Scrapbooked School Photo

Those of you that have been with me a while may remember this post where I said I was going to make scrapbooking photo pages of lots of my relatives to put on display around the house.  This idea came back to me last night so I came up with this:

(My boys count as relatives too!)  

I know, I will do other relatives but I do want pictures of my two little scamps in amongst them.

Speaking of scamps, the reason I did the photo like this with the inkblots and the untidy distressed look is because, like in the way most school photos are taken, my boys look as though 'butter wouldn't melt!'  Well we all know the truth don't we! lol.

For the background I used the title page of a block of an old range of Basic Grey paper:

And originally my letters were purple:

 ..so I coloured them with a black Sharpie.

 I typed the titles with an old typewriter but the ink was so faded that I went over the lines with a fine black pen.  Then I used a school range of rubons for the other random lettering.  As this is to be behind glass I couldn't use thick embellishments.  The inkblots came from a stamp.

(The background used here is an old 1960's school desk complete with a hole for an inkwell)

 

And finally the picture framed:

Enjoy your week, thanks for stopping by and for any comments,

qwiksave

How was your Christmas?

Hope you all had a good Christmas and are continuing to enjoy the holiday.  I was going to put my Christmas day photos on yesterday but fell asleep!

Mmmmn Choccie!

The homemade chocolate snowman (left) was popular.

Christmas for us was just our family of four at home (my inlaws have gone to the Phillippines) and of course, the concentration was on the boys...

...and their presents..

..the highlight of which was this Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle.

We also went out sledging.  This was the temperature as recorded in our hire car:

But great fun was had on the slopes:

..and yes, even I went down!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We're off to visit my sister and her family in Milton Keynes tomorrow and will be stopping over, so there will be no post tomorrow.

Look forward to seeing all your seasonal pictures!

Thanks for stopping by,

qwiksave

Let It Snow - Photographs

Today my craft is photography.

Colourful umbrellas make great photos in snow!

We had masses of snow today - we woke up to loads and then it kept on coming for most of the day.

Luckily I've done most of my christmas shopping, but I did have to pop out (walking) with my boys to the supermarket.  They loved it of course and were snowball fighting all the way.

This was in our neighbour's garden:

..and this is the robin that my son made at school:

It looks like a giant robin is coming down our path! :-O

The snow is so lovely to look at, but it has its problems.  My husband has been stuck in Germany this weekend because his flight was cancelled :-(  He's hoping to come back on Wednesday now, fingers crossed.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Keep yourselves warm,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Germany in Autumn

My husband has returned from working in Germany for the weekend and has brought back some lovely scenic photos for me to show you.  I thought you might like to see these calm, peaceful, river & mountain scenes that he has been taking, inbetween his working hours.

Also some woodland:

Makes me feel all calm looking at these. 

* * * * *

He came back this morning and took our boys around a very busy, Movie Memorabilia show at the NEC in Birmingham.  There were people dressed up as Star Wars characters:

With whom they had their picture taken:

Me? I went to another exhibition there at the NEC, a Gifts For Christmas show, it was heaving with people and I only got a couple of things, one of which was some washable fabric pens.  Once a crafter, always a crafter!  ;-)

Back later with today's craft,

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Autumn Park

We had a lovely day here today, fantastic blue sky, sun shining, the perfect day to go to the Park, which is what we did.  We went to the Leamington Spa park called 'Jephson Gardens' that has some lovely variety of trees which are still showing their beautiful autumnal colours.  Now, if Blogger will let me, I will show you some lots of the pictures taken today.

(Click each picture to enlarge)

Don't ask me what any of these type of trees are, because I have no idea!  I took these pictures inbetween playing Frisbee with my family and we also had a nice hot drink in the Avairy cafe there too. A lovely day out.

Thanks for looking and any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Creative Wall

Today, whilst out shopping, I came across this:

Wow!

It was amongst all this:

(All pictures taken by me, compiled using Picnik)

It is actually an old pub garden that is now a car park.

This is the car park wall:

..With this floor:

..and it used to have lots of sunloungers and brightly coloured plastic tables and chairs on it.  I think the realities of the British weather put a stop to this unconventional idea, and this is probably why it is now just a car park.  The pub owners haven't sprayed it conventional colours yet, maybe they are letting it go naturally.  I personally love all that decaying colour!

One last thing...

I did a bit of my own grafitti  - but only by using a Picnik doodle brush of a man's face on top one of the photos:

and apologies for the bad hair! lol.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Autumn Sunshine

What a lovely day it has been weather wise here today, warm sunshine, I loved it.  I loved it so much I went into the park with my camera today:

I took some photos but not straightforward photos, I had a clever optical gizmo with me (a £1.50 charity shop buy)

It's one of those mirrors for putting on the backs of caravans and vehicles like it.

It gives a great wide angle effect which is fun to combine with the view you get from a normal camera lens.

You can have quite a bit of fun with one of these, they look good with people shots too.

This was kind of my craft today but I also have been sorting out my pen storage.  I had all my colour pens (& my kids colouring pens too) all thrown in a drawer like this:



So have been sorting them into categories in these:

and

(Trays £1 each, you've guessed it, charity shop!)

It is much easier to select the right type now.

Thanks for popping by and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Wall Sculptures

Today's post is a photographic one. For our anniversary today my husband and I went on the train to Birmingham and we visited a new 'Arts & Media Quarter' called the 'Custard Factory'.

This photo is of a great linear art sculpture that I took with my Instax Mini 10 Instant Camera.  It was fun using a 'polaroid-type' camera with pictures that develop in front of you but the colours were a bit off:

This was all white!

Here we have a ginormous 'green man' sculpture (my husband is sitting underneath it):

This dragon really does look as though its climbing the wall:

and finally, I loved this green vertical garden:

 

It looks like a giant piece of embroidery.

Lovely day, but it was a shame about the weather.  The 'Custard Factory' itself didn't seem to have much going on for visitors.  I think its still in its early stages so has empty units waiting to be filled with creative bods. I'd love a unit to spread out and make a mess, surrounded by other creative types.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave