Tim's Tags of 2015 - November - A lament!

This tag is a lament for a pear! 
As many of you know I have Type 2 Diabetes - it has been in the family at least as far back as my Great Great Grandmother so has been part of our family for a while now! The good news is - following a review with the Diabetic Nurse, although on medication, it has been reduced and she doesn't need to see me for a whole year now!
A reason to rejoice you might say!! Hmmm, I have given up a lot of my bad habits, helped along by a programme called Choose to Change run by the local heath authority but along with that …I have practically had to give up eating pears! I can share one with hubby every so often but I have found by using my blood test kit that Williams Pears(my Faves)cause my blood sugar to leap!!
So…my tag..

It's a big NO to the pear and a firm pointer to an apple instead!

Tim's tag and tutorial is here
I used Tim's techniques on my tag, except that I stuck the cut half of the pear flat and raised the rounded skin part up.

I may have been a bit heavy-handed with the foil but I have sent my pear off in style!!

I will, of course, always remain 'pear shaped'!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

When it snows...

I have been influenced by watching Seal in Concert on the red button (for those not in the UK - it is a TV service which is going to be closed down soon)I love his voice, very calming but the words of Kiss from a Rose kept going through my head - time for a journal page!

I love to see snow and frost - as long as it doesn't last too long - and I love the blue skies that often accompany days when snow has already fallen.
I had also seen that IndigoBlu were looking for Winter Blues so this was really enjoyable for me to do!

The page had been gessoed some time ago so I put some Blueprint Sketch ink onto my mat and spritzed lightly before sponging lightly through the edging mask (no idea where I got this - I have had it for a while but never used it)I then put the tree stamp in the same ink and lightly stamped them and smudged the edges to give the impression of light shining through the trees.The gesso has soaked up some of the colour as expected - I have tried this technique before. I then stamped with black archival over the top.
The snowflake is one I seem to have had in my Christmas box for ages - I painted it with DecoArts blue and when it had dried I added some (very nearly dried out) white crackle paint and crossed my fingers - fortunately it hadn't dried out too much but I have ordered some more today just in case!! The rest is fairly easy after that - some random stamping with the sheet music stamp and the dream dictionary word using grey archival, wrote the word Winter and stamped DREAM from 'Sarahs Choice'

The snowflake had some silver paint and some stickles added and I used what was left on my mat to add to 'Winter' after I had painted it white and then dotted some around the trees!

I am listening to Enya at the moment so who knows what she will bring on - watch this space!

I would like to enter 

IndigoBlu blog challenge 34 - Winter Blues
and
Country View Challenges - challenge 33 The Colour Blue

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge 18 - Texture

Wishing you happy weekend,
Thanks for looking, Chris

A change is better!

I had a journal page that I started about 10 days ago but no matter what I did it just did not look right! It has hindered my thoughts on other projects so this morning I ripped up the bread wrapper from last night and covered it over!
I feel as though I can move on now - is that silly of me?

 I screwed up the paper and smoothed it out to fit and ran a Wild Honey distress pad over the creases.
Stencilled around the top edge and inked the sides and bottom using Ground Espresso Distress (I love that colour!)
I stamped the Mushroom group(Stampotique) and coloured it using distress markers. The linen effect stamp around the edges is part of a PA JOFY mini stamp.
I spattered some Antiqued Bronze distress stain over everything and then used what was on my mat to paint in the stalks and grass. A gel pen was used to add little dots to the mushrooms.

I would like to wish all of my friends in the US a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Now I feel happier with this page I am linking to Art Journal Journey at last!!I had so many ideas for this theme of Autumn but time is running short now! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW…….338!!!

I really can't believe it's so long since you saw my desk! Julia has all the whats, whys and hows on her blog 'Stamping Ground'!  

We have been away a lot..and without an internet connection most of the time so I have lost touch with lots of you! We arrived home last night - feeling a little sorry for myself I must admit(I had snuffles - mainly I think because we got so cold on our walks that it took me an age to warm up), anyway after a good nights sleep I feel much better this morning!

So, what is on my desk?
Stuff I dumped out of my bag last night and just left! This morning I stood up some of the Christmas cards I made while we were up at the caravan to show you!

I had intended finishing making cards by now…well, it's good to have a plan I suppose!!!

I got distracted by some doodling

and my little Christmas colouring book from The Works

and of course by the lovely Autumn colours around, although the winds last week blew off a lot of the leaves!
These were taken at Sizergh Castle on the only really sunny afternoon we had! 

We woke up to frost the next day! It didn't last long though and the  temperatures have gone up just a little now we are home!

I realise I am rambling again…better get visiting I think!Looking forward to catching up!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Giving a gift at Try It On Tuesday

The new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Gift Bags or Boxes'. We hope you will show us either of these, any project is acceptable as long as you include a gift bag or a box

I make no secret of it - I am a hoarder. If I buy something and it's in nice bag I save it to recycle.

