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

T stands for…Take a look at these….

…fabulous pages from Elizabeth! 
By now you probably know that I am taking part in a journal page tip in swap with some very talented folk!
These pages are for my chosen theme Gardens(with no frogs please).
The pages arrived in a big brown envelope with all these fabulous stamps on

The first few pages are depicting the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary and if you take a look here on Elizabeth's blog she explains the meaning behind the words of this seemingly lovely rhyme!
The details of how Elizabeth created these pages is also there.

This page so impressed both me and hubby

This velum paper is so beautiful

This next page suffered a little tragedy and it wasn't until I saw the photo that I remembered I hadn't stuck the letters back on( I will get it done this evening E!)

They all arrived with a tag to identify the artist - when I saw this I roared with laughter so much that hubby thought I had totally lost it!!

Thanks, Elizabeth for 'No Frogs'!
This is the front of the tag

This isn't all either Elizabeth sent me some gorgeous flower stamps and sentiments that I know I am going to be using ..a lot!

Thank You so much for these lovely pages Elizabeth and also for the laughter and the fabulous stamps!

Now, I am here for T Stands For Tuesday at Elizabeth's and her 2 cats (not) in the yard! 

Last week we went to our caravan - the reason that many of you didn't get a comment from me, as the reception was the worst it has ever been!
We had two days out even though the weather wasn't particularly brilliant. On the first day we went to Hawes, a lovely little town in the Dales.

We once stayed at this hotel

These chimney pots have a price tag of around £60 pounds - we have 3 of them in our caravan garden that we discovered in the overgrown hedge

We started and ended up here..

 ….where we started with lunch along with our water

 A ham and cheese platter - delicious!
This was the days special although there was plenty to choose from 

 The cafe and shop are in a new building that we returned to for a coffee and a little spend!

Love these mugs and fun bags…
…oh and did I mention the cheese shop…samples to try before you buy- did I? You bet I did…

I think I should stop here before you all nod off - I will be back another day with photos of the fabulous gardens at Dalemain House - it was blue poppy time - beautiful

Thanks for looking, Chris