Belton House

A few weeks ago we visited Belton House in Lincolnshire, a National Trust property, we had a lovely day - we originally went so we could visit the old stables which they are renovating - the 'hard hat' tour, but that was off that day as they didn't have enough volunteers to do it, so instead we booked on the 'below stairs' tour which lasted about 1hr and took you through all the Servants quarters/kitchens/pantry etc. Very interesting, in fact I think I enjoyed this more than going round the house - the rooms were beautiful and the Gardens were lovely, especially the Glass house.

This is a picture I took in the Italian garden of the lions head water spout, had a little play with a whimsical digi kit 'Chocolate Lime'

The grounds were HUGE with plenty of sheep (we saw) and Deer (we didn't). Dogs are allowed in the grounds/estate so we will go back and find a longish walk to do..... PLUS its got a second hand book shop!!!

scrapbook page with spots & stripes

Trying to get back onto my crafty bus, missed it a couple of times but this time lucky.

A scrapbook page featuring spots and stripes done for Digitally sweet Challenges,

This is 100% digital, done using Craft Artist2

featuring our Dax, sadly passed now, but one of the most loyal, lovable, trustworthy dogs anyone would love to meet. We used to do agility with her and she loved it, winning a few competitions. She also loved flyball - where they run/jump over little hurdles as fast as they can to get the ball at the other end and then return over the hurdles, she was never trained to do it, she just saw the hurdles and ran much to the amazement of the trainer who then wanted Dax on the team. Our next door neighbours little boy Jack, used to love it when he 'took' her for a walk - she walked at the side of him with no lead - under instruction from us - and Jack thought it was magical. Mind you, his mum told him that our Boxer had a scrunched up face as he had run into something when he was a pup and he believed her!

entering into: Digitally sweet Challenges = scrapbook page with spots & stripes

love conquers all

image from "Marie's Garden pt 2" design sheet

background paper "Steampowered" from Steampunk Paper kit

 

all from Gecko Galz

 

designed in CAP2

 

100% digital

 

 

From the design sheet, I cut out my chosen image, placed it onto a blank page and using a heart shaped digi punch, punched out the main bit of the image, I was just going to use that but then decided to use the 'off cut' as well and started layering the page up till I got the look I wanted. I altered the transparency of the background sheet to give it a faded look. Added a red square which I then placed behind the main heart to matt & layer a contrast, the shade of red was taken from the large rose so everything matched.

I tried to match the hand writing on the image as best I could and faded the words a little bit to make them look worn 7 faded into the paper.



I wanted to embellish it a little as it looked quite plain around the edges but couldn't find any embellishments I liked so I ended up matt & layering the image and reducing it in shape to fill the gap.

Another idea to fill the gap would be to write a sentiment or little poem to whoever the card was meant to be for.

If my printer was good, I would print it all as is, but if I do make this into an actual card I will just use the images as my ink tends to be a bit darker than the appearance on screen. And there would be a doily involved.  (*lol*)

 

 

entered into: digitally sweet challenge - whats your favourite shape
also entered into 'not a card' January challenge on Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group over on Facebook.

 

 

 

fangirl moment

100% digital scrap page, based on the Pet Shop Boy's "It's Alright" - last time I saw them was in 2007 at The Civic Centre in Wolverhampton  ; )

 

 digi kits used "Steampunk Curiosities"

       "Shabby Chic"

entering into: digitally sweet challenges - musical

two little girls

Haven't crafted since the beginning of last month, decided shake the dust off and do a 100% digital scrapbook page for the Digitally Sweet challenge.

Satin and Lace digikit

my own photo

 

entering into:  digitally sweet - white on white with a hint of pink

A little flutter

I always panic when I hear about Mother's Day - till I realise that its the US occasion!

 

 

 

Serif  Mothers Day 2012 digikit with added butterflies

100% digital

 

entering into - digitally sweet - 87 mothers

steampunk sylvia

Up popped an email from DaisyTrail announcing that CAP2 was £4.99 - Mmmmm, I thought, I'm having some of that!

 

pearls, butterflies, buttons, metal
100% digital

 

digi kit used "Steampunk Curiosities" (not sure by whom, over on DaisyTrail)

quote from WordPorn from Facebook

 

 

Now everybody's heard of Where's Wally/Waldo? - so this is my version of Where's the butterfly?

