The Magnolia Patch

Designing Again - Freebie

2012-01-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

We have had an interesting winter so far, sort of a roller coaster - freezing one day and mild the next. Snow has fallen several times but it doesn't stick around very long. I'm not complaining though because I'm always ready for spring after the first snowfall. It is just that it is so unusual because once it starts snowing, the ground stays white until spring.

I was playing in PSE 10 again and came up with a new kit called Winter. I'm probably behind the times as there are a lot of Valentine kits coming out and spring catalogs arriving in the mail. So hope it's not too late for Winter and hope you all like it.

If you download, please leave a comment. They are so appreciated. There are two files.
Papers
Elements

Shabby November

2011-11-27T16:13:00.001-05:00

Well, I got sidetracked while working on my photos and created another little mini-kit. This one was inspired by one of the photos that I processed. This is the kit:

And this is the photo that inspired it:

Ok, now I've had my fun and it is back to work.
Download kit at MediaFire.

November-Part 4 Freebie

2011-11-15T21:09:00.000-05:00

And finally, here is the last part of November. I had a lot of fun making it but now it's time for me to work on some of my photographs and get my album up to date.

Download here
.

My Apologies

2011-11-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

I'm so sorry about the mix-up with the links for Part 2. Thank you all for letting me know. I just corrected the link and it should work now. If there are any more problems, please let me know.

November Freebie - Part 3

2011-11-14T19:45:00.001-05:00

What a night - wind, rain, hail, and a tornado warning! One storm moved through as we were eating our dinner. The wind was so strong it took the cover off our outdoor grill! I don't mind thunder storms, but I do wish this one wasn't quite so intense.

Well, down to business, here is part 3 of the November kit. Hope you like it.

Download here.

November Part 2 Freebie

2011-11-13T18:49:00.002-05:00

This is part 2 of my November kit. There will be two more parts after this.
Download here . (link corrected)

Another Color Challenge and Another Freebie

2011-11-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

The color pallet at BunnyCates.com caught my attention this month, and I decided to have a go with it. The results are posted here as a freebie, but I didn't have the nerve to post it in the challenge. Hope you like it.

This is only part 1. I got a bit carried away, as usual, so there are three more parts which I'll be posting over the next several days as I get the time.
Download here.

A Fall Cluster Freebie

2011-11-02T12:50:00.000-04:00

Norma, of Swheat Creations made a gorgeous cluster using my fall kit. It always amazes me how creative people are - my attempts at doing clusters have been very feeble. Anyway, if you love this cluster as much as I do, you can download it at Swheat Creations. And while you are there, look around, she has a lot of goodies. Thank you, Norma!

I'm on a Roll - Another Freebie

2011-10-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

The Studio has a color challenge most every month, and I loved the colors this month, so I got brave and did a small kit. The two patterned papers were done at Colour Lovers, a great site to create patterns and color them. The other papers were done with my own texture creations. I hope you like this kit. As always, if you download, please leave a comment. They are much appreciated. Thank you!

Download here.

Halloween Mini Freebie

2011-10-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun working on the Halloween kit, that I made a few more pieces to go with it. I uploaded the file to Meadiafire, so there should be no problem with downloading. If you download please leave a comment - they mean so much. Thank you.

Download here.

New Freebie from Me - Halloween

2011-10-19T20:03:00.005-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted any freebies so I got to work and created one for Halloween. It only took me 2 months to get done, but it was a good learning experience and I had fun doing it. Turns out there are quite a lot of Halloween freebies out there, so I hope you like mine. It was originally only going to be about 3 or 4 papers and maybe 5 or 6 elements, but I got a bit carried away. There are 8 papers and 20 elements so I had to divide the downloads into three parts. Please, if you download, leave me a comment. They are much appreciated. Thank you.

Wow! My Box.net account is out of bandwidth. Thank you for letting me know, Ladies. I just uploaded the files to Mediafire. You can download the files from there. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Papers
Elements 1
Elements 2

Happy Trails - New Kit from Lady Bug Designs

2011-09-13T19:46:00.001-04:00

Lady Bug Designs has just put a new kit in the store at Digital Design Den. It is called Happy Trails and is just perfect for all your little cowboys and cowgirls. These are all the elements.

