London Square

The Squares in London a well known oases of green within the city.  We walked through a few as we went from place to place in London; so I took a photo of this one, not yet in leaf or flower as spring had been so late.

The papers are again by Pebbles, as are the embellishments and cut out cards.  The butterflies have been in my stash ages, I had stamped and cut them using a Richard Garay kit, I like the way they decorate the clusters.

Title letters are from the American Crafts sticker books, and little ones by Basic Grey. 

Gems completed the page and an Amy Tan fussy cut camera.

Friends House

The Society of Friends or Quakers run a cafe over the road fro Euston Station in London.

We decided to go there for breakfast during our visit; while there you could buy a meal for a homeless person by paying for a meal voucher (the reason we chose if for our breakfast).

The papers are old ones by Pebbles, I still like them though!  Embellishments were cut from lots of different papers, Paige Evans Take me Away, a Project Life card, and stickers from American Crafts books. 

A bit of washi tape, enamel dots and a Thickers title finished off the page.

A Double Layout

Kevin found a lovely place to have afternoon tea while we were in London. 

It houses a theatre some nights, but a cafe the rest.  I loved the higgledy-piggledy interior along with the food we had, so took many photos.

Most of the papers I used are by Paige Evans (Turn the Page) and I managed to get lots of stash onto the pages.

On the left hand page I included lots of pictures: a chair full of hand-knitted tea cosies; afternoon tea, the interior of the cafe and Kevin 'being mother'.

On the right page I used just one picture of the exterior, along with the title, journalling and lots of embellishments.  I cut lots of embellishments from the papers (stars, tea cups and birds) and scattered sequins and puffy stickers about.

Another page completed with the help of Shimelles' #clearthescrapdesk class.

A Day out in London

After being unwell for much of the Easter holiday, the 11th of April was one of the few days I was well enough to go out.  We took a trip on the train to London to show our son some of the highlights of the capital.

Another #clearthescrapdesk page, papers by Amy Tan and Teresa Collins, embellishments from American Crafts sticker books and Vicki Boutin die cuts.

The photo is of my son and his girlfriend in Trafalgar Square, they look so cute together.😉

Tiki Love Truck...

At the end of the long and warm summer Kev and I had a trip to London that regular readers may remember.  Although we were only in 'the smoke' for three days we wanted to make as much as possible from our time there, one of our destinations was the V&A.  Sadly there was only time for a quick look round, but we did manage to visit one of the temporary exhibitions about protest... suited me down to the ground really :)

Along with the anti-capitalism and trade union exhibits was one about the death penalty.

This truck had been decorated in dazzling orange, mosaics and painted images.  Right on the front was the 3D figure of a head and neck... it turned out that this was the death mask of a man who had been executed in the States.  He did show remorse for his crime, and agreed to be part of the anti- capital punishment installation to spread the message about how wrong the artist feels the death penalty is.

 I have been against capital punishment since watching the film 10 Rillington Place as a teenager.  If you haven't seen it, it's based on the true story of the serial killer Christie who carried out murders in the 1960s, Tragically, the husband of one of his victims was convicted of her murder instead of Christie (he was a witness at the trial) and was wrongly hanged. Richard Attenborough played the role of Christie, chillingly accurate. It's an old film now, but the message remains the same...

August Project Life.

August is always a busy month for us as we actually feel like we have lives when  we don't have to spend over 50 hours a week working. This summer was no exception as we completed our holiday in Dorset, and spent a few days in London with my brother.

All of this meant that it was a squeeze to fit in all the photos to the August Project Life. I solved the problem using Simple Stories photo flips allowing me to add lots of extras on an interactive layout.

Note to self: I need to get some more photo flips.

Poppies

I am sure that anyone who has been to London this summer or Autumn will have visited the Tower to see the poppies installation in remembrance of the lives lost during World War 1.

As the work of art grows day after day no-one could fail to be moved by the vast number of flowers, each ceramic bloom representing an empire life lost; over 880 000 in total will have been added by the time remembrance Sunday arrives.

Although it was packed with people around the Tower, I'm so glad we went along to see this astounding sight.