A Last bit of Poetry In Motion (Edit)

I have been rather busy just lately so this has been made in short bursts rather than just sitting down and crafting!
I couldn't resist a quick page for Jo's 'Poetry In Motion' theme for one last time at Art Journal Journey!
This has been a great theme and I wish I had had more time to join in! Thanks Jo for all your fabulous inspiration!

The background was already in my journal so I added some Kaisercraft texture, Sarah Naumann splats and stamped the Elenazinskiart birds and monster. I then stamped them onto card, coloured them and stuck them on so that I could get the little details!(both sets - Paper Artsy) 
The words are computer generated. I love the Bob Marley song - Three Little Birds - and it made me think of the first flight of fledglings, but with the happy Monster around I think they will be fine!

Edit-Apologies to the Moo-Mania and more team - when I was making this page I had in in my mind to link it to the 'Birds' theme - of course I was rushing to get away and forgot! I can't add words very well on my phone so now I am home I am linking!

  Thanks for looking, Chrisx

Trying to Stitch!

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Stitch It'….Oh! I had such plans for this - my sewing machine that had been covered for a while, and had a mountain of papers on top too, was finally unveiled and just to be sure I could remember how to use it I made some attempts to practice…then suddenly…it jammed! Now at this time we were getting ready to go away (see my TSFT post before this one) so I had no time to get a screwdriver out to find out what had happened so it was onwards with some hand sewing! 
Even then I didn't get it finished so what you will see on the TIOT blog is just this decorative part.

 

Please do take a look at what my teamies have been doing because they are definitely worth a look.
As for mine…..well, I am going to use it so I am not ashamed of it, but it wasn't what I planned!

I wasn't going to show you the state of my phone but it is quite tatty and you will see why I needed a new case.

I just hooked these scraps from a bag on top of my sewing box. The woollen piece for the case came from a mixed bag I bought at Woolfest last year. The seam is hidden by the panel and I added more blanket stitch to close the bottom of the case.

This challenge will run for two weeks - closing on the 11th September - Oh My! Where has the year gone again?

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for taking another trip! EDITED!

Hi everyone! Last week was our Wedding Anniversary and hubby found a great deal at a Country hotel in an area that we had wanted to visit for a while!

It was just south of Kidderminster but close enough to travel to Hereford.
The famous Herefordshire cattle are celebrated by the bull statue in the town centre!

Our main reason for visiting Hereford though was the Cathedral.

Once inside I was amazed by the beautiful windows that let so much light in!

There was so much else to see and we had a lunch there too, but for now it's back to the hotel for our celebration meal!
I can now join Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday

EDIT - After reading Elizabeth's comment about the expense of the meal - I should explain that we had a special offer on our meal too and the menu prices are not what we paid!!

 We had an appetiser of different breads and olives and a dip.

Hubby chose chicken -I couldn't resist the fish and chips which came with tartare sauce, extra crispy bits and crushed fresh peas - those chunky chips were delicious(and I had been walking quite a bit so I had sort of earned them!!)
Next was dessert…Oh My!!

Talk about spoilt for choice!

 Finally decided on Elderflower and cream cheese creme brûlée  while hubby had carrot cake. Yes, I made him wait!!!!
Although, as you can see, we drank water, I noticed that the positioning of my glass created this fabulous effect with the candle behind it.

After that there was time for a little walk around the grounds!

 This was our room from the outside

We walked to the edge of a field to take this photo - they were huge!

I have lots more photos from our trip and will try to get them sorted for next week.

We had a little outing with our middle son and grandchildren this afternoon. On the way home we called into a supermarket for tomatoes and courgettes and got our courgettes at a super price and some other goodies too!

A £6 saving!!! Most of the fruit has now been eaten and the rest will go with our breakfast. The courgettes and avocado will be eaten over the next two days - they are in really good condition!

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

Happy Birthday little Miss Rainbow

I couldn't help but be impressed with my friend Sarah's experiments with Distress oxides on the Paper Artsy Blog this week! 
I really couldn't let this chance to use her technique with Distress Oxides!
It just so happens that my GD has a birthday today and the rainbow card I made fits her name perfectly!

I used water colour paper and swiped the pads across the paper in rainbow sequence before spritzing and using a heat gun as Sarah had suggested.  I was so pleased with the way the colours blended together.
I used some random background stamps and stamped the Hot Picks  HP1602 moth/butterfly onto the paper and then added another stamped onto some spritzed Distress oxide using Fade Jeans and Wilted Violet.
A JOFY sentiment and used two stamps to make a rather disjointed Granddaughter! (the word not MY Granddaughter!)

