it is still Friday isn't it?

No?
What happened to all the time in between?
Oh that is right - prayers/meeting planning/messy church prep/messy church/recovering from messy church/work on service almost all day/wedding/bit more prep/Sunday service/recovering from Saturday and Sunday
And now it is Monday again and I haven't blogged - and it is my turn to host on Daring Cardmakers this week. Oh the shame.

There is a thing that happens when it is your turn to choose a challenge. first you have to think one up - which is harder than you would think. Then you get a bright idea and put it out there before you can change your mind. And then, and only then, do you realise just how tough that might be. And feel that any card you produce is rubbish. Happens to most of us, most weeks! I came up with what sounded like an engaging idea - until I had to engage with it! Although I do think that the rest of the team did an awesome job!
I asked everyone to try and define their Signature Style on a card
Here is my attempt

So what do I like to have on a card? Usually a plain white background which usually peeks out just a little bit. It used to have to be a square card - much less so now but I pulled one out for old times sake! A load of different patterned papers - yup - from the new Fancy Pants Wonderful Day (again - I love these papers); Die cuts - there are 7 on this card! Stamped sentiment - usually from Clearly Besotted these days; an embossing folder - and most often this Swiss Dots one; some sort of circular embellishment - the middle of the butterfly was 3 dots of enamel accents but they merged together and so I had to do something different. So i also added some Enamel Dots - which I had already turned black using my most trusty crafting friend - the Black Sharpie Pen
I'm really bothered by the fact that the yellow on the chevron paper and on the butterfly are in the same place when they needn't be - but that is too late to change now!

I have been doing some scrapping in my spare time (rather than cleaning or ironing) and need to actually get round to sharing them on here.

This layout used up loads of scraps of paper and I also did a whole heap of stamping. The pink shapes are from a stencil - having used pink Distress ink I then went round them all in pen. The stars and circles are all tiny stamps (I tend not to use such small ones usually). And I used loads of brads. Funnily enough I made this about a month ago - and this morning finished a layout that included loads of brads and also the Pink Paislee embossed cardstock that I used as a tag (although this time I was sensible enough not to try and write on it). Wierd how those things must have some connection in my mind!

The background paper is a Basic Grey basics. I ought to use them more often as they are fab!
Here is a close up of the smudgy journalling that basically wonders how bikes get parked like that all over Florence

Say it ain't so

September already!
I can't get over the fact that we are heading back to school/university/etc

September is one of the busiest months in the Church diary - probably because it is thought that everyone is away in August. To be honest, maybe more people are away in September which makes meetings interesting...

It being the first Friday of the month it is time for another colour challenge for Daring Cardmakers. The gorgeous palette this time was chosen by Beckie

It is lovely - but not that easy for me in that I don't have a lot of purple. But I found enough for this card

The papers are all American Crafts - some are Dear Lizzy and some Maggie Holmes (if you are interested!). The jar is a Dear Lizzy die cut. The little folded papers are actually from the tear off top part of the 6 x 6 pads - so are the clouds at the top of the pink ombre piece. I found some old purple sequin stars and a little flower which I filled with blue liquid pearls. Finally I die cut a label and added a sentiment with blue ink.

I've been having a lot of fun with the latest Quirky Kits - you can read the details on the Quirky Kits blog but here are a few of the layouts. These are three that all feature Hywel

 

And that will do for now!

Celebrations!

Yesterday my biggest boy was

 His dad and I had lots of fun on Facebook with old photos like this one

although now he looks more like this

and as we were walking along to the cinema yesterday I realised that he has actually grown a bit recently as I was having to look further up than I used to. (Still not tall but almost!)

We celebrated by going to the cinema to see Elysium (which I loved, the rest of the family not so much. It was quite a moral tale - but with lots of scenes to make you go "ew" as well, so sadly, although it makes you think, will not be one I can play clips of on a Sunday morning in Church) and with a Pizza Express meal (yum! and the discount code for 25% off all main courses made it taste even better). The last bit of celebration is tomorrow when we go to the zoo. We were going to go yesterday but Hywel had to sign on in the middle of the day and then we were going to go on Monday but we can't because he will be working. He got a job on his birthday in computer games programming - working from home (8 hours a day!) We are so excited and pleased and proud.

My card was made with celebrating a birthday AND a Daring challenge in mind (always try to do both if I can!) This week's challenge, chosen by Svenja, was Heavy Metal
Here is a bigger version of my card

I made a similar shaker frame for an upcoming Quirky Kits layout and decided it would be fun to do one for the card. I found some chipboard frames and painted them teal. I sandwiched acetate and sequins in between. Fiddly but fun! In order to see them better I put white card at the back. The patterned paper is Fancy Pants.

