WOYWW - Week 97 - Mojo in Full Working Order

Good Morning All

A Happy WOYWW day to you all - and if you've never experienced this blog hop of blog hops before take a trip over to the keeper of the register, Julia at Stamping Ground, and join the fun, but be warned, it's addictive!

And here's what's on my desk this morning - a finished card and another not quite finished with it's makings strewn around it. If you popped in last week you will know that I had the materials lying out for several projects but missing the inspiration to do anything with it. However, a morning blog hopping, looking at all your wonderful creations and I was off. I've been messing with ink and glue and gesso taking my inspiration from the work of Brenda at Floral Fantasies - and amazingly winning a prize with this card. Decoupaging kittens, (sounds as though it could be a line from the Sound of Music!) and experimenting with watercolours and rock salt - not successful so back to the drawing-board with this one. And finally getting to the two cards you can see above - the inspiration for these came from a couple of challenges - not entered, just inspirational! Oh, almost forgot, I've been making butterflies. You can see two rejects on the wee plastic box at the back (contains rock salt). The one that passed quality control is on the green card.

So apart from my usual containers and the chick box full of ink pads you can see ribbon and trims, a pot of card candy, roll of DS tape, glue tape runner, 2 pair of scissors, ant the heat gun which is partly concealing the 'shoved aside' stuff!  There is also a glue syringe - you can just see the tube just behind the Otilite - newly discovered and brilliant for glueing layers of decoupage. The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted two pretty round boxes in the background. The blue one contains tiny bits of card that occasionally come in handy and the pink one has talcum powder in it. I use that for brushing over card to try to cut down static before covering in embossing powder.

Many thanks to all who popped in this past week and left lovely comments. I know you are all very busy people so I appreciate the time taken. As Julia's list has increased to humongous proportions I struggle to visit you all - and fail dismally week after week. I simply run out of week, every week : (  So, apologies to those of you I didn't get to last week - maybe I'll make it this week!

It's a dull, damp day here in Ayrshire this morning so I'll leave you with this photo taken in the orangery at Culzean on Sunday - this so reminds me of the hot, hot, hot days the EM and I spent on the Amalfi coast, now a long time ago : )

Happy crafting

Culzean Haul + A Challenge Win

Good Morning All,

You may know from my last post that we spent a glorious day at Culzean Castle yesterday and I thought you might like to see the little things I picked up whilst there. Not only are there a couple of NTS gift shops there but there is a second-hand bookshop which is fitted out with sofas and a coffee/tea machine - just my kind of bookshop : ) After walking around the grounds and gardens the EM and I like nothing better than to go in and browse there, and rest a while. And what a find this Glue Gun Projects book is, full of inspirational ideas and so worth the massive £2 charged!!

Handmade flowers are really popular in our crafting world so how about this beautiful broach made of tweed - I just could not resist buying one, the Meadow Petal, from the gift shop for my sister, Margaret. I've had a good look at it and I think it is possible that it has been cut using one of the popular dies that are around. There are 5 layers, the first 2 base layers are stiffened, the middle 2 are not but the last central layer is also stiffened and shaped. For anyone who is interested, the maker is Ness (how appropriate for a Scottish company!) and there is a website: www.ness.co.uk.

And, I just had to get the wee black Scottie dog for Margaret to add to her quite extensive collection of all things Scottie. Admittedly it is the wrong colour, Margaret's Robbie is white, but it will look great hanging on her tree at Christmas. Here's a photo of the adorable Robbie for all the dog lovers out there.

How can anyone resist a face like that!

Next, last week's Christmas card, Week 14 - you can see it here -  has won a prize for me over on Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Card challenge (CHNC). Those of you who've been following this blog will know that I resolved at the beginning of the year to make one Christmas card a week so that I would be better prepared this year than last. And so far I've kept to my resolve, and being spurred on by Hazel with her weekly challenges has in no small way helped. So if you've thought about making a start on stocking up for Christmas then perhaps joining in with the challenge will give you the spur you need too.

I'm thrilled to bits of course, especially as last week the prize was my choice of 4 digi stamps and 1 set of digi papers from Robyn's Fetish. Lovely stamps and gorgeous papers. Here's a glimpse of my choice.


Coney Island Summers digi papers



Digital Stamps

The papers are just gorgeous - the plain coloured ones are textured - and the colours are just up my street. There's plenty of sets to choose from - another one that rather took my eye and will no doubt end up in my collection is Forever Fall, full of beautiful rich autumnal colours. The stamps are beautifully drawn and look easy to colour - not too many fiddly details. There are loads to choose from, so much so, that I hummed and hawed for a good while before narrowing it down to these four - there really is something to suit all tastes. If, like me, you are into digi crafting and haven't yet discovered Robyn's Fetish then take a look as there is an sale on with 30% off up to Easter.

That's my news for today done, now I'm off to visit a few WOYWWers and followers - way behind again this week as I've been out playing in the sun and having far too much fun. But today is cooler, rainier and the sun has gone into hiding so I'll have to content myself here in the craft space - not so bad really :)

Take care all of you and happy crafting,

A Fabulous Day at Culzean

Good Evening All,

Culzean (pronounced Kil-ain) Castle

What an absolutely fabulous day we have had here in South Ayrshire. It was so sunny and hot, 23C (about 74F I think) and not wanting to waste it we took a trip down the coast to Culzean Castle, the jewel in the crown of the Scottish National Trust. General Eisenhower came over to Scotland for talks during WWII and he stayed in the castle on the top floor. This is now known as the Eisenhower Suite and is a hotel - I can't think of a better place to stay! The position overlooking the sea is fantastic and the gardens are beautiful.

There are turrets everywhere, even the Gas Manager's cottage has two.



Polite Scottish notice concerning litter.

Translation:

Whether you are Man - or Child - or Woman,

Whether you are going - or whether you are coming,

For Scotland's Pride - not Scotland's shame,

Gather your litter - and take it Home!

This is just a little taster of Culzean. I took a ton of photographs round the garden and, once I've sorted them out, I'll do a post with a few as the gardens are just beautiful at this time of the year.

Hope you all had as brilliant a day as we have had. The weather forecast is that it is going to rain tomorrow and the temperature is going to drop - well plummet actually! Ah well, I'll just have to stay in and craft :)