Lotus Blossom

A summer memory as winter hastens on apace - we've had several mornings with heavy frosts and an orange fog alert last weekend.

This card uses the Set of 9 Flowered ATC stamps from Art Neko. It's been coloured and sitting on my desk for a while, and I made a mess of the first background that I tried it out on. So today I simply used a stencil from TCW (it's meant to be a Navaho design, but I think it works for ripples) and misted with blue and gold sprays. The image itself is stamped on watercolour paper, heat embossed and coloured with Winsor & Newton watercolours. I finished it off with some large sequins to mimic the leaf shape (cut from a scrap of polished stone background mostly used for frogs) and some clear sequins and bling.

We had pancakes for dinner the other night - and one of them came out of the frying pan with a perfect little heart on it. We usually have them with freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar, or warm maple syrup.

Summer and Winter (and autumn...)

A couple of cards using Art Neko stamps - I just love this snowman with his pail full of stars. I'm still trying to create a card that matches the idea in my mind inspired by one of the Mary Poppins stories - this one was for a technique challenge on Splitcoast to fill in the background with black dots, but it comes close to it.  I also feel a re-read of the Mary Poppins books coming on if I can find time.  I think the second one might be my favourite in the series but it's time to refresh my memory. I know I already shared this card in my October favourites, but I thought I'd tuck him in again into this post.

And I went for a summery feel with this sweet little mouse sleeping on a bed of strawberry leaves. It was the little teddy-bear tucked under the quilt beside the mouse that really got me here - and the nightcap!

I did a photo-tutorial for the pillow top background a couple of years ago - here it is:

And a couple of autumn photos. The tree with berries was growing in the community garden in Midleton, I was struck by the deep contrast between the glowing berries in the sun and the shaded part of the tree It almost looked like two different trees. The leaves were hard to capture as they were swirling in the wind; I spotted them on Sunday morning as I walked back from collecting a delivery of wool which was waiting for me in ParcelMotel.

A miscellany

I spotted this utility box art a couple of weeks ago, and have been waiting ever since for a day when there was enough time between an earlier bus on a different route and my own bus for me to get off and take a photo, then get onto my own bus. Yesterday was the day. This one is called Deer Dance.

The next two photos were both taken around work. I'm assuming the black and white one is done using some sort of stencil or mask - to great effect.

And the other few photos were taken the last time I went to visit my dad, walking down the Liffey from Docklands station to get the coach. The Jeannie Johnston is now temporarily closed for refurbishment, but I'd certainly like to visit it when it opens again...the lion and the unicorn are on the Customs House. I did take a couple more photos of the Jeannie Johnston but they're not sharp enough to be worth uploading. There'll be more opportunities.

I'm not sure what those fittings are called that the boats used to tie up to. Seeing them and the bollards brought back memories of when we used to visit and walk along the quays as children when there was still a fair amount of shipping moored along there, including the Guinness boats.

October Favourites...

I had to go back to November 2014 to find a header photo for this month. Not much happened last November in terms of photos, apart from a visit to St. Catherine's Park...so we have a mandarin drake in Phoenix Park.

And a few favourite cards...meet Printy the Snowman. And I love the bottom snowman. He is from Art Neko, but he's not one of my design team stamps, I loved him so much that I bought him myself, so that I could use him as much as I liked with stamps from other companies. With his pail full of stars, he reminded me straight away of the chapter in Mary Poppins when Mary and Mrs Corry take the gold paper stars that the children saves from their gingerbread and pasted them into the sky.

Birds and a Squirrel

When I visit my dad, if the weather is fine we take a walk up to the community garden, he loves visiting the hens and ducks there. The first hen always makes me smile - I must look up the breed. I think it looks as if it's wearing trousers, and it hardly ever stands up enough for me to get a photo.
There are two ducks, three chickens (growing fast), and maybe about eight or so hens.

I was less pleased to see this squirrel on our garden wall the other day, but I think he was foiled by the squirrel-proof feeders and didn't make another appearance.

And a couple of birds on cards using stamps from Art Neko - I love the little Japonisme Owl. It was fun to turn it into a Christmas card!

I got the crane stamp because it reminded me of an embroidery I did which hangs on the wall downstairs - mine is an eagle, but still with that piney foliage.

