Ninety-Ellen

EightyNine-Stormy

EightyEight-Susan and Steve

EightySeven-Elizabeth Two

 

Stupid scanner with the dulling out of the sparkly pink paper and the "smudge" marks.

EightySix-Kaylee

EightyFive-Elizabeth(My Third Assignment)

Sniff, sniff. My little niece Elizabeth is "graduating" preschool on Friday. My mother commissioned a graduation card and I think I made a pretty kick ass one but of course the one I maker from ME will hopefully be even more kick ass. :)

EightyFour-Kirigami

Mesmerized by Beth Stone's unbelievable paper cuts, I couldn't resist trying my hand at it when I saw this book on kirigami (with paper!) in the bargain aisle at Barnes and Noble. I picked the first and most simple pattern and still struggled a little but overall I like the effect. The two little tendrils on the outside are supposed to facing the other way but being the measure none, cut once person I am the card wasn't long enough to fit the curls in the "right" direction, so I just turned them 180 degrees.

EightyThree-Joan Two

EightyTwo-Gabby

EightyOne-Guidance

Okay, so I hope you all will realize that I didn't actually make this card. I know, it's kind of hard to tell. :) I did help guide my niece toward making this card after she was so helpful and took about ten years of the extra buttons that come with your pants, jackets, and button down shirts and sweaters out of the little individual bags and put them in a container. I am enjoying the button idea but, pardon the pun, I need to button down and start getting serious for the rest of this project as I actually have a lot of different cards I really do need to make.

Eighty-Button Down

SeventyNine-An Untitled Poem

The thoughts, the thoughts you try to pin them down onto black velvet with specimen pins tagged with stiff cream paper hand labeled with the nib of a fountain pen and kept under glass in an office of academia

The thoughts, the thoughts you try to catalogue them on faded, unlined cards typewritten and filed by ancient runes in wood hewn drawers with dovetail joints stored in sun filled hometown libraries

The thoughts, the thoughts you try to corral them but they are cats and used car salesmen and children on their way to Narnia, Hogwarts, or Never Never Land

The thoughts, the thoughts you try to trap them like fireflies in a Mason jar, silver fish in a nylon net, birds in gilded cages, miniature frogs in an overturned straw hat

 

The thoughts ,the thoughts you try to capture them electronically in Word, on twitter, facebook, blogger, SMS messages shot out like flares over the cold north Atlantic signaling a location that you will be long gone from by the time the boats return

SeventyEight-Punching a Hole in the Sky

This morning I heard a fascinating story on NPR's Weekend Edition about someone I never heard of before. He was a test pilot named Arthur "Kit" Murray and he died last week at the age of 92. I won't go into his whole story as I've provided the link here (and I highly recommend it) but one of the phrases used to describe what he did flying nearly into "outer space" was a beautiful one I also never heard before. Arthur "Kit" Murray punched holes in the sky. In my last (?) photographic tribute to childhood joy I give you two photographs of my favorite subject inspired by that phrase.

SeventySeven-Her Own Drummer

 I have noticed while watching my niece and my two little cousins play that three is a crowd in that it sets up an interesting dynamic. It's hard for three to play and have everyone feel included. Two of them will always pair off and leave one more or less to herself. More often than not it ends up being "my favorite little one", my darling goddaughter, the omega to my alpha of the Puskarz cousins alphabet with me at 35 and her at 5 with the four others in between, the one, the only, Miss Alyss, Ally, Alyssa. Here is a little photographic tribute to her.

SeventySix-Towards and Away

SeventyFive-The Little Mermaids

Keeping with today's themes of childhood, joy, and childhood joy.

SeventyFour-Life Finds A Way

SeventyThree-The Big Bang

SeventyTwo-Firework

One of my favorite people in the project this year is Dorothee Lang. I love her photographs both wholly and the clever little crops she does. Here is my version made with surely less sophisticated equipment and "software".

The Crop

The Original Image

(sadly I don't have the technology to highlight the piece I zoomed in on)



SeventyOne-Tornado

I wish I could write a poingnat, wistful, bittersweet poem about this day but I think I'll just let the joy of these three lovely ladies speak for itself.

Seventy-Whole Lotta Love

SixtyNine-Pieces

Inspired by Susan Gibb's wonderful story Pieces.

SixtyEight-A Variation on a Different Previous Theme

SixtySeven-Office Space

 

I bought this pushpin stamp at the stamp extravaganza with making a card just like this in mind. This is one of my truly original ideas that I truly like.

SixtySix-Across Party Lines

No, I am not cheering for "compromise" happening in Washington finally. I am cheering for my cousin who was just chosen to run for board of selectmen for his party in his hometown this fall. Despite any political differences we may have, and honestly we've never really discussed the issue so who knows what if any those differences are, I love him and fully support what I'm sure is only the beginning of a long, successful career of public service.

SixtyFive-99 Luft Balloons

SixtyFour-Hello

SixtyThree-Hi

The top one is my card and the bottom one is a card I saw in a magazine that was given to me to use for inspiration. Going through it I was honestly surprised by the number of "pre-crafted" items used to create these cards. Even this simple design in the magazine requires some kind of stones and rub on transfer letters. My more colorful version had neither.

SixtyTwo-Danielle

I ran out of the precut bookmarks and had to start cutting my own. But it gives me a variety of colors to work with which I think is pretty cool. Here is one I made inspired by someones business card. When I talk to her next if she says it's OK I will post the business card as well so you all can see the inspiration piece.

SixtyOne-For the Birds

So these are nothing I've finished, just some cool things I wanted to play with just to see what they looked like. I will definitely keep these in mind for future applications. It's like Christmas in July right now, I don't know which "toy" to play with first!

Sixty-Joan

More examples of my need to learn the lesson "less is more". If I could go back I would probably not have filled in the letters with the purple background and I maybe would have gone more subtle with the box around the name on the birdhouse side. I thought I would love coloring in the birdhouse stamp but I like how it looks plain against the white background. Some of these new stamps I got are just amazing!

FiftyNine-Another Variation on a Previous Theme

This is a great combination of some stamps I already had combined with some new ones I just received. I don't know what it is about this particular flower stamp I love, but I do love it. This, by the way, will hopefully be my last time "cheating" by using each side of the book mark as a different piece. I really didn't coordinate these two sides though so they definitely stand apart as two separate pieces. The ones I'm working on now gel together slightly better.

FiftyEight-Chris

So I am back on my mission to create something for everyone in my new office. I started off making cards and it actually worked out because there was a spate of birthdays and even an engagement. But now I have these bookmarks so I am going to do the next bunch on those.