Beautiful Bokeh

 

I don’t have to venture far to find beautiful bokeh.  Up a flight of steps lies my loft studio and an enchanting world of beads, bokeh, and bling.  Swarovski crystals, sequins, and beads of every shape and size sit strewn across my work table.  They catch morning light, splashing bedazzling, dancing glimmer in every direction.

Where do you find your daily dose of visual inspiration?

Images and words courtesy of Anna VanDemark. You can find more of her photography, bead, and quilt work on her blog, Alchemy of Art.

Today's prompt: Something Purple. Hashtag #shuttersisters

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate today! Please share with us the activities, the dying, the hunts, the bunnies and stories in the comment section below.

And if you don't celebrate, have a most lovely, delightful Spring day!

beautiful mess

This time of year my home is covered in snips of paper, glitter and string. Creating seems to kick into a higher gear as we decorate and make gifts for the up coming holidays. My little ones are busy with paper snowflakes, snowmen, and hand drawn nutcrakers that get taped to every window.  I am sure these will be made again this year. (oh they smell so good!)  And of course there will be baking. Cookies of all shapes, a gingerbread house, flour dust and sugar sprinkles over every surface and floor.   I like to think of it as a beautiful mess.

What are you making these days?  Are you busy sewing? knitting? decorating?

Let's help celebrate this month's One Word 'beauty', and decorate the comments today with any creations or beautiful messes you have captured lately.

warmest wishes

Every year, about this time, I get asked to share Holiday photo tips. And with the popularity of photo greeting cards, the question always comes up asking for clever ideas for Holiday card photos. We had a series of posts called Great Greetings a few years back where I went into great detail about ideas, tips and tricks.

But, the other day, the folks at Martha Stewart Radioasked for ideas for listeners that don't have kids. It was one on a list of questions that we didn't even have time to cover on the segment (time flies when you're having fun chatting over the air waves) but it got me thinking. It's a really good question.

I began brainstorming about universal symbols of holidays, seasons, peace, joy, and of course, wishes. In other words, you most certainly don't have to use a family photo for your holiday card. There are more than enough ways to Picture the Holidays!

Today, I would love to hear (and see) some ideas from you. Share a photo of something that you think would be a fantastic holiday card photo. Who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to use these kinds of images as gift tags, on calendars, or other gifts! For as many images as there are to take, there are that many ways to share them. Inspire us!

2011 photo calendar templates

Sharing these photo calendar templates has become a yearly tradition at Shutter Sisters. They are a great way to use your own photos to create a custom gift for the holidays. The calendars are compact, cute, and something you can easily print and assemble at home.

Click here to download the zipped Photoshop files.

The files include basic instructions for creating your custom calendar pages in Photoshop. Then just print them on some photo paper or cardstock and cut them out.

These templates are sized to fit in a cd jewel case, but they can also be fastened together with a binder clip and hung on the wall (see photo below). If you choose to use a cd jewel case, you'll just need to carefully take apart the case and put it back together so that it stands up like the photo above.

I hope you enjoy creating your own photo calendar! Your friends and family will be thrilled to see something custom and handmade everyday. There's nothing better than a gift made with love.