Has It Really Been A Week?

I hope you are all having a good Bank Holiday Weekend, despite the strange weather. We've had glorious sunshine but a really strong chilly wind which means that although you think it's t-shirt weather as soon as you step outdoors you dive back in for a cardigan.

Last Wednesday DD and I went to that the last Art Journalling workshop at The Stampman run by the lovely Janet and Michelle for Mums and daughters. We've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, learnt loads and it's really helped the school holidays fly by. It's been nice to have a day put aside to do something together without interruptions and DD has thoroughly enjoyed herself. She amazes me at her confidence. I would have been terrified at doing something new with complete strangers at her age, although the ladies have been fantastic and so encouraging with her, I can't thank them enough.


This week we learnt how to do secret writing. The instructions were to write anything but keep turning the page round so that you wrote on top of each line. Mmmmm.... what to write..... I was totally amazed that when you started all this stuff just came out and because no one was ever going to read it, it was so much easier to write and get all sorts of things off your chest, extremely therapeutic.

We then painted over it. I have a feeling I shall be using this a lot in the future.


We made a border from a sheet of music that had been painted, stamped and cut up and then put Alice characters on to the page. I finished the title and wrote bits about the writing underneath around the page but in the same colour so that you can hardly see it when I got home.


DD did this page in the middle week. We learnt how to make interesting backgrounds with inks and stamps and then add an image, some hand drawn vines with stamped flowers and other bits and pieces. She's not added a title yet but I think she likes it as it is.

Well, thanks for stopping by and for those of you on the last week of the Summer hols enjoy your last few days.

Home From Holidays

Hello all you lovely Bloggers. The Craft Garden is back in business again after our holiday in Seefeld in beautiful Austria. I am currently wading through mountains of washing and ironing so there's no knowing when any crafting will be done but I will try and get round and visit you all as soon as I can to see what I've been missing.

In the meantime I thought I'd bore you with just a few holiday snaps.

This was the view from our hotel balcony. You could tell what the weather was like each day by how many mountains you could see, but what a lovely sight to wake up to.


And a view of Seefeld from the meadows.


We had a mixed bag of weather this year from gorgeous sunshine which, being so high up in the mountains gave you an instant tan the air is so clear, to rain and snow!!! Yes snow in August. Admittedly we were on a glacier at the time but the thermometer read 2 degrees C and it was snowing like nobodies business. As you can see DH and DD thought it was great to play in snow.


The two weeks just flew by, there was so much to see and do. We visited Bavaria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Germany. Talk about well travelled but they are all very close together, you don't always know what country you are actually in!!

Here's the famous Neuschwanstein Castle which was very interesting if very crowded. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one place before.


If I have a choice though, I prefer being high up on the mountains enjoying the natural beauty and fresh air.


And just to finish off with one of the numerous painted buildings. Every house and shop is either decorated with flowers, which, we found out, is because they get a tax rebate if they have a pretty house, or decorated with paintings. This one was in the Bavarian town of Mittenwald which is famous for its painted buildings and for making violins. See, you learn something new everyday!!


Well, that's me done for now so thanks for stopping by and I'll catch up with you all as soon as I can.

Romance Is In The Air

Hello lovely Bloggers. How is your week going so far? I'm not sure what's happened to Summer up here in Yorkshire. We are back into long sleeves!! It's been showery and cool all week. Those long, sunny days are a distant memory at the moment.

We went to a lovely Wedding last Saturday. One of those small, intimate ones where all the guests chatted together regardless of whether they knew each other when they arrived. It was a real treat to have an opportunity to dress up too. I can't remember the last time I wore a floaty dress.


This was the card I made for the happy couple. It was inspired by my blogging friend Kathy, who made a card using this silhouette couple taken from the Internet a little while ago. I decided to dress the bride with some fancy paper and I gave her a glittery veil. The background was done using a QVC foam swirl stamp and galaxy gold brilliance ink with a computer printed sentiment. It was one of those cards that just evolved as it went along and for once I was quite pleased with the results.


I have also been making Sugar flowers this week for a cake my MIL is making for my SIL's Silver Wedding Anniversary in a couple of weeks. I haven't had a lot of time so we settled for a spray of white roses and silver chillies with some silver ribbon threaded through. I hope she likes it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing. I am having a bit of a break from Blogger for awhile to enjoy the rest of the Summer holidays but I will try and visit you whenever time allows so take care and Happy Crafting.