It's a Cow Thing 2016 digi July

What can I say about cows? I have really good early memories of visiting a dairy farm several times, patting calves ready to go to market, associating with near blind sheep dogs, and being around peppercorn trees and rotting stock yards of the 'old dairy' with new plonked right down next to it, the great hunt for cow pats to take home for the garden, and watching the old bulls (at great distance) in their separate holds. All the dairy cattle in my local area were black and white friesians. Each farmer had their own idea what was best to keep; one farmer had near black herd with very little white, another had 50-50 black/white, and another still had 'few spots' white cattle with a couple of black spots on their hides, and of course everyone else had a mixture.

I always considered cows a bit of a mystery in the farm animal world. They knew when it was time for milking, and some walked right up to the gate (and even into the dairy), but on other occasions they would stare blankly at an open gate and seem to prefer to push through a fence. They didn't come when they were called or you offered a sprig of green grass. Just like in one of my favourite childhood books Chocky by John Wyndham - cows just 'stopped' - not physically so much but just stopped thinking. Or perhaps we people just never found the connection language to converse with them as we did with other animals.

I still look in every paddock where there are dairy cattle, and long one day to be able to paint them. I took tonnes of photos last Christmas when Mum asked me what I really wanted to do that day, and I said I'd love to take some cow photos somewhere where they are close to the road (so no permission required to go on private land). Mum was suprised but took me straight to a herd she knew about and I clicked to my hearts content. It was a very mixed herd; Guernsey and Jersey as well as Friesian but I didn't mind.  I just find dairy cows beautiful in some way.

So when the 'country' theme came up with my all time favourite painting 'Spring Frost' by Gruner, I had to do a scrapbooking page featuring one of the photos I took at Christmas!

It's a Cow Thing 2016 July - ARTastic - digi layout

I channeled the colours from the inspiration painting to put this page together. Colours I wouldn't normally have put together on my own, but very effective as a page.

ARTastic July inspiration

ingredients:

DigiChick Kimeric Kollections Sisters - patterned papers no 16 (floral) 

Far Far Hills Freebies Kit Clock & Gears 001 

Tracy Reed Bad Sewing Machine 18 set 2 black

Cilenia Curtis CP8 Tab & Tags no 9 and no 12 | Talula Moon Designs Sunset - Staple Strip 002

 Aliya Because of You El6a (fluffy seed head)

Angie Young Get Craft Collage Sheet 36

 Rachael’s Antique & Vintage Buttons set 2 no 25

MSweet Boutique - Christmas Silhouette horse clip art no 16 

Laitha’s Designs Nocturn Whispers Elements e16 (straw thatch), e15 (branch circle)

Cilenia Curtis Fly With Me e-Frame1 (journaling frame), 4x6paper no 6

 Far Far Hills Freebies Kit Photo Frames 004

Far Far Hills Freebies Kit Light Wood with Grain 004

 Hand Stitched bees (mine)

 L Grier Disaster Space 1 - paintstrokes

Sparrow moment and Kraft+ #3 July 2016

I had a sparrow moment yesterday driving to work. We had had rain overnight/into the morning and a bit of foggy brrr start to the morning, but nothing like the last 2 weeks which have been very cold and frosty all day. I drove down the side street (which is an industrial area) and on my left was a car parked that had been there all night - because all the road was wet but under that car it was dry, and the car itself was beaded with dew and its windows fogged in. Well, underneath that car there were about 50 sparrows sitting there and using that darn car as a giant umbrella. As I drove by, one or two shuffled out and back in, but in general no one moved an inch! It was quite a sight.

I decided to try another new challenge site this month and challenge my brain in new ways. The idea of having to use a Kraft background hasn't really occurred for me since my early comp days a few years ago, when Kraft board was so popular I was buying it by the 50 sheet pack.

Actually it was challenging. http://kraftpluschallenges.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/july-challenge-kraftboard-3-sheet-music.html
But in the end I rather enjoyed it; I loved the photos of inspiration; particularly those blush colours in the bouquet and the soft greens in the cake, and trying to incorporate sheet music into the layout without overpowering it.

Serenity digi layout July 2016 Kraft+

will come back later and put ingredients in.

Face The Fear 2016 July - CSI 204 - digi

Oh, the pretty pretty pretty pretty colours of CSI's #204. Enough to drag anyone in - through barbed wire or brick wall. And the Testimony which lead me to the Face The Fears inspiration really helped me to stop and think of all the things I've achieved this year so far in working to break some of my life long fears. So that's what I based my page on; that and my favourite things like birds, flowers, using myself as a paper doll, flourishes (i so love them), paint splatters (my favourites!), and creating a very freehand looking page with digi medium. There's actually more photos here of mine than meets the eye - besides the photo of me, I took all those bird photos individually (and the one flower - the petunia).

CSI #204 Time To Face The Fears 2016 July digi

CSI 204 inspirational

Testimony: document about something you love alot (besides the birds and flowers and elements I really do love these things I've managed to do so far even though it was scary for me), Creativity Prompt : Face The Fears, Evidence : Evidence: damask pattern, polka dots, stripes, hearts, wings, birds, bird cage, metal, swirls/flourishes, borders ,frames, flowers.
Ingredients: will come back and put them in (I hope).

I also created this card using my digi page. I like
to make a card with each layout so when I
need a card I can whip one out much
quicker!