Jeudi Journal - Nature

After last week's little muddle up I am now submitting my Nature Page which has taken over a double spread.  I am a little late in the day posting but I forgot to do it last night and then this morning I was off for a 9 am appointment with physio followed by one for podiatry and it has taken me until now to get it done.  Enough twittering - here it is - two separate pages

and 

Mr Skinner's stencil had taken over these two pages and I tried to paint over the second page to get rid of the stars that were already on it so the image became blue lending itself to the sea.  So in order to have a bit of uniformity with the green page I went over the stencilled image and it became green.

Figures and fish/flowers are all Dyusions and I had a great time cutting them out and colouring them. Something soothing when you have back ache and you sit well back and just colour or cut.  Have a good day I am off to see what Wendy has done for her Animals!

WOYWW 409 (and a Little Mouse with Clogs on)

"A little mouse with clogs on

'Well' I declare

Going clip clippety clop on the stair"

Yep, I have been to the Netherlands.  Only a short short trip - flew out Saturday morning and returned Sunday evening.  Both ways were good flights but I thought the pilot was having a laugh when he told us on the way back that we would probably be "ahead of time" as he was "going to take a shortcut".  Never thought of that in the air!

Won't talk too long but we went to a show run by the Art Specially people over there, somewhere I have wanted to go to for simply years.  It is a stamping show, mainly rubber stamping but with a fair amount of mixed media in it now and it is full of Dutch and some French (and a Swedish) manufacturer's stamps, plus English (apologies if I missed someone).  There are lots of free workshops too but we only managed to join in one of them as we were too busy enjoying watching the demonstrations plus two &T's (lots of them - UK take note please). 

These are what I made, followed by two ATC's that Eva (Wanders - who I made the hummingbird card with at a Make and Take) gave to me - the tag was made with Bettina from Scrap Unlimited in a workshop and the top card was made at a Gilding Wax Make & Take

Anyway, here are a few photos from the show - first of all some cards that were on display

There were mixed media canvases

I bought lots of the metal pieces from Scrap Unlimited

and below is a stamped canvas I liked

Hope you enjoyed the pictures - but you came here to see my desk (oops - sorry Julia!)

The thing that struck us mostly about the Netherlands was the friendliness of the people. Not just at the show but everywhere we went.  And, of course, they all spoke really good English which made me feel so embarrassed that I could not speak their language at all. Mind you I did find it difficult to pronounce and have just about mastered "thank you" after a whole weekend.  Next year, yes, we are hoping to go again, I hope to manage "excuse me" for when people are stood in the way.  Next time we want to tag another day on so that we can see something of the Old Town in Amersfoort which looks lovely on photographs and which we glimpsed as we passed on the train.

Hope you enjoyed my photographs.  Now it is over to Julia, our "Queen of Deskers" to see what she has been up to and to link up with so many others.  See you over there.

Jeudi Journal - Animals (or is it Humanals?)

Why did I suggest this?  What animal stamps have I got that fit in with the Dylusion themed figures?   Not that it really matters as I could have used magazine pictures, maybe a human being with an animal head - or body? After-all my journal is a mix of different styles because it is my first big journal and experimental in that way. All I could think of were my "bird" stamps - but I have done birds before and I even looked on the internet to see if 'birds' were classed as 'animals' - they are, and what do I do with them, they are small and I like to link things up rather than have them dotted about. Plus I do not have the wit of Wendy who seems to be able to put sentences on which are funny and just brilliant!

Well, yesterday I could not think for love nor money what to do for "Animals".  Made it worse that I didn't have a full day (hairdressers, shopping, out for a meal etc).  Thank goodness it was a good day for the back.

Then, this morning, I had an idea, think maybe Wendy's interpretation last week of 'strips' helped and I decided to make a zoo but with the humans on the inside, hence my title saying "Humanals" (Animals/Humanals get it?).  Now where had I put those cat and dog stamps of Tim's?

Memory into gear and I found them, chose two dogs that I could stamp, used a couple of new figures but did a bit of swapping (new head on one, new legs on both).

