Art Journal Journey - Ducks

 Again this is a page in my Pan Pastel Journal but this time I used a stencil with my pastels.  I am sorry but the stencil is one I have had in my stash for quite some time and so I have no idea who made it.  I chose this one as it reminded me of a pond where you might find ducks swimming happily on with some greenery surrounding it.

I have no idea what the ducks actually are but no doubt someone can tell me.  They came from my stash of magazine cut out pictures but they are obviously different species.

This brings my time as Guest Host with Art Journal Journey to a close and I hope that you have found this theme, "It Must Have Wings", exciting to take part in and derived as much enjoyment from it as I have in making so many pages.  I would like to thank all of you who have entered into the challenge, it has been a joy to see so many of you bring 'wings' into your work in so many different ways and I have enjoyed looking into how you arrived at your final pictures and commenting on my thoughts on your work.  I hope I did not sound like a teacher but someone who enjoyed art as much as you all do.  I can get carried away commenting lol.

Finally thanks to Elizabeth, Erika and Mia for trusting me with their blog for a month, it has been hard work, but pleasurable and getting most of my work ready well in advance meant I created lots - and derived so much pleasure from doing it.  So many many thanks to the moderators, your work with bringing Art Journal Journey to us is much appreciated.

Art Journal Journey - Mona's Scene

 This is my penultimate piece for Art Journal Journey where my theme is "it must have wings" and was a copy of a piece made by one of the Designers for Lavinia Stamps I made short time ago.  Mona is from Norway and creates very intricate and beautiful pieces.  I fell in love with this and decided that I just had to try it out, so, carefully watching her video I worked at it, step by step and although it is nowhere near as good as Mona's I am well pleased with it.  Mona uses lots of masking fluid in her work so I was reintroduced to it when making this page lol.

This one features the beautiful hummingbird along with Lumus the fairy and some tiny bumblebees and with various floral stamps.  As usual I used Elements inks for the background and Versafine Clair Nocturne for stamping.  Colouring of the flowers and wings was done with Inktense pencils. So here we have a hummingbird, a fairy and some bees all with wings which fulfils the challenge "It Must Have Wings" for Art Journal Journey this month.  

Today would have been my mum's birthday, she never got to see my stamping but I am sure she would have liked this one.  Happy Heavenly Birthday Mum. 

Jeudi Journal - Happiness

 Today Wendy gave me the quote "Happiness is a habit - cultivate it" to work with.   This challenge is also for Art Journal Journey where the challenge is "It Must Have Wings" and so I have to include wings on my page somewhere along with Dylusion figures which is part of the challenge that Wendy and I have set ourselves. eg it must have a quote one of us finds, it must have a figure of some kind from the Dylusion range of rubber stamps and it must fit in with the challenge at Art Journal Journey.  Thank goodness chooks have wings.

"Clara Cluck and Henrietta Hen were best friends in the farm yard.  'A couple of busybodies' were how they were known by all the other animals in the farmyard. Always good for a bit of gossip Clara kept her beak to the ground most of the time and knew all that was going on, not only in her farmyard but also in all farms in the County.

"Clarissa Cow over at Johnston's Farm has had a big falling out with Billy the Bull.  She accused him of having an affair with her friend Buttercup" she said to a wide audience at the farmyard.  Dilly Duck' s beak fell open at this news and she said she simply did not believe it.  Whereas Charlotte Chicken's eyes widened so much that she looked as if she was going to burst.

Just as Clara was going to continue with her story Camilla Cow came around the corner and said in her usual loud voice "That's a lie, where is your proof.  In fact where is the proof in all the stories you and Henrietta spread around the farmyard?"

"It's not a lie" squeaked Clara nervously, for nobody challenged Camilla, "I got it on good authority from my cousin Deirdre."

"You know what", bellowed Camilla, Happiness is a habit - cultivate it.  That would be much better for you and your friend over there than all this gossip you seem to thrive on.  I suppose your cousin Deirdre, like you did not come from a box of Happy Eggs at Asda."

(For those who are not familiar with egg sales in the UK, Happy Eggs is a brand that is sold in Asda supermarkets over here.)

