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 ;-).