Jeudi Journal

Another week has flown by - this time Wendy and her husband Peter have been spending a few days with us.  That meant that this journal entry had to be done quickly and I so regretted the choice of "Face".  It is ages since I painted any faces, and I found it so difficult to remember what to do with regards to getting the various features on.  I can remember how to draw a face and where the eyes, nose and mouth go but it is the colouring.  Never was a strong point but a year on .....

Anyway, here is my Face with its background of cerise and turquoise.  A task in itself - this is the third background I did for it - the first was horrendous and sadly I cannot tear the page out of the book the second not much better but at least it can be covered in black paint.  It was one of those times when everything goes wrong.

I eventually put the cerise paint on with a baby wipe so that it was not 'too much in your face'.  Then I used the turquoise paint with my favourite "Diamonds in the Rough" stencil in patches here and there.  A bit of white pen work here and there and some circles stamped in gold paint with lines over some of them, then a few black larger circles completed the background for me.

The face was done with green gold eyes and magenta lips.  I first began the turban with a dark blue but it didn't seem to come right so it had a covering of pale blue put over, still not right so a light coat of green turquoise as opposed to the blue turquoise in the background.  That felt better.  The ties at the side did not seem to be large enough so I cut the whole face out and then added some more ties behind with another piece of paper.  You can probably see some touches of green in the turban - just because I felt like it - I thought they rather 'added' to the overall look of fabric.

Today would have been my dad's birthday, wonder what he would have thought of my face painting. I am sure he would have loved it, anything I  did was always 'top notch' in his eyes.  I was a real Daddy's Girl.  (Mum too would have loved it - I was blessed with those two)

Now to see how Wendy got on because she would be as rushed as me.

WOYWW 482

Here we are again.  Another Wednesday, another quick run around the country/world to see what friends are posting on their desks.  Why don't you join in with the big blog hop that occurs each week, and has done for almost NINE years.  Not know what I am on about - see this link and you will soon be visiting desks from all over, and think about joining in with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Had friends over for the weekend, cannot believe it is almost two years since we have seen one another.  Well, having visitors certainly reveals things.  Apparently I have an old friend who comes on here and reads my blog but doesn't comment so I didn't know until weekend that she does. I do hope if she is reading this that she comments along with the WOYWW'ers, it would be lovely to hear from her.  The last time we met was a good few years ago when a group of us went away.

So here is my desk for another week.  Not much going on again but then, despite being crafters, my visitor and I didn't get a project done.  I did, however, carry on putting some quotes in this book, which is a gift for another friend, last night.

So that is it for another week.  Going to have to be a flurry of activity this week making atc's for the Crop.  Ooh, excited or what?  And I am so looking forward to seeing an old friend from overseas there who I never dared dream I would see again.  Think I am going to have to pinch myself next week.

Jeudi Journal

Cream and Sepia for the colours - and 'Vintage' as the theme!  Who thought this one up (me?) and who chose those two colours (me?).  Sounds fine when able to work with anything but working with Dyan's figures puts it into a different category altogether.  All I could think was oval picture frames, pearls and lace.  Everything I used to love when making cards - but this journal thingy - Phooey!  Then!  The lightbulb went on once again and I had an idea formulating - am sure I have a wine glass somewhere - I could sit someone in it, de dah, de dah, de dum.  

Cannot find my lounging ladies, am sure I have some but where are they - perhaps my friend has them.  Thinking cap back on ... ah ha ha, ha ha.  One wine bottle later, one wine glass (my lovely friends Kay and Amanda - Honey Doo Crafts) and I was half way there.  One of Dyan's figures with the 50's style dress - oh and a guy too, both headless?  I know which head I can use for her but the guy?  A magazine revealed the correct size and I was well on my way.

A quick slap on of cream paint, some Sepia courtesy of Archival Ink and a border from Dyan and we were ready for assembly.

Tried the words in Sepia but I preferred them in Black like I always do and ta da ... here is my page

Now to get thinking about next week

WOYWW 481

Another Wednesday - coming round faster than Mr Whippy.  

Well, last night as I was going to bed I saw a GI-NORMOUS Spider in the doorway of the bedroom.  Shouting to my other half not to move I went for the Spider Catcher and caught the 'Beep Beeper'.  He just about fit in the square thingy - he was a whopper.  Letting him loose outside the OH shouted me to come and look, fearing the worse I hesitated until he convinced me it was nothing nasty and there, outside on the block paving was

Not had a hedgie visit us in years so this was a lovely surprise.  Mind you the little fella was a bit scared although I talked to him ever so gentle and apologised as I had no cat food to give to him.  Just hope he does not make it through the gate and get run over - much better he goes through the side gate and into our big back garden.

