Corrie Kinkel

16 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Thank you Corrie, this is good information.  I'm looking for a bush that blooms to fill a spot in the yard.  I'll check to see if they can grow here.  I love Peony's too, and yesterday saw one in a garden so I think I could have one of those too.  The in-ground variety you speak of would also be good cover for the little brown birds I would presume.  My mom wouldn't even know me if she saw me gardening and growing flowers.  I couldnt resist when I was getting groceries today, they had a pretty potted dahlia variety so I bought it.  My flowers from seed are a ways away (at a few inches talll) from any photo opportunities so I bought some in-bloom plants for right now.  Just need to find a block of time to take some pictures.  

When you look for a hortensia you will have to take into consideration how much space you have available and check the how winterhard your choice will be because there are many varieties that can differ for the conditions they prefer. But gardencenters know all of that, if you aren't sure ask for advice.

59 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Very pretty Corrie.  Are the pink flowers hortensias too?  They look a bit different (the flower and leaves).

Thank you and yes they are both hortensias but they are a slightly different variety. There are more colors available too; white and depending on the iron in the soil they can be blue as well. Mine are relatively small and mend to put in a container, the bigger ones have to be planted in the garden. Because ours are in a container they have to be watered often when it isn't raining enough, and in the garden it depends on the soil, but they love water!  We give them a gift of fertilizer every month during the growing season. In the winter the blooms can look fantastic with frost or a dusting of snow. Normally you leave the blooms on the bare branches in the winter because they protect the new buds and cut them of in early spring. The blooms can be pretty big and you also can dry them and use in flower arrangements. 

I used a photo of my patio in this week's chitchat and it had my hortensias in it. I had made a couple of photos and for Week 24 I used one that is a more close up one in which the hortensias are better to see. Thanks to the constant rainy weather and low temperatures they are very lush this year. Oké that's the only plus 😢 of this weather ☔

U = Umeboshi  (Japanese Plum)

13 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Jessica Dunn has a challenge for June on Pixel Scrapper using one of her masks.  I am using that mask on this layout. The flower is from Rachel Martin (Pixel Scrapper); the string is a Cassel string in Picture Tubes; the leaves are mine from one of the labs; the Title font is Arshinta Kirania Script; the place name script is Arial Black.

I have used that mask as well for this week's chit chat and I often use masks made by her. Nice elegant layout!

22 minutes ago, Julie Magerka said:

Here's the fisherman.

You maybe find your cards simple but those are in your own unique and subtle style! When I see them I know immediately it is by you even before I notice it.

P = Peach

6 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

My physiotherapist is moving to the the interior of British Columbia (Kelowna, also part of the what we call the Okanagan area - home of the Ogopogo).  I have lived in that area twice in my life enjoying mountains, lakes and lots of fruit (cherries, peaches, apples, grapes) and lots of wineries...even though I don't drink wine.  This seems to be my go to e-card style of the moment.  they are quick and easy to do...well, I say "quick", deciding on the font is the hardest part and takes forever playing around with it.  You will notice the kerning on the word "Bye" is weird.  I wanted the swash of B to blend in to part of the swash on the "e".  I made masks for each, the upper and lower portions thinking I'd be using two different pictures (Lake shown is Lake Okanagan).  I like the original photo, that I found on the internet so I put a copy into each mask but I wanted it to seem like it was two different elements.  For the top portion I added two textures and some noise and used brightness/contrast to darken it a bit.  That is also the area I added my sentiment on the copy I sent to her.  

You outdid yourself with this card! I like how the words connect with the swashes and I agree finding the right font for a project can take a lot of time and experimenting.

9 hours ago, Michele said:

This is such a beautiful layout that I had to download all the kits in the bundle! I would enjoy my morning coffee on your lovely patio.

We do too, weather permitting because we still doesn't get much sun and the temperatures are low. Last year we already had a heatwave in this periode of June. The kit is lovely and has many options for use in totally different lay outs.

11 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

Corrie: that looks so nice and relaxing to contemplate. I do like plants in containers. A question: I see the upper left NOTE says Wednesday May 12. This week is Wednesday June 12. Did that come with the kit? I do love that background paper...

Ann good catch! I should have written June! I took the photo indeed yesterday. However the word NOTE was on that paper and came with the kit. Time flies....... Underneath the background paper is a soft green paper so I could play a bit with the blend mode, in this case luminous and an opacity of 90%. Of course I also needed it for the punches.

I had some time left over today and instead of just posting a photo with plants in containers on my small patio I made this layout. Not so long ago I had a bit of leftover money from a birthday gift and spend that on a kit by Jessica Dunn called Vintage flowers. Everything on this page comes from that kit, including the mask. The weather over here is still way to cold for the time of the year and way to wet as well, but today we had some sunny spells that allowed me to quickly take some photos. The corner in the photo has the most of the sun and is doing well despite all the bad weather, of course Hortensia's like water and they are getting plenty of it. Because everything is in containers/pots we normally have to water very regularly, but this year we didn't have to, at least until now. To the left in the photo is the spot were we have 3 garbage bins and those take a lot of our small space but we have fenced it of. There is a schedule when to put them outside along the kerb for emptying. To the right is the door to the parking spot and behind where I was standing for the photo is the wall of our shed with a door in the middle. The last side of the rectangle has the door to go inside and 2 large windows from the living that look out on the patio. It is nice to be able to sit outside, but after 7 years of living here I still sometimes miss the garden of our former house where we lived 43 years. We have a table and a couple of garden chairs and it nice to have an outdoor space where we can enjoy our morning coffee and if the sun is to hot we lower the sunscreen and have shade. 

