Jeudi Journal - Change

Another pre ink sprayed page but this time I had added some Gesso through my Diamond stencil - it picked up the colour from the ink beneath and turned pink.  I was happy with it - a happy accident.  The quote is "Change for no-one and believe in who you are".  Another bit of a teaser!

I did have a couple of ideas but they didn't work out so in the end I went with a flamboyantly dressed woman and just "dressed" her up a bit.

To start off with I used the woman in a kind of swimsuit but with stockings on to which I added a few squiggles at the top in the hopes they would look a bit more risque.  Next I took two umbrellas, opened of course, and made them into her mini skirt.

Her head was next, it didn't really matter which one I chose as I was going to put a huge head dress on her, or is it an elaborate hairstyle?  I chose one of the many Dylusion flowers I already had cut out and only just realised now, as I did the write up, it was composed of hearts.  Ideal for Art journal Journey with Elizabeth's theme of hearts, but before I realised I cut the hearts from her original hairstyle and put them up the back of her swimsuit to make it more dress-like.

Still needing more I decided to give her a large pair of sunglasses and then, to be utterly outrageous a pair of wings.  Well I had found lots of these wings in my drawer and needed to get using them.  I was now happy with her and felt she worked well for the quote.

For the background I used a small border stamp, some flowers in the bottom right hand corner and then some leaves on the left, kind of half way up the page in order to balance the flowers at the bottom.

So here is it - full of hearts to celebrate nearing the end of Elizabeth's challenge too.

WOYWW 560

Back with Julia and her happy band of crafters on WOYWW.  Pop along here and find out all about it - then join in with us.  You'll make lots of new friends and have an excuse to show your desk every week on your blog - regardless of whether it is busy, tidy or totally messed up.

(Added later: have been stopped from commenting on Shoshi's blog which is so annoying as I had written lots to her and now it has all gone.  Just a warning to others - copy your comment before sending in case it happens to you.)

My desk this week shows you the fact that I have been crayoning.  See those flowers on the bottom of the journal, they were all coloured in with my Prismacolours.  I so enjoyed doing them and was able to do it sat in my chair with the journal propped up on my trolley. I had to cover the rest of the page up so used the birthday cards I have been making.  They just want sentiments putting on them and then they can go away.  

The other page is blank but that is my folder of Prismacolours on it and to the left of the whole lot you can just see the fairy stamps peeking out from the folder that holds my overspill Dylusion stamps.

The next bit of my desk is littered with two die cutting machines, just as last week, not done any die cutting.

My eBosser, Paris box full to bursting with Dylusion stamps and my Vagabond, my trusty lovely Vagabond.  Don't ask me to describe what is behind, there is just so much stuff!

As I don't have anything much to show you thought I would take a photograph of my wall behind the door.  This holds Ministry of Mixology canvases.  Well, not all of them but some.

So there we are - see you next week!

Jeudi Journal - Old Enough

Here's my second Dylusion green spray inked page - I cannot remember what the colours were so I won't ink any up in advance again, and this time the quote is "If you're old enough to know better.  You're too old to do it."  A bit of a puzzler again until I started going through my Dylusion figures, ready stamped and cut out. As it is very green, predominantly green, I am entering it into Try it On Tuesday where the theme is Recycled or Green.

I chose the little girl from my latest plate and put a different head on her.  Note the blue hair!  Then I thought the head that looks as if she has rollers in her hair could pass for her mother so with a different body, skirt and legs, an adult was born.  

Then I got my brick wall stencil out (click on the photo to enlarge it and see the bricks) and put some Gesso through.  The first lot was very runny so I changed it for the Heavy Gesso which was much better but still not as thick as I would have liked.  maybe I should have used Paste instead.  Once it had dried I stencilled what could pass for Graffiti, to me, over it in bright pink and red.  It is a Stencil Girl stencil and I have a feeling it is one of Seth Apters!  I stuck some red hearts on as well so I could enter it into Art Journal Journey again this week where Elizabeth has chosen 'hearts' to be the theme, and used a stamp of Dyan's to represent the beating of a heart around three sides.  Even though I did not make a Valentine card this month I have had plenty of hearts featuring, thanks to Elizabeth, and realised that they were in my books as well - as you can see in the the video on yesterdays post.

