Marquesa Gardens

Happy New Year to you all -a bit late I fear. I had promised myself that I would blog more regularly this year but eight days in and I’ve failed miserably!

Christmas is over but we’re still having family visits. They’ve been a bit spread out this year, which is nice in a lot of ways, as I don’t have to get too stressed. Still one more to go next week.  Anyway as a result I haven’t been doing any crafting, and I also have a number of paintings and drawings that need completing.

Fortunately I do have some makes in drafts that I’ve not yet blogged. This is one of them.

A scrapbook layout of the Marquesa Gardens in Gran Canaria. Lots of banana trees and peacocks! The banana liqueur we got a taste of was delicious! The bananas were cut on my Cameo and the peacock is an unbranded die.

Oporto Port House

I hadn't realised how long it has been since I last did a blog post. Note to self - must do better!  no cardmaking has been taking place but I have done some more scrapbooking, an online art course and some major clearing out of books and magazines stored in the garage!  Now I only have to contend with the fact my craft room is like a sauna, despite having the window open, blind down and fan on! Anyway on to crafty things and here is another layout for my Canaries Cruise scrapbook.

Our first port of call was Oporto where we did an excursion to a Port House( I had to look up what they were called) which included sampling some of their products. As Roy is totally teetotal I had double tasteing!

The embellishments were cut out on my Cameo.

Oporto

Our first port of call was Oporto, a very pretty town, built on the banks of the Douro. We did an organised tour here then had some free time in the town itself.

Scrapbook layout

I decided it was high time to start another scrapbook. This time to cover our cruising holidays over the last four years, with a two year Covid break of course. 

Our first cruise, done with some trepidation, was to the Canaries in 2018, so I have started with that and the ship we sailed on.

A lot of snippets were used, albeit some large ones. All the papers were out of my scrapbooking snippets drawer. The ship was cut out of snippets of white card on my Cameo then coloured with Copics.

Challenge:

Snippets Playground.

Spooky monsters

This is my last post as GDT on the Lasting Memories challenge site. I have really enjoyed making these layouts. This week the challenge is Monsters. Did you know that October 25th was originally called Frankenstein Friday? I certainly didn't!

 

 

This is an old photo of my two grandsons dressed up for Halloween. I printed the monsters out from a 

Craft Artist digi kit then fussy cut them out. I don’t think they’ll be doing any partying this year as Covid numbers are still rising here. 

 

 

 

Pumpkins

I can't believe that we have got to the fourth week of my GDT spot at Lasting Memories. It really has gone quickly. This week the challenge is called Pumpkin Spice. We want to see pumpkins of course and some glitter to represent the spice. It's on the pumpkins although it doesn't show up.

 

When we were on our trip there were pumpkins everywhere, and this garden centre was no exception. I looked really pretty with all the pumkins, scarecrows and chrysanthemums.  And the hot apple cider donuts were delicious!

Fall

My goodness . two posts from me in one day - whatever next! 

I'm delighted to have been asked to be a GDT on Lasting Memories. My first make is for challenge #517 Fall.

 

 

I used a photo from our trip to the States back in 2010. The papers are all out of my scraps drawer and the leaves were cut from scraps of card on my Cameo. You might be able to read the journalling if you enlarge the picture. And as it is all snippets I'm sharing this at the Playground - socially distancing of course!

Woodstock

No cards again today🙁. After making so many scrapbook pages in quick succession, my cardmaking mojo seems to have gone for a walk. Hope it comes back soon as my desk is littered with failed attempts

So here’s another layout from my North America album.

Hope you are all keeping safe and well in these uncertain times.

Quechee Gorge

There's been no cardmaking here for a couple of weeks as I was determined that my North America scrapbook would not take five years like the Australia one did.  I'm delighted to say I have finished it but I still have a few layouts to share with you over the next few weeks.

 

It's so long since we were actually there that I had to Google the name of this place. All I could remember was that it started with Q! As all the papers I have used were scraps I'm going to share this at the Playground. I haven't been there in quite a while.

