Saturday 19 August 2017

Where did the last week go?

Happy weekend folks .....

What happened to the last 7 days!!?!! It doesn't seem five minutes since we were having Sunday lunch with Chris and Sam, relaxing in the sunshine.
Since then it's all been going on!  We've had sunshine, strong winds and LOTS of rain  ........ a nearby road was closed because part of it had washed away! Thank goodness the rain didn't last long, and the roads been repaired.
We had a lovely big cruise ship in the bay ...... luckily not on the day it rained.  One of the IOM ferries is out of action (again!)  The Manannan hit the quay side whilst docking so that's in for repair. Just in time for the start of the Manx Grand Prix (MGP) ..... practice week gets underway this evening (oh joy!) And ...... LLB (Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen) has been on the island!!!  Apparently he's filming for a new TV series and has been out and about on the Isle of Man.  He was at a store just around the corner from me earlier in the week, and then yesterday he visited my friend Claire down at Grenaby Studios ..... he even bought some of gorgeous her jewellry (exciting or what!) He'd better not have bought my ring that she's making for me!!

Most of my week has been spent in the old craft room.  It's been like a little holiday for me, Lauren, Robbie and the little man are in Spain, so I've not been on Grandma duty this week. It's been very quiet around here .... too quiet in fact.  I've missed them!
It has been busy though ...... I had a lovely day with my craft buddy.  I actually made a card, Lilian on the other hand spent the afternoon on the internet ....... craft shopping!!
I've also been catching up with all my crafty commitments ...... DT stuff is up to date, and this year's Christmas workshop project is almost finished...... the craft room floor looks like backstage at Strictly Come Dancing!  I think there's more glitter on the floor, my table and me than is left in the pot.
Note to self ..... add glitter to the shopping list!

I've also had time to play along with a couple of Blog Challenges ....... this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge, and if I can get a move on ...... I'll also be linking up to the current  Snippets Playground. This does close in less than and hour though so I'm going to have to be quick!

This month's CAS Watercolour challenge is  ...... use Salt


This is something I haven't done before ..... surprisingly! so I thought I would give it a go .... what do you think? I quite like the results


I just used rock salt from the kitchen cupboard .... sprinkled onto a smooshed Distress Ink background whilst the ink was still wet.  I did use watercolour card with quite a bit of water, and I left the crystals to dry overnight.  I love the result ......


I thought it had a frosty look to it so I went with snowflakes over the top.
I die cut a little piece of the card and heat embossed the snowflakes ..... don't they look pretty


A simple die cut frame and a stamped sentiment and we're done


I had to add some sparkle on there so I finished off with a few dots of sparkly glitter glue


I'll definitely be playing around with this technique again.

As I only used a piece of my inked cardstock I'm playing along at the Snippets Playground again .... hopefully I'm in time .....


It was my first time playing along with this challenge a couple of weeks ago and I got a lovely welcome from Di ...... thanks for the mention hun. I'm going to try and play along more often.

Thanks for popping by .... have a lovely weekend.
I'm off out today ..... one of my crafty friends is hosting a Stampin Up party (craft shopping ... always fun!) and as it's also her birthday there's a little celebration going on ..... that means cake!!

Better dash and make those challenge deadlines .........
Cheerio until next time ....

11 comments:

Di said...

Oooh Linda - what a lovely card! Got me thinking about salt now! It's lovely to see you in the Playground again and I do hope you come back often - we all have far too many snippets that need using up :) And you squeezed in with three minutes or so to spare - now that's impressive timing kiddo!

Pssst, I'm very relaxed about a little bit of back linking so if you do ever miss the deadline and the Playground gates clang shut then feel free to link in after they open again at midnight Saturday! But then you miss a chance of the fortnightly prize from the one where you didn't make it :)

I do love reading your blog btw - life on the IOM sounds really lovely!

Hugs

Di xx

Bonnie said...

This is a beautiful salted piece, Linda! It's perfect with those gorgeous embossed snowflakes! A delightful CAS card! Thanks so much for sharing with us at CAS Watercolour!

Christine Alexander said...

Linda, you nailed the salt technique, love all your crystal after the salt. So pretty and so perfectly salty. thanks for joining us at CAS Watercolour :)

Cathy said...

This is so pretty Linda, love the effect the salt had on that gorgeous background, Cathy x

Darnell said...

You've made a beautiful snowflake Christmas card with the salt technique, Linda! It was fun to see you at Pixie's Playground! I'll see you soon on the swings! (Sometimes I'm known to have a little wodka to share behind the bike shed ...sshh!) Hugs, Darnell

Papercraft Boutique said...

This is so pretty, Linda! The beautiful salt effect, and the muted blue - I love it. Hideko

Loll said...

Great work with salt, Linda!! Surprised that you haven't tried this yet ... and happy that you did and joined our challenge. Love the salt with the soft, cool blue. Definitely looks like a frosty winter sky. So pretty with the white embossed snowflakes. Thanks for sharing with us at CAS Watercolour! xx

nancy littrell said...

Your heat embossed snowflakes were perfect for your gorgeous salt watercolour background, Linda. So glad you had time to join us this month at CAS Watercolour. Sounds like a very busy fun time on the Isle of Man this week:-) Enjoy and Hugs..

Unknown said...

Gorgeous card, love the frosty blue and white :) I now have a list of techniques that I'm itching to try out (tissue backgrounds, salt etc) all I need now is 3 or 4 extra days a week ;)
Hugs Kaz xx

Susan said...

Great effects from your salt! Lovely shade of blue for the background - with the salt patches, it creates a great frosty look. Thanks so much for joining us at CAS Watercolour!

Ros Crawford said...

It's absolutely stunning Linda! The perfect Christmas card! Thanks so much for playing along at CAS Watercolours challenge! Sounds like you've had some excitment on the island... It's a long time since I was there, my aunt used to live there so we visited ofetn and I love the IOM!