I used some thin embossing metal with PTI dies and a Cuttlebut embossing folder. I added some silver dots with stickles and left them to dry. In the morning they had all fused together - disaster! But I found some silver stick on gems and a silver (plastic) key to try and disguise the mess. I think it just about worked.

I suppose now I ought to make a congrats card!

Things can only get better

Reasons to be cheerful:

• The sun is still shining (mostly) this summer and Torbay looks beautiful
• Although H didn't get the job that he applied for last week he was very philosophical about it and has several other irons in the fire
• I have recieved the latest Quirky Kit to play with and it is awesome.
• I get to see some of my favourite people this week. They keep me balanced (well as balanced as I am ever going to get)
• tonight is Buff-fest. Sadly we are on series 7 and every episode is bittersweet as we get nearer the end. But I've never watched this series and apart from someone accidentally giving away a major plot point I have no idea what happens. (Not quite as bad as the poor woman who had made friends with someone else on the Ferry to france who she had spotted reading a Harry Potter book, thought it was the one after and gave away a mahoosive spoiler. When she realised what she had done she spent the last 30 minutes of the ferry crossing apologising....)
• After the last card debacle I am pleased to say that this one came together in no time

Kathy chose our Daring Cardmaker theme this week - Just Beachy  and as I live VERY close to the beach (10 mins including the steep hill/Cliff Railway) I had to join in. There was only one key focus for me - something that made the beach awesome for my lovely great-nephew Max

 (Yes ok, so our beach has this rather disappointing red claggy sand. But it is still a beach with sand, right?) 

A bucket and spade! These were cut on my Cameo using bought shapes that I have had for a while and never used. I inked the edges to give shadow and also went round with a black Sharpie for extra definition. The yellow paper is from a Fancy Pants 6x6 pad (park bench); the red and yellow spot is American Crafts Lucky Charm and the zigzag is from  Fancy Pants Wonderful Day. The sentiment is Paper Smooches (one of my most used as I am sure you are aware) stamped onto a Dienamics die cut. The last touch is some enamel dots. I had a few of these dots in colours that make me go "meh" so I covered them with black Sharpie and they are much more useable for me.

The bucket and spade are on foam pads as you can see better here

As I live in said beach resort it is better to stay at home than try to travel anywhere so that is what I am doing this weekend. If you are travelling have a fun and safe Bank Holiday weekend. And if you are in Brixham this Sunday why not come to Brixham United Reformed Church at 10:30 am (its just up from the cross roads where the traffic lights are). I'll be the short one at the front.

How long does it take to make a card?

In this case four days.
FOUR
DAYS
and there is hardly anything left from the first version that went on to the second version.
And even that nearly went into the bin
Sigh.
I think it was performance anxiety as I loved the Dare from Friday so much and wanted to make a most excellent card
and it all went pear shaped.
So, this weeks Daring Card challenge is "colours of the sea"
My fave colours
I love the colours of the sea and not just when it looks as amazing as this sherbert style

(photo taken of our local beach following a rock fall in May)
Green and teal and turquoise and light blue.
Yummy.
My card - not so.

Part of the problem was that some new Distress Glitters arrived that I was desperate to play with. I had the idea of die cutting a Dienamics flower, dry embossing the part left behind, smooching it with the matching distress inks and then replacing the flower - now covered with the glitter.

BUT I had forgotten that on the video I had watched Sir Tim had warned not to try to use the glitter on thin strips. And I discovered that my ever trusty glue pen does not work with these glitters. 

I was left with a huge mess.

This version has strips of card and double sided tape. I had begun assembling when I realised that the Peeled Paint glitter - lovely though it is, was now completely the wrong shade (you can just about see it sneaking in through strip 2 from the bottom). In the end I covered it with green Stickles - which did not dry evenly so I added some liquid pearls.

The next strip of ultrafine glitter over double sided tape - no problem. The thicker strip needed several pieces of DST and that all went a bit wrong and some of the Peeled Paint glitter got in there (how? why? dunno) so needed more pearls and stickles

I added a strip using the Peeled Paint and Peacock Feathers distress ink (fine once I had cut it straight. That took three goes)

Just be glad that the sentiment stamped perfectly the first time or there wouldn't be a card even now.

Still I like the layers now it is finished

and we are not going to mention the tiny speck of blue ink that obviously came off my finger on the edge of the card are we? ARE WE? Good.

