WOYWW 630

If anyone wants a loan or some viagra just get in touch - I have between 80 and 150 adverts a day for them.  Yes!  Still being haunted by Bots.  Just no idea how to stop them and they are a problem as you have to sift through them to make sure you are not deleting any 'real' comments along with them.  This has gone on for over a month now and it is so tedious.  Anyway, enough of that - what's been happening, what have I been doing?  Here are four atc's I made when I was away

Sorry you have to turn your head to view one of them

But you came here to see my desk so here it is - messed up a bit but by the end of the day it will be cleared up again:

Starting left - my journal with a couple of pages started - brayering and a bit of stencil work.  My travel case with the skull on in 3D, then a black folder where I keep images I plan on using for something I am doing in August and the striped bag behind contains my Dylusion Sayings.  There's a big box on my desk and that has lots of bits in ready for my next trip away.  I just drop things in as and when I feel like it.  At the moment there are some stencils (Aall & Create ones), plus their washi tapes and my flesh Promarkers.

If you look closely you can see a card with a circle spotlight on it - that is from Jan and it is really lovely to see how she has adapted her skill with watercolours to so many different looks.  Well done Jan!

Right, that is it for this week - a bit shorter than usual but an upset tummy is keeping me from wittering on so I'll say Toodle Pip!  Have a good week, a lovely weekend and keep crafting (ideal time for me whilst football is on).

Jeudi Journal - Cuppa?

Well, the quote for today was an easy one if you took it literally.  It concerned a cuppa which is traditionally quite an English thing.  Everyone associates a cup of tea with the English yet there is one here who never ever drinks it.  It's not my cup of tea!  On my journal page this week you can see a cup and saucer but - oh dear, it is empty.

"Three friends have all met up for an afternoon in the sunshine at Lotta's house.  Lotta was the eldest and also the bossiest of the three girls.  Of the other two, Simone and Sarah, Sarah was the baby in the group as well as the tiniest.  Not that she could not hold her own in an argument, she certainly could.  Simone tended to be the peacemaker in the trio.  She hated confrontation.

As usual the topic of conversation centred around make up, hairstyles and fashion.  Simone had chosen to wear her latest purchase, a lovely dress in shades of blue and yellow and she had bought some tiny yellow ankle boots to wear with it.  The other two admired it and said how it looked good on the slim Simone but Lotta felt that she should have had her hair in a different colour, "lilac does not work with that dress somehow" was her rude remark.

Little Sarah was a bit 'put out' and thought Lotta was being rude, "perhaps in one of her moods", she thought. "I hope she does not start passing comment on my hair because I don't want to start colouring it like the other two".  Just then Lotta made a remark about what Sarah was wearing too.  "Don't you think it's about time you stopped wearing those skirts with the straps over the shoulders", she said, "they are the kind of skirts little girls of six and seven wear, not teenagers like you."

Despite being hurt by the comment Sarah answered back and the conversation became a bit heated between the two of them ending with Sarah in tears.  

Ever the one to try to settle arguments Simone stepped in and told Sarah to calm down, "Lotta did not mean it like that", she said, "and you could always cut the straps off and wear it just as a skirt."  

"Then it would look worse than ever" was Lotta's reply to that one.  Sarah, tears now streaming cried out "You just don't care do you?"  To which Lotta answered "This is my cup of care, oh look it's empty" as she lifted her cup of lemon tea and peered inside it".

I know I have given Lotta a very big cup of lemon tea but it rather emphasises the saying doesn't it.

I am entering this into Art Journal Journey where the lovely Mia chose 'butterflies' as the topic for this month.  I decided to add a couple of butterflies flitting about and decorated the cup with them to pretty it up a bit.  Why not join in with this challenge, you have until the end of this month.

I messed up last week and got this post and the one I did mixed up so Wendy and I were out of sync.  Now I am back with my posts in order I hope I get it correct next week.

WOYWW 629

Another week has flown by and we are here again baring our workdesks to the world via Ms Julia who had the bright idea for this friendship growing group on the internet.  Who doesn't mind showing off their desk when it is covered in new gear, or old stuff they want to know something about, or show off a piece of their work that they are particularly proud of.  Of course you might want to hide your light under a bush but whatever the reason I can recommend WOYWW for a good old snoop about and it's the ideal place for making new friends.

