Jeudi Journal - Don't Talk to Me

"Don't talk to me after coffee either" is the quote this week.

For this journal page I coloured the page light green at the top with a faint blue stencilled pattern over it.  This was to represent wallpaper in the house so I purposely let it hit in some places and also changed the depth of ink I was putting through the stencil to get light and dark shades.

Next I hunted through some magazines to find something to do with 'coffee'.  I cut out a platter of buns, found a milk jug and sugar bowl and put these on the page so that they rested on the light brown bit at the bottom, coloured and stencilled to represent floor covering.  

I did feel that the lounging girl really was saying, with her body language, that she did not want anyone to talk to her - even when she had finished the coffee in her hand.  The other figure who has just called in to see her is looking a little confused with a turn of her head.

Happily I can now include this page in my journal in Art Journal Journey where the challenge is to use "Green" in your work - wallpaper and clothing feature quite a lot of different shades of green, hurray!

WOYWW 561

Another day, another week, another WOYWW post!  What am I on about?  Go here to find out.

Well I had a good morning on Monday and managed to get into my craft room and do a bit of Distress Oxide Inking.  Now I am ready to start playing with some fairy stamps that my friend Mo loaned to me because I don't have that many and wanted to make another of those little books with fairies in this time.  Certainly don't have any background stamps that are suitable.  This will form another sample for my class at our stamping club in July when I get around to stamping the figures on it.

To the very left is my drawer where I keep all my Oxides and there on my worktop are the ones I was using, followed by three of those round applicators and finally some of my pages with different techniques on them.  The little circle and aperture at the front are what I used for my "moon" but I don't know where I put the pages when I took the photo.  Because the colours looked strong I decided to do some pages using brushes so I had to use my Duster Brushes but I was not happy with the results - will have to try again when I get the brushes I ordered (thanks Shaz B).

I noticed on some of my cards, as I was doing them, that they had bits stuck to them.  These did not always pick off but my Oxide pads seem to be shedding!  Has anyone else had this happen and does anyone know what it is?  I did wonder if it was my cardstock but it is what I always use and it doesn't happen with the Distress Inks, only the Oxides.  Here's a photo of one of my inkpads to show you:

If you click on it you will see the bits on the actual pad

Well, not being entirely happy with the Distress Oxides I decided to do some with my Pan Pastels.  Mainly because I had received a beautiful card from Margaret Rose in a Mingle swap I had been in.  The background is gorgeous (as is the card) and when I asked what she used she said "Pastels".  Mine are not as lovely as hers but I can do them sat in my chair (yes, my back went Tuesday after lunch).  I'll show you her card rather than my backgrounds.

I did watch the re-run of of Hochanda simply because I saw that Di from Tando was on.  Shame I didn't see the actual show.  I would have loved those templates for the pages for books - she did an amazing job and to say it was a sell-out is an under statement - I think they had about three, if not four, extended dates on the templates and extended dates on other things too.  Wonder if any of you got them?  Would love to see what you make with them, I just love handmade books.  It's got me thinking of making another journal/folio type book myself so I am hoping to have a good day or two so I can get cutting.  There's so much I want to do.

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.