Decorate to Celebrate #65 - Christmas Trees!!

Happy Wednesday!! I hope you are having a fabulous week so far!! It's time for another challenge at Decorate to Celebrate and it's a fun one...Christmas Trees!! We want to see your Christmas tree decorations, projects or even pictures of your Christmas Tree!!

I created a fun and simple Christmas tree decoration using My Mind's Eye paper and Spellbinders Star dies for the base, cut in cardboard and glued together. The layers of the tree were cut with three sizes of Spellbinders Grand Circles and then cut in half, folded over and glued together.

And here's my tree!! It isn't completely decorated yet, and I still have more decorations to put up around the house. I love lights all over...like a fairy wonderland :) My angel is a little big for the top, but I don't care :)

And I wanted to show you pictures of the Rudolph my Dad makes each year out of logs and branches. Isn't it fun??!! I keep him plugged in 24-7 :)

Now it's your turn!! Head on over to Decorate to Celebrate to see the amazing projects my talented design team sisters have created for today's challenge. Then link up your Christmas Tree pictures...I can't wait to see them!!

On this eve of Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for all of my blog-land friends!! You guys are so awesome and I am truly thankful for each and every one of you!! To all of you in the in USA, I wish you the happiest and most wonderful holiday tomorrow!! And for those of you braving the crowds on Black Friday...Godspeed!!

Craft It Up & Link It Up #20 - Tag, You're It

Happy Monday!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! For my US friends, how are your plans coming along for Thanksgiving?? Are you traveling?? I can't wait for all the yummy goodies on Thursday...turkey and pumpkin pie :)

It's time for another fun challenge at Craftin Desert Divas!! The challenge this week is: Tag, You're It. We want to see your projects using a tag. The sponsors for this challenge are Too Cute by Jessica with a $20 gift card, and Cardz TV with a set of stamps.

For my project, I created a Christmas tag using several Tim Holtz products. The tag was cut with a TH Tag and Bookplate die. The papers are from My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Christmas stack. The trees were colored with TH Pine Needles and Walnut Distress Markers and cut out with the coordinating TH Holiday Joy Framelits. Santa was colored with Festive Berries and Black Soot Distress Markers and cut out with the coordinating Retro Christmas Framelits set. His beard and fur were covered with Ranger White Enamel Accents and he was popped up with foam tape for dimension. Merry Christmas was stamped with Versafine Black ink and then inked with Walnut Distress Ink and Festive Berries along the edges. It was covered with Glossy Accents and then popped up with foam tape when dry. The holly in the corner was stamped with Pine Needles Distress Marker and cut out with the coordinating Holiday Joy Framelits. The berries were added with Liquid Pearls.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

1. Little Scrap Pieces - Anything Goes
2. DL.Art - November Linky
3. Sunday Funday - November Linky
4. Just B Creative Crazy - November Linky

Now it's your turn!! Head on over to Craftin Desert Divas to see the amazing projects my talented design team sisters have created for today's challenge. Then link up your Tag, You're It project...I can't wait to see what you create :)

Photoshop Techniques

Happy Wednesday!! I hope you are having a great week!! My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the horrible storms that hit on Sunday. Our tornado sirens went off, which meant spending the day in the basement, and the power blinked off for a bit but came right back on. We had strong winds and hail but were thankfully spared from damage.

This isn't really a crafty post today...well, it sorta is...photography can be art:) As if I needed any more distractions keeping me from my craft room, I have decided to relearn how to use Photoshop. I used to use the full version all the time, but the last few years, I've strictly used Photoshop Elements. It's great, but there are so many more things you can do with the full version. So I wanted to show you some of the techniques I've been practicing with :)

Just to warn you, this is a pretty picture-heavy post. And before I get to the Photoshop techniques, I wanted to share some with you my attempts at bokeh.

I've been wanting to try to photograph bokeh ever since I saw Missy's post at Quick Chick Designs. Any excuse to put up the Christmas tree early and I take it :) So the above is my first attempt at bokeh. Then on to shaped bokeh:

Isn't this fun??!! I used the smallest Spellbinders Classic Heart die to create the effect. Thank you Missy for the awesome tutorial and the inspiration!!

When you look closely at the lights, you can see the embossing from the die. Fun!!

Okay, now on to Photoshop CS6 Techniques. The first one I want to share is turning a photo into an IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING.