My desk, this week, is slightly different to past desks and I cannot show you anything I have done because most of my time has been spent sitting on the patio reading or snoozing in the sunshine.  I did however, make this card for my cousin, who was 91 yesterday, before I left home.  I was his little bridesmaid when he married Audrey whom, I remember, I adored.  When playing with my friends I was always 'Audrey' - bet I drove the courting couple mad as I was always with them when they were at aunties.  Anyway, I decided on Laurel and Hardy for my card.

and who doesn't like a bit of Marilyn.

I love those figures of Janet Klein's and Charlie Chaplin is a favourite of mine too but I decided to use a bit of glamour on the tv rather than put a third guy on the card. Hope Ken likes it.

As I said I have not done much in the way of crafting.  Did finish off a journal page the other evening which went out on Monday and did a bit of fussy cutting Monday evening whilst we had the football on.  Afraid the football is going to dominate what we do a bit but that suits me fine as I can craft when it is on and not feel guilty that I am stopping him from doing something else.  We have a small tv in the bedroom here so he has offered to watch the match in there.  Bless!

This is my desk for today - just a fraction of the stuff I brought with me to keep me quiet whilst away from home.

Apart from the bowl of fruit you can see my Promarkers, my lap tray (tiny one), cut out figures from Janet Klein, journal, lino type tablecloth for when I craft on the table, and my bag of goodies.  That contains a cutter, craft mat, water brushes, mini misters, glue, embossing paste, sponges, pens, paint brushes, stencil brushes, Distress tools, make up brushes (the ones we use for Distress Inks), masking tape, baby wipes, old towels, ink pads, acrylic blocks, pencil case that has loads of tools in and loads of stamps.

An overhead view of the bag shows you just how much there is in this bag.  It's just handy to carry to the table or outside, wherever I want to craft.

I have two of the old nappy boxes full of stuff plus a big cardboard box in the small bedroom so I shouldn't be stuck for anything - or should I?  I left my folder of Aall & Create stencils at home and now cannot get on with my journal pages which I intended to do.  Rang the house-sitter and they apparently were left in the utility room.  Sob sob!

Well, better leave it there but before I go look at this bush (or is it a tree?) which is growing behind us at the edge of the wood

That's what we see when looking through the kitchen window

and if you look closely you might see the visitor we had the other day.  It was Chas who spotted him and he stayed there ages, munching at something.  He's just to the right of the thickest bar:

Toodle Pip!  Stay safe and well.

Art Journal Journey - Eternal

A bit of a change from the usual Dylusion entry for Art Journal Journey and the challenge set by Mia  which is Butterflies.  This is a stamp from PaperArtsy, designed by my friend Tracy Scott.  Tracy is a very talented artist whom I first met when I attended one of her workshops at Dyan's shop, Art from the Heart.  

The background was an old one on this page, done many moons ago when I was trying to improve my brayering technique.  I did not know what to use on this background and so I set to with these two sets of stamps from PaperArtsy.

I used my watercolour pencils (Inktense) to colour the images sticking to blues and greens. with orange, the complimentary colour to blue, as contrast.  Inktense pencils are made by Derwent which originated in Keswick in the Lake District.  The first pencil factory opened in 1832 in Keswick.  The second and current factory was started in the 1920's and completed in the 1950's.  It closed in 2007 when the owners moved it 30 miles away to Workington.

• Graphite was first discovered in the Borrowdale Valley in the mid 1500's.
• Keswick first recorded entry making pencils by Banks, Foster & Co
• The Cumberland Pencil Company was established in 1916
• The Derwent brand was established in 1938, named after Derwent Water, a lake on the edge of Keswick where the factory was founded.

Most of us understand the grading of pencils - B being 'Black' and H 'Hard',  with HB being between the two - but did you know there are 9 grades each way - 1-9 B and 1-9 HB?  And did you know that the casing of the pencils made by Derwent are from Californian Cedars.

