Jeudi Journal - Forever

Another Snarky Comment from Tim Holtz and some figures from Dyan Realey, both Ranger Designers for my journal today along with Wendy who is working to the same parameters.  This time the snarky comment is a well known one "We'll be best friends forever because you already know too much."

It's Thursday, so the day we link up to Art Journal Journey where I am guest host this month and have chosen the theme "In Gear".  As I tried to explain on the opening page of AJJ you don't necessarily have to have any gears on your page as there are other ways to incorporate the wording.  In this journal page I have included a motorbike which has lots of gears to make it go - as Johnny knows only too well as he tinkers about with his in the garage.  The moderators and I would love you to join in but first please read the dreaded rules here.

"Bettina and Sarah have always been best friends since school days, and nothing, not even an interest in boys, has ever split them apart.  Even as small children they told one another their innermost secrets and so it has been right up into their early 20's.

"I'm going to tell you a secret" said Bettina, one day to her friend Sarah.  "Johnny and I are getting married.  We haven't told anyone yet, as he only proposed to me yesterday.  It was so romantic, we had gone out for a meal to Fabio's Italian restaurant and he got down on one knee ....." and she related the whole story to a wide eyed Sarah who was so pleased for her bestie.

"Have you told your parents yet?" she asked.

"No, only you know.  He's coming around tonight to see my parents and then he is going to formally ask my dad for my hand in marriage."

"Oh how sweet.  That is something not many seem to do and I think that is lovely. Shows how much Johnny thinks about you.  Have you got a ring yet?" asked Sarah with a tear in her eye.

"No, we hope to go at weekend, he thought it best to wait until he had spoken to my parents before we bought a ring.  Tempting fate and all that.  Besides which he has been so busy working extra hours at the garage to save for the ring and he is talking about selling his beloved motorbike to help us save for our own home.  I can picture him now with his cheeky smile.  Oh Sarah, I do love him."

"Bettina, I am over the moon for you, I will of course expect to be a bridesmaid.  But why are you telling me this now, why not wait until you have both seen your parents?"

"Of course you will be my bridesmaid, my chief one, you're my best friend" she said tittering.  We'll be best friends forever because you already know too much.  And I tell you what, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I couldn't wait to tell you.  I am bursting with joy."

Background is Speckled Egg and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxides with a little splodge here and there of Tumbled Glass, the base is Wilted Violet, stencil unknown.  The two female figures are from the Dylusion range and the young man at the top is by Janet Klein for Aall & Create.

WOYWW 749

The days are drawing in and it gets dark quite soon here in the north of England, that seems to make my days so much shorter and therefore they seem to pass even more quickly.  Saturday was dry and quite warm where we were and we went for a walk in the park and enjoyed seeing all the families out with the children enjoying themselves.  I guess the kiddie train had stopped running when October came in but the trampolining was still there for them to enjoy as was the crazy golf.  I hope the latter stays open, I fancy a game myself.

I started sticking some of my work in my Lavinia Journal but I spent too much time hesitating as to what to put on the blank part of each page.  That to me is more daunting than a whole white page.  I just need some ideas to link up the rectangular images so they don't look as if they have just been 'plonked' there.  I managed two pages that is all but both still need some work on them.

I did promise you I would show you the pages I have been uploading for my theme at Art Journal Journey although it seems a bit silly as you could just scroll down to them.  Anyway, here are the two from the last week

I did intend making a good start on my "C" cards, especially if the weather kept us in a bit, but the internet was non existent and so I couldn't find anything to inspire me and my own inspiration was lacking.  (So bad was the internet that we had to go to sit outside the 'bins' which are close to reception to get on the internet so I could link my posts for Art Journal Journey and do my commenting.  We got some funny looks from people emptying their rubbish.)

When I got home I stamped some hats for the two "C" cards I had done whilst away.  I thought the Santa hat looked fine on these cards but had to try a dickie bow and a straw boater.  There's also a top hat and a witches one to play with, courtesy of Crazy Birds.

