Castle Gazing

ETA: I picked the winner! Or rather random.org chose commentor No. 4. That's you Marina! Forwarding along the code now. Cheers!

I have 3 things to share today: a confession, a layout, a small giveaway.

Confession: I totally caved on my Product Free Summer challenge. I couldn't pass up the 20% off at Two Peas a few weeks back! I just couldn't. But I'm back on a spending freeze. Especially after the $1000 I just had to spend fixing my car (eeeek!!)

Layout: This page features a ton of that new product I ordered, lots from Basic Grey's new(er) Mint Julep line. I only got three things for this line: the 6x6 paper pad, the badges and the title sticker sheet. I feel like they'll get you pretty far. I like to get at least a few things from each line so that they'll coordinate with each other.

I picked this line for these photos because of all the blue in the Edinburgh photo. I loved the blue in that floral print. I also definitely wanted to use it for that "So very charming" sticker.

I made this as part of the Two Peas CHA [Four Nature Elements] Challenge. There's flowers, butterflies, birds and stars on this page.

It's also for the [Five Senses] Challenge. This page is all about the castle gazing I've been doing over the years. I hadn't realized it until this year, but every place I've visited in Europe the last few years, has included visits to local castles and palaces.

Week 1 of Hello Story was the starting point for this layout. It's a loose timeline and a series. I used those great Chic Tags for each, to include the date, the city and country and the castle.

I also added small white letter stickers to each photo, to include the place and date.

The rest is just fun details. Love those clear mint Heidi Swapp letters. Like love! The color and the texture are fabulous. Also love that they coordinated with the Mint Julep line so well.

And I had to throw in some gold for good measure. Everything these days, needs a dusting of gold. Glad I picked up the gold star paper clips as well.

So I made my confession and shared the layout. Now on to the giveaway.

Giveaway: This apparently is the summer of the classes. First Camp Scrap, then Hello Story and I also signed up for Toolbox at Studio Calico. They were running a promo and I get to give a friend the class for free. That's where all my bloggy friends come in. I thought I'd share the class with one of yall.

Just leave me a comment below, to share which of the 4 parts you're most interested in learning more about: digital elements, mixed media, stitching or mist. [ETA: Please leave an e-mail address if you don't have one linked in your profile!!]

For me, I'm sooo looking forward to Shana's digital tutorial. Her work has been so inspiring to me lately!

I'm only leaving this open until Tuesday, 30 July at 11:59pm EST. I'll announce and e-mail the winner as soon as I can on Wednesday, 31 July. Class starts Thursday, 1 August which is why this is such a short one. I want you to be able to be part of the whole class.

Off to Los Angeles tomorrow for work. It's my first visit and I'm so excited! I'll be updating as and when I can. Catch up with yall later!

cheers & besos,

Saturday in Edinburgh

Come back mojo, come back! 

I think I'm too tired to function properly right now. I haven't really had a chance to just relax this month. More than a day to just sit around, do nothing, read, nap. I think once I do that, it'll come back to me.

But I've been trying! I mad a quick simple page using a few of the Bright Ideas prompts. I love these things by the way. I just wish I had time & energy to play some more!

A few weeks back, I spent a lovely Saturday wandering around Edinburgh, Scotland. I loved walking the ancient streets and spent most of my day exploring.

This was my second visit to Scotland and it definitely went better than my first. For starters I didn't slip in a business meeting in front of a brand new contact. Nor was I too ill to get on a train. This time I got to see more than the inside of my hotel!

Which btw, if you're ever visiting Edinburgh and are looking for a good place to stay, I'd totally recommend Grassmarket Hotel. It's centrally located and very modern and cool. I enjoyed it. It's also steps around the corner from an awesome little coffee/sandwich/juice place, Hula. Which, I've just learned, was voted the best cafe in Edinburgh this year!

Once you've slept in a bed for a sleepy head (Grassmarket Hotel tag line), had a bevie at Hula and now fancy a walk. The Castle is right behind you, not even 6 minutes away on foot. 

As far as castles go, this one is more of a fortress. Not at all romantic and still a working military facility. But it was a nice thing to go and see and I'm glad I did it. 

Hands down, best value for money, is a City of the Dead nighttime ghost tour. Seriously, so creepy! They take you down into the underground tunnels, where the poorest of Edinburgh's poor lived up until the 1900's. They also take you in a graveyard, directly into one of the tombs! I was dully freaked out. 

But not only do they tell you about the history of the city and also creepy stories about how people died and such. What really makes it scary is when they share all of the encounters people taking the tour have had! 

Not even kidding, if you make it to Edinburgh, I completely recommend you take the tour. So worth it, so fun!

For this page, I used a really old sheet of House of Three (I think Pink Paislee) patterned paper for the background. Love the gray polka on white.

The Bright Ideas class came with some fun Silhouette cuts so I cut out a map of Scotland and used it as a mask. It didn't look complete until I outlined it with a thicker black pen.

Then to finish the page, I stamped with a few Kelly Purkey stamps, dropped some mist splatters and hand wrote my journaling. Viola!

Ok loves, it might be 8:00pm but I'm beat. Off to bed I go!

cheers & besos,