And these are the papers.

There are also two great alphabets, one in denim and one with bullet holes.

I've done two layouts so far with this kit. The first one has photos of a visit to Tombstone, Arizona in 1999. We went to see the gunfight at the OK Corral. This gunfight was nothing like the movie versions, in real life it only lasted about 30 seconds.

This second layout features two photos of my brother taken many, many years ago. When we were quite young we both asked for cowboy outfits for Christmas. My brother got his, but I got dolls.

The kit is called Happy Trails by Lady Bug Designs and you can get it at the Digital Design Den store here.

Simply Gray by Lady Bug Designs

2011-08-01T14:12:00.000-04:00

Another great new kit by Lady Bug Designs, this one in soft shades of gray with a touch of peach. It is loaded with gorgeous papers, elements, 2 photo masks and several cluster frames. You can find it at the Digital Design Den store here.

I had fun playing with this one - two layouts so far. The first is a tribute to my sweet Tessa. She's been gone almost two years and I still miss her so very much. She was the sweetest little kitty.

And the second one is my great, great grandfather. The photo is in pretty poor condition so I blended it into one of the papers in the kit.

Let Freedom Ring - A New Kit by Me!

2011-06-27T22:54:00.001-04:00

It has been ages and ages since I designed anything and I felt creative. The July 4th holiday is just about here and I wanted something patriotic, so this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. If you download, please leave a comment. I really would like to know if anyone likes it. Thank you!
Download 1
Download 2

A special thanks to Snappy Scrappy for the flag that I used for the clusters.

Abbey Rose - Latest Kit from Lady Bug Designs

2011-06-20T13:37:00.001-04:00

The latest kit from Lady Bug Designs, Abbey Rose, is now available in the Digital Design Den store. It is a lovely soft kit with beautifully textured and patterned papers with 46 elements. Right now it is 25% off and you can find it here.

Here are two layouts I've done so far. The first one is an old photo that was found in my father-in-law's collection after he died. There was nothing written on the back, so we don't know who these ladies are. I just love their clothes, especially the hats. And the fur muffs for their hands - I had a child-size one when I was a kid!

The second one is a photo of my mother and father on their wedding day in 1938.

New Kit From Ladybug Designs

2011-05-11T21:45:00.000-04:00

Home and Family is the sweet new kit from Ladybug Designs and is available here at the Digital Design Den. Right now it is on sale for 20% off. It is perfect for scrapping family times and vintage photos. I just did two layouts with it - the first of my stepson and his girls, the second of their cat, Fred.

More on Star Kissed

2011-03-24T20:46:00.001-04:00

Just got two more layouts done using Star Kissed, the wonderful new kit by Lady Bug Designs, available at the Digital Design Den. You can get it here. And right now it is on sale - 25% off.

And here are two more layouts using Star Kissed. This first one showcases David Whitfield, a wonderful English tenor who left us way too soon. Anyone remember his hit song, Cara Mia? Back when I was a teenager (many long years ago) I had the pleasure of meeting him in person and actually getting a photo taken with him. It was one of the highlights of my life.

The photo below was taken just last year when we were hiking on the Overlook Trail in our Metropark system. We had a chance meeting with this deer and fortunately, I had the camera with me.

Star Kissed-New From Lady Bug Designs

2011-03-20T14:28:00.000-04:00

Lady Bug Designs has just released a sweet new kit called Star Kissed. Lots of lovely soft colors here, just perfect for spring and on into summer. You can get it here at the Digital Design Den store.

I've done two layouts with this kit so far - two more are in the works. The first one is our grandson who is currently in China as an exchange student. I downloaded the photo of him from Facebook. He was just getting ready to go on a boat trip somewhere in China.

The photo of orchids is from our trip to Longwood Gardens several years ago.

Still Life

2011-03-07T16:27:00.002-05:00

The March Focus on Photography challenge at the Digital Design Den is to create and photograph a still life. My flower arranging skills are sadly lacking and the lighting in our house is not really good for doing still life photography. Since nothing is blooming in our part of the world yet - way too cold - I used a silk flower. My SOOC image needed help, so I went to work with textures, gradients and adjustment layers.