But, you are here to see my desk so here it is

busy trying to create a background for my Journal for tomorrow's challenge with Wendy - not much success as this is the second one I have done.  Incidentally the face was done (you might see the date) April 2017 so nothing to do with anything going on at the moment.  This background is going to be covered in black paint I can assure you.

Another part of my desk just shows my nappy box full of Deco Art paints and my big pencil crayon box.  I had to spread around the corner this week with my journal messing about.

Did I say I would show you my ATC coins last week?  Well, I was most disappointed with them, I just cannot seem to get the hang of doing them in the round.  Can't say it is because I don't like working smaller than the usual atc as I have done dominoes and tea-bags and the such like so not a clue what it is but I am not a happy bunny.  Anyway, I promised so here they are

Will leave it there for this week.  Why not pop along to see Ms Julia and her band of Deskers, join in please, would be lovely to see some different desks and there is always the promise of the crop which is just around the corner.  So exciting to be meeting up again with crafty friends we don't see that often.

Toodle Pip!

Jeudi Journal

Almost forgot to post this one.  Suddenly realised I hadn't written it up, the pages were finished and I had enjoyed doing them but I simply had not scanned it or even thought about the write up.  So this is being done hastily this morning.

The theme was "Monsters" and the colours Cerise and Purple.  A last minute change in colour because I realised we had too many blue pages and no purples at all.

I had an idea to use some new monsters that my friend Paul had done for his Etsy shop but could I find them - NO!  So I had to use the Dylusion ones, which I love anyway.  Then thinking about what to do the light bulb went on suddenly and I remembered the figures Paul had done for his shop originally.  I had several of them cut out, coloured and ready for me to use.  Suddenly a double page spread evolved.  I loved it, so enjoyed using those characters of Paul's and mixing them with the Dylusion ones.  But what of the background?  How do I mix the two colours which are pretty similar.

I decided to do one page purple and one cerise and I made a darned good job of the division between the two - by using my ruler to paint up to.  No masking tape involved.  Then I used a circle stencil (Finnabair) with the same colours on top to create the relief on the background - the circles are to represent the disco lighting.  I used a black pen to make a strip (or stripe) between the two and then did a similar border all the way around.

(Apologies for the photo - and 

I missed the border from the left hand side)

All in all I really enjoyed this piece (thanks Paul for the lovely figures I had to work with) but I am not looking forward to the next two weeks - my head won't think of anything for next week at all.

WOYWW 480

First of all apologies to those I visited rather late (slight exaggeration - very late) and apologies to anyone I missed commenting on last week who had visited me.  Don't know what happened with last week but it came and went in the blink of an eyelid.  

I did rekindle my Instagram account and started posting on there which meant I had to do a rummage through my Photos on the internet and found that I had loads of photos which I felt could be deleted - after-all I never look at them.   Got myself in an awful pickle - and that was after I had deleted 3,758 photos.  Guess that is where my week went as one day I sat and did nothing else, spending 16 hours of back breaking searching and deleting.  I gave up and now have to start all over again as I have no idea where I got up to.  Why did I not be more prudent in the first place?

So no crafting to show for my last week but my desk does show some signs of activity now - in fact I am treating you to two different shots.

My watercolour paints that I take on my holidays.  The two covers are for another journal that I am hoping to have made this week.  It will be kind of a Midori book but not sure what for as yet, just fancied making some covers.  To the right some teabags have sneaked in. These have been drying and are ready for my stash.

Some of my Amsterdam paints along with my small stamps that I use for backgrounds on my teabags, atc's and now on atc coins.  Didn't realise my atc coins were out of view - ah well, maybe next week.

So that is it for this week.  Head on over to see Ms Julia and then follow the links of all the other deskers.  Want to join the Club?  Just show us your desk and link up, it's free!

Jeudi Journal

Wow, this came around before I had time to blink.  Did the page and thoroughly enjoyed it but how to portray the theme "Flappers" by the use of words was a question that I pushed to the back of my mind until late last night.  Chas wasn't much use either - he said "Charleston" and that was it.  Between us with his word and my "Flapper" I was struggling.

So I turned to the internet and came up with this double page spread.  (Apologies for the quality of the photograph of the double spread) also for the blank bit down the side of the left hand page where I intend to write something but to be honest the writing style was so difficult for me last night that I gave up on including anything else.  If I do at a later date I will repost.  Sorry.