M = Mango

2 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

It was  my pleasure to share with you all, once I  had played  with it. You did an awesome job!  I love it.

Sue thank you and I'm going to play a bit more with the candle, I need a couple of cards for family and friends who have a special birthday coming up in the next months. I'm not 100% happy with my first attempt but I know now which adjustments I have to make and I have to think of appropriate Dutch words because we tend to have longer words, so the fonts and their spacing will be important too. Luckily I have been using the meshwarp before that makes it way easier. Thanks again to you for the initial idea and thanks to Michele for her suggestion. I wish I had thought of using wordart for a candle. I think many of my X-mas cards for this year are going to have a candle!

2 minutes ago, Julie Magerka said:

Those thumbnails in the Layers Palette are pretty small so I still like to type in a quick name for some elements that are hard to see. When I use a lot of elements, it can get very difficult to figure which is which. I use abbreviations whenever I can to save time. e.g Flr 1, flr 2, etc.

Julie I think we all have our own "system" for renaming the thumbnails and like you I most of the time rename the ones that are very hard to see. Alas over time I have to rename more and more because I find them harder to see. But to me that's a small price to pay for better and quicker reference; it offers an easier workflow in the end.

5 hours ago, AprilDawn said:

hello everyone, this is a friendship card i have made. the floral paper and leaves are from a purchased kit  a few years ago. the flower is free from chantalia design and the sentiment is a digi stamp from Power poppy....... best wishes...Dawn.

Dawn a lovely card, if I would get such a card from a friend I would be over the moon!

 Two days ago when the Campus was up after that terrible gremlin attack, Sue very kindly gave instructions how to make a candle out of wordart! She has been perfecting her initial idea on this. Here is my try to make something too. To me it was clear it must be done with the warpmesh tool to get the rounding, but that you could use wordart to do so is a genius idea. I didn't want to copy her "card", so I tried a birthday card. I'm not totally happy with the colors I used and I have to try to make a better ellips on the bottom. I didn't have a realistic flame and I haven't a subsciption by CF. When I tried to just buy a flame they want me to take that really nice subscription for a year, which I at this point won't do. I just updated my filter forge and that was my budget for now. I'll see if I can find some flames there, but in the mean time I wanted to post this 1st try. I can see nice, unique cards made this way, Sue thank you so much for sharing this with us.

K = Kiwi 

18 hours ago, Julie Magerka said:

I thought about a layout and finally decided to try black & white (like text on a page, or like life without small joys). To me, books are my gateway - to learning, to pleasure, to emotions, to so many things. They have been a very large part of my life since childhood. I can't even fall asleep without reading at least a few pages.

The background stamp is from Katie Pertiet, and the flower stamp is from ET Designs. The cluster frame is Jessica Dunn.

Lovely and true as well, at least for me too!

G = Grapes

12 minutes ago, Mary Solaas said:

Actually I like the muted stripe effect

Me too, it somehow gives the impression of movement.

14 hours ago, AprilDawn said:

had trouble uploading images... trying again

 

Dawn it so good to see you back here again.🥰 I have missed your cards and I hope your health problems will allow you to do some creating, or at least come and comment on what we are up to.

You have lovely tall alliums and I always like that purple color. We had those in our old house as well and white ones too, but I like the purple better. Do you keep the dried seedheads for decoration? 

45 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

Week 23

Are we already this far into the new year.  Where did the time go?  

I used lots of techniques that I now forget, on the background.  There was a number of Effects piled on top of one another and noise was added.  In the end the background looks a bit like fabric.  The font and outline were treated to Effects or a blend mode (I'm sorry, I cant find my notes, I think I recycled them) so it looks somewhat painted on, although might not show up with this resolution.  

Yup, it's pretty blurry looking.  If I get my act together I'll start posting on FB starting from the January classes.  Time seems to be slipping through my hands these days.

Another nice teacup! Time is a thing I once thought I had in abundance! But it is true: the older I get the lesser I have. 🫠

I didn't have layouts of this topic, so I made one and used a photo of a library and one of a bookshop, which I both found on the internet. I used cass-letterpress freebie for the title and the rest of the text is Arial rounded. The books are from antiques library clipart and the open book is by Sheila Reed and the bookbanner is from Marissa Lerin. I have been reading from the moment I could read and I put that all in the text.

3 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I just found an alphabet series that I started using book covers back in February of 2022. I only did A, B & C, by the looks of it as the rest of the series isn't books. These are all books I owned at the time.

Nice layouts and I see quite a lot books that I have read as well!