Wyoming Wildlife

Here are a few of the pages I've gotten done about our recent trip to Yellowstone and the animals there. We had a few glitches in our travel plans, I guess that's what makes the memories more special huh? But all in all it was a wonderful time and a place we would return to in a heartbeat. I've a couple more pages to do on the animals and I'll post them as soon as I'm done. There's just so many fabulous shots that I want to scrap it could fill a book all on this trip alone!

For these pages I've used Maddy Fernandez's As The Deer Page Set, Maddy sells at Digitals, please check out her store!

Journaling on the Deer page reads:
The animals of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons were in abundance when we visited. We saw these deer on three different occasions.

The top photo was taken in the fields and marsh directly in front of Jackson Lake Lodge. At first I saw two ‘somethings’ off in the distance. I was trying to point them out to Paul, thinking they were some type of signs, but why signs way out there? About the time this thought crossed my mind they moved! After refocusing my eyes I realized what I was looking at were Elk. Scanning the fields we spotted this herd to the East. Just munching their way through the grasses. I’ve grown up with deer and Elk in our backyard in Washington State, but this was like a stage production just put on for our benefit, although I’m sure these guys would beg to differ.

The middle photo was taken on the day we took the tour through Yellowstone. Actually this guy was across the stream but with the wonder of telephoto lens he came full to life in print. He was so beautiful, just like a picture postcard just oblivious to all us tourists angling for just the right shot of him.

The bottom photo was taken on our way to Jackson, just past the airport. The mule deer were right alongside the roadway. I wonder if the people of Jackson Hole ever get used to animals always within their view, I can’t imagine not being struck by their beauty each time you see them. I loved these guys, with their soft floppy ears they looked like they could be a best friend, not animals of nature.

Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons
exactly the right spot to see nature at it’s best!

Journaling on Bison page:
On Tour in Yellowstone we stopped to see the Thermal hot spots. Just as we got off the van and rounded the corner here was this Bison taking an afternoon siesta! They are huge animals, close to six feet at the shoulder and easily close to or over 2000 lbs.

This one looks peaceful doesn’t he? Well the ranger was close at hand with hand on the pepper spray strapped to her leg. We stopped and chatted with her a while. She said it makes her real uneasy when the Bison decide to venture so close. Mind you there were lots and lots of people, including a lot of small children, wandering around.

I think because of their appearance you have the feeling they are slow and dumb. Quite the contrary. We were told they can jump a 4 to 6’ high fence with barely any running distance. And are equal competitors to short distance Olympic sprinters. It upped our respect of them a lot!

Journaling on the Moose Page:
On the back of Jackson Lake Lodge is a viewing area. You can sit and have breakfast or coffee in the morning or wander out any time of the day to sit on the benches and see if you spot animals in the grass and marshlands leading up to the Lake. On this particular morning we spotted this moose just running across. It’s the first time I’d ever seen a moose up close or far away. I was excited!

The day we took the raft trip down the Snake River the youngest guy aboard (he was 7) spotted the Moose in the upper photo just grazing beside the River as we floated by. He was much much closer than the first. I think I was struck by how large he was! We were told by several of the guides that they have ‘strong’ personalities! I’m glad we weren’t any closer!

Outasite!

I found this picture of Angi and Derik in amongst the Christmas ones for 2003. The photo was cool but Angi's face was too dark and I couldn't get the colors right. I started playing with the blending modes and ended up with the one called Hard Mix. I love the effect. I'm going to try it again for a large photo for above Angis sofa, as soon as she finds what she wants, then we'll print and frame it and see what the reactions are. Boy the possibilities are limitless with Photoshop!

I used two kits from Maddy Fernandez (at Digitals) Rock & Roll and Funky Farmer.

Granny Goose and Me

Glenda Ketchum shared an album she just finished and I loved how she wrote the pages from the baby's perspective. When I went to do this page of Mom and Evie I thought I'd try it and was really happy with the way it turned out, besides documenting this trip they took.

Here's the Journaling:
My sister Alyssa and I (my name is Evie) live in Virginia with my Mom and Dad. Daddy is in the Navy and he has to go out on the ship, sometimes for weeks at a time so then it’s just us three girls that get to play together.