As you can no doubt guess the colour was Black (and White - see the film strip on the right) and I introduced Gold with the film strip and the tickets on the left.  It was the obvious double page to choose because the following page had had Promarkers used on it and it had bled through.  So it was easy to use Black to provide full coverage.  I then used some White Gesso through my stencil with the Charlie Chaplin type figures on it but when I came to lift the stencil the paper tore away, kind of took the top off.  Luckily a piece of cardstock and some black paint made a new film strip and covered the offending part.

I used heads and legs from the Dylusion range but added dresses from the internet and drew in my own arms and necks etc.  Oh, and found those tiny figures on the gold strip that I actually fussy cut - am I crazy?  Don't answer.

Next I made the layout and then finally added the words.  My "Flapper" challenge was over - and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  Bring on next week!

WOYWW 479

Back to the biggest blog hop, that I do anyhow, Ms Julia started this going on for nine years ago and it is still running.  Some achievement eh?  Join in or just have a nosey at the desks that partake each week.

Not much to show you this week as I have had a tummy upset - no sympathy necessary as I am fine now, but you can raise an "Aaw for the cortisone injection I had on Monday.  Not too bad as I was told to rest for at least two days.  I did ask for a note but didn't get one.  If I say I had to bare my hip you will get the general picture - and the Muskoskeletal guy who did it used to be a pupil of mine way way back.  A tad embarrassing or what?

Anyway, here is my desk as it stand - Chas had a birthday yesterday so it has been like this since Monday.

I am back tea bag decorating at the moment, got a new book to start (yes, before the other one is finished) but a friend made me this little book with three signatures in it and I just had to decorate the cover.  Now I am working in tandem with the two books - you can see the one you have seen previously on the back of my desk.  Still got the back to decorate.  There are some stamps out on the desk, my tiny ones, and my favourite all time stencil.  Amsterdam paints, my pencil case which holds the tiny stamps and my Thursday journal which just shows a mop up page.

The light brown bit with the blue tape is my cover up so that when I am working on a page of full painting I don't mess up the pages on either side.  No idea why it is there - must have been waiting to be put away.

Right, will leave it there and hopefully will get on with some teabag painting later today so fingers crossed there could be the back of the concertina book to view next week.  I did say "fingers crossed".

Toodle Pip!

Jeudi Journal

'Seniors Rule' and Blue and Grey for the colours.  Nice and Easy Peasy for a change.  Well, I decided to use Orange as my third choice, not difficult to do as I had a page - double in fact - that had been randomly coloured to clean the brayer at some time and as Orange is the complimentary colour to Blue I decided to use it.

My friend Paul suggested I use the Grey on top of the Blue so I just used a small star stencil for no other reason than it was to hand.  A bit dull so I went around the stars with a black pen and the border of Blue with the same pen but in small diamond shapes.  Still do so I went around opposite corners with white to brighten it up a bit.

My three old men were coloured and ready to stick in but what should I say?  Paul to the rescue again and he came up with this quote.  Doesn't mention "seniors" but they all look reasonably old, especially the arthritic one in the middle and this was born.  

A bit of a lesson in scratchy writing (could be better, need to practice) and it was all done.  So here is my page for this week:

WOYWW 478

Another Wednesday, another blog hop with Ms Julia and all the other deskers who join in with WOYWW.

Well, I have nothing to show you at all this week.  Got a phone call on Friday afternoon from my friend to say they were not coming.  So all the cleaning had been in vain, or had it - sort of an extra spring clean.  Only trouble was all the food that had to be eaten up - four bags of salad - can only be good for you can't it?  Not too sure about the mountain of cheese, some of it so smelly that it cannot really be frozen or it will pong out the freezer.  I smell of smoked salmon this morning so bad!

I did hang some work on the wall that had been sitting about for ages - oh, and I put a skull inside a box I made with Seth Apter on a trade workshop a couple of years ago.  (and 'yes' that is a cat food box behind it)

Anyhow the desk is not at all great for you all to look at - I did do some crafting on the Friday when my friend Paul came over.  I so enjoy crafting with him - and he always brings me some flowers - often roses!  Paul does different journalling to me but his influence shows now and then and certainly tomorrow's journal page(s) are a mix of both our styles, or should I say it shows his influence.

You can see my square journal ready to be scanned for tomorrow's blog  and - oh peek! - there is my diamante flip flop just peeping in on the photo - and my phone chair at the back.

Well, that's it for this week, hopefully by next week I might have something to show you as I am determined to get more crafting done other than the Thursday Journal page.  See you next week ...