Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Happy Garden

At Inspiration Avenue, new members are given a mentor to assist them with navigating the blog.  Kim posted her first weekly challenge and I had the privilege of helping her.  She invited all of us to make an image about Seeds.  My digital collage is meant to be a happy welcome to Easter and spring.  All of the little seeds that have been buried in the soil are emerging to make a glorious array of beautiful plants and flowers.  Birds use these seeds for food, but they also help the flowers reproduce.  If you're still buried in snow and frozen earth, have faith.  The seeds are there, just waiting for the right time to grow.  Happy spring!

Pixel Scrapper April 2013 Blog Train-Birds and Bees

Marisa Lerin from Pixel Scrapper hosted a blog train.
People were given an open invitation to participate.
A color palette and theme was provided. (We voted on this part.)

With approximately a month to create something, I got to work.  I quickly realized that it was going to be challenging for me.  I worked at it almost every day, trying to decide what people might want in a scrapbook kit.  Finally, I came up with some papers and elements to share.  Here are previews for the digital scrapbooking kit that I've created.

Download Elements here
Download Papers here

I had so much fun, I didn't want to stop.  Fortunately, the blog train is going live on April 1. I had to finalize everything or miss the train.  This is no April Fool!  Since it's my first digital kit ever, I would greatly appreciate any comments you wish to share.    This was a little intimidating because many of the participants are experienced at this type of thing.   One of the greatest things was that there were also some newbies like me.  Everyone was so encouraging!  Your feedback will help me a lot, especially with designing the next kit!

After you download my parts of the blog train, please return here for the rest of the links.  I almost forgot-I'd love to add to my blog followers so please sign up if you're interested.

Inspiration Avenue Challenge-My Home Town

Maggie challenged us with creating an image about our homes.  I've been working on designing a digital scrapbooking kit (my first) for a Pixel Scrapper Blog Hop so I've had scrapbooking on my mind.  I decided to take some photos of things in my front and back yards.

I must apologize to all of you who are still surrounded by snow.  It's spring here, as you can see from the photos.  I've included pictures of my yard and I've enhanced the page by adding samples of the flora and fauna that surround me.  I love flowers and these are some of the types I grow, both on purpose and accidentally, like the dandelion and violets.  I just felt I needed to be honest.  I have dandelions blooming madly in the grass.  Lots.  I tend to remove the dandelions but I treasure the violets.  And yes, we have fabulous bats and owls that live in the cypress tree and palm tree next door. 

The photos of my orange and cypress trees are my own.  I have to thank the morguefiles database for the critters.  There's lots more in my backyard.  Some lilacs, apple trees, oleander, wisteria, dogs, a pool, and a spa that is no longer functioning.  But I love the orange and tangerine trees the most.  They've just budded and the blossoms have the sweetest smell on earth.  I wish I could somehow have a way to share it.  The cypress tree has something living inside, we believe.  The hole you see goes into the tree.  The orange peels on the bottom picture are where he, or she, chucks out the peels after eating the oranges.  I suspect the little guy is eating tangerines too.  We've seen the opossums and raccoons in the yard so we know they're there.  We've seen skunks too, but we try to pretend we haven't.

Please forgive me for having spring when so many are just longing to see the first crocus pop out of the ground.  Remember, I have black widow spiders too.  And by the time the east coast experiences spring, my flowers will be mostly gone.

I had fun sharing a glimpse of my home.   Thanks for visiting.  Stop by Inspiration Avenue to see the other entrants' home towns.  Just click here

Inspiration Avenue Tag Swap-Results

On Inspiration Avenue, we hosted a fun tag swap last month.  The theme was Hearts in honor of Valentine's Day and the American Heart Association.  Each player made three tags based on that theme and sent them to three different recipients.  Here are pictures of the three wonderful tags I received.

Velody sent me this tag.  I loved the simplicity of design and the special details done with a needle and thread.  The back was simply white.  You can visit her website here.

Lisa DiNunzio of Priti Studio send me this fabulous bookmark.  One of her original paintings is printed on the front with a poem.  I typed the words because I thought they might be hard to see.  You can visit Lisa's blog here. 

Andrea Friedell created this tag with a special pocket.  Inside the pocket was a mini painting and another tag with a special inspiring quote on the back.  The back of the large tag was made using red embossed paper with Valentine text.  You can visit Andrea at her website here.

Each of the tags was so unique and I loved each one for different reasons.  I want to say "Thank you" to Velody, Lisa, and Andrea for sending such beautiful artwork.  I also want to thank all of the people who participated in this swap.  It was my first tag swap and it was lots of fun.  Check out the others by visiting Inspiration Avenue.  You can also view and/or participate in this week's Swap Celebration by making a tag of your own.  Just click here!

Inspiration Avenue Challenge-Show and Tell

This week I was in charge of choosing a theme for our challenge.  I used to love bringing things for show and tell when I was a child and I loved doing it when I was a teacher.  The kids enjoyed bringing their treasures and having a moment in the spotlight to share about them.  I figured that many of us link up to challenges because we have a desire to share something special that we've created.  I decided to share something that hadn't already appeared somewhere on my blog.  

At least, I think it hasn't been shared.

I made this collage for a 4x4 swap I have been participating in.  Each month, we had a new person to make a collage for, according to that person's likes/dislikes.  I made this for someone who likes "vintage everything, nature, and cemetery."  This was the image on the front.  I made the second collage for the back.

I chose the quote by Robert Frost because it really seemed appropriate for the image and for life in general.  I hope you'll visit Inspiration Avenue here and see the wonderful entries.