So there you have it, my Journal page for this week.  A young girl doing some graffiti on a wall and a grown up telling her off.  What would you have done for this quote?

WOYWW 559 and a Video

It's Wednesday and that means it is time to join Julia and her merry band of deskers in their weekly update of the state of their desks here - and I am one of them.  I have been promising my WOYWW'er friends a video of my little book for a couple of weeks now - and now you get two for the price of one.  Yay!  I have video'd it at last and another one as a bonus surprise.

Here they are on my desk:

As you can see there are little hearts here and there in my book so I am linking it to Elizabeth's challenge at Art Journal Journey.  You will notice in the video, below, they appear in more than one page.

You really don't want to see the rest of my desk!  Chas had some friends around for lunch yesterday (yes, men that lunch - that's a new one on me) and one of them brought me some gorgeous M&S Truffles and the other some rhubarb he had picked fresh that morning from his allotment.  Of course that got me talking about my Rhubarb Gin so we had to try one.  I am beginning to sound like a boozer but in all honesty I rarely touch the stuff but must admit I am enjoying this Rhubarb Gin with a bit of tonic.  Derek tried a tiny bit of each of them (he likes his gin too) and preferred the Slingsby's one, declaring it smoother and a little bit drier.  Poor Sandy had to abstain as he was designated driver.

That big patch of green is my Cutterpillar (love it, my best cutter ever), then my E-bosser and my journal with card fronts on top of hidden page (for tomorrow, Thursday).  My G&T is there for the keen eyed amongst you, and you can see my chocolates on my journal just in front of my drink.  The little green character is my Cricut guy from CHA years ago and next to him is my bunny felted for me by my lovely friend Cindee in America.  My cup, which Chas broke and now holds pens and things as I liked it so much and cannot part with it as yet, sits atop my heat gun stand made by a dear friend who passed long time ago.  There's my carousel (won at CHA once) and my Distress Ink Pads sitting in the window with all manner of little companions on top - several of which remind me so much of dear Shaz in Oz.  Think that is enough about my desk so ...

Here's my video:

(You would not believe the messing about we have done to get this video uploaded.  It's Tuesday night and I still don't know if it is uploaded)

Health Update:

Suffered like crazy with my back until yesterday.  Was worried how I would be with the visitors but hey ho - apart from a morning episode I was fine for the rest of the day.  Maybe it needed a week after chiropractic to get working.

Jeudi Journal - You Can't Have Everything

This week the quote is "You can't have everything.  Where would you put it?"

I had lots of ideas running around in my head but putting them down on paper in pictorial form was proving difficult.  A room in a house with lots of furniture and knick knacks was my first thought and then I had fish and treasure at the bottom of the sea.  There was another one containing lots of jewellery but in the end I came to try to portray a visit to the Zoo.

This poor child has gone along to the zoo, seen the animals and wants to bring one home but as his father is telling him - there is nowhere to put one of these animals at home!  I just had to use this young man, his face is so perfect for this quote don't you think?  Bet Wendy chose the same.

I first of all sprayed the page with green and yellow inks and then I put a border around the page on three sides with my Black Promarker.  I won't do that again as trying to paint the sections white was a nightmare.  Tried all the white pens I had, nothing worked.  Three coats of white paint later it was 'not too bad'.

I had bought the animal heads a while ago but never used them in a project so here they are on their first outing (I think) accompanied by leaves and flowers.  It did look as if it needed balancing on the right hand side so I put a stem from a mushroom and added some leaves to it.  The flowers I had left were too large and so I made my own from heart shapes punched out of red paper.  Not only did it balance the page for me but it also added some colour to the top half of the page, and it meant I could now link to Art Journal Journey where Elizabeth has chosen the theme for this month to be "hearts".  I do hope this is acceptable to the moderators.