This is the image straight out of the camera. It was way too dark for me and I really didn't like the background.

And this is the image after I worked on it. The first thing I did was crop it. Then I added a layer mask and did away with the background. Next I added the Sweettart texture by Kim Klassen - she has lovely textures on her blog, pay her a visit and see for yourself. I did erase most of the texture from the flower and vase using a layer mask. After that, I added a pale white to pink gradient, then did a levels adjustment. And I think the finished product looks much better.

Snow and Ice

2011-02-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

For a little over a week we had some lovely weather - warm, in the 40's - and we actually saw the grass in our yard! But, sad to say we are back to cold, snow and ice. We have had a series of weather fronts go through dropping the temperatures, changing the rain to ice (that was fun - NOT!), and just over the weekend we had another 8 inches of snow. And there are two more fronts on the way with snow, sleet and freezing rain. Enough already!!! With the weather being what it was, I've been spending a lot of time on the computer playing with patterns and textures and I designed a small mini kit which I hope you will like. I called it, what else, Snow and Ice.

You can download it from Box.net here.

Precious One

2011-02-06T13:53:00.004-05:00

Precious One, a sweet new kit by Lady Bug Designs, just arrived at the Digital Design Den store and you can find it here. It is just perfect for little boys or little girls. Here are some layouts I made with it.

Found this 15 year old photo in our albums.

Another photo from our albums, this one is over 40 years old!

And as you can see, the kit is not limited to babies!

Photography Challenge

2011-01-20T17:10:00.000-05:00

The Digital Design Den has black and white photography as the technique for the month in their Focus on Photography challenge. I had to try this so I took some photos of sea shells and combined one of them with an older photo we took of the ocean. I wasn't sure what to expect as I really like color, but it turned out better than I expected. And in the process, I figured out how to use and process camera RAW files.

The black and white version:

And the color version:

I can't make up my mind which I like the best, so I'm going to print them both. LOL

Heart of my Heart - new kit from Lady Bug Designs

2011-01-11T21:52:00.001-05:00

Becky of Lady Bug Designs just put a new kit in her store - just perfect for Valentine's Day - lots of lovely pinks and hearts. You can find it at the Digital Design Den.

Since I'm on her creative team, I was able to play with it and came up with three layouts in a short period of time.

This is my little grandniece when she was only a couple of months old.

This is my son when he was only a couple of months old. I scanned the photo from an old slide.

And this is DH about 16 years ago.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

Clipping Masks

2010-12-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

Becky, from Lady Bug Designs has been busy. She just put a new set of clipping masks into the store at the Digital Design Den. They are called Over the Edge Clipping Masks and I love them. I did a bit of work with them tonight. First the preview, then my two pages.

This was done for a challenge at the Den. It's a photo of one of my favorite Christmas ornaments. I got this little angel for my first Christmas in my apartment 18 years ago. I bring her out every year. In addition to the clipping masks, I used the Christmas Memories kit also by Lady Bug Designs.

This page was done strictly for fun. One of our neighbors left his flamingos out in the snow and I had to laugh, they looked so lost. My photo was unremarkable, but I was able to extract the flamingos and add them to this photo from Flickr. I used several of the clipping masks, and the kit, Frosty Flakes, also by Lady Bug Designs.

Frosty Flakes - New Kit from Lady Bug Designs

2010-12-06T23:51:00.000-05:00

Becky, of Lady Bug Designs, has a new kit called Frosty Flakes. It is a super kit, just perfect for all your snowy photos. I had lots of fun with this one today. You can get it at the Digital Design Den.

Here is the preview:

And now for my pages: The first one is of the bridge in Croghan Park. It was taken last April during a snow storm that dropped five inches of the fluffy white stuff!

This one was taken after an ice storm passed through. The sun came out and everything sparkled. Fortunately, the ice wasn't too thick and there was not much damage.

This one was taken on the Fernwood Trail in the Nature Realm. Some people who had gone before had made a snow man. The poor dear had seen better days.

Next one is a black swan that we saw on the Tow Path earlier this year. He was a real beauty. I've never seen one around here before.

And finally, a photo of me on the Tow Path along the Cuyahoga River last year.

