Third Page using Crafty Secrets

Great news for a Monday. 

I won the $50 gift certificate from Crafty Secrets. Totally random drawing, but I am going to have a lot of fun playing with a new stash of digital products. I am going to post this last page I did with Botanical Photo Frames.

Look for more layouts with Crafty Secrets products in the near future.

Here's how these digital products started out.

Original Size is 8 1/2 x 11.
There was some enlarging, some copying, some pasting and a lot of erasing.

Another page!

Can you tell I am obsessed with this set from Crafty Secrets?
 Here is a page I made from the oval photo frame set. 

I am amazed by the size of the families these women had.

Besides these five daughters,

 Sarah Lawrence Findley had three sons. 

There was a lot of duplicating, "erasing", cutting and resizing on this one.

I think it was worth it.

oval photo frames are from the Viva Libris Collection from ViVa Artistry.

A new page in the Heritage Album

Started working through the Family Album I created in paper 15 years ago and updating it digitally.

These are my great, great grandparents, William & Sarah Findley.

When I saw this photo frame on Crafty Secrets, I knew it would be perfect for our vintage portraits. As a child I remember looking at these pictures in a very old and fragile thick paged album. This page has that feel. Here's the link to take you to this digital file: digital vintage photo frame. The frame comes with four picture slots. One file has ovals and the other the rounded top you see here.

I enlarged this one to a 12x12 and "erased" the two lower pictures, added the names, obituaries and frames. After adding back the shading on the side, I realized that the center column of botanicals fit back in also.

Thanks Crafty Secrets, this has inspired & motivated me to work on my heritage album project.

Sunrise & Water

I Feel the Need for Speed

Saturday we went on a little road tour. I thought we were going to find some turning leaves. We didn't. I did get to practice some photographic techniques. This is called panning; you are trying to get a sense of movement. 

 

Here is the only shot I got of turning leaves. I knew this would be a good shot because I had seen it last weekend on our way home from Midland, TX. Luckily Mark was agreeable to stopping. 

Yesterday morning I filled our birdbath. Then I came into the house and looked out and the sun was just perfect and I had slightly over-filled the birdbath and there was another opportunity for a picture. 120 pictures later, I ended up with four, and those aren't exactly what I wanted, so I tried again this morning. Probably close to 200 pictures later, I've learned some things, a few of pictures are good. But I think I will try again tomorrow. That is the nice thing about living here, tomorrow's weather will be the same, no clouds. Yes, I am my own worst critic. 

 

A single drop

Sun Flare

Balloon Festival - Alamogordo

Day One at White Sands National Monument was a total bust. We woke up early planning to leave at 7 for an 8am launch. When I looked out our west windows at 6:30, I saw something different. Not only were the white lights of the runway on (ten miles), but further west was this unusual line of red lights. Grabbing the binoculars, we realized those were tail lights from a huge line of cars waiting to get into the Park.  We ended up in the line at 7 and didn't get into the park until 8:15. The winds were too high and from the wrong direction so they only filled 3 balloons and didn't launch any. I shouldn't say it was a total bust. Driving out to the White Sands in a convertible was fun.

Day Two at the Alamogordo Balloon Park was phenomenal. We weren't too sure if they would launch because of the wind. Once again we used those binoculars. [We keep them by the window just in case.] Once Mark saw one balloon inflate, we headed down to the Balloon Park, which during the rest of the year we call the Shelby Frisbee catching park. The pictures speak for themselves.

Love this guy's tongue!

Flying off to the landing site.

An appearance by local celebrity, Smokey Bear.
The original Smokey was found in those mountains in the background. 

Yes, that is the moon

That's Alamo canyon (where we live) in the background.
You can see why we could use the binoculars to see what was going on.

Playing in the Rain

It's monsoon season here in Alamogordo and I went out and played in the rain. This creek bed has been bone dry since early November. I was trying to capture movement of the water and contrasting it with some stop motion. Water was wet and delightfully chilly. I was happy to sacrifice a pair of running shoes (at least until they dry out).

There are hearts everywhere in the desert. 

Including another one in one of these pictures. Can you find it? 

Hint: The heart is in this picture.

Rim Trail Hike

Two day hike. 22 miles. 9,000 ft elevation.