More Photos of Scotland

Here's the second bunch of pictures  :)   Our tour with Trafalgar was called Highlands, Islands and Cities.  We were really lucky with the weather, but the day we got to sit at the front of the bus---the place you think would be great for seeing everything---it poured rain! 

What would Scotland be without the Thistle  :)

Our tour bus was Huge.  We travelled on some pretty narrow, twisty, roads, a couple of narrow little bridges and even a very narrow hair-pin corner, but our amazing driver got us through!

This and the next two photos go together  :)

I held the camera up to the hole in this standing stone. 

For our special dinner one night, we were 'piped in'. 

The story of the Haggis--very entertaining  :) 

Haggis and very good it was  :)  I actually had it four times, but this one was the best.

This is the wall beside the entry to Culloden.  See how the stones are protruding?  The first ones show the number of British soldiers who died there, then there is a space and the rest of the wall shows the number of Scottish soldiers that died on the field.  Very sad indeed. Very moving place to be.

Monument on Culloden Battlefield.

The Battlefield

Moving on to the distillery, a tour and a lovely sample to drink  :)  I must say it was a smooth, warming and welcoming drink on this damp day!  And yes, I did buy some  :)

The famous Highland Cows, these ones lived by the distillery---I should think they would all be very happy by the fumes surrounding the place, but this fellow showed a bit of aggresion, so we didn't push the photo thing too far!

Loch Ness, still a little rainy and chilly so I did not go dip my toes  :)

Are you tired of seeing Castles yet  :)

I'll post some more tomorrow---John O' Groats, Neolithic village, and Standing Stones of Brodgar. 

Pictures of Scotland

Well, a few anyway  :)  I think I took a kazillion photos!  The first two weeks of the trip was a bus tour so you may see a few reflections because we were zooming along on the bus!

Scotland was wonderful!  There are old (the whole place is old) stone buildings and fences everywhere.  A lot in ruins, a lot of repair going on--very nice to see they are doing their best to keep these old, old places up the best they can.

It's a toss up whether there are more sheep than churches in Scotland.  I can only imagine the work that went into gathering stones to build all the millions of feet of 'fencing' and the buildings!

I loved the highlands, but the west coast was my favourite I think.  I'm going to post a few photos here of the beginning of the trip.  I will be sorting through the lot and be posting more.

We started in Edinburgh. 

Arriving in Edinburgh, awesome, but long flight!

Walking around before the tour started.

We could see Edinburgh Castle from our hotel window  :)

The Rosslyn Chapel

Toured Glamis Castle and sat outside for lunch. 

I will be back to post some more pics later today. 



Hello from Scotland

Hello everyone  :)  just a quick stop in to let you know that I'm having a great time in Scotland   :)   Still in Edinburgh, have had pretty good weather so far, however it is a wee bit windy today, little cloud and some sun!

On the way to another tour destination.

Happy Birthday Janet :)

A HUGE Birthday wish for Janet.   I hope you have a wonderful day and the year ahead is filled with happiness  :)

You can hop over to Creative Accents blog to follow the blog hop for Janet.

As always, thanks for stopping by  :)  be sure to leave a comment so I can come and visit you too.

Copic Cards

Ok  :)  here are two of the cards I coloured with my new Copics.  Love those pens!  I'm still a little heavy handed I think, but learning as I go  :)

Thanks for the awesome image Janet, I don't know where it's from, although you probably told me  :)  

This image is a digi image from Crafts and Me, a UK company.

http://www.craftsandme.co.uk/index.php Be sure to check them out  :)

Thanks for looking  :)

More Cards

Well, I did some more cards, so thought I'd share threee of them with you.  Apparently I can't take a staight photo today, sorry.

I haven't put any saying in this 'Mother' card because I thought it could be for Mother's Day or a birthday.

These are the two non-traditional Christmas cards I made while in Williams Lake    :)

And, the insides of these two,  again, I appologize for the crooked photo.

 Thanks for coming to look  :)
  

A Wedding Card

This is my card for the challenge over on  Graphicat's Sketch Challenge Blog
 

On this wedding card, you can cut a 2" photo of the bride and groom and slide it in where the heart is.

There is still time to get in on this Sketch Challenge, so hop on over to Graphicat's blog and add your name---check around at her Digital Images while you're there  :)

Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment and I'll check out your blog  :)

Yet Another Birthday Card

I'm not sure what happened to making Christmas cards, but hey, at least I'm having fun  :)

I've been known to say 'whatever' in the past, but not for a long time, unless to myself!  Anyway, I saw a clock the other day with that word and just had to do it:

I used the sketch from Graphicat challenge blog, http://graphicatsketchs.blogspot.com/
My clock was a bit big, so I had to move the middle piece over a bit to see it  :)

I found some fabric--a bit bright--so turned it over, then decided to cut out some flowers for the inside using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die and Tim Holtz goodies for the 'hands' and film strip.

