WOYWW 752

Hip Hip Hooray, I have started my Christmas cards.  Any more of you WOYWW'ers been Christmas card making?  Bet some of you have finished them not just started them.

Went down to Ruthin on Saturday to the Hallaganza at Lavinia and saw lots of lovely ideas and spent lots of lovely lolly.  Yes, had to buy those new stamps and this Christmas my cards will maybe have a fairy on them.  In fact on Monday I did three cards featuring the two fairies that have just come out.  I fell in love with them.  The fairies, not my cards.

To be honest I didn't need to go down to get inspired, the design team had been working hard and putting lots of their ideas on the net.  It was one of Tracey's videos that inspired me to use the fairies and so I stamped them up and added a bit of other stuff, a bit of colour, some holographic stuff and I had them done.  They are the ones that will go abroad.

So here is my craftroom counter in all its mess:

and my little table

Hopefully by next week I will have lots more Christmas cards done.  The one I really wanted to try I didn't realise I needed some small snowflakes to make it and I don't have any suitable in my stash.  Ah well, next year ...

In the meantime here is a catch up on some of my journal pages - I'll just show you the Lavinia inspired ones.  I don't know who inspired me with this lady (Zia) in her top hat but Jo was responsible for the inspiration behind the mousey clockwork one.

this one below is purely mine

This was intended for a challenge called 'animals gather' but I was too late (didn't read the rules) so I added some gears later and used it in my 'in gear' theme.

I've been Lavinia all the way recently as I did some 3" x 3" squares for a challenge Jo put up but I will show those to you next week in case I don't get any Christmas cards done for you to see.

In the meantime stay safe and well and hopefully we will meet up here again next Wednesday with all the other WOYWW gang.

End of the Month - Art Journal Journey

 Well, October is over and my planned post did not come to fruition.  I copied some "gear" quotes for you and they all came with a heavy white line across them.  Even when I deleted them one by one and retyped them myself I still had the heavy line.  So I give you the link instead: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/gears-quotes.

Talk about everything going wrong.   I decided to do a picture using pumpkins for Halloween but then I got carried away and so I ended up with my pumpkin houses but no gears.  So I decided the only thing to do was to attach some like falling leaves (substitute gears for leaves) for Pippin to be looking up at.

Here is my amended picture for my final contribution

May I thank all who entered a page in their journal for my theme at Art Journal Journey and a big thank you to Elizabeth for inviting me to be a guest host.  It has been a pleasure seeing what you all came up with and I thank you for it.  Tomorrow brings a new month and a new theme so it is exciting.  See you there!

Art Journal Journey -Two for One

Here we are, almost the end of October and time to bring my theme to an end at Art Journal Journey.  I still have three pages I previously made to show you so will show you two today and just one tomorrow.

These are not for my square journal but will still go in my Lavinia one if I decide to put them there as they are all Lavinia stamps I used.

The top one was simply a piece of cardstock on which I used Distress Inks in various greens and yellows and then the stencil, Lavinia, was used.  I often wonder when using this stencil have I got it upside down or the right way up?

It just had a selection of Lavinia cogs, wheels and words stamped on it and then some clocks, a compass and some more gears to give it prominence for my theme at AJJ.

The bottom one was where I had made a card and then stamped some images, again from Lavinia, on it but I had smudged the card.  So in order to save it from the bin and not add to the landfill problem I cut the two hearts out using a Spellbinders die.  I decorated a piece of cardstock with purple and pink DI's and stamped time words all over randomly.  This then had the two hearts cut from its face and I slotted the previous hearts behind it.

I hope this gives you another idea on what you might do if you too spoil a card with a silly smudge or something similar.

Art Journal Journey - Zia

 Just in case you are all wondering who or what Zia is, she is the Steampunk Lady from Lavinia Stamps.  Now I obviously got this idea from one of the design team but I cannot remember who, maybe it was Emma Jo?  I do remember on the original she had the mask on her eyes, I just put goggles on her.

To colour my page I used my stencil brushes which had left over ink on them, most likely Elements inks as those are what I use with these brushes.  So it was a mixture of pink, blue and purple.

