Jeudi Journal - Drama

Nope, there is no drama going on with me on this blog today but the quote mentions the word so I thought it might tempt you to pop in for a peek.  This week the quote chosen by Wendy is "Drama Shield - Active".  My first thoughts were to make my own character dressed as a silver knight or use one of Dyan's,  as I should, but put a knight's head on the top and give it a shield.  Then I wondered how I would bring the whole thing together so instead I just did this

I first of all painted my page this lovely Aqua Green - it looked different in the tube, a bit more bluey - and then I used some of my tiny background stamps with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and then went over with my favourite circle stencil (Peeled Paint Distress ink).  I chose a couple of figures, one sitting looking sad and the other walking away, glancing over her shoulder.  I have several of these plastic umbrellas so I used one on here as I do need to use them up somehow.  So:

"Little Rose, a tiny slip of a thing who adores eye make up, called to see her big sister to discuss what they were going to do over the weekend.  Unfortunately there was a bit of a drama going on at Iris's house, the cat had stolen the meat that she had put out to cook for her boyfriend's Valentine dinner that evening.  It was not the only tragedy that had happened to Iris that day though - on top of the meat going missing she had broken one of her false nails.  Now that was a real tragedy and so she was well up for a moan to her much smaller and younger sister.

Little Rose, however, had enough problems of her own, didn't Iris realise she at least had a boyfriend whilst Little Rose was all alone for Valentine's night.  She'd only popped in to see what the two of them were doing Saturday afternoon whilst the boyfriend was playing football.  Moan, moan, moan, was all she felt Iris could do so she decided to back off and activate her drama shield.  She wanted none of the whinging and moaning.  "Drama Shield Active" she shouted over her shoulder as she took herself off to see what goodies she could buy herself - a visit to the shops was preferable to listening to big sister.  "Honestly" she said to herself, "some people are never satisfied and do not realise just how lucky they are."

Good job the spots on the umbrella were metallic and the handle too - that meant I could link up to Art Journal Journey for Valerie's challenge of Heavy metal - it would have been so much more obvious had I had the knight and his shield.

WOYWW 611

I don't know what to write today.  I've been a bit in limbo for the past few days as far as crafting is concerned as we lost someone very dear to us crafters and it knocked me for a bit of a six.  My desk just has unfinished things on it, or things that went wrong when I tried to do them (ie the journal closed up so you don't see the mess I made of a simple workshop), the two unfinished books.

Our lovely Queen of Enabling, Shaz, left this mortal world on Saturday, after fighting so hard to remain with her beloved husband, Doug.  She was one heck of a tough cookie and had suffered so much, but guess her mind was that much stronger than her body and she had eventually to let go.  If ever two people were meant for one another it was Doug N' Shaz.  Doug has asked that wer write, on their Facebook age, how we met and attach, if we can, any photos we have.  Up to now I have not been able to do it, but maybe now I can.  

As for photos there is this one from the Crop in 2018 - I have yet to see a photo of Shaz not smiling, that I must use.

Shaz, me and Shaz in Oz

It is from WOYWW that I first knew Shaz but I got to meet her and Doug several extra times at Port Sunny when they came up to the shows.  I love this photograph of them both.

Has there ever been a photograph of Shaz where she is not smiling?  Even when not well she had a smile for you.  She certainly was willing to pass on her knowledge of how to do things and I well remember how she used to bring all of her dies (and she had a helluva collection) just for us to use as we wished at the Crops.  One thing I particularly remember is when she started colouring in figures with pencil crayons.  I could not believe the perfection she got using them.  But she was not satisfied that day at the Crop and she went on to perfect and perfect her technique.  

She was amazing in all that she did.  She shared anything and everything, techniques she tried out, short cuts in crafting, her immense knowledge of products and her enabling.  I think there are many WOYWW'ers who have bought something because they knew they could trust the product because it had been tried and tested by Shaz.

And so today I mourn the loss of a wonderful lady, but am thankful that, as her husband Doug said, she passed peacefully in her sleep.  I only hope Doug will keep in touch with us all through the land of blogging and when we can once more meet up again at a Crop, that he will be there as one of us.

