Pear Leaf for Paper Players #704
25 August 2024
Happy Sunday.
It's my turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and it's sketch week. However, as Lou and I are cruising off the North Coast of Scotland and the internet connection is intermittent at best, the fabulous Stef has offered to run our challenge this week. So a huge shout out to Stef for doing this for me!
As the air is getting a little chiller (especially where we are!) I felt like creating a card with fall colors. It was the perfect time to bring out my Alexandra Renke Pear Leaf dies and showcase them.
Here's a sneak peek of my card:
And here is the sketch:
For my leaf I used shades of yellow and orange watercolors as well as some metallic gold watercolor paint for the splashes/drips. I combined it with dark grey card stock from Spellbinders and a background die from Pinkfresh Studio. The leaf dies come in two parts - one solid and one outline. I just think these leaves are gorgeous. Based on the shape of the die, I decided a square card would suit it best and I almost never create square cards! I added a tag from The Greetery set called Thinking of You and that was the finishing touch.
Here's my card:
I just love this dark grey, pale grey and gold/oranges together. I think the dark grey helps the leaf pop and also grounds the focal image. I hope you will play along with us, we would love to see what you create with this sketch. As always the design team have created some fabulous inspiration for you:
On a personal note:
Lou and I spent a couple of fabulous days in Edinburgh and the weather was mostly glorious. We had one day at sea and today we landed in Invergordon on the east coast of Scotland. Our tour today was to one of the places that holds a special place in my heart - Cawdor Castle. I mean. Seriously. Anyone who has studied Macbeth will be familiar with Cawdor Castle and the greeting from the second witch; "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!"
When we arrived at Cawdor it was drizzling and cloudy - just perfect for our arrival. I mean, it wouldn't have been quite the same if it was a bright sunny, blue sky day. Afterall, Macbeth is hardly a sunny day kind of play :-) I couldn't help but start with a photo of the drawbridge:
Cawdor Castle (really it's a fortified house) was originally built around a 15th century tower house and is so typical of the fortified houses/castles in Scotland. It sits amongst beautiful gardens and is still lived in (sort of) by the descendants of the original clan. As we moved through the house I was drawn to the views from the windows:
This is the view from one of the windows in the modern kitchen:
Gorgeous high windows, lots of bright light and nothing but beautiful greenery outside. Compare that to the window in the old kitchen - and there were only a couple of these!
A couple of things struck me about this window: 1) how deep the window well is! 2) how some stonemason had worked so hard to create a shape around it. The symmetry is beautiful and it makes the window a little work of art in a dark, dank, underground room.
Still on the subject of windows - except, in this case, it's really a doorway..... I was sitting in the garden just soaking up the atmosphere and the sun came out. The walled garden exploded with a plethora of color and gave off this fabulous light. It was especially noticeable against the dark wall that is shaded by very mature trees.
It reminded me of the time we visited Monet's garden years ago. I honestly can't tell you how much color and light came through that doorway.
The castle itself looked so different in the sunlight
Two last things about the castle. The fireplace was erected in the 1600s and pays homage to the two people who brought the clans of Caldor and Campbell together. It's a nice fireplace, and very reminiscent of its time. That isn't what attracted me. What struck me as really funny (especially as my bestie and I thought we were one of the few who could speak it well!) is that the inscription underneath is written in Pig Latin. Pig Latin.... in the 16th century! However, it has never been fully translated :-)
Lastly, I thought you dog lovers would appreciate this!
And on that note, Lou and I are off to visit Skara Brae and the Ring of Brogdar. I'll be back later in the week. In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.
Hugs
Jaydee