Family lunch out

Ballon on the loose

Camera face

Excitement mounts...

Entertaining ballon man

Who's the cheeky monkey

Monkey clasped tightly

Youngest daughter and I met up with family for lunch and a shopping today. My niece had a red ballon which she let go of and it floated to the top of the shopping centre. To console her we bought her a monkey ballon.

My latest love (or obsession) with fonts and flowers

My group at UK Scrappers has to set a challenge and we have been working on a number of layout ideas. This one had to use nature as inspiration, a number of fonts and include a multiphoto layout.

I used a background paper from Wilna Furstenberg's Rain kit but altered the colour a little. The tags and lavender also come from this kit whilst the brads are from her Flyaway brads set. I typed the names of all the flowers in the photo mosaic out, made each one a different font, grouped and repeatedly copied them to make a background of flower names. The heart comes from the Miss Mint Pop Rock Grafitti set.
And now to the font obsession... "MY" comes from Betsy Suma Glitteratic Cupid Alphas, "Latest" from the Queen of Quirk Spring chicken alphas and the flower names fonts are: Apple Chancery, Herculaneum, Papyrus, Lucinda Blackletter, Calisto MT, Blackmoor LET, PC Myungo, Playbill, Disgusting Behaviour, Montagent Cherokee, Trebuchet MS and American Typewriter.

Wild Blueberry Ink Anniversary Giveaway

Check out the Wild Blueberry Ink blog here and enter yourself multiple times and in multiple ways to win some fab goodies. Although I really covet them so don't tell too many people about them ;-)

Photo Mosaic- floral inspiration

Not much time this week but I saw this idea on Ali Edwards' blog and went to the Mosaic Maker at Big Huge Labs and had a bit of a play. I think it's a fun way to present your photos and there are lots of options that just scream out different layouts. I found it interesting looking back at old photographs in iphoto and noticing that I do seem to have a fondness for taking close up pictures of flowers.

Playing with paint, paper and junque journals - work in progress

Sea Fever

Junque/Inspiration Journal page

After I finished the digi layout yesterday morning I was going to do another as at present I am feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of photos I have. Then I remembered that I do this for fun and if I think it becomes a chore it ceases to be fun. I looked up and saw my abandoned junque journal and decided to do a page. So painted on several layers of acrylic paint and then I doodled with the pva and added beads taken from a broken bracelet. It reminded me of the sea and the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield so I added a few lines from that and a title torn from an old dictionary. I misted it with glimmer mists. At this point when the paint was wet it looked wonderful but lost some of the vibrancy when dry but I still kind of like it.

Experimental background paper using junque techniques

Background two - but now heading towards my sunflower moments

Inspired by this I created two 12x12 background papers using the white card that comes inside pva sleeves. I used the same techniques - painting with acrylics and then doodling pva lines on, misting with glimmer mists and lifting up to see the colour run. Watch this space for the layouts I make from these. Finally I decided to try painting on acrylic sheets and looking out my window I saw the sunflowers so painted one free hand. I really like it but not sure what to do with it. I think I might make a collage picture as a present or maybe I'll just tape it to my window.

Against my window

Overlays

Here is the poem. It is special to me as it reminds me of my dad who was always happiest when sailing around the West Coast of Scotland.

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield

Feeling more inspired now and I love my job

This morning I decided that restrained layouts like the one I did last night are just not me. So I have reverted back to bright colours and mess and I much prefer it. I mixed and matched a variety of Owl Tree Studio's kits. I have just become a member there and am really enjoying the variety of kits - lots of freebies too - and the forums are really interesting.
I have survived the first week back with the pupils and have to admit that I love my job. There are days when I want to scream and shout - usually after some hormonally challenged 14 year olds but overall I am doing what I love and for that I consider myself very lucky. Now if I could only find more time from scrapping it would be perfect. I am having a digi weekend as it does tend to take me less time but I think I may have to get glue, scissors and ribbons out soon or I may have withdrawal symptons.
The elements I used for the layout above are:  Casa Mia Clouds,  matted  with red spots by GBGD from the August Collaboration - the staples come from there too. The bubbles are on several layers and come from the Beach Breeze kit. The Alphabets are a mix - Sea Blue Alpha from iscrapbook for 'Messing and Water',  Kaisercraft for the "on the" and the journaling is Handwriting Dakota font.

