Photography and Poetry and Beer

Wait, that should be Beer, photography, then poetry...yeah...

I have a wonderful friend John Radigan who is an amazing photographer, teacher, and writer. I have been very fortunate to have taken several workshops with John. You can visit his website or the Adirondack Photography website for a list of workshops that are offered. It’s a wonderful experience and I highly recommend you take one…or more!

John began a blog called ADKLIGHT to help him put down thoughts as he writes his book. Here his photography has a dream like quality and his poetry thought provoking. Did I mention that he’s single? Well, just sayin’…

Head on over to ADKLIGHT for a daily dose of inspiration…and don’t forget to raise a pint! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s to you John! You were right, there is a picture of me swilling a pint on my blog! Mmmmm…

ps - I know the photo is a bit blurry but there's a very good explanation for that...the softening reduces harsh lines and wrinkles. It has absolutely nothing to do with me, uh I mean the photographer, being on their second pint.

Color Throwdown Week 29

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another weekly Color Throwdown and this week it is being hosted by me. I chose Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, and Regal Rose thinking about Valentines Day. But I am kinda tired of making Valentines cards so I decided to go St. Patrick's Day instead.


I have several of these St. Patrick's Day stamps from Studio G. I love those tiny sets for $1! I punched several 1 1/8 inch squares and decided to make a checkered background, something I've seen but not tried myself. I just layered the image on a couple of nesties and popped up on dimensionals over a white strip punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. I also picked up a MS Shamrock punch last week so I used that to punch some from polka dot paper and then some solid cardstock to place underneath and make them stand out a bit. I added some Stickles to the polka dots for a little sparkle. The ribbon and some paper is from PTI and the rest of the cardstock is Bazzill.

Make sure you stop by the blog to check out the challenge and don't forget to visit all the other wonderful team members to see their designs! Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

LeAnne Pugliesi - Wee Inklings
Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits
Broni Holcomb - Splashes of Watercolor
Tammy Hershberger - Stamp Happy
Cathy Indelicato - Crafty Thoughts

And our February Guest Designer Maria Gurnsey!

Lots of Leprechauns!

I just adore this leprechaun from Whipper Snapper Designs! I never made (or even bought) a St. Patricks Day card before but felt compelled to do it this year. I found this guy on WSD and made four cards. They are each very similar. I don't have a lot of people I would send these cards to and since this is the first ever St. Patricks Day stamp I've bought I needed to use him for all of them. I had so much fun coloring his jolly face and that cute little body doing a jig! So the leprechaun and flower border are from WSD. The sentiments and other small images are all from Studio G...those $1 clear sets you can pick up at Michaels and A.C. Moore. I bought 3 of them so I have several small images for backgrounds (like the beer mugs!) and embellishments and envelopes. The brads are from American Crafts and the shamrock button from Dress it Up. The rhinestones are Kaiser Craft. I used stickles in lime green and lots of Sakura Star Dust accents on his buckles and pot of gold and on some of the sentiments. All images are colored with Copics. The ribbon is all from Michaels. The design paper is from Reminisce, Shamrock Burst (white with green dot pattern) and the green polka dot paper I totally can't remember! I will update if it comes to me! White cardstock is from Papertrey and all colored cardstock is Bazzill.

In the above image I colored his face then grabbed the wrong Copic when I went to shade and made a mess! I tried to used the colorless blender to take off some color and went over it again with the base. It got so pink that I was going to just toss it but instead I put it to the side. I went back to it again later and decided I might salvage it. I though about trimming one of the images so I figured this one was already compromised I might as well use it! I ended up really liking it after I trimmed it and I just love the border stamp. It was longer than the card so after coloring I trimmed it to fit. I still have a tiny piece that is waiting for me in my scrap pile! I made the background by placing several clear stamps on one block and stamping them repeatedly. I added stickles to the shamrocks. You know, the more I look at it, the tag is just kind of floating in the middle. Why would I do that? How on earth did I not notice that before? Oh well.

Here's another one:

And here's one more:

And finally the last one!

I've been sewing again too. Still very simple, I am not ready to get fancy yet! I had one tangle and thought "oh here it goes" but I got it straightened out. I'm just glad my lines are basically straight!