Sunday, June 1, 2014

Scrambling and a Trip to Glendalough with Linda

Over at the Hero Arts Group yesterday Jayne hosted a 90 minute scramble. I just loved her scramble theme - use one or more white flowers, use a script or cursive sentiment and also use a gorgeous photo, of what looked like old tiles, for inspiration.

As usual I was all over the place during the scramble, I started off with one idea, didn't like it and scrapped it after 20 minutes. So I started all over again with 70 minutes to go and this is the card I made.

Jayne's Scramble

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Petal Background & Messages with Flourish

I started by making a card base and embossing the sentiment. Because I was rushing I didn't emboss it perfectly but thanks to a great tip from Donna, I added some white gel pen to the patchy places. Then I stamped portions of the background stamp four times and cut out the images to make a layered flower. To finish I added a dollop of glossy accents to the flower centre and threw on some beads. As the tiles in Jayne's inspiration photo had a distressed look about them, I did some distressing around the edges of the card.

Well now on to the next part of my post for today. Recently my friend Linda came over from the US to visit. I first got to know Linda in 2009 through the Hero Arts group on Flickr. I know a lot of good friendships have been made all around the world thanks to that group. Linda was a big fan of ScrapFest and I thought that sometime I'd go there and get to meet Linda and other friends from the group. But unfortunately ScrapFest is no more, so instead of meeting Linda in the US we got to meet here in Ireland. It was brilliant finally getting to meet Linda. Well I have to say when we met at Dublin Airport, I felt like I was meeting an old friend and we had plenty of time over the next week to chat away to our hearts content. Poor Linda must have been jet lagged but kept going the whole day and we even did a scramble together that evening. It was great fun scrambling side by side with Linda. Lol my scramble card is so awful I won't be posting it here but Linda made an adorable card which you'll find here. Linda completed her scramble card in no time, in fact I was still inking a background and she was done!

So after a sleep, we thought we stay fairly local the next day and headed off to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains National Park and Russborough House. Unfortunately, after an absolutely glorious, warm, sunny day the previous day, the weather let us down a bit and there were drizzly showers every so often during the day. Now I'll stop rambling on and show some photos. Just an advance warning - I love taking photos when I'm out and about so this is a bit of a photo heavy post!

Glendalough Round Tower in the distance


Linda at the monastic settlement in Glendalough


A deer Linda spotted as we were walking along the boardwalk to the Upper Lake. The deer are usually in the more remote parts of the National Park so we were lucky to see this one.


Linda at the Upper Lake in Glendalough


Poulanass Waterfall


We came across this sculpture in the sensory garden that has the same uncontrollable hair as I do!


Lots of wildflowers were in full bloom including the Greater Stitchwort. It was thanks to the Park's lovely wildflower guide that I was able to find out the name of this pretty flower!


If you'd like to see different views of Glendalough on sunnier days, you'll find more in my posts here and here. I can't believe I didn't take any photos of Russborough House, but I've been there so many times and must have loads photos of the place stored somewhere (!) on my pc. Anyway if you'd like to see photos of this stately home built in the 1740s you'll find them on this website.

I think I've shown so many photos today that I'll leave it till another day to show more photos from a trip Linda and I did around the country. Hope you're having a lovely weekend:)

8 comments:

Lin said...

Wonderful pictures of your beautiful country, Heather! Looking forward to more! It's such a special thing to get to meet someone, especially when we're so far separated normally, so pleased for the 2 of you!

Cindy C. said...

You did a fabulous job on that card with just 70 minutes Heather!! It's gorgeous!!
And thanks for sharing the wonderful photos of Linda's visit!! I love looking at all the lovely sceneries!!

Barb said...

I am so happy you and Linda were able to finally meet each other, Heather! What a treat for both of you! I told Linda it was destiny and bound to happen someday. You just can't keep two good friends away from each other for very long! Love the photos and looking forward to more!

Oh! And your scramble card was my fave of the challenge - so gorgeous!

Cat Craig said...

I love that you used a background stamp to build your beautiful flower for the scramble. It came together fantastically well. Loved your pictures as well, and how lovely that you got to meet up with your longtime blog/web friend.

Dawn T said...

Your scramble card is just delightful. I am so happy you got to meet with Linda. It really is very special to see your Flick friends face to face. I know what you mean about feeling like old friends when you meet. I had the same when I meet with Paula from Australia. Looks like you and Linda had a ball together.

Trinh said...

Fabulous card, Heather! It's so striking; love how the flower looks uncolored. So happy (& a tad jealous) that you and Linda got to spend a week together! Can't wait to see more of your pics.

Jutta said...

Thanks for your visit to my blog Heather!
You live in a very beautiful area.
Lovely scramble card, I really like that you shared the madness surrounding your start as I had been thinking that only happens to me.
Have a nice day!

Linda W. (ScrappinBari) said...

Great post, Heather - sorry I couldn't comment before! Ugh, it has been hard getting back into the swing of things in MN!! I think I was on Ireland time for about a week after returning. Loved reading your take on the Glendalough/Wicklow Mtn day. In my post I think I forgot about Russborough House altogether! Well, this weekend we watched my video - oh my, I filmed at Russborough and forgot the camera was on as we walked from the stable area to that walled garden. The camera was jiggling away and I got shots of my feet and the grass, bottom of a wall - LOL. My family had a good laugh too! Anyway, it was such a great trip, thanks to you. Loved your gorgeous Scramble card too (definitely won't say cute); I was sad to miss this one.

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