Monday 24 August 2015

To have and to hold...for 34 years

My Hb and I recently celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary and I decided that I wanted to make some pages in my art journal to remember our special day. We spent 25th July at Scotney Castle in Lamberhurst, Kent, owned by the National Trust. The sun shone and we enjoyed a wandering around the house and grounds and a had a lovely picnic too.

Here are a few photos from our special day. The main house was built between 1835-1843 and replaced the cold damp original Scotney Castle. It was lived in until 2006 when it was given to the National Trust who opened it to the public in 2007. I visited it that same year and since then there has been lots of gorgeous renovation both of the house and grounds.



A few of the inside rooms



It stands in beautiful grounds looking down to the original castle. This was built in 1378 and occupied for 450 years until the new house was built. The original castle was left as a folly and a very spectacular folly it is too.



We sat in the grounds of the old castle and admired the beautiful flora and fauna.
The tree above and the photo below were our views from a bench where we sat at 3pm, the exact time of our wedding in 1981



and this little fellow walked over to wish us a happy anniversary.

This is the view looking back towards the house.

We had such a lovely day there and I was inspired to make some new pages in my Art Journal.I wanted lots of floral texture so I added die cuts and book pages to start.
 I started to add green acrylics to represent all the gorgeous trees we saw
I also added some purples and pinks as these were the main colours in the gardens at the time of our visit.

I also stamped out my Tim Holtz flowers and watercoloured some of them with distress ink
So then it was time to put on my creative hat and make my journal pages.

Here they are. I am really loving adding doodles and Zenspirational dangles and ideas to my pages, inspired by the great Joanne Fink.
I decided to write some of the words, with a micron pen, of the marriage vows we made 34 years ago. Below are some close ups;

a close up of my "butterfly" tree with it's crackle and butterflies for leaves. These are an old MS punch.
and one last "arty" shot
I would like to enter my art journal pages into the following challenges;

Scrap around the world.  I was inspired by the lovely textures of the footprint and waves on the beach photo and used these colours on the tree and butterflies with lots of crackle texture. I used an arrow inspired by the sign post photo and my words are inspiration to me just like those of "explore, dream and discover". My journal pages are each 6"x 8" as required .

Artistic stamper anything goes

Anything but cute making magic again I was inspired by all the gorgeous textures in the photos.

Mixed  media world gorgeous textures

A vintage journey things with wings

Country View Crafts summertime

Dies R Us the great outdoors

Words to scrap by Book inspiration mine is The Good Earth

Vintage utfoldring add a butterfly

That craft place anything goes mixed media

Papertake weekly to die for, use a die I used several!

Memory box cool thoughts for warm days the fairytale border and flower are both Memory box dies

Vintage Uttfordring vintage with a butterfly

Pixie's Snippets playground week 191 This is a new challenge I have found and really looks great fun. I certainly used lots of die snippets in my pages.

Thanks for visiting today me here today. My Hb and I so enjoyed our anniversary. Now when I look at my pages in my journal I can relive that wonderful July day we shared.

We enjoyed at great day on the beach this Saturday with Daisy and Co.....such a sunny day but yesterday the rain returned so we were very lucky indeed. I have plans for some more art journal pages from the day....stay tuned ;0)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x




29 comments:

  1. Great photos Jane and I would love to transport the room and view in the third photo to my house. Super pages as well.

    B x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh what fabulous photos ... I wish I could walk those grounds myself! Thanks for sharing and CONGRATS on the anniversary! Your creation is fabulous! Thanks so much for playing in our ‘THE GREAT OUTDOORS’ challenge at Dies R Us! Please come back again soon!

    Darlene (DRU Blog Leader)
    DIES R US CHALLENGE BLOG
    DAR’S CRAFTY CREATIONS

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awe you old romantic you!!!! ;)
    What a beautiful place, I do love a mooch around historic buildings and Scotney Castle looks particularly lovely. Such a pretty moment too to remember it by, I do love those flower stamps!
    We have lovely sunshine today but we deserve it as it was horribly grim here yesterday, perhaps you'll get our sunshine tomorrow, I don't think we get to keep it!!
    Happy new week my dear,
    V x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing pictures and beautiful page, full of meaning! Thank you for playing along with us at SATW this month!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I totally enjoy your photos and art, Jane. This is not exception. Beautiful journal pages with lovely flowers. Thanks so much for joining us at Artistic stamper this month again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations on your anniversary, Jane! What a gorgeous place to spend the day, and such a special moment to remember it by.....I love all the flowers you added.
    Happy new week.....it is sunny here, hope it is with you too.
    Helen xox

    ReplyDelete
  7. this is absolutely beautiful jane and congratulations on your anniversary. - its hard to believe that 1981 is 34 years ago though - how did that happen??? Big hugs rachel x

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh how I would love to visit this castle and the grounds -- can you imagine living like this!!!! I love the United Kingdom and know in my heart I was meant to live somewhere in this historic country. I hope one day we can go back for a long visit. Your pictures are wonderful and so alluring,
    Your journal page is delicious and I shall endeavor to learn from you - Bravo!!!!
    Sandy xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a lovely place! Could be a castle on Masterpiece Theatre (maybe it has been).

