Jeudi Journal - It's Easter

Yes, we have gone past Palm Sunday and tomorrow it is Good Friday.  It seemed ages away just a week or so away but suddenly it is upon us.  Not doing anything, going anywhere,  Forecasted weather doesn't lend itself to any days out and the roads will be so busy.  Better curl up with a good book and a film eh?

Well, here is my blue and yellow page which turned out totally different to what was in my head.  I am finding it a bit more of a challenge to work in this square journal than in my big one.  

Wendy chose the colours and I decided to use my Distress Oxides - a good thing with this journal - the size for them is just perfect.  So here is Broken China, Salty Ocean, Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilized Amber.  Several layers, a bit of water spritzing and that's it.  My third colour is Green - or rather the blue and yellow made green so I left it at that.

Once again I chose to colour my birds in with Promarkers, not too happy when using them and want to blend one colour into the other, maybe I would be better off using my Watercolours.  Then again I could use my pencil crayons that are in my super duper new bright pink pencil case.  I really want to do more pencil work.

Right, off to see what Wendy has done this week.  Don't eat too many Easter Eggs and go light on the Hot Cross Buns!

WOYWW 460

Gosh, those numbers are creeping up - 460 weeks of doing WOYWW for Julia.  Bet she never thought all that time ago it would take off like it did.  But it did and is still going strong.  Can't wait for the next crop in Llandudno (check out the tab at the top of her page here).

Well, a mixed bag here in the north of England weather-wise.  One day sunny, one day dull and the forecast of snow now.  Perfect time for sitting in your craft room and getting something done.  Yes, but in my case it has been a "wardrobe sorting out session" which took days .. and was exhausting!  Not to worry, I have finally escaped into my craft room and despite it needing a spring clean itself I sat amidst all the mess and crafted.

As you can see from the photo above I am doing something with the 'Crazy Birds' again.  Just what will be revealed tomorrow.

Can you see my Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy (cleaning Cloth) at the back (green with a splodge of black ink on it)?  Well, I think this is great for cleaning stamps.  Goodbye to my baby wipes.  In fact yesterday when I reached for one for something else I found they had dried up - to be fair the bottom of a sachet anyhow.  Well my question is, does anyone know how to Clean the shammy?  They say to keep on using it and it doesn't matter but it does rather annoy me to see such a wealth of black ink.  Maybe I am a bit over fussy and I should just use it all covered in ink anyhow.

Well, it's over to Julia now for a bit of blog hopping.  Want to join me?  Grab a cuppa and come here.

Toodle pip!

Jeudi Journal

On my own this week but I couldn't let the day go by without a journal page.  I think this should be renamed "15 Minute Journal" as that is about how long it took me.  Mind you the background was already done, the Dylusion figure stamped - I have several backgrounds in my book and it is about time I used them.  This one was a particular favourite and I thought I could use it if I did something to do with India.  Why did it say India to me?

I used some very old PaperArtsy stamps for the India pieces and intended to put an arch around the lady on page 2 but could I find them - and I had them yesterday!!  So as you see just a little bit of stamping direct to the page (took some drying as well, Memento and Archival on Acrylic Paint) and one of the Dylusion figures.

The elephant is a very old stamp from one time at CHA.  It is one of a series of Native Spirit stamps and the body is made up of different animal drawings and shapes.  Not sure you can get a closeup of it.

I really think the quality of the scans is poor, the photo I took of the two pages together is more true to the colours.  Hope you take my word for it.

Well, that is it for another week, will have a look through at some existing pages and maybe start one for next Thursday.  Now what should I do?

WOYWW 459

Another Wednesday crept up on me as usual - quicker than I thought possible.  It's the morning for visiting Julia and her band of merry men bloggers here.  Pop along and see what it's all about and join in, what's holding you back - you can meet up with lots of like minded bloggers at 'The Crop in Llandudno' in September too.  See details on Julia's blog.

So what is on my desk today?  Well, yesterday you would have seen a desk like this

At last I have made a start on stamping on my small Distress Book similar to one I made with Sandra Botham at Art from the Heart.  These are my new Jane Davenport stamps which I brought back with me from America.  (Helen just pointed out that these are Dina Wakeley stamps - my Jane ones are dotted about in here but not shown - doh!)

Do you remember the skull pencil case from the other week?  Well it now has my Dylusion pens in, my Lamy pens and on the underneath side some black and some white pens, all ready for my journalling.  It also had the small book on the photo above as it was part of my "going away" craft kit but I decided not to take it in the end and left it at home this time.  

I am determined to get this one finished this week so watch this space.

