Traveler's Inspiration Challenge: {three}

Well, its that time of the week again, time for Tina's Traveler's Inspiration Challenge. This week, the beautiful inspiration photo is supplied by Amy, at Tethered 2 Home:


I have been looking forward to Friday night all week, and not just because it is the start of the weekend! Tina's challenge comes online on our Friday night, and it is the perfect wind-down from a long week. I get to sit down, and think about what I am going to do, and then get up early on Saturday morning and have a play with my craft goodies. What a perfect start to the weekend!

So last night I made a sketch, and this morning I put together this 12 x 12 scrapbook page:


List of Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted, stamped images © Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Brilliant Blue textured cardstock, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow and Summer Sun smooth cardstock
Ink: Real Red and Yoyo Yellow Classic ink
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Accessories: Hoppy Memories Simply Scrappin' kit, Petals & Paisleys DSP, Jersey Shore DSP, On Board Timeless Type, White Gesso by Plaid, stipple brush, yellow embroidery thread by DMC, yellow button by Bazzill Basics Paper, 3/4" circle punch, scallop edge punch, crimper, mini glue dots, SNAIL adhesive and sticky strip.

I am very happy with the way this page turned out. I was scribbling away last night and my husband says to me...'are you making a list of things to buy?'. I laughed and showed him the sketch...the relief on his face was obvious!

I painted the chipboard letters with white gesso, then added the Yoyo Yellow classic ink with the stipple brush. I dried the letters off using the heat tool. Also, there are red boats stamped all over the red strip on the left hand side of the page...some have been stamped off, and don't show up well in the photo.

This was the first time we took our little 6m trailer sailer out on Lake Burley Griffin, and we had the dinghy attached. The kids loved every minute of this day. We went swimming, riding in the dinghy, had lunch, bought ice creams at the National Museum of Australia (which has a jetty where we were able to tie up) and generally had fun. The dinghy got stolen from the lake shore one night not so long after this photo was taken, which is a bit of a shame...but we still have the sail boat and we use an inflatable dinghy now instead.

Thanks so much for the inspiration Amy and Tina. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Traveler's Inspiration Challenge: {two}

WOW...this week's Traveler's Inspiration Challenge photo was like a blast from the past for me!

This is the beautiful inspiration photo:


...and it is from Anthonette at Chavez Designs.

...and this is the blast from the past that it evoked for me...


This photo is taken in Bolivia at the Bolivian/Chilean Border post near Laguna Blanca, in the Andes. In June 1998 we spent a day at this far-flung, altitudinous outpost (5000 m), as part of our travels in South America and Antarctica. The locals gave me Coca leaf tea to help alleviate the altitude sickness I experienced up here...but it didn't do much for me (apparently Coca leaves contain an alkaloid which is the basis for Cocaine [Wikipedia]...so no wonder it didn't do any good!!!!!!!). One of the volcanos in the background of my shot is Licancabur (5921 m). No, we didn't climb it, but two french guys on our tour did!

I have a bunch of other pics I'd like to put in here...we saw flamingos, llamas, guanaco and geysers, and the landscape of the Bolivian altiplano is awe inspiring, but lucky for you they are all slides (as was the one above), and we haven't scanned them in yet (maybe later ;-)...besides which, this post is about Anthonette's pic..not mine...sorry for the sidetracking!

Here is the card that Anthonette's photo inspired me to create:


The Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Sahara Sand and Ballet Blue plain cardstock, Whisper White textured cardstock
Accessories: Cuttlebug folders, Linen Thread, On Board Accents (retired), A Perfect Day rub-ons (retired), Sahara Sand Classic ink, sponge dauber, SNAIL adhesive and dimensionals.

I hope you can see where I have tried to recreate the texture and feel of the desert sand, and then the mud buildings...same colours, different textures, and the white to help delineate. This card was a lot of fun to make!

Thank you Tina and Anthonette. This has been a great way to start my day.

PS. Like my new watermark? I got it from Karen Giron....I might even have to get some more. They are soooo cute!.

PPS. We've been having some fun this afternoon, and scanning in our negatives...so here are a few more shots from Bolivia:


Me, outside our 'motel' room...with the world's worst headache.



The toilet (baño)..which is a very elaborate building housing a unisex hole in the ground (aka toilet)...which, being at 5000 m altitude, was frozen solid..ICK!



Laguna Blanca, complete with Flamencos (the small dots of fluff in the lake).



Bathing in a thermal pool...blissful!



Bogged in the magnificent Salar de Uyuni. The guy on the outside is a fellow traveller from Norway named André...André if you ever read this blog...HELLO! The large foot that you can see extending past the others at the back belongs to my hubby...I think he almost fell flat on his face trying to push this 4WD out of the salar bog.



This shot taken from the Isla de Pescado, looking out over the Salar de Uyuni. MUY MAGNIFICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Just me and the Salar!



The salt hotel...you can actually stay here. The whole place is made up of blocks of salt, cut from the salar...GROOVY, but not so good for the skin ;-).

One of the things I remember best about this trip is the sky...such an awesome shade of blue, and the landscape...such stark contrasts and extremely beautiful. Bolivia is an amazing country and I'd go back there in a jiffy!

Traveler's Inspiration Challenge:{one}

One of my favourite bloggers, Tina of Travelingmama has started her own creative challenge...the Traveler's Inspiration Challenge.

First, I want to say a huge thanks to Tina because I think this is a fabulous idea. I love looking through my photos of trips abroad....it is one of the reasons I've been posting those clips from allposters...I like looking up places that I have been and seeing how other people have captured their beauty/mystery/allure.

The first challenge photo is a stunning combination of colour and design...not to mention the texture of the bling!


I found it very inspiring, and as I first saw it while sitting up in bed on a Sunday morning...I immediately thought of slipping my feet into a pair of those dainty little slippers and frolicking around the house (luckily I don't have any, so the neighbours were spared that spectacle...but you, on the other hand...now have the visual firmly planted in your head...don't you? Sorry ;-).

I did eventually leap out of bed, and went hunting through my beads, microbeads, glitters, bling and In Colours...they ALL wanted to play. In the end I limited myself to glitters...but I did use LOTS ;-).





List of Ingredients (all available from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss plain cardstock and Whisper White textured cardstock
Paper: Bella Rose Designer Series paper
Accessories: Bright Delights rub-ons, Sweet sticky cuts, Fine Supernova Stampin' Glitter, Fine Cosmo Stampin' Glitter, SNAIL adhesive and dimensionals.

I must say that I good part of today's renewed Craftin' enthusiasm comes from having attended a fun workshop last night (thanks Kim!)...but more on that later ;-).

Have a wonderful day, wherever you may be in the world!

Sam.

PS. I have been meaning to say a very big thank you to everyone who left such lovely commments on my last two posts. You are all very sweet!!!

PPS. I have also been meaning to explain the lack of watermark and photoshopping of many of my more recent images...as you may remember, my laptop expired some time ago, and now I am using my husband's. He does not have Photoshop on here, and I do not have easy access to most of my files anyway (like watermarks etc). Its getting old real quick...but what can a girl do? PLEAD for mercy, BEG forgiveness and GROVEL for a replacement powerboard? It won't be happening any time soon I'm afraid :-(.