Shaz and I shared a love of Steampunk and Dragons in particular.  I had this bought for me at a Steampunk Exhibition I went to and intended wearing it at the next Crop (which didn't happen) to show to my friend Shaz Silverwolf.

I will wear it with honour and remember Shaz, our friend and her lovely husband Doug on a special day.

She will be missed by so many, a true legend amongst us crafters.

Jeudi Journal - Madness!

 I so enjoyed my 'cover up' border last week that I did another one this week although there really was no need to do it, guess it is just a border this week.  I chose a heart one as it is so close to Valentines Day.  It would not have looked correct to carry it on across the top or bottom so I just did the sides.  I had used Distress Inks and an applicator to colour the page so I used a slightly darker Oxide to stamp some greenery in the bottom of the page between the feet of the two girls.  In order to qualify for Erika's Heavy Metal challenge on Art Journal Journey I painted some of the hearts with some gold paint, the first tube did not show so I went with my new paints and they worked, squeezed too much paint out so one girl ended with gold shoes.  And the story goes

"Christabel has always been the pretty one in the class, everyone is in love with her, she has the most expressive eyes and her crowning glory is her hair.  It looks like spun gold shining in the sunshine with streaks of red metallic ribbon running through it.  She is also lovely and slim, quite tall at 5'9" and has the sweetest nature possible.  The boys adore her, the girls either want to be her or envy her and her teachers are so very proud of her academic achievements, as are her parents.

As you would expect she has lots of friends but a particular one is Bernadette O'Reilly.  They have been friends since Junior School with a friendship everyone thinks is unbreakable.  Bernadette is pretty too, has a sweet disposition, is just above average when it comes to her studies and she is crazy about animals, birds - and insects.  Naturally Biology is her favourite subject (a bit like Erika's teaching life) Some of the classmates think she is a bit weird as she often wears a tiny veil, similar to an eye patch, with a spider on it - imitation of course!

Being such a sweet hearted girl Christabel, although she is not crazy about, "creepy crawlies" as she calls them, admires how Bernadette is so knowledgeable about the various insects she seems to attract and love.  Why even the day they went out in the countryside for a walk and Bernadette squatted down to look at a flower she attracted the most cute little bumble bee.  "How lucky" she thought, "am I to have such a gentle and loving friend."  Turning to her friend Christabel asked her how on earth she did it, what was it about her that made insects and animals trust her so much?  "What is your method she asked?"

Bernadette just looked at her friend, head tilted to one side and she said "I really have no method, just madness" and Christabel wished with all her heart that she too had that madness."

So there you have it, my story today which explains literally the reason for one beautiful, talented girl not having the same "madness" as her friend - but maybe secretly desiring it.  A much different illustration to the one that comes straight to my head which is rather about my spending my money on craft materials - I definitely have no method - just madness when it comes to that!

What's on your workdesk 610

 Short post this morning.  Nothing much to show on my desk.  Just my Staystation the remnants of a card which was one of four I made during the week.  As usual the others went in the post (well would have done if we had not had the snow but are all sealed up) without myj taking a scan or anything.  Then there is my Journal which has been waiting all week for me to start on a workshop with Tracy.  The paints are there, the circle is drawn - I just haven't started it yet.

Last night we heard the dreadful news that one of our own was very poorly in hospital.  We are all busy with praying for our dear Shaz and her lovely husband Doug.  There is an update in the Updates Group - they have moved Shaz to a side ward which they call "amble care" and Doug is still with her.

Jeudi Journal - Circus (the story is a bit long today,sorry)

I really did enjoy this page - well making it!  Early too!  I had the idea of a circus tent with someone flying through the air on a trapeze but it was a"no-goer" as I found it too difficult to adapt one of the Dylusion figures.  I did, however, get one of them to sit on a trapeze which was so funny as when I turned to Art Journal Journey Tuesday lunchtime I found that the new challenge had been set as "Heavy Metal".  But as Valerie will accept 'anything metallic'  luckily for me the trapeze was held up with metal chains which I had drawn in with a metallic pen.  