Thanks for looking, it was fun to make except for that film 'flower'.  That took a bit of thought, cut the strip in half and ended up sewing it on the bottom---it just kept bouncing everywhere  :) 

A Birthday Card

Almost forgot someone's birthday---and that would never do  :)

I used paper from Close To My Heart, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Stickles, some lace and the flowers.  My fiskars punch was still out from the last card, so I had to use it again  :)

On the inside, I used the SU! Top Note Die and edged with SU! ink.  The butterfly and flowers are from Close To My Heart.

Thanks for stopping by  :)

Christmas Cards?

Well I had, last week, cut out 27 bases and some other bits of cardstock with the hopes of getting a head start on some Christmas cards  :)

So today, I started 1--yes, one! and I finished it! But it somehow evolved into a 'friend' card,  6" tall x 5 1/2" wide.

Simply because all my stuff is sitting there and I happened to look beyond the Christmas pile of paper stacked on either side of me.

I just love my new fiskars punch!  Look close and see that luscious tube of Iridescent Bronze acrylic paint--love that stuff!  The paper is from Websters Pages, the stamp is Inkadinkado, SU! pearls and cs, butterflies from Bo Bunny-Gabrielle collection. 

Inside verse is SU!, oval is Spellbinders.  Both the outside green cs and inside cream cs have been stamped with versamark using the same Inkadinkado background stamp used on the front oval--ink for that was distress walnut stain. 

Close-up of that luscious bronze acrylic paint! So smoothe to use and adds a nice dimension.   

Thanks so much for coming to look  :)  Come back again, I hope to get working on those Christmas cards soon!

Tea on Tuesday

Well, it's good old Earl Grey along with some fried bread.  I was making some Parkerhouse rolls and just had to do it!  I love it fried, add butter and jam, yum!

The pot on the stove contains some beef barley soup and you just have to have buns to go with soup  :)

I'm keeping with the Smash book, hope no one minds that I took the words from EK, they are so perfect and afterall, it's just for me.  This book is for my everyday journal type thing.     

The little watering-can-turned-teapot (I just trimmed it up) is for todays entry  :)   

Inside back cover started.  I am glueing two pages together, throughout, just to tuck away little lists or private thoughts.   On the blog at EK, one person had made a list of things to help with journaling, you can find the EK address in my previous post.  

I finished a canvas tag yesterday.  The colour is washed out in the photo, but really it's quite pretty  :)   I  saw the canvas tag book and thought, I can make those.  So I went and bought a metre of canvas--next time I'll just go get the tag book, lol.  I put a piece of cardstock in between the layers just to give it some stability.  The tag is spritzed with Glimmer Mist and I added some do-dads, fibre, a piece of mica, a clip, etc. The leaf thing is off an old purse, it's pinned on with a TH clasp.  The pictures are from a box that my coasters came in and the word Journey is a CM sticker. 

**just a note to let you know (if you look close),

 that I turned the one little pic the right way up  :)  the one by the clip

Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoyed your tea time here :)

If you are new, grab another cup and join the rest of the group at Kimmies http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/

Smash Book

Have you heard of the Smash Books?  They are basically a day-to-day journal of sorts, only a lot more fun than just writing.

This is my attempt, just a beginning really  :)  I've already added a couple of things to the front and back cover  you see here.

I just happened to have a couple of little notebooks sitting around, so I thought I'd give it a try.  If I really love it, I'll make my own book. 

I gathered a few odds and sods, glue pen, tape, modge podge, put it in the small basket you see.  As I doodle/write/glue things in this book, I'll just add whatever seems fun!

The front cover has a piece of fabric taped on, then the horses head from a napkin was podged onto the fabric. On the back I podged some pieces of a thesaurus--words for:  good, daily, life and stuff.

If you want to know more about Smash Books, check out this link http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/kandcompany/smash/


Thanks for coming to look  :)  hope you give the Smash Book a try.   I'd love to see some more ideas so leave a comment and I'll hop over to your blog for a look see  :)



Tea on Monday

Posting my tea-time on Monday because I'm out most of the day tomorrow  :)

I finally got back home from my trip up north!  It started out a lovely drive to be at my Grandson's 7th birthday.  However, after arriving, down came the rain---for three solid days and quite heavy!  There was some flooding in the small town of Chetwynd and the highway south of it in quite a few places.  Train tracks were destroyed as well.

Now, I know, this really doesn't compare to what some other places on the map are putting up with, and I'm very grateful I wasn't travelling that day!

   Anyway, instead of a 5 hour trip, it became a 13 1/2 hour trip to go the long way around and I waited a few extra days so that I had company to travel with.  The drive through Jasper is always beautiful and we saw lots of wildlife.

In the end, I had a great stay with my kids and grandkids  :)  but, it's always good to be home.

Tea drinker or not, be sure to check out what everyone is up to at http://artinredwagons.blogspot.com/