Our Oriels are back!

Spring Flowers

You can see Tulips, Hyacinths, Johnny Jump Ups, Coral Bells and Chives in this close up photo.

New sketch for Bird is the Word Challenge Blog - LOOK/SEE

I made Tim a computer wallpaper using this sketch.

New background for my computer desktop.

I made this digital lo using the sketch I made for Bird is the Word challenge blog at http://birdisthewordchallenge.blogspot.com. The elements and papers are from the Romantic spring collection at http://digital-crea.fr/shop The word art is from Elegant Word Art by Bethany.

Close up of element frame cluster.

Close up of word art.

New sketch for Bird is the Word Challenge Blog - FUTURE

I wanted a banner on this sketch so I made one.

Making a Banner or Pennant with Adobe Photoshop Elements
1. Open an 8x8 inch transparent file
2. Set foreground color of first “flag”
3. From the artwork pallet open up a simple shape
I started with a rounded square
4. Open second shape, semicircle

5. Add a shadow, from the Special Effects pallet –layer style
I chose a soft edge shadow and applied it to both shapes.
6. Simplify both shapes; right click the shape in the layer pallet
then click on Simplify layer

7. Set the foreground color to the color of the stitching
8. Choose the stitch brush tool in the tools pallet, I choose a loose stitch dynamic brush I purchased from scrapbook.com
9. Adjust the stitch size then the spacing, to adjust the spacing click on More Options and slide the bar to make the stitches farther apart. I did mine at 946%

10. Brush the stitches around both layers

11. Merge the layers, right click on the top layer in the layer pallet and chose Merge Layers
12. Add an embellishment
13. Merge the layers

14. Make a few different ones in different colors and shapes
15. Resize them and duplicate Ctrl J a few

16. Open a string or ribbon and resize it to go all the way across the page
17. Send the string to the back layer, with the string layer highlighted in the layers pallet click on Arrange then click Send to back

18. Position the flags on the string
19. Merge the layers

New sketch for Bird is the Word Challenge Blog - SPARKLE -

When designing the Sparkle sketch I wanted my curled ribbon to curl around
the flat ribbon I placed under it. This is how I did it.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 Tutorial using “Marching ants” to help you erase parts of a layer.
1. Open a new file
2. Place the two ribbons onto the file. I used a flatter laying one and a curled one.

3. Put the curled ribbon on top.

4. Click the curled ribbon so it is highlighted in your layers pallet.

5. Then hold the Ctrl key down while clicking on the flat ribbon in the layer pallet.
You will now see “marching ants” around your flat ribbon.
6. Click on your eraser in the tool bar and erase the parts of the curled ribbon
that would be under the flat ribbon.
*The only parts of the curled ribbon that will erase is the parts that
overlap the flat ribbon.

7. Push your Esc key to turn off the “marching ants”.

our world a year ago

I was looking through some of our trail camera pictures from last year. It took tell April 12 before the ground was clear of snow in the woods.
This picture was taken last year on March 20 2011. Look at all the snow and the temperature is 36.

This one was taken March 27 with a temperature of 10 degrees.

What a difference in a year. It is March 23, 2012 at 7am and it is 51 degrees out.

First Robin

What a gorgeous day yesterday was! It was 66 degrees around noon. I was lucky enough to have the day off so I spent allot of time out in the yard. I saw my first Robin of the year in the morning. Last year the first one I seen was March 18, so they are not much earlier this year although last year they came back to a snow covered world. I like this world much better!