Mommy and Daddy decided we should make this big trip across the
United States to see my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. After we broke in their house and scattered all our stuff around they took us to Longview where our Great Grandma and Grandpa Mahnke live. Wow all these Grandmas with all these hugs and kisses. I’m a really big star here in Washington, well Alyssa is too, but I’m the newest one in the family so I’ve really been getting a lot of attention.

After we played with Sparky, Great Grandmas fluffy little bundle of dog, they decided we should all go see another Grandma, how many can a girl have I wonder? This time it was to see Great Great Grandma Coulter, sure are a lot of Greats in her name! My Grandma always calls her Granny Goose and I think I kinda like that name too, so from now on she’s going to be my Granny Goose who lives in Washington. They say Granny is old, she’s 96 but I don’t think she looks old. She can still hold me in her lap and hug me and play with me, so that’s not old, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about.

We sure do have a BIG family in Washington, my Auntie Krysta that’s my Mommy’s sister) still lives in Vancouver with Grandma and Grandpa. Then there all these other Uncles and Aunts and they all have that Great name in front of theirs again, it’s so confusing for someone my age.

I think I’ve decided I like them all and they all seemed to like me too!

This was done with Maddy Fernandez's Sugar n Spice kit and her Frilly Border Templates & Doodles (this is a cool kit with endless possibilities, you should check it out!). You can find all of Maddy's things at Digitals.

Out Home

This is a photo of our family home on Bunker Hill. The only home I knew growing up. It's just a single photo and a thousand memories. I called Momma last night and read her the journaling and took her back with my memories to a simpler time, well simpler for me but I'm sure a much more physical, demanding time in her life.

This was created with a new kit from Maddy Fernandez called Nuts About You at Digitals. It's a great fall kit, if you haven't used Maddy's things there is no time like the present to check them out and see what you've been missing.

Jouranling Reads:
What is this you ask, a photo of a house? No it’s a photo filled with so many memories I don’t know where to begin. This is our home, the only one I ever knew, on Bunker Hill in the Southwestern part of Washington State.

When Mom and Dad moved here it was a small 3 room house with no running water, no indoor plumbing except in the kitchen and a trek from Longview, the closest town. With determination, inner strength and a love for one another they built it into the home you see before you. And it was a home, not a house, but a home, filled with laughter, huge family dinners and always people. Friends came on vacation from California that knew the folks when they lived there, neighbors from the hill or town, family from near or far. Everyone came to see the folks, visit, laugh and enjoy the newest baked goods coming from Mom’s oven. California visitors relished in the spring water that flowed year round to our home and for many years my Uncles as well on up the road. Nothing will ever compare to that wonderfully clear, very cold water we always took for granted.

When you look at the picture you see these beautiful Maple trees. Dad had a spike in the one by the driveway for years trying to glean the sap like the NE trees. The big oil truck would come to feed the oil drum for the oil furnace in the living room, It had a little door that swung open to light it, and it’s warmth drew our little turtles we had one year, but that wasn’t a good thing for them.

To the right of the picture, not in the view but in my mind were the holly trees. We had several different kinds of holly. Mom would pick them along with fir boughs and send them to our relatives down south so they could have a little piece of us with them through the Christmas Holiday.

It never seemed a big place, just lots of wide open space, clean fresh air and trees everywhere you looked. So much of nature surrounded this home, walnut trees, blackberries, huckleberries along the culverts up the road, apples crisp and sweet their flesh as white as could be except for the pink blush in the middle. Necterberries that grew under the clothesline that stretched down the back yard, bing cherries that turned your lips deep purple and your hands to match, how wonderful to sit in the fork of the cherry tree and just eat to your hearts content.

This picture is way back before Daddy planted the laurel hedge that edged the driveway and across the front. But it’s so wonderful to gaze at the porch and see yourself there a hundreds times, coming and going. It’s always a joy to go ‘Out Home’ even though now I must do it in my heart and in my soul.

Grandma's Days

Last month I completed almost all of the Challenges at Digitals.
I've never been very good about doing very many of the store challenges around the digital world but since becoming more involved on the Digital stores CT team I've given it a go. What I learned was it made me step out of my comfort zone and try things differently. This is a real good thing, you tend to get 'set in your ways', lol. A little nudge in different directions is a good thing!

