Hyde Sisters' Hodgepodge

Family of Four

2011-11-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

Four is kind of a hard number...as my dear friend once asked me, "Why are you so prejudice against even numbers?" I am constantly having to remind her that they are not as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as odd numbers. In this family's case...they are pretty enough to counteract the even number. :)
Their beautiful faces don't even show a bit of how we drove through a mini tornado to get these pics. Thanks for weathering the storm and bearing with me. I had a lot of fun with you all. :)

C.A. Family

2011-11-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

It is always fun to see old friends and how their families are growing.

You don't get much cuter than this little family.

Nick

2011-10-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Even though this was the first time I got to meet Nick and his mom, it felt like I had known them for years...A great thing about the blogging world.

Nick is such a nice, easy going kid that I had a super easy job when it came to "bossing" him around...Although he didn't seem super keen on the idea of being the center of attention in front of the camera, he was a pleasure to work with. :)

Thanks, Nick!

Leanne

2011-10-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

This shoot was a bit of a struggle because the wind decided to try and blow us away. Not only did it make snapping the pic at the right time (while hair wasn't wildly flying every direction) but it made it much harder for me to keep a steady hand. Regardless of the pesky wind, we managed to get some great shots of a beautiful girl. Thanks, Leanne!

Owl Treat Wrapper

2011-10-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a cute treat wrapper for a gift for a for a 13 year old. It seems that owls are the trendy thing of late, so I decided to make one.

I used white paper around a triple pack of gum and a box of milk duds, then tucked the gloves inside of each other and tied them off as owl "horns" -- then cut the rest of the shapes out of scrapbook paper. I thought it turned out pretty cute and was super easy. I think I will be making more of these.

Madeleine

2011-10-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

This beautiful girl came down from Cheyenne to see me. I am so glad she did! It was a lot of fun spending time with her and her family.

K.B.

2011-09-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

What a great kid from a great family. I had a lot of fun with him...even if he was scared of a harmless spider nest. ;)

Ciera

2011-09-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

I started taking pictures of this family about 4 years ago...now the last one of 3 sisters is a Senior and I can hardly believe it! I don't think their mom should allow these girls to keep growing up!
They are all beautiful with Ciera not being the exception. I am so lucky they chose me to capture their Senior memories.

C.M.

2011-08-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

I don't take a lot of Senior boys' pictures, but I sure like to. They are a little more laid back than the girls...not that I don't enjoy the girls equally, but it is nice to have the different atmosphere. :)

The Burts

2011-08-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

The oldest Burt is flying the nest and off to college in... um... two days. So there was definitely a good reason to get a family picture squeezed in. Here is a quick sneak peak at the fun we had.

Brittany & German

2011-07-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad things worked out for me to be able to meet up with these two. I think they make a fantastic couple!

Cute Couple

2011-07-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden my fun-loving little Hillary is out of YW, graduated, off to college, and engaged!
Seems to me she's found herself a good one though. These two are very happy, and I am happy for them. Congrats to you both!

Brinlee

2011-07-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

How quickly they grow...She's already 17 months

Erin

2011-07-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

It is kind of crazy to think it is that time again...Senior pictures are starting back up.
And every year I have a hard time believing the little kids I once knew are already Seniors.
Here's to beautiful Erin and the rest of the 2012 soon-to-be-graduates. :)

Thanks, Erin!

The D Fam

2011-07-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is my basketball playing buddy Paige and her cute family. I adore her, not only because she loves to play hoops in the same competitive-will drive 30 miles late at night just for a pick up game way, but because she is real and straightforward and fun to talk to.

I love to barter and this photoshoot was payback for her hubby detailing my car.

If you have seen how my van gets you know I got the better end of the bargain. :)

Poor guy-- he had to suffer both ends (cleaning and posing for pics), but he was willing to do it for his wife, and was patient the entire time. Thanks Devan!

C was always on the move, but luckily there was some tall grass that he felt trapped in so we could keep him still long enough to get a few shots.

He gets those eyes from his mama! (and I didn't even touch them editing)

This one is one of my favorites

Where did that bunny go?!