The information regarding Derwent Pencils is most interesting and you can read more about them at 

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/the-uks-oldest-only-pencil-factory-demand-quality-colour-255906

Whilst I am writing this post I am actually sitting about 30 miles south of Keswick which houses the Derwent pencil Museum - a lovely place to visit.  Here is my Journal page:

Jeudi Journal - Don't Come Back!

Well, this week we have the quote "You go girl - and don't come back!"  Not very nice when someone says this to you is it?  But nevertheless this is the quote from Dyan this week that I had to work with.  Not easy with the images I had to play with but here is my best attempt at illustrating this quote.  I am getting towards the end of this journal - only five more pages and it is completed and will be put away with the others, so it is getting increasingly difficult to scan the pages hence the dark line at the top.

"Cheryl and Shirley had been best friends since school, they told one another everything and always kept secrets for one another.  Everyone said they were very close, almost like sisters, twins in fact.  So that made it all the ore terrible when they had the big falling out.  

Cheryl had found out that Shirley was getting married, she knew it was on the cards because Shirley and her boyfriend, Zac, were the 'real deal' - totally inseparable most of the time.  It hadn't impaired the friendship of the two girls because Cheryl got along so well with Zac.  In fact the three of them often went out together when Cheryl didn't have a boyfriend of her own.   What hurt was that she had found out from another friend, Shirley had not had the decency to tell her best friend first of all.

She had always imagined that Shirley would ask her to be her main bridesmaid, to be honest Shirley's mother had always thought so too.  When they were younger they had talked about their weddings and what colour the bridesmaids would be dressed in.  They'd taken it in turns to wear the old net curtains they got from Cheryl's gran to wear as a veil, and they'd made daisy chains to wear on their heads and bouquets of buttercups to carry.

So, they had met at Cheryl's house to go shopping, as usual on a Saturday when neither were working and Zac was at football.  Then who should come walking past just as they were about to leave, but  Zoe, a friend from work who stopped and congratulated Shirley on her upcoming wedding.  Shirley was a bit embarrassed and poor Cheryl did not know where to look and she found herself feeling quite sick for a moment or two.  The three girls carried on chatting for a while, Cheryl hardly joining in as her head was full of questions for her friend.  And so, when Zoe left them Shirley said "I'm sorry, I was going to tell you".  

"When?" asked Cheryl, "When the invitations went out?"  The two girls stood there and many a harsh word was spoken until Shirley decided that she had better go home.  "You go girl - and don't come back" was Cheryl's reply.  It would be quite some time before she forgave her, thought Cheryl." 

No similarities to anything in my life here this week.  In fact I don't know where my stories come from, I just make a start and they evolve.  No previous thoughts involved and certainly no preparation.  Now why don't you prepare to have an "extravaganza of beauty" and go and look at Art Journal Journey where the theme is "Butterflies" as set by the lovely Mia.  There are lots of pretty pages for you to look at - and who knows you might be inspired to join in.

WOYWW 628

Another week has flown by and here we are again posting our desks.  When I say "we" I refer to the members of Julia's desk community and if you go here you will see what it is all about - and possibly you might want to join in.   It doesn't cost anything, you don't have a commitment to post each week but you do find that it is a friendly group of people who will give you a warm welcome.  Why not give it a go!

My desk this week is a bit of a mish mash - a bit untidy but never fear within next to no time I will be tidied up once more and back to a pristine desk (ahem) - no seriously, since I had the massive tidy up  I find it is easy to tidy up after a session and calm is once restored.  It's just the way I am.  Here's my desk taken yesterday afternoon (not changed one little bit since - too much to do in other places):

Just had a delivery - my new Promarkers - the ones I had run out of in the main ie the flesh ones.  Gosh I was really struggling last week with my fading flesh pens.  My little figures were looking as if they had measles!

So what is on my desk?  Starting left - some Dylusion figures, cut out and ready for colouring and using in my Thursday Journal, my new Promarkers, a sheet of card on which I am stamping some Aall & Create stamps for fussy cutting and colouring.  The brown book, in front of my babywipes  is my Dylusion Journal and on top of it is what is in the picture below.  Then we have some scraps of 250 gsm white card followed by some stamps and my Square Journal with some stamped images on top.  The bag underneath the worktop that you can see carries an assortment of large envelopes, I am sure I will never use them all.