Art Journal Journey - A Leggy Bird

 No it isn't a top model with wings, it's a bird with wings - and long legs.  This is an image by  Stampotique from way way back.  I never bought the stamp myself as I had a friend who was happy to stamp some images for me to use.  I think Stampotique is now a brand sold under the name of Katzelkraft.

To begin with I used an existing background which I had made by using metallic sprays.  I just wish you could see the sheen and sparkle on this page.  Can you just about see the tiny border at the base of the page - it is a piece of card I found on my desk, no idea where it came from but I liked it.  Maybe orange and pink are jarring but somehow it works.

I decided to add a large flower to work with the long legs of the bird which I coloured with Inktense Pencils.  A long stem would not have worked so a large head on the flower to my mind works far better and the words 'Beautiful Summer Days are Fun' are certainly so true.  To finish off the page I added a diecut feather which was one of many, I was given years ago.  I wonder if it was one of her tail feathers?

Well, it is almost the end of the month and there are still some pages to show you at Art Journal Journey with my theme whilst being guest host, "It Must Have Wings".  I wonder if you have something you could show us.  I'd love to see it.

WOYWW 834

Well, I haven't done much crafting but I have done a change of direction thanks to Angela (Felix) and today, on my desk is a little mushroom.  I've wanted to do some needle-felting and make a figure for such a long time but gave up as I never followed the instructions properly and ended up with a MESS!

Then I saw a Fly Agaric mushroom that Angela had made and I loved it.  Bless her, she offered to show me how to make one at the Crop this year.  Unfortunately the Crop didn't happen and so my mushroom session didn't  either.  Then I saw an online workshop and guess what they were making - Fly Agaric's.  Turned out it was the same workshop Angela had done and I joined and on Monday we made this little mushroom, or shroom as I like to call them.

Today we are going to make a picture of the same shroom so I will show you that next week and maybe, just maybe, a more perfect little Fly Agaric - I want to make a tiny one.  Can you see the kind of line just below the cap?  This is called the volva (I think) and is the veil that the mushroom has over it as it is growing and as it grows the veil leaves behind the white spots.  Did I get that right Angela?  (I never knew that before and I have never ever seen one in real life.)

Last week I showed you what I had made at a workshop in Cumbria, here are the first couple of pages finished off and now in the book followed by another two pages.

That's me for this week, now to my workshop - well, get ready for it and have a nice hot shower first.  Then later today I'll be over to see Sarah's Craft Shed and see what everyone has been up to.

Art Journal Journey - She Has Wings

 This is one of my favourite stamps from Aal & Create.  In fact the figure was a favourite of lots of crafters when it was first brought out and I can remember people using it in many different ways.  Today I am using two of Aal & Create's images to make a journal page in my square journal for Art Journal Journey's challenge, 'It Must Have Wings'.

She did not have wings but I thought the wings from Pink Ink Designs "Bee-utiful" worked quite well with her and the words below.

I stamped the magnifying glass image first of all with Versafine Nocturne and then stamped her so she just fit inside.  Her wings were stamped separately and covered in Stickles Ice to give them some sparkle.  The remaining images on the page were coloured with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

It is nearing the end of the month of May but there is still time for you to enter my challenge at AJJ, I would love to see your entry there.  Remember to read the dreaded rules as to what is accepted eg no cards, tags, index cards, ATC's or coins unless they are part of a journal page. 

Art Journal Journey - Sorry

Don't lnow what went wrong with Saturday's blog post but I was sick - had eaten something which diod not agree with me and so I suffered all weekend with an upset tummy.  Only found out early Monday morning that my post didn't show properly.  Sorry - trying again:

This is a picture I made with what, at the time, were my favourite little characters, the Herbalums.  I just adore them and thought I would do a page using them busy gardening.  

I began by stamping the Tree of Courage and the Tree of Hope to frame the picture in Versafine Claire Nocturne.  Next came the bench and then the three Herbalums, masking out the watering can that Ben was originally holding and making it appear he was holding the top of the bench, whilst he debated where to put the plant he was now holding in his other hand,  The other two Herbalums, Baz and Bob came next followed by flowers etc at the base of the picture.  