Tamsyn came along as my assistant. She did a good job getting C to smile and look my direction... she also was her usual Tamsyn self and caught a few bugs in between shots. Here she is showing C the butterfly she found.

Thought this fit here

2011-06-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I was talking with a couple of friends about Father's Day gifts. One friend mentioned that she had seen some cute blocks with pictures on them. We thought it would be fun to make for our hubby's to put on their desks at work, but instead of the small typical craft size blocks we decided to go bigger. We had a 6 inch square beam cut into blocks to use.

I wish I had pictures of the blocks the other gals made because we all did different things. One painted hers yellow and did one block with her kid's artwork on it and one with black and white photos. Another friend stained hers and used recent photos of each child and a quote on top, and another friend did black with green paper and photos on all 6 sides.

I really wanted to use the pictures that I have been taking each Father's Day ever since Jake became a dad in 2002. I decided to use 3 blocks and spell dad across the top.

The picture below helps you see a bit better the size.

Miss Personality

2011-06-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

This little cutie has a stubborn streak. I had to meet up with her several times and finally with Tamsyn's help we were able to get her to crack a smile.

ok, ok... I will let you take my picture AGAIN.

A little tongue

Waving to all my adoring fans --

starting to get a bit boring people...

I mean really! How many pictures do you have to have?

This is my panting dog impersonation -- whatcha think?

Pucker up!

ok -- I'm outta here

The Littlest "C"

2011-06-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

We decided to do a spur of the moment photo shoot of this cute little 6 month old... she was quite serious for most of it, but adorable nonetheless.

And her big brother -- who gave me exactly 22 seconds of his time :)

Girls' Camp Fundraiser

2011-06-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

To raise money for Girls' Camp, our YW worked hard on a dinner, show, and dessert auction. We also did quick photo sessions before the dinner. The night was pretty successful with us raising right around $800.
Here are a few of the pics that resulted from the evening.

as promised

2011-05-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

Man, this engagement makes me face the harsh reality of my age. :(
But YAY and CONGRATS for them! :)

Mark and Jessica

2011-05-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

It was a lot of fun to get to go down to Arches National Park and take engagements photos of my lil bro and his fiance. Even with 80 degree temps, wind and long hikes inbetween picture times, Jessica managed to still look beautiful.
I have more to add to these tonight, but I thought I would get the few I have done on here.

Dust is Home!

2011-04-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

It was so much fun to spend some time with this crew, and get to see the whole family together again. The downside was that the day we had available to do pictures, it was raining. So all the great ideas and plans for a photoshoot were turned into a quick shoot on the back patio. At least they are all in there...and I have a feeling I'll get a chance to take pics of them again. :)

Family

2010-12-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

Last year when we took pictures, it was below zero...this time it was much nicer outside. :)

2010-12-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

A quick peek at some cute little boys...

3 soon to be 4...

2010-10-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

This cute family of three was fun to hang out with...even if the little one didn't like to make eye contact with me for long. :) I loved how he showed his concentration with his tongue.

Kim

2010-10-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

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Halloween Goodies

2010-10-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

With a new baby only weeks away, I decided not to sign up to do craft shows this year, and I also opted to go easy on the nesting doll painting. However, I couldn't resist signing up to use the Creative Arts Council's booth at the farmers market just once. Like last year, I ended up with the final day of the market -- Oct. 9th.

I tried to convince myself to just use what I had leftover from last year, but the most enjoyable part for me is coming up with new designs... so I went ahead with a few simple ideas.

Hollow Halloween Eggs with a Surprise Inside

And... a whole bunch of Halloween candy wraps. The bats and mummies in the red bowl I saw somewhere else and thought they would be fun to make. The rest are all my own designs and artwork.

Vampire with Cape

Open the cape to see the message

Ghosts mints with stretchy gloves hat

Large candy bar Witches with glove hats

I am pretty sure I went a bit overboard for a one day show... but at least I had fun right?

To see my holiday designs from last year click here --

Besides this one farmers market I am planning on taking a few custom gift orders this year.

