31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 3

Wow! I con't believe this is my second post in less than an hour! I just really got into the "31 Days to a Better Photo" series over at the "Life with my 3 Boybarians" blog. 

Day 3 talked about shutter speed and how shoot fast compares with shooting slow. The task was to set my camera at the same ISO and Aperture and shoot using different shutter speeds. Just to get an idea of how it differs. I picked Nick's flower that he has been taking care of all summer as my subject. It is just starting to flower! Please ignore the background (my house!) because this was just an experiment shoot! Not taken for beauty! 

And here they are, using an ISO of 400 and a Aperture of 5.6 on my Canon T1i:

Shutter Speed: 1/10

Shutter Speed: 1/15

Shutter Speed: 1/25

Shutter Speed: 1/40

Conclusion: The faster the shutter speed the less light that gets in and the darker the photo will be. I am assuming that every shutter speed has a benefit based on the conditions...ie, the lighting, the time of day, ect. (I bet you can't guess that I have a science educational background and are used to doing labs, can  you? Hee hee!) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 2

So, its been a long time since I have blogged...too long. I've had a few ups and downs over the past few months including two weddings (the ups!) and two deaths (the downs). One of those deaths was my grandmother...a woman that I have been close to all my life. We were more like friends than family and she meant the world to me. Because of losing her, I have had a difficult time doing the "normal" things in life...like keeping up with my blog. 

I am slowly coming back to reality...and my camera is helping me find my passions again. I figured there was no better way to get back at it then to continue on with the 3 days to better photo. 

Day 2 requires that you read your camera manual...and this was NOT easy! Can you say BORING! LOL! But, I did learn quite a bit about my camera, so that's good. There were buttons on there that I didn't use because I really didn't know what they were for. I also learned how to take a picture of a waterfall and make it look soft...I've ALWAYS wanted to be able to do that!! 

The truth is, I learned (by total accident!!) a few nights ago what cool photos you can get by using a slow shutter speed! Wanna see?

This one I left in color...I thought it was pretty cool! (This is my nephew, by the way!)

But I REALLY liked it in black and white!

And here is another nephew...

And my youngest (Nick) making "squiggles" with his sparkler.

The fire that we sat around...

And one of the sausages that got roasted...yummmmm!!!

Well, that's all I have for you today. Hopefully I will blog a lot sooner than last time! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Love, Patricia 

31 Days to a Better Photo: Day 1

I found a cool blog on Pinterest today! It is called "Life With My Three Boybarians" and they have a series on there called "31 Days to a Better Photo". 

I have had my Canon T1i SLR for about two years now and I am still not 100% comfortable using it in the manual mode. It something that I need to get used to. Something that I would love to be able to do. 

So, I have read the first day of this series and it posed two questions to think about: When did you realize how much you loved photos? What motivates you to love your images?

My answers to the questions are simple. I have always loved photo's. A camera is something that my family always had...even when times were tough. The first camera that I remember is an old Polaroid that my mom had. My brother and I loved taking pictures with it and waiting for them to appear on that hard black and white square! They weren't the clearest imges, for sure, but they were fun! We also had a 35 mm film camera that my mom used to take pictures of us all the time. I loved to flip through our family albums of pictures taken by various family members, some of them sent to us in the mail. I would always stop and look a little longer at the images that were really crisp, or the images that seemed artistic to me. Most of the time, the ones that caught my eye were of things that you wouldn't normally notice in everyday life. Bridge spans, rocks, things taken at different angles. They all appealed to me. And I think that would be my answer to the second question. I love images that are different than the norm. That's what motivates me. And I love pictures the brings out the beauty in people, animals and everyday life. 

The pictures here were just taken out in my front yard.  A big thanks to my little guy Nicholas and my big girl Daphney (named from the Scooby Doo cartoon!) for being good sports and letting me take their pictures! 


Thanks for stopping in!


Love, Patricia 

Summer Bucket List

I finally have decided to do a summer bucket list! Actually, I have decided to do two. One that we can use as a family and one just for me. The second one I am hoping to have filled with relaxing things, crafty stuff, and DIY projects.

I asked the kids to help me with the family bucket list and here is what we came up with so far:

1. Go to the beach
2. Play at nanny's
3. Go geocaching
4. Have a water balloon fight
5. Go to Riverview (a local place on the river where we swim and have a fire)
6. Go to mommy's beach (where my families cabin is...I always refer to it as my beach!)
7. Go to the Insectarium  (this is a place that have live insects as well as a butterfly tent)
8. Go see the Alpaca's
9. Go to Corner Brook (a larger town about 2 hrs away)
10. Go see a movie 
11. Go bowling
12. Walk to boardwalk
13. Go camping
14. Hike Starlight Mountain
15. Have a Nerf War 
16. Go yard sailing
17. Go on Seadoo's
18. Make cookies together
19. See the caves in Corner Book
20. Go to the Heritage Tree in Deer Lake
21. Go to Shipwreck Cove
22. Go to Rose Blanche
23. Go to Winters Pool
24. Host a BBQ

Most of the places we want to go to are only short drives from our house. No more than an hour. We are not done with our bucket lists yet. I think I would like to have a rainy day list as well. 