Then it was time to make a sky and ground using Elements inks Della Blue and Avocado.  Finally a pastel pencil to create a more solid look to the trees and rocks and it was complete,  Because it was created for Art Journal Journey we needed some wings so I put three butterflies in the sky which I fussy cut out after colouring.

I hope you like my page and join us at Art Journal Journey with your interpretation of something that has wings.

Art Journal Journey - Wings (Herbalums)

Jeudi Journal - Wrinkles

 "Wrinkles are hereditary.  People get them from their children." is today's quote from Wendy and so my journal page for Art Journal Journey is below and the story to explain it follows on.  As you can see there are birds in the sky and she is wearing a fascinator of a butterfly so that it works with the challenge "It Must Have Wings" that I set for the month of May.

"It was a beautiful spring day, the swallows swooped high in the sky and the sun shone brightly.  Bella had been to the beauty salon in the village where they had been trying different styles of make up for her impending wedding to Peter.  She wanted a fairly simple look, no startling eye shadow and certainly not a red lipstick.  She wanted it to be reminiscent of spring time as she and Peter enjoyed the countryside and the wedding was to be simple rather than lavish.

Peter was waiting outside for her and as she walked out the door of the salon he swelled with pride, she looked so beautiful.

"Hello darling" he greeted her, "have you decided on what you want now?  It's only around the corner, two weeks to be precise."

"I have" she replied as she reached up to plant a kiss on his cheek, "but it is going to be a secret as you are not to know anything about my dress, my hair or even my make up."

"I see they have put a butterfly in your hair today.  Is that something you are considering?"

"No" replied Bella, "it is for mum to consider, it's known as a fascinator and they wondered if she would like one for her hair on the day."

Just then a little girl walked past them and turned to look at the butterfly in Bella's hair.  She gave a little smile and told her mummy she wanted a butterfly for her hair too.

Peter thought this was rather sweet and he turned to Bella and said "Just think in a year or two we could be parents, have a little girl like that, or even a boy."

"Err, excuse me, I am not sure I want children just yet.  Let's wait until we are older and have done things with our lives.  Besides which I overheard someone in the salon saying wrinkles are hereditary, people get them from their children and I certainly don't want any until I am about forty.  Wrinkles that is."

"Oh right," said Peter, "we are having a family though, we did talk about it and if you look at your sister she has no wrinkles but she has two boys."

"Mmm" said Bella, "I'm only kidding, but not about the wrinkles so you had better play your part in bringing up any children we might have."

WOYWW 833

What a lovely week it has been with post dropping through the door.  Thank you to Mary Anne first of all who sent me an atc which arrived the day before the anniversary but I didn't want to show it in case I spoiled it for everyone.  Then to Angela who was my Pif for her lovely bookmark - and finally to Jan who sent me one of hers just because ...  Here they are for you all to enjoy and thank you very much ladies.  They brightened my day.

Angela's bookmark, Mary Ann's atc & Jan's lovely card

Some of you know I was hoping to get a new hip soon, well last week I found it won't be happening.  I am too high risk with my heart failure etc.  I've been like a child who has lost her favourite toy since hearing this but please do not feel sorry for me or I'll set off again.  I'll be ok when I get used to it not happening.

Anyway, my lovely friend Ann took me off to a workshop on Saturday, to take my mind off things, with people I don't know and here are a few of the toppers we made.

The green ones are not finished both need words and a butterfly

The blue ones need words on yet

These all fit into a little concertina book and Ann and I are going to continue making two more pages each fortnight until we complete it.  It has 18 pages in all but we could even decorate the back as well - depends on how thick it gets with just one side.  Or if we run out of ideas!  (18 + 16 = 34 pages)

So that's it for this week, hope you all enjoyed the sunny weather again but it's about time we had some rain. The gardens and reservoirs need it and the poor farmers ....

Art Journal Journey - Secret Garden

This page features Gus sitting on the signpost for the Secret Garden but I hope you find it quite different to the previous owl one with a totally different background colour.  For this page I wanted to use some bold flowers and so I chose to use dandelions.  I love them when they are fluffy balls before the seeds float so effortlessly on the breeze (spreading themselves about to reseed).

