Merry Solstice!

(photo from wallpaperswide.com)

Wishing Everyone a Merry Solstice 

and a Happy Holiday Season!

November Photo-A-Day Highlights

Here's a few of my favorites from November, once again playing along with the list put out by One Story Down. :) Check it out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/photoadayosd

 

 

 

 

 

Only a little over a month to finish my Sketchbook Project book! More progress photos to come, plus pix of my holiday gift projects!

[Short] Studio Sunday

It's been awhile since I had enough time for a Studio Day! I'm just trying to keep things going a little bit at a time, so I thought I'd go back to the Sketchbook Project.

Today I spent the afternoon playing with glitter and metallic crayons from Crayola. I'm using these to draw shapes, symbols and random markings on each of the pages that will act as a resist for the watercolor washes I hope to do sometime soon.

Here's a peek at the Sun & Moon pages...

Hope you are finding time for art & inspiration as the busy holiday season begins!

October Photo-A-Day Highlights

I'm still going strong on the photo-a-day, with over 100 photos now! The list I'm using comes from a digital scrapbooking company called One Story Down. Look them up on Facebook, as they also have a Facebook group for the photo-a-day challenge.

Here are a few of my favorites from October...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping to get back to my Sketchbook Project book really soon!

September Photo-A-Day Highlights

It's been so busy at work lately that I haven't been finding much time to work on my projects! But one thing I am proud of keeping up with has been my photo-a-day. Here are some of my favorites from September...

 

 

 

 

 

Next post will be photos from October!

August Highlights

I spent almost a month away from the blog, but I was keeping myself busy! I decided to participate in a Photo-A-Day challenge started by a friend of a friend on Instagram. I really enjoyed it, as it challenges you to do something everyday, something I really needed since I haven't had a Studio Day in awhile. If all goes well, that will change today, but things are kinda up in the air right now with certain remodeling projects I have going on.

Another thing I liked about the Photo-A-Day challenge was that it got me playing around with the hundreds of apps I've downloaded for my iPod/iPad and never played with before! I'm definitely developing a few favorites... almost everything I do goes through PhotoToaster at some point, and I really love the effects I can get from ScratchCam, ImageBlender, Iris, Wood Camera, Jazz and PictureShow, just to name a few.

Hopefully I will have another Studio Day to share very soon, but until then I'll keep the blog peppered with app recipes and photos. Here's a sampling from August...

Love Note - App Recipe

I'm participating in a photo-a-day project for the month of August, created by a friend of a friend. Today's assignment was "leave a love note," but I decided to use one I already had laying around: the card I gave my husband for our anniversary on July 31st.

I took a photo of the top corner of the card in Instagram using the Amaro filter. Then I took it into Photo Toaster and gave it the Old School filter and White Brush frame.

I was just going to leave it at that, but I decided to play around some more... I put it into 100 Cameras and chose the filter "The Future of Us." (Love the name!) After that I put it into Picture Show and gave it some Painting Drop noise, a Vignetting of .5 and a Vintage Dust Frame. And voila!

Studio Sunday - Binding!

Today I put the Sketchbook Project (SBP) book back together... armed with a paper piecer, some embroidery needles and some metallic thread!

This was definitely not as easy as I thought it would be! At one point I almost thought I ruined it, but then I found a work-around. I started out marking my holes on a sheet of watercolor paper cut to the same size as my pages, and pushing through them with the paper piercer.

Being that I had a cover, two watercolor inserts and all the blank pages, you'd think I'd remember to keep my punching template in the same direction for all of them. Apparently, I must have flipped it when I did the cover! Luckily, it ended up not being a big deal... I flipped it the correct way and you can't even see the extra holes.

Next, I took my needle and thread and worked it through the holes, going in and out so the spine outside and inside was fully covered by the thread.

I left a bit of fringe hanging out over the edge...

And then cut several lengths of the different colors of metallic thread to tie around the binding.

Now I have lots of metallic fringe hanging over the edge of the book. When I'm done filling all the pages, I'll add some sun, moon and stars beads to them.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do next week yet... Check back and find out!

Full Moon - App Recipe

Not really a complicated one... I basically just wanted to try out my new app, Wood Camera! For a great demo, go to: http://theappwhisperer.com/2012/07/26/wood-camera-iphone-photography-tutorial-how-to-create-a-dynamic-image/

I started with a photo of the Full Moon against my house, and put it in Wood Camera, choosing the Geneva Lens, Galaxy Texture and Frame 8.

I could've left it at that, but it was just missing something, so I gave it a Cool Filter in Photo Toaster and a Black Brush Frame.

I think it makes that Galaxy texture pop a little more. Happy Full Moon!