WOYWW 618

It's almost Wednesday as I am writing this.  Forgot all about doing a post until just now.  Like most folks I normally do it on a Tuesday evening but tonight I got side tracked and went off kilter.  Not much to show either - in the way of crafting, but I have a new toy.  So for all you WOYWW'ers out there here is my new toy - a gift from a lovely young friend.

Some of you will know what this black spidery thing is and others will maybe wonder.  Some of you may even have one - it is for holding my mobile phone (the lower black arm) and it has two lights (the two circles which have three settings from dim to bright.  I cannot wait to get using it but first I have to have something to video.

The nice thing was that it came with a note saying it was for "A Happy Birthday and Mother's Day" and came with love from Jayne and her family.  Jayne is a lovely young friend whom I am very fond of and she rings me up quite regularly for a chat.  She knew that Chas has to hold the mobile phone for me whilst I do my videos for You Tube and so it is a gift in a way for both of us.  Isn't that a lovely thing to do?

I said there was nothing on my craft desk of note - I have been busy cataloguing my Janet Klein little figures and you can see the fruits of my labour on the right of the photo below.

Why my Misti is there I have not a clue but the orange card is left over from die-cutting some letters to welcome a new neighbor.  Beneath it is my newish border acrylic block from Aall & Create and to the right my cataloguing sheets for my JK figures.  I've just ordered another - 'Lil Leonie became available as an add on so I had to buy some new acrylic blocks so that I could get it.  An expensive small stamp but I do like those blocks and will use them.  I only want one really so will see if I can sell the other to a friend.

The green box at the back you have seen many times before, it is a council bin for recycling kitchen waste - we got a spare for some reason, probably because we have a long bungalow with two doors on the frontage.   I painted it and stuck pictures all over it of Parisian things.  

Well that is it for this week, I need to get some sleep.  See you when I have my weekly snoop.

Jeudi Journal - the Wrong Decision

I always try to link my 'Thursday Journal' to Art Journal Journey and so my spread today is, as always on a Thursday, inspired by the words and art of  Dyan Reaveley.  I am fortunate to live quite close to Dyan and so have taken many workshops, given by her and her team of tutors, in the delightful town of Harrogate.  I have known her for many many years from when we were on the circuit together, when her hair was cropped short and she wore black - and Doc Martin boots - a total contrast to the retro dressing red haired Dyan most of you know.

Dyan has, since those days, become a Designer for Ranger in America and brings her quirky designs to the world of art and crafters everywhere.  She still has her store in Harrogate, still runs the occasional workshop when she is in this country, albeit at the moment via You Tube because of the pandemic, and is a very successful business woman, and, the reason I began art journaling.

As today Art Journal Journey are honouring Eileen, a member of their team who has sadly recently passed, by continuing with the theme that she was going to host which is "Influenced By" I am joining in with my page which is influenced by Dyan Reaveley who taught me some of the different ways to do an art journal.

RIP Eileen

How many times in your life have you felt like "Getting out of bed is always the wrong decision"?  That is the quote from Dyan this week.  Well, not exactly Dyan, it was Wendy's choice from one of Dyan's plates.  So what have we this week?

Once again I used my reverse stencilling for the background.  Actually this was a mop up from last week as I used the left over bits on the stencil to put on this page but to make it a bit more defined I added some darker blue to the squared stencil and used that over the top.  Then i drew in one or two of the squares with a marker pen and a gelly roll one.  Today we have two friends, Sophie and Tina ...

"Tina has arrived at Sophie's house to go out to meet up with some friends for a socially distanced get together.  This is the first time they have been able to meet outside in a small group of six so obviously all the girls have been making a real effort to dress up rather nicely.

Sophie felt she had made a real effort, especially with her hair which she had streaked herself and she was so pleased with how it looked.  She felt she had a reasonable figure so she had chosen her dress rather carefully so that it accentuated her tiny waist and showed off her legs rather well.  It was a new dress, one she had ordered over the internet because clothes shopping had been out of reach with all the rules for this pandemic that was going on all over.  Her new boots were lovely and shiny and she was really on quite a high.  That was until she saw Tina.

Tina had also streaked her hair, not quite as good as Sophies, or so Sophie thought, but her outfit!  That was another story.  She was wearing the most adorable dress, the one that Sophie had wanted with the beautiful magenta frill running around the hip.  It had been the frill that had sold it on the screen to Sophie but it was no longer available in her size.  Tina must have bought the last one!

