Home for the Holidays

We are having a 'Staycation' this year. We spent the first week at home getting on with some things around the farm and having some treats, like a facial and massage and a few lunches out.

On Saturday we headed off to the East coast of Scotland to visit my mum.  It was very wet and cold on Saturday, but Sunday turned out to be a lovely sunny day with blue skies, so we decided to go to the villages of the East Neuk of Fife which have pretty harbours and lots of photo opportunities!

We started out at Elie, which is famous for it's golden sands.

Elie Beach

Elie Beach

If you look closely you will see that there are people in swim suits and someone actually swimming!  It really wasn't that warm!  We went for coffee at the Pavillion which belongs to the golf course and sat outside in the shelter of the canopy.


We then moved on to St Monans, which is where my mum was born, although she moved from there as a baby and doesn't remember much about it.

St Monans looking towards the old Kirk

 

St Monans looking towards the windmill

St Monans Harbour

Windmill at St Monans

This recently restored the Windmill was used for pumping the seawater to the saltpans. From this the water was extracted leaving only the salt. It would take approximately 32 tons of sea water to produce 1 ton of salt.  The trade died when laws were changed which allowed cheaper imports to Scotland.

Salt production in the Forth Basin

How the Saltpans worked

You can still see the remains of the salt pans.

Looking back at St Monans from the Windmill

That was the first part of our day,  tomorrow I'll tell you about Pittenween and Anstruther.

A little light crafting

It's surprising how much crafting you can do when you don't have to go to work!  I've managed some time at my craft desk every day and although I don't have a huge amount to show for it, I have enjoyed what I've been able to do.

First I'll show you the card I made with the sketch from Kathy's Waffle Sketch File.  You won't find this paper in any craft shop, I punched it out of a magazine.  I love the retro style and bold colours.

As a mentioned in a previous post, I am taking part in a free online journalling class called 'In the Sun' you can find out more about it HERE .  It's a great class for anyone starting out as the prompts are short and don't make huge demands in terms of materials, you can pretty much do what you want with them.

For my journal I'm using an old poetry book that I bought a long time ago when I was a student working in Cornwall for the summer. 

Here is my introduction page, I am using a photograph of our field that I took earlier this week as a main theme.  Here is the photograph unadulterated,  I had to lie down in the grass to get the shot!  The summer meadow sums up summer for me.

Wings - Itkipulti; body, arms and legs - Maya de Groot, Hoity Toity; paper - Crate Paper Restoration Collection.

The second prompt is about creating a self-portrait.  I used the photograph in a slightly different way and journalled between the strips.  I had fun creating myself as a butterfly, I did that digitally, then printed and cut it out.

Paper - Coppercurls Designs, Denim Days; Frame- Coppercurls Designs, Funky Brights; Button - Julie Marie, Bailey; Fonts - Scrap Round, Showcard Gothic

I've been out with my camera quite a lot and have made some digital layouts for the Digital Design Den Virtual Photo Shoot.  The theme for the top one is 'Leading Lines'.  I couldn't believe that I got these pictures of the swans taking off, it was just amazing.

Paper - Coppercurls Designs, Funky Brights; Ribbon - Ellie Lash, Homemade Christmas; Leaf - DSD by Athena, Late Harvest; Font- SNF Sketch Black

I went out today to try to get some photos for the other themes and found this little pool at the edge of the stream with a great reflection of the leaves from the overhanging trees, ideal for the Reflections theme.

In my Garden

Before I start on the prompts for The Art Journalling Ning site 'In the Sun' which I will be using to journal my summer,  I thought I'd let you see the page I did in my journal at the weekend.  I've been doing a bit of gardening and had some random thoughts about what my garden means to me and what my garden is not about too.

Its a combination of paint, collage and stamping.

I'll have a blue Christmas....

Back to the Christmas card challenge courtesy of Craftyhazelnut and the theme of 'Wintertime Blues'.  I'm quickly working my way through all the stamped images I received in swaps some time ago, but this blue stamped angel was perfect for this prompt.  The paper is an old one from my stash and not a Christmas one, but the colour was right.  I used some Rainbow card to mount the stamp giving a little warmth to this cool coloured card.

Digital papers, elements and alpha from ScrapShana - Tis the Season

This is another card inspired by one of Hazel's themes, this time it was a photo prompt showing Christmas stockings.  I decided to go digital for this challenge, that way I can print off lots of these cards, if I don't manage to get any more done!  The whole thing is digitally created and printed out to fit the square card. I think the ric-rack and the buttons look particularly realistic

Honeysuckle

Background photograph altered with PSE filters.  Mandymakes Digital Cardstock Green, Motion Mask from Butterflies and Bluebells.  Digital Flowers - various, Frame- Bailey from Julie Marie.

It's Daring Card Makers start of the month again and June is the month for Roses and Honeysuckle.  I took these photographs last year at Pitlochry, so thought they would be ideal to create a digital hybrid card.

Jingle Bells with a Cherry on top!

Image from imgage swap, coloured with Copics, mounted on red cardstock, recycled ribbon.

 As it is now only 6 months till Christmas - eek! - I thought I'd try and make some cards following the prompts from Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge.  This one if for Challenge 16 "Sing Song".

Paper - Something Sweet by Stemma, Cupcake Stamp is Freebie from Simply Homemade Magazine Issue 1, coloured with Copics, puffy pen for  cream, cherry and leaf glazed with Glossy Accents, bead 'sprinkles'.  Ribbon from stash.

This card is for my SIL's birthday later this week, she does a lot of beading so I wanted to include some beads on the cards somewhere.

Spotty paper: Grandma's Kitchen Digital Kit from DSD by Athena, Bubble paper: FeeriedeNoel Collab from Digital Crea, Cherry Blossom Branch: Flowershop from Ellie Lash, Font: Scrap Twiggy.

This is the card insert I created for the 'Cherry Cupcake' card.

Kit: Harvest of Gladness from MG Cozzi Inc dba DigitalScrapbookArtisanGuild, Photo Mask: Butterflies & Bluebells, Swish Mask.

I also thought I would show you my June Calendar.  I create a digital page each month then print it off and hang it from a clipboard in my kitchen.  Each month I feature a photograph take that month in the previous year.

Nanum from Designs by Mozz

 

Maree at Designs by Mozz has created a new kit called Nanum.  You can buy the kits separately or get the whole bundle at the Digital Design Den HERE.

There is also a freebie quick page at Digi-Eye Scraps blog

Here are a couple of layouts that I made with this versatile kit:

And there is another freebie over at the Designs by Mozz blog page.