We wrapped up our trip with visits to Cardiff, Parish of St John the Baptist, Bute Park, the Animal Wall, Cardiff Castle, Blue Anchor Inn (Dinner), Royal Crescent and Royal Circus, Roman Baths, Windsor Castle, Statue of Queen Victoria in Windsor, and back to London.

Our only disappointment was realizing, too late to do anything about it, that we would not get to go to Stonehenge.

I guess that means we'll have to take another trip there someday.

WHAT ELSE DID WE MISS?

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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We weren't far into the trip when I became fascinated with the various cobblestone walks and streets. Whenever I remembered, I recorded these.

Thank goodness it wasn't like this everywhere as your feet get very tired walking on the stones.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Such wonderful things to see in the next set of photos that I included more than one shot for many of the stops:

These wer: The Cliffs of Moher, King John's Castle, the Treaty Stone, views in Adare, the Dingle Penninsula, Killarney, Blarney Castle, the Waterford Crylstal Showroom, and the ferry back to Wales.

Nothing impressive on the interior of the ferry so I left out those photos.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Further in our trip we visited Beleek Pottery, Donegal Castle, the Abbey Graveyard, Rosses Point, St Columba's Church, the gravesite of William Butler Yeats, Classiebawn (Lord Mountbatten's Castle), Tobernault Holywell and Galway.

So little time at each stop, just enough to whet the appetite for more.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Of all the places we visited Boyle Abbey was the most rewarding to photograph. There was hardly a view that was not spectacular.

Thats why it will be the singular focus of today's entry.

This 12th century abbey has had some restoration along one side to halt the collapse of a wall. But it is spectacular to visit and we were the only ones of our tour group to do so.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The next leg of our trip ran us through 4 countries.

Gretna Green, Wordworth's grave, boat on Windemere, train on banks of Windemere, Liverpool, King Charles' tower in Chester, chester Cathedral, Ferry to Dublin, Book of Kells, Cathedrals, and the River Shannon.

It's almost overwhelming to review how MUCH we saw in such a short amount of time. AWESOME!

Ddd

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Our tour director put on a recording of Willie Nelson singing 'On the Road Again' EVERY MORNING as the coach started out. GACK!

The next legs of our trip took us to: Hadrian's Wall, the Scottish border, Jedburgh Abbey, Airth Castle, Edinburg Castle, Royal Yacht Britannia, St Andrews Cathedral, Links Golf Course, RSS Discovery (ship) in Dundee, Blair Castle, Commando Memorial, Loch Ness, Inverness, MacBeth's Castle, Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns, Loch Lomand, Glasgow.

Some of these were 'drive by' or 'stand in the yard', some were full tours, some self-guided tours.

SO much history!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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The last in this marathon session is OWH sketch 237:

I actually had a smaller sticker that I wanted to use so I backed it with a neutral gray cardstock. I bordered this in red to call attention to her hair bow. This panel is popped up on foam tape.

I pulled colors from the sticker illustration inbl ues and golden browns for the various panels and strips.

The lower panel seemed to create too much open space so I filled it with a red diecut word.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Friday, 29 May 2015 4:40 PM PDT

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It seemed like everywhere we looked on our trip there were beautiful scenes. I couldn't help capturing some of these. Even if not tied to a specific place, they just make me happy.

...and these are only the BEST views. Plenty more of NICE views, as well.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I love to take photos of little snippets of nature that I come across in my travels. These usually involve flower of some sort but trees and other elements sometimes sneak in.

The photos shared today are not identified by site at all as they were just part of the overall experience.

No rhyme, no reason, just beauty.

Ddd

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On the next day the tour actually started with the group. Highlights of the day included visiting Anne Hathaway's cottage, walking the streets of Stratford-Upon-Avon, viewing the birthplace of Shakespeare, wandering the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, taking a walking tour of York including the minster there, and viewing roadside art like the 'Angel of the North'.

Kind of a lot to wrap your head around.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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We recently had an opportunity to take a trip through England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The entire adventure was 20 days including two 'coming and going' days.

I took over 2000 photos as we traveled by coach, walked and toured while our travel director gave us in-depth history lessons about the countries, their governements, and the invasions, wars and other events that affected them.

I won't go into much detail here, just enough to orient you. If you want details on various sites, you'll have to look them up on line.

Also, the photos won't necesarily correspond to the exact day taken.

So, ready to see some UK and Ireland?

The first day we were entirely on our own in London. We rode the London Eye, took the tube to Parliment Squaare and Westminster Abbey, strolled through St James's Park, went to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard (on the day Princess Charlotte was born!), and visited Trafalger Square.

Just the beginning of an awesome experience.

Ddd

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Eight years ago today I posted my first entry 'Welcome To My Blog'. Since that date I have posted every single day (sometimes more than one entry) covering mostly arts and crafts with a few other creative endeavors thrown in.

I've done cards of all sorts, remodeling, painting, jewelry, tutorials, gardening, photography, manicures, quilting, sewing, writing, and supplies reviews. I've also taken classes (online and in real life), gone on retreats, shared vacations and experimented in the kitchen.

All of it has been a blast!