Because the page was smaller in width than my journal page, remember I often make a journal page on plain cardstock and then stick it in my journal because the pages in my Lavinia Journal do not take kindly to some stamps, I did some stencilling on the sides and extended just a little of the flower stamping very slowly and carefully.  I was pleased with my matching up of the dandelions, just a slight hitch upwards with the one on the left.  Again I used my Elements for the background, Versafine Clair Nocturne for the stamping and Inktense pencils for the colouring.

I hope you like my Owl page for my challenge, "It Must Have Wings", at Art Journal Journey, so will you be popping over with a Journal page using Wings?  I'd love to see you there.

Art Journal Journey - Butterflies

 For my next journal page with the theme "It Must have Wings" at Art Journal Journey we have a copy of one side of what was originally a double spread in one of my square journals.  This time I only did the one page.  The original was a workshop I did with Tracy Evans a while ago which was in shades of pink and purple.  The stamps are from her collection when she did them for All & Create.

The background was made with smooching Distress Oxides (Salvaged Patina and Wilted Violet) on a piece of acetate, spritzing with water and then lying it down, leaving it for a while and then picking it up.  This was then dried with my heat gun before the next one was done.  For another one I used Twisted Citron and Tumbled Glass.

Using squares of cardstock I repeated as above on those and let them dry before sticking down and stamping the ready reckoner (Digit stamp) on them.  Then I used some white paint and a stencil to put squares on some of the squares on my page.  Using a Quickie Glue pen I drew some squares on the top right of my page and some lines on the squares.  When dry these had silver leaf on them.  

I added some numbers from the Seasons stamp and stamped two hearts and two butterflies which I then embossed with clear ep.  I painted the butterflies with the same colours of Distress Oxides  and cut them out.  These and the word Meadows were then cut out and adhered to the page.  Finally I scribbled some words around the stuck on squares and added a little torn washi tape.

I preferred this page to the one I did with Tracy - maybe just because I tend to go for teal type colours when choosing myself.  I hope you like this page as much as I do.

I've missed this kind of journaling and I think I might go back to it for a change from my Lavinia pages just now and again.

Art Journal Journey - Puffins

 I almost forgot to post this page in my journal and I had specifically wanted to use my puffin stamps to make a page for my theme "It Must Have Wings" at Art Journal Journey.  I made it, scanned it and then put it into the folder for "May" and promptly went on to something else for the same theme.

I just hope I can remember how I made this page now as my memory is dreadful and with so many pages they tend to merge into one.  I have no idea who manufactured the Puffin stamp, it is a polymer one and that is all I can say about it.

The background was made using two stamps that I bought years ago from my friend Mary, in America, but again I do not know who the manufacturer is, all I know is it is grey rubber and the index is coloured.  Mary loved coastal scenes and so I bought quite a few from my many trips to see her in the past.  (Sadly she passed seven years ago on the 26th of this month)

I used my Elements inks (Della Blue and Lime Punch) to create the background and coloured the  lighthouse and the sails with Pastel Pencils.  The birds were coloured (beaks) with Inktense Pencils.  The poor little Puffin on his own at the back looks rather forlorn and not quite as chubby as his two friends.  I do hope he is ok.

Also hope that you are well and ready to join in with the theme at AJJ.  If you do I will do my best to pop along and leave you a comment.

Jeudi Journal - Chocolate

 Today the quote from Wendy is "Save the earth, it's the only one planet with chocolate".  It got me wondering, is it really the only planet with chocolate?  That is something I won't know and I doubt any of you readers will either, unless you are saving up to be part of a rocket launch to some other planet in the universe.  Surely we have enough chocolate on Earth not to need us to find some on Jupiter or Saturn - but we do have Mars bars.

For my picture which had to include something from the challenge at Art Journal Journey I chose to use a black background and, although my planets are not the correct size, I made the two smallest planets, Mercury and Venus, smaller than the others.  It helped with fitting them all around the earth which, in reality, should not be the largest planet.  Here I have used artistic licence.  I am sure you will allow me.

