Solemn lo on a sunny day

Nothing new achieved scrapping or crafty wise over the weekend so here's one of the Irish ones that I don't think I've put up, probably thought it was a bit too solemn maybe. But it's fun to try different takes at times. The pictures are of the grave of W B Yeats in Drumcliff, and the 'journalling' is actually Yeats poem. It was a lovely sunny day today, and really made you think that spring might be just round the corner ... well one can hope. I'm heading up north again tomorrow evening so I hope that the sunny spell continues. I haven't done Emily's card yet, the prompt this week is 'something or someone you miss'. I know the obvious thing to do, but not sure I feel up to that so will need to put the thinking cap on for something a bit lighter I think. Anyway, I'll be back in a couple of days, so see you then!

Another week over!

Survived another week, yay! And what with hairdressers and opticians this week I feel like I've been getting an MOT...I still feel terribly behind with work things due to the post flu tiredness but am hoping to do some catch up over the week end (as well as tidying the scrap room...) and maybe just the odd bit of scrapping too! So here's one I've not put on before. It's the first UKS weekly challenge that I did, and I still rather like the way these 2 old pals look. Have a great weekend everyone!

Go north and west...my favourite place

Quite tired today, after teaching all day, but feel a bit more refreshed after doing a quick lo before bed! My UKS team, the Bitty Blossoms, is running a fortnightly in house challenge, 6x6 los on a favourite theme. This one was a favourite place, and had to include your own handwriting. I found it hard to finalise on just one place when I realised it was a type of place I love, usually found on the west coast here, so used a few photos and lots of description. Journalling reads:

Pure clean sands, dramatic skies, deep earthy colours, sheep everywhere, standing stones stark against the horizon, everchanging weather and light, lichen and moss on rocks and stones. Waves crashing on a rocky coastline, green and grey against the sky. Scotland, a wonderful place, go north and west...

Three things

It was a wet and windy drive north last week, but the drive home was glorious - sun, snow on the hills, deep vibrant colours and of course breathtaking scenery. Here's a couple of quickie on the road from the mobile shots. Glengarry (above) and Rannoch Moor (below).

This week's Emily Falconbridge card challenge was SHOES. Now I'm not really a shoe addict like some folk seem to be. I guess I have one rule, no matter whether they're hiking boots, everyday ones, summer sandals or for a night out, they must be comfy! I hate buying shoes for this very reason. How do you really know, in the shop, after only a few minutes on, whether they will in fact be really comfy?? It's a hard one!

And lastly (all things come in threes) here's the next in the Irish hols series of layouts. It was so hot and sunny last year, we couldn't believe it, and had to go shopping in Dublin to buy lightweight summer gear cos everything we'd packed was too heavy and warm. The beaches in Kerry were glorious, if anything it was too hot!

New toy

Saw this on Shimelle's blog today, and just had to have a go, isn't it great! Especially for those of us who remember using libraries before the days of computers... you can find the card generator here if you fancy a go too. Anyway before I go and attend to all the above, I have a confession to make. I lied. I didn't really mean to, but I'm not scrapping Singapore at the minute, I got sidetracked with last summer's holiday with Mum in Ireland, so here's a couple of los from that. I will do Singapore soon, honest! I'm off up north again tomorrow, til Sunday night so won't be around. But just wanted to say thanks to all those fellow artists doing Emily Falconbridge's Art Journal challenge for the great comments and encouragements they've left for me, and for the inspiration of their own fab cards. Check out the web ring on the left and go have a look!

Topsy Turvy

Haven't scrapped anything today, shame when work gets in the way eh? And what with all the time this trying to be healthy and get fitter malarkey takes, I'll just need to show you one of fav los from pre-blog days. This was in response to a challenge on UKS by Scrappybunny, which jumped out at me one night when I was kind of at a loose end. The challeng was simply to make a lo completely UPSIDE DOWN, ie with it all facing away from you. Now, I don't know quite what kind of mood I was in but this really appealed, so I did it all, even the journalling, upside down, though I guess the glass of gin helped....And you know what, I really like the result, and got an interesting gallery comment on it saying that they'd been told to do this at art school! So, I still have a bit of habit of turning stuff the other way round sometimes when I get a bit stuck, maybe I should go off and do another topsy turvy one...

Art Journal Cards

Finally got my act together to do Emily Falconbridge's Art Journal Weekly Card Challenge, altering one card a week to a theme specified by Emily on her blog. Having got a bit of confidence from doing the canvases, I decided to use acrylics on a pack of Tesco playing cards. The prompts were:

1 - Something you are proud of (things I make)

2 - What is powerful to you? (music)

3 - I am (a statement for yourself) (an artist)

4 - A symbol you love (a harp)

5 - Some ephemera from your week (receipt from the Green Welly, my weekly stop off for tea/petrol/toilets/sweeties etc)

6 - Love (simple that one!)

