Snow Bunny and Snowman Card

Well, it's been a few months since I scrap booked and to be honest, I haven't done a whole lot in the last year.  It's been nice to actually create something again.  Here's a fun little card that I made using some of my Christmas stash!  I love the little bunny and pink as a winter color.  The little bunny is from a KaDoodle Bug Designs set that has been retired.  I think she's so cute though.  One of the reasons I haven't been scrapping lately is I haven't found a "reader" that I like since google reader shut down.  I know a lot of people switched to bloglovin, but I don't like that I can't search the listings.  I like to search for the current challenges and haven't found one that will search the title AND the content.   Has anyone found a reader that you can actually do a search like that on?  Sometimes it's nice to search by a topic in a the list and I haven't found one that will do that yet.  Very sad....  If you've found one you love, please let me know.  I've tried 3 or 4 and none of them have a search function that will search the content and the title.  Sigh....  Anyway, I've missed the motivation that the challenges give me and so I tried searching the blogs I follow the hard way to see what challenges were going on.  I found several but boy, it took a long time.  Since I went to all that work, I'm entering it into these challenges!  LOL.  Please share if you've found a good reader....I'm getting desperate around here!  :-)


http://diecuttindivas.blogspot.com/2014/01/challenge-150-winter-fun.html
http://lovetocreatechallenge.blogspot.com/2014/01/challenge-100-sketch.html
http://cricutcraftyclare.blogspot.com/2014/01/fccb-challenge-195.html
http://southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2014/01/its-all-new.html
http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.com/2014/01/craft-tell-your-hearts-content.html
http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2014/01/fccb-challenge-194-use-snowman.html
http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com/2014/01/dlart-thankful-thursday-january-linky.html
http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/2013/12/januarys-just-because-linky-party.html
http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/2014/01/pile-it-on-4-animals.html

Halloween Wtich Hat Sucker Holders

 

 

My friend came over today and we made these cute little wtich hat sucker holders.  I think they turned out so cute.  They were really easy also.  The hardest part was the bow.  I have the hardest time getting bows to look right.  I need someone to come and teach me!  :-)  LOL.  Overall though, we made a dozen of these pretty quickly.  We took them to some ladies in our church and had some for our kids' school and music teachers.  Just a cute little "Thank You" gift.   I believe the file was an SVGCuts files.  The orange paper is several years old and is Halloween double sided.  I bought a whole pack of it and am still using it.  LOL.

http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/10/pile-it-on-42-halloweenday-of-deadcute.html
www.2creativechicks.com/2013/10/challenge-7-halloween.html
http://www.craftindesertdivas.com/2013/10/halloween-linky-party.html
http://creativecuttingchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/10/challenge-21-halloween-not-card.html
http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/2013/10/sos-124-halloween-or-orange-black.html
http://doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com/2013/10/for-my-husband-loving-you-card-new.html anything goes with a stamp
http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/10/boo-come-check-out-our-challenge-and.html orange paper

Vinyl Faced Pumpkin

This year was fun.  We were carving pumpkins and I decided to use vinyl.  A little while ago, I got the pumpkin file from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs and new it would make a cute face on my real pumpkin not to mention the pieces I can make to scrap the page with!  LOL.  Anyway, here is my pumpkin using these patterns for my pumpkin.  I think it turned out cute not to mention easy peasy and not as messy.  Gotta love that!

Bear Card

Since I decided to make a few cards for my stash since I haven't scrapbooked anything in months, here's another card I made.

http://aninkysituation.blogspot.ca/2013/09/linky-party-8-teddy-bears.html use a teddy bear
Die Cutting Divas Teddy Bear
http://redcarpetstudiochallenge.blogspot.com/2013/09/rcs-52-anything-else.html anything goes

Ginger Girl Birthday Card

Here's another cute little Birthday Card.  These little gingers are so cute.  They came from KaDoodle Bug Designs and I love them.

http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/seize-birthday-with-toppings.html Birthday Card
http://www.pinkcricut.com/2013/09/link-tuesday-57/ link party
http://creativecuttingchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/09/challenge-18-anything-goes.html anything goes
http://redcarpetstudiochallenge.blogspot.com/2013/09/rcs-52-anything-else.html anything goes

Girly Gingerbread Card

I haven't scrapped anything in forever so I decided to jump back in and make a couple of cards.  So here is my cute little gingerbread card.  Isn't she just the cutest.  She came from KaDoodle Bug Designs.  I decided to enter it into these challenges....

