"Checkmate" - Postcard

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This week’s Theme Thursday challenge was “Game/Puzzle Piece.” I Googled these chess pieces, then marbleized and decoupaged the horse. I applied a subtle coloring to the King, with the emphasis on greenish gold tones.

"Doomed Souls" – #59 No Way Out – Postcard

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This is my entry for Digital Whisper theme #59 No Way Out. There is no escaping Death, when he comes for you.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

"Spring Blooms" – Tag

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This week’s Take A Word challenge #22 was “Bloom.” The scan of the tag is washed out. I still haven't figured out how to correct this problem.

"Spring" - Tag

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This week’s Tag Tuesday challenge was “Spring.” As usual, my scan of my tag is washed out.

"Dreams of Spring" – #39 Dreams – Greeting Card

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The GC96 Gingersnap Creations challenge due by Apr 24 is a “Copper, Ginger, or Rust” color challenge. I used RGB 0x8a4e36 which is described as color "Ginger Bread" on this useful RGB Chart & Multi Tool site.

This is also my entry for this week's Theme Thursday challenge "Orange" but I might not have enough orange to be fully compliant.

This is also my entry for Digital Whisper theme #39 Dreams.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

"Moonrise" - #36 White - Postcard

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This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “White.” This is also my entry for Digital Whisper theme #36 White.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

"Red" – #16 Color – Gothic Arch

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This is my entry for Digital Whisper theme #16 Color.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

"Spring" – Gothic Arch

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This week’s Gothic Arches challenge was “Spring.” The words are from the poem Spring Song by Robert Louis Stevenson.

"Blue Time" - #65 Time - ATC

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This week’s Think Monday – Think ATC challenge was “Think Blue.” This is also my entry for Digital Whisper theme #65 Time.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

Parallel Cloud Lines Above and Below Moon

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Some of these are blurry, but when I took pictures of the moonrise on Mar 18, 2011, there were two parallel cloud lines in the night sky, one above it, and one below it. I thought they were jet trails from airplanes, but they weren't dispersing the way those clouds normally do, and they were perfectly parallel to each other. The pictures didn't capture the two in one image, and they don't look as defined as they did to my eyes.

"Passion" - Postcard

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This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Fair Maidens.” This is also my entry for Digital Whisper theme #76 Passion.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

Full Moon Rising Over Water

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I took these pictures last night at Southport beach in Fairfield CT, as the full moon rose over Long Island Sound. To my untrained eye, the moon didn't look any larger than normal, but it was still beautiful. The March full moon is known as the Full Worm Moon.

Moonrise

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I took these pictures as the moon rose last night. It will be a full moon tonight, known as the Full Worm Moon.

"Bon Voyage" – #35 Journey – Postcard

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This is my entry for the final challenge for Art Creations Friday (Mar 18, 2011 - number 109). The woman sitting on the trunk was provided by that site. All of the other images are from the Library of Congress. This is also my entry for Digital Whisper theme #35 Journey.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! – Greeting card

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This week’s Take A Word challenge #20 was “Green.” The scan of the card was washed out, so I also posted the image I used to make the card. The castle picture is from the Library of Congress and the other images are from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. Both links can be found on the right hand side of my blog.

"The Astronomer" – Credit Card

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I submitted this to Capital One® credit card but they rejected it, so I need to phone them on Monday, to dispute their decision. That happened with this design too, but they accepted it after I faxed them the following statement:

I agree to indemnify and hold Capital One and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners, and licensors harmless from any claim or demand including reasonable attorneys fees made by any third party due to or arising out of the image I submit for my violation of any rights of another.

I'm assuming they have the same statement or something similar that I'll need to submit, to get my Astronomer card. You can change your image after 30 days, too.

"Bird House" - ATC

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This week’s Think Monday – Think ATC challenge was “House.” This week’s Take a Word challenge #19 was "Birdlife.

"Illusions" - Postcards

Rotating Circles

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Undulating Circles

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Expanding Circles

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This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Illusions.” I created a few optical illusion postcards, that trick the eye into seeing motion where there is none. Click on each image, to view them larger, to see the effect better.

Water Rapids

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We had heavy rain yesterday into this morning, which resulted in severe flooding in some areas. Danbury CT had over 4 inches (10.16 cm) of rain. If that had been snow, it would've been 40 inches.

"Exotic" - Tag

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This week’s Tag Tuesday challenge was “Postcards” where we were supposed to use something postcard related (i.e. postage, postmarks, etc.). This week's Take a Word challenge #18 was Exotic.

I created this image using GIMP beta version 2.7.1 which I hope to continue using until they come out with release 2.8. It has some great new features that enhance version 2.6.11, but it is unstable, so it might not work 100% correctly. It requires the GTK+ as a separate installation, which I downloaded from here. Then you simply add the path of the gtk installation directory to the default.env file located in GIMP folder lib\gimp\2.0\environ.

I actually just noticed I downloaded the 32-bit GTK when I have a 64-bit machine, but it seemed to work okay. I need to try installing the 64-bit GTK and see if that works too.

"The Astronomer" - Postcard

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This week’s Theme Thursday challenge was “Man.”

"Life in the Water" - ATC

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This week’s Think Monday – Think ATC challenge was “Life in the Water.”