Since the inception of this blog I have retired so I have a LOT more time to devote to creative pursuits. The most ambitious new hobby that I have taken on is quilting. It was totally different than anything I had been doing up to that point and I am loving it.

That started 4 1/2 years ago and the quilt I am finishing right now is number 70! That is a LOT of quilting!

I also started contributing to two charities: Quilts which go to our local hospital for dying patients (the family keeps the quilt) and making cards for Operation Write Home which you have heard a LOT about on this blog.

In the future I'd love to do some video tutorials, get a paper craft book published, overhaul my main website and take some beading classes. This fall I will get to take a quilting cruise and I am quite excited about that!

So, stick around - I plan to be here for a long time.

Can I ask a favor? If you read this blog, will you give a comment on this post. No need to share anything specific or make a big statement. Just a 'hi' to let me know I'm not talking to an audience that consists of three family members. LOL!

Seriously, I get maybe one or two comments a year, so anything is appreciated.

Back to regular postings tomorrow.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Just squeaking this challenge tag in under the wire. In two days it will be time for another challenge!

Here is the original tag made by Tim Holtz:

As always, I read the original instructions (with photos) and made notes for myself. Then I went to the studio with just the written step-by-step and pulled supplies from my stash that were 'sorta like' the ones Tim used.

Here's my process:

-Use Xyron to adhere neutral-colored grasscloth wallpaper sample to stiff cardboard

-Cut into tag shape

-Place a letter stencil on upper left and use an old gift card to spread texture paste in a small section. Let this dry

-Select bits of small ephemera that look vintage and set aside

-When texture paste is dry, use foam tool and distress ink to tint the paste.

-Ink edges of tag with brown distress ink

-Select a small black and white photo

-Use distress markers to color the photo and follow up with immediate blending away excess ink with cotton swab

-Apply postal-type rubons to surfaces of ephemera and tinted photo

-Tie crinkle ribbon around tag

-Select word token and memo pin and attach to ribbon

-Select small quote and cut into strips. Adhere with matte medium

-Attach tiny paper flowers with heavy glue dot

-Use brown distress ink to tint word strips

Whew! Made it!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Rectangle, circle, banner...Yep, we're all here. Here is OWH sketch 236:

A rose sticker gave over the color palette for this card. I followed the sketch almost exactly and kept the smaller elements very plain so as to not compete with the green patterned paper.

The green backing paper is much lighter than the other greens but draws attention to the highlights on the leaves around the rose.

The bottom was a little vacant so I cut a pre-stamped sentiment into a tab shape and attached it there.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I decided to take something simple and really elevate it. This is OWH sketch 235:

I knew immediately that I wanted to use a heart sticker set that comes in three finishes and can be nested. The finishes are red glitter, silver hammered and gold glossy. This particular heart has 4 nesting parts. I mounted it on a heart-printed background circle and backed that with ag old peel-off medallion.

Two papers with a love theme form the background but a cutting error left too wide of a gap between them. I filled this in with some gold filigree border and I loved it.

At this point I auditioned some gold hearts in the place of those dots in the sketch but really, the card was better without them.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Sometimes you have to use some imagination to make a sketch work. Here is OWH sketch 234:

This looked a little busy to me and that circle element seems not to fit in.

I loved the floral papers I used for yesterday's card so cut up more of them to use today. I used the floral colors to select the other papers and layers.

I For the focal I pulled out a silver peel-off sticker and colored it with alcohol markers to match the papers.

For the circle element I used a 'round-ish' silver peel-off and colored it as well.

Colors in the photo are not as bright and intense as the card.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Oh I am SO happy I had one last hedgehog! Here is OWH sketch 233:

I saved this little guy from the sheet for last because I couldn't imagine how I would use it and make it look planned. Well I was so excited to run across this piece from a 6x6 pad that had the soft lavender background and the spray of flowers across the border. I trimmed it down and, when I put on the hedgehog, she looked like she was really jump-roping through the garden. SWEET!

I pulled colors from the sticker and garden to select papers for the backgrounds and borders. The main panel is popped up on foam tape.

The cloors in the photo are NOT right.

Instead of the three dots used on the right in the sketch, I used a rhinestone corner piece.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Can the sketch itself be called elegant? Or is is only elegant in the execution? Here is OWH sketch 232:

I think in this case, the formality of the layout and the classy papers provide the elegance in combination.

The pink main piece is topped with vellum stickers. More garden papers and a latice frame it out.

From just the tiny bit of golden yellow in the flower centers I was inspired to use it for the bordering. A softer yellow ribbon was folded into three tabs for the right side.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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Even after using all these stickers on sketches I still have TONS of them in my files. Granted, some were given to me in swaps or as gifts but, by and large, I bought most of them. I used to find really nice stickers at Dollar Tree but, not so much anymore.

In any case, I'm back to using stickers for the sketch today which is OWH 231.

The vellum sheet of stickers contained btho those used for the background on the rghti and the flowers down the left panel. I used only one piece of patterned paper but with all the stickers it looks more complicated.

All of the solids are keyed off of the plaid.

I like how the plaid shows through the vellum flowers.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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