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge Sketch
Little Scrap Pieces Link Party
http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-just-because-linky-party.html Link Party
http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com/2013/09/dlart-thankful-thursday-september-linky.html link party
http://paperplaytime.blogspot.com/2013/09/ch-18-use-3-different-papers.html 3 different papers
http://redcarpetstudiochallenge.blogspot.com/2013/09/rcs-52-anything-else.html







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Photo troubles.....

Since I was having trouble with the photos on the Pentax forum, I decided to post here for the day so people could see and comment on the photos!  Thanks....sorry... not sure why it didn't work from the forum but I appreciate your time to comment and help!!!!  I also posted my post below the pictures if it helps so you aren't bouncing back and forth....

Hi.  I recently purchased my first dslr a Pentax K-x and I have a couple of questions.  I have had really good results with macro photos with nice bokeh but I am struggling with portraits.  I bought my camera to learn to take professional like photos of my kids....only I'm not having good luck.  Often, they are blurry.  I've attached a couple that I have taken for you to see and offer any tips.... if I attach a photo here, can you see the exif info to look at the settings I used so you can give me pointers.  I've seen amazing photos shot with this camera but I have a lot to learn.  I took a class that moved me from auto mode to AV and so I have been playing with the settings AV and ISO but some of my outdoor photos in midday on a cloudy day take ISO 800 to 1600???  That doesn't seem right....on a outdoor day if the ISO is that high, what kind of photos will I get in a gym or inside?  

I have single point focus on, continuous focus selected,  image stabilization on,  and I've been centering my subject within the bracket in the viewfinder and yet it is sharper at other points than the middle section I have focused on.  I've been waiting for the little image stabilization light and also the focus light to come on before shooting and still not in foucs.  Not sure what's happening.  I would appreciate your help and thoughts if you have a minute to help a newbie.  (Thanks!)

Image 1:  Photo 1 is of 3 people.  ….. kits lens 18-55,  F11, 800, dark and no one really in focus…..  Do I need to go up to f13 or 16 and down on the iso then?  I guess I just can't figure out why all these photos are so dark.

Image 2:
The second image is actually taken with a 50mm 1.7 lens manual focus lens  at 5.6, auto WB, ISO 800 and yet it's so dark AND out of focus.  It was a cloudy day, but this was taken at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and it was NOT dark....  The rocks behind him are in focus but he is way out of focus and yet I had the bracket set on his face????  It seems that if I have several feet behind my subject, my photos are more in focus, but how do I get an in focus photo when the person is next to a wall or rocks like in this case?

Image 3:  The car appears to be in focus, but not the girl?  These settings were f6.3, ISO 200, auto WB, center weighted.  Once again the car behind her is focused like above on the rocks, but not the person....  and yet I've used 2 different lenses and gotten the same results.

In all 3 photos, the time of day and lighting were very similar and yet I have 2 at ISO 800 and one at 200 and they are all darker than they should be?

Image 4 was taken and the buffalo is still a little out of focus....I think this one is because I had it set at f4, ISO 200 and probably a 7.1 would be better?  Yes/No?  I took several of him and they are all about the same.

Image 5 was a ground squirrel....locked in on him in the center of the frame and he's out of focus also.   He's at f7.1 and ISO 800....I took several of him also and they are all still slightly out of focus???

What am I doing wrong?  I would love your thoughts and ideas as this is what I purchased the camera for.

I have taken tons of macro shots with the different lenses and a few of birds and I've gotten some really good shots (some not so good either but that's to be expected)  but people are not working for me.

Would love to hear your insights!  Thanks so much!