T Stands For Time Out!

We have had some busy times lately so last Friday decided (despite a  weather warning) to head to our caravan! 

The sky had a bright horizon which looked even better before I got my phone out to take a pic!!

Hmmmm....slight mistake there...the wind howled and rain fell for most of the night, which in a caravan sounds quite loud!!! We didn't sleep much! We decided to take it easy for the day. A short shopping trip for papers and supplies and back for a light lunch. 
The wind dropped and we ventured to Leighton Moss Bird reserve...I wanted to buy some bird food anyway and there was a chance of seeing a murmuration of starlings.

 I love this red fungi.

 The hides were unusually empty - but there was nothing much to see!
When we asked where the starlings were coming in we were told that they were mainly to be seen on the road that we take to go home, so off we went.
We could see the starlings in the distance and lots of cars parked, but we pulled into an almost empty lay-by. A couple of folk had just started to walk down the road when suddenly we saw (and heard) this. As they were flying around right over the lay-by the other people came back and we were treated to a fantastic display! 

 I had spotted the peregrine flying into a tree as we parked and here is the moment he flew up into the murmuration - top right - and separated a couple of starlings - he missed and the display continued as he kept trying to get in!!! I was so busy watching I didn't get any more with him in!!

We could see in the distance in both directions more starlings flying around too - the is the moment where they all headed in the same direction! A real treat for sure!!
After a much calmer night we awoke refreshed and decided to treat ourselves to lunch at one of our favourite garden centres(OK ...I haven't visited a garden centre I don't like!!)

It is here where I will join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday.

 I chose from this selection...

 ..and hubby chose from this one...can you guess what we chose?

Hubby had a Tuna Mayo Jacket Potato - I had the Vegetarian Ploughman's - it was delicious! We had water to drink of course!

After lunch we went for a walk at Sizergh castle but as I took 200 plus photos and I want some room for my latest page for Art Journal Journey and Rike's theme of 'The Colour Yellow' I will show you those in another post soon!

I used an old tag, (some of you may have seen this before) and coloured a paper doll.

I added it to page made with AALLandcreate stamps and stencils by Tracy Evans and Olga Heldwein along with a cut out word and torn scrap and some doodles

I would also like to remind you that our 'Romance' theme at Try It On Tuesday continues for another week - there's still time to get romantic - I wonder if my young lady is dreaming of receiving a Valentine's card?

I have been busy today prepping for another Messy day tomorrow with a group of folk at our retirement complex!!

Thanks for looking and Happy T Day, Chris

............and it was all mustard....

Well actually not quite...! Is any one singing the Coldplay song yet?? 
It's no secret that I love Lynne Perella's Paper Artsy Stamps.I bought this Egyptian set (LP040) last Autumn and, apart from a quick tag just to play, I haven't really used them.
I saw Kate Yetter's fabulous layered page on the Paper Artsy blog and loved the way she used the black to contrast with the gorgeous layer and colours.

 I used a page in my square Kraft journal and stamped and fussy cut some of the images. The main image has just part of it coloured in with a gold pen. I coloured some of the other images with Distress markers using red, yellow, blue and green. The tablet also had a touch of gold pen and the sun was stamped on to some Infusions stained paper - Golden Sands made the perfect mustard - I also added some to a book page which I ripped before making it the background to my images!!!
The sun was placed on top of a Seth Apter die cut to create some rays.
I cut up parts of the image to create a column and also stretched one (I cut it in half)to add behind the main image.

Paper Artsy have a challenge 'Mustard - the colour' which I am going to enter via instagram.

I am also entering again at Art Journal Journey for Rikes' theme  - 'The Colour Yellow'

I seem to have lost my way again in catching up with blogs - it only takes a couple of days away from the computer - I will get to you....eventually!!

Thank you for your comments here, I do appreciate it and get really annoyed with myself for not keeping up!!

Thanks for looking, Chris 

T Stands for ...........taking you back to Prague.....

