Celebrating by looking back...

Many of you may know this was my last year of being in my 60's,although as my birthday was before Christmas I am ending it in my 70's.
It has been a great year and once again we got to the end of the year realising how quickly that year passed!
I am celebrating by looking back over the year and have made a journal page to celebrate!
I am joining Sheila of Orange Esmerelda at Art Journal Journey with her 'Let's Celebrate' theme for one last time! I wish I had had more journaling time this month but what with birthday celebrations, visiting family and taking on a tag challenge there hasn't been much time!

I used a napkin and a photo card I picked up at the cinema. The background is Distress Oxides and a little bit of random stamping

I have had a book of quotes printed on velum for ages which was unearthed while looking for something else - the quote seemed just right! The little illustration is from one of my chocolate wrappers from Paris. The star made it's way here from the Christmas things still around on my desk. To finish it off I added some stickles that I put on my mat and used the end of a paintbrush to add faded type dots.

I can't believe that it is nearly a year since I decorated this cover of this journal! It was half full then and today's page is the next to last to be completed!

  

We went off to Dunham Massey for a walk at the beginning of the month(there will be another photo of DM at the end of the year!)
I also made one of my favourite projects of the year for TIOT….

 …this little box is where I keep the keys for our caravan, they go in there overtime we return home as I was forever losing them - haven't mislaid them once this year!

This is the page I made in the middle of the night, something woke me up and after trying to get back to sleep decided to go to my craft room and go through a going to bed process again - it worked!

My friend Sarah and I visited the Creative Recycling Gallery - so much inspiration so I took my son there a few weeks later!

By February it was becoming lighter in the evenings (looking forward to that next year)
Tag Tuesday had a revamp and I have enjoyed joining in when I can! This was my first tag for the Bookworm theme and it is one that I keep on display in my craft room

Walking along by the Lune at Kirby Lonsdale is one of our favourite walks and I loved seeing the snowdrops!

I started a planner journal in 2017 - here you see one of my spreads and underneath is my 365 Calendar journal which record daily events

March came with a few plans too!

We had a walk at Sizergh Castle….and another at Styall Mill to see the Spring flowers.

I went to Harrogate with my friends Sarah and Helen for a workshop with lovely Tracy Scott..and finished my page off the next day

Hubby and I also had a few days away in York, I hadn't been there for years.

With all the outings I didn't have a great month craft wise but I did make a little pear hanging which I used for my blog header.

We also saw the Flying Scotsman steam train, after a visit to Allen Bank

April came and we were out and about…a lot!

A trip to our caravan of course…and another outing to Rydal Mount with our grandchildren and son, as well as a trip to Lowther castle where I was persuaded to cross some netting(not showing that again!)

I also started Rae Missigman's 30 Day Artmarks challenge which I continued while away in Paris for a long weekend and a visit to Paris Scrap.

These are three of my favourites!

Paris was, of course, wonderful and we visited some familiar places and some new ones.

Parc Montsouris - my favourite parc

Buttes Chaumont with its artificial rocks

We also walked around the Buttes Aux Cailles area and loved it so much we stayed there at the end of our trip around France in the Autumn.

May arrived and the bluebells were flowering on our walk around our area!I love to see bluebells…anywhere

In a suitably chilled mode I created two journal pages for Gill's Elegance and Grunge theme at AJJ..

...before going to Sizergh to see the gardens once again

Here is just one of the lovely sunsets we saw at our caravan

A little more crafting took place during May

Our caravan garden looked it's best this month!

By the time June came the weather was a lot warmer

 We went to Hawes for a day out

We had lunch with youngest son and partner followed by a trip across the road to this very unusual garden centre

I did have some crafting time, mainly for journal pages - this is one of my favourites of the year

I am going to stop here with my look back at this year, I will continue at T Stands For Tuesday!

Meanwhile I hope everyone enjoys their New Years Eve, whether you are going out celebrating or having a quiet(at least till the fireworks at midnight!)night in!

See you in 2018!

Thank you all for visiting, not just today, but throughout the year. My blog means nothing to me without the lovely friendships forged over the years via my blog!

Hugs to all, Chris

All Done!!!

Here I am with the 12th tag of The Twelve Tags Of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style  which is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique

I have really enjoyed this challenge, even though I came to it late! 

In my rush this morning I forgot to photograph this one in daylight and my lamp is broken, so with the help of the torch on hubby's phone and my flash I have done my best!

I loved the traditional colours in Linda's tag but could only lay my hands on my turquoise hessian(burlap)
The paper on the tag was the reverse of some paper I had used on one of this years cards.
I'm sure I have some vintage images somewhere but I really wanted to follow my imposter Robin card with a more realistic Robin on my Carabelle Studios stamp.
I used watercolour card onto which I smooshed some Candied Apple DI before stoping the image.
I added Evergreen Bough around the edges and onto part of the card.
The little bunch of berries and twigs was part of a napkin holder bought in a sale years ago.