Today, however, my desk looks like this

I have been making a birthday card for a friend and you can just see a bit of it peeking out from under one of the sets of stamps from PaperArtsy.  I used stamps from these two sets you see but what I didn't do is take a photograph of the finished card.  Oops!  Something I often do.  I left this photo until the end in case she happens to see her card on Bloglovin' before she receives it.  No need now is there?

Had some good news, in fact a lovely surprise Monday night.  My friend Mary, in America who we stay with and who is in hospital with a broken wrist and hip and those horrible blisters that she has had since November, well, last night she Facetimed me for the second time in a week (first time it was 2 am here which is why I neglected to mention it at the time).  It was wonderful to see and hear her as it has been awful being so far away and not getting daily bulletins.  Apparently the doctor is well satisfied with her progress and there is talk that she might be able to go home in a week or two.  Several people have offered to have her stay with them but she wants to go to her own home.  Can't blame her as she has been away far too long now.  I think she will have to have a suit made from bubble wrap to keep her from harm should she fall again.  Or they put her in a bubble of her own.

Well, will keep it to that, just had to share the good news.  Now hop on over to Julia's blog and see what everyone is up to.  Toodle pip!

ps did you know I was addicted to a certain fruit tea from Spain?  I bought lots in Tenerife to get me through to the next time I visit Spain.  I sat outside the supermarket in the sun opening boxes and putting more teabags into each box until they were 'full to busting'.  How many do you think I brought?  Teabags that is?  I'll tell you next week.

Journal - Sihouettes

Wendy wanted to do Silhouettes again so I am looking forward to seeing what she has done, it must be something special with her wanting the subject so soon after the last one.

This was the last of my scheduled posts because of my 'birthday mini vacation' so by this time I was feeling a bit 'stale' as to what to do.  I began with a white page to conform to the colour scheme of 'black and white' but after sitting looking at it for some time I left it and did a page in black.  Inspiration had struck.

Despite doing the two cats last week all I could think of was the page below and so I chose two smaller cats, drew around two that were already cut out but on black card and used them as my images.  Hope this is ok Dyan and I am not contravening any copyright rules.

Then I drew a huge circle around a plate, cut a few red hearts (third colour), stuck everything down and wrote what was going through my head - a song giving my age away.  Here it is - my Silhouette.

WOYWW 458

This week has gone far too quickly, one minute I am cold in my home town, then in the heat and sunshine of the Canaries and then back to what is promising to be a cold spell again coming up.  Must say, today has been spring like and quite a beautiful day here in the north.  Thank goodness we did not come back to snow.  I had to smile on the plane home as several people had travelled back in shorts and flip flops - good job for them it wasn't snowing.  Brrr!

Those of you on FaceBook will have seen some of my photos and I hope to upload several onto my blog but for the meantime I have to show you my desk.  Because I have been away my birthday presents did not get opened until this morning and there were one or two crafting items amongst them.  They are now awaiting me tidying up a bit and putting them away so here they are on my desk.  Not staged, honestly, well Chas put them on the desk this morning and I spread them out a bit for the photo so I guess it is staged.

Bottom left you can just see my 'skull scarf' which was with the skull die and stencil and the brown notebook from my friend Mo.  The other dies are from Chas who clocked them when I said I liked them at The Works.  Good buy - pop along - lots to choose from!  The skull with the dragon wrapped around it was from myself before we went away (not birthday); the pink pencil case holds 160 pencils and along with the tan leather pencil case and the Alice in Wonderland Postcards was from my friend Lorraine.  The large pink pencil case came direct from Amazon and was gift wrapped beautifully in that grey bag with lovely ribbon ties.  A gift in itself.

Well, that is it for this week, I hope to get time to post some 'Carnaval' pictures on my blog another day so do pop back and have a look.  In the meantime visit Julia here and see some wonderful desk hoppers.

ps thanks to so many of you who saw it was my birthday on Facebook, for the birthday wishes.  It was great to touch down with home when away.

Journal - Bunting

Another of my choices.  This time the theme was "Bunting" and we were to use Distress Inks in  Worn Lipstick and Broken China plus one other which I chose to be Fossilized Amber which is how we arrived at a green on the page.  I really did not know why I had put this as a theme, must have had some idea in my head when I chose it, but I wondered if Wendy would struggle with it also.

Yes, "Bunting" was easy (now where have I a stamp for bunting, or where did I put those printed Union Jack flags someone sent me many moons ago?) but what to do with it?

Eventually I thought of using two cats, tails intertwined for a love story type thing. 

The inks I used were Distress Oxides, blending and using some water on the background, three or four layers, some done DTP, some with the applicator.  The bunting was stamped direct to the page but the colours did not come up vibrant enough so I stamped some on white card, cut them out, coloured them and stuck them over the top but then when I painted the cat and the bunting I realised the end one was almost the same shade of green and spotted to boot!.  That is when the words were born - all I could think of - and in a wavy way of writing.