Freebie Kit

2010-10-31T13:21:00.001-04:00

I recently did a kit for a color challenge at Hummies World and thought I would post it here as well. Hope you like it. If you download, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Download 1
Download 2

Christmas Memories

2010-10-29T16:16:00.001-04:00

Becky, of Lady Bug Designs, has a new kit out called Christmas Memories. I'm not a fast scrapper, but I got four pages done last night. I just couldn't stop! It's a fantastic kit as you can see!

My first page - Getting the Christmas Tree:

template by Simply Yin

My second page - Merry Christmas

My third page - Chriskindl Market

template by Simply Yin

And my fourth page - Christmas Morning, circa 1969

Halloween Freebie

2010-10-27T00:16:00.000-04:00

I recently did some challenges at the Digital Design Den and created some papers and elements for them. They are just sitting on my hard drive gathering dust, so I thought I would share them with you. If you like them and download them, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Download here.

Feeding the Chickadees

2010-10-16T13:34:00.000-04:00

My son was here for a visit this past weekend. One of the things we did was to visit the Nature Realm in the Metroparks to feed the chickadees and to hike. Put a little birdseed in your hand, stand like a statue, and they will come. They don't stay on your hand long either! I must have take 20 - 30 shots and got a couple that are decent. In the layout below I took the photo of the chickadee on my son's hand and DH took a photo of the gorgeous autumn colors reflected on the lake. I used Lady Bug Designs kit, Family Matters to do the page.

New Kit from Lady Bug Designs

2010-10-11T12:36:00.000-04:00

Becky has a new kit in the Digital Design Den store called Family Matters. It's just perfect for vintage layouts and those old heritage type photos.

I've done two layouts so far and hope to get more done soon. This one is my father's grandmother as a young girl. It's the only photo I have of her.

And this one is my father's parents on their wedding day. They both died when my Dad was a boy, so I never knew them. The wedding license under the photo is their actual license.

Sunset

2010-09-29T23:16:00.000-04:00

The sky was so pretty tonight - I grabbed my camera and took several shots.

Trains, Trains, Trains

2010-09-28T20:57:00.000-04:00

I'm in the running to be on the CT team for Butterflies and Bluebells. There's some stiff competition and I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Her latest kit is Autumn Song available at the Digital Design Den. It has lovely fall colors and elements. I did these two pages with it.

There was only one chance to get photos of this engine and we were lucky to find a good spot. Photo by DH - my camera was accidentally left behind so I just got to enjoy the sounds and sight of steam.

There were actually two steam engines running on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RR this year - for several excursions over a two-week period. This is just one of the engines and we had a blast chasing them both up and down the valley for photos.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Another Champagne and Chocolate Page

2010-09-19T13:40:00.001-04:00

Just finished another heritage page using the gorgeous Champagne and Chocolate kit by Lady Bug Designs. I'm finding this kit to work extremely well with these heritage photos. The layout here features a photo of my DH's grandmother and friends taken way back in the early 1900's.

News!

2010-09-16T12:34:00.001-04:00

I've just become a CT member for Lady Bug Designs. WOW! Exciting times for me. Her first kit, Champagn and Chocolate will hit her store within in the next couple of days. It is a lovely blend of creams, pinks, and browns - just perfect for vintage layouts, or anything else!

Here is the preview:

And here is my first layout:

This is a photo of my mother probably taken sometime between 1935 and 1940. People always say that I am her "spitting image" but I don't really see that much resemblance! LOL

And this is the second one - one of the many picturesque trees at the Grand Canyon:

R is for Rain

2010-09-09T20:30:00.000-04:00

I did this photo for a Flickr challenge. There are two textures by Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations and I used a clipping mask by Rita of Coffee Tea Photography. It was actually raining at the time the photo was taken but it didn't show up very well so I found a tutorial on the web and and made a rainy overlay. Isn't technology wonderful!!!

DDD Color Challenge

2010-08-07T17:01:00.000-04:00

The Digital Design Den has a color challenge going for the month of August and I decided to give it a try. Thank goodness for folks who are willing to share their talents - textures, patterns, styles, brushes. I don't know what I would do without them.

