Trick or Treat?

Hi everyone, back from some very rainy days at our caravan and straight into a busy day of something not so nice - a friend's funeral, and a pleasure - a meal out and a Caro Emerald concert!

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Trick or Treat'. Usually I struggle with anything Halloween - not this time, with the help of my little friend Roddy Raven(you can maybe guess why I have called him Roddy!)by Crafty Individuals

I decided to use a tag cut from watercolour paper and added some Infusions powders (this is also one of the 31 products I am using in the challenge set by Birgit Koopsen - I will show you the other tags later today)
I added some random stamping and then added 'Roddy'. From a peculiar reaction with the paper, as well as the raven's eye, I can also see two more eyes (tell me I'm not going mad!!)The Edgar Allan Poe verse is part of the same stamp set and the spiders were from a freebie set. Spatters? Of course!

As usual, our Design Team has pulled out all the eyes stops, and would love you to take a look! The challenge runs for two weeks and of course there is the chance to be in our Top 5. 

Thanks for looking, Chris

A journal page

Hi everyone, I have been tucked up in the caravan making tags and I came up with this journal page too for Linda's Creature Comforts theme at Art Journal Journey.

I make no secret of the fact that I enjoy my view here - even on a wet and windy day!
We woke up to a garden full of fungi this morning!

 A comfort? - yes, and with the birds....

....and a rabbit - a creature comfort too!
Thanks for looking, Chris

Fit in like a raven!

Hi everyone, I have a journal page for Art Journal Journey! Linda set the theme of Creature Comforts.

I have my Crafty Individuals raven again (can you tell I love him to bits?) I am not sure how he did it but he got a pink rinse!

I started to go grey at 32, my Dad old me that he got grey hair at 18 and my middle son started to go grey when he was about 30 so it is clearly a genetic thing!
A few years, and a few more grey hairs later I asked my hairdresser if he would colour it - he refused, saying it would not look right on me, so I will never know what a blue or pink rinse would look like on me.
I am comfortable(happy even) with my grey/white hair unlike our little raven who is looking as though his bold move may have been a mistake.

I used acrylic paint - smudged on with fingers and made a few spatters. The raven was stamped onto rice paper and you have to believe me, doesn't show on the page but the camera has picked up some white!
I added a few more spatters and some blue on his wings afterwards and the TH Snarky comment!
For some strange reason the stamping seems to have given him another eye, which I think gives him a whole new expression!

Now something to make you smile..I think...
I am joining Annie with This Week's Smiles! On Monday we met youngest son in town for a spot of lunch.
He had asked me if I would help in challenge he taking part in - doing squats (there are some good prizes on offer) for squatober.
So being a good Mum - I did!!
He put a story video on Instagram and I took a couple of screenshots!

He did ask if the hashtags were OK with me!!!

Thanks for looking, we are meeting up with friends later if it's not too wet and windy for them!
Chris

More tags!

Last week I showed you five tags that I have been making for Birgit Koopsen's 31 Products challenge.
Here are the next five..

 Day 6 For this one I used Distress oxides to make a background and some new AALL and Create stamps by Tracy Evans

 Day 7 I used Distress Oxides again and used Tracy's stamp again and coloured in the figure with DecoArt Media fluid acrylic paint before stamping over it again

 Day 8 I used DOs again and Cara by That's Crafty's Donna Grey.
Cara begged me to put Stickles in her hair again and the Stickly birds were urging her to fly away with them! 

 Day 9 I had some tea stained paper and I used Distress crayons over the tag with a bit of rubbing in with a dampened finger.I used my French Denim stamps for the background 

Day 10 I decided to stamp into some gesso wth a freebie stamp - I echoed it by stamping with black ink too. I added some AALL and create stamps by Bipasha and some Tracy Evans flowers. I extended the stems by mixing them up.

I am so enjoying this challenge.

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for..............tardy and the big red bus

We seem to be like the new Doctor Who hurtling through time - where did last week go? We haven't watched Dr Who for a while but I think we will continue at least for a while as we really enjoyed seeing Jodie Whittaker in the role!
Edit - David Tennant is still my favourite Doctor  
While talking about time I must show you my wonderful ATC from Eileen - it has taken a while to get here, it may well have travelled around the world!

There were some lovely bits and pieces from Eileen, as well as her beautiful ATC - Thank you so much!!