    I love the flower stamp drawn with simple contour lines! The style really works well for this piece!

    Happy Anniversary! We celebrated 32 years last week---how time flies!
    Jane T

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Jane.. *H*A*P*P*Y* * *A*N*N*I*V*E*R*S*A*R*Y*!*!* I love the card you made to commemorate the day. We're back from camping and I put up a lot of photos today. I'm glad to be home for a change! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a beautiful place Scotney Castle is, Jane and a wonderful setting to spend your Anniversary! Hubby and I have always said we could see ourselves living in a place like this...maybe not on such a large scale but a nice, big pile in the country with beautiful gardens and plenty of land for all their 'boy stuff'!...better get that lottery ticket done then!
    Love your journal page to remember the moment - so full of texture and colour like the gardens in your photographs and your doodling and zentangle danglers are wonderful! Have a fabulous week! Hugs, Lisa x

    ReplyDelete
  12. Happy Anniversary, Jane! What a fabulous place, photos and art journal pages! I enjoyed reading your wonderful post! I love your art journaling and these pages are just beyond stunning! Fantastic make!
    Thank you so much again for joining in our 'Making Magic' challenge at Anything But Cute!
    Branka DT

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your page is a wonderful way to commemorate your anniversary and your doodles make it so much more personal. I love the addition of the butterflies too. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos of the day too.

    Thanks so much for joining in our challenge at A Vintage Journey. Anne x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Such a lovely blog! Beautiful and inspiring images!

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are beautiful pages Jane, I love your butterfly tree!. These pages are the perfect way to remember your anniversary. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Country View Crafts. Sue xx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hello dear Jane,
    Wonderful post and pictures!
    I love your AJ pages as well.
    How romantic of you to remember the exact time you exchanged your vows!
    Thank You~

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a lovely place to celebrate your anniversary Jane - thanks for sharing all of your wonderful photos! Your pages express a lot of the beauty you saw in the gardens - so lovely! thanks for joining us in the AVJ challenge - things with wings - Julia xx

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lovely pages Jane, thanks for joining in the fun at the Artistic Stamper

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hello Jane, and a huge welcome to the snippets playground! So lovely to see you joining us and with such beautiful Art Journalling too. Fabulous memories and also wonderful photos of your day at Scotney Castle. I loved this post and in fact have subsequently spent a good while reading back through your wonderful blog.

    As soon as I hopped over here I realised that over the years I've dropped in to peek, probably from your links to other challenges, as your fantastic header photo iof The Meeting Place is so iconic. Now following you back!!

    Hugs

    Di xx

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wonderful pages!! Especially I love the flowers! Thank you for playing along with us at Scrap Around The World.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Your pages are beautiful Jane. I'm going to read your step by step. Well Done on being one of Di's picks this week.

    Belated Anniversary Congratulations to you and your hubby. What a beautiful place to visit for your celebration. Great photos which I enjoyed looking at. Barbxx

    ReplyDelete
  22. This is stunning! I so love your gorgeous flowers! This was beautifully done! All the best from SATW! :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Great journal pages, love the colors, the lovely flowers and so many great details. Thank you for participating in Vintage challenge.
    hugs Monica

    ReplyDelete
  24. What an amazing NT property, and I love your pages celebrating the wonderful day there as well as your 34th anniversary - congratulations on that and on a wonderful summer garden page spread.
    Thanks so much for playing along at Country View Challenges.
    Alison xx

    ReplyDelete
  25. What a magical scene you created there!
    Thank you so very much for joining our challenge Making Magic at Anything But Cute!

    Samra DT
    Paper Talk with Samra

    ReplyDelete
  26. Firstly, Happy Anniversary!! :)
    Love the piece you created to memorise your special day! Brilliant way of creating textures using die cuts. Fab work! Thank you very much for sharing it with us at Mixed Media World! Ingrid x

    ReplyDelete
  27. Can't believe I nearly missed this post Jane and I'm so glad to catch up with it now. What amazing photographs and you have captured your inspiration in your journal pages perfectly after seeing the magical garden shots.
    Thanks for joining in the challenges at That Craft Place and A Vintage Journey. Good luck.
    Julie x

    ReplyDelete
  28. Such a gorgeous journal page, with brilliant texture and colour! Thank you for entering at Anything But Cute xx

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving a comment; I really enjoy reading every single one of them.

To comply with the new Data Protection legislation (GDPR) May 2018 I wish to state that any comments left here are with your consent that your name & comment are visible to anyone who visits my blog and that you accept that your personal information is being used for that specific purpose.

Jane x