WOYWW 589

Well, I started off by telling you how annoyed I was that I could no longer fully justify my writing - but having problems loading pictures I pressed something and suddenly got the option for a fully justified post.  Not a clue where I found it but I did.  will I find it next week?  That remains to be seen.

Anyway, I am here to show you my desk.  It is not my usual desk as I am not at home so here is the kitchen counter at my hideaway.  So fed up with the Covid figures for Bolton we have taken ourselves off for a couple of days and are hiding in a lovely caravan somewhere on the edge of The Lakes.  I did manage to gather together some goodies to take with me and so I have been able to craft a bit.

You can see I brought some of my Oxides with me, mainly because I can do backgrounds with them and also because they stamp perfectly as well.  Here are three pages of my little book I am making with some Janet Klein figures.  You can just about see a sneaky view of the other colours I am using in the book, and my new stencils (which arrived just as we were about to set off).  There is also a bag of baby wipes and the grey knitted object in the top left is my cover for my trusty hot water bottle for my back.  I never am far away from it, in fact it is at my back as I type this.

Back at home my desk has three cards on it and I brought some more cardstock to make more of those cards in case I got time.  Do you remember "Core Card" from way way back?  It came in packs of the most gorgeous colours and I have loads that has never been used - well now it will be.  It was my turn to do a virtual workshop for Vicky Stampers last weekend and so quickly I put together these three cards and am hoping to make lots of variations of these over the next few days.

The pinkish one is waiting to be decorated - it has some Designer Paper incorporated in it and I wanted the group to see one that was 'unfinished' so chose to use that one.  It's the Scrappy Strip Technique and I first saw it on Maxine's Blog in New Zealand.  Seems to be a newish and popular technique over there and I think it is very effective.  I certainly enjoyed doing it - thanks Maxine!  That's birthday cards taken care of for the coming year.  (Mmmm... will have to try one with some Christmas themed papers I don't use).

Well, I will leave it there for this week and pop over to see what Julia has been up to and link in with some of my blogger friends for a sneaky peek at their desks on WOYWW.  See you next week with more of those stripey cards.

Health Update:

The swelling has gone down considerably from the operation but it still looks like the mouth of one of those Grandparent dolls with no teeth and there is still a lot of glue left on the wound.  Tempting to pick at it but I won't because I was told not to and I do try to do as I am told - sometimes.

Back is suffering because I cannot go to the chiropractor.  I will not put her in the position of having to say "no" to me because of the dreadful Covid figures in Bolton which I guess you have all seen on the news.  The only thing we could be "top" for is something as horrid as this.

Unfortunately my shoulder is getting worse with having no treatment also and now I seem to be having a bicep problem in my left arm.  

Jeudi Journal - Mouth (help please with labels)

A big welcome to Sirkka who is my latest follower.  Hope you enjoy my blog in the future.

This did not turn out as planned!  The quote for today from Dyan is "If you ran like your mouth you'd be in great shape".  I had this idea of a jogger but did any of Dyan's figures fit the category - no!  The only one resembling a jogger was this tall one with a pair of shorts on but she did have big boots on too.  Ah well, the shorts outweighed the boots (although strictly speaking I would think the boots weighed considerably more than the shorts LOL).

The search was on, now I had the shorts I needed a face with a fairly prominent mouth and so I came upon this one and had to give her some hair as she comes without.  Next was to find a figure that would work alongside her - ie the one who was uttering the quote.  I found this fairly tall slim figure and decided she would do, now to find a head that did not look as if the whole body was doing a contortionist act.  I think I managed to find one, turning to the jogger but still in keeping with the body facing the opposite way.  So we have the story:

"Sarky (as in sarcastic) Sue was out for a walk in the fields with her little dog, which had run off chasing rabbits somewhere, when along came her old enemy from school days Penelope Pit-Stop.  Penny, as she is known these days, was out jogging in her new outfit of spotted shorts with a top that had matching sleeves.  Well, a girl has to look her best whether out in town or jogging in the countryside, afterall you never know who you are going to bump into.  Oh ho, oh no, was that Sarky Sue ahead?  Yes, it was, and Sarky Sue was known for never missing an opportunity.  The two of them had clashed many a time whilst at school and things had not got any better as they had grown up.