La Deish

2010-09-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am incredibly lucky to have a niece this gorgeous! She has amazing skin that required little to no editing (which made my job even easier.) I had fun shooting away...I was bummed when the sun was going down and we were losing light.
Tianna made a great assistant and I am excited to get to take her pictures in a couple of years...They are beautiful sisters.
I know 8 pictures is a rather large sneak peek, but I had hard enough time cutting it down to 8. She is stunning!

Gabi

2010-08-30T13:20:00.001-07:00

I was nervous about this shoot because I had never been to the area, and I wasn't sure what to expect with my first horse. The animals seemed to cooperate for the most part and I really enjoyed getting to know this pretty girl...and her friends. :)

Sneak Peak

2010-08-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again...here is one of my first seniors of this new school year. She is such a beautiful girl and I had a great time "being a rebel" with her ;).

Brinlee and Sienna

2010-04-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

we go way back

2010-04-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Mia

2010-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

C + L

2010-03-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Congrats you two!

What did I learn from this? Full sun + White dress + Snow = HARD

Baby B - 3 Months

2010-03-02T14:06:00.001-08:00

Baby B is such a little sweetie -- I love her various expressions but, I still have yet to get a full on smile out of her though.

These 2 last ones are my favs.

Engagements

2010-01-16T21:46:00.001-08:00

Two great things happened today... I got to hang out with these two...and I got to do a shoot at a location I have been eyeing for a while now.

I stole some shadow pic ideas from my sister....I know she won't mind. ;)

Congrats you guys!!!

Baby "E"

2010-01-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

B was sweet enough to let me come and do a photo shoot for my painting references. I wanted to capture the sleepy newborn and mom...

Baby "E" was a great sport, especially since we had to do everything on the fly. I had to leave in the middle to pick up Tamsyn from preschool and then we had to make sure and be done in time for B to go pick up her daughter 45 minutes later.

I know I got some images I can use for painting, just hoping that there are some that B will like and be able to use as regular photographs too.

I thought this was fun because by accident I got the letters in the background... and this little guy was born on Christmas Eve.

I don't know why... but I like this one a lot even though it is so grainy...

2r2s fam

2009-12-22T16:17:00.001-08:00

This handsome family was referred to me by a friend :)

They were a lot of fun, and the boys were great sports because what their mom really wanted for Christmas was family pictures.

Baby "B"

2009-12-19T10:02:00.001-08:00

I don't photograph a lot of babies... and we missed the really squishy mold them however you want to newborn stage... but I still had a lot of fun with this 4 week old.

This was the only shot I could talk her 2 year old brother into letting me take.

Love these guys!

2009-12-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

This was by far the coldest shoot I have ever done. I think it was a frigid 4 degrees...brrrrr. Needless to say as soon as the lighting was nice, we snapped away and got out of there. You can see on poor Ashlyn's face how happy she was to be there...you can see tears welling up in her eyes when you enlarge the photos, but she is still so dang cute.

Once we got into a warm car, we got a smile out of her. :D

King

2009-12-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

This is the second family I got to spend some time with over Thanksgiving. They really are a great family. I had a lot of fun with them, and I'm glad they pointed out this great location. I definitely have to go back to the same place to do pictures again.

This little boy is too dang cute. He was quite the active guy...I thought it was cute to get him kicking some sticks (and dirt. ;)

Asay

2009-11-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

I was able to do a couple of shoots while visiting my hometown for Thanksgiving. Here are some pics from the first cute family.
I was really impressed with how well the little ones did with it being so chilly out.

Look- you can see their breath. ;)

Fuller

2009-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

What a gorgeous family! I am so glad they asked me to do their pics. As you can see, I am loving this location. (click to see any of the images larger)

They were very willing to be my guinea pigs -- as you can see with this reflection shot and you will see later with my shadow shots.

I have had the idea to do this type of shot for a while, but since it is rarely ever sunny around here, I have not had the chance. We lucked out today :)

Blue

2009-11-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

I am lucky to have this adorable family as neighbors. The were willing to let me test my new camera out on them. Thanks guys!