These are great fun, just hope I can keep up for the rest of the year.... Other than that I tried to make a good start at healthier living today - some exercise, porridge for breakie, lots of fruit, veg and water, and boy I need my bed now! Still, small steps by a recent flu sufferer so let's I can keep that up too!

Today's Favourites

It's been a lazy Sunday today, ain't they just grand? Reading the papers, going out for lunch, doing the sudoku! And of course a wee bit of scrapping too.... Today I did some challenges, the UKS weekly challenge which was to incorporate red, circles, favourite things and handwritten journalling. I chose two piccies of places I love, Callanish standing stones in Lewis, and Am Buachaille Etive Mor, the Great Herdsman of Etive, standing guard on the entrance to Glencoe. They are both beautiful places, Callanish I've only seen twice, but I drive through Glencoe every week so I've seen it in all weathers, and every light, and the Buachaille is always impressive. My other lo for today is the Bitty Blossoms own team challenge. We're doing a 6x6 My Favourites book, with each team member taking a turn to set a challenge theme and technique. This is the first one and was Favourite Films or Actors, and to use stamping. Well, I kind of struggled, I only went to the movies once last year (I know, I need a life!) and have never really been a big fan of any particular actor, but a team mate suggested I do a genre, so with my love of travel it was an easy decision to make, and ended up with a photoless lo!

Independent

No, not the newspaper, but my latest Book of Me page! Following Roz and Kirsty's UKS prompts, February's challenge was to use an emotion and a colour you associate with it. I found it quite hard as I didn't want to repeat anything I'd done on Shimelle's You Think You Know Me class, which covered 10 different moods, but this old piccie came to mind, (and it's a good 25 years old now!), and if there's one thing I always feel (or feel I have to be!), or get accused of being, it's independent. I'd also fancied trying to use acrylic paints, I've been harbouring quite a few wee tubes which came free with a magazine I used to subscribe to, so this was my chance to play with them. And it was so much easier than I expected. In fact I liked it so much I got out the two canvases I'd got tucked away (as you do), painted them in two different shades of green, and did a double layout for the walls, so to speak, using piccies from last summer of my family. Will definitely need to do more of this. Not least because having singled my sister out on the bottom one, I might need to do some other folk for the sake of equality!

Well, I did enjoy my scrapping day yesterday, but better get round to doing some housework today ... hope you all have a good weekend.

Bye Bye Bali

Well, that's me finished my Bali layouts, feels great to have finally done something with those piccies, that's one of the things I love about scrapping, it gives you a real sense of having achieved something! I still need to put them in an album, though. And of course, I now need to decide what to scrap next! I think I'll go and search out the piccies from Singapore, and stay in Asian mood for a while longer. The Monkey Forest temple. Another collage of Bali life and people, called Bali Smiles. Busy street scenes. And lastly, Serenity (you can't quite see the lettering on the middle photo) Hope everyone's got the weather they want today, I'm quite glad the snow has stayed south for a change, though I've been enjoying all the snowmen pics on UKS and folks' blogs this past day or so!

Bitty Blossoms tag book

My UKS team, the Bitty Blossoms, decided to set challenges for ourselves this year, and we started off by making a tag book. .We each made 10 tags about ourselves, sent them off, and got one back from everyone else. I now have a lovely and colourful book telling me lots about my teamies, and also giving lots of inspiration too! Here's my tags.

Bali dance

Well all the driving around of the past six days caught up with me today - I am so tired again, but hopefully a couple of days of faffing around the flat and doing some scrapping will help the recuperation! I did manage one lo today, getting near the end of the Bali photos, but here's another one from the temple dance. I really love the Basic Grey papers, they suit this theme so well, this is more Urban Couture I've used.

First trip north of 2007

Just back from my first trip north this year (got stuck at home with flu...). It was great to be on the road again, the weather was great, so here's a few piccies to show you all what I get to drive through each week.... Snow on the hills, taken at the Cluanie Inn, as was the next one. This is from the viewpoint at the top of Glen Garry, the loch is a favourite place to snap as it looks like the map of Scotland... The road home. Not bad for quickie photos taken with my mobile phone. And no, I've not done anything to them, the sky is pretty much always that dramatic!

It's February!

Yay! Cos I've been a bit fed up with January... it started out great but then this flu bug came and got hold of me and it's been no fun since. But now it's February, and I'm getting better and am even off today for a drive and a couple of days up north, it's quite exciting as I'm usually away somewhere almost every week but I've been nowhere this year so far. So fingers crossed it goes well. And as I'll not be around for a few days here's my latest - my UKS house, the Blue Brads decided to do challenges so this is for the Ink it Up! challenge. I've chalk inked the edges and under the photos, stamped the title and paisley patterns with Banana Frog stamps, and inked the flower embellies too! Fun, and just a wee bitty messy too! But I love the kind of soft look it gives.