I'll be back in a calmer frame of mind with some layouts very soon!

Just like buses

or Tuesday is the new Friday.
This really is just about the first chance I have had to sit down and blog. I thought I would have some time on Friday - but no. I had even set a page up but didn't have time to fill in the gaps.

We have had visitors.
We had three lots coming and going on Saturday!
Which is really, really lovely. We are enjoying catching up with friends and family and sharing the beautiful place we live with them. Doing some things we haven't before. But the combination of that and work hasn't left much time for anything else.

When I have a chance to craft again some of the adventures we have had will be revealed. But as I have the Florence album to finish and the Cornwall album to start it may be sometime. Still memories are captured and can never go away.

So here is last Fridays Daring card. Zuzana found the most beautiful inspiration image for us

and this is my effort

 

I used some MME doily border stamps and white embossing powder on some VERY old Piggy Tales scrapbooking paper. It looks like Wedgewood pottery in real life (she says fancifully)

I stamped my brand new Clearly Besotted poppy stamps onto watercolour paper and embossed and die cut them. I used pink distress ink to colour in the flowers. The leaves were stamped with two green distress ink and all were cut out using the co-ordinating dies. I mounted the flowers onto white dry embossed cardstock and that was matted on some white paper which I had coloured with the pink Distress ink to match. White opal liquid pearls and another new CB stamp finished it off.

Two more cards made recently - both as a "use-up" after creating a layout (which will eventually feature!)

Mostly MME papers; various dies from Spellbinders and Dienamics and a Paper Smooches sentiment

A Simple Stories card - which also uses three different sentiment stamps to make the pun. There is some Wink of Stella shimmer action going on with the cherries if you look close up.



Life continues to be busy round here - but I wouldn't have it any other way (well except for the lack of blogging and crafting time but that will come again I am sure!)

And another week flies by!

Busy week work wise  - quite demanding in lots of ways. I just managed to squeak in a tiny bit of crafting. It probably felt a lot harder this week in that I worked on Monday to save a day off to spend more time with friends and family in the next few weeks. (I say a day off but I seem to be adding in work bits already. Hmmmm)

Anyway it is August. (Eeeek!) so it is colour combo week for Daring Cardmakers. Svenja came up with a delicious picture (I think she made juice with the fruits later on!) to whet our appetites

I started looking around for suitable coloured bits and bobs and suddenly found that everything I needed was in the scraps left from the last Quirky Kit and Lite kit!

 

I used some of the Studio Calico stickers, along with a Martha Stewart leaf punch and some Nestie dies. I dry embossed the card base. It went a bit wrong in that the folded card wouldn't go all the way through the Cuttlebug. But I think I got away with it (almost!). The lovely Studio Calico Sundrifter vellum had an ombre effect and I was dead chuffed that I still had the yellow part left. It is stuck on behind the circle and paper strips.  A few sticky gems and I am done.

BUT

although I like cards with "hello" on - they are visually engaging which maybe why the phrase is popular on card blogs - who do I send it to? Maybe I will add a birthday greeting inside on on the front somewhere before I send it!

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

Getting old and forgetful

It was the annual birthday extravaganza yesterday (having two family birthdays to celebrate on one day takes some organising). At least this year I wasn't opening presents while in labour, as I was 17 years ago, and we weren't all up at the crack of dawn to get through it all before the school run. No, Carys didn't need to be in Stagecoach until 10 which was pretty civilised really.

She had loads of Supernatural dvds (she has seen them all and now is going through them again!) and some cute PJ's and other clothes. Her card was kind of home made but basically features a photo of Sam and Dean the heroes of Supernatural and so not really worth sharing here... I had a new Cuttlebug (yay!) so no more roulette with the old one. Which I thought would totally break a year ago so it has been a little hero really. I also received from one of my sons a Dienamics die that I really wanted. I gaped at him open mouthed - was he psychic? He looked a bit nonplussed and muttered something about a birthday list. Uh oh. I am now so old I genuinely forget what I have asked people to buy for me.

We had a lovely day - lazy start for all apart from Carys doing her dress rehearsal for a show next week. Then we watched Man of Steel in the cinema. Pants. (Still it is fun to complain about a film), had a walk round Torquay in the sunshine (gasp) and had a lovely meal in Pizza Express whilst discussing the merits of Scrooge McDuck. As you do.

