Creativity Boot Camp - Day 2

Random Word Prompt - Picnic

"picnic - informal meal eaten out of doors"

Biff Bang for Mosaic Monday

Last week we said goodbye to our Lister Engine or the 'Biff-Bang' as it was known because of the noise it made! It was a two stroke engine which was bought around 1913 for the threshing of oats.  It was still in use until about 25 years ago, as Brian's dad used to use it as the power for his band saw to cut sticks.  Anyhow, it has been mouldering in the barn ever since and it seemed a shame to let it disintegrate completely.  Last year we found out that the man who was doing the draining work for us, restored vintage engines and he was interested in this one.  There are more pics of the process of lifting it onto their trailer, but I'll save them for another time. 

Creativity Boot Camp -Day 1

I'm joining the Creativity Boot Camp!  There is a daily journal prompt and a random word prompt.  Today's random word is IVORY.

This is my digital collage for Ivory.  The background is the keys of an organ, with photographs of tusks seized from poachers, an African elephant and an ornate dagger handle made of ivory.

Ivory is very beautiful, but it is not worth the terrible price required to obtain it. 

Pearls, Peel-offs and Paint!

Over in Daring Card Maker land, it's time for 'jewel of the month' or rather, birthstone and ...

 

The birthstone for June is the

Pearl

We'd like you to use lots and lots of beautiful pearls on your cards this week - or maybe you'll take inspiration from Pearls in another way, for instance the Pearl symbolises loyalty, faithfulness and friendship and is associated with modesty, chastity and purity. 

 

 

 

When I started to make this card, it was not intended to be a DCM entry, but rather a late entry for Bubbly Funk Forum 25th Club, where we have pledged to make a certain number of Christmas cards each month, and the theme was red and green for May. 

I started with the stamped image, which came from a swap, as it had been stamped in Stazon, I couldn't use copics, so decided to dig out my watercolour pencils, which I haven't used for ages.  I also used some other gold paint for the letters.  Then I wondered how to present it and toyed with making an easel card, well I wasn't happy with that, but thought I'd use the fold I'd already made and create something a bit different.

 

As it was a fairly formal image, I didn't feel that inked edges would be right for this, so once again I rummaged about till I found some straight gold peel-offs, which just finished it off as I wanted.  

 

The 'dior' ribbon was made using a tutorial on Gingersnap Creations and when I went to find something to add to the centre I found this little link from an old bracelet with a PEARL on it -  Bingo!

This is the second card I made for the 25th Club.

Sunny Days

I haven't done a Friday Photo Flashback for a little while, so thought as it was such a gorgeous sunny day today, that I would share another sunny day from my past.  

Join Alicia for the Friday Photo Flashback HERE

This is a holiday photo from the 1960s of my sister, my dad and me, probably somewhere in Cornwall.

Planting up my tubs and troughs

We get a lot of late frosts where I live, so I don't put my bedding plants into the tubs and troughs until the end of May.  Last Saturday we went early to the garden centre, before the Bank Holiday crowds arrived, and bought compost and a pile of plants.  We also got a large ceramic planter for Brian to repot 'his plant', more of that later.

We got three bags of compost, but Brian had to go back later for another three and we used the lot!!!

Some of the trays of plants

Here are some of the stone troughs planted up with bizzie lizzies & petunias

Bizzie Lizzies (Impatiens)

Geraniums

More Bizzie Lizzies

Fuschia

Courgette

Over on the patio, there are more pots and wooden barrel type containers

 and a couple of old stone containers which started life as water containers 

for hens!

and this is Brian's 'Pinus Mugo' in it's new container.

Bubbly Funk Forum - Photo Prompt 'Machine'

We had a little mini-crop on the Bubbly Funk Forum a couple of weeks ago and we all enjoyed the photo prompts so much that it was agreed to have them a week of prompts once a month.  

MACHINE is the first prompt for June.

You could have guessed that it would be a piece of farm machinery, this is a 'hay bob' used to turn the cut grass to help it dry into hay. Excuse the mess, just goes to show that farming corners can be just as messy as crafting corners - hee hee!