Merry Christmas to all my friends

A very merry Christmas to everyone.

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Michelle’s Weekly Pet Challenge: Week 12

Good morning from another wet and miserable Hastings morning.

Last night I was going through my photos to see what I could post today and found these photos.  I loved the post from Sonel’s Corner yesterday but of course I can’t do any exotic pets, but I do find strange cats coming up to me on my walks so of course I take photos of them.

They all seem to be attracted to me and come up and pose for me.

This cat was gorgeous and hung around for a long time for me to take some photos of it from it’s best side.

Then there was this rather regal looking Siamese cat.  I haven’t really seen it since.

It reminded me of this quote about Egyptian cats being worshipped so I scrapbooked it.

Rather apt I thought.

Ese’s Weekly Shoot and Quote Challenge – Spread

Until you spread your wings, you’ll have no idea how far you can fly.

Unknown.

This weeks challenge for  Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge – Spread .     As I have been having problems with my photos I  have decided to use these iScrapbooking pages for my quote.  I love butterflies but they are notoriously hard to take.  The good photos I do have I have scrapbooked them for my Words of Inspiration blog.  I also love  this quote.  We have so many talents and gifts but many of us are too scared to use them, so it is time to spread our wings and see how far we can go.

Greensleeves

 

Good morning from another beautiful Hastings day.

When I am out walking my eyes are everywhere. I’m not just looking for beautiful flowers and reflections.   leaves can be just as interesting and fascinating.  Especially when backlit.

 

I love the strong colours and lines in this leaf.  The contours and thickness of the leaf also show up, from the sun shining through.

 

As you can see from my first image, ferns are another favourite of mine.  There are so many ways to highlight the fronds and ways to use them as you can see from the second image.

 

By pointing the camera skywards the image becomes black and white for a more interesting perspective.

 

 

They add a distinct New Zealand flavour and colour to my scrapbooking.

 

Other leaves have strong lines to them.  These leaves just stood out as I went past them, so of course I had to stop for photos.

 

I am constantly amazed at the way just small sun beams can highlight just one leaf out of many as in these two photos.  The leaves really stood out.

 

The same goes for these branches against buildings.

 

This final photo was taken into the sun again, which shows the leaves and empty flower in relief.  The white spots are midges flying around.  I spent some time trying to see if I could capture these little critters, as you can see I managed to get them, but also managed to get bitten.  Ah! The life of a photographer.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

Fair and Square

 

Good morning from another glorious Hastings day.

Time for my weekly update on the quilt I am slowly doing each week.  This week it is the Fair and Square block.  This one is a very easy one to do as it is just the basic square and triangle pieces.  It only took about 10 minutes to do.

I like the fact that I am making blocks that have been used for centuries, such as this one which is found among the 19th century Amish community in Pennsylvania.  They used this block as a single large one as their quilt, but is really affective as a repeating motif.  It is also known as diamond in the square.  The square, when rotated 45degrees stands on one corner, or en pointe as they say in the ballet world.

This is the 18th block so far.  This is such a great way of learning about the traditions of quilting as well as improving my imaging skills.  I was explaining my love of quilting to someone early in the week.  I have just recently finished reading the Anne of Green Gables stories (never did read them all as a child).  In the turn of the century in that corner of the world quilting was a big part of their lives.  There was a quilting group in every town and everyone got together to make quilts for the needy, or whoever was getting married.  Commercial blankets did not exist back then.  A sign of social standing was indicated by how well the quilts were made.  But it was also a sign of love as well.  It was known as a comforter as well.  There is something in making by hand an item that will bring warmth and comfort to your loved ones.  But it was also a means of socialising, no doubt gossiping as well.  This is so sadly lacking today.

Enough of the philosophising.  The above image is from iScrapbooking. Then I decided to photoshop it and see what I can do with the same images.

This is using the same images but this time I turned the image of the block into an PNG image and turned it around to make it more natural, that the girl is holding it up to present.  Again the machine embroidery is by Sue Fox.

There are a couple of new embellishments from last week as well.

 

I think I will take some more photos of the original quilt and see if I can tweak it a bit.

So it is a beautiful day, time for some breakfast and then another photo hunt.

Cheers and have a nice day,

Raewyn

 

Our first grandchild

 

Good morning from a wet but sunny Hastings.

Yesterday my husband’s daughter had her first child, his first grandchild.  A daughter named Taliyah Deicide Azazel Nicholls.   So it was straight to the computer and iScrapbooking to make this announcement card before going up to visit them both.  Carol had been in hospital over the weekend with toxemia so it has been a rather nervous weekend all around.  Finally, just as I decided to go for a walk she had Taliyah.  Both are well which is the main thing.

So last night and this morning I have been working on the tutorial that I had posted by Unique So Chic yesterday to get rid of the hospital settings on the photos.  They are not perfect but it is a start.

