Stamping at the Lake

I had a few friends over for a day/weekend stamping at the Lake. I kicked my poor dad out for the night since I needed his bed and then a few of the ladies couldn't come and no one slept in his bed anyways! At least he had a nice breakfast out with my sister and her family. We all worked on projects that we each brought and then on Sunday with only 3 of us left, we certainly went to town on creating with whatever we had brought with us.... I came home with 11 cards of varying folds and techniques. Thank you ladies for making this such a fun weekend!

My contribution was an ATC (Artist Trading Card - same size as a baseball trading card) and a telescoping card. Both were basically copied from other artists whose blogs I follow from a Yahoo group called All Things Tim (as in Tim Holtz!). The ATC was basically copied from the blog Creative Expressions. Carol provided step by step instructions that even I could follow! I tried to use grungepaper as she suggested but did not get a very good impression from the embossing folder so I used a very heavy weight card stock instead. The second project that I brought had the ladies blessing me right and left! It was a telescoping card that I basically copied from Shelly Hickox and her blog Stamptramp. This is one of my favorite blogs to follow!

closed...opened...I used a variety of Tim Holtz products as well as coordinating stuff from other companies such as the friend stamp from Paperbag Studios and the gear die from Spellbinders called Sprightly Sprockets. The Tim Holtz products included acrylic paint daubers, stamps, and the big Weathered Clock die.

A different style of a telescoping card can be found on Holly McMillen's blog Toy's Haven - another example for me to try to re-create!

Cards for Dad

These are the cards that I gave my dad for Father's Day and for his birthday this year. Usually he gets a 2 for 1 deal since his birthday is a few days after Father's Day but since I had the second one already made, I thought he would enjoy it too. The stamps are by PaperArtsy, Stampin' Up and Hero Arts. The filmstrip and mini staples are Tim Holtz products. I used double sided tape to adhere the film strip but it didn't stick! I'll have to try using glue dots next time. The sentiment and advert are popped up with 3d dots and the gentleman who looks like Derek Jeter is embossed in black.

The filmstrip is also a Tim Holtz product made by Sizzix. The photos are from my friends and family (I used my grandfather and cousin on an earlier ATC) and the gears is an embossing folder for the Cuttlebug. This second card I created for a shoebox project at the May 2011 CNY gathering in Syracuse. I am thinking of using a variation of the first card for my shoebox at the next stamping day in August!

Here are some ATC's that I have created for swaps at different stamping events...

These are my first attempts at Steampunk - think Victorian age merges with the mechanical age - almost science fiction! The stamps I used came from Viva Las Vegas Stamps and PaperArtsy and the gears are punched using Stampin' Up's Cog punch.

This one I was inspired by a blog post by Tim Holtz of a display of cards having the most vibrant colors on them! The ATC in real life is much more vibrant than this scan shows. The heart on her bag and the clock face are covered with Aeleen's Paper Glaze to give them some shine and dimension. The stamps I used are from Stampotique, Viva Las Vegas, and Stampers Anonymous. I would like to do more cards using this inspiration - fun!

Funerary Art

I have no idea why I have such a fascination for funerary art but when I am on vacation, one of my must stops is to a cemetary! I have been to cemetaries in Austin Texas, Lewes Delaware, Boston, Philadelphia and throughout Ireland, England and Scotland.

This is Melrose Abbey located south of Edinburgh, Scotland. Robert the Bruce's heart is supposedly buried here.

These stones are located behind a Templar Church.

My favorite cemetary to visit was in Edinburgh. Greyfriars Kirkyard is the most haunted place in Edinburgh but I did not get to witness that first hand - maybe the drizzle kept the spirits inside!

How would like to have these monuments built right up against your house?!!

The last of Scotland :(

So much for updating my blog on a timely basis! Betty is really into knitting and aquired quite a lot of hand spun yarn. This is Shilasdair, the Skye Yarn Company on the Isle of Skye - what a remote but beautiful setting! We drove there via this one lane road where it widened periodically so you could pull over to let the oncoming car through.

We continued on to Dunvegan Castle to see the Fairy Flag and the lovely gardens. Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and the Fairy Flag is rumoured to protect the Clan MacLeod in times of war. Clansmen who had a photo of the flag in their wallets in both world wars all came home safely. The exterior of the castle was under extensive renovation so my photos did not do it justice but I did great shots of the gardens!

We stopped at Talisker's to taste some whiskey.....too nasty for me. On our way out, we had to stop in the middle of the road because there was a bunch of sheep crossing the road. Betty got out to help herd them by not letting them go up the road. What fun!

We tried to take the ferry across to the mainland but we didn't have reservations (didn't know we needed them!) so we had to backtrack and therefore we missed seeing the west coast of Scotland. We drove past beautiful lochs though that we would have missed so it all worked out. This is Loch Garry, then we stopped again while driving through Glen Coe. Actually, we could have stopped every 10 minutes since there were so many photo opportunities!

We continued on through the Rannoch Moor, past Loch Lomand and ended up in Helensburgh for our last 2 nights. We stopped at Hill House designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh who is all about Arts and Crafts style of art, architecture and furniture. We flew out of Glasgow and eventually made our way home. There is still quite a bit of the country I haven't seen so some day I would like to go back!

2nd week of Scotland vacation

Betty and I rented a car for our second week in Scotland - we wanted to drive around the highlands and be able to stop whenever we saw a photo opportunity (which was quite a few times!). I drove and Betty navigated - what a team! She carefully watched traffic and signs as I had to go clock-wise around the traffic circles. Most of the roads were quite narrow and did not have shoulders. Try driving in these conditions on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, and shifting with your left! I had a blast! We started out by driving to Sterling Castle (home to some of the Kings and Queens of Scotland) and then on to Doune Castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. We then motored on to Scone Palace where the Kings of Scotland were crowned. We stayed overnight at Corriechoille B&B located at the end of very narrow road that looked more like a cart path - but what a view when we finally arrived! This photo was taken out the reading room window of their 'back yard'. Those 2 cottages can be rented also.
The next morning we drove to Loch Ness where we took a boat tour to try to find Nessie - no luck! We then headed across the width of Scotland to the West coast and stopped at Eilean Donan Castle of Highlander fame.
We then drove on to the Isle of Skye and stayed at The Gables B&B in Portree. We had to call ahead to reserve our room and most of the places had no vacancies. I finally just asked if the person knew of any other B&B not in the guide book - we really lucked out at this place. Their back yard bordered the bay so had beautiful views!

I'll post the rest of the trip tomorrow - really!

It's been a while....

Yes, it has been quite a while since I last posted. While I was away on vacation, my mom was in the hospital for a few days but was home when I got back. How was that for a welcome back?! The entire family enjoyed a great party for the Mighty Quinn's christening a week later and then a few days after that my mom had a massive stroke. She passed away on September 18th. It's taken me this long just to post this and it is still difficult but I want everyone to know how special she was to me and every one else in the family (immediate and extended!).