Friday 31 August 2012

Class cards

It's good to be back, I love the Lakes, could live there in fact  - I love it so much, but I did miss my family and my friends, and all my 'family' at the shop too. The class ladies have all become so special to me that each day seems strange without those familiar faces. Anyway we are back to normal now and back in the swing of classes.

Here are this weeks two cards.

One for the gentlemen



And one for the ladies


Both stamps are by Stampendous and both are a breeze to stamp. beautifully clear and precise.

I have come home with oodles of mojo and can't wait to get my teeth into some crafting now all the camping stuff is clean and back in the loft and the house is back to normal.
What have you got planned for the weekend ?

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Ullswater 2012

Our new tent, yes we have a thing for teepee shape tents ! This one is an Outwell Indian Lake and no, we haven't gotten rid of the Bell tent, I love it too much and it is still my favourite.


The inside bedroom compartments, two large double sized bedrooms. 

The unit in the middle of the picture is our larder unit where we stored all the dried food and drinks, on top of the unit is the board games for the evenings, we absolutely loved 'who what where' this year, it is a drawing game and conjured up some hilarious images, just don't mention King Kong to Robbie !

The tent is also carpeted, we have a footprint for underneath, a fully sealed ground sheet ( no nasty bugs or leaks) and a carpet for comfort and warmth.


On the left is mine and Neil's bedroom, our roll mats are tempur and attach together to make a king size mattress and we always take our lovely thick feather duvet and proper pillows. Glamping all the way for us.



The boys bedroom is on the right, they prefer sleeping bags, each bedroom section zips up for complete privacy and warmth, they are very very snug !




These photos were taken four days in, I like to keep a tidy camp and made sure everything was spic and span each day while they were all having their showers.

The all important essentials of camping, lots of reading matter, goodies, wet wipes and of course marshmallows for toasting. The butterfly patterned bag contains all the first aid stuff and tablets etc.


This tent has a decent sized porch area, I like to have mats down so everyone can take off their shoes, no mess inside the tent lol. We have a bin on the right and two large plastic containers on the left for shoes and wellies.


We also take a 'day tent', we use this for cooking in case the weather is not kind, you can roll up all the sides like a gazebo, or just one side if you are needing more protection from the elements. In here we have a multi tasking unit, which we use for storing all the eating utensils, cooking utensils and more food, the top is used for the trangias, we cook just about everything on here or on the barbie. In the corner behind the unit, I have a laundry container so the main tent is kept free of smelly socks. And all the cleaning and washing up paraphernalia is also stored in here.


And this was base camp, the main tent is to the left, the little dark green tent was our 'toilet' tent, then we have the day tent and finally the bright blue one is Amy's own tent, this year she wanted to have her own privacy. Behind our tent is the little wooden Pods which are available to hire on the site.


Playing 'pitch and put' at one of the most gorgeous little courses at Keswick

Rob


AJ


A small part of the course with all the mountains as a backdrop.


Ice cream after a lazy meander around Ambleside.



We make a point of taking the kids to a movie of their choice over the holiday, we like to visit Zeffirellis in Ambleside, they have three buildings in the small town all with a couple of very small screening rooms -  very charming and their restaurants are fabulous too.

This year we watched Brave and all loved it, we are all definitely Pixar lovers.


And a few shots of our award winning campsite, the site has won numerous awards for its 'green' code and is always a pleasure to visit.

The view from our tent looking towards Lake Ullswater.


The huge playing area, lots of little hiding places, naturally built features etc


And a little wooden play house for the kiddies, alongside a picnic area


The shower block, always immaculately clean and with constant hot water, there are also two washing up areas, and a laundry room, with washer, drier, ironing board etc


The entrance way and side of one of the cottages available to rent on the site.


The boys playing table tennis in the games room, they had this, air hockey and table football. In a little room to the back was also a telly and video games room but the boys preferred the table tennis side and didn't watch telly at all throughout the holiday.


One of the cute little bathrooms, available for all the guests.


The reception area and on site shop. The little wooden barn on the left housed the fridges and freezers we were all allowed to use and the site also does masses of recycling so all the different recycling bins were in here for us to use too.


Just behind the smaller building at front is the Inn which is also part of the site and where we spent each evening, playing cards and board games, by an open fire whilst we sipped our cider - heaven !


 

And  the setting. You can just see the pointy little top of our tent nestling in among the trees at the centre of the photo.


Finally -  about two minutes drive from out tent, on the edge of lake Ullswater - blissful peace !