This is the kit. There are two files because I only have a free account at MediaFire and this way it doesn't take so long to download. Hope you like it, and if you do download, a comment is much appreciated.
Download 1
Download 2

The Beach

2010-07-03T17:57:00.001-04:00

Way back in May DH and I went to the Headlands east of Cleveland. I just finished a layout for the Digital Design Den with some photos from our trip there. Yes, the Den is back and there are many happy people. It is a great scrapbooking community and new members are welcome.

This is the layout using a template by Maggie May Designs. I made all my backgrounds and elements and thought I would share them with you.

And here is the kit I made for my layout:

If you like it you can download it here. If you do download, please leave a comment.

Smile - Today's Word

2010-06-18T23:37:00.000-04:00

The word for today is smile. This is the last post as the Creativity BootCamp is finished. I've really enjoyed working with old photos and hopefully making them better. I also did a couple of still life photos which I have never done before. My "thing" now is using textures. I love them.

For this last assignment I picked a photo of my son from years ago. It was Christmas morning and he was opening his gifts. I scanned it from a slide, put a hue/saturation adjustment layer to correct skin tones, a levels adjustment layer, and used two textures by Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations. The first one is translucent tone 9 at 100% and the second one is elemental grunge 5 at about 75% opacity.

Smooth Sailing

2010-06-17T17:06:00.001-04:00

Today's word is smooth. I took this photo of a sailing ship in Cleveland when the tall ships visited several years ago.

I did some cropping, adjusted levels, and added a texture by Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations. Actually, I added the texture twice - the first time multiply at 60% and the second time soft light at 50%.

Since yesterday's photo for the word hush was not taken by me, only processed by me, I decided to add another photo, this one taken by me.

I used a texture by PareeErica.

Word for Today - Hush

2010-06-16T20:51:00.001-04:00

The word for today is hush. I thought of this photo taken when our grandson was only a year old. Grandpa was reading to him when he fell asleep. Then grandpa had to "rest his eyes" too!

The original photo was taken with a film camera by either my stepson or his wife - I scanned it into PSE, cropped it, did some dodging and burning, then added a texture by PareeErica.

Full Bodied - Today's word

2010-06-15T22:55:00.000-04:00

My first thought was - wine! It's always being described as full-bodied. And what better wine than a good Cabernet paired with some fruit, cheese and pretzels.

I'm not totally happy with this photo, but it's too late to change it. The subject matter has been devoured!

Drizzle

2010-06-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

It was a very damp day with mist and drizzle when we visited Childs Park in the Poconos. This is a photo of Fulmer Falls. I did some burning and used a texture by PareeErica.

Today's word - Ornament

2010-06-13T16:58:00.002-04:00

And I give you ornaments for the ears!

Fly - Great Blue Heron

2010-06-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

Today's word is fly and this is my photo.

Coffee - Break Fluid

2010-06-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

The word for today is fluid and here is my interpretation.

Today's Word - Grow

2010-06-10T20:26:00.000-04:00

The prompt for today is grow. Couldn't resist the paraphase - all you Star Trek fans will understand. This tulip has grown for three years. It started as one bloom two years ago, and this year there were three. And of course it was not in the flower bed, but in a pile of dirt that DH uses for fill when needed. We never did figure out where the bulb came from. Note to self: dig those bulbs up and replant them in the flower bed!

Heavy Metal - The Portage Path

2010-06-09T23:43:00.000-04:00

I've been going through old photos for these assignments. Now that I have more experience with PSE, hopefully I can make them better. Today's words were Heavy Metal and I did a scrapbook page.

Multilayered - The Grand Canyon

2010-06-08T22:16:00.000-04:00

The word for today is multilayered. The Grand Canyon has many layers plus I added three texture layers. The photo was taken last December just before sunset. The colors were gorgeous as the sun went down.

Texture 1 by Skeletal Mess
Texture 2 by Skeletal Mess
Texture 3 by Pareeerica

Today's word is Picnic

2010-06-07T22:28:00.000-04:00

The Teddy Bear Picnic

If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day
The teddy bears have their picnic.

Background by rubyblossom
Texture by Pareeerica
Large teddy bear extracted from my photo.
Picnic teddy bears scanned from a book.
Remaining teddy bears by My Digital Things.

New computer!

