Stone Soup Giveaway

"Celtic Knots"

The Stone Soup Challenge is hosting another giveaway for the month of June - and the guest host is me!

As many of you know, The Stone Soup Challenge is a grassroots movement, started by Laura Bray, as a way for artists & crafters to help one another during these difficult economic times. To gain exposure to the movement, and so that we can help the most people, The Stone Soup Challenge has decided to host monthly giveaways. At the beginning of each month, a different challenger will offer a great giveaway. Be sure to bookmark the Stone Soup Challenge blog so that you won't miss out on the chance to win some great prizes. You are welcome to become a challenger too!

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY: I am giving away a giclee print of one of my most-commented-on Ireland photographs, "Celtic Knots." The print will be matted in an 11x14" archival mat, ready to fit into a standard 11x14" frame.

To win this print, simply leave a comment on this post. Just peruse my Etsy shop items, come back to this blog page and leave a comment, telling me about your favorite item in my shop ( www.IrishPhotos.etsy.com ). I'll announce the winner on June 29!

If you are on Twitter, you may leave a comment for me there - be sure to send your comment to @IrishPhotos.

P.S. If you are a Stone Soup Challenger and want to host a giveaway, please contact Laura Bray for more information!

"Tea Time" Note Cards Winner

The winner of the "Tea Time" note cards is Laura.  Thank you for participating, Laura!

Drawing for free "Tea Time" Note Cards

I  have enjoyed - and benefitted from - many on-line offers lately, and have decided to jump on the "free stuff" bandwagon.  (We all know that these offers are shameless marketing ploys to drive more traffic to one's store or web site - but, it's a win-win ploy!)  

On Wednesday, May 27, (let's say around 1:00p.m. Central Time - give or take a half hour or so) I will draw one name to receive a set of 10 "Tea Time" note cards - absolutely free!  No strings attached!

Okay - there is one small string - but it's pretty painless.  Just go to my Etsy shop, peruse the items for sale, and come back to this blog and leave a comment.  In your comment, you can tell me which item in my shop is your favorite (or your least favorite - don't be shy).  I will then add your name to the drawing.  Simple!

On Wednesday, I will draw one name and notify the winner.  Go here now - and thank you for participating!  

[Note: Due to holiday weekend, I have changed the drawing time to Wednesday.]

Blue Petals

The Celebrity

Follow Your Bliss

Break Away

My mother received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my brother on Friday, in celebration of Mother's Day, of course.  Today, I noticed a few blue petals had fallen off some of the more delicate flowers in the bunch.  I left them around the vase, because they looked so pretty there.

I decided to take a few out-of-focus photos through my kitchen window to use as background images for future projects.  After accomplishing that, I put some of the blue petals on the window sill and took some very uninspiring shots of those.  

Staring out the window, I had a brilliant (brilliant for me, that is) idea!  I began to stick the petals to the window - and that's when I started to have fun.  The three images above are just a few of the results of my fun.

My Kind of Town

"My Kind of Town"

This is a view of Chicago taken from the vantage point of the Adler Planetarium.  It was late summer, all the boats were moored along the lakefront, and I was lucky enough to have a lovely, big-puffy-clouds kind of day.

The photo was taken with my Nikon N80, using trusty old Tri-X film, and I originally printed it in my darkroom.  My darkroom is now defunct, but I am still printing this photograph through the magic of a scanner, a computer and Photoshop.  Although I still miss the darkroom, I tell myself that digital photography and printing is "greener" - no chemicals going down the drain!  Now, I just have to recycle all those used ink cartridges.

This 9x16" print is for sale in my Etsy shop.  To see more of my black and white photography, please visit my website, The Photo Seen.

Tulip Tea on canvas

I received my photo on canvas from Hughe Parker and I think it looks fabulous!  The image began as a digital image, which I played with for a very long time in Photoshop.  I started by trying to manipulate the image the way I used to manipulate Polaroids.  I ended up doing much more to it by highlighting the edges and using my Wacom tablet to paint the tulips.  

The canvas was gallery wrapped, and ZaZa Gallery did a great job.  Thank you, Hughe!