Jeudi Journal - No Thanks!

"Jessica had been seeing Roy for about six months now and things had been lovely and rosy at the beginning but then little niggles started to set in.  She felt she was giving 100% to the relationship but he wanted a girlfriend but also wanted to go 'out with the boys' whenever the opportunity arose.  It wasn't the first time he had left her sitting in on her own over the weekend when all her friends were going out enjoying themselves.  She could hardly join them could she?  She was totally loyal to him and it would not have been right to have gone to the local disco with her friends just because he had a football match he wanted to be at.  Besides which, her friends asked her, who plays football in the dark?

The final straw had been her birthday.  She had received the most beautiful card from him, all hearts and flowers, plus the biggest box of chocolates you could ever imagine.  Not only that but he had promised to spend the entire afternoon together and then go out for a lovely romantic meal for two at the local pizzeria.  She was over the moon.

Two o'clock came and there was no sign of him.  Two thirty, three o'clock and then the phone call. "Sweetie, sorry but I have been delayed.  Pete couldn't get his car started so he asked me if I could help him fix it.  You don't mind do you?  I'll still see you tonight and we'll go out for that meal we planned, and guess what - there might be another little surprise for you."

Jessica did not answer, she could not bring herself to say a word for fear of completely losing her temper.  She had had enough now.  Letting her down so badly on her birthday was the final straw so she picked the phone up and rang her best friend.

That night Roy turned up with a pretty little silver chain on which dangled a tiny heart for her to wear when they went out to the restaurant.  Jessica had made an effort,  She wore a tiny skirt showing off her long legs and a top with a very low back.  Her bracelets matched her Louboutin shoes and she looked so pretty - but as he walked over to her, holding out the tiny jewellery box, and uttering his apologies she said "Let me file that under No Thanks", and off she flounced to meet her friends and go to the local disco."

Well, that is my story for this week and the quote from Dyan "Let me file that under No Thanks".  I haven't a clue where these stories come from, when I begin these pages I have no idea what I am going to say.  I guess I am inspired by Dyan's figures and the way in which I can chop them up and make new ones.  Today the figure of Roy had the handset on his head, his hair came down in two peaks either side of his head and there was the base of a telephone at his feet which went part way up his trousers.  Jessica was dressed in a swimsuit so I had to reshape her legs and rear, use a skit from another figure and disguise the fact that she was wearing elbow length gloves by turning the lines where they ended into bracelets.  Then came the story ...

And so I am entering this into Art Journal Journey's challenge where the theme is "Inspired By" as set bsy Eileen who sadly passed away. However the team decided to honour her by continuing with the theme which is now being co-hosted by Christine and Erika.  What has inspired me with this page - why Dyan Reaveley and her drawings of these weird figures.

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.