Home again

First I must apologise for the shortness of yesterday's post. I had downloaded a huge number of photos and my battery was running low. I had packed my mains lead in my case, which was being packed into the next plane so I couldn't plug in, and I only just published in time before the battery ran out. By the way, If you are ever stuck for eight hours in Nairobi Airport I can totally recommend the Executive lounge for Kenya Airways. It cost us 30 dollars for 4 hours and included drinks food and very comfortable seats as well as clean toilets and internet connection. I am now home after a fairly long couple of days and will try and show you more photos of my trip in between loads of washing, showers and unpacking.
I really wanted to show you this picture that my travel partner, Megan took. we decided to call it "Where's Wally Sally?!"

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments this week. Hope you don't mind seeing more photos very soon!

Murabeho Rwanda

Well, I'm sat here in Nairobi Airport on the way home after a truly life-changing week. I have laughed so much and cried too. Yesterday we visited the Genocide Memorial Centre which generated quite a few tears, as did parting from our friends at G. S. Muyumbu. 

Muraho!

Hello friends! Moraho means good morning, but seems to be used at all times of the day here. I am here after a very long day in the national park, but I wanted to share a few photos. I am shattered, so I will be brief.

 This little lizard was at the entrance to the park,

Monkeys sauntered across the road,

and we got stared at by giraffes and large birds of prey.
Thanks for looking!

Greetings from Rwanda

Mwaramutse, my friends! Hello from Rwanda!
After a 28 hour journey I have arrived in Rwanda and I am quite speechless at the amazing sites we are seeing. the scenery is breathtaking. Quite different to what I expected. There are lots of hills and more Banana trees than you could imagine. The school is huge - more than 2000 pupils and everyone is very friendly. The hotel is basic, but clean and in a beautiful setting. We are in the district of Rwamagana, in the eastern province of Rwanda.
We have had a few glimpses of local bird life...

and this little cutie was right outside my room!

Any help on identifying them would be greatly appreciated. My Birds of britain is no use here! Hope to be back soon

Sally x

Here I go!

Well, as you read this I will be boarding a plane to Nairobi, transferring to a flight to Kigali and I will be alighting in Rwanda tomorrow morning. Let me tell you how this all came about. Are you sitting comfortably? then I will begin...
Our school decided to go for 'International School award'. We had gained the intermediate award last year, but wanted to go on to full award. We were selected as one of several schools in Nottingham to make links with Rwanda. Due to unforeseen circumstances (remember all those maternity leave and baby cards I was making?), I was offered the opportunity to go, so went home and discussed it with Meg and Steve. I wasn't at all sure, but they both thought I should jump at the chance, bless them, so I did. I haven't been abroad for a very long time and I haven't flown further than France, so this is VERY new to me. I have been wondering if I had made the right decision, but I am sure I would be kicking myself if I hadn't accepted. My lovely visitor Andre (see this post) is the Head Teacher at the school I will be visiting and I am going with a wonderful young teacher from our school, called Megan, along with 11 other people. We will be visiting 6 different schools out there.
I don't intend to be a stranger for the next week, as we are taking my laptop with us and I intend to blog whilst I am there. Hopefully I will have some cool photos to show you. There is a massive luggage allowance, so feel free to suggest what I could bring back with me!!! Wish me luck and thanks for looking! 

Flowers

I have had another play with Ruth's lovely Chrysanthemum stamps by Tonic Studios.

  I seem to be having having bit of a yellow phase at the moment. Not sure why as it isn't a colour that I would normally go for. I coloured this one with my Lakeland pencils and used a versamarker to blend the colours. I picked up this tip from Debbie and I have to say it works a treat! No more paper stubs and blending alcohol for me! I also used Distress ink in Wild Honey and some American seam binding.

 My second card uses Chocolate Baroque stamps. The smaller daisy was one from the butterflies and daisies themeplate, but then I saw and stamped Lynne's sunny sunflowers when I was visiting her in Scotland and had to have them. The flower and leaves on the left came from that set. I used resist stamping to make the background and added some dried marigold, wild honey, squeezed lemonade and scattered straw distress inks. The ribbon threaded border die is from Marianne Designs and the flowers in the small arch were coloured with distress inks. The sunflowers were coloured with pencils again.
Well, only a few days to go now. I think I have everything I need. The next few days will be full of lists I think!
Thanks for looking, and welcome (big wave) to my latest followers! I may have to have some candy if I get to 200.

Rwanda trip

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching over the past few days thinking about how to keep in touch from Rwanda. I have finally come to the conclusion that I will have to take my laptop. I tried out an I-pad and I had a good play with my phone, but it proved so hard trying to post a photo, I almost lost the will to live! In the end I thought "Why waste half your life when it could be so much easier?". It isn't like my laptop is hugely different in size to an i-pad anyway, and I can do soooo much more with it.
The hotel has free Wi-fi, so I might as well make the most of those evenings. I'll be skyping Steve and Meg to make sure they are being good! You can take a look at where I am staying here.
Monday to Thursday we are in school with events early each evening. On Friday we are visiting the Akagera National Park. On Saturday we are hoping to pull in a visit to the Genocide Memorial Centre and the Capalaki Craft Village before setting off back around lunch time.
To be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a bit scared now. I am sure I will be fine once I get there and I don't regret agreeing to go at all. Let's just hope I can get through the week with as few insect bites, gippy tummy and sunburn as possible. I'm taking a small pharmacy with me!
Well, I'd better go and get tea ready. Thanks for looking!

