Born to be wild!

Hi everyone! The background here made by using Distress Oxides hadn't turned out so good and had been waiting to be rescued!

I added some turquoise paint through a stencil and added some paper from my spray box - I don't recall how the tree shape got there! I added the other part of the visiting card I use on Starry Night and then came across a receipt from 2015 with a couple of magazines we had bought while up at at our caravan so I just tore that out before throwing it away, then there was a piece of practice stamping with a Seth Apter stamp, a tiny piece of Italian chocolate wrapper and a leftover stamped leaf.
Finally a fancy quote from a set that I seem to have parted from its packaging! 
I am quite pleased with my rescue page! It reminds me of some of the walks we take.

I am linking to Alison's theme at Art Journal Journey - Recycle and Collage

Thanks for looking, Chris 

Starry Night!

Hi everyone! 
I am so enjoying Alison's theme at Art journal Journey - 'Recycle and Collage' is just what I have been doing! The only thing is that when I start I enjoy it so much that I don't stop at one page so unless I schedule some posts for next week I will have a huge backlog and may keep some to myself!!!
As I have mentioned before I have one or two bags of bits and pieces of leftovers from projects, magazine clippings, tickets, chocolate wrappers, birthday card bits, under papers from spraying or painting, things I just pick up - so I have a lot of choice of what I can use for collages. 
This page started as a mop up page (as they often do)

I have also been trying to use up some old products, so here behind the image transfer is a K and Company tag. I hope you will have a look around the page for...part of a birthday card, part of a visitor card, a piece of stamped mop up paper, an Italian chocolate wrapper and the motto that was inside it, a piece of tape that picked up some paint from my lid 'palette', some washi tape, a circle cut from a stately home brochure, a scrap of book paper and a piece of chocolate paper that had some stars cut from it.

I would also like remind you that Try It On Tuesday's theme 'Recycle Something' is still running until next Monday (16th April)

Thanks for looking, Chris

Joni!

Last Saturday was the day of the Tracy Easson workshop at Rowan Tree Crafts in Carnforth.

I have already shown you what we made in the morning. The afternoon was just as much fun.

We made a wall hanging 'thingie' as Tracy described it!
The stamp is just a head and shoulders and we were shown how to extend it to create a body!

I have put a pen at the side of it to give you an idea of size.

Once again wonky stitches were required! 

On the sample that Tracy had made there was a boat on the girlie's head but I  found myself drawing a bird! 

Now, Tracy encourages us to name our girls, and I don't know whether you noticed, but on my book cover with Mary on there is a tiny piece of book paper showing.

I had chosen this paper, not by looking through the box that Tracy had brought, but by dipping in and pulling out the first piece I touched! I was surprised to see the name Orleans leap out at me. It was one of my favourite cities to visit when we went in 2015 and while there we went to learn about Joan Of Arc. You already know about my love of Eleanor of Aquitaine but Joan is another strong female figure in history that I admire!

Now Joan came to mind but it didn't seem right, so until later that evening she didn't have a name, then, just as Mary had decided on her own name, Joan was (as modern girl) going to be called Joni!

The words on her gesso dress came from the same piece of paper and were cut out randomly from different parts of the page to say something about her!

The words by her head are some of Tracy's cut from my Mary stamp from Which Craft in Doncaster.

'Quiet strength takes courage' are from one of Lynne Moncreiff's That's Crafty sets.

The other words are by AALL and Create's Tracy Evans (two different sets)

You can see here the sample that Tracy made, sorry it's upside down but one of the girls was using it to help her while she was making hers.

Oh! You can also see here one of the cards that Tracy made for us all, with the colours she used written down for us. 

As I finished this at home I was able to add some of my own lace.

I haven't yet been able to hang her up as I need some time to find the best way and we are a little busy getting ready for our trip! 

Thanks for looking and I hope you will forgive me for not getting to many blogs at the moment. I am not so quick on my phone and hubby has been printing out tickets etc, and we also have the threat of a train strike (again!)

Chris

T Stands For......the weekend...

Hello T friends (and of course anyone else - you don't have to be sharing your drink related post to join me here)

A few weeks ago another of my dear friends, Charlotte, passed away! She was a good friend, an extremely talented artist and last year we had an outing together to a local craft shop and another was planned for this Spring! Alas, in January she became very ill and went into a hospice. We went to her funeral last Friday, a quiet affair and although we had intended setting off after the service we were persuaded to stay on and have some food at the local pub(we think we may go back there sometime) We arrived at our caravan a little later than we had planned but the sun had been shining and it was quite warm.