The proud nana.  In the second photo I had managed to get Taliyah to sleep.  There is something so primal and comforting holding a newborn baby nestled up into your neck.  It is so long since both my children were born I had forgotten what it felt like.

 

Here is the proud mother and baby.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

 

Embellishments made easy

Good morning from a sunny Hastings this morning.

I am so excited that I have learnt a quick and easy way of doing digital embellishments.  I have spent the past week working on Photoshop and Preview trying to find a quick and easy way of doing them.  I would do one but then I would forget to how I did it so it was basically back to square one again.  Then late Friday night I suddenly clicked – in other words I clicked on the right icon and it was then soooooo easy.  So then I spent the weekend doing embellishments.  I use a mac but I would imagine Windows is very similar.

I asked my son how to video it and he showed me how to use screen capture to film what I was doing on screen and voila.  I had a video, which I then uploaded to YouTube.

 

This is the embellishment I did with the video.

And this is the finished result.  The background, photo and embellishment are all from the same photo.

Here are some of the other embellishments I did over the weekend.  I did found out that a good mouse and mouse pad is essential.  My son  has promised to get me a good mousepad for Christmas – so that he can get his one back.  I ultimate wish is a drawing pad.  Sigh.

 

I found that having a distinct outline of the image makes it a lot easier to trace around, whether freehand or using the magic wand.

So have fun trying this out.  I am.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

 

Nelson’s Victory

Good morning from a windy Hastings this morning.  The spring winds have arrived to play havoc with my photography.  It is hard to take a photo when the bush is moving frantically in the wind.

So I moved indoors for this weekly quilting block.

It is called Nelson’s Victory and commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar and the flagship of Lord Nelson – HMS Victory.  It was first documented under this name in 1906. A century later! As the triangle and small square make up a larger square it can be changed around to make different designs including a three dimensional affect.  As you can see I am getting better at the set in squares and joining the points accurately.  This is a really great way of learning new skills with out the pressure of a full quilt at once.

So for the scrapbooking I looked at another hanging quilt I had done some years ago with machine embroidery.  The embroidery design is by Sue Fox.  I just love her designs as they are so accurate and well filled in.

 

I then took photos of various designs of this and then edited them very slightly to make them into background paper.

This one is just to the left of the first photo of the quilt.  I just love this little kitten worn out from playing with the wool.

Then I thought about what tools are needed for quilting and took photos of them.  I then spent all last night working on making the into embellishments in Photoshop.  Finally I managed it.

 

I added the iron as that is  so important to get good lines and makes it easier to join the seams.  The unpicker is also crucial.  I use it constantly.  Sometimes the seams don’t join up accurately so of course it has to be undone.

Then I just added some lace at the bottom.

The cream font is ‘Discover Beauty’ while the writing on the journal is ‘Noteworthy”.

Have fun with this block.

Time to brave the elements and go for a quick walk before my family get up.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

 

 

Pretty in Pink

 

Good morning from a beautiful sunny Hastings this morning.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit blue with the America’s Cup result so while I was working on my digital scrapbooking last night I decided to cheer myself up with the colour pink.

On the other side of Cornwall Park there is an absolutely gorgeous garden full of peonies and poppies.  It is so alive with vibrant colours.  Roses are my favourite flowers but I have fallen in love with peonies.  They are such magnificent flower just bursting with life.  Of course I have taken a lot of photos there.

With the background paper I used a close up of this magnificent specimen in the photo and edited it with photoshop.

I didn’t do too much to the image as I wanted the pinkness to be kept as well as the details of the petals.

 

Coming back through the park there is a greenhouse or winter garden which is used to grow the plants for the various gardens around the park.  At the moment it is filled with hydrangeas and gerberas.  Close up shots of tightly packed petals make great papers as well which I used here as an accent paper.

Finally I added the embellishments which I created from other photos.

 

I felt for the font it needed to be rather traditional so I used the Great Victorian Swashed font.

It certainly brightened up my night doing this page.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

 

Background Florals

 

Good morning from a wet and miserable Hastings today.

Yet another day of wishing Emirates Team New Zealand all the best on the waters off San Francisco.  I have given up watching as it is too heart breaking.

I have also been doing some playing around on Photoshop with my photos to try out different affects for background papers.  I find myself using the cutout brush a bit for a more bolder look,

while the poster edge brush gives the images some definition.

I have also used the plastic wrap brush as seen with the geranium.

For the freesia  and lavender images I finished off with the pencil brush but I find that it really washes out the images so really only use it in bold colours

.

When I go out to take photos I try to see if I can find some bold prints such as the ones above.  They make great bold background papers.

I wanted something a bit different for this image.  With this one I can add a saying without adding any further images.

When I go out photo hunting now it is with a purpose.  It is now always at the back of mind what the images could be used for and how I could edit them.  This has meant that I have cut back on the number of photos I do take.  So that is a good thing.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn