Magic Surrounds Us In The Garden (and a few more vacation photos: a short trip to the Alps)

Hello everyone, today is the start of a new Allsorts challenge and our theme is Anything Goes from the Garden. Or the option of Anything Goes. We have prizes from Oakwood Direct and AALL and Create. 

I'm also sharing some more vacation pictures at the end of the post for those interested, or simply scroll down to the commens if you like to leave one :)

I decided to make a scene from the garden. While my constant companion Thomas is no longer following me around and supervising my garden work in physical form, my gorgeous cat Fussy took over some of his duties part time and many evenings she is by my side as I water the plants. There are also some 4-legged feline visitors from the neighborhood, some snacking on the cat mint, others just passing through or to do their "business" LOL.  So this is definitely a scene from the garden. 

I used stamps from Lavinia to make this card.. I feel like they've been neglected a bit so it was time to reach for them. The sky was done with Distress inks/Oxides (Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire). I flicked some water droplets onto the card for a starry sky or tiny "orbs" (as the sentiment suggests). For the bottom portion I used Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress inks/Oxides. 

All stamps are from Lavinia - Star Blossom, Magic Surrounds Us and Witches Cat (this one appears to be only available in digi form now?? It was one of my very first Lavinia stamps purchased so possibly has been retired as a clear stamp). Flowers and the cat were stamped with Versafine Onyx ink, words with Versafine Clair Very Peri. 

The card fits these challenges:

• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Farm or Country (a country garden)
• Heart's Quest Lovable Quotables Challenges Blog - Quotes (mine is by Tracey - owner of Lavinia Stamps)
• If You Give a Crafter a Cookie - Outdoor Garden Theme
• Paper Rock Scissors - Papers and/or Scissors (all layers are paper - no scissors used this time)
• The Paper Funday - AG

I want to share a few more photos from my vacation back in April. We visited extended family in the North-Western part of Austria for a couple of days and they showed us around the area where they recently moved to. Just about 2 weeks before we arrived it had snowed so it was still in the early days of spring here, luckily most snow in the valley was gone.

I don't share photos of my family because it is their wish but my dad probably won't mind :)

One of King Ludwig II. of Bavaria palaces was closeby (in the German Alps) so we stopped for a walk on the palace grounds. We have been here before many years ago when we also toured the inside so we skipped the tour this time. This is Schloss Linderhof.

And one last stop at Ettal Abbey (also in the German Alps) which was located in the village of Ettal along the way. I highly recommend a stop if you are closeby as it is absolutely beautiful. 

 This organ took my breath away!

I do have one more set of photos I plan to share ... hopefully soon!

If you'd like to see what else I've posted from this trip so far, you can see them in these posts:

• Milan
• Varenna on Lake Como
• Verona

Thanks so much for visiting and hope you're having a wonderful weekend!