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Next is the COLOR SPLASH technique:

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And this one is by far my favorite!! Turning a photo into a 3D IMAGE.

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Thank you for letting me share these with you today!! I know I need to get back to the craft room but I'm having so much fun relearning these techniques and snapping pictures :) Have a great day!!

Know in Your Heart You Are Loved

Happy Sunday!! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!! We are supposed to be hit by a major storm, including possible tornado conditions, so I'm trying to get this post in before it hits.

The card I'm sharing with you today is the one I made for my Mom to give my Dad for their anniversary a couple of days ago :)

The papers for this card are from Prima's Engraver stack. The base is a Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die. It was covered with a strip of burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby. The next layer is a Spellbinders Adorning Squares die. It was attached with brass brads...my way of adding bling to a masculine card...I have such trouble with them :)

The hearts are Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Hearts and Classic Hearts. The hearts were cut with the same paper and lined up then popped up for dimension. A Tim Holtz Word Band was added to the bottom. I covered it with white paint and then wiped it off so it stayed in the engraved words. It too was attached with brass brads.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

1. Little Scrap Pieces - Anything Goes
2. DL.Art - November Linky
3. Funday Friday Challenge - Anything Goes
4. Sunday Funday - November Linky
5. Just B Creative Crazy - November Linky

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Decorate to Celebrate #64 - Thanksgiving/Fall

Happy Wednesday, everyone!! I hope you are having a great week!! We actually had a light dusting of snow Monday night. Ugh. Thankfully, it didn't stay on the ground long. But it's supposed to get down to 18 tonight. It seems too early to be this cold already. I hope that doesn't mean a long, cold winter :/

It's time for another challenge at Decorate to Celebrate. The theme this week is Thanksgiving/Fall Part 2. Let's celebrate everything wonderful about turkeys, pilgrims, family, being thankful and more with your table decorations, party banners, pennants, yard signs, cupcakes, party favors and more :)

For my Thanksgiving table, I had to create Tim Holtz' Quirky Turkeys from last year!! I just love them and couldn't wait to make them this Thanksgiving season :)

I followed Tim's instructions, including printing out the template for the turkey body. I made the wire holders from 20 gage wire. The tickets are Spellbinders Labels and Tags dies. Both sentiments are from K Andrew Design's Fall-o-ween stamp set.

I am entering these in the following challenges:

1. Craft It Up & Link It Up - Thanskgiving
2. Little Scrap Pieces - Anything Goes
3. DL.Art - November Linky
4. Funday Friday Challenge - Things With Wings
5. Sunday Funday - November Linky
6. Just B Creative Crazy - November Linky

Funny that I was posting my turkey project and I look out the window and see this!! There were actually eight of them...one is hidden behind the tree. Their coloring is so beautiful, isn't it??!!

Now it's your turn!! Head on over to Decorate to Celebrate to see the amazing projects my talented design team sisters have created for today's challenge. Then link up your Thanksgiving/Fall project...I can't wait to see what you create :)

Craft It Up & Link It Up #19 - Thanksgiving

Happy Monday!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! It was nice fall weather here...60's and sunny. But the forecast calls for snow this week. Ugh.

It's time for another fun Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party at Craftin Desert Divas. The challenge this week is Thanksgiving. Our sponsors are:

KaDoodle Bug Design - $15 Gift Card

The Scrapbooking Queen - Royal Surprise Pack

The inspiration for this card was the gorgeous vintage lace from my sweet friend Lee of Crafty Loops. Thanks again, Lee!! I love everything!! The base of the card is a Spellbinders Grand Large Lables. The next layer is a Spellbinders Card Creator Matting Basics A. The edges were distressed with a Zutter Distress-It-All. The next layer is a Spellbinders Fancy Weave die.

The doily is a Die Versions Ring of Hearts die. It was popped up with foam tape for dimension. A Spellbinders Standard Circles Small die was added next, followed by a Spellbinders Beaded Circles die. Both circle dies were inked with Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. The flowers are Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms dies, also inked with Victorian Velvet. Happy Thanksgiving is from Stamping Scrapping, and it was inked with Vermillion Archival Ink.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

1. DL.Art - November Linky
2. Sunday Funday - November Linky
3. Just B Creative Crazy - November Linky

Now it's your turn!! Head on over to Craftin Desert Divas to see the amazing projects my talented design team sisters have created for today's challenge. Then link up your Thanksgiving project...I can't wait to see what you create :)