Hope you enjoyed my page and the Oxides.

WOYWW 457

Once again it is the weekly blog hop that has gone on ... whoah, wait for it ... for 457 weeks ... organised by the great and lovely Ms Julia here.  Join in, check out the "crop" at the top of her page and come and meet us, either virtually or in reality.

I hope this does not look like a "set up" desk - I have been sorting my Misti Bag out from weekend  (see yesterday's post for a review of new ink pads and other goodies) and putting some of the stamps back that I keep in there, namely my layering stamps.  Not got many but have been looking for some dies to go with them because I never got them at the time I bought the stamps.

I have managed to track down a goldfish (Hero Arts) die from the USA but so far have drawn a blank on the others.  I so wanted the Fresh Cut peonies and the Fresh Cut Roses dies but they seem to be old and not available. Similarly the one for the bird.  I did find a couple of bird dies, one looked as if it could be THE one but I couldn't be sure.  Ah well, back to the drawing board as they say.

You can see the fruits of my labour - ie I saw somewhere on the internet that someone put washi tape on her magnets so I am trying it - so far so good - it helps to pick them up - but they still migrate together!

I have an A4 Misti (given to me to demonstrate with by Oyster Stamps a year or so ago) and at the top you can see I now have a mini Misti - courtesy of Iliana, the inventor of the Misti.  When she realised (at Creativation) that I didn't have one she told me to come back at the end of the show and I could have a demo one.  Fine!  Works perfectly as they are so well made.  Love it - love them both and can dem with both of them at a show.

Bought myself a Misti bag at Christmas when I bought two others for friends as presents and I love mine.  Holds so much.  So apart from all of that and the stamps I am trying to locate dies for you can see my Altenew stamps and two sets from Stampin' Up.

Took both my Misti's to the show, on Sunday in Leigh, and my bag too.  The bag is so useful, I had my personal things in as well.  I was so messed up on my table, lots of products on display that I was using - and that was before I got there - I had lots to put out too so my cards just ended up in two piles (see yesterday's blog for pictures).  Enjoyed the show, busy and didn't get a break for lunch but that was my own fault, I could have taken one.  Just enjoying myself too much to bother eating.  BUT ... guess who I met?  Another person with a WOYWW badge.  Ok so I let it slip last week she would be there and what a lovely WOYWW'er she is.  Here is .... ta da da dee ... Heather1

So that is it for this week.  I hope to see as many of you as possible but if I miss some of you out I will play catch up when I come back from Tenerife (squeal).  Yes, am off for 4 days of sunshine, I hope, as part of my birthday celebrations - not a special birthday but following big hints that it is always cold when it is my birthday and we go off for a weekend.  Shame as I will miss Mother's Day as well this year (taking my card with me) but hopefully will have the two consecutive days resting, reading and in the sunshine.

"That's the way to do it Mr Punch" - see you later!

Worked at Leigh Show

On Sunday I was working again at the show in Leigh.  It is a  lovely little friendly show with a wide variety of regular vendors and I really enjoy myself.  

Oyster had sent me a huge package of goodies to try out and several of them were the iCraft brand from India.  Now the first thing I must say is that the stencils seem good and strong.  I really enjoyed playing with them at home.  I used them for both stencilling through with some of their brushes and with Gesso and Texture paste.  They withstood the techniques and cleaned up fine afterwards.  They are tag shaped and about the size of the larger tags - certainly larger (and stronger) than Sir Tim's.  

(sorry about the top line, the card must have moved on 

the glass scanner - more apologies at end)

I also used those little finger sponges to do the inking through the stencils and thought they were quite a bargain in their pack of 12.  I have some wooden shapes that they do and these seem awfully strong, not likely to disintegrate with the addition of water like some I have had in the past.  Hopefully I will get around to using them shortly and will blog it.  Also do some more stencils for my blog as I sent them off to the Unit at the end of the show.

There are lots of other products by this company on the website but these were being used by Margot and Martine who were both doing die-cutting and making flowers so I have no idea about those.

Another thing I had to play with work with were the Clare inks from Versafine.  I love them.  They are so rich and juicy.  Here are my findings on them:

• They are Pigment which dries within 30 seconds - embossable up to 5 minutes after stamping (WOW) - that will be good for multiple stamping (layer stamping)  Still to try.

• Love the packaging.  I like Versafine - know lots of stampers who do - but I think this is better than the old Versafine.

