WOYWW 385

Well, last week just sped on by but maybe because I was meeting up with other WOYWW'ers - Jo, Annie, Mrs D and Margaret.  You can see photographs of us all in the post below if you want although I know some of you saw them on Friday when that particular post went live.

Saturday saw me attending a Kate Crane workshop in Burnley with my lovely friend Lorraine.  This is one of my journal pages (still not finished as it wants some more layers on) and three of my jumbo tags all done Kate style.  What a lovely and very generous teacher she is.

Did hope to have the page finished but my back has been bad and so put paid to any crafting again. Yes, this is a staged photograph but I know some of you wanted to see what we did so it was unavoidable.

There were some very nice ladies on the workshop and I was sure I had met one of them before but as she said she came from Leicester it didn't seem possible.  Then I put my apron on and my name was there in pen so she said "Yes! I know you now".  Turns out she had been on one of my Oyster workshops a couple of years ago.  How is that for a memory?  And I thought I had a poor one - but maybe not for faces.

Well today I took delivery of two new stamps.  One is a goldfish and the other is a flamingo.  I have the flamingo die so that I can cut it out but couldn't remember whether I had ordered the goldfish or the seahorse stamp for the three stage stamping.

Now I need to get the goldfish die!

I love my MISTI and this three stage stamping is made so much easier when you have one of these, especially if you want to make a batch of cards - and I do.  I just love the effect of the three stages too.

This is the Flamingo and a card with the Peony on

Right, will keep it fairly short and sweet today, if you want to see more head on over to Julia's and follow the links to other desks. Enjoy yourself!

Week 192 of Annie's Smiles

Well, here I am - just a few days late for Friday posting with Annie but I did have a good reason.  I was visiting.  Visiting special people and let's face it, what brings a smile to your face more than meeting up with friends, especially friends who do not live on your doorstep and whom you don't see that often.

Wednesday saw me being chauffeured down to Shrewsbury to meet up with the lady herself, Annie - our very own Wipso.  Annie and I first met up when I was staying in a house with friends and she came to see me, just for a very short while, in the pub where my friends and I were eating that evening.  Then we met up a couple of months ago when I went down and now here we are

Plus ... Annie's Sister, Jo!  

This time I didn't get a photo with "wriggle pants" - aka Milly!  Good excuse to have to go down again.  How come I missed out on a photo shoot with Milly?  It was lovely to meet up with Jo at last and hopefully we will get to meet up again at some time.

From Shrewsbury we went on to Llandudno.  This was a compensatory holiday for the ten day one in Spain that we had had to cancel on account of my not being well.  Two days in Llandudno, very enjoyable and, apart from rain on Wednesday evening, we did not get wet at all.

I would love to do a post about Llandudno but the main event in Wales was meeting up with another WOYWW friend, much like the meet with Annie as I got to meet someone else as well.

Thursday saw me sat in the hotel on my mobile phone making a telephone call to someone who had no idea I was quite as close to her as I was.  Arrangements were made for me to call to see her and another WOYWW friend the following morning so here I am, this time with Margaret (Glitter and Glue) and her very good friend Mrs D.

Mrs D, Me and Margaret reading from left to right.

So, as you can see I had plenty to smile about this Friday.  Sorry it has taken me so long to upload my blogpost but better late than never.  Will blog in more detail on Wednesday when I can be sure more WOYWW'ers will see my post.  In the meantime I am linking up to Annie's and off for a trip to see what others have to smile about.

Jeudi Journal - Sun

Wendy's choice this time - and we had to include a sun. Well I was really stumped this time.  As most of my pages had been already prepped (how I wish I had not done this) I found it even more difficult to paint a 'sunny' page.

As you can see I chose a green one - why?  No idea!

I drew a circle and then drew flame type shapes surrounding it on a piece of white cardstock.  Out came my DecoArt paints and Titan Buff went all over followed by Primary Yellow, Pyrrole Orange and Pyrrole Red for the flame shapes.  I just painted a face in but didn't bother about all the shading like I would on one of my Tracy Scott faces and stuck a hat on which was taken from a Vogue magazine - some kind of jewellery piece.

Finally I did the lettering and went over the leaves with a fine black pen.

I wonder what Wendy has done?

WOYWW 384

Still awfully thin on the crafting front I really must get my act together and make some cards before long.  I just owe too many birthday cards now, they have been mounting up over the past month and EEK!!! I bought a die on Sunday to make my "Special Christmas Cards" with.  You may remember I made the church in a box that my dear friend Janet showed us all at Oyster how to make.

So things had better get moving whether I feel like it or not - but not until this weekend is over.  I am off to a workshop with my good friend and stamping buddy Lorraine again and this time we will be learning from Kate Crane.  So exciting - and the week after I finally get to meet Eileen Goddard at another workshop so I had better be fit and well.  (Both workshops booked and paid for well before I started being ill)

Anyway, here is my desk

Far right is one of my square journals.  This is being prepped with Gesso on some pages in readiness for the KC workshop.  Working round to the left is my big journal with a page already painted and awaiting 'Jeudi Journal' inspiration - will have to be quick with that one but am so stuck!