I cut myself a circle around a mat and then punched the others with decorative punches, all were coloured in using promarkers.  The earth was coloured to represent a happy face with both land and sea on it and two birds, (to fulfil the challenge 'it must have wings') from the Dylusion collection were attached either side to look as if they were holding a banner which was made up with three popular chocolate bars in the UK.  

No story today, it is just a self explanatory journal page but does fill the criteria of having something with wings as required by the challenge I am hosting at AJJ.

I'd love to see you make a page with wings, check the main page at AJJ for some ideas and I will leave you a comment if you join in with us with your own interpretation of 'it must have wings'.

Art Journal Journey - Musical Interlude

 "The fairies and the pixies decided to hold a musical interlude on the edge of the forest early one evening just as the sun was lowering in the sky.  Trinity was blowing her horn, whilst Night Watch sat on a giant toadstool with her beloved bugle.  Sky, one of the pixies came along with his flute much to the amusement of a tiny sparrow who sat on the edge of it whenever Sky stopped blowing.

Pippin, the tiny hare,  stood in awe, looking up at Night Watch and a dragonfly flew down, his wings dancing to the music as he swooped and swirled around, thoroughly enjoying himself, whilst the two chubby robins sang to one another sitting on little grassy knolls on the ground.  Even the flowers joined in listening to the music and swaying as the sounds floated past them."

I made this journal page whilst I was away from home.  I had taken lots of things with me to craft with but guess what?  I had forgotten to take a black ink pad.  Now for most Lavinia scenes I need a black ink pad - Versafine Clair Nocturne - so what to do?  I decided to try using the darkest brown ink pad I had with me (Pinecone) and to be honest I don't think you can hardly tell on the actual piece.  

So my page today was done with Elements Inks in Della Blue and Lime Punch along with a hill mask to make a hillside effect, and a moon mask for the sky.  Various foliage stamps were used along with VF Shady Lane and Charming Pink ink colours.  I used my Inktense pencils for the wings and foliage at the top.

I do hope you like this page done especially for Elizabeth as she mentioned something about my fairy wings and I realised there weren't that many fairy pages in my journal.  Also I hope that it will inspire you to join in with my theme at Art Journal Journey, "It Must Have Wings".  You don't have to have fairies like I have used here but there are lot of ideas on the home page of AJJ.  Please pop along and join in if you can.

WOYWW 832

 Happy Anniversary to all your WOYWW'ers out there.  Sixteen Years - makes me think what was I doing on that day sixteen years ago?  What was I doing when I was sixteen?  What were you doing?  

Enough with the questions, today we are celebrating sixteen years since Julia started the longest running blog hop that I know of ever, and now Sarah has taken over the reins.  I remember back in the old days the numbers grew and grew and we had people from all corners of the world joining in.  Today we are much smaller in number but still the wowy'ers continue showing their desks, tidy or untidy and even sometimes we join in with nothing to show but the camaraderie that beats at the heart of WOYWW.

Sarah, in her usual caring way, suggeted that with the cost of postage these days we produce an ATC and show it on our desk, that way we can all share in what we have done for our sixteenth anniversary.  So here is mine surrounded by the things I used to produce it.  I decided to use my new Lavinia stamps (well, that is a shock isn't it?) and show what is sometimes on my desk - books!  So here we have two sets of books with an open one balancing on top - opened with stars and woyww 16 jumping out of it.  One of the little mice is lighting the way for all the magic that is woyww coming out of the book.

Happy WOYWW 16 Everyone

Starting top left we have two of my boxes where I keep different categories of my Lavinia stamps (Accessories and Animals/Ocean in this case), polka dot bag holds my gel pens, Posca's and Pastel Pencils.  Baby wipes with Nocturne inkpad on top, blue bag for my Inktense Pencils and just in front a waterpot and brush.  Back to the left are my black markers, Lavinia Index cards that are inside the stamps when you buy them (I have cut some down to ATC size 3.5" x 2.5") which I have used for my ATC's this time, my 'rough' paper that I use as a pad to stamp on, and to the right the various stamps used still on acrylic blocks.  That's my ATC on the 'rough' paper.

