Last minute!!!

Hi everyone! Hasn't this month flown by? 

I have a final Journal page for Alison's 'Recycle and Collage' theme at Art Journal Journey - I have really enjoyed this theme and once again looked in one of my scrap bags for the elements that make up this page!

I covered an ugly page with some streaks of Burnt Sienna paint. the tag is from one of my Grandson's shirts and the birds are from a town guide from one of our outings last year (not sure where!!)
There's also  a little bit of under paper, a piece of chocolate wrapper and a TH clipping.

Thanks for looking, I'll be back to TSFT later! Chrisx 

A little bit of this (and that)!!!

Good Day to you all! The weather seems to be playing tricks on at the moment - when we went out shopping this morning there was definite chill in the air but this afternoon the sun came out and we had lovely walk - even found some wild blooms to pick!

I haven't picked wild flowers for ages, but, I watched a programme on TV recently, where a wild flower expert was talking about the fact that taking a few blooms from different plants actually strengthened the plants - well I'm happy to help! I'm not so sure about the blossom but it was overhanging the pathway so I counted it it as pruning!! 

I thought you might like to see what I took away with me to help me fill in my travel journal.

A Derwent pencil roll case with a selection of coloured pencils and Inktense pencils, gold, copper, white and black pens, drawing pencil, water brush, eraser, pencil sharpener and a small glue stick. I forgot my little glue pen so had to manage by using a coffee stirrer for smaller pieces - rubbing it across the glue stick! 

I have a journal cover that was once purple, bought in a sale and painted with DecoArt paint - it has little pockets in the front and back - my little journal is held in place with elastic.

Inside I have some papers where the diary used to be and in the pockets are bits and pieces from my scrap bags, some stamped images and  words, stickers, stamps,and then loose, but tucked in are washi tape and some TH words. Some more stickers extracted from sheets are stuck down on empty packaging from stamps.I also have a very small purse with a few small stamps and my scissors in.
They fit into my rather roomy handbag! 
  
When I started this page (in a new little journal I bought)all I knew I wanted to use were the macarons cut from a credit card style advert for one of the Grand magasins. Fortunately as we had a table to ourselves I was able to tip everything out to find that not only did I have some paper to match, I also had a French postage stamp and some washi tape! Only thing was I made a big smudge where the words are when I used part of a Dina Wakley stamp (behind the postage stamp)! I had to wait until I got home to add a star - will add some to my kit for another time ! 

This page will be linked to Alison's theme Recycle and Collage at Art Journal Journey! 

I had intended by now to show you my Kew Gardens photos, but I am going to add some of hubby's excellent pics too so I may be a little while longer! 

I am half way through my catch up now so if I haven't already visited...I'm on my way!! I started at the bottom of my blog favourite list so if you have published lately you will have moved farther up the list! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

On the trains...and off!!!

I have another page I made on the train for Alison's theme of 
'Recycle and Collage' at Art Journal Journey.

The piece of paper bottom left is a stamp clean off from a card I made and of course you can spot some Infusions sprinkled deli paper over a scrap of designer paper. The butterfly is one of AALL and Create's Tracy Evans designs, which I stamped to take away. I tore some shiny painty paper into strips and also a piece of washi tape! I made a discovery while doodling the wavy stripes - if the stick glue hasn't quite dried it makes great smudgy marks if you rub it with your finger!! I added some stickers and some gold dots.

The trains were quite an issue this time with strikes both there and back to Paris! Fortunately it only affected us badly on the way there as it was very crowded. On the way back I suspect a lot of French folk had to cancel their journeys as the trains in France were only running at half or or one in three!

We also had a some disturbance on Metro line 6(a mainly overground line) to the hotel - two huge planks of wood were thrown on the track and a tube of something was set on fire! We could see the train coming in the opposite direction had also been stopped! We heard a lot of shouting and fireworks but a lady next to us reassured us that we were safe. By the time we had got another two stops to get to our hotel the march ( Manifestation) was coming up to our station so we put on a bit of a sprint around the corner - I was glad to know where we were headed!
We were on the top floor with lovely views of roof gardens.

 The same gardens at the end of the day

In the distance the sign on the top of the new shopping centre in Place d'Italie

The sky after a thunderstorm in the night.
Our hotel was in the Buttes aux Cailles quarter and has lots of low level buildings as the lime quarries made it difficult to support the weight of larger ones.