And so we are back in Lincolnshire,  a walker once told us 

'If you step on a turnip in Lincolnshire you feel you have climbed a mountain'

I must agree everything seems rather flat in comparison.

Saturday 25 August 2012

A Cut Above

Tonight I have another piece towards my Life Book to share with you


In this lesson we were taught some fancy lettering and how to create a cut work design around the lettering, the green on mine is showing through from the back, all the lattice work has been cut out with a knife.


Thursday 23 August 2012

Summer photo scavenger hunt

Anita, Margaret and I have signed up for a photo challenge, you can check it out here on Marias blog


This following photo is my photo of someone playing an instrument ( number seven on the list) - from our recent night out to watch Bonafide and yes I really was lucky to be stood toe to toe with the lead singer and guitarist Pontus.



The girls and I have a couple of art journals on the go at the moment and we decided it might be fun to incorporate the photos from this challenge into yet another journal.

I have prepared all the pages with various ink/paint techniques and will be adding my photos as I take them.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Oriental ATC Swap

August saw us swapping lots of Oriental Inspired ATC's, the theme was chosen by our previous winner Janet, who also chose the colours red and black which had to be incorporated into the design

Here is mine


And a shot of all the entries just before I swapped them.


And this months winner was Jan, congratulations, we all thought your paper pieced panda was adorable and I also had to give credit for all the tiny little handcut lanterns.

Please don't forget to let me know your chosen theme and colours for November


A little reminder of the up and coming themes

August - Beach (blue)
September is a free month, you can choose your own theme and your favourite colour
October - Halloween (black and silver)

Once again thankyou to everyone who took part making each month so much fun.


Sunday 19 August 2012

Chalk it up

Here are this past weeks class cards

We used chalks over the embossing for a multi-coloured background on the first card.




And on this second card we used two tones of chalk ink for the stamping.




Thursday 16 August 2012

I challenged myself last week to make a few cards from the freebies in last months Creative Cardmaking magazine, here is what I came up with.

A layered easel







Anita joined in and made this lovely double folded card


All I added to the free papers and toppers were a couple of pieces of ribbon, a doily and a few gems



We received this months magazine in the shop today so I have brought another copy home to have a play with, I will share them with you all once I get a few made.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Cards and flowers

Ooops I appear to have not blogged for a week -  again ! I start out with the best intentions to be a more regular blogger and then life just sort of gets in the way

These are the cards from last weeks classes, I wanted to create something that would be suitable for either a wedding, an anniversary or similar event

This first one has some stamping onto vellum


And a monochromatic simple design for the second card.


Last week YeeTing came and paid a visit with these beautiful flowers for me.

Thankyou so much honey they are utterly gorgeous


I cannot even begin to imagine how many hours she spent making these lovely blooms but I am grateful for every single petal, such a pretty way to make someones day !


Tuesday 7 August 2012

Young at heart

This card was made for one of my newer class members, I have known Joan for quite a while as a customer and Neil knows her and her husband Alan from the gym, but she has only recently become a class member and what a lovely addition to class she is.


Joan is such a kind person and always has a smile, she has a fab sense of humour and her lovely hubby is just the same, they always make you feel special and almost a part of the family. You might remember Joan from an earlier post, as she made me a stunning embroidered bag - you can see that post HERE


Papers are by Melissa Frances, the numbers are Thickers and the sentiment was computer generated.

Monday 6 August 2012

Thankyou

Dawn is one of those rare breeds who reminds us just how wonderful people can be, totally and utterly genuine in all that she does and generous to a fault, she is one of my original class ladies and a lovely friend and I honestly cannot imagine my wednesday mornings without her in them.

This card is a little thankyou from me to her for one of her more recent acts of kindness


I used Melissa Frances papers and my poshest brads.


I love you to bits Dawn, thankyou for all that you do and for being YOU !!!

Sunday 5 August 2012

A class of their own

These are all the class cards from this week

First up - mine from tuesday am, pm and wednesday


A couple of quick and easy Cuttlebug creations


And Bonnie's beautiful parchment creation from thursday, so pretty !!!


And Yeeting's ultra cute Stampin' Up cards from last thursday



Sadly these are the last cards YeeTing will be teaching at the shop as she has a new venture in the pipelines, it's not my news to share so I won't go into details but I know she was very sad to be saying goodbye to the classes and all the ladies who have attended.

On behalf of all of us - your friends at Running With Scissors - THANKYOU YeeTing for a fabulous year of classes, thankyou for your inspiration, patience and fun, you really will be missed.

Good luck in your new job and all the very best from all of us.