Here is my ATC which you can print, if you want to and add to your collection.

Well, that is it for this week, enjoy the day, eat cake and do whatever tickles your fancy.  Hopefully see you all next week.

Art Journal Journey - Acrylic Butterflies

 This page was painted in various shades of green acrylic paint and then a cobblestone stencil was used randomly in places on top which was dabbed with either grey or white paint.  Next I drew three butterflies, keeping to the same colour palette of green and grey, on spare cartridge paper and cut out and stuck them down.  You will notice they do not have antennae!  Oops?  No, It just didn't work when I drew some on so I decided, early enough, to omit them.  I love using bottle tops, when painting in my journal, to make circles and so I used a pill bottle top and dabbed it in some white paint and put in two groups of three and one single one.

A fine paintbrush went over the lines with some black paint and white was introduced in the circles left by the trail and then I flicked some white paint across with a quick kind of throw of the brush to give some white dotted lines running across the page.  Some cobbles were outlined in white and others with a 4B pencil as were the butterflies.  Finally I used a stamp with some gold paint to add sparkle and interest.

I hope you like my latest page for my theme "It Must Have Wings" at Art Journal Journey and would love you to join in with some of your work.

Art Journal Journey - Chas Owl

 My other half loves owls and so I decided to make a page and dedicate it to him.  I chose to use Gus as my main owl and Ginger to sit alongside him.  Gus needed something fairly strong to hold him and so I chose to use the garden sign but rather than use the words I blocked them off and wrote my dh's name.  Some time later my friend laminated my picture onto a tumbler for my other half as a surprise.

Background was made using Elements ink with hill masks used on the ground and a circle mask for the moon.  Various flowers were stamped with Versafine Clair inks and all colouring was done with Inktense pencils.  I decided to add a bee in the sky and a few branches framing the top.

I do hope that you join in with my challenge at Art Journal Journey this month, "It Must Have Wings", and find something with wings to illustrate your page in your journal.  There are lots of ideas on AJJ's page that I did at the beginning of the month which I hope will inspire you along with all the wonderful entries that people have done already.

Art Journal Journey

Today I wanted something different from birds and fairies and so, perhaps because the sun was shining,  my mind went to holidays far away in different lands.  And so it went to 'travel' and how to get there.  But what has wings?  Obviously it had to be an aeroplane.

I decided to show how you can make a journal page without many images, especially if you are into stamping.  I found a large square old map in my collage drawer which fascinated me and along with a couple of images/stamps I have and the one stamp for a biplane I set to in my square journal, adding a bit of colour with my Pan Pastels, tearing the map in half and sticking it down and then arranging the three stamped images.  The gap in the middle still looked a bit sparse and so I stamped 'Explore' and 'Memories' down the gap from an Aall & Create set.

Here is my offering of something else that has wings for my challenge over at Art Journal Journey which is "It Must Have Wings".   I do hope you can join me at AJJ with, maybe lots of planes, or something else that has wings.

Jeudi Journal - Lightening

"My mind works like lightening, one brilliant flash and it's gone" is the quote supplied by my blog partner Wendy for our Dylusion figures to represent.  As it has also to fit in with the Art Journal Journey challenge, set by me, which is "It Must Have Wings" I had to use something with wings and so I made up a story to explain why two characters on my page have wings.

"It was a lovely spring day when Janine had been lounging in the sunshine and fallen asleep.  Luckily she had a pair of sunglasses and a sunhat on her head to help give her some protection for we all know that we should not sit in the sun for too long and should always wear protection.

Janine had been dreaming that a fairy came down and touched her with some sparkly fairy dust that gave her an instant tan all over her body and that she was on a tropical island far away from the worries of work and home.  Suddenly she felt a spot of rain land on her nose and on opening her eyes she realised that she was still in her own back yard and the weather was changing.

But hold on, who was that stood there in front of her?  It was her best friend Glenda, but Glenda seemed to be sporting a pair of wings.

