A New Challenge

Lisa (Crafty Fairy) has launched a new challenge over on her blog.

Welcome to Shape of the Week Sunday!

I decided to set a Die Cutting based challenge on my blog every week, as there does not seem to be many die cutting challenges about so i thought this may inspire people!!

So my challenge to you is to make a card using a die of a scalloped circle - there are tons out there and i think it is a popular die!!

This challenge gave me the kick up the bum I need on Bank Holiday Monday to make my Mum's birthday card:

Ingredients:  Scalloped circle dies (large one is Nestabilities and small  one under the button is a Cuttlebug die), October Afternoon papers, Cuttlebug butterfly die, home-made journalling spot (made in Photoshop), Cuttlebug letters dies, mini bulldog clip from Paperchase, button from stash, pen stitching.

After I finished the card on Monday we headed out to Morecambe for a walk along the prom and to make most of the unusually nice weather.  It was also a good opportunity for me to practice my photography. Here's a shot I took when we walked down the Stone Jetty looking back towards the Midland Hotel:

Of course a trip to Morecambe wouldn't be complete for me without my favourite ice-cream treat, a Snowball Topper.  Although this has featured on my blog before I still had to take a photo of the 2010 version!

While I was queueing for my ice cream I managed to get another shot of the fabulously retro Sunset Ices ice-cream van:

(The composition isn't brilliant on this one, but I was limited as I was in the queue!)

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

The Snowball Topper

Well we made the most of the unusual bank-holiday sunshine yesterday and headed out to Morecambe for some sea air. The weather was lovely so we had a walk along the prom and one of the famous 'Snowball Toppers' courtesy of Kate at Sunset Ices and her lovely Bedford CF ice cream van.

I first read about the snowball topper (a Tunnock's snowball added to ice cream) on the fantastic I Like blog and having recently overcome a fear of dessicated coconut I knew it was time to try one!

Here's mine shortly before I demolished it:

I can confirm that a Tunnock's Snowball does make an excellent addition to an ice cream!

It was nice to see Morecambe busy with people enjoying the sunshine. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come.

While we were there we took the opportunity to visit the Winter Gardens. The theatre closed in 1977 and is now maintained by a charitable trust whose long term goal is to reopen it for public use.

We had a walk round the foyer and the main part of the auditorium. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photographs inside but trust me it is stunning. (There are some pics on the Winter Garden's website.) Mr Crafty Blogger and I have agreed we need to go back and take the full guided tour which is run to raise money towards the renovations.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Today's blog post is brought to you...................

............. by the letters I, O, E and Y


I'm catching up with the final few letters on SuzyB's challenges over on HerSpace:MySpace.


First is 'I'


This is another shot taken on my birthday trip to Morecambe. It's the magpie hopscotch game on the stone jetty. I was hoping 'I' would be one of the letters Suzy picked when I saw the shot. I've tweaked it a bit in photoshop Kirsty Wiseman stylie using one of the tutorials from her Zyuz It Up Elements pack (buy it here).

Next is 'O'

I took this shot this morning, after I decided I didn't really like my original 'O' shot.

Now 'E'


I really struggled with this one. In the end I opted for a shot of the corner of a photo frame which has our wedding picture in it. I'm not really sure how obvious the 'E' is though.

And finally 'Y'

The stem of one of my orchids obliged for this one:

I'm off now to try and find someone or something for SPS. But finally in honour of the post title, a little pic not taken by me.

Cheers

Ruthie x