Well, just after the excitement of the pens I had another lovely "plop" behind the door - Felicia's pretty ATC and a card and a postcard of Dublin in Georgia, doesn't it look pretty, romantic in fact.

But before that I got another lovely surprise on my return home

from my lovely Crop Buddie, Heather

Love a Cocktail - and Steampunk

Thank you Ladies xx

Bolton is doing well and we are now down to number 4 in the top twenty but I fear Blackburn is going up in Covid numbers and it's where my lovely friend Heather lives.  Thoughts and prayers are with you all in the NW.

Well, that is all for this week, I think.  Sunshine is out again, perfect sitting out weather up north for a change.  Hope everyone is having a lovely week and hopefully see you all next week. 

Jeudi Journal - People

"People are really great as long as you don't get to know them" is the quote for today.   For this one I decided it could be a conversation between two dogs for a change.  Again I used other dogs than Dylusion ones, this time Tim Holtz ones so to make amends I used a flower and a toadstool stamp from Dyan to go with the tall figure of hers (which has had a head change).  I also used one of her narrow border stamps to go around the edges.  Butterfly stamp is unknown.

To begin with I used what was left on my Orange Dabber that I often use with my Distress Inks so I have not a clue which shade of orange it is.  Because it is using what was already on the background is not really orange but just a nice golden glow.  I really thought I was going to have to give up and ink my dabber but I managed to push it around to get colour all over - you will notice that the top is slightly darker than the remainder of the page, although the scan has given it a shadow at the top as well.

My blog post today features a conversation between two dogs.  I could not find my Dylusion dog stamps anywhere and wonder if I have loaned them to someone.  So I used these dogs instead.  Do you understand doggy talk?  Do dogs understand humans?  I think that body language and intonation has a big part to play in our understanding with our canine friends and vice versa.  Anyway, today we have ...

"Prince and Rex have met up, as usual on a morning, at the local park.  Their owners had gone on, stood having a chat, and the two dogs had been playing together, racing one another around the grassy area that is marked off for dogs.  Rex was feeling a bit 'off' this morning, and so, puffing and panting with his tongue hanging out, he decided it was time for a chat about a serious matter - owners - or 'people' as we are known in the doggy world!

As per usual the doggy chat got around to discussing their own owners, both dogs came from good homes where they were looked after well and fed and groomed, not to mention the walks they got taken on.  Rex got quite close to Prince because he didn't want any of the other dogs to hear what he had to say, and so he whispered into Prince's ear "People are great as long as you don't get to know them".  Well, Prince was a bit taken aback by that sentence as he thought Judy, his owner, was really rather nice and that he knew her quite well.  He knew full well that as soon as they got back home he would have his paws washed and was due a cuddle whilst she gave him one or two treats.  They might even sit for an hour or so watching a bit of tv together.

Quite often he would fall asleep in her arms, dreaming of chasing rabbits and butterflies all over the fields where they sometimes went for a walk on their own.  He knew he twitched a bit when dreaming because once or twice he had woken himself up with it, but Judy did not seem to mind at all and she just gave him soft gentle kisses on the top of his head to calm him down.

He really did not know what Rex was on about.  His owner, Jethro, was a big guy with a lovely smile and he seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for Judy which is why they met up in the park most mornings.  Why only yesterday Judy had asked Prince if he thought they should ask Jethro and Rex to join them on their walks in the afternoons as well.  Well, if that was the way Rex felt about people he wasn't sure if it would work or not."

I am entering this into the challenge on Art Journal Journey where Mia has chosen 'Butterflies" as the theme this month.  You can see a butterfly has landed on one of the mushrooms.  Hope the dogs don't notice.

WOYWW 627

Well my lovely WOYWW'ers what a glorious spell of weather we are having.  At times too hot for me to sit in so I tend to do it in ten minute bursts, going inside for a short time (and sometimes falling asleep).  But it seems as if we are having the summer we need after all this staying in with the pandemic surrounding us. So a slightly different desk in a different place this week.  This is how the kitchen worktop looked last night ie my new temporary desk.