"What on earth are you doing here, and why are you wearing wings?"  she asked.  "Am I still dreaming or has something happened?"

"No" replied her friend Glenda, laughingly "I've just been to my nieces birthday party, she's only three and she wanted a fairy party this year so I obliged, as her favourite aunt, and went along with these wings on.  See, they do come off.  I just thought I would make you laugh.  Have you ever seen a fairy dressed in a coat and with a beret on her head?  Come on, we had better go indoors, it is going to rain hard before too long."

Janine got up from the lawn, rubbed her eyes to make sure she was really awake and still not dreaming of fairy dust and linked arms with her friend as they made their way into the house.

"You know something, my mind works like lightening, one brilliant flash and it's gone, I just thought of something as I woke up but now I haven't a clue what it was.  My mother used to say I had a head like a sieve but I think it's more like a colander - bigger holes."

And with that the two girls walked in through the patio doors to avoid the rain."

As I had used various shades of pink and purple Distress Inks (smooched) for my background I thought it looked rather messy so I chose not to colour my figures in but leave them black and white so that they stood out more against that background.  The only colour I used was a flesh colour on their faces and arms and some grey on Janine's sunglasses.

WOYWW 831

 Still having glorious weather although sometimes out of the sun there is a cool breeze.  I hope this is not the only good weather we get as summer is not with us yet and it would be lovely to have a nice warm few days now and then so that we can get ourselves a dose of vitamin D to help us ward off colds and things in the winter months.

I did not do the online class on Saturday as planned because we had gone away for a few days and I did not take enough materials with me.  Today I have been busy making a birthday card for a friend but I cannot share it as she might just sneak a peek on here.  It's a big one for her so I made a big card.  Here is my desk:

The card is on the left in an envelope so that you cannot see it.  I just hope I remember to scan it before it gets sent off.  The blue case has my Inktense pencils in, the polka dot one contains my Posca's, Pastel pencils and some Gelli pens.  You can just see three Distress Oxides and the pads I use on the applicators in those round storage cases.  The clear boxes at the back had some more ink pads in and my stencil brushes.  At the front you can see some of my acrylic pieces for my stamps. 

If you look closely there's a little bird picture there which I have not used in my journal.  I am guest host this month for Art Journal Journey and I was busy in the weeks throughout March/April making journal pages containing something with wings for my theme.  I couldn't tell you and it must have looked as if I was not doing much crafting when in truth I was stamping my heart out.

If you go to Art Journal Journey you can see my introduction page and if you scroll down my own blog you will see what pages I have been making up to now - but there are lots more to come.

So that is it for today - if you now pop over to Sarah's craft shed you can join in the fun and have a look at several blogs displaying their desks.  Have a lovely week.

Art Journal Journey - King Crow

This is a page in my Pan Pastel Journal.  To begin with I scrunched up some tissue paper, opened it up smoothing out but leaving some creases evident and then stuck down two pieces.  Next I coloured all over the page with various Pan Pastels in blue, green, yellow and pink allowing the colours to overlap in places making a secondary colour.

Then I began stamping various images - with the bird from Tim Holtz being just off centre and a crown on his head.  Clock face stamps are by Non Sequitur as is the branch which I thought, at first,  looked very much like lightening in the sky, and as are the birds.  All others are Tim Holtz stamps.

Using an eraser I made a circle in the sky to represent a sun or is it a moon?.

This is my entry into Art Journal Journey where I set the challenge "It Must Have Wings" for this month.  I do hope you can join in with something that has wings - I have given you some ideas if you check the home page of AJJ.

Art Journal Journey - Baby Owl

  I bought myself a journal from Lavinia because I loved the rag paper in it but then I found it difficult for me to stamp silhouette stamps perfectly on the rough surface so quite often I stamp on a piece of cardstock and then add it to my journal.

As the pages in my Lavinia Journal do not take to my stamping very well I made this on a piece of cardstock and then stuck it into my journal.  I never thought of there being a problem for me when I chose a rag page journal rather than a smooth one.  However if the card I use is not big enough to cover the whole page I often do some stencilling around the smaller ones.   