The ScrapRoom Challenge.

I have just come across a new scrapbook challenge and loved the August sketch, at The Scraproom Blog

 I have used it to make another layout for our USA/Canada holiday in 2010. I'm determined that this album will not take as long as my Australia one!

Another Lasting Memories Sketch

The third sketch at Lasting Memories is for two photos. They are quite small so I have made mine a bit bigger as I want the photos to be the focus of the page, not the papers and embellishments.

We had a boat trip on Lake Ontario and this is the view of the city from the lake.

Lasting Memories Fort George

Here's another scrapbook page using the third of this month's sketches on Lasting Memories.

The photos were taken at Fort George, Niagara on the Lake. I've done another layout of the town which I'll show in a later post.

Niagara Falls

This is my second layout for Lasting Memories July challenges. I used a sheet of paper depicting the Falls but I've covered most of it!

The boat was cut on my Cameo and was a little bit fiddly to put together. The weather that day was very grey,wet and cold but didn't really matter as we also got wet going under the Falls in the Maid of the Mist. A hot cup of coffee in a Burger Bar was very welcome!

Dot Painting MMM anything but a card 30 OCT

There's a new challenge at Make My Monday for "Anything but a Card" I decided to do a scrapbook layout as I'm still working on my Australia album, and it has been a bit neglected of late.

We did some dot painting while at Uluru with two aborigine ladies. This is a photo of all our creations. I thought the spotty papers were perfect for it. I hope you can join us this week and look forward to seeing your makes.

Alice Views

I thought it was about time to show another Oz layout. I have had this one in drafts for quite a while but while doing a bit of blog hopping this evening I realised it would fit in with the challenge at Lasting Memories which is Elements of Nature.

The photos show views of Alice Springs from the Anzac Memorial. Although it is difficult to see here, the jacaranda trees were all out in bloom, so it looked like a blue haze in the distance.

Sunday Scrapbooking

Today I have a double page layout to show you. I was given some Australia themed scrapbooking papers and embellishments at card club the Christmas after our trip to Oz. One of the papers was an old map which showed the telegrapg station that had been built at Alice Springs.

It made for a perfect two page layout showing photos of the telegraph station. I scanned and shrunk the information sheet to add to the page as the journalling.
 

Use Your Stuff!

I recently found a "new to me challenge" called Use Your Stuff and this week they are asking us to use kraft.

I had just finished  this page when I came across the site so thought it was serendipity!! Another page finished for my Oz scrapbook, still have quite a few to go though.
 

Royal Arcade - Melbourne

I decided it was time to show another page from my Australia album. I made this page along with some others last year and have them saved in drafts ready to post when I have nothing else to post!

It was quite a busy lunchtime when we were there, so was quite difficult to get a decent photo of the clock without peoples' heads being in the way!

Sydney Opera House

I thought it was time to show another Australia scrapbook layout. I hope to get it finished this year. I'm about half way through it at the moment. I've got a lot of layouts saved in draft waiting to be posted, so at least I've got something to blog even if I don't get much crafting done.

 

These photos are of the inside of the Opera House. We had a guided tour round which was really very interesting. I just wish we'd had the time to see a performance in there but we weren't there long enough. When my son saw these photos his comment was " a bit arty aren't they?" But really I was just trying to get the details of the architecture.

National Scrapbooking Day

First of all I want to thank you all for your good wishes, they really have helped me through a very stressful time which isn't over yet. Roy's recovery is going to be very slow.  He was still running a temperature yesterday. Now that he is on a ward the visiting times are more restricted which means that I have a little more time to myself, but still not crafting. Fiona is still here with me along with her cat, which is using my craft room for its food and litter tray, as her food has to be kept away from my two cars as she is on a special diet.

However I do have some things made and photographed ready to be blogged so thought I'd quickly show you another Oz layout as it's National Scrapbooking Day.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to make this page. I think it was on my desk for about 3 weeks while I shuffled elements around! Right that's it from me for now -will be heading for the hospital soon.