Now, I am taking you back to Budapest, I am sorry the planned post never materialised!
As I mentioned last week I got my days mixed up! On our second day in Budapest we caught the Big Red Bus! It was a hop on - hop off bus so that our ticket lasted all day and we could go on three different routes in turn! It was a sunny day and we managed to get upstairs and under a canopy most times we hopped on!!
We caught it half way around, near our hotel, here is the ticket lady!

We collected earphones and plugged into the commentary.
It was great to see the Parliament buildings from different angles..

... old statues and modern street art

We crossed over into Buda - to visit the Palace, the castle and St Matthias church - one of the most impressive I have seen(it may have a post of it's own some time!)

 There were some magnificent statues! 

These lovely guys were squatting down originally with the guy at the back in their photo but when I asked if I could photograph them he ran to join them!! We had a lovely chat but I can't remember their names!

 The best thing for me were the views across the river.

 We headed back over the river for some food and came across this place playing old jazz and crooners - perfect for a warm evening - once again the food was delicious
I am joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T Stands for Tuesday.

Hubby had a coke(Yes Elizabeth, it arrived in a glass bottle)and I had water with ice and lemon.

 Hubby had chicken, I had pork.

Do you think I went too far??? This was the dessert we were about to share. He was waiting for me to eat the triangle from the end!

After this a little walk! The moon was just rising.

The next night we spotted birds flying around the Parliament roof after dark (none during the day)and tried to work whether they were real or part of a light show!

We discovered on our last night there that they are real, and after a sunny day the metal on the roof creates thermal pockets that the seagulls in the area come to play in!!

We stood and watched for while before heading back to our hotel.

Next time will be our last day in Budapest before heading to Vienna.

Thanks for looking, we are off for a walk now, but I will be back later. Chris

Can it be.....?

Hi everyone! It's been a busy but lovely weekend. Yesterday I went with friends to Happy Stampers - Sarah was demoing in the afternoon so we made the most of the morning!
Yes, I did manage to spend a little bit of my cash, and as you might imagine it was mainly on stamps!
I fell in love with this cheeky Raven by Crafty Individuals and although I wanted to play last night I was just too tired.

Today following Church, then lunch out with son and grandchildren I had time to play before it got dark.
I made a background using Distress Oxides(Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso and Mustard Seed) After adding a little bit of stencilling, dots and Roman letters I stamped the image. I stamped a line of the Edgar Allan Poe verse onto green card and used Kaisercraft letters for the title ('the' was one of Alison Bomber's words from her quote stamps)I then added a film strip stamp to either side.

Now, here's the little tale that has me linking to Art Journal Journey and Linda's theme - Creature Comforts
Back in the 60's Hammer Horror films brought out quite few scary films...and some not so scary, such as The Raven, which starred Vincent Price (who starred in quite a few Hammer Horrors) and Peter Lorre, as quite a perky looking raven during parts of the film.
Although I had seen one or two of the scary ones this film was more humorous than others!
These days I am not so keen on horror films as they have become way too gory and lifelike.

Thanks for looking, Chris 

5 on the Fifth!

I am taking part in an Instagram challenge at the moment set by Birgit Koopsen! She suggests that we use a different product each day for the whole of October!
I have not counted Versafine Ink, Distress Ink, Stamps, stencils, paper dolls or scraps as I use them so much - and I already have a list of over 31 products that I don't use often!!

Lovely Elizabeth has suggested I might show them here so....

Day 1 _ you have already seen!

I used Sari silk ribbon - as I had only re-discovered the box it was being stored in recently!

 Day 2 I made a right old mess with some sand texture paste - this was the second attempt - I wiped the first lot off - and it's still messy and you should have seen the mess on my hands and desk top!!!

 Day 3 Decided to keep it simpler and use embossing powder - I really don't know why I don't use this more! Things are going to change as it gives such good finish!

 Day 4 DecoArt paints - you know I love to spatter so I made this little scene for the family wrapped up for a sea front Winter walk(although my first thought was that they might be on a ship, which led to me thinking about the Titanic and couldn't bear the thought of anything horrible happening to this family!)

Day 5 - Crayola wax crayons - over which I used a stencil and black paint! The scrap was from a booklet that came in the post advertising concerts - can't imagine what this was from - hence the title!

I am off to Happy Stampers in the morning so need to be off to bed now!

Thanks for looking, Chris