Meet Max the Corgi Pup!

My buddy Howard got a puppy a few weeks ago, and it might be the most photogenic little creature on Earth!

Say hello to Max, the corgi at 10 weeks of age, being cuddled by his owner Howard:

"Where did Howard go?"

Max enjoyed licking my boyfriend Grant's face:

"Wow, this Grant fellow is yummy."

Max helped me study for my quantum mechanics midterm.

"Hermitian operators are so exciting!"

"...and they're yummy, too!"

More photos of him to come as I watch this little pup grow.

Owl I Want for Christmas...

Today I made a card using the Lawn Fawn set "Winter Owl", and I'm entering it into the Lawnscaping Challenge Color Inspiration:



This is a perfect color scheme for a card I can give to my boyfriend, because kraft lends itself well to masculine cards. More importantly, my boyfriend's favorite color is red, and I love all types of blues, especially the hues leaning towards the turquoise side of the spectrum. This color combination was the perfect chance for me to break out that hearts washi tape by Freckled Fawn.

Without further ado, here is the card I made:

Here's a close-up of the cute little owls:

I used the Paper Smooches "Dude Block" to mirror the owl, and I made the little bow on the girl owl myself. (This is my first attempt at carving a stamp, so be gentle!) It was especially fun to paper piece this, because those patterns by BasicGrey were just made to become scarves. To personalize this for my boyfriend and me, I monogrammed the scarves using a mini-wooden alphabet set by Recollections.

Here, of course, is the adorable sentiment that came with the Winter Owl set. It's so darling, I wish I could use it year-round!

Here's a peek at the inside of the card, before I wrote my message:

Supplies

Kraft cardstock from Recollections
Patterned paper: BasicGrey "nordic holiday"
Stamps: "Winter Owl" by Lawn Fawn, small letters (g and j) by Recollections, mittens by Studio G, "Dude Block" by Paper Smooches
(I carved the bow stamp myself.)
Ink: Memento "Tuxedo Black" and "Rich Cocoa"
Prismacolor colored pencils
Gems by Recollections
Washi tape: music notes by Recollections, hearts by Freckled Fawn
Twine by Martha Stewart

Thanks and Congrats card

This is a simple "thank you" card I made.



I'm entering this in PDCC158:


Stamps:"Special Bouquet" by Inkadinkado, "thanks" by studioG (Hampton Arts)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Magenta from the ColorBox Paintbox "Brights" set
Distress Markers by Tim Holtz: Spun Sugar, Broken China, and Bundled Sage
Patterned paper by American Crafts


Also, I challenged myself to make a monochromatic card, so I decided to make a 3 inch by 3 inch card to make it easier. I kept it brown to keep with in line with fall colors. The only things that aren't brown or white are the owl's beak and claws.



Stamps: Claire's ABCs by Lawn Fawn, owl from Ink 'n' Stamp: Spring Messages by Hero Arts
Ink: Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Memento Rich Cocoa
Colored pencils by Prismacolor
Embossing folder by Tim Holtz
Twine from Martha Stewart

First Diana F+ photos

I bought a Diana F+ a few months ago, which is my first foray into film photography. This analog thing is new to me, so my first roll of film was completely overexposed, and I had but usable photo from my second roll (which I haven't scanned yet).

My third roll of film, however, had a few usable if blurry results. Here are the pictures I took during my friend's birthday dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Ironically enough, I have no photos of said friend, because they came out overexposed. Instead, enjoy these pictures of some of my other friends around the table:








From the same roll of film are these two photos from a lunch trip I took with some other friends:






I can't wait to see how my next roll of film turns out!

Sorry Leaves card

A good friend of mine hasn't been feeling well, so I made this card to help cheer him up:




"I'm Sorry" stamp from Hero Arts
Leaves stamps by Inkadinkado
Chevron stamp by Studio G (Hampton Arts)
Green patterned paper by Basic Grey
Twine by Martha Stewart

Halloween Cards set

One of my friends is a big fan of Halloween; she loves it more than Christmas, and it shows. Her house is decorated inside and out, she wears a different spooky shirt all month long, and her family has a big party every year for the holiday. To commemorate the occasion, I made her a set of blank Halloween cards that she could give to others. (Although, knowing her, she'll just keep them for herself, which is flattering, to say the least.)

Click on each photo to see it full-sized, along with a list of products I used:












And here is the box itself:

Happy Bird-day!

This is a general birthday card I made that could work for anyone -- young, old, male, female, family, friend, etc.







I used Tea Dye distress ink on an embossed piece of cardstock to get the woodgrain texture of the background. Then I wrapped the leaves "ribbon" around the wood panel a few times. I put washi tape on the bottom, then used foam tape to adhere a banner I hand-cut that has the sentiment handwritten on it. Finally, I stamped the birds in Ranger Archival Black ink, and I colored them using a combination of LePlume and Distress markers.

Owl stamp and leaves ribbon by Paper Source
Birds Cling stamps by Inkadinkado
Woodgrain embossing folder by Tim Holtz
Green washi tape by Recollections

To Infinity...and Beyond!

This is a birthday card for a physics/astronomy friend of mine. I wanted to use this quote, without being too overt with the Toy Story theme, so I used colors and shapes to convey the feeling of soaring through space, while still looking like Andy's room.



Background from Recollections "Bright and Basic" paper pad.
Washi tape also by Recollections.
Everything else I cut out using my Silhouette Cameo.

Bird on lamp post

Not a hummingbird or a hawk, but still, a fun bird to photograph. Too bad the VR setting on my camera wasn't set right, so all my pictures were slightly blurry. Thankfully, this one came out clearly.

Experimenting with background stamps

After enrolling in the Stretch Your Stamps class, I dug through my background stamps and made a couple cards:

Cards using DeNami stamps

I recently won a blog contest over at the Denami Design Blog, which gave me a $50 gift certificate for their online store. I bought a few stamps with my winnings, and this is what I made with them:






I couldn't resist the fruit stamps, seeing as it's summertime. And aren't the Chickies so cute?

Visit from a hawk

Another bird of prey visited my yard again. It looks about the same shape/size as the previous one, but with different coloration. I hope to see this bird again, because it was quite the magnificent sight.

More hummingbirds

This particular hummingbird was quite patient with me, allowing me to take many pictures of it in my backyard. It helps that the yard has so many African lilies, which do a wonderful job of attracting (and distracting) birds.

July 4th Moon

The moon looked stunning the night of (America's) Independence Day.

Fireworks (July 4th)

Here are some more pictures from my family's fireworks celebration. All of these were from fireworks that have been sitting in our garage for about a year now. (We had a lot of stuff leftover from last year.) I'm surprised how potent they still are.

Light Painting (July 4th)

For July 4th, my parents and I had fun setting off fireworks in our yard. Somehow, it's legal in our city, and it has been for the last couple of years. However, we had the most fun with sparklers, because of the ability to do light painting with them.

My dad made a heart for my sister, who is studying abroad and thus can't celebrate American holidays here with us.



My mom and I did some light painting together. For those who watch Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, this looks a bit like fire-bending.



The three of us went crazy, making all the shapes we could, in the time the shutter stayed open. This was the result.