Hi everyone we have been out with friends for afternoon tea, which we had as a late lunch!
I didn't take any photos. One of our very dear friends has dementia and it is heartbreaking to see. We are very aware that his wife needs a break, so we have organised our weeks to try and give her some support! Over the last couple of months we have seen our friend change so much and quite rapidly. There are days when he attends different groups but when he is at home is is constantly asking to go out, which is where we step in!!
If anyone reading this can offer any advice it will be gratefully received!

As it happens I have some photos I haven't shared of our last morning in Prague.

I have been saving this for a while and I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth at T Stands For Tuesday.

We had noticed Cafe Louvre not so far from our hotel and decided that coffee on our last morning would be a treat.

The staff looked very smart

The coffees were great... 

...so was the cake we shared

This feature in the entrance was fascinating as the bowls tilted as the water went in and then emptied when full

We enjoyed the atmosphere very much - Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka were two of it's famous customers.

I was very excited to see some of the samples I made for Crafty Individuals featured on the Hochanda shows yesterday and today!
 

Here is a book I made using an old board book belonging to my Granddaughter which I covered with old mop up papers and then decorated with the CI stamps.

I would like to enter it at Mini Album Makers February challenge.

I will be back to show you more samples soon!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Romance at Try It On Tuesday

Hi everyone, it's getting to that time of year when the shops are full of hearts and flowers but it's not the only reason for us thinking of 'Romance' as our new theme at Try It On Tuesday - Anniversaries happen all the time and what nicer than a 'just because' card or gift!
The Design Team have some beautifully romantic examples please take a look here.

I have made a Valentines card, hubby always gets me one and I must admit that sometimes he doesn't get one back - or if he does it's a hurried one!!!

I thought I would surprise him this time!!

 I used my stamping platform and a sticky note to add AALL and create's  Bipasha flowers, which I painted with Paper artsy fresco paints while still on the platform so that......

 I could restamp once the painting was done.

 Once I had done the flowers I mended the sticky note and stamped the birds (I masked off the 3rd bird and the writing with washi tape)

I stamped the bird onto more card and fussy cut them to make them stand out.

I followed my teamie Cath's example and coloured over the ink with polychromo pencils.

I doodled around the edge of the card and just mounted it straight onto the card.

All I have to do now is keep it hidden from my Valentine!!!

I do hope you can join us at TIOT, even if you are not sending a Valentines card, and you can spare some time for a little romance!

I would like to enter at 
Craft Stamper Take It Make It February challenge
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Add Some Red
Stamping Sensations - All Things Bright and Beautiful

Thanks for looking, Chris

Day-tripper!

I have another page for Art Journal Journey. Rike has chosen 'The Colour Yellow' for the theme this month.
I wasn't sure at first whether I would be able to use much yellow but after a look through the stash mountain I have found lots of goodies!

My starting point was this postcard which is reproduction of an old Railway poster. When I was young my parents would often take us on day trips to one of the seaside towns on the Lincolnshire coast, this was in the 50's but my Grandad and Grandma(you saw her in the post here last week) would still treat it as a 'Grand Day Out' and wear Sunday best!!! 
The couple here are of that era clearly, and both wear hats, the young man has made an effort to look summery wth his yellow shirt and we have caught him here carrying his jacket, so maybe Skegness was having one of it's hot Summer days!

The background was made my adding Dylusions sprays, Distress Oxides and Distress inks onto a gessoed background with lots of spritzing, dabbing and heat drying.

I stamped Crafty Individuals 'Just The Ticket' CI498 and 'Full steam ahead' CI499 down the page and then partly stamped over the background.
I added washi tape to cover references to other places, painted over the gauge and added a sun in yellow. I used the seagull from 'Seagull adventure' CI344.
I used two paint sample names to mask of part of it and finally added two of my words of the moment!!

A quick reminder... (and a couple of sneaky peeks of some to the items I made)... that Crafty Individuals has a Hocahnda TV show today at 4.00pm and another tomorrow morning(Tuesday 5th Feb) at 10.00am.

You can watch online at Hochanda TV  where you can also watch on rewind for a while too

or on Freesat 817, Sky 673, or Freeview85 

Thanks for looking, Chris 

What was I thinking? A Second Look On the 2nd

I'll try to keep this short but I have two related posts to show you..

Bleubeard and Elizabeth invite us each 2nd of the month to show an older post that you may not have seen before.
I have gone back to February 12th 2015
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I made this tag after having a day out with hubby in Nantwich.
It was such a lovely day and it led me to making something special for a Valentines present for him 

The tag is made from scraps around me although I had to dig out my TH heart and that Crafty Individuals couple. I used a Remnant rub on a TH fragment charm backed with a little scrap of paper.
I then stamped random script and PA clocks onto a grey card added ribbon and some more TH paper and here is my Valentines card for hubby!

Thanks you for all your kind comments about his present, in the end I decided to give it to him before we came away - he loved it although I got a quizzical look at first! He chose our treat - which is to visit somewhere new - I'll let you know where!!!


Meanwhile I hope you all have a lovely Valentines day(whether with pets, partner or a watching a romantic film!!)

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This one from 9th February will explain what I gave hubby as a present!
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This started as a Valentines present for my hubby(although I could benefit too he! he!)then I saw the challenge at Frillie and Funky - Be My Valen-twine!
My plan is to give hubby a jar with some choices on how to spend time together!

These are some of the suggestions (a few of the others may have a bit too much information!!)

I had made master boards to cut up…..

….these were then rolled up and dropped into an old coffee jar with a few handmade flowers in blues and pinks(when it starts to get empty the flowers will fill the gaps!)

I then set to - with the help of some inspiration on some other blog challenges that I especially like - and came up with this

I wrapped lace and some coloured linen stamped with a flower stamp around the middle of the jar.

The little metal word plaque came from an old handbag that I bought on a trip to France years ago - I rubbed Fresco Snowflake over it to pick out "je t'adore" (you see what a problem I have with not parting with stuff)

The ribbon is the last of some lovely crinkly ribbon and I can't remember where to go for more!!!

This is the other side

The flower image I used for the linen was stamped on to one of these

Coasters found in the after Christmas sale at Sainsbury's. There are several layers and the top layer was stroked over with a distress tool and stormy sky to show the leaves.

I mounted it on a die bought in a sale (Spellbinders I think)

The flowers are some I've had for ages and I used a Creative Expressions metal leaf rubbed over with Snowflake!

I stamped the TH clear heart stamp twice and cut it out with different size borders then mounted pink(Spun Sugar) on blue(Stormy Sky)

The top of the jar was painted with PA Fresco Snowflake paint a flower diecut stuck on top to make leaves! The flowers were going to be paper ones but just before bedtime last night I saw Julie Lavalette's post showing how to make some fabulous flowers using all different sorts of materials - so this morning I made two flowers from some old blouses that I had rescued from the charity bag and have been waiting for me to do something with for…..ages! The heart centres are some nail art from Poundland! All the flowers - on the lid and on the jar had a dry brush over with Snowflake.

Finally, a bracelet from a pound set from a Primark sale(I used to use them with a gift tag on gift bags)around the lid and some tissue tape around the top of the jar.

"Let's spend some time together" were computer generated and stuck onto twine to hang around the jar.

The only thing now is - we are going away and it's too big to hide (hanging my head - as I just leave out the things I need and hubby packs them)I may give it to hubby before we go away. I'll be taking a card in my handbag.

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Now, you might be wondering about this blog post title.....hubby did like his gift and for a few weeks it was used then......forgotten!!!

It stayed on a shelf...until last weekend when he decided to pick and activity which is why I abandoned my craft desk last Monday to have lunch together and go to the cinema! 

Thanks for looking, Chris