Cheshire Cats

Well the tea party's over now at UKS, and though I only got 2 layouts done during it, I did enjoy it, and will be doing some of the other classes in my own time over the next wee whiley. This was one of the challenges to do something relating to grins, a la Cheshire Cat. So here's a photo of my sis which she foolishly let me have!! I like this cos it was quick and it feels bright and sunny. The paper is Imagination Project.

Cyber Crop!

The Mad Hatters Cyber Crop is on at UKS! Shame that life can get in the way of it sometimes though eh? Anyway, here is my cyber bear, all kitted out for a clubs victory (and you can see his cousin here, but he's a Heart, boo!) I managed one class layout last night, though I hadn't prepared the stuff you were meant to have, paper doilies etc, so I kind of improvised. I like this idea of painting over a mask/stencil though so may just need to track down some doilies and give it a go. Mine is a lot messier than the original class, but I had this kind of fuzzy picture which needed something to take away from the fuzziness so I thought this might work (it was also late and I was quite sleep deprived!)

Scottish Palms!

Well, I've had a very hectic 10 days or so, trying to meet deadlines for work so crafting, scrapping and the dear old blog didn't really get a look in. So I just thought I'd pop on and say hello, and share another piccie from my working travels - no one believes me when I tell them there's palm trees in Scotland so here they are! It's the Mad Hatters Cyber Crop on over at UKS, so will need to try and get a few classes squeezed in over the weekend somehow, in between a few more deadlines coming up next week before I go off on holiday. Can't wait.

Bowled Over!

Last week was great fun - my sister went off to Rome with her hubby and I stayed at her's and got up to all sorts of mischief with my mum and two nephews. We went to the gem rock museum, an adventure farm park, the barbers(!), played Dungeons and Dragons for hours (I'm a halfling rogue if anyone is interested), watched lots of DVDs, Harry Potter and Night at the Museum were fab. But the best bit was making bowls. I'd been knitting each day so by Friday we had some strange hat things which we then dunked in hot soapy suds and really cold water and thunked about for hours. The younger nephew just loved it, so much so that I had to knit more so that we could do it again on Saturday! Well, we each now have at least one felted bowl, though I have to admit I have no idea what to put in mine! I've never done any felting (intentionally!) before so we got a bit better at it the second day, as we were much less gentle by then. It seems strange doing all the things you've been programmed into not doing to handknits, but great to see the material change to something else. Think I'm hooked!

First Design Collective class!

Okay, so I'm running at least one and almost two weeks late on this, but here's the one (and so far only) class that I've done from the Design Collective's April classes. This one was by Kirsty Wiseman, and made me realise that I hardly ever take any portrait style piccies, they're all landscape so this one was quite hard to do! But it also made me use much more colour than I probably would have on these photos, and I really like the result. Still undecided about eyelets though, love the look, hate the noise.... I'm just back from a lovely week down with the nephews (in charge - eek!- while sis and hubby went off for a few days!) but am so tired now that all the tales of fun and games and felted bowls will need to wait til tomorrow now.....

Birds

On a roll here so decided to get on with this week's Emily Falconbridge art journal - and the prompt was..... birds. Hhhm, didn't expect that one! So I thought about it, about birds and what they represented. I loved books such as Callanish, about the eagle which escaped from London zoo, and remember the glorious sight of a pair of golden eagles in Kintail, and ended up with this kind of hazy card. The cut out words say spirit and dignity. There were so many words that birds seems to evoke - wisdom, hope, inspiration, soar, fly, freedom, spirit. Birds feature quite a lot in mythology as well. I've had a little owl ever since my first year at uni - when I studied classics and needed as much help from Athena as possible! The raven is a bird with a great brooding and potent presence too, and appears in many Celtic tales. But I decided to stay with the eagles for this card.

What's on your mind?

Getting fit! I have to do something, and keep it going as well. All this spring weather, and bright colours and lack of clothes that fit have a lot to do with it, and it has been on my mind all week. So it seemed the thing to do for Emily's Art Journal prompt this week, week 13 would you believe? I keep starting things, like yoga, or healthy eating, or walking, but it slips after a week or two, so I need to mend my ways and somehow make it part of my life!

And in the spirit of my alter ego the White Rabbit, I am just scrapping in another UKS weekly challenge before the deadline. The challenge was to use a children's title (for Hans Christian Anderson), tartan (for Edinburgh science week), 2 types of brown in the papers (for choccie) and something new (for spring). So this is a photo from a Baltic cruise Mum and I went on in May 2005, and is the first of probably loads of los from the trip. I loved Hans Christian Anderson stories as a kid, and it was great to walk along the quayside in Copenhagan in gorgeous sunny weather and come across the famous statue.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone's having a good Easter - piccie of my eggs and the lovely card my Mum made for me just to make me feel more springlike on a not very sunny day really (but it's been nice most of the week so can't complain!) I feel very grown up as I kept my eggs untouched til this morning, and even had a real egg for brekkie first before I started on the chocolate ones. I'm off down to my sister's tomorrow for a week of mayhem with her kids while she goes off on holiday with her hubbie, so that should be fun! And of course there's loads of things I should be doing to get organised before I go but feel like catching up on some scrapping stuff as well. I haven't started on the fab Design Collective classes yet, or done last Sunday's art journal card yet either, so lots to choose from! And uks is starting the build up to the next cyber crop - the Madhatter's Tea Party! Hope you all have a lovely day,

From the white rabbit x

What season does this say to you?

My UKS team do fortnightly challenges in a 6x6 format, and this one was to scrap your favourite season or time of the year, but, wait for it (and this was hard for me) without words... So, hopefully this piccie taken almost 20 years ago, will say summer to anyone looking at it (I think the hat helps!), long lazy days sitting beside a waterfall.... ah if only!

Suddenly it's spring!

That's what it feels like today anyway, so let's hope it continues.... and in a springlike, almost Easter mood I did this week's UKS challenge which was to use a spring theme, rabbits or lambs, daffodils and 3 patterned papers. Well no daffs I'm afraid, but I did have these piccies of decorations I brought back from Germany one Easter and we put up in the hallway. So an Easter layout, while I look at the sunshine and dream of chocolate eggs!