Botanical...

Hi everyone, after being up so early (6.30) in order to get hubby to the hospital for 8.00 we are taking it easy for the rest of today. As it turned out there wasn't as much traffic as we expected at that time of day and we arrived early.

Hubby is fine, just results to wait for now. A normal diet can be returned to slowly! 

I have another Journal page - I haven't used any Wendy Vecchi stamps for ages so I have used two sets here, Natures Art and Botanical Art.

  

I used the gingham stamp for the background using two colours of Distress Ink.

I decided I was going to use every stamp in the two sets, so some old German type got stamped onto the background too.

I used Versafine ink to stamp  the plants and butterflies and amongst the swirly bits I added the spider. I added two quotes using black and along the bottom stamped 'Be the designer of dreams' using Distress ink.

I'd forgotten how much I love these sets so they will be staying handy for a while!

Once again I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth at Art Journal Journey and answering the question 'What's Your Style?'

Thanks for looking, Chris

Live in the sunshine

Well, what a week..and it continues into next week. Hubby has been on a special low fibre diet for a week now, he has been to hospital for investigations and has to return next week, meanwhile my diet must contain green vegetables and pulses etc. I now envy those folk with huge hobs and ovens. I'm hoping that all returns to some sort of order by this time next week. 

Blogger has started to be kinder to me and I am slowly(very slowly) catching up - just as I don't have much time or energy!

One thing though - I practically gave up driving a couple of years ago and I am now back in the driving seat - some of the time at least!

I have finished a couple of journal pages and continuing to use my stamps. 

Elizabeth's theme at Art Journal Journey is 'What's Your Style' and although I don't have a style I love stamping, especially with rubber stamps.

I am trying to keep in some sort of order of buying my stamps 

This time I have an Artistic Outpost set.

I think the places shown here must be of Alabama as there is a text stamp with an extract from 'To Kill Mockingbird'

From what I know of Alabama it has some of the highest temperatures but also is known for tornados.

I rubbed some distress inks onto the page with a babywipe then stamped the images slightly overlapping and did some paper piecing with the houses. I added some of the text stamps randomly.

The quote was stamped onto card and 'sunshine' mounted to stand out more.

I will be trying to catch up this weekend!

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

T Stands for Time to leave Paris...

 Hi everyone, after making attempts to comment on blogs last week I got really bogged down. I have tried a few since and managed to leave comments so will keep on trying to revisit.

Sadly we did have to leave Paris, but not before our usual last day walk to Montsouris - by a more direct route this time.

We started by having a drink by the lake - it was a hot morning. I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday at the Altered Book Lover blog

Not all the seats were empty

The black Swan is still there

Some lovely Autumn colour

...and still lots of bright colours

We saw the swan again

Looking across to the cafe area

Time to go - with a last look across the lake and a quick selfie

We headed back to our hotel - we'll hopefully be back there soon

Our taxi  to Gare du Nord had to re-route because of demonstrations taking place so we got to see some of the places wet had walked by.

So, that's it! I may have a few random pics too show you but as I said - we have plans....

Tanks for looking, Chris

All Loved Up at TIOT

Hi everyone - yes we are heading towards Valentines day and here at Try It On Tuesday we are 'All Loved Up'

The Design Team are a loving bunch so please pop and see them and leave them some love!

I have a journal page. It's inspired by the shadow pics my hubby likes to take.

I began by sticking some book paper over the page and adding a coat of white gesso and a smudge of black to make a grey.

I added lots of different marks using a selection of stencils and green and grey distress inks.

I used an Indigo Blu map stamp of part of the English Lake District and the one of their heart stamps to stamp on an actual map of the Lake District.

The words were printed out using my label maker.

The photo is one taken on a recent walk at Lyme Park where we got a little muddy, as I led hubby into a very muddy field. The photo was taken once we were back on the pathway!

I am using stamps over at Art Journal Journey and Elizabeth's theme 'What's Your Style' and Indigo Blu are part of my journey into stamping.

As usual the TIOT theme is open for two weeks, hope to see you, although I am having difficulties making comments on blogs. 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Seeds and snowdrops

 Hi everyone, at last I find time to post!! I have been really struggling to get comments to publish or even access sometimes - even when I have made comments on the same blog!

I have a few journal pages ready and I am still trying to use my stamp stash in chronological order.

I am joining in at Art Journal Journey where Bleubeard and Elizabeth are hosting with 'What's Your Style?'

This time I am using a favourite set from Elusive Image (now known as Chocolate Baroque)

I used an acrylic block to add lots of different coloured inky splodges. I stamped one full image, then the text stamp, then part of the first image. I stamped the poppy seed heads onto some tea stained paper and fussy cut the heads and leaves so that they showed up more.

I used some sequin waste to add a few dots then spattered some black ink.

The quote came from a magazine.

We went for a drive into Wales last week and had a walk around Erddig.

The main attraction at the moment are the snowdrops 

Canada Geese

Surprised to see marigold flowers all around rthe car park.....

...as well as lots of trees with huge bunches of mistletoe

Thanks for looking, Chris

Calendar Journal - oldies but goodies! (Including a second look on the 2nd)

Hi everyone, I have my calendar journal ready to show you and I am joining in at Art Journal Journey where Bleubeard and Elizabeth are asking 'What's Your Style?'

As I mentioned yesterday I had a few stamps when I first started art journaling/card making - hopefully over the month I will show you some of the stamp stash I built up over the years in order of being introduced to the designers.

As many of you may know I am part of the Design Team at Crafty Individuals and thrilled to be so!

The owl stamp in the bottom right corner is the  one of the first Crafty individuals stamps I bought, along with some text and background stamps as I recall.
The other stamps were some of the next ones I got. 

I have used two of my favourite background stamps(Baroque Splatter Script CI430) for the background - using Distress ink and spritzing  and just Distress ink for one of the latest background stamps - Counting Down CI573) a number stamp.

I have written the reference number of the stamps underneath each one. Crafty Individuals are heading for 600 stamp designs these days.

Here is last month's filled in.

Quite a busy month and this month has started the same way - we have been to the hospital for hubby's pre-med today and have to wait until a week on Friday now. Lots of distractions for us this week I think!

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 I am also joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for a Second Look On The 2nd with a post using another old CI stamp from January 2013

I've been looking at the work of some very talented girls (Magda Polakow and Kasia Krzyminska)and find their work so different and inspiring! This is my take!

 Not my usual colours, but I started this background ages ago using a Dylusions mask and spray. I then saw my friend Pat's blog where she too has been influenced by these girls and which had me in my craft room yesterday - playing! The image - Crafty Individuals(CI148) was in one of my scrap folders and had been stamped onto mop-up paper. I used a Wendy Vecchi gothic text stamped onto some tissue paper to tone down the brightness of the spray and mixed gold and white acrylic paint through a mask to give some texture, some more scraps and bit of scraped paint and doodling and I thought - finished!

Ah! but then found some words in the Sunday supplement and added them, so then it didn't look quite right, so used a film strip punch onto the bottom of a kraft tag, stamped 'calm' and layered it with lace at the bottom - now it's done!

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Thanks for looking, Chris