More trees

There is an area of Sherwood Forest that I drive through whenever I visit my Dad, on the A616 between Edwinstowe and Budby, here (twirl around 360 degrees to see all the trees). I often marvel at the different colours, and Nature provides a feast for the eyes, especially when the sun is shining. At the moment there are so many shades of green, brown and gold, and when I drove up last weekend it inspired me to make a card.

 I didn't quite get the perspective right, as the fir trees look much further away than I intended! The track going into the distance was inspired by Michelle Zindorf. It is something I have seen her do with torn paper a couple of times. All stamps are by Inkylicious except for the dotty ones I used for the leaves on the trees (from Lavinia stamps), and the dragonfly (from Crafty Individuals). The inks were Adirondack, applied with my Ink Dusters and the dragonfly was stamped onto fantasy film.
As it is another tree scene I am entering this into the Craft a Scene challenge (My second entry)
Well, it looks like I'm getting plenty of blogging time this week, but all my posts were half written at the weekend, when the cards were made. I am almost ready to start packing for Rwanda - just a few last minute things to prepare. I will post more details at the weekend about it. I will have my tea now - just got back from a governors meeting. Thanks for looking!

Snippet makes

I made these cards before I went back to work, but am only just getting round to blogging them.

 This first one is a cute Mo Manning image coloured in promarkers and mounted on a piece of paper from my snippet drawer. I think the paper was a download from Pink Petticoat. The card candy and greeting are both from Craftwork Cards many moons ago

 My next offering is a Michael Powell Stamp, again coloured with promarkers. The two scraps were home made, the vertical one was done with paint dabbers and the horizontal one with iridescent colour sprays. I can't even remember how I used the rest of the sheet I made these for, but was loathed to throw them away as they were such lovely colours. I coloured my image to blend in and was quite pleased with the result.

Finally, another cute one (I may need to lie down with all the cuteness!). I stamped direct onto the base card to make the floral pattern (Waltzing Mouse stamp). I coloured it with distress ink markers. The image (wild rose studios, coloured with distress inks) and the panel beneath it were both snippets I have had in my drawer for a long time.
I am off to the Snippet playground with them and a big bag of cola cubes to share with all the construction crew, and my lovely playmates. Miss Di seems to be having a great time on her jollies "course". I'm not really jealous cos I am off on my own Educational visit on 22nd, and I might see what I could bring back for the playground... Thanks for looking and I will try and repay your visit this week.

A bit sporadic

Well, where did the last week go? I did intend blogging, and had a couple of cards ready, but starting back to work was so hectic, there were two nights I didn't even switch this computer on! I had a meeting and a meal one evening with the folks I will be going to Rwanda with. Two weeks yesterday I will be boarding a plane to Nairobi and then transferring to Kigali. I am a little more organised than I was on Thursday now, but still lots to do!
I did manage a little bit of time at the craft table yesterday, making a card for Craft a Scene. With a theme like trees I had to have a go this month. I might even have a second go as I have another tree idea inspired by my drive through Sherwood Forest yesterday on the way to my Dad's house.
So, here is my tree card.

I used a mixture of stamps from Lavinia and Inkylicious, Adirondack inks (five different shades - I'll let you guess!) a white distress marker and a black fine liner. I created the background with my ink dusters.
The other things I wanted to share with you were photos of my Dad's dahlias. He lost all of his dahlias in the very snowy winter we had back in 2010, so I bought him some new tubers for his birthday. Here are a few photos of the massive blooms they have produced.

The third one is about 7 inches across! That reminds me. I bought a large Dahlia stamp a little while ago that I really ought to ink up and use!
Thanks for looking!

September Challenge at Stampalot

Good Morning! It's the first Sunday of September and time for a new challenge at Stampalot. Here is my card:

 This month we want you to take inspiration from this picture, and also to include some lace.

I used the colours and the roses, and a cameo stamp seemed to fit with the design. 

I created the background by stamping the flower (Hero Arts) with Versamark and then sponging distress inks in Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Bundled Sage. I made 3 roses using my retro flower punch and coloured those with Victorian Velvet, Dried Marigold and Antique Linen. 

The central panel was stamped (Waltzing Mouse) and embossed in green pearl embossing powder, and I added a few flat backed pearls as well. The cameo(waltzing mouse) was stamped in Versamagic tea leaves and attached with pinflair glue gel.

The lace was originally white but I added a bit of diluted tea dye distress stain and it began to look a bit more antique.
Now I hear you ask, what is the prize? Feast your eyes on this!

Such a lot of goodies!
Pop over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from my lovely teamies and then lets see your fantastic creations. Sorry, I went a bit mad there with the photos didn't I?!
I'm entering my card into the Heck of a Challenge first challenge where the theme is Anything Goes.
Thanks for looking!