Owls have wings and so for this page in my Lavinia Journal for Art Journal Journey and my theme "It must have wings" I chose to use Bijou, the baby owl in the Lavinia collection.  He needed to sit upon something and so I looked at my flower collection and chose the Forest Flower so that I could incorporate some colour into the head of the flower and I chose blue for the base with orange, its complimentary colour, next to it and finishing off with lemon.  Now I know that flowers grow vertically but if Bijou was to sit upon it he needed it to be horizontal and so I used a bit of artistic licence with this one.

It is usual in my Lavinia journal pages to use both Elements and Versafine Claire inkpads and colour images ie in this case Bijou and the flower head, with Inktense pencils.  As this was only made on a smallish piece of card I tried to add some interest on the actual page surrounding it with some stencilling You can barely see it on here bute it is there I assure you).  For this I used the blue ink that was left on my number 9 stencil brush and the stencil called "Glory".  I like to work on different sized pieces and put them in my journal and then try to work out what to do to fill the page.  A favourite quick and easy way is to use a stencil randomly on the white space.

Art Journal Journey - It Must Have Wings (Introduction)

Once again I have been asked to be a Guest Host for Art Journal Journey.  I have been working on one or two ideas for my theme, which is "It must have wings" which covers my love of Lavinia stamps and the fairies that Tracy draws herself and has made into polymer stamps.  But it does not have to stop at fairies, if you think about it lots of things have wings - butterflies, dragonflies, ladybirds and other insects; birds (don't forget chickens, hens, owls etc),  angels,  what about aeroplanes, lots of things steampunk, mythical creatures and so on.  You could even think of some buildings, the White House has its West Wing, hospitals have wings and so there are lots of wings when you think of it.  I wonder what you will come up with?

I am so looking forward to seeing what you make in your journal (please read the dreaded rules which you will find at the top of the AJJ Home Page.   Remember to link your actual post and not just your blog (instructions again at the top of the AJJ home page) and I will do my best to come and see what you have done and leave a comment for you.

My first post for this theme is from my Lavinia Journal and features two fairies, Twila and Lumus, with one of the new fledglings. Although you cannot see the wings on the fledgling you can see that both fairies have beautiful wings which I coloured with my Inktense pencils and then used Wink of Stella instead of water to merge the colours together, I just wish you could see the sparkle.  

Inks used: Versafine Clair Nocturne,  Fallen Leaves, Pinecone, Shady Lane, Paradise, Warm Breeze, Morning Mist.  Elements Lime Punch, Blue Atoll.

Lavinia Stamps used: Twila, Lumus (lge), Tree of Courage, Tree of Hope, Fairy Path, Gate & Fence, Bluebell, Woodland Fern, Silhouette Foliage, Orchard Grass and Slender Mushroom Mini.

As it is Thursday I have my page to do for the challenge between Wendy and myself.  Today the quote Wendy sent to me is "We are not Old People, we are Recycled Teenagers" and here is my page using Dylusion figures.

Diane and Sue had been friends since primary school, neither had married and so they had been very close to one another for a number of years.  Both had been teachers in a High School working with teenagers and both were involved in the Girl Guides.  Diane was a Guide Leader whilst Sue had the older girls in her Ranger Unit.

It was a cold day and the two were returning home after a Parent Evening which had gone on until quite late in the evening.

"Don't know about you" said Diane, "but I am really tired, beginning to feel my age these days after a full day of teaching and then facing a whole load of questions from parents."

"I know exactly what you mean" replied Sue, "fancy a chippy supper, we haven't eaten since lunchtime?  I don't think I could face a sandwich and I certainly cannot cook anything now.  Are we getting too old for this game?"

"Come on Sue, it's just been a tiring day for us both.  We are not old people, we are recycled teenagers and after a good night's sleep we will both feel different.  Especially at weekend when we go to the jamboree at Hay Hall.  It will be fun to let our hair down and be camping again with the others.  I can't wait to go on the zip line again, it was such fun last year."

And the two went in the chip shop and ate a big bag of chips on the way home.  

chips in the UK are known as fries over the water. but I think you are all familiar with that.