I would like to enter in the 

Hybrid Inks (topic 12)challenge at Paper Artsy
and
That's Crafty - Only Cards challenge
  
Thanks for looking, Chris

Any Excuse!!!

Hello everyone, I am back from our little trip away for our Wedding Anniversary. 

I hope you don't mind, but I have used my 'new favourite' flower stamp again for this journal page! It's a Paper Artsy stamp by Jo Firth Young (JOFY08)

I have added some Kay Carley stems too(EKC08) and a Scrapcosy fern(ESC03) along the bottom.
For the background I used combination of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. I also added some stencilling using Clear Gloss Medium. I had some Distress Oxide ink on a sponge leftover from something else that I rubbed though a TH Mini layering stencil which I then spritzed and dabbed away the excess water.
The large flower was coloured using Fresco paints and I used a corrector pen for the white flowers and added some gold dots around the star flowers.
I am joining in again at Art Journal Journey where Jo's theme is Poetry In Motion. I love this quote by Buddha and it sounds like poetry to me! It is a Lin Brown stamp from her ELB28  set 

We stayed at a lovely country hotel in Worcestershire and had a lovely stroll around the grounds the other evening.

This was the view from the Dining room on Thursday morning.
It was a lovely break and I have a few more photos to show on Tuesday!

I think this is also a good time to remind you that there are still three days left to enter our 'In My Garden! challenge at Try It On Tuesday!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Look for the flowers!

My Mum used to laugh at me when I was little - we lived on a plant nursery but wherever we used to go I was always spotting small flowers - Speedwell Blues, Chickweed, Scarlet Pimpernels, I loved wild flowers and would often turn up with a bunch of what my dad called "B - - - - - weeds"
I still love wild flowers and keep a couple of 'wild' areas in our caravan garden.
It was this quote from Paper Artsy's Jo Firth-Young JoFy14 set that gave me the idea for this page.
Although in my journal page the main flowers (also JoFY14) are quite obvious there are some hidden flowers there too!

The background was a bit of mop up from a stencil and some Distress Oxides.I added some stencilled flowers and some stamping!
I am entering in Jo's 'Poetry In Motion' theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Thanks for looking, Chris   

T Stands For………the spend!!!!

Oh Yes!! I blame hubby of course!! The Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick was flooded so badly in the storm of December 2015 that it has only recently opened after being refurbished. Hubby suggested we go and have a look - I had put him off once as I just knew I would want to buy new colouring pencils…at least. Having been sensible last month with my spending money I felt that Friday was the right time!!!
Unfortunately I was so excited to find so many bargains that I forgot to take any photo of the front but you can see it here with one of the old for comparison.
I can show what I bought though..

I already have tin of twelve Inktense blocks but whenever I have seen any tins containing more the price has been waaay too much - not here!!! I was able to test the Graphitint pencils and the metallic ones and just couldn't leave them there! The Graphik line painters are fabulous - I have coloured ones but these are neutrals and I have a plan for using them! Not sure why I fell for the blender pencils and I have still to try them!
I wasn't the only one to come out with goodies either - hubby bought us both fineliner pens and he also bought a practice book for his lettering and a small colouring book set! 
Of course this meant that when I visited Rowantree Crafts the next day I had to be  more frugal…

 ..but I was running out of my favourite glue….and I couldn't resist the Woodware Stamps.
While in Keswick we had our lunch at Lake Road Inn..and it's here that I will join Bluebeard and Elizabeth for Tea Stands For Tuesday.

…it was a bit wet and chilly and our choices were more on the comfort food side than healthy eating…

…Beer Battered fish and chips for me…and mushy peas of course!
Hubby had Chicken pie, mashed potato and roasted vegetables.
This was his 'can I start now' look…

…which changed to this once I said "OK, Done!"
While we were eating I spotted this across the road..

By the time we left the skies were changing- again!

We went home via St John In The Vale - we had seen big queues going the other way on our journey here and we knew we liked the scenery this way!

You may have noticed the Post Box by the giraffe in one of the photos above, which is a traditional British shape, but this one was built into a wall. There were only a few houses in this area so how great to have a post box nearby!

That's it from me this week, I don't think I quite got around to visiting everyone and I do apologise, the wet weather reduced me to using my phone for around an hour and a half for the whole weekend as the reception was virtually zero! Hopefully where are going tomorrow will have wi-fi!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris