Thanks a bunch

Hi there !

I felt so bad about sharing a less-than-perfect coloring job last time, I want to show you a more recent card I'm much more proud of :

Papers came from a Recollections Christmas pad. The sentiment is stamped with a rubber stamp I found at Walmart (really odd I found something there).
I stamped the roses bouquet (Inkadinkado, I know, again) on a heavy weight paper I found here in Aberdeen (Daler Rowney, 220g/m2, never saw it before), which is really perfect for coloring with Copic.
The blue background around the bouquet is made by distressing with a blue Timk Holtz ink. I know I can obtain the same effect with Copic, but I'm not that confident about my coloring skills...

Here are the Copic colors I used :

Flowers : R20, R29, R32
Leaves : YG63, BG75
Ribbons : B93, B97
Doily : E51, Y11
Thanks tag : E51, E33

I'm making progress, right ?

A family frame

Good morning !

Some updated of my Scottish life : I received my air shipment with part of my scrapbooking stuff, surface shipment is planned for the end of the month and I'm visiting houses since yesterday.
Difficult to find a house, they're off the market very quickly. One I have visited yesterday morning (and liked) was gone the afternoon... I hope we will have more luck today, because I have 3 more houses to visit, and that will be the 3 last accepting dogs.

But before leaving for my Aberdeen tour, I want to share with you a frame with a picture of my family and me. I decorated it with Cricut flowers and leaves (published in the Cricut Families Idea Book of August) :

I used a 10x10 frame find at Michaels for this project. The background is made with papers by MME and black cardstock, a Inkadinkado stamp ; the embellishments are a pearl ribbon, half pearl by Recollections, Making Memories brads and flowers. A EK Success border punch was also useful for the black frame around the picture. I distress the leaves and the flowers with distress ink by
Tim Holtz.
Some flowers are by Making Memories,Prima Marketing, or recollections.I made the others flowers and the leaves with my Cricut and with theFlower shoppe and the Mother's day bouquet cartridges. The title is from the Heritage cartridge.

I really love this picture. We so look like a beautiful and happy family...

Can yours be blessed. Have a good day !

Halloween card

Today I will show one of my first attempt of coloring with Copic markers. So please show mercy for this beginner's work.

Anyway, I like the design I made so I want to share it with you :

I used a Teresa Collins Halloween paper for the base, a Sizzix die cut for the black frame, Ek Success punch border for the border of the card, Sticko puffy and glossy alpha for the title. The banner is cut with a Sizzix Tim Holtz die from cream cardstock, and distress with orange Ranger distress ink.
The stamp is by Flonz, I really like these manga stamps. I bought two complete sheets of acrylic stamps, so you're gonna see more of them (when I will have my scrapbook stuff back !).

For those who are beginner like me, my mistake in this card was to use orange markers too close in tone, so when they blend, they look like one. I didn't let space for highlight. And so on...

Don't worry. I'm improving myself by practicing, and hope I can show you a better job soon.

Dunnottar Castle

The sun is back in Aberdeenshire, and yesterday was perfect to take a look at our first castle in Scotland. We choose the Dunnottar Castle, a big rock detached from the cliff, full of stories and history.

Inhabited since Pictish times, the Castle is famous for having hidden the Honors of Scotland, last of the English crown jewels, during 11 years until the king return to the throne (1661).

One of the darkest chapters of Dunnottar's history is that of the Whig's Vault. In 1685, one hundred and twenty two men and forty five women, whose crime was their refusal to acknowledge the King's supremacy in spiritual matters.  They were imprisoned with little food and no sanitation from 24 May until the end of July in the gloomy, airless cellar.

But beside history, the place is beautiful and we spent a great afternoon there.

The castle was purchased by the Cowdray family in 1925. The 1st Viscountess Cowdray embarked on a systematic programme of repair. Since then the Castle has remained in the Cowdray (Pearson) family, and has been open to visitors. One of the room have been restored with decorated wood ceiling and windows : the Drawing room.

Don't miss this place if you travel in Aberdeenshire, it worths the trip.

One last pool time

Since yesterday in Aberdeen, we had what we call winter in Houston, gray sky with 60F. No more outside pool for us until next summer in France then. Just as a remimder of what could be a day by the pool, I pop out a layout from my RV Cruise scrapbook. These pictures were taken on our way back to Vegas. We made a stop at an Hotel&Casino resort, with an RV park. Beside the casino, we had access to the sand beach (on the Colorado river ?) and the pool. As it wasn't a US holiday, the pool was alsmost empty and we had a great time there.

I used an American Crafts paper for the background, Press Petals metal letters, pink glitter alpha by Colorbok, a Christmas ribbon from Michaels, an Heidi Swapp clock chipboard with Prima Marketing crystals, silver classic borders peel off stickers by The Paper Studio and lot of crystals.

These pictures will keep me warm during winter season here, and for the water, I still can walk by the beach with my dog...

Have a good one !

Another water based layout

Hello !

I still haven't received my air shipment with essentials scrap supplies. It's in Aberdeen since few days now but stuck in the custom. Maybe I have too much scrapbooking items and they think I want to resale ?
Any way, I will share today a layout I have made before leaving Houston about a day spent in water in the Carribean. This was a quick one, no embellishment. I wasn't very inspired by the pictures, but I want to put them in the Carribean Cruise Scrapbook anyway.

I just hand cut the rounds pattern to insert the pictures under. I cannot recall the paper brand (papers are in surface shipment...), but I'm sure about the Thickers alpha.

Aren't those safety vest lovely ?

Ombre flower lantern

It's still summer, even here in Aberdeen where we have a blue sky with 80F, so I still can show you a summer project. I used a white paper lantern, two Tim Holtz distress ink pads and a LOT of daisies cut with my Cricut Expression and the Mother's day cartridge.

If you have access to the August Cricut magazine, you can sure have a better picture of it, with a nice garden background. But you can put this lantern inside as well.

Each flower is made of 4 daisies (2 sizes) in two tones of the same paper by The Paper Studio. I satured the first layer of flowers with orange distress ink, used less ink with the second but both lanes are made with orange tone paper.
The three last lanes are made with yellow tone paper. The middle one is satured with orange distress ink, the one after with yellow distress ink, and I didn't ink the last one.

Simply glue the finished flowers with Glossy Accents, starting from the top with darker flowers to the bottom with lighter flowers.

Took forever but I do like the result...