The Class Is Over!

 Finally!  The end of the 6x6 class!  

Sketch #9: I was challenged to scrap a photo of myself.  There are very few photos of me because I'm generally the one pointing the camera.  Surprisingly there are very few of me in my Halloween garb, so this one is rare indeed.  This was my last Halloween at work - I had dressed up every year that I was with the Agency and generally visited some of the classrooms to tell stories to the children.  That is one of the few things that I miss.

Sketch #10:  As my back and knees have aged I've given up flower beds and moved to container gardening.  My gardening now consists of herbs and mosquito repellent plants in large containers on the deck.  I dry them as they mature and generally have enough herbs to supply my entire family!  The cats especially enjoy the fresh and dried catnip.

Sketch #11:  Some more of my herbs.  This year I planted 2 varieties of basil, sage, 3 varieties of thyme, oregano, catnip, citronella, and of course rosemary.  The portulaca seeded from last years plants so there were actually some flowers in bloom.

Sketch #12:  Macie and Kelly, with Macie painted as a butterfly.

Sketch #13:  Macie's spring dance recital.

Sketch #14:  My neighbor's granddaughter taking her first driving lesson.  Brooklyn did a great job and Mica was a perfect pony as always.

Sketch #15:  Julie's new car!  She was so excited!

Sketch #16:  Macie showing off her dance skills for her daddy!

Sketch #17:  This LO was a PITA to do but it turned out to be one of my favorites!

Sketch #18:  50's Day at Cross Pointe Church.  We had a great time throwing back to another era.

Sketch #19:  This was one of those LOs on a white background that I wished I'd used a colored border around the edge.  The inked edge helped, but it really needs more.

 

 

Sketch #20:  Last one!  I opted to use a solid sheet of 6x6 instead of cutting it into shapes and using a lot of patterns.  I think keeping it as simple as possible was the best way to highlight the photo.

I'm glad that I took the class even though some of those LOs were a struggle for me.  There are some LOs that I'll definitely try again, and there are others that I never want to see again!  😂  It's all a learning experience and hopefully I'll keep my momentum going.

Stay safe!

Another Month, Another Class

Darn - it's been a while since I posted anything!  I keep meaning to but something always seems to get in the way. 

I'm taking another class - this one sponsored by Scrapbook Generation with designer Allison Davis.  It's  centered around using those 6x6 paper pads that seem to accumulate dust most of the year.  The class has been fun in some ways and frustrating in others.  Most of the course LOs feature small or odd sizes of photos, and I tend to use 4x6 and 4x5 photos primarily.  When I could I substituted for my preferred sizes and a few I used the suggested.  I also found a few of the sketches a PITA and ended up using the class sketch as inspiration - which totally upset my OCD with sketches, but I'm learning to "let it go."  😀😉

These have already been posted in the class folders so I'm free to share here.

Sketch #1:  First in the series.  I substituted squares for the hearts in the sketch.

Sketch #2: I stayed fairly true to the sketch.  This was a LO I've wanted to do for a while.  I had random photos of Macie's family and wanted to combine them somehow.

Sketch #3:  I love this tree and it's always a stand out in the spring.  I really need to find another angle to photograph it!

Sketch #4: Again, fairly true to the sketch except I used large square and photos.  I wanted to be able to see that face!

Sketch #5:  Again, fairly true to the sketch except for photo size.

Sketch #6:  George's girl Tiger.  She has a "resting bitch face" and rarely looks happy!

Sketch #7:  I really didn't like the sketch so used the "flags" as inspiration.  I ended up really liking this page.

 

Sketch #8:  Bailey Boo!  Love this horse and helped bottle raise her following her dam's death.  She lives next door and I take care of her several times during the month so our neighbor can show his carriage pony or visit family. 

And that brings me to the end of the first two months of the classes.  More to post later!  The class is still ongoing but I have another 8 LOs!  Yay me!

Mini Paper Class

 The weather outside is dreich (look it up - it's a good Scottish word to describe foul weather and who knows more about foul weather than Scots?).  Since I can't count on staying dry while trying to dig up unwanted plants, cut limbs and rake - this is a great time to do some more "catch up."

