Finding Shapes 2 - Rectangles

Didn't I know this from my writing days - I really can go on tweaking anything I create forever, if I don't simply post it somewhere and call it finished. I used to write and rewrite and rewrite a little poem again and again, literally for years, and now I notice I'm doing the same to my pictures. So it's high time to post these pictures off and be done with them and tackle something new.

I took the first picture in May 2012 while travelling towards Scotland with my students. We stayed overnight in Zwolle, and I found this pretty door on our evening walk in town.

Red Door

I layered the picture with texture Waterfront 17 by Kim Klassen altogether four times with various blending modes, masking off various sections of the texture on each layer.

The second picture dates from the same trip. This time we were heading back home and walked about in Lübeck, waiting to take our boat home across the Baltic Sea. It's just another office building somewhere in the city centre, but I found it attractive, especially how the top floor windows reflected the blue sky and the ones downstairs remained black, but also other contrasts, such as the elaborate 19th century door frame and the modern door with company logos.

Looking at the sky

I started processing this photo as another textured image, but was never quite satisfied with it. Then I revisited some digital scrapbooking sites and ran across these techniques of making a photo look part like a drawing, part like a painting. Tried it, and still wasn't quite happy with it, so I went on to try out another new technique, using frames but painting partly outside the frame. These techniques are certainly something I'm going to play with later on, too.
 Resources:
- Brushes & frame
- Brush stamp 
- Papers 
- Font 1
- Font 2 

The third picture is from Salzburg, on a trip we took to the World Dog Show immediately after my trip to Scotland. We walked along the Salzach under a bridge, and high up there was this cage, for maintenance, I suppose.

Kein Eintritt

This one was created much like the one above: I started by texturing the photo, then decided needed a frame, then decided I'd make it into a scrapbooking layout. *sigh* Now I'm letting go of it. No more tweaking.

 Resources:
- texture Cool Grunge by Kim Klassen 
- mask by Julie Mead Designs
- background paper from paper pack Green Finch and Linnet Bird by myself
 - font Dusty Rose NF
- font Mary Helen JF

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme free paper pack

A free paper pack you can download. I created these actually already in May, watching all the different greens emerge. Spring always brings to my mind a certain part of a poem by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. It's a song old Bilbo Baggins sang in Rivendell, I think, when he gave Frodo Sting and his mithril-coat.

"For still there are so many things

That I have never seen

In every wood in every spring

There is a different green"

Anyway, the title of the pack comes from a very different song, which I also love. I give you exactly one guess as to what the song is called. ˆ__ˆ 

Click the image to go to the download page. Enjoy!

Finding Shapes 1 - Squares

Beyond Layers day 63 challenge was to find and photograph geometric shapes. The first shape was a square. Here I'm posting two square pictures.  The first one was taken in February when we were rehearsing for our Easter week performance of Stabat Mater. These are windows in the Suomussalmi church. There was beautiful light, but I needed to lighten and smooth the image up, so I applied a bokeh texture.

Winter Light

Resources:
- texture from October 2012 Bokeh Set by Jerry Jones @ Shadowhouse Creations

The second photo was taken at the Gallery of Modern art in Glasgow. All in all, I found the building itself far more interesting than the exhibitions at the time I visited the gallery. To match the flowing shapes in the windows, I applied a texture to give the same kind of effect to the rest of the photo.

Blue Window

Resources:
- texture from Creative Black Mask 2 Collection by Denise Love @ 2 Lil’ Owls Studio

All By Myself free paper pack

Yet another freebie paper pack I've created this spring: All By Myself. Click the preview to get to the download page. Enjoy!

Freebie paper pack Wineberries, Dogwood and Tea

Here's another free digital scrapbooking paper pack for you. Click the preview to be taken to the download page. Enjoy! 

I Can See Clearly Now paper pack

Here's another free scrapbooking paper pack for your pleasure.  Just click the image to be taken to the download page. Enjoy.

Pieces of Me, Days 4 & 5

I'm posting some pictures to the originally one-week Beyond Layers challenge Pieces of me. This'll be the last installment in the series. On the fourth day the topic I chose was A Light Fixture.

The light in the first picture is one of many at my work place, they are all over the building, along corridors and in the concert halls. I think they are lovely in their clarity and simplicity, they create a beautiful play of light and shade against the white walls. The picture was taken on a  typically dark Friday afternoon last December when I was walking the corridors and thinking how I longed for more light, and how the days would still continue to grow shorter.

Resources:

- font Denigan by Måns Grebäck

The challenge for the second photo was a favourite beverage. Well, I have many, tea being the everyday favourite. This one is a sort of festive variety, Chai Latte - I first tasted it a couple of years ago in Britain and have since discovered it is to be had in Finland as well, but unfortunately not in my home town, so I can only have it when travelling. This particular drink was enjoyed at Birmingham Airport on our way back home from the Crufts Dog Show in March 2013. It still makes my mouth water.

Resources:

- font Chopin Script by ClaudeP

- brush by Coreaux 

- texture Soft and Sweet by Kim Klassen

The third photo was brought aboout by the prompt Through your window. The squirrel seated on the roof of our woodshed is one of at least eight that have frequented our bird feeding post this winter. They still hang around, since we still feed the birds, because the nights are so cold, below zero almost every night. Now they have started to change colour, most of them are wearing their summer clothes and have turned red or at least reddish.

Frequent Visitor

Resources:- texture Revolution by Kim Klassen

Sharing at Texture Tuesday