Poor Sophie, her face fell, and she looked so sad.  The whole day was turning into a disaster.  "Getting out of bed is always the wrong decision" she thought as she put on a brave face and walked out of the door to meet up with the others."

Here I am with Dyan, being silly at CHA in 2016 (it was her idea to pose like this)

617 WOYWW

Have had a bad week with spam comments.  I cannot believe how many I have had in a week - 401 to date since last Wednesday.  I have now found out how to delete them as a block but in the attempt to do this I hope I have not taken someone else out.  I have also reported it to Blogger but not heard anything as yet.  Anyone else having this problem or is it just me who has annoyed someone enough to do this to me? 

Anyway, to heck with Spam comments - isn't this weather gorgeous?  We actually went out yesterday, did not meet a soul so stayed well within our boundaries but look at this glorious fungi I saw

and a lonely spike of it

Well, you really came on here to see my desk but as it is perfectly clean and tidy I will show you how it was a short while ago when I was making a card.  This is my Misti (love my Misti) and the card is placed on it and look at how many magnets I have put on it!  And these are strong magnets.  Well when I lifted the stamp side up the bottom right magnet flipped underneath the card and the others all slid over to the left a bit.  That is just how strong and sticky the Aall & Create stamps are.  I know a lot of 'red rubber fans' do not like polymer but honestly these are such good quality as this proves, not at all flimsy.  

Anyway, here is the finished card.

The guy it is for is an ardent walker and so I wanted some boots for hbis card.  My lovely friend Cath sent me the boots and footprint images in black, in brown and embossed.  So I stamped and embossed the Aall & Create image and then put the boots on with sticky pads and another pair of boots and footprints on the inside to finish it off.  

My nieces little one has his third birthday coming up so I made him a card the same day.  Decided to do a K-card and then wished I hadn't started as there was so much in it, it was almost like making three cards in one with all the decorating - but he is worth it.

the cover above - and the inside below

The back shows a little boy (Theo) and his dog in the middle of a field with two little bumble bees holding a banner saying "Happy Birthday".  The aperture bit has birds in the sky, flowers and a bunny below (plus another little bird) and two cheeky chickens are hanging onto the sides of the oval aperture.  Took me ages cutting and colouring all these images.  What do I do when it is his big brother's birthday in August (he is featured on the cover going to the party)?

Should have been having my second jab today but as I got the message on the answer phone (we have only ever been out in a full year for medical appointments apart from Tuesday - honestly - Girl Guide's Honour) yesterday when we got back from our trip out, it was too late when I rang the doctors back.  Now I have to wait for the next batch!

So it's not been my week has it?  Not to worry, I can now go and visit my lovely friends on WO\YWW and see what kind of week they have had - why not join in with us - you get a real good old snoop into the bargain.  Click here and join in with us all.

A Single Flower

Just nipping in with another Journal Page for Art Journal Journey and Sheila's lovely challenge which finishes tomorrow - "A Single Flower".   I usually just post a journal page on a Thursday when I do my Dylusion Journal page but I wanted to do one a little bit different this time and so here it is - my Single Flower for Sheila:

I had a brayered page in my square journal and so I thought I would use one of my new Aall & Create stamps by Tracy Evans.  This is one of my favourite stamps from the new collection and I simply stamped it in black and then embossed it with clear embossing powder.  The butterfly was coloured with a blue Inktense pencil and then I stamped and cut another one out and attached it with the body only so that the wings stood up a little.

I coloured the hibiscus with Inktense pencils also and then cut it out and put that to one side of the circle stamps, painting two of the circles in a green shade.  Finally I added the word "Hibiscus" at the base of the page.

I really enjoyed making this page and wish there was more time to do more pages of single flowers.

Jeudi Journal - Walks

 I am afraid it is another background like the last ones have been - a simple reverse stencil technique.  My back has been so bad again this week that I have had to do something that did not involve painting or any kind of rubbing movement.  (I cannot even dust or polish these days, and that is not an excuse to get out of those jobs - ironing maybe ...)

Anyway, I am not here to moan and whinge about things but rather to show you my lagtest page which has the quote "I like long walks ...  away from people".  

" Chloe is just a little upset at the number of people not sticking to the rules for this  dreadful pandemic that has hit the country.  The government has asked people to socially distance and to wear face masks but there are such a lot of people who are not doing anything.  She loves to go for long walks in the countryside with her dogs 'Muffin'  and "Mopsy" and stay well away from the towns where her friends hang out at the local coffee shop.  They are not allowed inside so they stand around in crowds chattering away about the latest fashion and such girly things.

