A small Japanese village, at the foot of Mount Fuji, May 1970

This tiny village was so small, so intimate, it felt as if we were trespassing.

As I glanced through the open doorways I noticed the ground of dirt and 
pebbles running right through to the living area of some of the homes.

My camera was far too invasive to take many pictures, so l only took this and

another of the beautiful windsock carps that flew strong and proud above the rooftops.

Tango no sekku is the celebration of Boys Day in Japan, and each carp 

symbolizes a son in the family, a very large one for the eldest and the rest ranging down in size.  

Blended and Textured design

I found a couple of the background blended papers that I had done with the help of Doug Landreth's  texture, and the techniques learned in his class last week, so Photoshop didn't eat the lot of them up after all.  These are more like my own, older style, but not as grungy.   I'd like to get some images and play more with texture and Photoshop.

Brilliant colors

I'm designing background papers for greeting cards and art canvas blocks for the wall.  I have a little idea of the type of images I want on the cards, but need to work on it some more.

I'm still cleaning up the paper pack I promised way back when, but many of the papers weren't nice and clean when magnified.  I'll eventually finish cleaning some up and will place them in a mini kit.  The designs are coming out much clearer since I quit blending layers all together in Photoshop - a few layers at a time appear to work much better for what I'm doing.

Leah Papers. I would love a hint - Do you prefer the pastel or bright?

Please click image for a larger size    

I want to celebrate the flower because they're celebrating The Chelsea Flower Show in London right now, and I would so love to be there. I also want to celebrate our new granddaughter whom we met for the first time a few days ago and she's as pretty as a perfect flower. Welcome to your new country and your new family Leah.
----------------------------------
This is a peek at the papers I'm working on named Leah to celebrate the flower and this sweet little girl. I've many of the same design but different colors and I understand people not liking re-colored papers, but these have been re-colored through a process of blending and adding a variety of multicolored layers and textures, and not simply re-colored in Photoshop's Hue and Saturation mode. I wonder if this is realized? Anyway I'm trying to get a few more different papers to to with these. They'll be free as usual.

The Chelsea Flower Show is put on by the Royal Horticultural Society in Chelsea, London each May. This is possibly the most famous gardening event in the world and because it's so popular, tickets have to be bought in advance. The first couple of days is only open to RHS members.



Sorry, the Digital Paper Freebies are no longer available. 
~~ chris

Christmas Decorations

Bria no longer a baby!

Bria
We haven't seen you since before we left for our trip and what surprise to see you have grown so much - from a baby to a toddler. Where did that baby nose and those big saucer eyes go?

Everything from DesignerDigitals.com except the glass balls and the background papers. Oh, and the stitching holes that I scanned a number of years ago from real stitching holes.
.......................................................................................

The glass balls: (This isn't a tutorial, just the steps I took)
for the ball cover I used Filters: Render > Lens Flare and Distort >Polar Coordinates
then used the tools: Transform, Radial Gradient, and Color Burn.

Underneath with Katie's ornament brush, I took it into styles and played around with stripes and a couple of other styles (turned off the shadows because it would flatten the ball. A real hanging ball would send a cast shadow if close to a wall or such)

Then tweaked with the Burn and Dodge tools, and set the transparency for the glass cover so the underneath pattern would show through (had to add more highlights because of this)
Katie's ornament brush was great because it already had a pattern, top, and hanger.

Oh Christmas Tree

Our grandson about four years ago!

all from Jofia's Warm Christmas kit

"Christmas Dinner Menu, 2007"

Click pics to enlarge.

THE MENU:
While waiting for the rest of the family, Lauren lights the
candles to warm the table for Christmas Dinner. Prime rib,
roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding are keeping warm,
while Lauren’s chocolate fondue with strawberries, chocolate
cake balls, and other delicacies to dip, wait until after we’ve
opened our gifts. Linda and family are on their way with
the vegetables and an apple pie for dessert.
In the hustle of finishing the dinner, I forget the bread
and spinach salad, but because of all the other foods these
aren’t missed!

Credits:
Jessica Sprague template
From Designer Digitals:
Dana Zarling Paper: Grungy Christmas
Katie Pertiet: Old Time Christmas Kit
Doodle Do Title Borders
Lil Metal Charms_Christmas Collection

"Christmas Day"

Linda, our oldest daughter in front of the tree on her first Christmas. I remember the toys well. The tall plastic sailor toy went missing while we were visiting New York the following year. She'd thrown it out of the car window!
Everything by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.

Faces of Christmas

Jessica Sprague template
from Designer Digitals:
Dana Zarling: Grungy Christmas
Pattie Knox: FeltFriends_Reindeer Dudes

They really did wear dresses that short back then!
My daughters outside our home in Yokohama, Japan about 1970


I used De Anna's (Rubia) wonderful outline technique she shared at Designer Digitals

Paper from KPertiet_VintageWinter
Frame - KPertiet_SunPrintFrames-3.png
Butterfly from Katie Pertiet
Rhonna Farrer bird
IOD papers apron strings
Chris (me) tears and brushes
font :earwig factory, CK Double Mou

Sunday morning