It reminds me of two stories - one when I was a young child and wanted a horse, what little girl doesn't?  But as we lived in a small cottage dad used to agree with me, and laughingly, say we could always keep it in the loft.

The second story was one which I was told years ago by a Brownie Guider when I was on an International Camp in Denmark.  She was a primary teacher somewhere Newcastle way and she said that she had been on a school trip and one child had stolen a penguin and taken it home in his duffle bag.  Now how true that was I have no idea as I have heard it in other ways since, but it certainly got a laugh at the time.

WOYWW 558

Last week I visited Shaz in Oz (via blog only, sorry, did not go to Australia) and she mentioned that she had stopped using baby wipes as they were not good for the environment.  That prompted me to tell her about the 'Lawn Fawn Shammy'.  I looked it up on Google and found that it was £5.20 at CraftStash, there are others who stock it but that seemed to be the best price (last week).

It is a green piece of 'something' and you just wet it under the tap, wring it out and then clean your stamps.  Perfect for polymer as well and no messing about disposing of it, it just gets rinsed out under the tap again at the end of the crafting session and it is ready for future use.  I keep mine in a poly bag to keep it damp but if it goes dry it just hardens and needs the tap water again for use.  Caro saw me using one at the last Crop and she bought one too, as did my friend Paul who saw it at my house one time when we had a crafting day (gosh, over a year ago now).  The only thing is it becomes stained with the black ink but it does not affect its use in any way.  Took me a while to get used to it not returning to its green look but I am well over it now and not having bought baby wipes for my stamps for a couple of years I reckon it has paid for itself over and over.  Plus it's my bit for the environment - we all need to think of that don't we, and I am a Goody Two Shoes when it comes to recycling.  Anyway, that's my bit of enabling for you all.

Hope none of you suffered with the terrible floods over the weekend.  It was heartbreaking to see folks having to leave their homes and businesses and most of the news I saw was for areas around me and places where I have friends and family living.  I am going to sort some clothing out and see if it can be donated to the flood victims close by.  Wonder if I could make up a craft kit for a child?

Once again I have been crafting on my knee and using the trolley to hold my supplies.  Here is the top tray

You can see my box of Promarkers (the one I made from two Felix cat food boxes years ago) and in front is my little Moleskin with my latest pages showing my birthday present from my bff (see later).  Behind it just peeping is my pencil case which has all sorts of things in, scissors, ruler, pens, pencils, collage bits; my silver mug with the straw is for my water that I take my tablets with and the yellow topped container has my pain pills in and the long one my daily 'other' pills.  You can just about see the brown and pink bag that Wendy once made me which hangs there for my paper rubbish ready for the recycle bin but I am sure Julia will straight away notice the large gin glass with my Rhubarb Gin and Tonic in.  Yes, I needed a pick me up last night.  Not sure I should with the tablets I take but hey ho, I've been ok before.

Most of you who visit are WOYWW'ers but those who aren't can find out what I am on about by visiting the Queen of Deskers here.  And my 'real' desk yesterday afternoon looked like this

I had been wanting some swirls for my Journal tomorrow so I started to go through my small inkpads.  I could not believe it.  Most of my small 'Chalk' inks had dried up and so they got thrown away (a full tier of that container to the left of the cardstock) but you will never guess what are still working!  I must have had these inkpads from the early days of crafting, if not almost the beginning of my craft life.  How many of you remember Ancient Page?  They are just as good as when I first got them and they have stood unused for at least five or six years.  Shame on me, I found four that were still wrapped, brand new!  Guess who will be using them from now on?  Does anyone still sell them?

Those swirls are Dylusion images that I inked up ready to cut out and put away for a rainy day, ie when I want to use them on a journal page.  When I came to it for my tomorrow's page they weren't really the right shape - story of my life.

I did promise last week to show you my little book that Miranda had shown me, sorry, I fully intended to do a video of it as that is really the only way to show it without repeating or missing some bits out.  So no pictures of that today but I did start making another book with more characters from PaperArtsy in it but that one needs a bit more on the flaps so I think I will have to buy another set or two.  This second book features the little mice as in my Moleskin, and the two stamp sets were an early birthday present from my bff.