The first stamping I did was Zia but with the top of her head wiped of ink so that the top hat would fit there.  This was with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.  Then I stamped the Top Hat and finally the Goggles.  I used the Angel Wings, first of all with Nocturne, and then the ones behind with Memento London Fog.  The cogs and the words down the right hand side were both stamped with Nocturne but the words were second generation stamping.

The final thing was to give Zia some red lips and lilac shiny laces on her hat (gel pens).

Although she will most likely go in my Lavinia Journal which is roughly 9.5" x 8" she was produced on a smaller piece of cardstock (7" x 7").  When I put her in my journal she will have some work done on the page, as will all of my pieces, to tie her into the actual page.

It is nearing the end of the month of October, oh dear, one more month and we will be into Christmas with a vengeance, so there are not many more pages to show you for my theme at Art Journal Journey.  I have so enjoyed making these pages and now will enjoy adding them and extending them to include the whole of the page.  I think I will probably start with this one, it's the smallest so neds most work.

Just realised there are still two more days in October, the month has 31 days, not 30 so hopefully I can show you another two pages before my guest host stint ends.  That means there is still time for you to join in at Art Journal Journey if you so wish.  Would love to see you there.

Art Journal Journey - Tik Tok

Another page inspired by my lovely friend, Jo Rice,  who is head of the Design Team at lavinia Stamps, and again featuring the playful little mice.  I think Jo has a soft spot for them as I do. They work for so many of the Lavinia designs that the team put out on social media for us all to see.  Many of them also do tutorials so you can join in with them.  (The Design Team not the mice)

Again I have used the top hat as well as the mice for my page and as it is for the theme at Art Journal Journey you will find there are some gears on it.  They make fabulous wheels for things and therefore provide some humorous pictures for cards and journal pages alike.

For this journal page (in my 8" x 8" journal) I first of all stamped the clock in the bottom left corner, just a tiny bit off the page.  Then I carefully stamped the compass on top of it, balancing the "S" for south as closely as I could to the edge of the clock.

Next came an assortment of cogs and wheels in the opposite corner.  Some of these are quite tiny and as there are three sets I have them all mounted on one piece of acrylic.  As you can imagine they are quite easy to lose so it is better to stamp, clean, and return to the carrier sheet straight away.

Then came the mice.  Tilly is the one on the left balancing on the "N" for north on the compass which in turn is balancing on Tick, the clock stamp.  Her friend, Minni, is doing her best to keep upright whilst balancing on two cogs which are in turn balancing on more cogs and wheels.  Oh what fun those two are having.  Somehow I think they are both 'in gear' today.  Apart from the mice who were stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne everything else was stamped in Pinecone.

I just used Elements Lime Punch ink brushed lightly around the edge of my page, leaving the centre white where I  included the two sets of words (words of steam) stamped on cardstock and lightly brushed with Elements Truffle ink.

I hopw you have enjoyed seeing the little mice again. They are too cute not to include in my theme for Art Journal Journey.  If you would like to join in please be sure to read the dreaded rules here first of all.  

Jeudi Journal - Expert Opinion

'Of course I talk to myself ..... sometimes I need an expert opinion!' is the Tim Holtz quote for today to match up with the challenges for Art Journal Journey (In Gear) and a private one with my friend where we have to use Dylusion figures.

'Agatha and her friends meet up on a fairly frequent basis at the local Clockwork Cafe where they had pensioner's days with prices reduced (portions slightly too).  It was Tuesday, the day for 'pie and mash' which Agatha loved more than chocolate, well, maybe not chocolate but something else.  Aggy, as she was known to her friends, sat down in the cafe and waited patiently for Ethel, her bestie, arriving.  Ethel was running late and it was a good ten to fifteen minutes or so that Aggy had to sit there on her own.  

"Bet she is still trying to decide which purple hat she is putting on today" Aggy heard herself saying as she looked around sheepishly.  That had not meant to come out loud like that, was anyone looking?  "Oh dear", she thought to herself, "this is happening too much to me.  Wonder if it is an age thing?  I never used to do that but I find myself talking out loud at home, and there's nobody there to hear me." 