Penny was all for jogging on past but suddenly she heard Sue shout out "If you ran like your mouth you'd be in great shape".  This annoyed Penny so much that she had to stop and compose herself before carrying on with the run.  A deep breath or two and she was composed enough to continue on her way, much to the annoyance of Sarky Sue.  Better not to get into another of those school day slanging matches!"

As I wanted to enter my page into Art Journal Journey where the lovely Jo has set the challenge for us to use "Texture" on our pages I decided to use some heavy gesso down the left hand side of my page and I chose one of my favourite stencils of a border of leaves.  It came out really well but I should have painted the page first as you may not see the great texture on a scan.  So I outlined the leaves in white pen where they were on the green grassy area.  With hindsight I should have left them as they were as the Gesso really did a good job on its own and the leaves are quite prominent without any markings.  Ah well, we live and learn.

Once again I cannot put any labels on my post.  Yes, the block is there down the right hand side saying "labels", then telling me to "separate labels with com..." and underneath "No matching suggestions".  The problem is it will not let me add anything, nothing shows as it did last week with a list and a tick box alongside each label.  Anyone else had this problem and if so any ideas how to resolve it please?

WOYWW 588

Gosh this Wednesday came around much quicker than I had hoped but then we went away for a few days and I forgot half of my craft stuff - resulting in nothing being able to be done - ZILCH!  Ooh, I was cross with myself for forgetting the Distress Brushes and the background stamps.  Still, thinks I, I can get caught up with typing my notes up, I had my laptop and my notebook - but who (he who is in charge of such things, self appointed Master of) had forgotten to take my lead up so it could be charged?

A total disaster!  And the weather was not particularly kind, like it rained most of the days so going out did not happen that much.  And I am not one for too much TV and that!  So here I am back home and not a thing to show you on my workdesk.  Did collect some leaves to press ready for another of my painting sessions as in the tag book done with Tracy Evans recently and on one of the walks I found a couple of feathers in the grass which looked particularly colourful.

One day we went a walk along the prom and I spied a walkway down to the beach which looked to be full of small pebbles - when we got down to them they crunched like crazy under our feet - this was the floor

Can you guess where we were by what is on the floor?  It's in the north and not too far for me to travel to.  We saw a rainbow too

So what is on my desk?  That is what you are here for

I had taken the white card up with me and the figures at the back, all cut and coloured, ready for making into a book of sorts with the Janet Klein figures.  So here they are, all laid out ready for me to do the next colour on the main card and then I can get going on the stamping and finally putting the figures on.

Maybe next week I will have something to show you.  Fingers crossed.  Now to dash off to WOYWW and see what Julia and the others have been up to.  Join me here?

Has anyone else found that "labels" has disappeared?

Jeudi Journal - Men

A new challenge over on Art Journal Journey by the lovely Jo which is "Texture".  Now that is sweet music to me as I love texture and I had the perfect page to start off with.  Remember last week when I had a page that just would not behave?  It refused to take paint or even Gesso - well I stuck some Art Deco Paper Perfect on it in an attempt to provide some coverage.  I was not sure whether it would stay on the page or come off - luckily it stayed on and allowed me to slap some paint on today.

I think it is really a product that you put on a sheet of polythene and it peels off when dry to make you a sheet of paper to use in your artwork, but it does mention using it on hard surfaces as well, not sure what for apart from to give texture maybe.

