations looked odd but most seem to look pretty cool. It's like when cheap stickers don't stick well.

Although the Nordic lights were visible in my country, we didn't see anything! Where I live there is simply too much lightpollution and there isn't an uninterrupted view of the sky. A lot of trees, streetlamps and light from the glasshouses that shine very brightly and far. One benefit of all the trees is that their leaves are starting to change color!

It's actually called Joker, I kid you not. And it's from Creative Fabrica https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/joker-8/

Wow! Stunning Corrie!

Very lovely!

I used Hortense for the Script font (Michele I.D it for me as it was the Brides pick - I paid for it from Monotype, a type foundry that's be around over 100 yrs). However it is problematic, the glyphs at smaller sizes seem to get cut off - on some letters - with the bounding box. It's not ideal, as the smaller version "r" cuts off - look at the "a" above, cuts off part of the bottom middle of the loop (I was writing "reception to follow" so the "r" is important. At size 300 or 450, it's totally fine. This font has glyphs for lower case but none for upper case letters. I think CF would have a similar font with more glyph options. The Display font is Adeston from CF I think. I'm really drawn to the Display fonts. At the same time, even with the issues with Hortense, for a bouncy script it's the nicest I have seen. And I spent hours looking for one just like it, but I liked the curve of the swashes and so I used it.

I live in the states and have always celebrated Thanksgiving the traditional way, but for the past 8 years we have had to change the way we celebrate it. We have several snowbirds in our family now that leave early December for their warmer state home and so we now celebrate ThankMas. It's a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have 7 siblings and with all their family members and a momma we have a pretty large group, so we all take a turn to be host. Yes, we do the potluck thing and play games, open gifts and laugh so hard we cry over the silliness of things. We have a blast. For my own immediate family, (husband, 3 kids and their families we total 15) we find a weekend day that everyone is free to meet and we grill chicken and steak with lots of sides. That is what works for us.

Hopefully, I can get one more afternoon on the lake.

That is the Skytop Tower [click link for more info] which is a fire tower beacon in the Mohonk Mountain Reserve, and it can be seen for miles in each direction. After climbing all 100 stone steps to the open-air platform at the top, visitors are able to see six states on a clear day: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

This week, like all the other weeks have simply flown by. Mother nature never disappoints. From one day to the next her mastery of applying her palette to the landscape and skies above, is an ever changing wonder. I was lucky enough to get another afternoon out on the lake in the kayak. A glorious 21c. Hopefully I will get at least one more afternoon on the water before the kayak goes away for the winter. An old chapel hiden away amongst the trees. Before the dam was constructed back in 1965, I believe, the chapel was over a mile away from the shallow South Saskatchewan River. Over the years, and as the lake rises, the chapel is nigh on the lake shoreline. You ahve to pay to look around the chapel, and Hitchcock's hideaway cabin. I havd found access to it via the shore.

It can be something as simple as your signature in a picture tube. I use mine when I post something on a public site (when I remember). I rarely do it here because I can't imagine any of our members would take someone else's work and pass it on as their own.

I love rainbows, unfortunately I see very few of them out on the prairies. The jackdaw was meant to complete the shot.

Week 41 A rainbow and the sun catching a little autumn colour,. The jackdaw flying by was a pleasant addition to the photo.

This shot was on the news showing the aurora over the Tappan Zee Bridge (now Mario Cuomo Bridge) over the Hudson River here in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Corrie, I hope so too, that you will get to experience the aurora at least once in your lifetime. Night before last my daughter who lives in Haverfordwest West Wales, made a trip to the top of Preseli mountain in Pembrokeshire with others, and captured some awesome shots on her phone. The very first time she had ever seen them. Being a KP7 index and higher, the viewing of them dancing can be seen much further south. They are giving another high index for tonight, providing the sky is clear, go out after 10pm to see if you can see them. Being on the same latitude you should see something. Don't only look north. Yes, Susan, although I am fortunate to see the auroras dancing on a regular basis over counless years, this weeks' displays have outranked all the others I have seen. Unreal how the skies were dancing this week, well into the early hours and longer. I have never seen anything like it. I am contantly in awe of the lady (mother nature) dancing the night away. Last night I went to bed early, getting up at 3am this morning, to watch her still dancing. I'm like Carole, I have a basic phone, so I have to resort to my camera. The slower the shutter speed the more colour I am able to capture.

We had another clear night last night. This morning it's overcast, giving possible snow showers. I'll wait to see what tonight fetches.