2010-06-06T22:24:00.000-04:00

After a frustrating couple of months, I've got a new computer. I had problems starting in March and didn't have much use of it for three weeks. After getting a new motherboard, power supply and hard drive, it worked - for about two weeks. Then it died completely. Fortunately it was still under warranty, so the company did a complete replacement. Only problem - I had Windows XP on the old one, and now I have Windows 7 and PSE7 is not compatible. Windows 7 does have a compatibility mode, but PSE 7 is still not functioning totally the way it should. I'm holding out for the next version of PSE though, so I'll just grin and bear it until then!

Kimi's Creations pointed me to a new program called Creativity Boot Camp to help improve creativity. I'm going to try it and see how it goes. The prompt today was "ivory" and this is my interpretation.

New Kit

2010-04-16T16:38:00.000-04:00

I just finished a small kit for Hummies April Design Challenge. This was a bit of a challenge because the colors were a bit brighter than I usually use. Hope you like it. If you download, please leave a small thank you. Your comments are very much appreciated.
Download Backgrounds
Download Elements

2010-04-09T16:40:00.003-04:00

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted anything. I've been busy working on photos from our December trip (still not done), then my computer crashed and one of the items replaced was my hard drive. It's been fun restoring everything. Thank goodness most of my files were backed up on Max, our external hard drive.

I took a break from the photos and did some playing and came up with two textures/overlays. Hope you like them. If you download, please leave a small thank you or a little smiley face. It means so much.

Download the textures here.

Black Swan

2010-03-02T23:32:00.004-05:00

We took a walk along the Towpath Trail last week and came across this fella feeding in a small creek leading into the Cuyahoga River. He wasn't too cooperative about having his picture taken and with all the ice and snow, I couldn't get as close as I wanted.

This is the first photo I've ever edited using RAW in Photoshop Elements and I really like it. I never knew you could open a jpeg image as a RAW image. The things you learn when you browse through photo books at the local bookstore! When I was all finished editing, I used a texture by Pareeerica and posted it in my Flickr photostream. The link to the texture is there.

More Backgrounds

2010-02-15T23:11:00.006-05:00

Still playing with patterns and blending modes and came up with these backgrounds. They are letter sized rather than 12 x 12. Hope you find them useful.
Download

Playing with PSE again

2010-02-14T23:52:00.004-05:00

Tonight I was playing with patterns and blend modes and I came up with these papers. Hope you like them. I'm not sure anyone likes my stuff because there are so few comments. If you download them, please leave a comment. Thank you.
Download

Love Birds

2010-02-13T14:40:00.005-05:00

Still playing with dingbats and styles and I came up with these little cuties. There are two separate png files, one outlined and one filled with color. You can download them here.

Heart Cluster

2010-02-12T13:08:00.004-05:00

I was playing with dingbats and styles and came up with this little cluster for Valentine's Day. If you like it - please, please leave a comment if you download. You can get it here.

Cardinal

2010-02-08T12:43:00.005-05:00

My son took this photo at his backyard bird feeder just after the BIG snow. He lives just north of DC and had twice as much snow as we did here in NEO. I used three textures by Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations - Storm Clouds, Ghost Matter, and Painterly Effect2.

This is how it looked before I added the Painterly Effect2 and I can't decide which one I like the best. Decisions, decisions!

New Designs

2010-01-31T23:33:00.004-05:00

I was playing with PSE 7 this evening and came up with 2 backgrounds and 2 frames. Hope you like them. Please leave a comment if you download. They are so appreciated. Thank you!
Download

Cougar

2010-01-15T14:10:00.002-05:00

This is one of the photos from our recent trip to Arizona. I took it through a window at the Desert Museum in Tucson. After "cleaning" and cropping, I added a texture by Jerry Jones of Shadowhouse Creations. Actually, I added it twice - the first time at soft light, the second time at multiply with reduced opacity. Then I did some dodging and burning to get his/her face to stand out. Cougars are beautiful animals, but I wouldn't want to meet up with one when there was no glass between us!