As you may recall, we have only visited once since the end of February, although I did go to a workshop at Rowantree Crafts with my friends Sarah and Helen when Sarah kindly did the driving.
This weekend was another workshop with Tracy Easson using her fabulous Wonky Tonk stamps.
I already have some of Tracy's stamps they are so quirky(or wonky!)
There was a huge bag waiting for us all which held the workshop materials and a note book, some cards and......

...this lovely mug!
We got started on our first project - a cover for the notebook.
We all concentrated with our stamping onto fabric then painting and sewing (wonky stitching was an essential skill thank goodness!)We were encouraged to name our Wonky girl, I had a couple of names in mind...either Marguerite or Marianne, but I swear that my girlie had something else in mind as I heard a little voice say "Nothing fancy Thank you!" ...so she is Mary!! 
I am very pleased with her!

I hadn't quite finished and added the white highlights in the evening and I was up early to add the red kisses.
I love the little rusty bell we were given to attach to the top corner.I hope to decorate the back too.
In the afternoon we did a lovely wall hanging but I am going to give  her a post all of her own, so here are a couple of teasers!

We had also intended making some little brooches but time went so quickly that we were shown some examples to get some ideas.

As the stitching of kisses didn't take long, and hubby was having a lie in, I made a couple of brooches with some of the scraps(including some bits of old blouses I have at the caravan) 

I got a little bag together for making more too!

As you can see I have quite few bits in my plastic carrier

Now, it's time to join Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday.

You must be wondering why I didn't show you my new mug with coffee in! I left it at our caravan, but I can show you everyone that attended on Saturday and let you see how many drinks you can spot on the table!

Tracy is in the centre and you may spot Rachel(Fisher's Cards and Crafts - she has more photos too!) and Karen over on the left who I have met on other workshops.
Two other folk you may like to meet...

Super artist Annie on the left, of Purple Tree Paints blog, and Sharon Quinn, the lovely owner and grand organiser of workshops from Rowan Tree Craft shop in Carnforth! If ever you are headed to the Lake District or beyond and are heading up the M6 it's worth a break from the motorway to visit the craft shop and have a bite to eat at Booths just around the corner. It's only about a mile off Junction 35.
It was a really fun day, Tracy is such an entertainer as well as being extremely talented (and maybe just a little bit wonky kind of crazy - sorry Tracy!!!) We certainly laughed a lot as we were working! I think we were all sorry when the day came to an end!

I may not be here next week, I'll see how things go, but we are off on another adventure very soon!

Hoping to get to visit everyone soon!
Thanks for looking, Chrisx
 

Three is a magic number!

I'm back after a quick trip up to our caravan - it was quite an eventful weekend and I will show you photos on T Day! 

I wonder if any of you remember the song in my post title? There have been several versions but the one by Embrace is my favourite!
I was prompted by the challenge at Simon Says Stamp to make 'A Trio of Something'
I chose to decorate some envelopes that I am going to need soon.

I used a combination of stamps by Carabelle Studios,AALL and Create and Tracy Easson, whose workshop I attended at the weekend.

A sneak peek? Oh! OK then!

Last night we had the strangest of sunsets!

It had a real mystical look to it!

Hope to be back tomorrow with another journal page! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Smiley Fun!!

I am enjoying Alison's theme of Recycle and Collage at Art Journal Journey so much! I am digging into my pencil cases that hold my scraps and finding so many things with a story behind them that I sometimes just sit and have a little reminisce!
The smiley face here is from a set of cards that I found in a little shop on one of our walks in Paris. This one was left over from some of the flowers I cut out and used from one of the cards.
The birds and the flower circles were cut from Birthday cards I received a few years ago.
There is a piece of designer paper given to me by a friend at a workshop - must give her a ring soon!
The pink flower is from a page that I stamped out when I first bought them (several years ago)
Oh! and there's the chocolate wrapper from some French chocolate bought at the Gare du Nord!

The background for this page is some paint from my roller while doing the Gelli plate challenge! I used a baby wipe to spread some of it before it dried.

I may get some more pages done if I can just ignore my distractions for now..after all they are in my journals now to look at any time!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Ssshhhh!

Another page here for Art Journal Journey and Alison's 'Recycle and Collage' theme.

The background was a smudgy attempt to clean off some inks and paint.I added some under paper, a couple of magazine images, the edge of a page used for something else,and a punched leaf from my desk. I drew in some purple lines and some dots. I decided to add some stamped stems at the bottom and then added some TH clipped words!

This is a scheduled post so hope I can link!

Thanks for looking, Chris