Lens Guy Photo of the Week 4 and 5

Silver Birch Trees at Camusdaroch, Arisaig

Torrance Linn Waterfall, Calderglen Park

Still trying to catch up after being disconnected and on holiday. Two photos from Lens Guy. As before you can go to his facebook page and like him here.

Lens Guy Photo of the Week 3

Here is the third one off photo in the weekly series. This is a photograph of a yellow tulip taken after it had rained. You can see more and find out more about his photography on his facebook page here.

Lens Guy Photo week 2

This is the second of Lens Guy's photos of the week. This work is a little different from his normal work but still captures what he does. These limited edition prints are part of a new promotional series and there is just one in each edition. To find out more check out his facebook page. For those of you not from Scotland Irn Bru is "made from girders" and is a very sweet fizzy drink that is bright orange. Some claim it is the other national drink - not me - but if you like sweet fizzy drinks give it a try. He has been taking these photos using an iphone and an app called Camera + which allows you to process and add details to photo. He finds it really hard to do as he does love all his lens and gadgets and metres. For all you scrap bookers out there I think this is worth a try but I am going to stick to the Hipstamatic app as I love the retro feel of the photos and the very random effects.

Meet Lens Guy

If you pop in here from time to time you will know that my other half is called Lens Guy as he is a photographer.  He has decided to dip his toe into facebook. It would be great if you could visit  and like him. At the moment he is promoting one off limited edition prints  1/1 on facebook. This week  it is the photo of the mini above - the first offer will secure the print. Alternatively have a browse through the images of Glasgow and Scotland.

Valentine challenges - Heart Felt Wings and UK Stampers

The inked and distressed text on the other side

Half Folded out 

The opened out version

For someone who "doesn't do Valentines" I seem to have done it again. My only excuse was I had been playing with a make and take from last week's crops and the challenge on Just for Fun last week was Heartfelt wings and then UK Stampers had a Valentines challenge and I just had to do something. I would call it an elaborate card. It folds out into a flower shape and then folds back like an accordian into a heart book. I am only showing you one side as the other side is between Lens Guy and me.

Front and back

After covering both sides with text from the Book of the Kiss - old booklet I had - I distress inked and then sprayed with Dylusions. For the front cover I created a background using masked hearts and then stamped the Stampotique Oh My Dear giving her wings from Dyan Reaveley's Love Struck Lucy stamps. I coloured her with paints.

Inside double page one

Doodled hearts and text on one side. Dyan Reaveley Ruby Rainbow Stamped onto pink heart background (even managed to mask her for  wings) painted with Dylusions acrylics. I love this stamp as it makes me think of my mad creative chaotic side and I like the idea of love being heart felt and taking wing.

Inside double page 2
I distressed my original heart mask and tore it in three and on the opposite side I stamped many many hearts on inked papers, cut them out and added them.

Too close for comfort

Created a quick page using the Owl Tree Studio (August Collaboration) kit for the the numbers challenge using 1 photo, 2 fonts, 3 embellishments and 4 papers.  The papers and embellishments were all from the kit and I used Impact and Lucinda Handwriting as font. Those of you that follow this know that my guy (aka Lens Guy) is a professional photographer but at this point I really felt he was too near the edge.

T in the Park

To end our holidays we took the campervan and youngest daughter to T in the Park. Muddy, sunny, cold, tiring, exhilerating, fun, friends, laughs, music, thrills and spills. The man with tache took things to a whole new level.

Progress on the muddy slope

This week the sinuous railway sleeper wall is beginning to appear. Lens Guy is still painting railway sleepers spruce green and at some point this summer I may be able to plant some pot bound plants like the poppy.

The sun is out and it makes me smile...and garden...

As it is such beautiful weather I have been working on garden whilst I get the chance. Got so much to do this week may not get a chance to post for a few days.  The Lidl clematis is growing :) and I planted more pots and seedlings to feed the muddy slope. Invested in a cheap grow frame as every windowsill in house overflowing with seeds.

Attempts at being a domestic goddess and cupcakes.

If you think the finished article looks impressive that's okay but don't think I am much good at this stuff - read on and look at pics below to see my chaotic attempts at domesticity. If you have been dipping in and out of this blog you will have come to appreciate that I am not really your domestic goddess type. Life is just too short for all that stuff. I am lucky as Lens Guy is pretty nifty when it comes to domestic engineering - although he has a very scientific and organised approach to this. In fact youngest daughter and I are almost afraid to touch the dishwasher now in case we load it the wrong way. Apparently there is a wrong way and right way to load a dishwasher. Anyway back to almost goddess like moment. Today I was inspired to make chicken stock, homemade soup, tonight's dinner and enough to freeze for another day plus cupcakes. The reason I am blogging this is that it is not my usual mode of operation - usually I am in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible but today I was in the mood to cook and like all my projects I never quite know when to stop... I know most people are fans of cupcakes but sometimes it all seems a bit time-consuming and fiddly to me. Today I was in the zone and made some apple and raisin cupcakes with yogurt topping. I did make a mess as you can see... and at one point it was just this gloopy mess in the bowl and I was convinced it wouldn't work. They did rise and come out of oven and I even decorated them and put on pretty plates.

It Takes Two

Lens Guy and youngest do the tango. I had hours of fun painting the chipboard letters for "Takes" and spraying them with glimmer mists. The letters for "two" were a boring black rubber so I painted them blue. I like how some of the paint stayed over the edges to make them more messy. I had to sew some buttons and hoops on. I also spent ages highlighting the scallop edge at bottom with stitching. The layout was in response to sketch in the scrapbook magazine issue 43.

Clumping around in the mud

Having spent the week trying to decide whether I should be marching and demonstrating against education cuts or going to a crop today... I did not manage either. Last night I was exhausted and decided I could not manage either. I felt a little less tired this afternoon so Lens Guy and I decided we could no longer put off measuring the garden. As we have moved to a brand new house our garden consists of a muddy slope.We can't afford to "get it done" so it will be a diy job with help from friends and family. After converting the site plan from 1:1000 to a 1:50 scale plan inside we trudged outside to measure up. Each step on soil meant my wellies squelching and sinking down and then I needed to tug them out of the soil to make next step. We were trying to calculate the gradient and slop which ended up with us using a piece of string, a bamboo cane and some pretty accurate guesstimating once a measurement was taken. It seems to slop 80 cm up one way but also 20 cm another way - which means if we want any flat bits we will need to excavae the mud and build some kind of terraces.

Storage, organisation and pages three and four

I was taking pics today to show how I like colour and arranging things. The printer's drawer I made into a holder for my jewellery is a classic example. I love it and it helps me to find things quickly.



I need to focus on me a bit which is why I created the I am an inveterate hoarder page in the book. As one of the pics was of pieces of shell capiz cut off a light that was too long I thought I should include them. The acetate overlay uses a paper from Shabby Princess Sweet Serenity and the I am is from the same range. Not sure where I found the butterfly but will try and find source.
The next page shows "Lens Guy". The pictures were taken on different days but they give you an idea of what he does. Youngest daughter and I have spent many chilly, and not so chilly days sitting around waiting while he does his job. I had to find something to fill in my time... (Backing paper DCWV All About Girls, mounts coredinations and a scrap piece of Skate Shoppe. Tag from a shirt)