Cathedral Rock - Sedona, AZ

2010-01-09T21:36:00.004-05:00

When we visited Sedona, Arizona, last month, one of the things on our "to do" list was to get a photo of Cathedral Rock with Oak Creek in the foreground. We stopped at a visitor center on the way into Sedona and asked for directions and got a map. Our first day there was sunny with lovely blue skies, so we followed the directions, but found ourselves on the wrong side of the creek. All was not lost though, we hiked on the Baldwin Trail and got lots of photos, although not the one we wanted. The following day we found the correct spot, but unfortunately it was one of the few days in Arizona that was overcast. We got our photo, and I went to work on it with Photoshop Elements. Isn't it amazing what computers can do!!!!

Before
After

New Kit - Winter

2010-01-06T16:28:00.005-05:00

This was done for the January design challenge at Hummie's World. Please, please - leave a comment if you download. They are much appreciated.
Download 1
Download 2

Arizona - Title page

2010-01-05T16:45:00.002-05:00

This is the cover page for our Arizona trip album. It's going to take a while to get the pages done. We have about 700 digital photos and I'm waiting for 12 rolls of FILM to be developed. The hard part is going to be deciding which photos to print.

Snowflake Freebie

2009-12-11T20:49:00.004-05:00

Here is another snowflake freebie - the same snowflake in five different styles and a grey scale one to use as a clipping mask or template. Hope you like it. If you download, please leave a comment. You can download it here.

Textures

2009-11-25T17:30:00.010-05:00

A few months ago I took a free course in framing and special effects from Jessica Sprague. One of the best things I learned was about the use of textures. Jessica shared some links for freebie textures on Flickr, but I have since found out about a wonderful blog from Rita at Coffeeshop. It is called Shadowhouse Creations and features his wonderful artwork, plus some free textures and brushes. It is well worth a visit. I downloaded some of the textures and started playing.

This is the photo I used - straight out of the camera, no adjustments.

This was with tone textures from Shadowhouse Creations - #3, soft light, opacity 50%

Then I added tone texture #4, soft light, opacity 100%

On this one I used the soft translucent tone #9, Shadowhouse Creations, color burn, opacity 75%

On this one, I used tone texture #10, again from Shadowhouse Creations, overlay, 100% then added his painterly effect texture, soft light, 75% opacity.

I love what these textures can do and how they enhance photos.

Freebie Mini Kit

2009-11-23T21:44:00.003-05:00

I did these papers back in May for a photo of orchids taken at Longwood Gardens. They were just sitting on my hard drive, so I thought I'd share them. Hope you like them. If you do download, please leave a comment. They are much appreciated. You can get the mini-kit here.

New Template Freebie

2009-11-20T22:39:00.003-05:00

I just did another template. My templates and layouts tend to be very simple. Hope you like it. If you download, please leave a comment.
You can get the template here.

Snowflake Freebie

2009-11-18T16:43:00.007-05:00

I found a tutorial by Marge Wirth for making snowflakes and had a grand time playing. There is one snowflake with five different styles. If you like them feel free to download, but please leave a comment if you do.

You can get them here.

Red Letter Day and New Freebie

2009-11-16T16:26:00.006-05:00

This has been an exciting day for me - both DigiFree and Creative Busy Hands have several of my freebies listed. There have been over twenty downloads too, which really made me feel good. I just wish someone would have made a comment though.

Oh well, today I have a template which I made for an exchange earlier this year. It is the first, and the only, one I ever did. So if you like it, feel free to download it, but please leave me a comment if you do.

You can get the template here:
MediaFire

Add-On for Hummies Color Challenge

2009-11-13T22:57:00.008-05:00

I just did an add-on for the November color challenge at Hummie's World. You can get it here.

New Kit

2009-11-10T23:31:00.006-05:00

I just designed another small kit for a color challenge over at Hummie's World. If anyone is interested in downloading, the links are:
Papers
Elements
I just have a free account at Mediafire, so it will take a bit of time to download. If you download, please leave me a comment.

Tessa - A Tribute

2009-11-03T15:51:00.004-05:00

We lost our sweet little kitty on Saturday. She was 18 and was my companion for 17 years. I really miss her - she was the best and the prettiest little kitty in the world.

