Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

I may well be blessed and live by the seaside but that is not quite the same as going on holiday by the seaside. And after last years 2 weeks of torrential rain I am relieved to say that this year we had two weeks of blistering heat. In Cornwall! We stayed at the Haven site in Perranporth first in 1999. It was the year we bought our third hand trailer tent. We had a lovely time - although I do remember buying Phil a raincoat and using our wellies a lot. The kids were 7, 5 and 3. Now they are almost 21, 19 and 17 we revisited the site but left the tent behind (well we don't own it anymore!) and used a fabulous mobile home with french windows at the front. We do like a mobile home holiday. It feels a lot like camping but has toilets and a tv and hot water on tap!

There will be many photos to come but I will just show off the two I have put on Facebook already

Hywel bodyboarding on the Perran Sands bit of the beach and St Ives through Carys' sunshades.

Work is back apace. Its a shame I don't have a baptism on Sunday as I have a funeral today and a wedding tomorrow! The service will be about prayer and the Lord's Prayer in particular (but that is about as far as I have got at the moment) but no water will be used.

I did manage to make a card last night for Daring Cardmakers. It felt as if I didn't know what to do at all! Took ages and lots of faff to make a really simple card. Nat came up with a lovely challenge Creature Comforts and as most people were featuring cats I thought I had better add a dog. I suppose I could have done a card with chickens on - but I don't really count them as pets!

 

I coloured the dog stamped image in with Prisma pencils. I made a black frame with a Nestability and then created a longer panel with orange cardstock, slipping some very old Basic Grey Offbeat paper in underneath. The next green panel is from the last Quirky Kit and then the stripe is more Offbeat paper. I had enough room for a sweet little QK paw print which I cut from the orange and black cardstock and added some glossy accents to the paw for dimension (there is some on the dogs nose too!). The sentiment is from the same set as the dog.

It is still sunny here in Babbacombe. Apparently my parents who stayed here last week saw dolphins in the bay so it must have been sunny. Lets hope it all holds out for the wedding tomorrow. I LOVE weddings!

A little more Florence

I will upload my Quirky Kits Florence pages in a little while but here are two that I have done using other bits and bobs.
The first goes with the Sketch365 challenge for July

as you can see here

I used mostly Crate Paper the Pier for this although the background paper is Simple Stories.
I have some of the lovely Washi strips which I used, as well as the ephemera pack which the blue doiles and the "9" come from. There seemed to be every number but 4 so I cut that out using a PTI die. Lots of Black Soot distress ink stopped the colours being too airy fairy for a layout featuring a man - although the colours go so well with the chairs in the restaurant.
I die cut part of the title onto the photo frame but managed to get it squiffy (sigh) as I do... Still it made it easier to fit the rest of the title in as well!

It was all finished off with some stick on gems and pearls as well as a few of my home made ones. I'm getting to the bottom of the little box of DIY Enamel Dots so will have to make some more soon.

Phil features in the next layout as well... (not surprisingly as the holiday was just the two of us...)

 He did make me smile being weighed down like that, but he carried a load of my stuff so I don't complain!
The papers are almost all from a BoBunny collection. I added some extra stamping to the already busy background and cut up, inked and relayered another paper on top (I prefer doing this to pre printed patterns like that to give extra dimension). I found an old Pink Paislee packet of bits and bobs which is where the suitcase, compass and pennants come from. The stickers are mostly BoBunny with a few others thrown in. Everything was outlined with my lovely Zebra Antique Gel pen that has been discontinued. I do love a dark brown pen.

Phil is standing outside our hotel. Across the road was the Ponte Vecchio, the only old bridge left in Florence. We couldn't really have been much closer to the centre and having to walk across the bridge several times a day was always a delight!

Untitled

I've called this blog post "untitled" as I am hoping that inspiration strikes at a later date. However I am feeling very worn down and brain dead right now and suspect that untitled it may stay!

I did manage to avoid the faux pas of not noticing it was my turn to host the Daring Cardmaker monthly colour challenge this time round.
But only just!
 I found a fabulous colour palette at Design Seeds

and this is my take on it

The papers are mostly Fancy Pants "on the shore". I was also inspired by the photo to add a Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder to the off white cardstock and go voer it with Pumice stone distress ink and add the thread as well. The die cut "happy" is covered in glossy accents but you can't really see it in the photo. Oh and the white chicken wire is a Clearly Besotted stamp and white embossing powder. I also used a Martha Stewart butterfly puch and three enamel dots.

No - no progress on the title. Saving my energy for Sunday when we have 3 baptisms and lots of people in church. I've reminded everyone who normally attends that having a full church is good! Sometimes that is hard to remember, especially if it removes you from your comfort zone (aka usual seat and view of the front). Just hope it isn't too warm