To begin with I gave the whole page a shaded turquoise wash, starting at the top and gradually going lighter which gave it an almost greenish look.  Then I began drawing in my Circus tent and doing the lettering on both sides of it incorporating the final word into the banner across the Big Top.  I had some leakage down the two long sides from a previous page so I stamped a long narrow border and covered the leakage up with a bright colour of paint.

Today the story is about the family of Mrs Brown.  "She has a fairly large family of seven children, two boys and five girls.  Some are mischievous, some are a bit 'out there', some are certainly different but all in all they are a handful.  Take the boys Hubert and Herbert, you would not think of them as twins because Hubert is tall and gangly whilst Herbert is shorter and a little, well, overweight shall we say.  Hubert is the stranger one of the two because he has a pet caterpillar which he takes everywhere with him - he even walks around with it sitting on his head!  Although they are certainly not of similar size they both have the same size of shoe, both are as scatty as one another and quite often you will see them wearing one another's shoes - often one of their own and one belonging to the other twin.

Then there is Thelma and Louise.  Dad's favourite film was 'Thelma and Louise' so when the twin girls were born they had to be named after Susan Sarendon and Gina Davies' characters.  Thelma likes to sport way out hair styles, and likes to dress hers up with an assortment of imitation animals or exotic flowers.  She tends to be a bit wayward and likes to think of herself as a modern day Thelma to be truthful.  Louise, on the other hand, is not at all like Gina Davies in the film and tends to shut herself away.  She is rather a shy girl and often can be found hiding herself in the attic or some tree branch (or on a trapeze for the purpose of illustration) in the garden.

The final three are a bit of an assortment too.  Bette, the eldest left home to live with her boyfriend two years ago and now is delighted to find herself pregnant.  She is probably the most sensible of the whole family and is looking forward to welcoming a baby into her new home.  They had saved up enough to make a deposit on a nice little apartment which has two bedrooms and access to a lovely shared garden.  She and her mother get on famously, despite mum not wanting to be known as a grandmother yet.  So that only leaves Olivia and Vivien (named because of 'Gone with the Wind' of course - dad again).  Vivien is the youngest member of the family and she is treated like the baby at all times much to the annoyance of the other girls, that is why she is still walking around wearing her baby wings whenever you see her.  Olivia is a daydreamer, she likes to be a bit 'punky' and dreams of driving fast cars and being a motor mechanic or something like that - anything to do with a race track.  She always has her hair spiked up.

So that is the Brown family.  Dad is busy at work and Mum is left with the children who are not at school because there is a darned pandemic in the whole wide world and schools are closed for the time being to reduce the risk of spreading infection.  She has got to the end of her tether with them so has given Bette a call in the hopes that she can talk to her and have a bit of calm amongst the chaos.  As she says to Bette "Our family is just one tent away from a full blown circus".  Bette agrees, especially as mum is wearing a cat head at the time!"

Sorry that is a bit on the long side, if you managed to stay until the end 'well done and thank you'.  See you next week  for another go at a Dylusion quote and something along the lines of 'metal' for Valerie's challenge over on Art Journal  Journey.

WOYWW 609

First of all - thoughts and prayers for one of our group - Shaz, and Doug her lovely husband who feels like he is one of us by now, we are thinking of you constantly and praying for your return to good health.  

Another week has flown by and it is now week 609 of the WOYWW blog trail (see here) where we bare all for Julia.  Well, on our desks that is.  The mind boggles as to how that could be interpreted.

Well, after last week's hive of industry there is little to show you this week.  I have had my paints out for a Tracy Evans journal spread for a week now but the tidying up of my room keeps getting in the way.  I don't seem to be making much headway either.  My Thursday journal with my friend Wendy is about the only thing I have done craftwise but I have thrown lots of paper away.  Mainly class notes that I will not use again, or which I would redo anyhow.  I have moved my books back into my craft room from the spare room where they languished on the window sill.  I was surprised at the amount of page protectors that had housed some worksheet had disintegrated along the top edge, with the sun I guess.  Anyway, here is my room as it stands Tuesday evening and will stay so until later Wednesday.

and the other bit of desk

As soon as I get all this sorted I will, hopefully, do some crafting.  I need to do it this afternoon so that I can get my journal done for tomorrow.  Last minute again!