All of which meant that although I got my card up on the Daring Cardmakers blog in time - my post about it has been rather lacking! the theme this week was Forgotten Treasures. Miri asked us to find those things we were given/bought that hadn't been used.
Like last week I found this tough because I tend to use things when I buy them. Then leave them unloved for a while! So finding "virgin" items was not that easy. But in the end I managed it (what a hero)

In fact i found an unused stamp (the numbers) and an untouched paper pad from Fancy Pants in these neutral tones. I stamped the stamp three times onto various papers using a brown distress ink and then die cut banner shapes (yes it would have been more straightforward to do this the other way around). I was able to hang the banners over the edge like this because I was using Letter sized cardstock which means there is width to play with if you put it into a UK standard sized envelope.

I die cut and embossed some more kraft cardstock and then stamped and die cut the present set from Clearly Besotted. The sentiment is also from CB and is stamped with Chestnut Roan chalk ink. Obviously it was at this stage that I decided that, despite having inked around all the edges a bit of pen work was needed. It is not easy with overhangs and embossing I can tell you. My fab brown pen is nearly out of ink. I went to order a new one. They are discontinued. Why? Best brown pen ever as it is really dark. So I have ordered a few other ones to try.

This card looked good as a neutral male one so I added a bit of bling. Men don't mind a bit of bling do they? Well, tough. Some gorgeous matte gold sequins and some gold glitter glue finished it off.
I'm finally writing this as I wait for Carys' ever so slightly late birthday cake to cook and once that is done I can play with all my new goodies - if I remember where I put them...

Blooming marvellous

the flower festival has arrived and the church looks great. My hayfever doesn't totally appreciate it though!

This week on Daring Cardmakers Beckie issued us with a fab challenge - More than likely we have a jar/container that sits on our craft table where we pop all those little bits that are just left on the desk and don't have a home! My dare is to make a card featuring at least 5 items from the jar!   Marvellous! I thought. Until I realised that I don't have such a thing. Bloomin' marvellous I muttered.
Still as I pawed my way through my surprisingly more organised/purged than I had expected supplies, I did come across quite a few things that counted as bits and bobs.
Et voila

The cardbase is from a half used piece of Bazzil which I cut to a US sized card (5 1/2 x 4 1/4)
I found some old Fancy Pants (blue) Pink Paislee (orange) and fancy edged (Sassafrass) The turquoise card is from October Afternoon. The orange chipboard is Cosmo Cricket. The heart is from a little packet of freebie die cuts from Dies to Die for and the little bird I think came from Tea House Bridge. The green branch and orange circle are cut from the other side of the orange paper, the fancy die cut circle was cut using a Spellbinders Die from more of the base cardstock. The gems have been in my stash for simply years (10?). The sentiment stamp is new from Clearly Besotted and is stamped in Chestnut Roan chalk ink.

You would not believe how long it took me to put the card together. I despaired over it to start with but it doesn't look so bad today. Maybe I will go back to keeping scraps after all...

My own Mario

yes Phil managed to fix the boiler himself - what a star! He is awesome at DIY type things  - just another reason to love him really :)

I've not had much crafty time this week despite a few free evenings (oh what bliss) as they have got used up with work mostly! But I had to make time for my Daring card as it was my turn to set the challenge. And when I remembered that I gave myself a good kicking. See the theme is

Flower Festival

because that is what we will be doing at one of my churches next week. And last Saturday I whipped up a group of cards to give to my mum as part of her belated birthday present and ALL of them used flower stamps and I took photos of none of them. Sigh. Never mind, I present you with...

my favourite flower die instead. I used a Studio Calico sketch which explains the pennant on the side. Still not totally sure but it stops it being symmetrical which I have to do with my cards and it annoys me. The papers are all from an Authentique paper pad - Spring I think. The Prim Poppies die was cut from two papers and layered. I also added some Vintage Photo ink to distress the edges; a Clearly Besotted stamp and some pearls of various kinds.

Clearly Besotted is having its first challenge and being a big fan I had to join in

This is the only stamped flower I had left after giving the others to my mum! The flower was stamped onto watercolour paper and embossed with black embossing powder. I used distress inks to colour them in (and realised I don't really know what sweet peas look like!) After discovering the Dear Lizzy flower paper was a fab colour match I spent ages choosing the other pieces. All from Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm apart from the cream cardstock and the orange which is Fancy Pants. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted too.

And as I had a wee moment last night I made this simple card which also features some new CB stamps

I think I need to work on my string placement! But for me to include a fair bit of direct to card stamping is real progress.

Tonight I have been playing around with strips of magnet, paper clips, paper fish and lolly sticks to make a fishing game ready for Messy Church at Brixham. We are going to be focussing on loaves and fish and probably a story about Jesus feeding a humungous and hungry crowd. I have a wedding to look forward to on Saturday and I am a bit nervous about Sunday as we are trying something new at church but most people don't know so don't say anything will you?