Anyway, my page - if you look at my blogpost yesterday you will see the ArtDeco stuff on my page and it is a creamy yellow colour.  I did not put it completely over every inch of the page but it got good coverage.  Imagine my delight when I saw that Jo was asking for texture - my page was oozing with texture and I decided not to put any stencil work on as well as there seemed to be enough.  I had decided on an outdoor scene so it was an obvious choice to paint the top of the page blue and the base green.  It wasn't easy to get complete coverage and so there are bits of yellow showing through but i decided that this just added to the texture for the challenge on AJJ.  My Story this week?

"Four friends, rather militant types, definite feminists, had all decided to go to a rally for "Women's Rights".  There was a huge banner there but the girls had taken their own sign which said "The More I See of Men, The More I Like Animals", funnily enough that is the quote from Dyan that we have chosen to use this week.  Simone, the French girl had decided to take a kite along with her and had tied a notice of her own to the string of the kite (another texture) which read "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars".  She knew she had the saying the wrong way around but wanted to emphasise "Women" in her own little protest.  Rather a novel way of getting people to see one aspect of the protest and she had climbed the hill to be able to fly her kite as high as possible."

I hope there is enough texture for Jo on here, I can assure her that the figures are all coloured and fussy cut, to give texture in a way, the main sign is mounted on a double sticky tab so it really does stand out, and the page is very textural with the paste. 

Now how can I introduce texture next week?

WOYWW 587

 I am certainly not grumbling but these Wednesdays seem to come around quicker than I like them to - but not because of WOYWW and my blogging.  I like the fact because then I get to see what lots of my friends have been up to by visiting Julia and following the links where we all show our desks, kind of "bare all" craft wise of course!

This is my desk as it stands at the moment

I am waiting for the page on the left to dry.  It was my 'giant error page' from last week's "Jeudi Journal" challenge that I do with my friend, Wendy.  I think I mentioned last week I had tried several layers because I could not get it right and now it has a layer of Perfect Paper by Decoart.  Not a clue what is going to happen, I have had this tub of stuff for ages and never used it.  It might end up scraping off for all I know.  Has anyone out there used it?  It takes 12 - 24 hours to dry apparently.

It is surrounded by all my packets of images that I have ready fussy cut and often coloured for my Jeudi Journal which will be out tomorrow.  The drawer on the left is where I store them and the ones left in are the ones I know I will not be choosing images from. At the moment I have not a clue what I will use.  The page you see on the right was last weeks.  Hope this stuff dries ok and I can get this page finished for tomorrow.

In the absence of anything worth looking at on my desk here are a couple of cards I have received recently from lovely friends

Darlene (from America)

Jan (she wouldn't say that now if she saw my lockdown hair)

Cath (wish I could show you that background for real, it is beautiful)

Nicki (from Switzerland and another fab background)

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did when I opened the mail.

Oops, almost forgot, here's my patch on my comfort cardigan:

Blanket stitched around the edges and some cross stitch to hold it down where it meets cardigan - this is the wrong side that shows the thin and hole areas.

Health Update:

Will be glad when I can put my arm up and wash my hair with ease.  Did manage sitting in the shower with a ton of polythene on the wound but not ideal.  It is doing nicely though and the swelling is coming down and the bruising has all but gone.

Wish the Covid results were better for Bolton. We were being eased from the partial lockdown but an escalation of cases has sent us way up in the tables and now the Mayor of Gtr Manchester is asking the government NOT to ease the lockdown on us.  We are now the second highest number of cases per 100,000 in the UK.  Not good news!

Jeudi Journal - Don't Care

 This week the quote from Dyan is "I don't care that you don't care" which seems a nice simple quote until you start to do a journal page using it - and include either a pocket or a tag so you can join in with Art Journal Journey and the great challenge set by Alison.

