Happy Holidays

To all my readers, wherever you may be, have a wonderful holiday!

I took this photo on the 18th. We had a beautiful day. Here are some more pictures to enjoy:

Tapestry

This card that I made yesterday for the sketch challenge reminds me of a tapestry or one of those detailed tile hot plates. I knew the medallion shapes from True Friend would work well for the central diamond part of this sketch, but I didn't really know what else to do. So I grabbed the coordinating designer paper and starting to work. I had it all set up, but it needed a little something. I dug through my stash of brads and these square rhinestones brads that I had bought in July surfaced. The green of the rhinestone was kind of a nice transition colour from the wasabi medallion to the khaki green of the river rock in the background paper. Funny thing about this card, by some miracle, the tiles all lined up. Why is this miraculous? Because I didn't cut out the rectangle that way. I cut it long, then I cut that piece into 4 smaller pieces and arranged them. Aren't flukes like that nice?

And here's another buggy photo for you. This butterfly was just chilling out in the green onions. Isn't it pretty!

Another "True" Birthday

This time the card is for my mom, so I used the flower from this set instead of the leaves. I really liked the Hugs layout earlier, so I wanted to do something similar. I started with the Apple Cider paper and wasabi ribbon. I was kind of stuck as to how to use my stamped image, since it wouldn't show up well on the rust dotty paper. So I cut it out. I popped up the petals, as well as the center. The sentiment is from Paper Trey. Since I had already adhered the flower, it was just easier to go with a clear sentiment. It can be difficult using the stampamajig if you have any dimensional layer in the way.

I was outside earlier today and happened to see a bumblebee enjoying our echinacea. I ran back inside to get my camera. Amazingly, it was still there when I came back! It was hard to get a good picture, it was a very busy bee, flying from flower to flower! And of course, the shot that turned out best was the one with the rattiest looking flower. All the other flowers are beautiful, they haven't started to wilt or been eaten. This one, was not so lucky... It's funny, I remember being so scared of bumblebees when I was little (I still am of wasps, hornets, etc), but I was just inches away from the bee. Bumblebees are pretty cute!

Tulips and a RAK

I took some photos of the tulips today. They are so pretty. I was especially excited to do this because I bought my new camera in winter. And really, as pretty as winter scenery can be, flowers are so much more fun! I was playing around with a few settings. For those others out there who have the Olympus SP-510UZ, I found I got the best shots with the "cuisine" setting in brightly lit areas. I actually use this setting for my card photographs (indoors or outdoors). I've had the most luck with what the camera decides to auto-focus on in this setting. It usually picks the right thing, and you get that cool out-of-focus background. I thought I'd just share that tip. So here's my lovely tulip photo:

In fun mail news, I received this awesome RAK from Tara. It's beautiful! Love the papers and colours she used. There's a touch of glitter on the flower, it really sparkles. Thank you!