Quirky work

Here are the layouts that I have made so far with the latest Quirky Kits.
Oh my, how lovely are they
(and how relieved I am when I realised that the box I was putting out for recycling had something in it which turned out to be the lite kit which means I am never tidying up again)

So here they are. The first layout uses the lite kit and the details are here

The next features one of my most favourite photos ever. Details

I still can't beleive how well the kit goes with this photo

and finally so far -

There are a lot of dots everywhere - but then I am rather dotty myself!

Excuse the pong

Our boiler has died. And with three young adults in the house (yes the boys are home!) I am very glad it is both the time of year when windows can be opened and that we don't need the heating on. At least the washing machine is still working... I'm off to see my parents for 24 hours tomorrow and am looking forward to a lovely warm shower. it is strange to think that our obsession with being clean is quite new - people were quite comfy in their own natural parfum in times past. Having said that there were at least 2 men in Asda yesterday who either don't have a working boiler or who are trying to live the Elizabethan way and it quite put me off my food shop.

I was late to the Daring Cardmaker party again this week, although I had made my card for the June Colour Combo in time I had forgotten the bit about photographing it. ooops. Can I use the excuse of my mind being on higher things? Probably not!

 Here is the delicious colour palette selected by Jo. And here is my take which looks slightly more blue in the photo than it is in real life

 The papers are a mix of Fancy Pants Down By the Shore and an Authentic Summer 6x6 pad. I used a new Cuttlebug Decorative Scallops embossing folder which is lovely both ways round and also various circle dies. I felt there was not enough raspberry colour at one point but it seemed too full on with the orange circle on top so I added a little vellum which seemed to do the trick. I also added a vellum sentiment band and embossed the Clearly Besotted sentiment with one layer of turquoise UTEE which seemed to do the trick. A few more of my faux  enamel dots to finish it off. The butterfly is a covered chipboard one from Pink Paislee

I made another card as a request recently and haven't shown it here. Actually I could almost have submitted it for the Daring challenge as the colours fit quite well

 

If I had thought of that before it would have saved me a job! This is a die heavy card - with Nestabilities Labels 1; a Cheery Lynn scroll; MFT sentiment; Cuttlebug script embossing folder and two different Martha Stewart butterfly punches. The papers were all sorts of old ones that I thought would tone - some Prima, some Pink Paislee and I think the background is October Afternoon. Some of the butterflies were raised on foam pads and all had little gems in the middle

I've been revealing some layouts on the Quirky Kits blog  recently. I'll put them here in a few days but if you can't wait go and have a look. The kits are well worth signing up for if you are a card maker or a scrapbooker as there are always lots of lovely little things to inspire you
Pepe le Pew signing off

First Florence layouts

I think that half the fun of travelling is scrapping it afterwards. OK maybe a slight exaggeration, (and as you may recall I am a nervous traveller)  but I do like to be able to write down my stories whilst playing with paper.

The first story to tell was a wee bit traumatic at the time and so needed a lot of words...

 Phil took the photo with his phone. I don't like looking out of the window on planes as I can see how far we would fall... (yes I am a fun traveller)

The papers are all from the Amy Tangerine Yes Please collection. The base page had the sun and clouds already there, as well as some of the pennants at the bottom. I outlined everything in black and managed to insert some extra pattern paper pieces to the bottom right had side cluster. This provided the inspiration for the other paper strip placements

I cut some clouds and a plane using some free cut files by Ashley Harris

 

Then it was just a case of adding journalling; a Dear Lizzy word stamp; some sequins; some liquid pearls and two little people (Phil and me obviously). Oh and a heart as it was a romantic getaway!

One of the great things about the Silhouette Cameo store is the free cut file you get on a Tuesday.  (Well it is there all week, it is just new on Tuesdays!) The file for the week we were away was just perfect

as were the colours of the Yes Please papers so I just kept using them. They created the basic framework for the whole page

but I didn't want to be too matchy matchy so incorporated some other things as well - like some chevron washi tape; MME enamel dots; some Lily Bee stickers and Studio Calico chipboard arrows; some Crate Paper die cuts and stickers and some of my Prima resin flowers that I hoard. Phil will never quite understand the romantic gesture that is my having used three on one layout (and not just taking them back off again when the photo was done!)

The weather was not as fabulous for the whole trip as on that first day but I will never forget the wonder of that first evening, sipping Bellinis on the hotel balcony and looking out at that view. Sigh