T Stands For The Catch Up

 Hi everyone! It seems such a long time since I joined in at T Stands For Tuesday hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth at The Altered Book Lover blog. We've been away, both had bouts of ill health and just seem to have had very little time at home!

I realised I hadn't even posted my Calendar Journal from the beginning of the month. Well, were away in Paris for the first four days so only made the pages the following weekend. I had recorded everything in my travel journal so was easily able to fill in my entries.

I am entering at Art Journal Journey with this page where Sharon is hosting with her 'Snow' theme 

I used some freebie images from Chapteries Art

Here is my November page all filled in.

I think I should show my drink before I start to tell you about Paris.

We went to Samaritaine, a favourite place to have a treat! I chose Lemon Cake which came with a mini fruit salad while hubby had a decadent chocolate cake, (he also helped me out with mine too!) I had an Americano with cold milk on the side while hubby had a Flat White with a foamy Christmas tree to decorate it!

We sat and looked at the lights.

While in Paris we visited some new (to us) areas as well as going to see the Christmas windows and decorations

This was outside Rougier & Plé - an art store on four levels

Found this fabulous shop with so many lovely stationery items

Some one was standing by to make sure no touched this huge book pile

The Champs Élysées with Arc de Triomphe at the end

La Grand Épicerie - a very expensive store but with amazing displays .

I hope this has put you in a festive mood. Is it just me or does this year seem to have gone by very quickly?

Thanks for looking, Chris

Santa Claus is coming to TIOT

 Hi everyone, I'm having to deal with a little bit of brain fog, hubby and I came back from Paris with colds (hubby's is worse than mine of course!)

Never mind though because 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and if you take a look at Try It On Tuesday blog you will see that the Design Team are looking forward to his visit!

My card is a second attempt as the stamps I left in a safe place to make this card when we got home decided to stay safe for a little while longer...I have now 'found' them!

I had some pretty papers, one with Santa in his sleigh so this is what I made..

 Ive been enjoying making faux stamps - an easy activity that I can do on a tray on my lap - so added a couple of those.

I do hope that you will send Santa TIOT way with your 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' entries.

The Rules and Regulations are here is you need to take a quick look.

Thanks for visiting, Chris

Traditional Christmas

Hi everyone, we're heading towards Christmas at Try It On Tuesday with a new theme of 'Traditional Christmas'. The Design Team have a lot of lovely Traditional Christmas designs to show you here.

I have always thought of Holly as traditional, with memories of my dad passing me sprigs of Holly as he cut them to use as decoration in our house when I was a child

I used a Chocolate Baroque text and holly stamp, coloured with Tim Holtz crayons and spattered with a wet brush over the crayon tip.

The background is an old gelli print.

I hope you will join us at TIOT this time and enjoy a relaxing time before the Christmas rush starts whether you are planning a Traditional Christmas or not.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Sparkles!

 Hi everyone, I'm expecting that any day now the grey skies will turn blue and we will have some frosty mornings! I may be wrong but I do hope so - I love to see the frost shimmering on plants in the sunlight.

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Sparkle All The Way'.

We could be thinking Christmas here (please take a look at the fabulous creations from the Design Team) but we have several family birthdays in November and December and I needed to find a way of making my birthday cards sit alongside Christmas cards.

 I painted a rough square on my card with Cosmic Shimmer pearl paint then stamped this lovely stamp from Crafty Indidviduals.

The sparkle is a combination of a glitter pen from The Works and some Lavinia Starbrights Holographic Glitter. 

Some close ups - the sparkle is much brighter than in the first photo!

Slightly out of focus letters to show that the sparkle on the Happy Birthday is WOW clear sparkle embossing powder.

I hope you won't get too glittered up yourselves when you join us this time (I had a little spill putting glitter back in the pot!)

The TIOT team look forward to seeing your sparkly entries.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Calendar Journals!!!!

Hi everyone, last month was a bit hectic for me so I never got a chance to enter my calendar journal into the 'Autumn Colours' theme at Art Journal Journey, hosted by Alison, even though I photographed it at the beginning of the month. 

I was in danger of not getting this one posted for Wendy's 'On,In Or By The Sea' theme, which was photographed on the 2nd! Soo, here it is!

I used Lavinia stencils and stamps for my background and here's how it looked before adding my journal squares and the seahorse.

Here is last month filled in

..and here is September also filled in

I am on a last push with my craft room re-organisation and then...I hope to have some time on my hands!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Magical at TIOT

Hi everyone, the time has come for us to 'Make It Magical' at Try It On Tuesday. How you find your kind of magic is up to you, and you can always find inspiration by checking out our Design Team's blogs.

I used some shimmery paints and powders to create a background for my fairy who is about to enter her fairy door. 

I have used Lavinia stamps for the main images and the edges of some other Lavinia foliage stamps and mushrooms for the ground she is on.

The words are from a JohnNextDoor set. 

I am loving the magic of the Autumn colours at the moment as well as spotting fungi growing in hidden places.

I do hope you will find some magic to share. Our 'Make It Magical' theme at Try It On Tuesday lasts for two weeks as usual - hope to see you there!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Halloween........

Hi everyone, as the end of October (already?) gets closer our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is of course 'Halloween'. It's not my favourite time these days, but when my children were little it seemed more fun...carving pumpkins, making suitably spooky costumes and going out in the dark with torches. These days the Halloween aisles in supermarkets have increasingly scary items for sale, not always for children, and seem to take up a lot of space on the shelves. Oh Well!!!

I hope you like the Design Team's take on Halloween, they are quite varied!

I made a journal page

I had a mould for a spider's web that I used as a stamp. I added some torn paper with a stamped and coloured pumpkin and a cute black cat, both from a freebie set. I stamped a large spider on tissue and drew in a few more onto the web and also added some bats. The word 'Boo' is as scary as I get!

Even though it isn't my favourite time I shall look forward to seeing how you represent 'Halloween' this time at TIOT.

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

T Stands For Travelling!

 Hi everyone, I don't seem to be getting here very often these days, I actually wrote half my post the other week then sat down for a drink and fell asleep! 

I know this is a familiar statement but....... they still haven't got my medication right. Being unable to get much exercise didn't help, when I had my foot in a fracture boot for six weeks but as many of you know this has been going on far too long, if only I could have carried on with what I was on two years ago when sadly it became unavailable!

We have been away recently to Devon in the SouthWest of England.

We realised that we had never actually stopped there although we used to drive through this county regularly to get to Cornwall. We rented a lovely cottage - way out in the country. The only down side to that was driving up quite a long pot holed and bumpy road to reach it.

We were able to meet up with my two nieces who live fairly close to each other and weren't too far a way to arrange a lunch together.

We went out most days and were pleased to visit Exeter Cathedral.

 

We were told that this clock was the inspiration for the Nursery Rhyme 'Hickory Hickory Dock'

The ceiling bosses were really beautiful

I could finish here, but on the way home we took a detour to Wells Cathedral in Somerset. The motorway was closed because it was flooded so we would have to come off any way so why not take advantage! By the time we left the motorway was open again.

Wells Cathedral was equally magnificent but only partially open (we may have to go back again!)

I hope you enjoyed seeing these two great medieval buildings.

I will try to get back to show you some fabulous gardens soon too.

Here is my ticket to T Stands For Tuesday over at Bleaubeard and Elizabeth's blog The Altered Book Lover.

We went to The Ivy restaurant in Exeter - our drinks were Tonic water and I had the most amazing vegetarian curried veg to eat (forgotten what hubby had)

When I went to the toilet I was surprised to find this - another lady and I spent some time taking photos!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris