Michele

On 9/2/2023 at 9:06 PM, Sue Thomas said:

The beauty of  observing and shooting these  entertaining creatures, is that I can create a  story behind the shots.  Umpteen times they will pack their cheeks and disappear down their holes to their burrows to fill their larders.  In the bottom photo you will see him packing a piece of carrot in to the cheek.  Stretching the skin, to reveal the pink skin, something I hadn't noticed before.  

As I said on the FB page, I really love your use of the punch in the bottom right corner. Besides being pretty, it really does balance out the composition as a whole.

T = Taster's Choice

19 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

I had to look this one up.  Did you read it?

Absolutely. It's a lovely book.

45 minutes ago, Susan Ewart said:

All I know about life in Brooklyn is from TV and movies. I wonder how "real" they were compared to your growing up.  

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? lol

I was also a "free range" child, but growing up in Brooklyn, NY was quite different than your wonderful country upbringings. 

Day 7: I don't know why, but I struggled a bit with this one. Half the time I make things hard for myself I think. 

6 minutes ago, Cassel said:

They are very thin. Also, one of them even opens. There is also the fact that the trunk is round so I didn't want to add more thickness in the middle of the doors for them to stick out even more. With pieces on the sides, it makes them a little more "flush" to the bark.

Well, then, how about adding a couple of "bushes" in front of the screws? I know whatever you come up with will be great.

I don't know how thick the doors are, but could you maybe put the screws on the tree behind the door frames? Then you can cut keyholes in the back of the door frames so you can slip them onto the screws. If they're not thick enough, you could add another layer to the back. Does any of this make sense to you? 

Here's my postcard for Day 6. I updated my Day 3 date stamp by adding some wavy lines I see in most postmarks. I drew a straight line, converted it to a raster, and used Effects: Distortion: Wave. 

3 hours ago, Suzy said:

And those stamps look ready to mail, Michele. So realistic.  I’m not sure if it’s a script on not, but the cocked stamp that Michele and a Bonnie had in their page of stamps is really nice! 

Thanks, @Suzy. If you watch the video for that day, Cassel had us select the bottom right stamp on the sheet and promote it to a layer. Before deselecting, we moved back to the original layer and deleted that space. Then we could move the promoted stamp anywhere we wanted. Of course, with my OCD I tried getting all the holes to line up on the sheet, but I think I needed a square stamp in order to do that. ?

I don't have access to the pics I took in Ireland as they were not digital and they ended up in storage. Instead, I decided to make stamps from some floral pics I had taken during a spring walk a number of years ago.

I had a lot of trouble with this tutorial. It's taken me a couple of days to get these done. In fact, I tried so many different things that I'm not sure I know what I did. By the time I got a result I liked, I had no idea how I got there. For someone who usually keeps great notes, this is very frustrating. lol

Quick question, @Cassel. When applying the fine leather texture, why use the blur at all?

15 hours ago, Ann Seeber said:

I took my first two layouts and used the open book script. I didn't have that option the last times I took this class. I think it looks good. It is posted at 1200 px wide for this forum.

Absolutely incredible!

These are my Day 3 date stamps. The first one was simply following the tutorial step by step including the "aging." In the second one, I actually used one of Cassel's preset gem shapes and kept it "new."

Love clusters!

A little late, but here's my Day 2. My trip was in February 2002 and people were still very rattled so soon after 9/11 (as you can well imagine). Some of them told me not to go, but I said, "If I don't, they win." 

54 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

I wouldn't call a preying mantis a stick insect. They walk, jump and fly short distances. The females are renowned for eating the male after copulation. A neighbor boy brought in a cocoon on a stick and ended up with hundreds on his enclosed porch. Of course, they eat each other as their first meal. I'm surprised they're not prevalent in your area as they are very common here in NY. Lately there has been an influx of an "invasive" giant version that is not as benign as our native one. They are known to "prey" on hummingbirds so I watch to keep them away from my feeders. 

Years ago when I went out to get into my car to go to work, there was a preying mantis on my side view mirror. I drove all the way to work (some of the time on a highway) and it was still there! Talk about stick-to-itiveness.

5 hours ago, Jenifer Lyn said:

 I love those textures! My Mothers family was from Ireland, that is another place I would love to go as well!

Thanks, @Jenifer Lyn. Though I don't have any Irish in my ancestry, I'm in love with the music and culture. I had an opportunity to go for only two or three days with a group, but I would have gone if it was only for one day! If you ever get a chance to go, you should. It's a gorgeous country and the people are lovely. 

9 hours ago, Gerry Landreth said:

"scrapbookers block." 

@Gerry Landreth, I'm going to be using that phrase from now on. I suffer from it quite often. ?

15 hours ago, Cassel said:

That "boring" page has a lot of character. That watercolor texture is great. Where did you get it?

Thank you, @Cassel. Any praise from you is so appreciated. I got the watercolor paper so many years ago that I don't know the source. (I was so bad at keeping identifying info back then.) The name is Green Valley 1, but that's all I can tell you; I even tried an image search and couldn't find it. I recolored it for the blue piece. 

15 hours ago, Suzy said:

Michele, that texture on your Ireland map is delicious! How did you do it?

Thanks so much, @Suzy. It's a pearl texture I got from Design Bundles. It's a sister site of Font Bundles. 

15 hours ago, Mary Solaas said:

Before I go to the Travel Challenge Workshop, I finished my work with Lab 11 Mod 6. Stitched Shape, Double Scallop Rectangle (I really wanted to make one as a circle, but wasn't able to manage it), surfboard (I did 3).  All done.  I used the title from one of the Vector Workshop layouts, the sun sticker from another lab.  The background water paper was one I made in my Chattanooga album.  The picture was taken by Laurie.

I love this entire page, @Mary Solaas. The little surfboards are a great touch! I've been going through the Creative Scrap tuts and next on my list are the labs.

I love papers as I can also use them when making ribbons, bows, etc. as well as combining them in a project. I also use them to flood-fill elements I already have or shapes I create. Blog trains are a favorite source for me so I look forward to seeing your creations. I don't know if you'll be offering layered templates, but I often use them as is or for inspiration. I wish you luck and send congratulations.

Here's my Day 1. I had absolutely no inspiration so it's pretty boring. LOL