Tuesday 28 August 2007

Button It - I'm back and blogging!

Well it's so long since I last blogged, but never mind. I'm back now with an entry for the latest Daring Card Makers challenge - Pushing Your Buttons!

Hi its Keryn here and it's my turn to set the dare this week. But before I do that thanks so much for the fabulous cards you've made for Jo's Frilly Dare and the Dots and Dashes little extra. We really enjoy looking at your cards.

I know you've all got buttons stashed away somewhere, whether they've been purchased at a cardmaking store or you thriftily snipped them off DH's old shirt. I'd like you to find those buttons and use them somewhere on a card. They can be real buttons, craft shop buttons, die cut buttons, faux buttons or another type of button, surprise us all.

Well it was my birthday last week and I had a little birthday get together the weekend before in the Lake District which included a trip to Go Ape in the Grizedale Forest. I wanted to make thank you cards for some friends who not only made the trip up to the lakes but also faced their fears on the Go Ape course (more of that later). So here's what I came up with, including Apes and Buttons :-)



I think the first one is my favourite which includes a 'faux' cargo net made from a piece of hessian jute. That card is destined for a friend who like me, found the cargo nets at Go Ape particularly challenging - they used to make it look so easy on the Krypton Factor (80's Granada TV show).

All cards are made using Basic Grey pashmina and poplin papers, brown parcel wrapping paper, and mini buttons and Prima flowers from Crafts by Carolyn. The monkeys are Cuttlebug - he is v.cute!
Now on to the reason for the Thank You cards - my birthday weekend in the lakes and the fantastic Go Ape course in the Grizedale Forest.

So Friday afternoon we (me and OH) headed off to the a fabulous campsite in the Grizedale forest:
Tent up, kettle on, it was all going so well (apart from me not holding the camera straight!) Later in the day we were joined by a couple of friends. We had a fab evening round the campfire, eating chilli; toasting marshmallows; drinking wine and beer, usual campsite stuff. Then, just before 9pm it started............................THE RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so we reloacted inside the tent for more drinks :)

On Saturday another friend joined us, and probably wished he hadn't as it was still raining, in fact it didn't stop until 9 am Sunday! (Saturday night we took the easy option and went to the pub).

Sunday morning when it finally stopped raining we headed off to the Grizedale visitor centre to meet up with my sister and a couple more friends, who had travelled up for the weekend's main event - Go Ape!
After a very comprehensive safety briefing from the Go Ape staff, we set off on our 3.5 hour adventure through the tree-tops of the Grizedale Forest. Here's some of the pics. (They don't show up that well small but you will get the general idea - ie it was HIGH, SCARY, and FANTASTIC FUN.

Part of the course:

This is me on the first big zip line. It's fantastic flying through the forest between the trees.





















Me again on one of the cargo nets. This one was quite near the end of the course and I thought my arms were going to drop off by this point!








The little black blob you can see in the centre of the picture is my sister on the 'Tarzan Swing'. You had to attach yourself the swing and then

leap from the platform to the right of the picture. It then catapults you into yet another cargo net on the other side, which you have to climb to get to the next part of the course! All of this about 40ft off the floor (There are loads of videos on YouTube which people have made of this part of the course as it is very funny).








Well that's all for now.

TFL

Ruthiex