I had a problem doing the background, in fact I started another page as a result.  The first one was using two shades of Distress Inks and then a stencil over the top but it looked so "in your face" that I went over it with Gesso, a favourite trick of mine.  Then paint in three coats and I just gave up - I could not get it to resemble anything I liked.  Now all of this took some considerable time because my back has been terrible these past few days and I can't get to the chiropractor for a few weeks yet on account of the operation I just had.   It was 'do a bit' go back to sitting down with the hot gel bottle, 'do a bit', 'sit down' and so on.  In the end I had had enough!

So a different page and a quick smoosh of Peeled Paint and a bit of Tumbled Glass above and the Distress Inks did it again for me.  Then I took one of Dyan's stencils and popped some leaves down one side and across the top, fading them out as they progressed.

I like using several figures so I chose to put three boys and a girl on this week plus one of the dogs and I stole a rabbit from Janet Klein just because it was hanging around.  All of these were ready fussy cut and coloured in with Promarkers.  You will see that one of the boys is really the same figure but one with a different head and one with different legs to make the two of them different.

Story: The youngsters were having a great time playing out but then suddenly there were words and Priscilla decided she was going to go home and take the animals with her.  The boys were a bit disappointed as they had enjoyed playing with both the dog and the rabbit.  Sadly they were Priscilla's animals and she decided to take them home.  Jeremy was most upset and he began to cry which rather angered his big brother, Jim, who then used some rather heated words with Priscilla because he is so protective of his younger brother.  But, who held the ace in the pack?  She did of course, so as she flounced off with her pets in her trolley Jim shouted after her "I don't care that you don't care".

The trolley is a pocket so that it conforms to the challenge at AJJ and the pets are moveable and therefore could be changed into other animals.  Imagine a giraffe!

WOYWW 586

Another week has gone by, these days are going quicker than ever.  So it is back on the merry-go-round that goes under the name of WOYWW, the merriest blog hop that has been going for years and years, brainchild of the lovely Julia who will explain it all to you here.

I did say I would show you my last batch of iCads - to the end of July - so I am a bit behind with them you might say.  This time you will see I had a bit of help from AALL & Create by using some figures from Janet Klein and some bits I did whilst creating my tag book, shown last week.

But what is on my workdesk?  Well, haven't tried any stamping yet as I am trying to not put my arm through too much but I decided to do a bit of knitting.

Yes, not exciting knitting is it?  It is simply a rectangle to make a patch for my cardigan.  you know how children have "comfort blankets" well I have a "comfort cardigan".  It all began with the bad back, I would use the cardigan so that the hot gel bottle (or water bottle), with its own cover I might add,  did not burn me.  Only trouble is it became a favourite and I wore it every time I wanted some comfort from the pain so it got a good massaging across the back.  Either from poor Chas rubbing my back or the upright heater in the bedroom doing the job.  Eventually it wore thin and came into holes.  Being the type of person I am I could not part with it  as it had done me so much service so I decided to knit a patch for it.  Not the same colour but near enough.  After all it is only worn in the house when there are only the two of us.  Now the cardigan has a new lease of life, or will have when I cast off and press it before stitching it to the holes in the back.

A friend of mine sent for some fairy accessory stamps but when they came she was disappointed as they were smaller than anticipated so she passed them on to me.  They are now awaiting me stamping them onto the pieces of paper in these folders before putting them away.

Health Update:

Last Saturday I had to take the dressing off the wound and I was not looking forward to seeing what was underneath.  The clear sticky part of the dressing was very sticky and so I had about three goes, peeling a little at a time until the whole thing came off later afternoon.  It looked awful.  Bruised and swollen it is a bit of a mangled mess but I am confident the swelling will go down and it will be as neat as the original one.

You know those stickers they put on your legs and chest?  Well I had them on my left leg and right arm and when they removed them they have come up in perfect circular bruises.  Must be because of the blood thinners I take but they don't half look funny being perfect circles.  I am looking forward to washing my hair and having a proper shower as I am only showering from the rib cage downwards at the moment - the rest is a stand up wash job.  Good job I don't suffer with greasy hair.

See you all next week.