Abbotsbury

Morning…

Yesterday we went to Abbotsbury, haven’t been since I was a little girl (a very long time ago!) and then it was only the swans so it was lovely to walk around the Tropical Gardens and soak up the atmosphere.  It is such a great walk around the gardens with quite different areas to see but I loved the walk along the stream the most with all the red bridges – such great planting and huge tress surrounding you.

I love the Tree Ferns, reminds me of the huge ones growing in New Zealand just naturally, made me think of my sister Helen…

and the huge Gunneras you can literally stand under. The day got nicer as it went along, they have a lovely cafe there with great cakes (no I didn’t have one, they looked delicious though but I had taken a picnic!).

I took about a hundred photos which is typical of me but have only posted a few (Phew, you say!)

Then we went to the Swannery which was very interesting where the signets are a few months old now.  These two geese were having a race!

The swans are so elegant but moulting at the moment, looked like snow all around with the many feathers on the ground.   It was a great day out for me, don’t know if Mike enjoyed it as much, he is not really a plant person but liked the walk and the view over Chessil Beach from the edge of the Gardens but he took me all the same – Helen would have loved it!!

So no cards or scrapbooking today but hope you liked it anyway…

Seeing Red

Sorry that I haven’t been posting this week, I am having real problems with my computer on my admin post after letting this silly machine update – it has installed laods of things now that I don’t want and can’t get it back to my old setup.  I like things to stay the same, hate change, so this is very annoying…

Now that rant is over, we are also house hunting after accepting an offer on our house.  It has been for sale on and off for the last few years, so yeah! we have sold but do you think we can find anything we want?? No, the law of sod has reared it’s ugly head and as we are seriously downsizing, can’t find anything  we both agree on and that never happens to me and my hubby.  We have found a compromise and have now had our offer rejected so it is a watch this space, and I am very stressed…

Again not like me at all.  Also have been prepping for my first Card Class in many years and lost my mojo as a result of this stress so thought I would put something simple on here so you wouldn’t think I had gone forever!  I have liked the Centre Step template design for ages so thought I would make it, simple and just one colour (apart from SU Whisper White) it was all in reds…

So I used the Big Shot flower dies with Real Red card which I then embossed with the Square Lattice design. I used the DSP from the In Colours and the lovely Rhinestones and yeah, butterfly free for a change!!

You might see it better from this angle…

Ok, looks like we have some sunshine after all these heavy showers – the grass is loving it and the first time in many years it is not scorched and brown so have some tidying up to do out there.  Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

Bluebirds

I saw these blue birds on SU’s Kristine McNickle site and loved them, so thought I would do my own version.  My sister Helen is living in New Zealand and is always talking about the bluebirds in her garden, mainly about the racket they make! so thought I would do one for her lol x  Kristine has a lovely blog if you want to visit her site, such a talented lady.

So these are in SU’s Pacific Point, using Marina Mist, Peach Parfait, Tangerine Tango and Crumb Cake, the Itty Bitty punched flowers and Bird Punch leaves, 1in round and scallop circle punches – I do  love using SU’s punches.  I have made more with Bashful Blue and a few other colours too which I may post later but they were such fun even though a bit fiddly cutting out with my silly fingers at the moment.

OOh, the sun is coming out so may get a bit warmer later.  I have loads of gardening tidying to do so that will be nice in the sunshine.  Take care everyone…

More Mens Cards…

Good afternoon,

Though it isn’t here, dull and showery again here in the South – where has our sunny summer weather gone!

Great opportunity to get on with some cardmaking though.  As a family we have lots of birthdays in August/September and seven of them are men!  So have started with a few using the Sail Away SU stamp – I have done it in two colourways, one subtle and another brights – think I prefer the subtles…

I have used Bashful Blue, Peach Parfait and River Rock for the first one, very simple matting and layering with Whisper White of course, and the second…

I used Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point and Tempting Turquoise, added a few silver brads on this one and used the So Happy For You sentiment for the wishes.

So, that is two cards out of the way, more difficult choices for the men now who aren’t into sailing!

Take care and hope we get a warmer weekend hey!

More Lily of the Valley

Good morning

Funny old day here, sunshine and showers but don’t mind, wasn’t planning on doing much at all today after a late night at Jo’s Stamp and Stack Christmas cards event at Holt last night.  We had a lovely time, made 12 cards from six great designs (Jo is such a  clever lady)  and lots of chatting!

So this morning I just have a few cards to show from LOTV that I love, both going out to people in my family this week so I hope they like them.  I do love colouring in and getting to like bright colours too.  I used the same layout design for both of them as was running short of time – they are now in the post – so hope they will like them.

Let’s hope the sunshine comes back this week though it is nice not to have to water the garden and pots.  Take care everyone…

Two quick cards…

Afternoon…

I had lots of scraps of card left over the other day and I know I can’t throw it away – so decided to just punch out some of it and see what I had left for cards, and this is what I did.

I used quite a few SU punches and just a few colours, and certainly quite a bit of ‘white space’ for me this is what I came up with. I had been blog hopping after no inspiration coming at all and was very taken by someones work (sorry, can’t remember who) and this is my take on it.   Very simple but quite effective so may do a few more for the hospital charity cards.

Boy is it hot, could do with going down to the beach and sticking my feet in the sea!  Will see if my hubby will do that when he gets back…