Next are two pencil cases that have been taken from my Tim Holtz bag because I want the bag but not all my pencils on Saturday.  Next to the pencil cases is my little pink tote that I used on Sunday at Newark, still packed up.  Then comes my TH bag with it's assortment of things inside, a brayer is next resting on top of my small Gelli Plate and finally my tin of various mediums (Gesso, Texture Paste etc).

Well, that is it from me, off to see Annie later this morning and then off to Llandudno for a couple of nights.  Now where should I go, Betwsy, Conway, Caernarfon or where?  So many lovely places around that area, you will just have to wait and see.

Just linking up to Julia now and hopefully next week will have something to show you all.  Crafting at last????

Jeudi Journal

Well, the conversation between Wendy and myself went a bit like this the other week:

Me:  What's the next topic?
Wendy: Red
Me: What the heck am I going to do for that?
Wendy: I don't know (imagine the tone) but you chose it!!!

Well, yesterday was very interesting as I tried to make something of an already coloured red page.  It was actually quite nice until I started messing about with it.  I began drawing swirls with my black pens, including bits of white pen - why do they show up pink?  Oh how I wish I was into Zentangling!  Never been much good at it, don't have the patience for it and I cannot even find the books I have that show you how to do the various patterns.

The opposite page was red too so I decided to stamp a new stamp on it and somehow make it look much larger on the page - no good - I just could not get a solid image - what is it with me and silhouette type stamps?

So my dear friends - I just carried on into the night messing about with my pens and this is all I came up with - lots of room for improvement but no time as the land of nod is beckoning me.  Here it is - Red!

WOYWW 383

Another week gone by, another week of no creativity as such.  Oh dear, I really must get my act together. Didn't even get much shopping done when I went to Port Sunlight on Saturday but I did enjoy meeting up and talking with my friends.  Isn't that what life is all about - friendships?

Literally walked through the door and into the large room when my friend Sam(ski) saw me and then that was it.  Met Helen (cannot believe it was the FIRST time we had ever met, after chatting so much in Blogland), Emma - closely followed by dear Doug and Shaz. Hazel, who some of you may remember from Horseshoe Crafts was the next person I saw and she looked stunning.  Didn't get much chance to talk to her and so regret that we didn't meet up later as I loved the new look Hazel. She really is a lovely person inside and out and I miss her being a vendor at Port Sunlight so much.

Made my way to Helen (Nile) to ask about Sylvia and spent about a hour and a half sitting and chatting in the doorway to Sylvia.  We had so much catching up to do.  Then I bought my first purchases.  Three stamps from Visible Images.  Here they are with my last minute of the day purchases from one of my favourite vendors, Leandra of PaperArtsy.  I don't get much chance to see Leandra with her being in Essex and me being up north so it is always a pleasure to see her at this show.

Anyway, the stencil is a Donna Downey one, the pink mushroom type stamps are JOFY ones and the multicoloured one is the last in my collection of Tracy Scott stamps from Paper Artsy.  The paints are also from PA but the other three stamps are from Visible Images. Was I restrained or what?

Now some of you may be wondering about the pink rose?  Can you see it in front of the paints?  That was given to me by Kay from Honey Doo Crafts.  She, and daughter Amanda, make the most beautiful flowers and dear Kay gave it to me when I was talking to her at the end of the show.

Well, before I made my Paper Artsy purchases I went and had lunch, a two hour sit down (now you know why I didn't get much shopping done) and was joined by Helen Jackson, Sarah Anderson, Anita Mistry (not seen her for years), Lynn Hardy, Pearshaped Chris, Janet Wilson, Doug and Shaz.

Deciding I had better make a move I set off but didn't get far as I bumped into Chris Slater closely followed by Ann Thompson (Thommo).  I made my way back to Paper Artsy and saw the Samski/Helen gang again who were now joined by Alison Hall (Craftytrog) who was demonstrating for Leandra.

Somewhere along the line, I have lost track, I also saw my Bestie, Lorraine and her friend Sue, Margaret Rose 1, Jacqui Hill and finally got to meet up with Diane Waldock who had messaged me to say she was attending.

Well, that just left vendors to see and I made my way to see Paul Church on the Clarity stand, had another chat with Mr PaperArtsy, Mark, and made my way to another sit down with Kay on Honey Doo and her lovely daughter Amanda.

So you see, with needing to say "Hello" to all those people I kept my money in my purse - well not quite all of it but I only spent around £100.  Didn't stay there that long though as I found some stamps online that I have been wanting for ages so an order went in and I needed some more paints so that was another order.  

Do we really NEED these things or do we simply WANT them?

Pop along to see Julia to see what she has been up to and follow a few links to see some interesting desks whilst having a cuppa. Toodlepip - see you all next week.

Jeudi Journalling - Include a Dog

Well, could have sworn I had scheduled a post for this.  At going up to noon I suddenly thought about it and went to have a look but nothing there.  Doh!  Got my silly head on again.  The forgetful one that is.  Here goes - another of my magazine cut up crazy figures

This time it looks as if she has a whole menagerie on her head and there is someone lurking in her pocket too.  Guess this is a lady who loves her pets.  Not sure if she should be Carmen Miranda with the head dress or who/what!

Thankfully this was done ahead of time but next week's topic has to be started and I have not a clue where to begin.  Better get this wool out of my head and put my thinking cap on.  See you then!