The CreaTive TyPe

Have you been over to the Creative Type this week? The prompt is to journal withing a shape. Find it here. It's always interesting to see everyone's take on the same topic. Here is mine:

It's very unusual for me not to do a photo layout, so this was a bit of fun for me!

Munich

We had a fabulous time in Munich! There is so much to see and do there: Here are some snippets:

Munich is a city of contrasts-lovely historic buildings and modern art and architecture, folk art and designer shops. Jack was happy to get to see the Allianz Arena too. Now I'm not much of a fan of football stadiums, but the Allianz Arena was quite a sight. It was like a giant inflatable tyre, and was lit up red when we were there because Bayern was playing-it changes colour depending on which home team is playing.

We did a day trip to Salzburg-what a pretty little town. If you are a 'Sound of Music' fan you would really enjoy Salzburg-and might even recognise some film locations!

And we also visited Dachau. Tragic.

Woo hooo!

I made it throught to the final of Top Designers at Bad Girls Kits!! Now I have a bit of a problem though. The last class is to create an altered piece-and I'm off to Munich tomorrow and won't be back until Saturday night. So I am really going to struggle with this one, unless inspiration strikes in Germany-and the opportunity to pick up some interesting bits and pieces!! fingers crossed!

Here's the last layout I did in the competition:

I taught..

..a class yesterday at our crop here in Edinburgh. It was more a technique class than a LO class, because I really like classes that allow all the class members to interpret the class in their own way. I'm not a fan of classes which are essentially a scraplift of the teacher's layout. I guess that's my teacher training kicking in. I need to know what the learning outcomes are-what is it the students are learning? And as a teacher I would never want my students to learn to copy-that is not education! Anyway, the technique was about using table napkins on layouts. I love using napkins because they have a wonderful translucent quality, and that allows the build up of quite complex designs. Here are a couple of mine layouts using napkins:

The Autumn layout uses Ikea napkins,and this is the one the girls in the class used too, to do their own Autumn layouts. And they were all different, even though they used the same technique and the same napkins. And you can see the translucency in the close up. See how you can see through the frog to the music below? I love that.
And here is a very pretty layout to go with the very pretty photo of Tess:

The delicate flowers were cut from a napkin and you can see the patterned paper underneath showing through. Then the journalling has been added using safmat-again adding to the translucency and the layered effect.

Some layouts.

I thought I would share a couple more layouts I've done recently. First is a layout I did for Round 5 of Top designer at Badgirlskits. By the way, if you ever need to google that site remember to add KITS onto Badgirls-or else you will get more that you bargained for!! Anyway, I got through to round 6 with this layout: We had to use the colours within the photos to inspire our choice of papers, and to balance those colours with neutrals-which I love- and so I am really happy with how this layout turned out.

I also love rubons and thought the gothic looking crow went well with the church ruin.

And here's another layout. This one was for The CrEative TyPe, Challenge 3. The challenge was to use a quote as a backgound. I LOVE using quotes on my scrapbook pages, and especially if the quote is a little quirky, like this one from Robert Andreas of STORY PEOPLE. I love that site-I receive a daily 'story' from them in my emails, and these little stories never fail to capture the imagination. LOVE them!

If you haven't visited the crEative tyPe yet-go on over=the talent there is inspiring!

been scrapping..

I've actually been scrapping a lot lately, and really enjoying it, but not doing so much mixed media lately, but I will definitely get back into mucking around with paint and ink and glue soon. There are just not enough hours in the day to do all I want!!! Here's a Layout I did today-.I did it for Round 5 of Top Designer at Bad Girls Kits, but decided to submit the other one I did instead. The task was to use colours pulled from the photo to create a layout. This is a photo taken in 2001, on New Year's Eve. Cousin Angie came to Edinburgh to celebrate at the Edinburgh street party for Hogmanay. We met her under the big wheel, walked around looking at the sights, and then went back to her hotel for a coffee. Angie had brought some feather boas for her night out and Emily loved playing around with them, especially this lolly pink one! I had great fun with this layout-loved playing with all the bright colours. The buttons are all hand painted and doodled.

The Creative TYPE

This week's prompt is up at THE CREATIVE TYPE. I do hope you will take a look-and even better-have a go at the challenge. This is an old layout that would fit the challenge. there are some fab projects to inspire on the blog. Don't forget-if you do the challenge, to add a link in the comments section of the prompt entry!

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days..

... which occur more frequently in memory than in life. (P.D. James)

Well this wasn't England-it was Scotland, and this was definitely life and not memory. We started out early and arrived at Loch Ard in the Trossachs when it was still cold-about 3 degrees and the sun had not yet burnt off the mist that was rising from the surface of the loch. There is something special about this loch-it has the most amazing reflective qualities. There is never a time when the surface is not like a mirror, but this morning, early, with the mist rising from the mirrored surface-well it was pure beauty.

We walked up towards Ben Venue, and were able to take in the view down to the loch. We walked beside a burn with lots of waterfalls, and the most amazing moss covered boulders and trees. I love the first photo on the collage below-I took my camera off manual and by using a fast shutter speed was able to freeze the water somewhat. I also love the photo of the horse-is there a more idyllic rural scene than that?

When we came back down from the hill the mist had lifted from the loch, and although it was still beautiful, nothing compared to the mist we had seen earlier. Goes to show the importance of getting up and out early!

A New Layout

Here is a layout I just finished for the Badgirlskits design school. The challenge was to create a LO with the emphasis on using embellishments. The photos are of an antique market we visited in France, and so I have chosen to do a vintage style LO to reflect the subject. As you can see the embellishments have been chosen carefully to reflect the subject. I loved this market in Menton-St-Bernard, on Lake Annecy. There were books stalls, vintage postcards, furniture, dolls and general bric a brac,- all with a very definite french charm. The paper is Dream St and I chose it for the color palette and because I thought the damask pattern related to the wrought iron work of the table and chairs in the photo.

Here are some more pictures of Menton. I love this place, it is so beautiful down by the lakeside. I think I would like to live here when I retire!!