I made another card a few weeks back with the little owl: there are a couple more photos and full details on the Art Neko blog HERE.

It's that time of year again...

and mushrooms and toadstools are springing up all over the place. C and I spotted these when we were walking to our respective bus and train the other morning.

And it has most certainly been this sort of weather this week! Unfortunately I wasn't always as well prepared for it as this; there was one morning I thought I was going to have stay on the bus for a few extra stops past where I normally get off - but thankfully by the time it got to me regular stop, the rain had eased enough that I thought I'd manage with no umbrella and very much the wrong shoes.

Pandas and Bamboos

I only have one single lonely panda stamp in my collection, and I was delighted to be able to get the Pandas and Moongates plate from Art Neko Stamps so that I now have a little troupe of pandas. I looked up the collective noun (inspired by Lorraine's educating me on the rout of snails) and found that a group of pandas is an embarrassment. How could a bunch of pandas be an embarrassment?? A bamboo of pandas sounds more promising, and inspired by that I am also picking out a couple of photos from our visit to a bamboo garden while in France this summer.

But first - here's my Panda card. I had already had to look up what Moon Gates were - a traditional feature in Chinese gardens. I'm more familiar with the Tori gate in Japanese gardens - there was one in the bamboo garden that we visited...

I stamped my panda on white card, and coloured the background and bamboo with Inktense pencils, then masked the panda and sponged in the background. I suppose I should have done a night sky and added a moon - perhaps next time.
I used old Cuttlebug Vintage Corner dies behind the image panel, and then a layer with a Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square embossed into it. The panda and decorative black panels are raised slightly from the base.

And here are some bamboos to provide a homely setting for him...When I finally get round to editing some more holiday photos, I'll provide a link to the site for the garden. We visited it on our way back north from Provence, as a way of doing something during the day and not simply driving for a full day. It was so peaceful and relaxing and we would go again and spend more time.

September Favourites...

October 2015 was obviously not a good month for photographs - all I had to choose from for my header was a red Virginia creeper and swans on the Liffey - so here's a swan.

Neither was September this year a good month on the creative front, I have only a few favourites to post here.

So Many Books

and not enough time, so very true!

I received the Bookmarks and Sentiments set of stamps from Art Neko, and this is one of them.

I started out with a dictionary page - but by the time I had sprayed it with this and that it was almost totally invisible, so I used another piece of the page on the finished card.

Anyway, for starters I stuck the dictionary page to some card and gessoed it, then added some die-cut cogs. After that I used a mixture of homemade misters and some Brusho acrylic shimmer mists, with metallic rub-ons for the cogs-  Inka and some from Craft-T. I then used some chunky metallic embossing powder, and finally some dots of white acrylic paint. The panel is edged with black paint and Stickles, and I added two strands of Mizuhiki cord with knots.
The bookmark image was stamped on white card and coloured with pencils. I don't think the flowers are meant to be poppies, but they remind me of the multicoloured Iceland poppies so I chose those colours. I layered it onto another piece of the dictionary page, added some clock hands, and then decided it needed a couple of little butterflies in the bright flower colours.

Books - Poirot and Me by David Suchet is sitting on the shelf and I need to read it soon before I have to return it to the library!

Here's another utility box - I took the photo a couple of weeks ago and didn't get round to uploading it from my phone. The colours go well with the card. This mermaid hangs out along the River Liffey, down near the Samuel Beckett bridge.

France - part 11

Lavender land...

Our next outing was mostly just driving round the countryside enjoying the scenery. We took a long straight road east, along the southern edge of the Parc Naturel régional de Luberon, and then drove up through the park taking a detour through Buoux (amazing natural rock climbing faces),  I think that the last few photos were taken in Bonnieux, but I can't remember for sure. Looking at the signpost in the third photo, it could also have Lourmarin.
 This is lavender land...It was the most hazy and overcast day we had in Provence (apart from the day we left), but it didn't really matter too much. We still really enjoyed the scenery and our occasional stops.

On our way back we took in a stop at a vineyard - the Domaine de La Citadelle. They had a most interesting corkscrew museum - whoever would have thought it possible for so many different patents to have been applied for and granted for various types. We also got to look round the winery and have a tasting - but since the car is already pretty full just with camping gear, we restricted our purchases to one single bottle of the wine we liked best, as a gift for somebody.