In fact it was only the other day that she and her two dogs had gone out for a walk, Muffin had been sniffing the flowers in the grass and she had laughed telling him he might get 'high' if he carried on.  Then she saw, in the distance, her friend Melanie, dressed up as if she was going somewhere special.  She wondered what the girls were doing and how many of them were off to wherever it was they were going.  "Ah well" she said to her two companions, "I like long walks ... away from people" and she carried on making her way home with her best friends, Muffin and Mopsy."

As happens most Thursdays I am entering this page into Art Journey Journal and the challenge, which this month is by Sheila and is "a single flower".  I just have the one flower on this page, the other die cuts are grasses and I do hope it is acceptable as an entry again.  

WOYWW 616

Another Wednesday, another meet up with friends, ie another WOYWW with Ms Julia (click here to find out all about it).  I must say that WOYWW and virtually meeting up with friends via blogland every Wednesday has kept me sane during lockdown.  Despite April 12th being a date we are all looking forward to in our diaries I think I will be depending on WOYWW to keep me sane for quite some time yet. 

Well, my mojo has been and gone out again.  She, or he, has left me once more and the crafting has been a bit thin on the ground.  However, some new stamps arrived the other day and I am hoping they will bring my mojo back to me. I have done a journal page using a couple but I can't show it to you as it is for a challenge and must not be introduced early.  So here is my desk with my journal page turned over:

My new stamps on the left (Aall & Create as per usual), my journal on a page I started years ago (memo to self "must finish pages") and a red Hibiscus I painted and cut out (clue to my page that you cannot see.). To the right of this section of my worktop is this

A page taken from my journal, a card I started to make for part of a workshop (since abandoned) and part of the  roll I once made, with some Tim Holtz fabric, for my small paint brushes.  At the back my baby wipes, the flex from my heat gun which is on my stand and an old cup that I like so use now for odd bits.

That's it for this week, stay safe everyone and have a good week.

Jeudi Journal - Kitchen

Once again I decided to do a reverse stencil technique on my journal page.  I wanted something quite light and in two colours to give the appearance of a room - walls and a floor.  I chose AALL & Create stencils in circles and squares, both designed by the lovely Autour de Mwa.  In order to have some kitchen appliances on show I used some of Janet Klein's stamped images by the same company.

Whilst trying to explain the quote, which is all about someone being under pressure, I still tried to bring in a "kitchen" element to it.  I just hope the story actually illustrates the quote, as well as the picture does, as I chose to be a bit more literal in my page.  Hope you enjoy it.

"Sophie and her friend, Gwen, had been to the Gym as usual.  They were both involved in a rigorous 'keep fit programme' but Sophie was not hacking it.  She was often at loggerheads with their trainer and several times had walked out in the middle of a training session.    Gwen felt that Sophie was not really interested in the keep fit side of the programme but rather had her eye on one of the boys who worked at the gym and that was the real reason why she went there.  Afterall, as Gwen often said to their other friends, "why on earth does she go for a workout with make-up on?  It only starts to run as you get yourself heated up."

This particular day Gwen was feeling out of sorts so when she called for Sophie to go to the Gym and saw that she was wearing a short dress, a jewelled hairpin and some really long lashes with a jewelled contraption on one of them, she kind of lost it.  [Gwen herself, was wearing one of her fancy hats with a veil coming over one eye but at least that would be left in the cloakroom, she had no intention of anyone seeing her like that at the Gym and she was meeting up with some more friends afterwards.]

"What on earth are you doing dressed up like that for a session at the Gym?"she asked Sophie.  "Nobody goes to a Gym with all that make-up on, it's obvious you are going because of all the young men there, and one in particular I think."

Sophie was quite surprised at the way her friend spoke.  She knew it was not the boys at the Gym she was interested in, she just did not like the exercise and only went because  Gwen wanted to and she was doing her a favour by going with her.  In all truth she did not need to lose any weight but her friend Gwen did but Sophie was too kind to say anything like that.  Instead she shouted out "I don't mind the heat ... it's the kitchen I can't stand."

As I wanted to enter this into Art Journal Journey again, and Sheila's brilliant challenge which is "a single flower" I chose a plant that had only leaves and drew in one single flower for it.  It's a super challenge and I am hoping that I will be able to do another page before the month is over, with maybe a larger flower than this one.