I've decided to take a break from my blog.  There's another project that I've wanted to work on but haven't managed to find the time.  I figure if I don't put time into a blog perhaps I can make progress on my other project.  Thanks for your understanding.

Interesting Sights

 Here is more "drive by shooting" from our travel thorough UT and NV last month.  The tanks above are near Reno and the casinos are near downtown Reno.

And did you ever wonder where your salt comes from?  Images three and four show two large salt plants in UT.  That's a whole lot of salt!  As I understand it, fractional crystallization was replaced by solar evaporative ponds - but I have no idea what that means.

Not only is salt used for dietary purposes, it is also used in the reduction of silver ore.  Bet you didn't know that!

More Spokes

August 2 I featured a photo of wheel spokes.  This photo was taken in the same area but this one had  a wood background instead of paint and that added a whole new interest.

The color was quite nice but I played a bit in Photoshop Elements and came up with the sepia tones with a vignette.  I liked that look, too.  I think I see an artist trading card in there somewhere.

Punchy

I made use of a Matha Stewart border punch for the front of this card.  Just put the first punch at the fold to get started.  I added punched flowers for a little variation and color.  The flourish is a die cut and the large flower is a series of punches.  I embossed the text in white and added white dots with dimensional paint.

I put a liner on the inside to show through to the front.  If you make one, remember that the text has to be hidden behind the center panel or it will show on the front.

Seeing Red

This is one of the more simple cards that I've made in quite a while.  The flower is a Haro Arts image.  I stamped it in red on white  and cut it out leaving a portion attached at the top.  I matted it on red and added the text.  I used dimensional paint on the flower center.  Doesn't get much easier than that!

More Road Trip

UT and NV are a lot alike as one blends into the other.  Heading west we traveled on I-80 and coming back home we were on Hwy 50 but the countryside looked much the same either way.

There's a lllllooooonnnnggg stretch of straight road, then you come to a little mountain pass (see those mountains in the far distance?) then there's another lllllooooonnnnngggg stretch of straight road.  And there's hardly anything to see.

But the sky changed quite a bit and we went in and out of rain.  This last image is taken near Bonneville Raceway and it's unique only because it looks white with the salt.

I've been on much more scenic (and otherwise interesting) highways and interstates!  I had to create some entertainment so its no wonder I'm taking my chances with "drive by shooting."  

It's Plum Perfection

I did an exploration in color by going straight to Mother Nature.  I figure she has had a lot of experience and knows what works together.  My subject matter was a plum from our tree (Italian plum I believe).  Not only are they delicious (except for the skin which I don't eat), they have a wide range of color.  I cut one in half and took a photo of both the outside and inside.  Then I ate the cut plum (but that has nothing at all to do with the exploration at hand).

In PhotoShop Elements I picked six colors from the plum using both the inside and outside and created the palette you see in the first image.  I printed that out and headed to my studio to see how well I could match some colors and I felt I came pretty close.  But I felt I had to go one step further and actually put them together in a design to check the cohesiveness.

The third image shows the completed design but unfortunately the colors in the photo don't really match the actual card and I was unable to correct that so you'll have to take my word that the cream color actually has more of a yellow cast and the plum color actually has more red.  As long as I was showing you the design, I thought I'd also show you what I put inside since it coordinates so well.  I often just put text on the inside so you are getting a real treat.

So I consider this to have been a good way to select a color palette as well as a good excuse to try the new doily image.  I just wish I had been better able to capture the actual colors in the cardstock.

Well "Spoken"

Remember the wheel I showed last Thursday?  This one was next to it but had a wooden background instead of a painted background.  It's nice in color but I decided to make it an antique sepia tone and also added a bit of vignette to the edges.  Give it a more "old timey" look wouldn't you say?

Road Trip

You can see some unusual sights when you travel our highways.  We traveled through UT and NV on our way to CA a couple weeks ago.  We went west on I-80 and returned home on Hwy 50, "The Loneliest Highway in America."  The photos are actually in reverse order of how we saw them but that's not important.  The top photo was an interesting shop in Austin NV on Hwy 50.  The second photo is a little car that the railroad workers used to use when doing maintenance.  We called it a "putt putt" car.  It is possible to own one of these cars (where you get one I have no idea) and if you join a club, you are allowed certain times when you have access to the rails.  Now I think that sounds pretty fun.  There was have been a meeting somewhere in the area because we saw two of these fairly close together on I-80.  The last photo is a sculpture in the middle of nowhere near the Bonneville Speedway where all those cars are tested.  The area is very flat and there ins't much of a chance that a speeding car would run into anything, except maybe a distracted bird or a wandering coyote.  But I've never heard of that happening.  I bet you've seen some equally interesting things when you've traveled.  It's part of the fun and breaks up the time.  These photos are "drive by shooting" and I'm always a little amazed that they turn out as well as they do.

Birthday Cake

Isn't this a whimsical image?  It's from Hero Arts and Becky used it in class last month doing a black and white card which was nice.  But I pictured it in color so got the stamp and stamped it in black on four different colors and then cut them out.  I don't do a lot of cutting these days but these were pretty much straight lines and quick and easy to do.  I just combined the colors in different ways and made four cards.  There are some black brads for embellishment and I added a bit of color here and there with markers.  The yellow border is punched.  I put an embossed background on the card front and then used foam adhesive to pop up the cake piece. Nice to have four cards ready to go!

Lines

A couple weeks ago we spent the night and had breakfast in Austin, NV.  The restaurant was in a very old building and I found these old spokes against the building on the east side.  I liked the lines and colors so took several photos.  For this one I added a "poster edge" filter in Photoshop Elements to further delineate the detail.  I think I'll be playing with this image some more.

Circle Windows

This is a layout I saw online.  After I studied mine I thought maybe the flowers could be larger and a brighter yellow but I don't dislike it as it is.  I stamped on the brown background and stamped a background on the white before cutting out the circles.  The white piece was popped up with foam tape.  The flowers are punched and I embellished with a few faux jewels.  This is one of those designs that can be used for all kinds of occasions and the windows could be a lot of different shapes.  Fun!