Digi-Scrapping?

After 2 weeks of motherhood, I find that the only crafting I can do is on the computer, so I'm beginning to toy with digital scrapbooking...

Some Recent Creations

Kelly's Bridal Jewelry
My friend Rex is getting married this summer, and I offered to make the bride's jewelry as a gift for his fiancee, Kelly. After chatting back and forth with her a bit about colors and design, this is what I came up with:

I sent her some pictures of everything (before it was tied off) for approval, and she gave me the green light so now they're done. All I need to do now is to pack them up and get them in the mail to the lovely bride. I can't wait to see pictures from the wedding!

Aunt Monica's Necklace
While I was home this winter, my Aunt Monica found this pendant...

...and asked me to make it into something for her. I've been sitting on it since then, waiting for inspiration to strike me. It struck this weekend:

I'm thinking I'll send it to her for Mother's Day.

Progress on the White Tiger

I haven't forgotten my cross-stitch project amid all the crocheting and jewelry-making. It is coming along, slowly but surely. In case you've forgotten, this is what it looked like the last time I posted a picture. This is what it looked like on January 31:

And this is what it looked like yesterday:

I wish that I had taken regular pictures like this of my snowman cross stitch. It's just so cool to have a point of comparison ("I have accomplished this much"), and a time line to go with it. What will it look like 2 weeks from now??

More Pink & Red

Four and a half necklaces, one pair of earrings, and one bracelet later, I have finally run out of steam. And actually, the only reason it's four-and-a-half and not five necklaces, is because I don't have the materials I need to finish that last necklace the way that I want to.

There are two necklaces here, a red one and a pink one. I was just playing with different ways to show them. I like this pink one...I'm having fun playing with freshwater pearls.

Necklace and matching bracelet in pale pink, with the last of the rose quartz I ordered for Mary's set and gold wire wrapping. I like the way the flash lit up the glass beads. I just hope I didn't make it too long...

More light pink, this time with the rest of the glass beads from the wire wrapped one, and the rest of the pearls from the tri-strand. I got a little crazy and put a magnetic clasp on this one.

And this is the one that isn't finished. It might look finished to you, but alas...it ends just beyond where the photo ends. As pretty as it is, I want to finish it right, and not just throw it together with something that I have on hand, but wouldn't look as good as what I envision. At least I got the earrings done, right?

In Honor of Valentine's Day

I was in a jewelry mood this morning: one red and one pink, in honor of Valentine's Day. I started this red and black crystal necklace days--maybe even weeks? yes, weeks--ago, and finally had the inspiration to finish it this morning.

I was a little sad, though. The black crystals are actually vintage Swarovski, and I've been hoarding them for years. I had a ton at one point, but now I'm down to only a few--just enough for one more necklace. So, I hope this piece goes to a good and deserving person who will appreciate it for the treasure that it is. Maybe as a Valentine's day gift?? :) Anyway, when I got this one finished, I found that I had not exhausted my well of inspiration, and so I created this:

I'm especially pleased with it, because wire wrapping is a little intimidating to me. Doing links, as I did for the red and black one, is one thing; wire wrapping a pendant like this one, complete with decorative spirals, is something else entirely and that "something else" usually scares me. But I did it, and I'm really happy with the results. Yay! Maybe I will have more courage for that sort of thing in the future.

New Scarf...and Hat!!

Ok, so I actually finished the scarf a few days ago, but I just finished the hat last night. But, I added a flower to the scarf today, so I guess I didn't officially finish until today. :)
I'm just super proud of myself, because I've taught myself to read crocheting patterns, and the hat and flowers are my first from-pattern creations. I'm particularly proud of the flowers, because I actually altered the patterns a little bit to make them look better and I stitched beads onto them. Hooray!! I'm totally on a crocheting kick now (which is good, since I have 3 crocheting classes to teach this month) and there's another idea/pattern I want to try out. Don't worry, I'll post it when I'm done!

Poodle Scarf and Picture Woes

While I was at the shop yesterday, I picked up some new yarn to play around with. I got 3 skeins of Patons® Pooch Yarn in "Indian Summer", thinking that it would crochet into a really cute chunky scarf. And it did. :) I did the same lattice stitch that I almost always use, and it worked out well because this yarn is really bulky. It was kind of a pain to work with, in the same way that bouclé is pain to work with. On the plus side, though, it went really fast. I had the whole scarf (all 3 skein's worth) done in about an hour and a half.

As you can see, the scarf is cute but the picture is not. I spent an hour this morning trying to get a decent picture... Different rooms (with different lighting), different angles... Of course it didn't help that I was doing all the picture taking myself. So, I have decided that I need to join the PhotoShop bandwagon... It's just too cool a program not to have, especially since I am going to be taking a lot of baby photos in the near future... So, to that end, what suggestions do all of you photoshop savvy people have? Which version should I get? How difficult is it to use? Could I possibly bribe one of you to teach me how to use it, once I get my hands on the program? Really, I'll bribe you. :)