On the way home we went for our jabs to a walk in centre as our GP surgery is lacking in sorting them out for us.  I've been a bit more wary of being in a crowded place as the news tells us that hospitals are getting full of Covid patients once more.  A stern letter is on its way to my GP asking why I had not had mine as yet.  Yesterday morning I woke feeling a bit like a cold was starting and then the pharmacist who did the jabs warned us that we may feel like we have a cold for the next couple of days.  Ah well!

So it's Toodle Pip for now, see you over at Ms Julia's for the linking to all the WOYWW desks.

Art Journal Journey - Going On a Journey

My large Dylusion Journal is almost full so I have been working in my smaller square one which is just slightly larger than 8" square and I have been working mainly on cardstock 8" x 8" and then sticking them into my Journal.  This is another of those pieces.  This one is almost a copy of a canvas I once made and taught down South some 10 or 12 years ago.  Some of the rubber stamps I could not find and so have substituted others which means that the layout is slightly different too.   This is for the theme at Art Journal Journey where I am guest host for the month and chose "In Gear".

I began colouring the background with Mustard Seed Distress Ink and then with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink I stamped the man with the watch and the luggage, both old Tim Holtz type rubber stamps.  I have quite a few of these men (I think they were drawn by Brett Wilder but I may be wrong) in different poses/costume etc and I remember at the time I became rather addicted to purchasing them.  They have been useful over the years and still are, especially for male cards etc.

Next, using a piece of sequin waste and Vintage Photo DI I stencilled some dots over the page.  Again using various rubber stamps I built up the background with advertisements and ticket images.  

I wanted to stamp three moustaches, as on my original canvas, in the top corner but I could not find the stamp so I used another one and stamped it three times.  Guess what?  I found, later, that I had originally used a diecut for the moustaches, and I still had it.  The story of my life.

I continued building up images on the background and I coloured some cardstock with various DI's so that I could diecut some gears to give an injection of colour.  I also stamped some tickets and things and cut out some butterflies.

The next thing I added was a gold key.  No idea why.  I had included one on my original canvas and liked it.  Finally the letters spelling out 'journey' were diecut because he looks as if he is certainly setting out on one with all those cases.  I wonder where he is going? 

Are you going to join us with this theme in your journal?  I do hope so but please read the dreaded rules here before you begin.

Addendum:  We have been away for a few days so I have been without internet and have had to drive elsewhere to link in to comment and to publish my posts.  Apologies for being late commenting but tried to get to you each day.  Thanks so much for joining in with the theme.  (I was sat outside the rubbish bins on the site at the time I linked LOL)

Art Journal Journey - Goggles

 Today I have another page for Art Journal Journey's challenge "In Gear" .  This one is featuring some of my older stamps which I have had for some years, mainly from the time when I was heavily into Steampunk.

 I started this on a sheet of 8" x 8" buff coloured cardstock which I then cut down slightly so that I could stick it into my 8" square Journal.  Using a selection of Victorian advertisement rubber stamps I covered the whole sheet using both Versafine Clair Pinecone and Acorn inks, first and second generation to give it an "old" appearance.  Next I stamped a couple of images using Nocturne ink including the image of the Steampunk guy wearing goggles on a separate piece of white card which I fussy cut out.

I decided I wanted to add a little colour into this page and so I used Elements Pinecone ink to lightly colour a small piece of card onto which I stamped the baggage check image.  Finally I added some cogs and wheels that I had die cut in black cardstock.

I hope some of you will be joining us at Art Journal Journey this month but please read the 'dreaded rules' at the top of their page firstly.

Addendum: I know my theme is "In Gear" and not 'Steampunk" but as the two are closely related I thought I would give you this link which I just came across yesterday in Pinterest.  I haven't read it myself as yet but it might be useful to some of you.

https://einatkessler.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-make-a-steampunk-project/

Jeudi Journal - Headache

Well, this is another of my journal pages for the "In Gear" challenge I am hosting at Art Journal Journey and this one does not have a gear in sight.   I decided not to include any gears as such but if you look there are lots of gears hidden away.  The car, the bicycle and just ever so faintly you can see the ferris wheel - all have gears inside them to make them work.  In other words you could say they are all "In Gear".

