Floral Photo Note Cards

These are samples of my floral photo note cards -- and some Grand Canyon and botanical garden scenes -- most of the flower photos are from our yard and gardens. The Writing Spider lives in my parents' yucca plant. (He's called the Writing Spider because of the zigs and zags he creates in his web, a creative device to help catch more insects. He's claimed his yucca home for almost 6 months!)

Yesterday's Vendor Fair was a success, and I've declared today "My 2010 Mental Health Day." Translation: put away Fall decor; make turkey noodle soup; rest my eyes.

Happy Monday everyone, and may you be successful if you're cyber shopping today!

Thanks for dropping in to visit and to leave your kind comment.

A Variety of Cards

Today is the vendor fair -- wish me success!
Here is a small sampling of 200 greeting cards I've created to sell.
All of them use Close To My Heart papers and embellishments.
Half of them include my floral photography.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!

A Sampling of My Custom Photo Floral Cards

... for a recent special order.

I so enjoy photographing florals and landscapes, as much as I do people! It's a lot simpler taking photos of florals and trees that aren't likely to have major wiggles or peanut butter faces. Now and then I'm happily surprised to see an ant or a bee or a butterfly flit or wiggle itself into the picture.

Some cards have special stamped sentiments inside such as "Happy Birthday!", "Get Well Soon!", "I'm thinking of you", "I'm praying for you", and more, depending on the customer's wishes. Some cards are blank for the sender to include his or her personal note.

I accent some cards with sheer, solid, patterned, crocheted, or striped ribbon. Others are pretty without the added embellishment.

Most all the ribbons and papers I use are Close To My Heart products.

This is just a sampling...

Back to fun work now!

I take special orders. Simply email me at janehaaspaperart[at]gmail[dot]com

I'm now working on Easter cards.

It's wonderful thinking of Spring and warming weather,

even though we haven't had winter yet.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Floral Photo Note Cards

What's almost as nice as enjoying the summer's outdoor floral blooms? Creating floral cards from the blooms' photos!

Summer is coming to an end prematurely with very cool temperatures and falling leaves. I planted chrysanthemums yesterday and those will be our next blooms. The coneflowers are still bright and the yellow finches love their seeds. The monarch butterflies and hummingbirds are still flitting and buzzing around here, but probably not for long. No, I definitely don't look forward to digging out the socks and flannel jammies.

These past few days I've been filling orders for floral note cards. Here are a few without their coordinating ribbon accents. I'll be making a wall collage of some of these photos to brighten my studio wall as reminders of the cheerful blooms in our gardens.

We'll have friends visiting us for the Labor Day weekend, all the way from Cleveland. It will be such a blessing to see them again! Maybe I can even get them to play a while with the paper trimmers, inks and stamps--the guys included! Or will they prefer to run off with their fishing gear?

Have a safe & restful holiday weekend!

Our July Garden Flowers

What a treat it is to be greeted by these gorgeous flowers as we walk through our yard's gardens! We had more rain last night and this morning, so it was a good time to get the camera clicking again. In a few photos, I caught some awesome bokeh!

Here are lilies, coneflowers, Rose of Sharon, Rudebeckia, Coreopsis, impatiens, Mandavilla, and hosta blooms. Behind the yellow Mandavilla you can see the green tomatoes we're protecting from the voracious squirrels and deer that think they own the place.

Enjoy!

I thank God for His colorful, delicate creations!

My Corner of the World

Last week I finished writing creation lessons for a grade 1 parochial school curriculum. When I look at such simple yet profound things such as a flower or a bee, or a spider in a web, I wonder how anyone cannot believe in a loving Creator God--one who not only made everything good, but still cares for His creation, even though we who are part of it fail to love, care for, and respect it at times! And God said, "It is good." And I say, "Thank You, God."

A big part of my "gramma's garden" includes pink coneflowers--they attract the butterflies and bees so well. And I don't have to plant them. The birds do it all for me. Here the bees are feasting.

Daisies--all varieties--are one of my favorite flowers. These are plants that came from my mom's garden, and maybe from my grandma's before that, 500 miles away. This morning we had rain--I love taking photos in the rain and the raindrops on petals. Hmmm...sounds like a song coming...

My DH calls daisies weeds. What does he know? I'm glad he plants grass.

I carried a basket of daisies, blue cornflowers, and pink coneflowers at our wedding 39 years ago. It was a very old-fashioned grandma's garden combination. And now I am that gramma. I've grown into her.

Dear gardening friend Shirley gave me this most beautiful rain lily plant. Hers bloomed a month ago. She'll be so proud that my green thumbs kept this one alive and happy! I'll divide it after it finishes blooming, and share with another green thumbed friend.

Cats & dogs...no, dinosaurs and elephants...that's what it's been raining here! We got 6 inches of rain in about 6 hours. I got this shot by placing a large towel over me AND my camera. Let's call it the towel effect.

Couldn't miss capturing this rain lily bloom--a real surprise this morning! Hey, I'm not getting any shadow shots lately, but I do have a ton of very happy flowers here with all the God-sent moisture. It's the BEST.

Look who took a nap in our bird sanctuary in the back yard...maybe with all the rain this weekend, her mama brought her to higher ground and knew she'd be safe here. She was sleeping behind one of the cedar trees, and her mama most likely watched her from the woods. I failed to get a photo of her beautiful spots as she eventually stood up, stretched, and then ran into the woods.

Little Fawn is about one month old, we guestimate. She's the first offspring we've seen this year. I hope we'll see more. Her family of 8-12 grownups are frequent yard visitors. Some of them make their beds in our day lily gardens overnight where it's cool and moist. They've made dessert out of some of our hostas. When I go onto the deck with my camera, they look at me with an expression that asks, "What are you doing in our yard?"

Floral Photo Cards

These are easy peasy cards but oh, so gratifying to make using my botanical photo prints from recent garden shots, scraps of cardstock and ribbons, and stamped sentiments inside for special people--get well, happy birthday, we're praying for you, thinking of you, you're special, and God be with you.

I like to add an appropriate Scripture verse on the left inside too, printed on a clear label with the coordinating ink color. It makes the card personal, along with a short hand-written note.

It's raining today--again! So the new concrete driveway is half finished and now on hold. Patience is a necessary virtue. Can't move mulch. Can't plant flowers. Can't pull weeds. What better kind of day to get pampered with a haircut, manicure, and pedi too? And scrap some more?

God bless YOUR day real good!