Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Well not quite but it is a cat on a brick chimney in France. Well almost as its not  a real cat but one made of iron that has just been place there possibly to stop the birds from flying down??At any rate it fulfils this weeks CSI challenge which is here

and here is my interpretation:

in retrospect I should have put the photo more into the centre but I really wanted the stencilling and painting and chip to show so refused to move it. It doesn't look right but heh it'll do. (not said that for a long time).

better blogger

Yes well, in order to be a better blogger there has to be something to blog doesn't there? We had our 12 hour festive crop at the weekend. What an array of lovely food ranging from salmon and chicken with salads to cupcakes and donuts for lunch followed by chips and gravy in the evening. More eating than scrapping. We also treated ourselves to some new papers so that we all had the same range to scrap with. I managed 6 layouts two of which just need some tweaking. Here are the four that are finished:

The first one is for the Punky Scrap Rebels challenge here and uses their sketch. The photo is of a work of art that uses household bits and bobs to copy famous paintings.

 This one is of a Son et Lumière show projected onto Rouen cathedral depicting the passage of the impressionist era.

As he was waiting for me to finish the packing in Honfleur hubby decided to have a quick nap in the gardens of the hotel we were staying at. Fair game-who could resist taking a photo like this.

My niece has done some amateur modelling in her time so the title seemed apt. I took the photo ages ago when we spent the weekend together visiting Steven in Leamington.

I used the same paper range -Daily Grind for all the layouts.

I may even have the others to blog tomorrow. Who knows.

Bad blogger

Back in November at our crop it was my turn to set the class. I thought I'd go right out of our comfort zone and set a project rather than a layout so produced this:

The house itself was originally plain white but was painted and crackled and painted a bit more. All the products are Paperartsy including the stamping along the bottom. 

The Owls won

Last weekend Clive's cousin's daughter, Gal, came to stay with us from abroad for a few days. I was so excited to be getting a day out doing some girlie shopping with a girlie girl while the boys were at the football match. 
No! Despite being a girlie girl, Gal wanted to go to the football match. Just before the match started she texted her friends back home and said we would win 5-2. Now, anybody who follows football knows that The Owls don't get 5-2 wins. 
Except that they did this time. You can imagine that the boys did not want her to go back home and were very willing to let her stay forever. 
Hmm they don't have to cook and clean do they?

This is going to be entered for the 123 challenge:

The word 'cool' is in the journalling and the colour and technique are evident.

CSI 95

I absolutely loved the colour scheme for this week's CSI. It fits so nicely with some French papers I have so I did a second layout to fit next to one I had already done for Sarah's challenge.

Yet more reflections. I think we were a bit obsessed by them in France.

CSI

The latest CSI challenge is nearly up so here is mine at the last minute as usual.

the challenge is here.

I'm a rebel

Well not really but I did do a layout at the crop on saturday for the Punky Scrap Rebel challenge. We had to take inspiration from this;

 and use stamps. So I did:

Wasn't quite sure about it whilst I was doing it as I set out with no concrete plan but now its done I think its okay-ish.

houses

It was my day off yesterday so I decided to do the CSI challenge, having missed the last one, before it changed yet again. I can just about keep up with a monthly challenge but a weekly one is proving a bit too much.
While in Troyes we came across so many delightful sights, not least of all these colourful houses:

You can find the challenge here.

Booby crop 2013

Michele and I went to the Booby Crop, a charity event organised by Leanne Weaver, again this year. we had a great time and I somehow  managed, amid the laughter and the short break to visit the Sincerely Yours craft show, to produce 4, yes 4 layouts. Thanks heavens for challenges. First is the one for Sarah's Cards challenge-Reflections in Reims:

Then i did the one for the 123 challenge which had to be predominantly yellow and have the word 'heart' in it:

next was the one for My Creative Sketches, one I've not done for a while but I like this month's sketch so here it is-Weird Beauty with photos taken in Barbizon:

the last one used the sketch from last months Creative Sketches and again is  of a photo we took when in Barbizon:

These were all photos taken during our 2013 holiday inFrance this year. 

The Beatles

So, today I was watching morning TV. Well, I say watching but really I just had the tv on in the background which I always do when home alone. Holly and Philip were broadcasting from Liverpool to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the programme. Well what's a scouser to do when faced with the wonderful backdrop of the Albert Docks? So I sat a while,  looking at the layout I started yesterday for the CSI weekly challenge(-can't keep up with this now I'm back at work. It's challenge 92 tomorrow and I'm only just posting 91)-and was just wondering about a title when, to finish the show, The Overtones started singing The Beatles' All You Need Is Love. Now I love being with my cousin and her sister in law-my cousin in law and relish in our affection for each other. We always have such a good time together and I love being in their company.
So there was my title and as the challenge needed us to journal about something we need on a daily basis it seems quite fitting.

CSI and scrap 365

have joined together and the challenge is here.  Here is my entry for it: 

Relaxing

after spending all morning through my teaching notes ready to start again next week. Still got year 2 to do and year 3 syllabus to concoct but at least the beginners class is done-well nearly anyway. I thought I'd give myself a break from all that paper by posting the layout I did last night for the September Merly challenge which, this time, requires using photos that are NOT 6"x4". I've used one I took of Steven at the weekend when we dropped him off at to start his final year at uni. Where have the other 2 years gone? Scary.

I pinched the journaling card idea from Janna I think and used some of the papers that were left over from when we had our retreat with Emilie a few months ago. I loved the blue hue of the photo.