Hill

2009-10-30T13:11:00.001-07:00

Hooray for Fall colors! I'm glad we got this shoot in before I headed out of town, because the snow wiped the colors away.
Let me just say that I love this girl...even if she is a cheerleader. ;) hehe

Nesting Doll Designs - 2009 Update

2009-10-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

--I have added a few new designs as of October 9th, 2009 --

If you are interested in ordering something, please don't hesitate to email me at vickihyde@yahoo.com. FYI - If I need to ship your order, the price will include shipping, and if you are in WA, then I also have to add sales tax.

Please note that all items are hand painted and everyone is unique in its own way. If you make an order, yours will not be the exact match of the item pictured.

House Nativity - 5" $50

7 Piece Snowman - 8" $50

Christmas Cottage- 5" (design by Alyce) $50

3 Piece Scarecrow (Alyce design) $25

Haunted House - 5" $45

Sami

2009-10-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

I have a gorgeous sister-in-law. I was lucky enough to get to take some pics of her while visiting this past weekend. I hope the pictures do her beauty justice. :)

Ella

2009-09-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

This girl is so much fun. I am sure going to miss her when she graduates.

As Promised

2009-09-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

I had a ton of fun doing more pics of beautiful Brittany. She really is one of the sweetest girls I know. (Don't forget to click on the pics to see them better.:)

More of "C" Kids

2009-09-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

I rushed putting up the last pics of these cute kiddos because their mom is a dear friend and she was getting impatient. ;) So here are a few more of my favorites.

This little girl is quite the poser...She pulled out some great poses without any direction.

While inspecting the pipes and such, this little boy explained why nothing was coming out..."It's out of batteries." Haha too cute!

"C" Kids

2009-09-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

Brittany

2009-09-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

When I did Brittany's family pics, I got a few of her Senior shots in as well...We ran out of time though and I didn't get many, so there will be more of her to come. :)
Here are the ones I did get of this beautiful girl:

Nesting Doll Designs - 2009

2009-09-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am going to try and keep this post updated with all of our nesting doll designs and prices.

If you are interested in ordering something for this holiday season, please send me and email at vickihyde@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Halloween Mix 10 Piece -$55 (the small pieces get very tiny -- and I tend to paint the characters in a different order every time I paint one).

I also have a 5 piece Haunted house for $45

and 5 piece potbelly Halloween Mix for $35

(Will get pics up once I have my new camera :)

Five piece Ghost -$16.50

Black Cats, Pumpkins and Ghosts 5 piece - by Alyce $30

10 piece Simple Jack-O-Lantern - $38

Simple 3 Piece Nativities (left by me, right one by Alyce) -$25

Snowmen Chime dolls - $25 each

(these wooden dolls have bells in them that jingle when you rock them)

5 piece Pot Belly Snowmen by Alyce - $30 (she painted 3 sets of these)

5 Piece Penguins - $30 - Can't wait to do more of these!

5 piece Egg shape Santa's $35

Bears with Toys - $50 by Alyce

Santa and Mrs. Claus Chime Dolls - $25 each or $45 for the pair (There are also Solo Santas)

Santa & Penguin Eggs - $7.00 each or 4 for $25

They are hollow wooden eggs that open. A stocking stuffer or other surprise can be hidden inside. I LOVE these little guys!

Peasant Girl Chime Dolls - $25

As always -- I love feedback and opinions... so please comment away!

More can be made of almost all of the above designs. The bear is an exception because I only had 2 blank ones and they were the last ones.

I also do very detailed fine art nativity sets. These are priced higher because they take an extremely long time to do. Every one is unique in its own way.

The smallest piece in the 10 piece pictured below is a little lamb (in front of the stable)

Below is an example of one of my 7 piece nativities -

Fine art Nativities are priced as follows

10 piece (large doll 10") - $200

7 piece (large doll - 8") -$150

5 piece (large doll -6") - $100

S Sisters

2009-08-23T20:15:00.001-07:00

This is one of the many families of 3 girls that I know. My girls have had each of them as a babysitter at some point and they LOVE them. They are fun, sweet, beautiful girls.

