Some swap pages from Valerie!

My chosen theme is Gardens…here are the pages that I received from Valerie…all so very beautiful! I adore the tag and as you can see the pages are just amazing!!

The back of the tag contains details of the swap

The shimmer on these was a bit difficult to take a decent photo but I did my best

Valerie also sent me some lovely goodies

This is a scheduled post as I hope that today we will dodge the showers and head to Woolfest up in Cumbria - this is one that hubby actually enjoys coming to as there is usually a Ceilidh band playing.

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

T stands for Taking flight at TIOT

One again I'm doubling up! You may need a drink to sustain you through what will be quite a long photographic haul!

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is'I Believe I Can Fly' and we would love to see something with wings, on any project you choose!
The Design Team have, I think, excelled themselves on showing all kinds of winged creatures, please do take a look!

I have taken the opportunity to make a Birthday card - stocks are getting low and I am going to have some distractions for a couple of months - this is made with someone in mind.

    
I have kept it flat for posting - I am pretty sure that the flower will lie flat enough!
I started by looking through my paper stash - need to get that down a bit..once I had the colours in mind I used some infusions onto some sketch book paper.

and cut out a random amount as I had a vague idea about what I wanted to do.

I used distress inks through a Paper Artsy Sarah Nauman leaves stencil, masking as I went along so as not to muddy the colours.I added some random text
I then trimmed it and layered it with the papers

I wasn't very happy, even though I had inked the edges it didn't stand out enough so I inked up the tail of a butterfly from a set from the Works to make a border. As you can see I used a piece of paper to prevent the ink going onto the paper underneath. 

Leaves using the same stencil, edged with Tea Stain DI 
I experimented a bit...

….and left out the doily.

Last week I had intended posting my photos from our visit to  Dalemain House but life got in the way…so here they are today, especially for joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday.

Lots of lush greenery but that wasn't the reason for our visit..

Dalemain House  is quite famous for it's blue poppies(meconopsis) and I must say when I first caught sight of them I gasped! They are in a less formal part of the garden

A great colour combination

One of my favourite views

A last look at the poppies as we headed back to the house

The gardener was tidying the gravel

I still have lots of photos of the garden so I will try to post them during the week

 This man decided to photo bomb my photo of the front of the house but I didn't want to wait to take another, we were headed for Larch Cottage Nurseries - I had a brochure that has been around for ages so we decided to take the short drive and go there for coffee.

I had a Polenta lemon cake and coffee, Hubby had tea and a pear and almond tart

The cafe is on two levels - we went upstairs to see the garden from above- we were the last customers of the day on the upper level

The nursery sells lots of garden ornaments but unlike the food were very expensive!
Elizabeth is waiting to greet you with your drink related post.

The birds remind me that I am also here for TIOT so please do hop over for details of the challenge and to see the DT examples!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Meilleurs moments in Paris

I have been playing in my journal trying to kickstart something else…
My mind wandered to Paris(of course!)and this is what happened..

The page started out as a piece of inky mop up paper towel stuck onto a page.

I added some sprinkles of Paper Artsy Infusions, spritzed then waited until it dried. I then added some random stamping and stencilling.
The lady with the Eiffel Tower on her head advertises one of the Grand Magasins. I layered the map onto some green gauze and a scrap of white lace from my little scrap box - inked with some Vintage Photo DI to blend in. The paper with the flowers on is from a sheet of stickers that have been around for years  - untouched - time to use them up I think! I added some stamping and some TH Botanical remnant rubs to tone it down a bit. The postage stamp and the butterfly on the lady's hair are from the same sheet.

The map I used was part of a ripped free one that we had used on our walks, I inked around the edge with Bundled sage to help it blend in. 
I picked an area where we had visited several places on different days - all were within walking distance of our hotel(just off the map)

There is the Promenade Plantee top right - it is right above the Viaduc des Arts where there are some great shops including a Fabric shop.

The Cite de la Mode et du Design where My Sister in law and I went to Paris Scrap next to the Seine bottom(ish) left

On the left of the map is Le Jardin des Plantes which led to the Natural History Museum where hubby became ill! So concerned was I that I stopped to take a few photos!!

 I don't know the significance of this rusty anchor...

 …or why this has a mysterious border of this couple taking a selfie in front of this magnificent magnolia tree...

 …that was big enough to stand inside!

I'm glad I did stop though as we went out by another gate!
Hubby was fine by the way - and his first words to me were "What are you doing here?"
We had a walk through the Parc du Bercy (bottom right)another day..

It led through to Bercy Village - a modern shopping and eating area.

Do I need to mention that I got a little distracted while looking for photos and I still need to get back to my craft desk? 

I would like to enter in the following challenges

Our Creative Corner - (where sadly this will be the very last challenge) - the theme is 'A Beautiful Mess' - my mop up paper towel was definitely beautiful enough to inspire me to create this page.

Art Journal Journey where Mary Nasser's theme of Maps sent me back to Paris!

Moo Mania and More where Valerie's photos are such a Photo Inspiration  

Simon Says Stamp Blog Monday challenge - where the theme is World Traveller

Craft Stamper magazine  Take It Make It challenge -  Let's Get Inky

Thanks for looking, Chris