paper: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

_{© Ali Edwards}

I am Ali Edwards and I love this photo because it is so Simon. The sheepish little grin. The coat & gloves. He’s in one of his most favorite spots in the whole world at my parent’s place on the Oregon Coast in the tall grass. I love how much he loves it there.

An advocate for not making things more complicated than they need to be & embracing imperfection, Ali Edwards shares cool concepts, design, and project ideas in her idea books: A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking, A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper, Life Artist, and Sharing Your Story: Recording Life’s Details with Mini Books. She also writes a monthly column, Studio A, in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. Ali lives in Eugene, Oregon. She enjoys travel, reading, politics from the sidelines, and spending time with her husband and two children. Read Ali’s blog here for a variety of scrapbook projects and notes from everyday life.

photo ©shesawthings.

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I love this photo… is a special series of posts this week, featuring favourite images from some fabulous scrapbookers and friends. I hope you enjoy! -S.

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You know how I said I love blue skies? It seems they are in abundance here.

Whether you have blue skies above or whether you need to focus on things indoors that show your blues, today is all about the colour blue, from navy to periwinkle and everything in between.

Snap away and show off your blues! Link us up in the comments below for a chance to win a blue-themed art print. Entries close at the end of the month, like the rest of the colour challenges!

xlovesx

PS: those of you looking for Ali’s guest post—you’ll see it here later today! Thanks for dropping by – we would love for you to join in our week of photography by colour.

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_{© Kelly Purkey}

I’m Kelly Purkey and I love this photo because it makes the city seem so magical. The starbursts of the lights, the purple sky, the gold lights, and the beauty of the buildings make me feel like I got to live somewhere really special.

Kelly Purkey lives in New York, NY, where there is inspiration around every corner. You may have seen her work in Creating Keepsakes magazine, where she has been a Dream Team member for 2008 and 2009. She also designs for Fiskars Brands, American Crafts and Two Peas in a Bucket. Other than scrapbooking, she loves traveling, curling up with a good book, laughing with friends and cupcakes with lots of icing. Visit Kelly’s blog here.

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I love this photo… is a special series of posts this week, featuring favourite images from some fabulous scrapbookers and friends. I hope you enjoy! -S.

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So is this the day when it seems like I have the idea of a month of colour all wrong? Today we’re going to focus on shades of grey and black.

Sometimes you can find shades of grey just by pointing the camera down to the ground rather than up where the brighter colours live.

Or maybe keep your camera clicking once the sun has gone down so you can capture the places you see by daylight in the shadows instead of the sun.

Or silhouette the subject of your photo with plenty of back lighting.
Or of course you could convert a photo from colour to black and white to see how the look changes.

So today, keep your eyes open for interesting shadows and the places without the bright colours today. Upload somewhere and share a link in the comments today for a chance at today’s prize—each day this week has an art print as a prize, in a colour to match the day’s theme.

Happy snapping!

xlovesx

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_{© Cathy Zielske}

I’m Cathy Zielske and I love this photo because my daughter is so friggin’ cool, it kills me. She’s 13 and the hat, the buttons, the whole red vibe she’s got going on just says, “Yeah, I’m cool. What’s the problem?” I imagine if I could see her aura, which is not a skill I possess, it would be in varying shades of red.

Cathy Zielske is the former creative director for the now defunct, but much loved Simple Scrapbooks magazine. She’s the author of two best selling books on scrapbooking, Clean&Simple Scrapbooking, and the sequel by the same name. A graphic designer by trade, Cathy is currently teaching workshops online to help scrapbookers make pages that look good, and sound good. To find details on Cathy’s classes and read her amazing stories from day to day life, visit her blog at www.cathyzielske.com.

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I love this photo… is a special series of posts this week, featuring favourite images from some fabulous scrapbookers and friends.

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Camera ready? See what you can find in the realm of reds, roses and pinks today.

Share your photos and link them here for a chance at today’s prize!

xlovesx

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_{© Rhonna Farrer}

My name is Rhonna Farrer & I love this photo because I’m a colour addict! I adore this colourful photo! This colour display was found on the streets of Paris. Our jaws dropped at each window filled with colourful glee! Blue apples paired with green walls just took my breath away! I want to decorate a room like this in my house…so creative!

Family + Art + Teaching. This unique combination is what Rhonna enjoys most about digital scrapbooking. A wife and mother of three young children, there’s never any shortage of inspiration or creative material. As a designer in the greeting cards/gift industry, digital scrapbooking was a logical evolution for Rhonna. In 2004, she won the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest. She spent two years working as Creative Director for Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. And she worked with Two Peas in a Bucket as a Garden Girl & Digital Designer. She currently works with Heidi Swapp & Janet Hopkins at House of 3 where she designs & inspires with home decor, scrapbooking & paper products! In addition to her career as an artist, Rhonna has a degree in Art Education and has taught both nationally and internationally. You can read Rhonna’s blog here and find a multitude of projects to inspire!

Photo by NicholeV Photography

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I love this photo… is a special series of posts this week, featuring favourite images from some fabulous scrapbookers and friends. I hope you enjoy! -S.

Comment [9]

_{Photo mask available here, by Carina Gardner.}

One of the things that most inspired me about blogging has been something that pops up now and then called colour week. With one blogger announcing and hosting the week as it were, by posting photos from their life each with a certain colour as the focus. It sounds simple, and indeed it is, but I’ve always found it such a beautiful little peek into the things we notice every day, especially as I hopped from blog to blog to see how different the photos would be with the same colour at heart. Although it wasn’t something that I found in the circle of scrapbooking blogs, it was something that seemed like such a perfect project for a scrapbooker: taking time to document the colours of our everyday lives with photographs that could be blogged and possibly even end up in a crafty project or scrapbook page.

So this week, I hope you’re ready to pick up your camera. For each of the next seven days, we’ll focus on one colour each day. Get your camera in gear, take photos of that colour and share them with everyone if you would like! Join our Flickr group here, share photos on your blog, add them to the photography gallery at Two Peas or anywhere else you fancy. I have a little prize to give to one person each day…but I also think this is a project you might like even without the prize motivation! (But hey, prizes = fun, so there are still prizes!)

This week will be just about the photos: there will be posts with photos, about photography, and a few special guests will be stopping by to show you their favourite photographs. Next week, I promise there will be crafty goodness to coordinate, so don’t fret! (Plus that might give you time to catch up on a few of the challenges from last week!)

We start today…with the colour green. Take your camera around and see what green you can snap. Mix indoors and out, day and night if you like…and share your favourites. See what stories you find hiding in the greens of your day.

Be sure to leave a comment here with your favourite green shot or a link to your green post elsewhere. I’ll draw a name from all the comments for an 8×10 art print – entries close at the end of June, just like the other Month of Colour challenges.

Can’t wait to see everyone’s green images!

xlovesx

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