Crop

It was time for our monthly crop on saturday. Not before time either as it felt like ages since we had all seen each other. The first layout I did was for the CSI challenge

I used all the required colours and kept white space whilst journalling about friendship between my two boys:

Bright and early

Well it's relatively early for me and thats because I'm cropping today after what seems like an age. It'll be so good to get together after the summer break. I'm hoping that 'prolific' will be the order of the day. Before I go I thought I'd better upload this one that I did the other day for the sketch challenge over at Scrapfriends. 

this was the sketch we had to follow:

Jumièges

Whilst visiting Jumièges this year, we visited an exhibition of wonderfully unusual art. The girls face in this piece was just stunning. (Another of my obsessions -faces)

I did this with Sarah's Cards sketch challenge in mind.

oops

I did these a few days ago but forgot to post them on here. The first is of a room in Fontainbleau. I fell in love with the fabric-sad I know.

 The second one is just because. We came across this whilst meandering round Troyes before we got into the centre.  

Again it should look greys and silver with a tad of blue on white card but.......

I'm sure you get the idea.

play day

didn't happen this week as I am full of a head cold and cough. So, I had to play alone and did this for the latest CSI challenge.

This week we had a brief as usual and we got a sketch which does make life easier.

Not quite sure what has happened to the colour of my photo but it does include all the set colours (thanks to the stampin up 'in colours') against a white background. 

I also did this one which was inspired by the Leeds paper dolls. The colour of that one is rubbish as well but you get the idea.

csi challenge

Doing a challenge is a great way to get the mojo going. Sometimes the starting point is the hardest part despite there being lots of inspiration out there. 
So this is the brief for CSI challenge 88.

I used all the set colours and followed the brief using both floral and ledger paper. It's actually harder than it looks to fit everything in and still do something that is meaningful.
We came across this field of sunflowers in France this year. The sun shone down and they looked beautiful.

Egreville

The Jardin Bourdelle in Egreville, France is home to the most interesting statues such as the following:

I am entering this into the CSI challenge just before it closes tonight. The brief was:

It's the first time I've entered this challenge so hopefully I've followed "the law".

Son et Lumière

Whilst at Rouen this year we caught a Son et Lumière show projected onto the famous Rouen Cathedral(-when I say 'caught' I actually mean we planned to be there for it!). 
We've never seen such a gorgeous display of colours depicting the Impressionist era-our favourite. There was a huge crowd of people from 23h for about an hour, children, young adults and old making a fab atmosphere. Expect to see more photos!
This particular scene is obviously one of Monet's pink lilies. As the theme over on the 123 challenge is to include flowers and pink it  seemed appropriate to enter this into the challenge.
This was the brief:

Vernon...

... is the nearest little town to Giverny and where we go for our supermarket shopping when staying near to Monet's house. I thought I'd give the Merly challenge another go, egged on by Chrissy ;-). 

Kaisercraft

A short while ago in one of their workshop magazines Kaisercraft gave details for producing 6 different layouts using one collection pack. In this instance it was using the Porcelain Rose collection of 12 papers and one sticker sheet. Unfortunately I couldn't get hold of it at the time-sold out due to popularity!
On our return from France this year I set about using the sketches but with different  papers. Easier said than done and you have to be very organised but it does use up every scrap of paper so is very good value for money. 
Our first stop on holiday was at Fécamp where we came across the Benedictine palace:

It is absolutely stunning-can't believe we missed it last time we were there. It is where the famous Bénédictine liqueur is made so we naturally did the tour and got our free taste at the end-well it would have been rude to turn down the offer of free alcohol:

There was a fabulous exhibition on whilst there of an artist called Bernard Pras whose art involves using everyday household bits and bobs to create interpretations of known paintings. This is just one but more will follow:

We, again, visited the beautiful ruin at Jumièges which is a photographer's paradise. Having been before and taken hundreds of photos, I limited myself this time:

This time our tour included several places we hadn't been to before such as the quirky town of Troyes whose buildings are brightly coloured and wonky. Well worth a visit:

The last one for today is of Nemours a little town near where we spent 5 days-the longest stay of the holiday!! it is very pretty:

So there you have 6 layouts using 12 sheets of paper and some stickers. Next stop will be Vernon, one of favourite little places to visit.

continuing with the play day....

....but on my own, I produced the next layout which will sit with the one below as it is from the same collection of photos that I took of my long-legged guitar man. I used some papers I've had for a while now which always gives me a good feeling and makes way for the new ranges without me feeling too guilty. Theres some stamping of arrows and Sodalicious stars too. Again, I've used a sketch,  this time from the Merly challenge.

song titles

Michele and I had a sort of play day today. I say sort of because we didn't get much playing done. More talking than playing was the order of the day. However, we both got one layout done after much ado, which is better than none.
I needed a title for mine and googled song titles with the word 'guitar' in and up popped Long legged Guitar Man. Now Steven is nothing if not long-legged. In fact I reckon most of his 6' 5" are due to his legs. so here we are; The long legged guitar man:

I followed the sketch from Sarah's cards challenge for this so am entering into the fun this month.

new Merly DT

There's a fab new design team over on Merly Impressions one of whom is Ali Parris. I hope she doesn't mind that I have lifted two of her gorgeous layouts. I've used different Kaisercraft papers and added one or two bits and pieces to make them my own.
The photo is the same on both because there is one each for my two cousins.

Unfortunately the bling isn't showing up too well but there are bits of bling dotted here and there around the pages.