Hastily she began rummaging in her handbag, "I must occupy my mind so I don't say anything again" she said to herself, but silently in her head this time.  "Goodness, what a load of rubbish I have in here.  I never wear that lipstick these days, wonder if it is safe to still use it?  Guess not,  Think I will throw it out."  And so it went on, tickets, receipts for things she had bought, a few tissues and ...yuk ... a sticky toffee.  "Wonder how long that has been there?" she asked herself.  Just then Ethel arrived, as predicted, in a purple hat.  She was a great fan of Jenny joseph's rhyme and had lots of purple hats to choose from.  She didn't mind what colour of clothes she wore, she always had a purple hat on.

"Sorry I am late" shouted Ethel across from the door, "a courier arrived with a parcel just as I was about to set off, threw me all out of kilter, sorry." 

"No worries" said Aggy, "it gave me chance to tidy my handbag out.  How are you anyway?"

"I'm ok" answered Ethel, "apart from my hip.  It's giving me loads of trouble lately.  I think it's due to the cold damp weather we have around here.  If only we lived somewhere nice and sunny.  Think I might have a sore throat coming on" she went on to say.  "I had a bit of a tickle in it last night, so I had a drop of whisky, hoping it would soothe it" she carried on.  "My back's been terrible since I last saw you, I really must go to the doctor and see if I can go to that physio woman again.  She worked wonders on me last time I went" and so on and on Ethel went.  She was a bit of a, what's the word for someone who loves to talk about their ailments - a hypochondriac?

Ethel paused for a moment so Aggy jumped in "Do you ever find you are talking to yourself?" she asked, thinking about the moment she had had in the cafe.

"Oh yes," replied Ethel, "Of course I talk to myself ... sometimes I need an expert opinion."

Aggy just sat there, that wasn't what she had expected, or was it?  She knew Ethel better than Ethel knew herself in many ways.  "Perhaps the best thing to do is just leave it" she muttered to herself.  "Are you having a pudding?" she asked.'

I knew which character I wanted to use, she was just Ethel, so I found a page I had torn from a journal once and decided to use that.  I began with my background using a few different blue and green Distress Oxides, then I mixed in a bit of Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed, didn't like them so I went back to the blues and greens.  I finished off with a few gears in the corners for the Clockwork Cafe using my little Tando stencil and Chipped Sapphire.

WOYWW 751

Another week has flown by and still the "C" cards remain a mystery to me but I am hoping to get started on them in a big way when I go on a workshop with Jo Rice early November.  I wonder how many will be showing "C" cards on WOYWW today.

In the meantime here is a card I made last week for my friend's daughter's 16th birthday.  I normally do 'horsey' ones for her but this time I wanted to do something and include pumpkins so I chose to use 'Bijou' again on his branch.  I was going to put Bijou on a broomstick but decided that that might make it a bit too Halloweeny for her and not suitable really for a birthday card.

The card looks a bit wonky but I must have put it in the scanner like that as I did mount the image part carefully.  I used Elements Della Blue for the background and Inktense pencils (watercolour) for the remainder.  You can hardly see on here but I grounded the pumpkins with a grey pastel pencil.  The window frames on the pumpkins were highlighted with sparkly gel pens as were the vines on the tree.

I've been doing some small things too but I'm leaving them until next week to show as I might change one or two of them but in the meantime here is my desk/desks.

This is my desk on the counter which runs along two sides of my craftroom.  It just shows my journal page for tomorrow which is a mish mash of Distress Oxides and some gears in the corners.  The page is now decorated and ready for tomorrow's post.

The one below just has one of my small pieces on top of some scrap papers that I am working on at the moment.  The best white inkpad I can find at the moment is my Brilliance,  Brilliant White one but I am wondering if the Hero Arts one is a better white.  That is just a strip I cut off a card I had made to the right and then a pencil and my towel.  The dirty white one above is what I used on my stamps (hence the colour) and a pad of kitchen roll with loads of colour on.

That's it for this week.  Hopefully see you next week with some new stash and some of those small pieces I have been making.