Well, yesterday morning we awoke to snow again.  I didn't venture out but this was the view from our bedroom window

By just after lunch the snow had lots of footprints in it from the magpies who had been scurrying about meeting up for a natter about how was the best way to get food.  They seemed to enjoy having a good layer of snow to walk through.

Just one last thing - a friend of mine was appealing on Facebook for bits and pieces for her friend, Anna, who is doing voluntary work in her area on the outskirts of London putting together craft goodie bags for children so that they can be kept busy and happy during the time they are away from school.  Some parents are struggling to hold everything together and Anna has offered to collect any bits and pieces (toppers, stickers, card etc) but I am sure other crafts could be incorporated into the bags for young to teens.  Anyone who is a gran will have a better idea than me.  Anna is willing to pay the postage (I think via Hermes - https://www.myhermes.co.uk/send ) if you want but I sent some stuff myself just as a donation.  I have the address if anyone wants to get rid of tidying up stuff.  No pressure, I just thought I would pass on.

Well, that's it for this week, prayers for Shaz are top of the list, let's hope for better news on her next week.

Jeudi Journal - Narky?

Well, what a quote for today!  And if I want to enter this into Erika's challenge over on Art Journal Journey I don't think I can use this quote as something that is amongst my favourite things.  The quote I was faced with for this week is "I'm not Narky - I'm selectively polite" so that would not do at all but I did manage to sneak in a couple of my favourite things on this journal page.  I had to, you see it is almost the end of the month and the last chance I will get to enter the challenge.

So I first of all began using my new Distress Oxide Spray.  I vowed I would not buy any more sprays but when I saw the result Tracy Evans got with the Frayed Burlap I knew I just had to have it.  The only trouble was I sent for the Bundled Sage!  It does not oxidise in the same way.  So now I am awaiting delivery of a Frayed Burlap Oxide Spray and in the meantime I sprayed the Bundled Sage on my page in five short bursts, quite near the page to get a circular pattern.  Didn't like it so I chose one of my favourite stencils and using Broken China Distress Ink I did a bit of reverse stencilling.  Then I added a bit of background stamping with what is fast becoming one of my favourite small stamps.

Next, which figures to use?  Well, it all depends on the story - or does the story depend on the figures?  That is my secret but the story this week goes:

"Emmeline is out with her aunt Rebecca and they have had a lovely day at the zoo.  Aunt Rebecca has taken Emmeline to her favourite restaurant for an English High Tea thinking it would be a real treat for the young girl and a perfect ending to a lovely day.  After a delicious sandwich (crusts off of course and thinly sliced cucumber), devilled eggs, scones with cream and strawberries plus a slice of Victoria Sandwich aunt Rebecca thought that Emmeline would be ready for home and possibly an early night for her mother, Rebecca's favourite sister.

But oh no, Emmeline has other plans in her head and she wants to delay the ride home and insists that her aunt takes her somewhere else AND buys her an ice cream.  Aunt Rebecca tells her "No, we must go home now, you have had sufficient to eat and will be sick if you have ice cream on top of all that", but Emmeline stamps her feet and refuses to speak to her aunt.  Aunt has been a nursery school teacher in her time and has witnessed many a child's tantrum so she decides she is having none of this behaviour and so she tells her niece in no uncertain terms that she will do as she is told.  Emmeline just stands there, refusing to speak or move.  When auntie takes her to task and tells her there is no use her having a mood as she is not going to stand for it,  Emmeline replies "I'm not narky - I'm selectively polite".  Now what does auntie think of that and what does she say next to Emmeline?"

I will leave you to write the ending to this story - I think I am going to be a wee bit selective over this!