I did this page for the September Font Free4All Challenge. This is a super simple one this month, pick your favorite font(s), explain why you like them and where they can be gotten from.

I used Adorable and Angelina both from daFonts and both free downloads. BEWARE! if you've not visited a free font site before, grab that cup of coffee and get comfy, because you may be there a while. It's like a digital kid in a digital candy store.

I wanted to scrap a variety of photos of this period of my Grandma, again, as I've said before I was amazed to see my father's face reflected in this young version of Grandma. Perhaps I'm hiding in there somewhere, nope, I think I got her disposition instead, which some would say was good, others might tend to differ.

Notepaper reads: Photos of Elsie Ann Debus Coulter. Dates are from 1918-1919 and would have been in and around Los Angeles, California Top left photo is taken with sister Lillian.

I used Maddy Fernandez Funky Farmer kit again, I love the colors in this kit it works so well with this age of photos. It's a Digitals, check it out, if it doesn't suit what you need Maddy has a ton of others that will!

I played with one of the flourishes in Maddy's kit. The Photo Dividers were done by duplicating, flipping and merging Maddy's flourish, adding an Action FX style, duplicating again and changing one to horizontal and one to vertical and then resizing to fit. It's so fun to try something new this way and see how much more versatile you can make a kit, and how you can best fit it to your scrapping needs. Try it you'll like it! Just don't forget if you post it to a gallery or online group, note the changes and don't take credit for designing - remember to give credit where credit is due to the talented designer you got the kit from! (By posting your changes you not only note that what you've created is not what they will get in the kit but also give someone an idea or solution of how to accomplish what you've done.)

Oh yes the quote, appropriate I thought. My sister sends out Thoughts for Today to a multitude of people around the world. If you're interested on getting on the list email her at Carols-Thought-for-Today-subscribe@googlegroups.com. There is no spam just a wonderful little quote each day in your email to get you going. Today's was this quote, it came from a church billboard. So look everywhere, there is inspiration to be found where ever you are.

Toot Toot LOTD at 3Scrapateers!

AT THE FAIR

I was just notified that my page was picked as Layout - of the Day at 3Scrapateers!

This one was about the most fun I've had creating a page. I had asked Bryan and Amber to take some pictures when they went to the fair. They'd just gotten a new Nikon camera. So when the photos came in my email I was so excited. And what did I get?? The little guys in the filmstrip above, a bunny, a chicken and a mean old rooster!

Well being the Momma I am I just couldn't do a page of just animals, so I borrowed a couple of famous people and decapitated them then I took the heads off a couple of pictures of the kids and poof, just like digital magic I now had them appropriately dressed and at the fair.

You've heard the saying don't fool with Mother Nature, well it's not nice to fool with your Mother-in-Law either, lol, (my son-in-law thinks I'm evil but he still loves me!)

The kit is a great new one by Maddy Fernandez and is available at Digitals. It's called Funky Farmer. Maddy has another one she did just before this called Calico Farm they work great together. I hope you'll take time to check her stuff out, it's fabulous.

It's so fun to work with Photo Shop and all this digital stuff. Thanks for stopping.

The Pout!

I did this page for the August Lets Talk About Challenge at Digitals where you were to try and use conversation within your page. I had just gotten this photo of Mom and talked to her yesterday about it so it seemed a perfect match.

Journaling Reads:
Momma is now 96. She recently took a ride to visit my Aunt Hulda and while their her nieces, Renie and Donna Lee, showed her vintage photos that they were scrapping. Momma looked at this picture and instantly said "I told them I didn't want my picture taken" so they "got a pout". Isn't it amazing what 90 plus years later the mind remembers?

Last evening while chatting on the phone I told her "I have this wonderful photo of you Renie sent me after you left yesterday". Her response, "Oh yes me sitting on the stoop, and my pout, well that's what they got". You gotta love her!

Momma has never like her picture taken. I have lots of side views, hands over face, downward casts but I didn't realize it went clear back to childhood. And I wonder why someone so pretty would not want their picture taken!

I used Maddy Fernandez's Treasure Chest another perfect match to go with Mom's picture. It's a great kit with lots of vintage items like these chests and rich warm browns. I love it.