So Many Sunsets

My poor blog has been untouched for over a year!  My gallery at Split Coast Stampers also has languished with few entries as of late.  What can be keeping me from documenting my creative pursuits now that I have so much more unscheduled time?

 October 5th, Lost Creek

 

The weather this fall has been a welcome change from typical years past – less rain and wind, more sunshine! As the days grow short, I often find myself out and about when the sun is setting.  Living near Newport offers easy access to these sunsets, and the best part is they are free.  I’ve been striving to pay more attention to the costs of things that entertain since we have become a single-income family. I'm not sure that I completely concur with the "best things in life are free" philosophy (I truly miss morning lattes prepared by a local barista), but sunsets definitely can be included in my best-things list.

 

November 13th, Lost Creek  

 

Sometimes I have a passenger along when I decide to pull over and “shoot the sky”, which cramps my style a bit.  My son: “OMG Mom, you don’t need to take a picture!” The unscheduled stop was clearly cutting into his scheduled computer game time!  On another recent occasion, my husband referring to parents waiting for us to pick up our son from a visit: “I’m not sure they need to wait for you to stop for a sunset.” I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

 

 November 19th, Yaquina Bay

 

Thankfully, other times I can spare a few unencumbered minutes to enjoy the evolution of light and color as the sun dips ever lower in the sky and then disappears below the horizon. 

 

 November 24th, Jump-Off Joe 

 

November 25th, Agate Beach

 

This gallery of sunsets delivered from the heavens via my trusty Nokia Lumia phone. One of these days I'll remember to put my Cannon T1i and a tripod in the car, but isn't smart phone technology grand?

 

  November 27th, Lost Creek

 

 

Thanks for taking a peek!

Glitter!

Another gray and damp day on the coast, so I decided to disappear into my craft corner and do something different . . . get out some glitter!  I picked up some glitter at the CKC a couple years back after seeing fabulous samples, and the demonstrators made it look so easy to use!  I think it has come out of the drawer two or three times at most.  So out came the glitter.

I had in mind the colors of a pretty ornament from today's Split Coast Stampers Inspiration Challenge site.  Here is the Artful Home Snow Cap ornament .  I chose this because I also had in mind Thursday's Ways to Use It Challenge to use no autumn colors.

Next out of the drawer was a SU! ornament punch and wide Scor Tape. I adhered a strip to some 110# white cardstock, then punched ornaments.  I peeled the backing tape off the punched ornament and created a mask by punching it with a small star punch.   Then I carefully stuck it back on to the adhesive and rubbed glitter onto the exposed adhesive.

 

Here I peeled off the mask and brushed the rest of the ornament with gold Pearlex powder.  For other ornaments, I used a second color of glitter.

 

 

Now since I can't figure out how to lay out this post, I really need to go clean up the mess I made.  I hope I can find my Glitter Clean Up Cloth!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Roses in Winter?

No, it's not winter just yet.  But roses on Thanksgiving?  Rare enough to catch my attention along with my fucsia which is still blooming robustly.  So after I photographed this Perfect Moment rose, I clipped it off and brought it inside to grace my Thanksgiving dinner table.  I added some matching sprigs from my Japanese maple.  Those petals and leaves will all be gone in a matter of days, especially with the winds we are having.  The sentiment from the classic SU! set, Roses in Winter, came to mind: "Memory is the power to gather roses in winter". Farewell my lovelies!

Rainy Day at the Coast, So I Will Post!

My first real blog post.  A card, what could be better?

So, here is a card I made last night.  The image panel is glossy white cardstock stamped with Versamark ink, then sponged with dye ink.  After drying, the berry stamp was stamped on top. I didn't have many sentiments in a font that complemented the "For You" style from Clearly for You, other than the "Mon Amie" from Carte Postale.  Stampin' Up! stamps, edge punch, and cardstock, other than the Paper Trey Ink cardstock in Ocean Tides; Spellbinder Nestabilities dies for the ovals. This card can be found in the my SplitCoastStampers member gallery and in the galleries for this week's Friday Free for All and Saturday Inspiration Challenge galleries.

This is ground zero.