I will post the the rainy day list as well as my bucket list as soon as I get them figured out!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia 

June Blog Hop!

Wow! Is it June already??! Its hard to believe that! Soon, my oldest will be finished Grade 4 and will be home for the summer. Then the "fun" begins! The MOM I'M BORED!'s and the CAN WE GO TO THE BEACH?'s and the fighting and the screaming...Is it September yet? LOL!

So, since it is June, WELCOME TO THE IPPITY JUNE RELEASE BLOG HOP! You should have gotten here from Jennifer's bog. If this is your first stop you may want to go on over to Ippity Blog to start off so you don't miss anything!

Here is the list of participants in case you get lost!

{ippity} blog 

mary - mary's creative journey

rona - a little inspiration from rona

jennifer -  mitten's papercrafting

patricia - my crafty creations **you are here**

barbara - {ippity} do da

andrea - ippity stamps 4 you

jenmarie - taylor-made by jenmarie

angie - {stampsings of the shug}

christine - christine's creative therapy

cheri - the paper freak

heather f. - i heart {ippity}

maria - ria creations

rebecca - blooming pink

noelle -noelle scraps alot

aletha - aj's designs

lisa -  schnauz scraps

cyrstal - crystal's craft corner

{ippity} blog 

On to my project! To tell you the absolute truth, time has been something that has been scarce in my life lately. I'm not complaining, though! I've been getting things done! So, I looked at the new releases to see what I could use quick with the little time I had. I saw the little guy from the "What's Cooking?" set and knew right away I had to use him! So, I colored him, cut him out and stuck him on a cute 6X6 DP to use in my recipe book! I think it turned out pretty good!

If you want to order some Ippity goodness, you can go to the Unity Stamp Co. site and order or you can send me an email at mycraftycreations@hotmail.com and I will help you get what you need!

Now, hop over to Barbara's blog to see what she has created!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia

BIG SALE!!!!!!

Go to http://www.unitystampco.com/shop/48-ippity-by-unity.aspx to shop now!!!! 

It Ippity/Unity Release Day!!!

Hi! Welcome to the May blog hop for the new {ippity} by Unity stamps release! Aren't you excited? I know I am! OK! If you just started at this blog hop and you would like to start from the beginning, here is the list of participants:

{ippity} blog 

rona - a little inspiration from rona

rebecca - blooming pink

susan - paper and joy

sabrina - ippity online

maria - ria creations

barbara - {ippity} do da

jennifer -  mitten's papercrafting

noelle -noelle scraps alot

andrea - ippity stamps 4 you

joan - tails in the stamp room

jenmarie - taylor-made by jenmarie

heather f. - i heart {ippity}

lisa - schnauz scraps

patricia - my crafty creations *you are here*

jen - jens cup of creations

angie - {stampsings of the shug}

{ippity} blog 

 And here is what you have been waiting for...the NEW STAMPS!!!!

This first one is the full kit that [ippity} is offering this time called "courage is my strength". It includes 5 beautiful stamps!

This itty bitty is called Java Friend and is has a nice big mug and and a beautiful sentiment stamp.

Here is another itty bitty for you! This one is called "Live Half Full" and would be do cute used in a number of ways! As a pick me up, as in invite for your friends, the possibilities are endless!

This Itty Bitty is called "One of Those Days" and includes a cute little bird on a wire and two sentiment stamps.

And last, but certainly not least, is the Itty Bitty called "Pain and Strength". What I really like about this one is that the tree has cause ribbons in it so, depending on the colors you use, you can alter this one to fit whatever cause you want. I think this tree is probably my favourite out of all this release stamps!

And here are a few things that I did with these stamps.

This set is the "Java Friend" set. For this one I colored the image with my Crayola coloring pencils and used some Perfect Pearl Mist from Ranger just to get a bit of glimmer on the mug. Then I glossy accented the swirl on the mug...but you really can't see it in the picture too well.

This card was made using the "Pain is Strength" set. Did I mention how much I love that tree? (In case I didn't...I LOVE THAT TREE!!!!)

 This was the quickest of all three to make!  It took me less that 5 minutes to cut the sentiment out, distress it a little with my Distress inks, stick the little flower feltie on, and add some ribbon. I really like how this one came out!

And that's it for me! You can get these stamps and any other {ippity} or Unity stamps by going to the Unity Stamp Co. website and ordering from there! If you want me to hook you up with some {ippity} just send an email along to me and I will see what I can do for  you! Visit my sales blog (which is going though some construction right now!) for more info!

Now, hope on over to Jen's blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Patricia