Playtime

At last time to play without feeling that I'm stealing time!
Yesterday I spent time catching up with the Strathmore online workshops by Traci Bautista. I signed up for these way back but have had little time to play until now.
After catching up I felt inspired and got my paints and inks out and started to play. Traci's new book "Doodles Unleashed" is due out and is definitely on my wish list.

This is as far as I got yesterday, it is an A3 piece of paper so I'm right out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed building up layers. Then as Traci does I took small shots of selected areas.

   I will use these either for some digital art journaling or print off to doodle onto.


I am still doodling into the large piece and will show you how I get on. The aim then is to cut it up and use as backgrounds - I may even paint the back and use to make some little books(back to my comfort area)


Thanks for looking, Chris

Time to play!

Phew! What a month...clearing, sorting, meeting workmen and estate agents, finishing leftover jobs on this house and little time to play. I've made up for it today but for now I will show my January and February pages for Kate's 366/12 journal challenge(if you want to know more click here) This is definitely helping me keep track of things.

 I finished this off when my Craft Stamper was delivered as I knew the cute little Octopode Factory stamp was going to be on the cover

I must confess that this was a little hurried(I know - it shows -I will make sure it says February next time you see it!!!)but I really didn't want to leave it any longer - as it happens I have only just got to post it anyway and hadn't noticed my faux pas! 

Here's hoping that things start to go more smoothly now(and that we can sell our house)

Off now to try and see a few of your pages, I didn't do so well last month....

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

Alternative title

This is such a mixture of stuff that I thought that if you like you could choose a title lol! 

First is my list book, that I keep in my bag, its a cheapy from Muji(in Selfridges, Trafford Centre)- 60p and quite slim. It's perfect for customising and as I had quite a few scraps a great way to use them up!

Front

back

There is also this, which I made before Christmas, it has been packed away with the Christmas things and taken to the flat.

 I was quite pleased with this photo of my grandson on Christmas Day with his light sabre in front of the Christmas tree.

The last thing to show you are some photos of things we saw on our  New Years Day walk in Dunham Winter Garden - daffodils(!!!!!) and a lovely view through an installation by Manchester Architects.

I have been kept quite busy with clearing clutter of late and still LOADS to go - our local OXFAM staff are almost on first name terms with us!!! It is however getting easier and I'm in less of a  dither about what to get rid of and am more likely to chuck than keep! Fortunately the flat is quite close to the tip too so when we go we can drop off the real rubbish there!

Thanks for looking, Chris  

Select a file

The start of a New Year

Happy New Year! OK so it's a bit late and I'm not going to make up any excuses! I had every intention of having this ready but it just didn't happen!
What is it? My January pages for Kate Crane's 2012/366 Journal challenge (see details here)

I'm thinking we may get snow and ice this month so I've used ice creamy colours and a snowflake stamp - I may add more by the end of the month!
I love this challenge as I hope it will be something to look back on for me and mine!! 
Here are my pages for December if you would like to see them.

We are still trying to get hold of workmen so that we can get started on alterations at the flat - they are still on holiday!
I've also begun to realise just how big the task of downsizing is!!! We are both finding it hard to make decisions about some things but I'm sure we'll get there eventually!


Thanks for looking, I'm off to look at Kate's blog now to see how others see January, Chris

Feelin' groovy!

I keep singing the first line of this song, as the time just seems to be running away!
I've been quite busy - making things and having time with my grandchildren and the days just seem to have run into each other. At least I know I'm not on my own though as I'm sure quite a few of you are experiencing what I call gingerbread clock lol.


I made some friends some needle felted flowers which they seemed to like.

                 My favourite
I've also made a few cards but with limited time I limited my stamps and made several on this theme

Using one of Lindsay Mason's stamps from her fabulous winter themed stamps 'Build a snowy scene'
I also made several similar to this....

....using a snowman from a set that I think was Inkadinkado from a few years ago. I love him so much I thought it was time he came to play again!


Finally I must show you this, my son gave me this as a surprise present for my birthday this week(I've reached that Beatles song age!) I had requested no presents(it's ok I will get presents at Christmas) but I was so pleased with this - it's a dull old stone cut in half and has the feature carved out and polished...isn't he cute?

 here is the bottom, although the poor light and shaky hand doesn't show it up very well.

Right off to get ready, we're off to see Santa with grandchildren tomorrow. I feel strangely excited.....the magic is getting to me!
Thanks for looking, Chris

Little monster!

My youngest grandson loves Moshi monsters so when I picked him up from school and the usual question came up -"Are we crafting today Gran?" I told him we were going to do something different but "yes we we were crafting!" I had taken my needle felting bag with me, he chose his favourite monster and we cut out some felt and looked for wooltops in an appropriate colour. He is only 6(and 3/4!)but managed amazing well after having 'the safety talk' - mind your fingers etc. 

We did use my little holding tool for starting off but once he got going as you can see he did quite well


We then came up with a combined effort of an imaginary monster which he stuck to the fridge with a pair of magnets as soon as I had photographed it!

                     Cute huh?


On Wednesday my other grandchildrens' school closed for the strike so I had a lovely day with them too! My eldest grandson loves playing football on the WII(he has to have a time limit or I think he would do nothing else all day!!)so of course it was challenge Gran time - I lost count of the number of own goals I scored lol!
My grand-daughter was able to play with my new toy. 

I had bought her a child's version a while ago but she couldn't manage it(having tried it myself I'm not surprised) but this one she managed quite well, with a bit of help!It makes the most fantastic thick tubes! 
I had some lovely fluffy wool with rainbow colours through it so we made two bracelets on to which I then sewed coloured buttons (she was quite fussy about the choice of colours too)

I only took one photo but they were very similar. She wore them with pride when we picked Daddy up to go out for some tea!
 So....today - get on with making some presents, but what an awful grey light and rain pounding outside, might need chocolate as well....


Thanks for looking, Chris.

Not too late am I?

Phew!!!Only just got around to taking photos so just a few days late with the last of the year's 365/2011 journal. This is organised by the talented Kate Crane and if you want to see more look here.
It has been a busy month with one or two traumatic moments but I'm slowly getting back to normal(well, normal for me lol )
Here are November's pages complete

and I've already started to fill in December's pages.

Hopefully a better month, although I'm not looking forward to the cold weather - weren't we lucky to have the mild days we did?


One thing we have to look forward to is getting our flat on Saturday. We will be getting alterations arranged, we hope to have a new kitchen and bathroom and some decorating done before we move in sometime next year(have to sell our house first)I will have to remember to take 'before' pics won't I?


Thanks for looking, Chris