Twinkle, twinkle...

... little inchy! Made for the Inchybyinch challenge: STAR.

Sketch Tag

This week's challenge on Tag You're It! is to create a tag following the sketch above .... so here is mine.

Wings Moo

Here is my entry for the Make a Moo or Two challenge this week on the theme of WINGS.

This is my friend Jan (right) and me (left) standing in front of a magnificent Victorian carousel at the House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Como Park Zoo, St Paul.

Capitol Building, St Paul, Minnesota.

More of Michigan

From top to bottom:
Colonial Michimilimac - a reconstructed fort and fur trading post at Mackinaw City.
Macinac Island - a beautiful island on Lake Huron where motor vehicles are banned. Only bicycles and horses allowed.
Tahquamenon Falls

Henry Ford Museum

Greenfield Village, Michigan. We had a wonderful day here - so much to do and see! The bus in the second photo is the one in which Rosa Parks was riding in December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, thus sparking off the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We were able to go inside the bus and I sat in THE seat!! Rosa Parks has become such an well known icon of the civil rights movement, and her story is so well known, that it really gave me a 'shivery' feeling to be sitting there.

Holiday snaps...

... courtesy of my friend Jan who took her digital camera, I thought I'd share a few photos of my recent holiday. The bottom two were both taken in Chicago - the first one in Millenium Park and the second from Navy Pier. The pic at top is Amish Acres, Indiana.

An ATC: Special and Blue!

I've made this ATC for two challenges - firstly for Florrie's ATC Challenge on Craft Swap Forum and also for the My Time to Craft challenge this week. The MTTC theme is to use only blue (plus a bit of white) and the CSF theme is 'Something Special' - to use a stamp, materials or techniques special to you. I certainly had some special inspiration for this piece from the excellent tutorial by Dan on ink blending, and I was dying to try out my new Tim Holtz ink blenders bought at Archiver's during my holiday. I used three different shades of blue Distress Inks for the background, and then spattered on some water drops (having masked off the circle for the moon first). The stamp of the seagulls was bought in a little shop near Lake Michigan - so it is a lovely reminder of a very special holiday.

Even though I used a stamp positioner, I had great problems getting the quote down the left hand side straight! This was my third attempt and it is still not exactly parallel with the edge of the card!! Oh well, I can always use the 'failed' attempts on next week's Make a Moo challenge which is on the theme of 'wings' (but don't tell anyone).

Dream Tag

Made for this week's challenge by Tag You're It! - to create a tag incoporating the word 'dream'. I have used one of my favourite stamps by Katy's Corner and the background is decorated with stamps by Tim Holtz.

In my house there is...

... a flower. This little house has been made for the Dans ma maison... challenge this week.

Autumn Moo

Autumn is the theme this week on the Make a Moo or Two blog and here is my effort. Both stamps are by Hero Arts.

Hi honey, I'm home...

...Well some of you may have noticed that I have not put anything on my blog for the past 2-3 weeks. This was because I was on holiday - in the USA! I had a wonderful trip to Chigago and the Great Lakes area and managed to visit 4 States - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. It's pretty mind-boggling for someone from the UK to realise that Lake Superior is actually BIGGER than Great Britain. The weather was mixed - we had a lot of cloud and some rain which I think was the tail end of the 2 hurricanes. During the trip we visited the Mall of America in Minnesota which is the largest indoor shopping mall in the USA, and has over 500 shops and an amusement park in the middle of it. I had plans to visit one shop in particular - Archiver's - to buy some stamps and craft materials. What I hadn't realised was that there was a Scrapfest event being held there, and there were hundreds of people attending! AND I discovered that Tim Holtz had been one of the guest demonstrators only the day before... I missed my hero by only one day!!
When I got home I found I had received the latest edition of Craft Stamper magazine which includes a project to make 'Fairy Doors', and reading this article I discovered that these little doors originated in Ann Arbor in Michigan. We actually stayed there during our trip and if only I had known this I could have looked for some... another missed opportunity. Oh well, it's now back home, and back to work... but also back to crafting and a chance to use some of the stuff I bought at Archiver's.

Da Vinci Twinchy

The challenge theme on the Small world of inchies blog this week is 'Da Vinci' - so here is mine. I had to make a twinchy of course, because it rhymes!! LOL

In my house...

... there is orange. I decided to have a go at the Dans ma maison... challenge for the first time.

Butterly Moo...

... this one made for the Make a Moo or Two challenge of BUTTERFLIES.

Inchy on a Twinchy

I'm a bit late for the Small world of inchies challenge... but here is my effort for the theme: an inchy on a twinchy.

Circles

A 4 x 4 for the Wednesday Stamper challenge - on the theme of CIRCLES.