I thought it would be good to see all the tags together 

A journal page next I think!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Joy!

I have two tags remaining to show for Funkie Junkie Boutique's sponsored challenge - 12 tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style! 
I have enjoyed taking part, even though I did start very late! Linda's inspiration for each tag has had me looking through my craft stash and sometimes using things that have been long forgotten!

For tag 11 I have once again made a card - I loved the main focus on Linda's card but alas don't have the stamps once again!

The strip across the centre I could do, and used some lovely chunky lace. I decided that one of my Dina Wakely scribbly birds(posing as a Robin) could stand on a branch and sing - which led me to the sentiment from a freebie set.
I stamped some music across the card and by chance a little pad I
had on my cart at the side of me had some music paper in it so I tore off a corner to balance the sentiment I had stamped on to a punched circle.

I'll be back later with the final tag, meanwhile we are off to the cinema(I know, second time this week) with our grandchildren to see Jumanji!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Twinkle!!!!

Warning - a lot of glitter was used in the making of this card! Fortunately it is either in the form of embossing powder or Stickles!

I loved Linda's tag but couldn't see at first how on Earth I was going to come up with anything.
I saw the little circle wreath at the top with the red bow and an idea came to me! 

We had to stop putting a wreath on our door when we got our new door a couple of years ago - if only I had thought about Christmas in the middle of Summer I would have asked for a knocker, not that we need one to attract our attention in our small flat, but it would have been so useful at this time of of year.

Once again I used the tag, number 10 of Linda's 12 tags Of Christmas Funkie Junkie style, as inspiration to make a card. 
The challenge closes tomorrow and it's looking as though I am going to manage to complete my tags. The challenge is being sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I started with a kraft card onto which I stamped some wood using a Prima wood stamp and brown ink. I then added some random Cosmic Shimmer black sparkle glitter to give weathered look.

Well, that's if glitter can look weathered!
Next I grabbed a couple of my Winter greenery bags and found I had enough holly and mistletoe diecuts done to avoid getting my big shot out.
I used a corrector pen to add white berries and some snow on the leaves.

 I then realised that I DID need my Bigshot out to cut some snowflakes! I have so many snowflake dies but found this combination worked well, I added Icicle Stickles and also used a little on my wreath.

I cheated slightly on the bow by tying a knot and snipping the ends (yes I am rushing things slightly!)
The words came from two different chit chat sets.
The glitter doesn't show up very well so I took a longer shot - it still looks shinier than this

I hope you are willing to forgive me for not making many blog visits at the moment - with just two more tags to go I am hoping to get back to 'normal' soon! 

Thanks for looking, Chris 

and another...

I am still galloping along to the 29th December to finish my own take on Julia's 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style!
For this one, Tag 9 I have taken the lovely blue sky on Julia's tag and the  way she used gesso and got some lovely brushstrokes showing in the sky! 
I turned the shape on it's side and I have used my new Tracy Easson hares - both looking hopefully up to the mistletoe!

Having read about Julia's trials with the Distress paint and white I decided to use DecoArt media fluid and silver spatters!

The challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique and there are some prizes and discounts on offer.

I must say, the fun for me has been using the example as a stepping stone to make some cards! 

Only 3 to go now!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Favourite Funkie tag, favourite film…….

We went to the cinema today but first I have another Funkie Junkie tag - the 8th of 12 tags Of Christmas Funkie Junkie style! 
The tag was my favourite (although tomorrow's is a contender for that title) The Funkie Junkie Boutique is sponsoring the challenge and offering prizes too! Linda's tags have all been so different with lots of different techniques!
I tried to keep as close to Linda's as I could with the materials I had! I love the colour scheme (my favourite super market has similar Christmas colours in it's cafes)

 I had just one piece of white corrugated card(so I have horizontal stripes) and instead of Velum I used tissue paper on top! Linda used Worn Lipstick DI but I added a little Ripe Persimmon in there as well. As you can see I added it to a pearlised blue card which also stamped with little snowflakes.

We went to see Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman which is the story of P T Barnum and is a brilliant musical! I may have mentioned that one of my favourite films is Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, well, this is a good second to that! Okay, so I am a huge Hugh Jackman fan too, but the sets and the dance numbers were brilliant and for those a lot younger than me there's Zac Ephron in it too!
Hubby was tapping his feet too and that's always a good sign - his comment this evening when I asked him what he thought to it was "Acceptable and good music!"

Thanks for looking, Chris