• Like the lid - fits really well.  They stack up well.  They do not click together but still seem good in stacking.  Prefer that they do not click together as you sometimes find those that do, when you take the lid off, the one below comes off when you don’t want it to.

• No more the bit of cloth to put over the pad as in the hinged lid Versafine of old.  That used to drive me scatty.  They are reputed to be air-tight and not likely to come off when travelling.  Will see.

• Fairly true to the colour on the lid.

• Rich and juicy - need only a light touch (tap) on stamps.

• Worked well with new red rubber stamps - no need to condition them, even the solid image ones.

• Good coverage of all stamps tried.

• Tried stamping a word three times - i.e. second AND THIRD generation - worked fine.  Gave variations in the colour and word was clear even on the third.

• Cleans up well - some tendency to stain the rubber just a little when only using a baby wipe to clean - not sure how many people are bothered by this but a toothbrush and water cleared it all.

• Nocturne gets a good review (black).  Hooray I can throw my old Versafine with the cloth over it away - drives me bonkers remembering to put it back.

• Can be used with watercolours and will not run. Tried them out with Promarkers (alcohol ink) and they worked fine - some slight bleeding on the face of the figure but everywhere else showed nothing.

One of the things I was demonstrating was Distress Oxides again.  I love them and despite Tracy wanting me to concentrate on something else I found myself switching between the two as there are still peeps out there who want to know about them.  I had a list of techniques written out on a sheet (or two) so they could have a swift look at what they could do.  I demonstrated several of the techniques but couldn't do everything.  Will put my techniques up another day when I have more time.  No need to review these inks - they are fabulous and my Distress page will tell you a bit about them.  Love the 12 newest colours!!!!  (Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, Evergreen Bough, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Shaded Lilac, Gathered Twigs and Hickory Smoke)  Now that makes 36 in total.  Yummy!

Oops, wonky - sorry

The other thing and main thing I was supposed to demonstrate were the Mermaid Markers.  These seemed to go really well.  They are a watercolour marker but with a brush tip rather than a bullet one.  Ideal, I found, for calligraphy as you can go from a narrow pointed end, flattening out as you go along, to a broad stroke.  In fact I saw that Kelly (Creates) has used them and she likes them - that is praise indeed for the markers.

I had done some samples using these where I had simply stamped an image and coloured it in with the Markers and then gone in with water and lifted some of the ink to give a lighter shade.  Hadn't seen anyone else doing that but then it is not exactly rocket science is it?

You can see the lighter parts, especially on the leaf

One thing I saw on You Tube was that someone (sorry, cannot remember who) had drawn lines of the markers (2 colours) down her craft sheet, spritzed with water and then dragged a piece of cardstock through.  Gave a lovely striped watery effect.  I am sure with a little more practice this technique can be improved on - thinking curved lines etc.  I did tend to stamp an image before I did the technique and I used the fairy silhouette stamps.  Because I used the Versafine Clare inks there was no running of the image and no need to emboss although a couple of my samples were embossed for effect.

Some samples on watercolour paper some on card

There are some Glitter pens and some Metallics.  The Glitter ones are so glittery!  Lovely to use and great for the technique above too although I have no samples and no Glitter pens either to do any with.  The glitter remained a little on my craft sheet and when I did the technique (despite wiping up) afterwards, there was a hint of glitter in my work.

Think that is all for now.  We were out yesterday and today we are having visitors so must get on with things.

APOLOGIES for the photos - Chas scanned them in for me but I never checked them - most are now with Oyster Stamps and so I cannot do anything so the white bits down the side - just ignore please - scanner (Chas) needs training.  And I need to check before sending them off.

Journal - Circles

Red and Orange - didn't want to use a third colour so I just outlined some of the tiny circles in black liner.  "Circles" for the theme.  Sounded fine when I thought of it but then putting it down on paper was a different thing.  

I knew I wanted to use the main stencil when I came to do the page and I looked up anything to do with 'circles' but couldn't settle on what to do to make it a page.  "Circles going around in my head" were all I could think of, the image says to me that she is holding her head because she is in a quandary or something but where to put her in relation to the main stencil?  Eventually she just went by the side.

No idea what the stencil is called, it is blue plastic if that gives you a clue, but the one above it is "Bubbles" from my Andy Skinner range.  I wish it had not been a strip one as it rather lent itself to a straight line which is what I wanted to avoid.  Guess I could have used bits of it to take away the hard edge but I just gave up and left it.  Might do that another day to soften it a bit.

Anyway, I was rather chuffed at my mixing the red and the orange together, especially as I hadn't anchored the stencil(s) down, just held them with my finger tip.

Cannot remember where the quote came from but I did get it off the internet.  So that is it for this week.  Will see what Wendy has done.