On Saturday I went to the club as it was the AGM but my back was giving me some gip when I set off so I got Chas to wait for me whilst I attended the meeting but I came away before the workshop.  Lorraine gave me my birthday present with the instructions I had to open it when I got home.  She knew I wanted one of the mice sets so she bought them both for me PLUS a gorgeous pad of 12 x 12 papers featuring 'bees' because she knows I have a thing about them.  She is so good to me.

Health Update:

Still not heard about the Endoscopy Camera Capsule Test I had so am working on "no news is good news" and there is nothing sinister happening.

Went to see Johanna, my lovely wonderful chiropractor, yesterday and she worked her magic fingers on me.  I cannot believe what a difference she has made to my life.  Three weeks was a long time to go, at the moment, without treatment, so we have discussed me going to the training college in Manchester when she next goes away for anything over two weeks.  It was my suggestion and she thought it a great idea so has said when it happens she will forward my notes to them so they don't have to go through things with me before starting treating.  For now I will just be glad to see her again in a fortnight

Jeudi Journal - Tabs

This week I did not find it an easy quote to portray - "My brain has too many tabs open" - something I can relate to quite often but to put it down pictorially???  However,  I  found the perfect head - one which very rarely gets used because I don't know how to use her.  But more on her later.

I had a page already sprayed with Dylusion Inks, Funky Fuchsia and Tangerine Dream, so I decided to go with that as my background and rather than add things like stencils and stamping to the background which I normally do I added die-cuts.  I have so many leaves, mushrooms, flowers etc cut out but never tend to use them so here was my opportunity.  

I made up a tree using a mushroom stem that was lying about for the trunk and added some leaves for the top of it.  Then came some peculiar leaf type things at the bottom for a bit of grass type foliage.  Next came some mushrooms, the ones with writing all over them that never get used, so I coloured them red and painted the spots black.  Think I prefer them that way but next time I might leave the spots white.

Next I found a fawn that had been cut off the top of a head (yes, a head) and it fit beautifully on top of the mushrooms but I decided to give it a bed fella and as Art Journal Journey is featuring "hearts" this month I put a couple of hearts above them.  Afterall they do look like a young couple of fawns in love don't you think?

Whilst rummaging around in my die cut shapes I found a bird that says 'always' on its body, "go on" I said to myself, "put that on the tree".  The words "this way - that way" also found their way on the top of the page (to cover some black that had seeped from another page really) and, "perfect!" a hand pointed the way to them.

Now to the head.....  This lady has her head in her hands which to me makes her perfect for the quote. So she had the swirls she normally wears cut off and I made her some new ones.  Now I needed to put various things on her swirls which, you have guessed, were her "thoughts".  

To begin with I searched Google images for a variety of mathematical symbols and having printed some out, plus a bit of Kanji and some Greek I was disappointed to find that the printer had not given me the stark black and white I wanted.  What was I going to do?

Well, I realised I had a Chinese story book so that took care of the kanji, what else?  In my search through the great big box of rubbish I save I found some sheet music, a dictionary page, a Chinese newspaper (from buying something in Chinatown, LA years ago), a map, and some foreign or old English script (it's so tiny that I cannot quite decide).  Hurrah.

So carefully drawing around the shape I already had drawn and cutting each one out I had my "Tabs" ready to put on her head.  I carefully stuck each of them down in turn, going around the outside of the shape with a thick black marker.

I have never spent so long on a page for ages, but I must admit I enjoyed it - oh and I drew a border around through a stencil of Dyan's too.  So this is my very Dylusional page.

When I finished this page yesterday I thought it was for next week and I was a week in advance.  On waking up this morning I had a dreadful thought, which was right, I had not done my post for this week and it was, indeed, the one about 'open tabs'.  So it was out with the computer, a quick scan of the page and a write up.  Almost half the day is gone and I am posting my Jeudi Journal at last.