Photography Course in Robin Hoods Bay

We've been looking forward to this weekend for what seems absolutely ages - by 8.30am Saturday morning we were already on the road to Whitby armed with our new cameras and tripods.  Afer a rather expensive ham sandwich with chunky chips served up in a flower pot!!! yes a flower pot!! we explored the shops and then headed back to RHB to our Bed & Breakfast The Manning Tree.

Sunday we were up bright and early and on the beach at RHB by 9am.  Our course started at 10am so with a hot cuppa, a presentation to watch, theory papers to fill in and learn (which to be honest went straight over my head), we were off putting all we'd learnt that morning into practise.  Keith our tutor was brilliant - we were all novices but he still managed to give us the attention we needed with our cameras.

Afer 3 hours of camera practise these are just a couple of shots I came up with using large and shallow depth of field, moving my focus point from centre to left, macro shots etc

and the winning photo of the day was my shot of this flower lol....

Both hubby and myself had a brilliant time and already looking at attending Part 2 of the course early next year.

Thanks for looking

Sketchy Thursday

Wow, can't quite believe that I have got myself so organised but I have prepared 4 layouts for my Thursday and Fridays classes of scrapbooking!!.  All commissions from work are upto-date so some well earned time spent on joining in with another challenge over at Sketchy Thursdays.

Their challenge for their GDT spot in October is to follow a sketch but also to use the colours in the photo.  This is the sketch and colours....

and here is my take on it. 

I have used a photo of a beautiful fountain that I took whiltst visiting Burton Agnes ( a gorgeous stately home in North Yorkshire) and lightly sepia'ed it !!  The papers are a combination of Crate's Paper, Bo Bunny and Websters and all have been distressed and inked with Vintage Photo.  The flowers and butterflies are made with Tim Holtz diecuts, Martha Stewart Lattice punch was used on the 2 borders and the title was cut with Story Book on the Cricut.  Think thats it lol.

Thanks for looking

Polly x

Let's Capture These Sketches - sketch challenge

Over at Let's Capture These Sketches there challenge is to follow a sketch so just had to join in with this one!

I have used papers from the Madeline Colection by Prima,  some Prima ribbons, some Prima flowers, oh and the packaging that the Prima flowers came in!!!  I have added a diamate swirl, some butterflies from Tim Holtz die cuts and the leaf flourish is a Cherry Lyn diecut which I have now misplaced!!  Hope that when I was cleaning up my table it didnt drop in the bin like my mobile phone did once!!  Anyway here is the page with a photo of my beautiful daughter on it.

Thanks for looking

Polly x

Something new

I was very lucky to get Julie Nuttings 'Collage Couture' as a belated birthday pressie and I have to admit on opening the first page was totally hooked!!  I have drawn and designed not only Julie's examples but some of my own 'croquis' and dresses!

I made a couple of little ones as practice then went on to making this one using diecut flowers on the background

Just need to practice on mixed media backgrounds - so must learn to be spontaneous and messy!! 

Thanks for looking x

New challenge over at Our Vintage Affair

OOooh we have a new challenge over at Our Vintage Affair which I thoroughly enjoyed creating and hope you will too!!!  Its all about TRIANGLES!!!

So after pondering what to make I came up with an idea to make a bunting for my craft room door!!  Took 4 hours to make but I love it and funnily enough so does the hubby :O)

I used different Melissa Frances paper which I have had for ages, some white ruffled ribbon, ready-made roses in brown, beige and burgundy, used my new Spellbinders Pennant dies that I got a while ago whilst in Whitby, my new T!m Holtz Rosette die that I got from Grimsby Crafts and set to work.  And here it is....

Well hope you like it and it has inspired you to have a go and joining in with us.  If you pop over to OVA you can check out our the DT's gorgeous creations and also our very talented GD for this month - Paula Tidman.

Thanks for looking

Polly x

Stampotique Challenge - Red, Yellow and Orange

Over at the Stampotique challenge blog their theme,  along with using their own Stampotique stamps, is to use the following colours:- Red, Yellow and Orange. 
So armed with Dylusions stamps, Dylusions Inks, paper towels and little paint top lids I started working on getting messy!!!  And this is the background that I came up with.. a little doodling was added too...  Certainly need practise but for a 1st attempt with the inks and paints not that bad....?!?!?!

Karin & Eric were stamped onto Neenah paper and coloured in with Polychromos Pencils and blended with Sansador.  I masked off Erics right hand on the original stamped image and then stamped it again and cut it out as I wanted it to look like he was holding Karins hand (sweet eh)!

Thanks for looking  xx

New challenge over at Our Vintage Affair - Birds

A new scrapbook challenge over at Our Vintage Affair has just been announced - a sketch to follow with the added theme of Birds. 

We are sponsored this month by

Nikki Sivils  papers are so vibrant and colourful and I have to say,  I thoroughly enjoyed playing with them for my layout.  The winner will recieve a collection of these cute papers from the range 'My Friend Birdie'

Here was the sketch the DT worked to

And here is my take on the sketch (I flipped the sketch over) -  this is GD Heidi playing in the garden.

I hope you will join in with the challenge.

Thanks for looking