Scrapping mojobit off but like the Owl Tree Studios Kit

Created this using the August Collaboration kit, The Casa Mia Kit and Feeling Good. I liked using the journalling lines for the lined detail but think it might be missing something... may need to become hybrid.

Ribbon Girl giveaway

Check out this fabulous ribbon giveaway at Ribbon Girl.

And yes my desk is messy again...

As you can see.

Scrapping with squares, quadrants and Owl Tree Studio's Beach Breeze Digital kit for this month's cj

completed layout using quadrants, squares and Owl Tree Studio kit

Serendipity came calling today in the form of Shimelle's challenges, a free kit from Owl Tree Studio and the fact that I needed to create the latest entry for the cj  called My Happy Place.
For this layout I began by choosing four of the papers from Owl Tree Studio's Beach Breeze digital kit and then I layered on the wave image with different degrees of transparency. I knew I wanted to create a grid effect and that my layout was about the sun always shining (at least metaphorically) so I used the sun embellishment to create movement and a grid. I then printed it out and mounted it onto the card for the journal.

The background printed out

I then printed and cut out my photos and stuck them on. Using inspiration from the kit I added yellow buttons on top. I then created a mini journalling booklet using the labels from the kit, cut them out and layered up with brads. I used the cloud, a sun and journalling for title and again printed and cut out.

I felt the layout was still lacking something so I used Sakura jelly roll pens to draw round the suns and to highlight the waves, taking it onto card below.

Finally I added some dolphin and starfish charms that I have had in my stash forever.

I printed out and then cut up and inked a title for the tag, adding the beach umbrella

Detail showing edging details.

Then look down and admire nature

I love that the dried pod casing is still lying inside the flower

but then I just had to pick it out and take another photo

After crawling around the flower bed looking up I felt it was only right I look down. This poppy amazes me as the plant flowered earlier this year and now I have a new one - spectacular. I love the colour and the fleeting nature of poppies - one puff of wind and they're gone.

Look up and what do you see

Sunflowers and blue sky... bliss!

You can just spot a neighbour's rook here which shows the weird angle I was at

"Look up" was something I said to my kids all the time when they were growing up and it is now a bit of a mantra for us all whether we are walking in a city or the country as there is always so much to see. This morning I looked out my window to see bright blue sky having just read this challenge. I went out to our garden and decided to take a picture of my very large sunflowers against the sky. To take these photos I was squatting in the flower bed and looked very undignified especially as still had pj's on as when the moment takes you, you just have to look up.

My fence is 6 foot tall so this shows how big the sunflowers are getting.

Old Friends and explosive photo for Shimelle's crop

The Two Eilidh's explode towards me.

Friday night was a special night as we had old friends to stay. Liz and I met in an antenatal class more than 20 years ago and my eldest and her eldest were born six weeks apart - although they were due within 2 weeks of each other. I went into labour three weeks early (and she was late) and can still remember saying when she visited me in hospital after attending class: "Tell me what to do, I've missed the ones about bathing your baby and what to do when they are born!" Stuart and Claire will be 21 next year and yet here we all are. Our children (we both have 5!) grew up together and when they had to move to Holland for several years we would go and visit. I have memories of us in the Hague going for pancakes and being pointed at by Dutch customers who were visibly counting the children who went down in age from 15 to babes in arms.
This weekend we managed to get six out of the ten children round the table which is amazing. Our eldest daughter is in South Korea and middle daughter was working 200 hundred miles away and eldest boy is in Paris whilst her eldest is performing on the fringe. They were not there but we talked about them and it made them seem so much closer... and we looked at the old photos. I was snapping pictures and took this picture almost by accident as I walked out the door into the garden straight into the "Two Eilidhs" running down the grass towards me. Explosive and action packed I think so.
For those of you not from Scotland Eilidh is a gaelic name and is pronounced "Ayleigh" it rhymes with Ceildh and Hayley. Our Eilidh was born in April and when Liz had a girl in August she asked me if it was okay to call her Eilidh too and now we have the Two Eilidhs - friends like their mums.

Old friends, food and drink

Prima flowers giveaway...flower pics and back to school

Check out this blog for a great idea and giveaway.

I go back to school tomorrow for two days of in service training. I am often asked by people what we do on these days - usually friends who work who have to take extra days off work to cover child care on these days. A local Glasgow dj on Radio Clyde maintains we all drink cheap German wine (yuck) and play Twister. If only we had as much fun as that! Usually it involves us sitting on the plastic uncomfortable dining room chairs watching endless power point presentations full of statistics and acronyms. Anyone secretly filming our behaviour would be appalled at out lack of attention, doodling (I do this a lot and quite often sketch ideas for layouts), talking and generally behaving like our worst pupils. Why?  We we all think we could do it better, have heard it all before and so on. I have to say I really do love my job and enjoy teaching my pupils - what I don't enjoy is the endless paper and electronic trail (we do everything twice it seems) and administrative load that just gets bigger and squeezes the fun out of the job. I went to work yesterday (not an official day) and dragged Lens Guy with me as chief muscle man and drawing pin sticker. Why? Because it was decided our classrooms should be painted over the holidays so the last week of term we were told to take everything off the walls and shelves ready for painting. I needed to go in yesterday to put everything back on the shelves and put my posters etc up. If you know my scrapping style you can imagine my room - it is bright, cheerful and full of stuff. I will try and take a pic of the shiny new room at the start of the year - it might not be so pretty later in the year.

Another friend of mine thought it was highly amusing and didn't think he could come up with another job where staff would be expected to clear walls and furniture before painting and then put it all back again - he wanted to know why there wasn't a special team to do this. I think it all comes down to money which in the endless round of cuts is not there. I know I need to go to the supermarket and buy more pens, pencils, coloured pens and pencils and other bits and bobs as the department just hasn't got the money for this kind of thing and I like to visual stuff with my pupils.

Enough - I am obviously just going into decline at the thought of working which is mad as I am so lucky to have these seemingly endless holidays and having worked for many years in the private sector and had 20 days a year holiday I know I am lucky.

Card making and more uses for that linen shirt and I made a mess!

This was my desk once I had finished the cards!

Dragonfly card

Today I made four cards and played with paints, punches, stamps, my old linen shirt and a bit of fun. The dragonfly card was to thank middle daughter for lunch she made us last week, The backing paper came free with Scrapbook Magazine as did the blue flower paper and the letters. The dragonfly came from the Graphics Fairy - a great resource for images - and I printed, painted and cut it out. I used the shirt to make a mat and had fun fraying it.

Detail of butterfly thank you card

 I used one sleeve and cut out the embroidered part and then frayed the edges. The butterflies were from a free paper in Scrapbook Magazine that I bent and added pigment powders, the stamp was free in a card making magazine.

Birthday card for Father in law

We are treating in laws to a few nights camping in the Mull of Galloway at Port Logan. We loved it there and know they will too. It's a hipstamatic photo and then I just stamped the greeting on the front. Suitably masculine and combines gift voucher too. If you haven't guessed by now you can probably tell I like to make my cards for as little as possible.

Birthday card for brother in law - sheep

Brother in law has recently invested in 20 ewes and lambs so this is relevant to him. The image came as a black and white from the Graphics Fairy which I coloured with water colours and matted with linen. The weathered paper was another freebie as was the stamp,

Butterfly card - to thank mother in law for having youngest daughter to stay

Work in progress - nice and messy

I was using up scraps of green paper torn into strips and inked and then pva glued to card blank. I then added water colour paint. Once it is dry I will make it into card number five.

Take one old shirt and a layout needing a bit more... to make Smile Please

Original digital layout that was just too plain when I printed it out so I got...

my lovely but holey embroidered linen shirt

I was ironing one of my favourite shirts today when I noticed that the linen had frayed under the arm to create a big hole rendering my shirt unwearable. I was very upset as I have loved this shirt and it has lasted many years which is why it's no surprise it was was falling apart. I had also created a digital lo for my oxford album using one big photograph that I matted onto two pieces of paper and then added a digital swirl stamp and some journaling. When I printed the layout I just didn't feel it was right and then I realised the shirt would be perfect if I could make myself cut it up...

I carefully cut round an embroidered piece but...

Laying it beside my layout it look wrong so...

I realised that all that pintuck and button detail made great edging and I didn't even have to sew all the buttons on!

The finished layout, much better I think but now what am I going to do with...

All the bits I cut out and the others bits and... I'm sure I'll think of something and let you see it.