This time it is quite a large Kraft bag.

I stamped using Red, Green and Gold inks with a very old wood mounted Star and snowflake stamp right across the bag.
I added stars punched out in some shiny card in those colours.

I added a word label with a greeting on one side and hung the other side with a loose gift label

 This method is quite quick to do and would work with other themes too - hearts or flowers for instance, or maybe cogs for a male theme with some dotty doodling.

I hope you you pop over to Try It On Tuesday where the team have some brilliant gift bags and boxes to show you!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Quirky tag

First I would like to say Thank You for your encouraging words recently - I really do appreciate them!

Today I was waiting for hubby to finish something so I made a little tag!

I love Lapwings and the stamps I used come from the Crafty Individuals Quirky Birds set! Everything else came from my little scraps folder.

I am entering in the Moo Mania and More challenge - Lots of Layers.

Hubby is nearly done now so we we will be off to our caravan soon!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Thanks for looking Chris

Guest Designer at Stamps and Stencils

I can't describe how excited I am to be a Guest Designer at the brilliant Stamps and Stencils challenge blog, the team are so talented over there and to think…they asked me to join them for the day…well…!!!

Last January I made a little hanging of Grandad Billy (time flies as I thought it was only about 6 months ago!)
I always wanted to make one of my Grandma Emma but….oh..you know….!
When I found that this months theme at Stamps and Stencils was 'Remember, Remember' I immediately thought of her.

She was a very old fashioned lady, and I don't have many photos of her. This one was taken on a trip to the seaside, not sure where, but probably Skegness or Mablethorpe,that's me hanging onto Grandad Billy's hand and my younger brother holding Grandma Emma's. We would have got there by bus or train.
I edited a copy of the photo so that it was the right size.

I started off with a little pile of things I might use,(I changed my mind about some!!)

I covered the hanging with some torn encyclopaedia paper,

 added PA Fresco paint - Glassblue -through Tim's doily stencil,

painted over with PAF paint-Sky - I wanted the deeper blue to show through, 

and then dry brushed with PA Fresco pain- Vintage Lace. 

The next step was to decorate the hanging,
I stamped a film strip onto it to reflect Grandad Billy's hanging

I used one of my my new finds - the Works have some stamps for £1 a set and they really are quite detailed and stamp well - I stamped flowers onto a piece of gel printed paper.

I also inked some Tim tape

These were then added to the hanging

I stamped some of the Works stamps around the top and bottom edges

Grandma's photo was mounted onto some card with edges distressed and the edge of the film strip stamped onto the photo.

I prepared some embellishments by painting with DecoArts paint and then rubbed some of it off with a baby wipe

 and assembled some bits and pieces

I stuck them on to reflect Grandas's hanging as near as I could!

I did find one more photo from our day trip, Grandma Emma did come onto the beach to sit in a deck chair, but she refused to take her hat and coat off. This was always the routine when we went to the seaside. 

She did take her spectacles off though, I think the first photo caught her unawares!

Can you see the Punch and Judy tent in the background?

I can remember the coat was a light blue and her hat was navy. This was her 'best' outfit, she wore a brown coat when we went to the 

Co-Op (or 'stores' as she used to call it) and when we went for the day when we got older we would go with her via the park.  

Once again, Thank You to the Stamps and Stencils team for inviting me.

I am entering in 

 Country View Challenges no 33 - The Colour Blue

 Anything but Cute Challenge 7 It's Ornamental

 Thank You for looking, Chris

T stands for…Tatton Park

After a day out with my youngest son at the Christmas Market I needed some recovery time so I hope that you will forgive me for linking so late for T Stands for Tuesday at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog The Altered Book Lover.
I will have to post photos another day of the market as my phone has died on me!
I do have photos of our trip out to Tatton Park the other week, on a much sunnier day than today was! We had to keep dodging the showers today but….

The weather was fabulous. When I retired I was given a free pass to this lovely Park, there is a Mansion, a working farm along with a cafe and farm shop. The Japanese gardens are supposed to be the best in the UK.

We had a lovely walk

and although the planes from the nearby airport are quite noisy…

They didn't frighten the deer off.

We did have a drink while we were there but…hey..guess what?

I'll just have to show you some rainy pics of our outing to the garden centre near the caravan for that instead.

I would love one of these but they are VERY expensive!

Lovely views from the outside

We couldn't get a window seat though
and you want to see my drink

I stirred my chocolate in before hubby could get it!!!

By the time we had drunk our coffee and done some shopping the rain had stopped, so we went down the road for a little walk and looked back at the garden centre and down to the sea and the distant mountains of the Lake District!

I can't promise to visit many of the T gang before it becomes Wednesday here but I will get to to you soon!

Thanks for looking, Chris