So the two humans are supposed to be the exhibits in the zoo and the dogs are visiting and having a look at this particular cage (see where Wendy's crate came in useful for me from last week?).  I have purposely let the bars go over things like 'eyes' and the brown dog's hat links to the cage on purpose as does the nose and ear of the grey dog to the brown one.  It makes it more cohesive in my eyes, than bits dotted here and there.

Must say my lettering needs a lot of working on, I do need a black pen a bit thicker than most I have but not as thick as some I have. Shopping spree?  And I should have remembered that my black Sharpie bleeds through to the other side - now I need something to cover up the mess on an already started page.  Bother!

WOYWW 408

Almost April already!  Will be, come weekend, April Fools Day, and the day I fly off to Holland for two days with my bessie, Lorraine.  We are not living it up, on a booze cruise, a hen party or anything like that but we are off to see the Dutch Stamping Show which I have talked about for a few years. More next week no doubt.  Fingers crossed my back holds out!

In the meantime here is my desk to show all you WOYWW'ers out there and anyone else who cares to join in,  Btw if you want to join in just visit Julia who is our leader and initiator over at "The Stamping Ground", just click here.

The blue box to the left contains all my Dyary stuff, the pink drawers have some of my ribbons in and there is a chest at the front of the photo which is on my blue chair containing my Dylusion dies. Below is a closeup of the main part of my desk:

A set of new stamps and then my journal open at an old page with tomorrow's page covered with the Aldi catalogue.  To the right is my box of Promarkers and at the back are some watercolours and an ink pad.

That's it for this week but see you next week with a new WOYWW.

Jeudi Joournal - Strips

Am now wondering if Wendy interpreted this as stripes or strips?  I have done strips anyway and you will see it is another of my cookie magazine ones.  Think I must try to make some sensible ones in the future but I enjoy being a bit cookie now and then.  Also it is a challenge when I use a perfume bottle, for example, as a part of the body.  Nothing exceptional here though - straightforward dress, head etc.

OK so here it is - now who was the star underneath (head only)?  It sticks in my mind I've seen him on TV and I sort of recognise him but who was it?

Off to see Wendy now ... toodle pip!

WOYWW 407

Happy Wednesday to you all.  Hope the sun is shining like it seems to have done for most of the past few days, well in the afternoons at least.  It is "Julia Day" too, so that makes it sunny in itself.  Want to join in?  Follow this link to WOYWW and away you go, it's all explained there.

So what is on my desk?  Well, I have been journalling but this time in my Dyary.  No, not a typo, it really is spelled that way - a play on Dyan Reaveley's name.  I have so enjoyed it and I can sit and colour with my back up straight in Chas's chair with little or no effort.  Don't think I am giving any secrets away (not a soul baring journal) by letting you see the first page, not the one I am working on at the moment as it is a bit bare.

I collected it last weekend when I did a workshop with Tracy (Scott) and ended up spending a fortune, but a happy spend with birthday money.  Plus my bezzie mate bought me some stamps especially for this Dyary! 

If you didn't see my birthday cards they are in the post beneath this one, take a look - great inspiration!

This is the canvas I made with Tracy - 

Really enjoyed the day - and my back held out ... until I got home.

Can I please ask that you put your number against comments, makes life so much easier to get a comment back.  Sorry, not meaning to nag but if you have several blogs and we have to go to your bio it can take a while to find the correct one.  Have a great week!

Friday Smiles

Once again joining Annie with her smiles.  Today is just a week after my birthday so it is the day I took down my lovely birthday cards.  It is such a shame to have them put into a drawer or disposed of like any other piece of card so I usually give them to a friend who turns them into cards for a nursing home where her brother resides.  She makes quite a bit of money for the residents by doing this and the residents can also buy some beautiful cards at good prices.

I thought I would share the handmade ones with you all and hope they make you smile as you admire the work that ha gone into them.

Top to bottom - Alexis, Ann (and John), Anon (no name inside) and Carmel

Chris, Christine, Darlene, Dot, Enid

Gill, Hazel, Jacqui, Janet

Jeannie,  June, Liz, Lorraine

Mary, Mo, Nikki, Renate

Sue, Margaret and finally Wendy

Am sure you will have enjoyed these as much as I have - and I hope they have put a smile on your faces like they have mine all week. And now, off to see Annie and the other 'smiles' for this week. See you over there.