T Stands for......the Walk and Wanderlust

What a whizz of a week its been. We've had sunshine, snow and wind, had a dipping internet that meant our food order didn't arrive on Saturday as usual, I had news of new stamps to arrive from Crafty Individuals (from the sneaky peeks they looks amazing)and hubby and I have completed another Wanderlust spread(and almost completed another!)

Last week's class was by Nicole Warrington, a fabulous landscape artist.

We had to draw a tree (a spirit tree) that meant something to us. You may remember that after hubby's Covid jab we went for a short walk.

When I saw this tree stretching up in the blue sky it really did give me a feeling of lightness and of hope that things really were going to get better.

Hubby chose a tree that we saw when we went out with my son(his stepson)in Wythenshaw Park. A tree we often see that in Winter seems to stretch out it's arms for a hug - something we can't do with others just yet!

We looked for book words to go along with our drawing. 

We both enjoyed this lesson and were quite happy with our pages.

Last week we went to Fletcher Moss again. We kept up a fairly brisk pace around the wooded area although we did stop to listen to the birds and to watch a couple of treecreepers

Everything is looking a lot greener!

Just beside the gate into the garden were Primroses and Bluebells

This is the Acer that turned such beautiful colours last Autumn

The leaves right at the top of this tree are turning green

From here we decided to have a quick look in the Parsonage Gardens

I nipped outside the corner gate for this pic

I don't think I have ever seen Hyacinths this colour

The window art display has changed...even from last week, when it was covered in big flies!

Can you see them in these next two pics?

The frost has turned the Magnolia flowers brown

They were fine last week

For my T stands For Tuesday pic in order to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth this week I have a breakfast to show you

We don't often let our croissants go stale but this time was deliberate - soaked in beaten egg and fried in butter they are delicious, especially with some fruit and a raspberry smoothie.

Sorry is this seems rushed...it is! I've had a bit of a day today!!

Oh! we did get our food delivery...at 8.15 on Sunday evening!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Rainbows and hope!

Hi everyone, there couldn't be a more appropriate theme this week at Try It On Tuesday! We are inviting you to 'Make A Rainbow' which also means you can use rainbow colours on your entries this time.

The Design Team have made some great projects to inspire you - please do take a look here.

The rainbow is a symbol of hope and promise. There is a chance that soon Covid restrictions will be a thing of the past. It's not going to happen overnight, we know that, but with co-operation and vaccines it will gradually become easier to live less restricted lives that we have for the last year.

I used watercolour and then water through a stencil to lift off some of the colour.

The rainbow, hearts and cloud and sentiment are from a new Woodware stamp set by Francoise Read. I added some fussy cut flowers from one of her other sets. I added a girl from an Aall and Create set by Janet Klein set.

The girl looks happy to be making plans for shopping and meeting up with friends...me...I'm happy to wait a little while longer.

I was Inspired By news of lowering Covid numbers in the UK and I am joining in at Art Journal Journey and Eileen's theme

Thanks for looking, Chris

Bluebells, not many, but Bluebells!

 Hi everyone, after yesterdays's snow we've had a bright start to the day.

Not that I needed sunshine on Thursday when we went for walk at Fletcher Moss - I was thrilled to see Bluebells - only a few but I also have some new stamps, designed by my lovely friend Sarah Anderson for The Artistic Stamper which had arrived a few days earlier.

I was doubly inspired to make this page this morning. Sarah's stamps are fabulous, these are from the bluebell set with some grass from the Daffodil set. I added some paint spatters to represent the sun and the snow.

I don't know where this quote came from but,yes, they are!

Here are the Bluebells I spotted, by next week they will be flowering fully!

I am linking to Art Journal Journey's theme 'Inspired By' which was chosen by Eileen. Sadly Eileen didn't recover after her surgery and Erika and I are co-hosting this month. 

I like to think that Eileen would have approved of this one.

I'll be back with more photos from the walk on Tuesday.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Inspired by..

