Autumn is…..photographs(part 1!)

I mentioned in my previous post that we had my son and two of our grandchildren to stay - the only place with enough beds is our caravan - and that we had been out and about!
When they all arrived on Sunday afternoon we set off to Morecambe for a walk along the promenade! It was quite warm but dull but we were able to talk and catch up!

There is an installation that shows and names the mountains you can see in the distance!
We can see the other side of Warton Crag from our caravan

I sneaked through a car park and laid in wait to get this photo of my usually reluctant subjects!!

You may remember me telling you about the 3 storey house we liked the look of - this would have been our view!

Walls are for walking along at the seaside aren't they?

The next day we had a plan to visit Acorn Bank and then found that there were owls at the Rheged centre for the day - as it is only a slight detour we decided to call there for lunch and a little look at the owls and the fabulous print exhibition that was on(I had already been once, but definitely with a second visit)

My GD had her face painted by a very talented lady…..

…and we set off for Acorn Bank, which is a National Trust property near Penrith.

We had been before a couple of years ago in the early Spring when the woods are carpeted in snowdrops. This time there was a Halloween Trail that we enjoyed following.

I will try to let you wander along without words!

The end of the trail - we had to go inside to find the little girl's Teddy Bear

  After a quick visit to the Tea Room (more another day!!)we set off in a different direction to visit the fairy walk and the mill.

This door had little stairs inside!

This stream led to the water mill

By now it was getting quite dark so we made our way back to the carpark...

 …and watched the moon rise on our way back down the motorway.

I'll be back with day 3 another time!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Happy……….

If you stay with me here you may get a surprise!
The real reason for being here is my final page for showing at Art Journal Journey, although I confess it was originally started for my entry in the challenge at the Artistic Stamper, where the theme for October was 'Clocks'. 
Started with some book page scraps stuck to the page and painted over with watered down paints, I then added the crackle clock and some random text and clock stamping - and stopped…

I have been so taken with the Autumn colours and we have been out and about quite a bit! (More photos straight after this post)
While sorting out some scraps I came across the little napkin house on the left and this small piece of corrugated card. The grand house image transfer was from and advert at the back of a free magazine, from here my idea came together. The Artistic Outpost watch reminded me of where I was brought up in the country! 
I found an interesting fact about the average number of times a person moves in their lifetime - 8 it seems, I have moved 14 times since I was born, so then I thought about where I was happiest and it occurred to me that I have always been happy about where I lived for different reasons!
The Walt Whitman quote sums this up beautifully!


I am getting in(just in time!) 
for the Artistic Stamper Challenge - Clocks

and for my last entry for Sheila's brilliant 'Architecture' challenge at Art Journal Journey 

So, will you be out and about tonight or will 'Strictly' be a better bet?
Either way - I wish you a Strictly Happy Halloween with my two dancing skellies!

 Thanks for looking, Chris

Architect Tim?

Can you believe how this month has flown by - I think the unexpected warm weather may have something to do with that!
We had a great time with our son and grandchildren, even though they were only with us for three days! We managed to fit in trips to Morecambe,the Rheged Centre, Acorn bank and Kirby Lonsdale - I will post photos separately if you want to see what we got up to!
This months great Architecture challenge at Art Journal Journey is coming to an end too - I loved Sheila's choice of theme and wish I had had time to make more pages! 
My page started with wrinkle free distress on the first page in my new journal - it is an A5 Pink Pig just like the first one my youngest son bought me!

I used Stormy Sky, Old Paper and Bundled Sage DIs. I then added some further colour through the lattice stencil and a little random text.
The stamps are a mixture from Tim Holtz Classics 2,9 and 16 and the sentiment from TH Captured Moments set, all stamped using WV Potting Soil, I stamped the window and the sentiment on the back of some TH papers in my scraps folder. I masked off the centre of the window so that I could stamp the face. I used a distress tool around the window before adding some Old Paper DI. I cut the lattice using my Thinlet Mixed Media die for the corner  

before I added DM

I thought I was done, but wasn't quite happy with the sentiment that I had cut up, then remembered Tim's trick of using Distress Markers around the edge - much better!

I am linking to Art Journal Journey - Architecture 
and
A Vintage Journey - where Alison's theme this month is Art Journalling with Tim

Before I go I'd like to say Thank You for the kind comments you left for me while I was away and for the support you always give me!

Thanks for looking, Chris

   

Tim's 12 Tags of 2015 - October

I may have mentioned how determined I am not to drop out of making all 12 of Tim's tags this year, but when I saw Tim's tag and tutorial here I didn't have high hopes of managing to take part this month. If you are a regular visitor here you will know that Halloween is not my favourite time of year. I really was scratching my head - I had bought Tim's Mini Halloween set a couple of years ago and made something for my GD(here)so I had at least something to make a start with.
I had seen Astrid's pumpkin on her fabulous tag so decided to have a go at making my own fun pumpkin

The base was made using Tim's stamps

I used little strips of bent card to raise the pumpkin from the tag.

I used a word band with my computer generated words to express how I feel about Halloween! 


Thanks for looking, Chris

Layers at Try It On Tuesday

The new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Lots of Layers' - as you will see here the Design Team have made their layers in a variety of ways.
My card is made of layers of fabric, lace and paper but is still light enough and flat enough to go through the post.

 I started by using a stencil and Stormy Sky DI and randomly stamped some text.

I stamped a couple of grasses from an Artistic Stamper set on to a square of muslin.

My fabric and paper was layered before hand sewing - a little crooked I see now although it doesn't look so bad IRL! I decided that it would look nice layered on top of a fancy die cut but when I checked it didn't show much...  

..no matter, I just cut the die cut in half as I knew the dips wouldn't show when stuck down

I cut out two colours of the Happy Birthday sentiment and slightly offset the top layers that it showed up more.

I hope you will show us your layers in this new challenge.

Thanks for looking, Chris