Being the fun girls they are, they wanted to do some pics in the water...and because they are sisters, there was no way to avoid the splashing.

Let me just point out that it was a good thing they rolled up their pants. lol

S Family

2009-08-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

I love candid shots like this:

I think this is my favorite: More to come...

For Vic

2009-08-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

While I was out having a picnic today with my gym buddy and our girls, I snapped a few shots for possible references for mother/child paintings for Vicki.

I wish I would have gotten their full reflections in this shot....

looking at a lady bug:

playing hide-and-seek:

Sarah

2009-08-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

I love this gorgeous girl. Together we learned that the wind can be your friend. :)

Mother and Child Painting #4

2009-08-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Most of you have seen this already and it will likely end up in one of my family blog posts too... so sorry if you get tired of seeing it.

I decided to enter a juried show with the theme celebration. The deadline was July 31st so when I got home on the 23rd from vacation, I had to get busy. I had been thinking about ways to incorporate a mother and child into a "celebration" painting, when the idea came that it would be fun to do them watching fireworks. On the 4th I was extra thrilled when my little nephew kept his ears covered the entire time. I loved the extra personality it added, not to mention that most moms can relate, so it feels like they are looking at themselves at some point in their lives.

I love how the mother and child turned out, but wasn't super thrilled with the fireworks, but had to get my entry emailed. I may end up painting over just the fireworks and giving it another shot, but not until my schedule dies down a bit.

Thanks so much to J and L for letting me take photos of them to use for this.

L & R

2009-08-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Another mother and child session for painting references (I thought mom would like to see a few of the pictures since she set up the photo-shoot for me)

More Alex

2009-08-01T10:44:00.001-07:00

Alex

2009-07-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge photos

V Family

2009-07-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Pics for Jake's cousin -- she was sweet enough to let me photograph her pulling her kids in a wagon for a mother and child painting... so these are my attempts at some portraits for her.

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Don't you think that a mom pulling a wagon will make a great painting. I loved that the cat wanted to join in the fun.

It was super windy outside, so we only got a few shots before we had to go in.

Syd's 7th Bday Cake

2009-07-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

A Whole Ton of Trey

2009-06-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Water, Flowers and a Squirrel

2009-06-20T17:45:00.001-07:00

Some random shots I took yesterday while waiting for Jake and the girls (they were out on the lake fishing... so Trey and I had lots of time to kill).

R Fam

2009-03-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of the R family photos....we still need to do some editing, but you get the idea.

"A" Family

2009-03-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

This was a quick, spur of the moment shoot with the Asay's. I'd love to have more time with them...maybe we'll get to try again some day. (I love seeing the number of girls slowly making a run at the number of boys. ;)

I think it is cute how Carson is touching Jared's head. :)I love how grandpa is the only one keeping it together by the end:

Mother and Child Shots

2009-02-23T14:30:00.001-08:00

Most of you know I am always on the look out for beautiful moms to photograph for my reference library. I am starting to paint a series of mother and child paintings this year (the first one is on my easel right now). When I met C and her daughter A... I thought it was so great to see how much they look alike, yet with such different coloring. The shapes of their faces are very similar, and so are their features, yet their hair and eye color are so different.

They were great to work with... I am sure I will have a tough time narrowing the pics down when I start to paint. What shot (or combined shots) do you think I should paint?

The one below is one of my favorites --

I like the expressions in this one too -

A was cracking me up -- using her elbow to smash the dough.

After the cookie making session, we went outside to take some more shots just for fun.

Thanks for helping me out C and A!

Pics for Alyce

2009-02-19T13:50:00.001-08:00

Alyce wants some b&w pics to decorate her bathroom with. She asked me to take some of the kids. I thought this would be the easiest way for her to see the pics and choose. Anyone else who sees, feel free to comment on which ones you like best. (She wants 4 landscape and 4 portrait)

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Editing

2009-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

I didn't take these photos -- but Jake's aunt asked me to try and fix them because it is rare that the whole group is together. They just had someone snap them with their point and shoot... but unfortunately there was not one single photo where someone's (or more than one's) eyes were closed.