This was an already coloured page in my square journal so I put some Elements Olive Green on with a brush to make a kind of darker splodge in the middle and then did some stencilling.  Then I added some stamping using Versafine Clair Nocturne and Momento London Fog.  The figures are, of course, Dylusions.  For our Journal challenge (between ourselves) Wendy and I have to use Dylusion figures and a Tim Holtz' snarky comment, which this week is  "You smell like drama and a headache, please get away from me".

"Billie is working in her father's garage and as usual her overalls are full of grease and all manner of things.  Her hair is hanging over her eye so that it is almost a wonder she can see what she is doing.  Suddenly she hears a noise outside and sees it is one of the girls from college, Serena.  Serena is at college on a beautician course and so the two girls are polar opposites but they just happen to have the same friendship groups.

Only yesterday they had sat having coffee together when Billie had been bemoaning the fact that her boyfriend did not understand why she spent so much time at her father's garage when he thought she should be going out with him.  Serena had been one of the less sympathetic ones in the group and had said 

"You smell like drama and a headache, please get away from me."

Poor Billie was most upset and annoyed yesterday but had got over it now so she shouted through the window to Serena but Serena totally ignored her and walked on.  Determined to have it out with her Billie closed the garage door, put the lock on and hopped on her bicycle and tore after Serena.

I think we will leave it there, you really don't want to know what happened next or what Billie said."

WOYWW 748

We are now into October, a month full of rich colours as the leaves turn and fall to the ground.  Oh heck - that means raking leaves up and boy oh boy do we have a lot in our gardens.  I wish we could put giant hairnets on all our trees so that the leaves would not be there for poor Chas to rake up.  Apart from that I love October and the colours it conjures up.

I did promise you that I would show you what I had been making but the three birthday cards for members of our club are all the same and actually copies of what I have done previously.  I just hadn't time to think up anything different.

Good job nobody from the club ever comes on my blog - I can get away with showing you the cards quite easily.

I also said I would show you my blog pages once they had been published, so, to save you going back to the pages here they are

1st October and below the 3rd

This last one is taken from a design by Jo Rice, Head of the Design Team at Lavinia.  Jo did give me permission to use her original design.  I tweaked it a little bit.  More pages next week as we catch up.

Now here is my desk, obviously making a journal page for Thursday when Wendy and I challenge one another to make something with a snarky comment from Tim Holtz' book and use Dylusion figures.  Now you can see how I have been using the bags of heads, legs and bodies these past weeks.

That's last weeks Thursday journal page stood at the back, this one I am doing here is in my square journal, or will be when I stick it in.

That is it for this week folks so head on over to Ms Julia at WOYWW and see what everyone has in store for you.  See you next week hopefully.

Art Journal Journey - Mice in the Library

My favourite designer at the moment, when I want to make a card, is Jo Rice who is Head of the Design Team at Lavinia Stamps.  Jo is a lovely lady and when I asked if I could use her ideas as a basis for some of my journal pages she was quite happy for me to do so.  So with Jo's permission I give you my rendition of the little mice playing in the Steampunk Library:

My background was a second run from the Ornate stencil I had used elsewhere.  I love to do this technique for backgrounds and it means you get two for the price of one in a way.  I had used my stencil with some Distress Oxides and rather than wash it up I spritzed it with water and placed it ink side down on my cardstock.  Left it for a minute or so and then pressed a piece of kitchen roll on top.  Lifting it up you get a lovely muted impression of the stencil.

Next, using the Hill Mask and Graphite Elements ink I made some ground for the mice to stand on.  Then I used the various stamps, (Moo and Tilly, Wizardry, Topper, Goggles, Cog Set 1-3, Words of Steam, and Rose Set), stamping with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and coloured the images with Inktense watercolour pencils.

This started life on a piece of 8 x 8 cardstock and is is now in my Lavinia Journal.  I sometimes like to work this way so that I don't spoil my actual journal pages with any mistakes I might make and not be able to cover up.  Much easier to work on a piece of card and then stick it in my journal.

I hope this has shown you something a little different than the first page for my "In Gear" challenge at Art Journal Journey and I hope you will join in with us.  Just make sure you read the dreaded rules first of all which you can find at the top of the AJJ page.

I love Eva's entry (8) for this theme but cannot find how to comment, Can someone please let me know how to leave a comment on her blog.