 These houses were being renovated last time we were here! We have requested that next time we have a hotel room at the back overlooking the backs of these lovely houses - I was given a sneaky peek at the back and it's beautiful!! Oh yes! We plan another visit!!! 

I hope to get some blog visiting done soon! 
I will return to the beginning of our holiday in London next!

Oh! The washer seemed to have got over it's hissy fit when I ran it empty and so far we have had connection all afternoon!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Home...with a few problems!!!

Hi everyone! I'm back from a very sunny Paris@!
We arrived home on Tuesday evening and I had hopes of catching up with some TV and linking to TSFT...not to be! 
Virgin, our internet, TV and phone provider had got down totally! We still had our mobile phone and terrestrial TV, but by the time we had had something to eat and drink and found the help line phone number it was getting late. The engineer we spoke to said he could detect nothing on our internet and would send an engineer on Thursday morning! 
When we got up in the morning still nothing - then suddenly just after nine everything bounced back to life and our duty manager announced on the intercom that for all Virgin subscribers the power had now been restored - it was a local 'thing'! 

Wendy, our HKA came and then we had to go out for a food shop(and a visit to Styal Mill where we also had lunch!!)

When I came to the computer to upload my photos and it just kept refusing to accept them, hubby to the rescue doing it the long way round via his phone and laptop.

I was just about to start a blog post and POW!!...everything went down again and remained that way until bedtime(there had also been a brief blip during the daytime too)

To top it all the fire alarm went off at 5.45 this morning- if there is a fire in the building everyones fire alarm goes off. We were told it was a false alarm! 
I went to get a drink and noticed that we were still not connected!
  
At around 8-15 when we got up everything seems to be normal.....and now the washing machine is acting up!!!

So...for now I have a journal page that I made on Eurostar on the way home - there weren't so many folk on the train and we had a whole table to ourselves so it was out with glue, ink and scissors and I made this page.

Some scraps of paper, doodling, a little bit of random stamping using one of my new stamps_ I wiped across it with a tissue as I didn't want it too bold and some stickers!

I am quite pleased with it and I am linking to Art Journal Journey where Alison's theme 'Recycle and Collage' has only a few more days to run.

I hope to be back later with another page I made on the journey!

Meanwhile, off to check the washing machine again to see if it will work - maybe it doesn't like the amount we seem to be giving it!!!

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

Yet another!! Added Paris!

Alison's theme at Art Journal Journey 'Recycle and Collage' had me making so many collages that this is yet another scheduled post!

This really was what I pulled out of my bag with a the addition of some Tim Holtz stickers - all stuck onto a piece of under paper!
Just a few photos - don't seem to want to enlarge!

Thanks for looking! Chris

Collage play again

I am enjoying this theme of Alison's at Art Journal Journey so much that I am scheduling a couple of posts! As you know the theme is 'Recycle and Collage'

I had already stuck down the little bit of faux washi tape that I made by picking up paint from my plastic palette when I thought to show the little pile I used to make this - a little bit of gelli print, a piece of paper towel from when I made a print, an old stamp, a die cut flower and piece of gold net and I used one of my hand carved hearts to stamp. 

Thanks for looking, Chris  

Nature's Beauty at TIOT

We have a new theme at Try It On Tuesday and of course there is so much to see - especially as we now seem to have some better weather! When we went for a local walk the other day we were surprised at the differences that had occurred in just five days!
The Design Team have made some amazing examples so please do take a look here.

Those of you that know me won't be surprised that my choice includes flowers!

I started by wanting to use one of the gelli plate prints I had made. I have had some aperture cards for a while but the pile doesn't seem to go down - my little print fitted perfectly inside so a card it is!!

 I intended keeping it really simple but couldn't resist a bit of spattering! The flowers here are a TH wildflower die cut and a little flower from set I bought at the Orsay Museum in Paris last year.

I love wildflowers as much as cultivated ones - my Mum used to be forever receiving bunches of wild flowers, while Dad, a professional gardener at a nursery, used to become quite frustrated by my begging him to leave a weed in the garden until it had flowered! 
The small flowers represent the white blossom on the trees, that are already beginning to lose some of their petals! I love to see them blowing in the breeze! 

I look forward to seeing Natures Beauty through your eyes. I will try to visit when I have a connection!

Thank you for looking,Chris

The French Connection!