On the left is my Journal with some figures waiting to be coloured and stuck on for my next Journal page.  I brayered the two pages you can see and then used some texture paste (Whipped Spackle actually, which is nearly empty, and which I love) through a stencil.  The poly bags next to the Journal are the ones I have already cut out and which need colouring.  Next to them you can see my watercolour pencils and next to them some mini distress inks.  Back to the front - there is a cd case which I used to carry some Janet Klein figures with me - ready for colouring and in some cases, cutting out too.  You can see an ATC and my book at the side and then my carry case which has a selection of Promarkers in (plus lots of other things you cannot see).

Still being "Botted" to the tune of almost 100 per day.  Such a nuisance sifting through real comments and the Bots but hopefully am not deleting any 'real' comments.  

That's it.  Hope everyone is keeping safe.  Bolton seems to still be doing well at keeping numbers stable but it was so worrying to see that 19 out of the top 20 Covid places are all in the north west where I, Lynne and Heather, are.  I just hope people who can, now turn up for the vaccine, it needs a concerted effort from all of us to beat the damned thing!

Jeudi Journal - Disguise?

We have gone a bit lilac today for our post - once more using Shaded Lilac Distress Ink but this time with a border in a slightly darker shade (Wilted Violet) all the way around.  I am entering this into Art Journal Journey where the topic is Butterflies, as set by the lovely Mia (Crafterista) for the month of June.

I haven't been on the ball during lockdown and now that things are changing, in most parts of the country, although we still should be wearing masks and social distancing, I find a quote that fits the bill of a figure wearing a face mask.  "Well, here I am disguised as a responsible adult" is the quote for today which finds our figure stating that she is in disguise - arms stretched out as she makes the statement.  Not sure what the little chick thinks at the bottom by her feet.

"It was a lovely day, nice and warm, butterflies buzzing around in the sky, Stella and her friends had been laughing at some of the things they used to get up to as children.  Annoying the neighbours by playing 'knock and run', chalking a hop scotch diagram on the patio that dad had just jet washed and tearing holes in their jeans from climbing walls and things.  

She remembered the time David had said that the van parked in his father's yard was for him to play in.  David had bumped his head which resulted in a nose bleed, hastily mopped up with the coat that was lying on the back seat.  It was only when two guys came walking into the yard that David had come clean - it was their van and therefore must have been the guy's coat.

In their hurry to get away, Stella had got stuck on the top of the yard railings and David had yanked her down - but her best skirt had got ripped as a result and so the two of them had hidden out for what seemed ages before they dared go home.

It was incidents like this that they had been swapping, sensibly distanced whilst they talked of course, when Stella suddenly saw the funny side of them all wearing masks.  So she said "We could do it all over again."  The others looked at her as if she had gone mad, until she said  "Well, here I am sensibly disguised as an adult".  They all laughed, but agreed, the masks were a good disguise.

(This is almost a true story, but it wasn't just blood on a coat that we did damage to - plus it was true about the skirt - it was my new tartan kilt and mum made me wear it afterwards - with a patch on.  Gosh that was a long time ago.)

WOYWW 626

Here we are another Wednesday, another week (making a total of two) since the 12trh birthday of WOYWW and I have some more ATC's to show to you.  These were too late to be shown in last week's edition so it made the celebrations go on a little longer - aren't they lovely?  Spyder sent two (the one with '1'' and the one with '2' on making the magic number '12').  Diana sent the lovely birds egg one and the final one was from my Pif, Morti, with the stars all over it.  lovely postcards too.  Love the little envelope and belly band, bottom right that came with Spyder's two ATC's..

Well, I haven't been up to much this past week but I decided that I enjoyed making ATC's so much I would continue and do more.  To begin with I made a little notebook and then an ATC holder.  The idea is to keep a note in the book of the ATC's made and sent and fill the holder up with ATC's ready to send out.  I got in a bit of a pickle with the little box inside the ATC holder (there should have been one on the other side) but I didn't think about making the spine wider to accommodate!  As you can see, they are made from washi tape by Janet Klein.

the notebook is on the left and the ATC holder, opened fully, on the right

This shows the little box affair I put on the left hand side of the ATC holder - I put a corner piece on the right hand side (I hastily made two ATC's to show them in the holder).  There is a toilet roll inner covered in tape too that I stuck some paint brushes in just for the photo.  It makes a nice little desk set don't you think?