A Different Treatment

2009-10-29T00:21:00.002-04:00

I changed things around a bit and gave these photos a different treatment, but still used the nICE AGE kit by Marta Van Eck. Not sure which way I like best. Hmmmmmm.

nICE AGE

2009-10-27T15:08:00.002-04:00

Several days ago I won a kit by Marta Van Eck called nICE AGE. It's filled with lots of goodies. I was absolutely thrilled! The layout above was done with her kit. I took the photos last year on the towpath along the Cuyahoga River. Well, actually, I took the river photo and DH took the one of me that is blended. Marta sells her designs at Gotta Pixel and nICE AGE is available there.

The Falling Leaves . . . . . . . . .

2009-10-26T14:46:00.005-04:00

. . . . . drift by my window. It has begun - the leaves are starting to come down. Yesterday we got five bags full and that is only the beginning. To be honest, my DH did all the blowing and raking, I only helped with the bagging. The leaves here peaked last week and they were gorgeous - shades of gold and red and orange. We hiked three of the trails on the hiking spree last week. My favorite one was the Glens Trail in the Gorge Metropark. That trail follows the Cuyahoga River, mostly about 50 feet above it. We were there late in the day and the lighting was perfect, casting lovely reflections on the river. It would have been a wonderful Kodak moment except for one thing - my camera was at home!

The photo above was taken on the Mingo Trail two years ago. I added a texture by pareeerica called Dark Cloudy Frame which really brought out the golden glow. The photo was OK SOOTC but the texture made it better.

Portrait of Tessa

2009-10-08T20:31:00.004-04:00

This is my 18 year old kitty, Tessa. 17 years ago, a friend who knew I wanted a cat saw a notice at her vet's office and gave it to me. A young couple were looking for a home for a stray they had found. I contacted them, went to see Tessa, and the rest is history. When she was younger, she used to chase balls and bring them back to me to throw again. She doesn't do that anymore. Most of the time she can be found sleeping in her favorite spots - when she isn't yowling for food or attention - lol.

2009-09-30T16:12:00.004-04:00

This is my entry for a challenge in the Textures for Layers group at Flickr. The photograph of the house was provided and we can change it any way we like as long as we use textures provided by the group. The people participating are really creative. My picture is quite tame in comparison, but anyway, I summoned some courage and posted it in the challenge. Details of the textures I used can be found here: Houseboat

New header and background!

2009-09-21T20:49:00.001-04:00

Just gave my blog an update.

2009-07-30T12:15:00.005-04:00

Download/Mediafire

I just designed my first kit for Hummie's August color challenge. This has been a real learning experience. Wonder if anyone will download it?

Great Blue Heron

2009-05-12T15:14:00.003-04:00

We did our first hike of the spring spree on Saturday. On the way past the beaver marsh I stopped to watch this fella fishing while Bob went on back to the car. I almost missed him, but a woman who was also taking photos pointed him out. My telephoto lens would have been nice!

Dark BG by Bit O Scrap and light BG by Moune.
cat tails by GS Creations
flying heron was free clip art

2009-04-21T15:25:00.002-04:00

Two pages that I just did for our photo album. The background is by Shawn Headley Designs and the daffodil embellishment is by Hummie from her Soggy Spring kit.

2009-04-20T23:07:00.003-04:00

These are two photos of my furbaby, Tessa. She is over 17 years old and getting a bit crabby, but she is still one gorgeous kitty.

Unfortunately, I don't have the names of the designers who did the backgrounds, word arts, photo masks and embellishments. I didn't write them down. Stupid of me, I know, and it won't happen again.

2009-04-12T15:52:00.003-04:00

Happy Easter!

2009-04-07T13:32:00.001-04:00

Here is what it looks like at a nearby park. DH kindly stopped the car so I could roll down the window and take a photo.

2009-04-07T13:24:00.002-04:00

This is April - It is SPRING. The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. Why is it snowing?!! We woke up to about five inches of snow this morning and it is still snowing. This is all courtesy of the Lake Erie snow machine. The winds were supposed to shift in a more favorable direction at noon, but that time has been moved back until this evening. Meanwhile it is still snowing. The daffodils were just starting to bloom. You could see bits of yellow in the buds. Now they are flattened and probably knocked out for the season.

2009-03-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

Hip Hip Hooray! Got the background figured out!

2009-03-22T17:06:00.000-04:00

This is a work in progress.