Hi everyone! We are almost certainly on our way by now - a few days in London (with a visit to Kew gardens planned) and then on to Paris for another few days.
My page today, which is for Art Journal Journey and Alison's 'Recycle and Collage' theme, has French connections.

I started with a piece of paper towel mop up paper - you may be surprised to find that I don't save all of my mop up papers - only those that look interesting!
All of the bits were picked out of the same little scraps bag - the top of a paper pad, some die cuts that didn't get used, a negative of a die cut word, a bus ticket from when we traveled by bus to see a stage of the Tour de France, a stamp torn from a letter, a small piece of the fabric our sofa is covered in, a circle of stately home  brochure and a butterfly. I added some Tim Holtz clippings.
I am often surprised by what I find in my scrap bags and how I seem to find just what I am looking for to finish page! 

Thanks for looking! Chris 

Paint by the sea!

Oh yes! Its another mop up /collage/recycle page for Art Journal Journey! Alison really started something when she chose the 'Recycle and Collage' theme!

I added a piece of Infusions sprinkled paper that I had stamped on unsuccessfully, also here are a Crafty Individuals image torn in half, a circle cut from a photo I took at Formby beach, a circle cut from some under paper, a paintbrush cut from a magazine and a stamped feathers that didn't make it onto a another project! I decided that as I had a paintbrush here I would use my AALL and Create paintbrush stamp - the background is quite dark so I highlighted it with a white pen and then doodled black and white dots on the middle of the page!

I've reached the 'we're going away, so the place must be clean' stage in our preparations!(or is that just me?)

Thanks for looking! Chris

Born to be wild!

Hi everyone! The background here made by using Distress Oxides hadn't turned out so good and had been waiting to be rescued!

I added some turquoise paint through a stencil and added some paper from my spray box - I don't recall how the tree shape got there! I added the other part of the visiting card I use on Starry Night and then came across a receipt from 2015 with a couple of magazines we had bought while up at at our caravan so I just tore that out before throwing it away, then there was a piece of practice stamping with a Seth Apter stamp, a tiny piece of Italian chocolate wrapper and a leftover stamped leaf.
Finally a fancy quote from a set that I seem to have parted from its packaging! 
I am quite pleased with my rescue page! It reminds me of some of the walks we take.

I am linking to Alison's theme at Art Journal Journey - Recycle and Collage

Thanks for looking, Chris 

Starry Night!

Hi everyone! 
I am so enjoying Alison's theme at Art journal Journey - 'Recycle and Collage' is just what I have been doing! The only thing is that when I start I enjoy it so much that I don't stop at one page so unless I schedule some posts for next week I will have a huge backlog and may keep some to myself!!!
As I have mentioned before I have one or two bags of bits and pieces of leftovers from projects, magazine clippings, tickets, chocolate wrappers, birthday card bits, under papers from spraying or painting, things I just pick up - so I have a lot of choice of what I can use for collages. 
This page started as a mop up page (as they often do)

I have also been trying to use up some old products, so here behind the image transfer is a K and Company tag. I hope you will have a look around the page for...part of a birthday card, part of a visitor card, a piece of stamped mop up paper, an Italian chocolate wrapper and the motto that was inside it, a piece of tape that picked up some paint from my lid 'palette', some washi tape, a circle cut from a stately home brochure, a scrap of book paper and a piece of chocolate paper that had some stars cut from it.

I would also like remind you that Try It On Tuesday's theme 'Recycle Something' is still running until next Monday (16th April)

Thanks for looking, Chris

Joni!

Last Saturday was the day of the Tracy Easson workshop at Rowan Tree Crafts in Carnforth.

I have already shown you what we made in the morning. The afternoon was just as much fun.

We made a wall hanging 'thingie' as Tracy described it!
The stamp is just a head and shoulders and we were shown how to extend it to create a body!

I have put a pen at the side of it to give you an idea of size.

Once again wonky stitches were required! 

On the sample that Tracy had made there was a boat on the girlie's head but I  found myself drawing a bird! 

Now, Tracy encourages us to name our girls, and I don't know whether you noticed, but on my book cover with Mary on there is a tiny piece of book paper showing.

I had chosen this paper, not by looking through the box that Tracy had brought, but by dipping in and pulling out the first piece I touched! I was surprised to see the name Orleans leap out at me. It was one of my favourite cities to visit when we went in 2015 and while there we went to learn about Joan Of Arc. You already know about my love of Eleanor of Aquitaine but Joan is another strong female figure in history that I admire!