Last month I signed up for a class sponsored by Shannon Allor - She's Crafty Mini Paper Class.  Unfortunately I was doing the class late, by which time almost everyone else had finished, but WTH?  I needed something, anything to get me out of my creative doldrums.  The class consisted of a sketch a week for 10 weeks as well as instructive videos.  We were to do our interpretation of the sketch, using whatever part of it we wanted to use as inspiration - all of it or only a few pieces.  Since I'm fairly OCD where sketches are concerned, my pages pretty much followed the designs with only a few changes.

Jan. 3 sketch:  Since I went into the class late, I did the sketches that appealed to me first.  Trying to match photos with LO concepts can be fun, but not always in the order you need them.  This one ended up serving double duty as a PAO challenge LO.  As I said in the last post, this is my favorite place to be.  It feels like "coming home" and soothes my soul.

 

Jan. 10 sketch:  Our beautiful granddaughter, Maddie.  I think this is the only photo I have of her wearing her glasses!

 Jan. 17 sketch:  George on Christmas day.  It's traditional that we don't open presents until our family is together, which annoys Chris to no end.  😂

Jan. 24 sketch:  Our friends' grandson celebrating his first birthday!  Because of Covid this was the first time I'd been able to see him even though I fell in love with him the first time I saw photos of him.

Jan. 31 sketch:  The gang gathered on Christmas day!  Chris, Adam, George, Maddie and Julie.

Feb. 7 sketch:  Macie and Kelly during their annual visit with Santa.  I "think" Macie was holding a baby goat!

Feb. 14 sketch:  Our Lazy Bums - Ghost and Bugs.  Ghost lives up to his name by disappearing whenever someone new comes into the house.  Bugs is a Manx - a nub for a tail, long back legs, and grey and white.  His full name is Bugs Bunny for obvious reasons.

Feb. 21 sketch:  This year's tree.  Our tree is more of a memory tree as we made a point of picking up ornaments on our trips to various places, and we annually purchase an ornament to represent each family member.  There are also ornaments that my sister artists at PAO made and have a place of honor on the tree.

Feb. 28 sketch:  Back to the birthday party.  Liam definitely enjoyed his cake!

March 7 sketch:  Our great-great niece Macie was treated to a photo shoot by her Aunt Jenn.  She's 5 going on 15 and growing up much too quickly!

It was a fun class and I promptly signed up for another one that starts on May 10!  Now all I need to do is find some photos since I've been a lazy slug with the camera the past few years. 😮  Wish me luck!

Love and light!

 

Catch Up!

Dang, almost a year since I've posted.  Time flies when you're living in what feels like a post-apocalypse world.

I think that I'm going to refrain from making this a "rambling thoughts" sort of post and stick to posting some of what I've been doing.

Unfortunately I don't have photos, but I spent a couple of months this past winter working on cards for servicemen and women to send back home to their friends and families.  Thanks to the beautiful art work created by members of Paper Artists Online (PAO) I managed to complete well over 200 cards.  It was a labor of love and thanks and I'll definitely do it again soon.

The scraplift challenge is on-going at PAO and we're now up to #29.  I skipped several of them for various reasons, but those I did I really enjoyed.  I also took a few classes and will do a separate post for those.

So - onto our scraplift challenge.

#19 - I chose a photo of Adam that I took the day he received his Associates Degree-Criminal Justice in the mail.  His classes switched over to on-line only because of the Chinese virus, and of course there was no ceremony.  Adam maintained Dean's list throughout both years and was President's list once.  Soooo very proud of this young man!  He's since begun classes at UNC-P in CJ-Forensics and is finishing up his first year there.

#20 - Poor Apollo - He can't get out to roam anymore!  I wanted to title this "Don't Fence Me In" for obvious reasons.

#21 - My niece Michelle on a casino cruise.  I think she was actually checking out the guys instead of gambling, but WTH - she's single!

#26 - Our grandson Adam again.  He was around 18 months old in these photos.

And that brings me to:

#28 - These were taken standing on my friend Bonnie's dock at Taw Caw Creek, SC.  This has to be one of my favorite places in the entire State of SC and is a part of the Santee Lakes system.  You can take the girl out of the SC Low-Country but you can't take the Low-Country out of the girl!

And that, my friends, catches me up again with the challenges!

Until next time - love and light!