 

Entering Steampunk Sylvia into - digitally sweet challenges - bingo card line

 



Mothering sunday

My mum suddenly passed away in 1990, when I was just 18, I'm now 41 & 3/4's (to be precise!), that sort of math just sucks.
I'm not going to get all maudlin' - this is a just a nice little scrapbook page of a newly found photo of me as a babe in the arms of my mum, (dad was and still is camera-shy). I was born in April so this must have been the late(ish) summer wedding of my dad's youngest brother.

100% digital, using Daisy Trails "Butterfly Garden" kit, its such a dreamy and serene kit.

 

entering page into - digitally sweet challenges - add a frame

 

 

For a themed swap on cardexchangeuk I adapted a scrapbook page I did when I had a spare 15 minutes and made it into a card.

Square card featuring a Pet:

I took it literally as usual. Background paper was from Nitwits (I think). Photo is mine and I coloured a plain white flower using a pink promarker.

I captioned Murtle's story and also found a lovely quote to use on the insert. Used CAP for the insert.

scrapbook page:

Over on Daisy Trail, the challenge was to come up with a header for your blog or Facebook cover. I picked a few of my hobbies and used them to do this:

Whether it invites people to friend me or sends them running to the hills is another matter *g*

If you've visited my blog before or know me, you will know that I suffer from Severe Depression, I have done for most of my adult life, having only been on meds for it from 2006. Crafting is one way of my dealing with it. Its a constant and very tiring battle trying to keep yourself feeling 'normal'. When the blackness over takes you, its totally debilitating and very frightening - you are not in control of your own mind, moods overtake you and swallow you up.

Over on Daisy trail, two lovely ladies decided to do something about the taboo of Mental Health and put forth a challenge 'HEADS UP'  all about Mental Health Awareness. This is my page:

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Please help to pass the message on.

playing around with CAP yesterday afternoon, themed to a challenge on DaisyTrail. This is a 12x12 scrapbook page. you had to:
1) use a background from a kit
2) insert a photo with no frame
3) cluster 1 or 2 lots of embellishments on the page
4) use text to name your page, or explain it.

I had lots of fun doing mine:

I've started to miss participating in the challenges on my crafting groups now, but I'm not ready to rejoin them just yet, so I decided to have a looksee at Daisy Trail's. "In a word" caught my eye, this week the word is Graceful..... after a couple of hours, yes really, have I ever explained how indecisive and finnicky I am? I came up with this scrapbook page.

.

The image comes from The Graphics Fairy, and again I used Inkblot Butterflies.

Having decided to do some proper digital scrapbboking I found myself in a whole new exciting and shiny world called Daisy Trail. Before I splurged and bought the Craft Artist Professional, I decided to try the compact freebie available on DT.

One birthday card later:

I love these little birdies! Spotted two mistakes after I'd printed the thing...... and added 3 little gems for the birds eyes.

One A4 scrapbook page later:

This is a photo I took when we went to... yes you've guessed it - Hardwick Hall, the other week, my first sighting of lambs this year. Have seen loads more, some even smaller and unfortunately two dead ones hand delivered by a farmer.

Anyway by now I was totally hooked and splurged my £19.99 on the proper version from Create and Craft.

Only to find that the week after when I received it, C & C dropped the price to £9.99 as a Pick of the Week deal. Oh well....

I now have around 10 programmes to watch and play along with. Yay!!

Second card:

front

insert

This digikit was InkBlot butterflies, and has the most gorgeous pinks and purples, abolutley perfect for purplemurtle!!

this is becoming addicive...........

its digi Jim, but not as we know it.....

Okay. I really shouldn't be allowed to watch Create and Craft tv.....I sat for a whole two hours watching MichelleJackson Mogford do a Scrapbooking Paper Clinic on Monday night (8pm - 10pm). I was absolutley itching to have a go.....but sleep and work got in the way -  until this afternoon!

The only software I have which is capable of doing this sort thing (in a fashion *lol*) is a freebie copy of  DoCrafts Digital Designer - Forever Friends Black & gold Collection, so I sat and played with that.

And this is the result:

My boxer dog Worf, we lost him to a major stroke in 2007, he was 10 years old and was a complete and utter big soft nutter of a dog who enjoyed a little sip of Stella now and again; plus anyhting he could get his paws on if it was put on the floor!