Here is one of the before images -Here is one I edited and swapped a few heads on -

Here is a slightly different edited version in color.

One more before pic --

After editing -

I know I still have miles to go with the things I can learn on photoshop. It is fun to put some of the things I am learning to use... Plus I helped someone out :)

B

2009-01-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be asked to take pictures of this cute little boy today. Luckily it was nice enough to go outside (indoor shoots still scare me a little.)

December Paintings

2008-12-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

My friend Diana asked me to do a painting of her sister for a Christmas present. She sews quite a bit, so I thought it would be fun to do an exchange.

I did this painting of her sister and she made a quilt with pictures of my family on it for me for Jake's Christmas present. I didn't think the trade was equal as far as cost of supplies went, so part of my side of the bargain was to pay her for all of the fabric and other things she needed to buy in order to make the quilt.

We had a tough time choosing which picture of her sister to paint, there were some of her as a kid, and some great mother and child shots of her as well, but finally we ended up choosing one of her walking through the streets of Tallinn, Estonia as a base. I researched for more pictures of Tallinn's streets and ended up creating a picture that included a skyline and a few more buildings than the original, because I thought it made the painting more interesting.

Here is Jake's new quilt. I asked Diana to choose the fabric based off of the painting we have hanging in our living room, and to make sure and use purple because that is Jake's favorite color. It was so much fun to do the trade and surprise Jake with a personalized gift.

When we were in the process of deciding what to paint, I was looking through photos on their family website and came across a childhood photo of Diana with her brother who has since passed away. I thought it was so sweet and decided I wanted to paint it for Diana as a surprise and send it when I sent the other one. It was Saturday afternoon when I decided to do it, and I needed to get the other painting in the mail on Monday, so when our church was cancelled that Sunday due to snow, I spent all of Sunday afternoon and evening painting.

This is how it looked when I finished.

Since I am posting gifts, thought I'd throw this one in too. Jake's dad is always the hardest person on our list to shop for. Last summer he took the kids on their first fishing trip and I went along to take pics. He has always seemed to really love the photos so we decided to pic our favorites and change them to black and white and create a story board for him. Thanks to my friend Jeremi who is a photographer we had templates and knew to have it printed on styrene. We didn't get to see the final result as we had it shipped directly to Grandpa, but we heard that it turned out great.

Win a Puzzle

2008-12-02T00:14:00.001-08:00

Some of you who visit this blog, may not frequent my family blog...

so I wanted to post a link here.

I am having a contest and giving away one of the puzzles I designed.

If you are interested, please follow this link

Thanks!

Random

2008-11-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

I am getting a few more things organized for my portfolio (on my website)... this is the easiest way to get the items I forgot to put on the original disc to my friend K.

FYI - this is a painting I was hired to do last Christmas for a friend. It is her husband as a boy with his little sister and late father. I really was happy with how it turned out and would love to do more stuff of this sort.

These are a couple of nativities I painted - just to show difference in color.

A while back

2008-11-26T11:56:00.001-08:00

Ash and I did a photo shoot this summer for the M family. We looked at them on Ash's computer and she saved them on a disc for me... but today is the first I have done any editing. I want to use some for my new website, so while I am at it, I thought I'd put some of my favorites here.

Mostly Cut-Out Cakes

2008-11-13T10:48:00.001-08:00

Teri asked me awhile ago to post all the other cakes I've made. So, here ya go....this isn't all of them, but most. I included the beach ball cake that I forgot to include in the fondant cakes. The rest of these are not made of fondant. I frosted the majority of them with White Mountain Frosting and decorated with candy. A few have store bought or buttercream frosting. The Winnie the Pooh and Scooby I have made more than once, they are made with a mold pan. I probably should have just put my favorites, some of these cakes are not so good. Some pictures aren't the easiest to see, either, but anyway here they all are. Most of my ideas come from my kids and what they ask for. Which ones are your favorites?

2008-11-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

There you go

2008-11-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

Was that too slow?

2008-11-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Patch

2008-11-12T09:06:00.001-08:00

Justin asked me to design a patch for his Company about 6 months ago. I came up with this:

(This is a picture of a cell phone pic, very bad quality.)