Now Joan came to mind but it didn't seem right, so until later that evening she didn't have a name, then, just as Mary had decided on her own name, Joan was (as modern girl) going to be called Joni!

The words on her gesso dress came from the same piece of paper and were cut out randomly from different parts of the page to say something about her!

The words by her head are some of Tracy's cut from my Mary stamp from Which Craft in Doncaster.

'Quiet strength takes courage' are from one of Lynne Moncreiff's That's Crafty sets.

The other words are by AALL and Create's Tracy Evans (two different sets)

You can see here the sample that Tracy made, sorry it's upside down but one of the girls was using it to help her while she was making hers.

Oh! You can also see here one of the cards that Tracy made for us all, with the colours she used written down for us. 

As I finished this at home I was able to add some of my own lace.

I haven't yet been able to hang her up as I need some time to find the best way and we are a little busy getting ready for our trip! 

Thanks for looking and I hope you will forgive me for not getting to many blogs at the moment. I am not so quick on my phone and hubby has been printing out tickets etc, and we also have the threat of a train strike (again!)

Chris

T Stands For......the weekend...

Hello T friends (and of course anyone else - you don't have to be sharing your drink related post to join me here)

A few weeks ago another of my dear friends, Charlotte, passed away! She was a good friend, an extremely talented artist and last year we had an outing together to a local craft shop and another was planned for this Spring! Alas, in January she became very ill and went into a hospice. We went to her funeral last Friday, a quiet affair and although we had intended setting off after the service we were persuaded to stay on and have some food at the local pub(we think we may go back there sometime) We arrived at our caravan a little later than we had planned but the sun had been shining and it was quite warm.

As you may recall, we have only visited once since the end of February, although I did go to a workshop at Rowantree Crafts with my friends Sarah and Helen when Sarah kindly did the driving.
This weekend was another workshop with Tracy Easson using her fabulous Wonky Tonk stamps.
I already have some of Tracy's stamps they are so quirky(or wonky!)
There was a huge bag waiting for us all which held the workshop materials and a note book, some cards and......

...this lovely mug!
We got started on our first project - a cover for the notebook.
We all concentrated with our stamping onto fabric then painting and sewing (wonky stitching was an essential skill thank goodness!)We were encouraged to name our Wonky girl, I had a couple of names in mind...either Marguerite or Marianne, but I swear that my girlie had something else in mind as I heard a little voice say "Nothing fancy Thank you!" ...so she is Mary!! 
I am very pleased with her!

I hadn't quite finished and added the white highlights in the evening and I was up early to add the red kisses.
I love the little rusty bell we were given to attach to the top corner.I hope to decorate the back too.
In the afternoon we did a lovely wall hanging but I am going to give  her a post all of her own, so here are a couple of teasers!

We had also intended making some little brooches but time went so quickly that we were shown some examples to get some ideas.

As the stitching of kisses didn't take long, and hubby was having a lie in, I made a couple of brooches with some of the scraps(including some bits of old blouses I have at the caravan) 

I got a little bag together for making more too!

As you can see I have quite few bits in my plastic carrier

Now, it's time to join Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday.

You must be wondering why I didn't show you my new mug with coffee in! I left it at our caravan, but I can show you everyone that attended on Saturday and let you see how many drinks you can spot on the table!

Tracy is in the centre and you may spot Rachel(Fisher's Cards and Crafts - she has more photos too!) and Karen over on the left who I have met on other workshops.
Two other folk you may like to meet...

Super artist Annie on the left, of Purple Tree Paints blog, and Sharon Quinn, the lovely owner and grand organiser of workshops from Rowan Tree Craft shop in Carnforth! If ever you are headed to the Lake District or beyond and are heading up the M6 it's worth a break from the motorway to visit the craft shop and have a bite to eat at Booths just around the corner. It's only about a mile off Junction 35.
It was a really fun day, Tracy is such an entertainer as well as being extremely talented (and maybe just a little bit wonky kind of crazy - sorry Tracy!!!) We certainly laughed a lot as we were working! I think we were all sorry when the day came to an end!

I may not be here next week, I'll see how things go, but we are off on another adventure very soon!

Hoping to get to visit everyone soon!
Thanks for looking, Chrisx