Grunge Roses, Grandsons, Macro Lens and Copic Markers

I know the title sounds a bit confusing... I mean what do Grandsons, Grunge Roses, Macro Lens and Copic Markers have in common?  Nothing really aside from the fact that I am getting ready to talk about them in this post.  Here's why.  This morning I began working on Tim Holtz's Grunge Roses for a layout I am working on and my Grandson helped me coat each one of the die cut flowers with Mod Podge.  Here is a photo my daughter took of him helping me... excuse the TERRIBLE lighting... no wonder I can never see well in my kitchen.  I didn't crop this photo because when I looked at it to edit it... I realized that Marley (one of our four dogs) was laying on the floor behind Jack... I can only imagine that intent look on her face has to do with the fact that she was hoping he was doing something with FOOD as he is always good for tossing the dogs a treat or two. Just for the record my grandson is in his jammies because it was only 7 in the morning.

Now for the Macro Lens part... I have been trying to improve the quality of my project photos and decided to try an (inexpensive) Macro Lens.  This particular item was less than $40.00 with shipping.  It is not a typical (expensive) Macro Lens. Rather this one screws onto your camera lens (it does not act alone in other words) and then simply maginfies the image. It does create a hazy circle around the image that can be cropped out (thus the saying, "You get what you pay for." applies here.).  Directly below is a photo of  how close I could get to the grunge flower without a Macro Lens (expensive or cheap) with my Olympus E-410  SLR digital camera equipped with the 14-45mm Lens. I did not crop this photo.

And here is how close I could get to the grunge rose with the (product box in photo above) Opteka 10x Macro-type magnifying lens.

So for less than 40 bucks I can now get some much better close-up shots... you know so that all the little flaws in my projects can be seen nice and clear. :-) 

As for the Copic Markers part... I'm tickled pink because my application was accepted to take the Certification Training for Copic Markers that is scheduled here in Michigan on June 12!  I am so excited to have this opportunity to really learn some techniques first hand from the professionals themselves.  I'm also excited that afterwards I can pass all that info on to you! Yee Haw!