They ended up not wanting a new one....Then they changed their minds, and Justin asked me to send him the pic if I still had it. After looking at it again, I wanted to make some changes...This is what I came up with. I drew it and then scanned it, then I went over it in paintshop and darkened the pencil and filled in the color. I cannot get my computer to curve the letters around the top and the bottom. I have no idea if they will even use it, but it was fun to have a little art project.

Self Portrait

2008-11-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

The photography forum I am in does a challenge every few weeks to help get creative juices flowing. There is a different theme or photography method chosen each time. This was my first one to participate in. The challenge was "self portrait" (without your face in it).

The above was my first attempt... then I thought that it didn't quite portray me ... so I did the next one, which shows a bit more of "Me" since being a mom is really one of the most important parts of my whole self.

p.s. that is a sneak peak at my castle puzzle (which is now finished, hopefully on Thursday I will find out they are going to go ahead with it..*fingers crossed*). Obviously I can't show all the artwork online, but that is a glimpse.

Paua Shell Nativity

2008-11-07T12:56:00.001-08:00

I put the story of this home-made nativity on my family blog, but I had a few other pics and I thought it fit in with this blog... it is so hard to get the lighting right and to be able to see the details and color.

Here are the official changes

2008-10-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Vicki suggested a few improvements so here are my changes.
I didn't do the red one, because I am too lazy to do it tonight.

Hillary

2008-10-30T11:49:00.001-07:00

I need some help deciding which way this pic looks best:

A Whole bunch of Tamsyn

2008-10-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

A little of her personality

Just practicing my depth of field... It is not very often that Tamsyn is a willing model... so I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Cropped

2008-10-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

The originals of these pictures, needed a little cropping...I think they look better now that they don't have half-missing hands. No?

Mr. Ethan

2008-10-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

I like how innocent he looks in this pic, but I don't know if I like the colored version or the B&W one better.

One thing I took away from this was that 2 year olds don't like to hold still for pictures...Who'd have guessed? ;)

Website Front Page

2008-10-21T14:28:00.001-07:00

Here is a black version?

Ok... here is one more... all these in random order now..

I think I like this one the best. I think you can click on it to see it larger too.

Hey Teri and Ash, and whoever else happens to see this...

I am trying to get my website updated and come up with a nice front page. Following are the logo I decided on (it is similar to how I sign my work) and an idea for the first page of my website.

Please let me know your opinions! If some of the stuff sticks out, or seems out of place, too much, not enough etc. I wanted to have some, photos, illustrations, pastel, and pencil. I have a painting that I did for a friend that I don't have pics of, if she gets around to sending it to me, I would put it where the one of Justin with the three girls is.

(ok, later I added 2 other options)

Fondant Cakes

2008-10-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

These are my first attempts at using fondant to decorate cakes. Kyle wanted a dragon for his 8th birthday and he wanted it to have wings and lots of scale. He also wanted to pick the colors. The scales are hard to see in these pictures.

I had never made or used fondant before this cake. Please remember I am completely self taught and just have fun experimenting. I used food coloring and a paintbrush to color this one.
This is my 2nd try. I used a different recipe for the fondant and found it was a little easier to work with.
Allie found a picture of this pig and decided she wanted it for her 5th birthday.

Almost a year later, I got the chance to work with fondant again.
Azurdey wanted a cake with toys. (Yes, she is a little spoiled.)

This is the cake she got for her 3rd birthday.

My 4th attempt.

Allie wanted a mermaid for her 6th birthday. I tweaked the "Barbie Cake" and came up with this. I still had the half-doll from Jada's Barbie cake from when she turned 5.

I colored large sugar crystals to make the 'sand' on the top layer. It was fun to make all the shells and coral. It is hard to see those details in the pictures.
These cakes are far from perfect and I am the first to admit I am no professional, but I do enjoy it, especially when I see the kids' faces light up to see their idea turned into a birthday cake. Also, it always sparks my creativity to see what other people have done with their cakes, so I hope these examples might help get your creative juices flowing.
-Ashlee-