Hi everyone, we have been having a few problems with our internet connection, so much so that our payment didn't go through for our food delivery this week. Fortunately we have been told we can have a delivery tomorrow evening...between 5pm and 9pm - I hope it's sooner rather than later. Fortunately I have been doing a little bit of batch cooking and we aren't going to go hungry and we even had some fresh veggies left from last Tuesday.

I made a page for Eileen's 'Inspired By' theme at Art Journal Journey.

Okay, you can laugh, but this was inspired by seeing this Tim Holtz snarky word strip that I caught sight of while searching for something else.

I does rather sum me up on occasions.

I had just the stamp for it too - from a new Paper Artsy Lynne Perrella set, which went perfectly over a long neglected mop up page in my journal. I added white pen in parts of the image

The umbel is cut from packaging.

Thanks for looking, Chris 

Inspired by.....

 Hi everyone, I am actually inspired by two people today!

The first is my dear friend Elizabeth of The Altered Book Lover blog.

Every year Elizabeth celebrates her Birthday by sharing it with Earth Day - hence it is her bEARTHday on 22nd April.(It also happens to be the day before my hubby's)

To take her to Earth Day she features a different recycling project every day in April up to the 22nd. So far she has used teabags, old pattern paper, plastic cups,old cards and a multitude of other items that most folk would regard as rubbish!   

Today she is showing something I made.

I made this journal cover using a recycling technique that features a lot in my Instagram friend Kelly's (@kellyjwg) feed. 

She works magic using old packaging for die cutting - see her posts here.

I started with some corrugated card, a biscuit box, some instant coffee packaging and some geometric style dies by Aall and Create and some Tim Holtz Tattered flowers

I also cut some of the biscuit box and used a TH letter strip die too to cut out the 'Journal' word from a scrap of old book paper.

There was enough gold on the coffee packets to cut out some heart strips (also AAll and Create)

I am quite pleased with my transformation from this boring and rather dirty old cover.

I am joining in with Eileen's chosen theme 'Inspired By' at  Art Journal Journey where Erika and I are co - hosting this month.

I hope you will follow the links in my post to see the wonderful art that has been created.

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for taking walk...and more

Hi everyone, I'm really enjoying these longer days, although it doesn't always mean I get more done!

First though, I have made a tag for Tag Tuesday - I missed a few this year already so I'm getting in on the first day of the Wendy's new theme - Bees.

I used some designer paper that hadn't been put away, stamped some hexagons and stencilled a large one using Wild Honey DI and then stamped bees all over using Vintage Photo DI. I added a TH hexagon die painted in gold to represent honeycomb, and a bee stamped with black Versafine onto some old book paper. Finally I edged the tag with gold paint.  

We managed to go for a longer walk last Thursday, I finally feel that I can manage it.

We went to Fletcher Moss again and took one of the paths that goes through the woods.

It was lovely to see the Horse Chestnut leaves appearing

We walked along by the Poplar trees..

...and looked back - one or two folk around.

We continued on our way...

..spotted quite a few of the daffodil clumps growing.

We reached the river, looking in the direction of home around a mile away and were pleased we had come in our car! The path looked quite busy.

There weren't so many people in the woods

Lots of Celandines here though

We did step off the path when we did have to cross paths with someone, which meant I got this great close up. Don't know what it is yet!

This tree was watching us!

We went past a couple of swampy areas

A beautiful view of the blossom over the field.....

.......so, why would someone want to spoil this area? Surely if they carried it there they could have carried the packing away much more easily!!!

More boggy areas.

Some parts so boggy that built a walkway

They are constructing a wheelchair friendly garden

This week there were lots of Snakeshead Fritillaries out.

We walked past the back of the cafe(not open yet but the trucks were still there )

We sat with this view so that we could join Bleubeard and Elizabeth and T stands For Tuesday with our cappuccinos and a shared banana and walnut slice! 

Finally, we completed week 13 of Wanderlust - a real challenge this time and it didn't really feel like as much fun as previous lesson!

The lesson was easy to follow but.....not so very inspiring at all!

Looking here they don't look so bad but it took quite a lot of working at!

Thanks for looking, Chris