Beside the sea!

One of my favourite places to visit while we stay at our caravan is Morecambe. It's about to have a massive facelift in the town centre but my very favourite place is along the sea front away from the town.

Last year there were dreadful storms at the start of the year, stones were washed across the road in some places and the beach changed quite a lot. This has meant that the birds that used to paddle around at the other end of town now go fishing at the end of town that is on our way back to our caravan.
We often stop for a walk just so that I can see the birds..

…..for some reason hubby always thinks its funny when I get the binoculars out!!

The day this photo was taken wasn't a very warm day but at least the tide was out just far enough
I have made a little wall hanging to remind me of these birds while we are at home

 Nothing very complicated - corrugated card painted with PA Fresco - snowflake, layered with patterned and plain card. The birds are from my new Stampin-up set that I have wanted ever since I first saw it(Thanks to Fiona who was at this years WOYWW crop I was able to order it!)I used PA Frescos - Glass Blue and Yellow submarine - watered down a lot!! I inked the edges with Stormy sky and gave it all a wash with very (very) watery Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic -  Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide as I felt the white card was a bit too white!!!
In the top corner I wove together some net curtain and some white netting and then a piece of stamped sea glass that I collected years ago in Scotland.
The bottom corner has a fence made from painted coffee stirrers and a piece of hessian with seed beads and tiny shells stuck to it.

I would like to enter the following challenges

Country View Challenges - Summertime

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Seaside or Beach

Moo Mania where they would like to see Embellishments

Thanks for looking, Chris

Play time!

This page was made purely on a whim while at our caravan

A lot of doodling and a tiny bit of text stamping
I may have some more whimsical moments coming on!!!

I would like to enter in the challenge at Country View Crafts - Summertime

Thanks for looking, Chris

T is for doodle done!

Do you remember this?

Well, it looks like this now!

I am joining Elizabeth and her fluffy pals Bleubeard and Squiggles for T stands for Tuesday

My drink is one we had while in France at a lovely creperie on our first night in Paris. We had our main meal at lunchtime in Poitiers and were still quite full so only wanted a snack….we had been for a walk and heard the buzz coming from this place

the birds weren't real!

loved the spots..

As you can see from the photos it was an interesting place…with all that sweet stuff our drink was water.

We had intended being at our caravan tonight but when I came back from my appointment this morning Hubby wasn't feeling very well so ..now he has recovered we are up early and off as soon as we can.
Please be patient if I don't get to visit today - I will get there….

Thanks for looking, Chris

I have a dream!

I often listen to Abba when I am crafting - it's one of the albums hubby put on a memory stick for my craft room, I probably wouldn't have put it on myself but now I am always pleased when it comes on!

One of my favourites is 'I have a dream' - the end of each verse is 'I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me I'll cross the stream, I have a dream'
A dear blog friend is in my mind at the moment and this is for her, one day the time will be right... 

I am entering some challenges…she would expect me to I know!!

The body of my angel is from a scrap of leftover stencilling using Tim's dots, there's also some reverse stencilling where I used a stencil as a stamp on my page. I drew the face and the wings and coloured them using Neo-colour 11s. I drew in veins on the wings using a sakura sparkly pen. My stamping is a bit random, some text, the clocks, and on the heart (I made two for my page here and I'm happy to say I got a top 5 prize from Crafty individuals!). The rest is an effort to use up some of my scraps, including the knitting torn from a magazine.

I would like to enter
Stamps and Stencils - Time Flies

Frilly and Funkie - Things with wings

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It challenge - August - Take  a technique - Pens and Pencils

I am also linking to Art Journal Journey where the theme is Time

Thanks for looking, Chris

The sun IS gonna shine!!

Yep! The man from the BBC says we could be getting some sunshine..and then he went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like…. it would rain most of Sunday!!
I'm looking forward with my Journal page today… we may see butterflies, we may even get a glorious sunset but best of all I can go out in my sandals again!!

This page was in my journal and it was VERY green! I added some stencilling using Ripe Persimmon distress ink as well as blending some over the green. I added the stencilling lightly through the clockwork stencil with Peacock Feathers and then with the same colour quite heavily through a Crafters Companion Balzer Design 'Cornflower'…I know they usually grow upwards but I liked the idea of them hanging downwards. I flicked off some of the ink by spritzing with water and blowing it with a straw…I also used some for stamping with a Kaisercraft background stamp.I drew around the cornflowers, splashes and added more dots using an SX Pitt pen
My butterfly was stamped using Stazon onto some chocolate paper from some special chocolates we had in Austria last year.
The Indigo-blu grasses stamp was over stamped in places to give a bit of depth. 
The words(Tim's chit chat)are for my golden butterfly…and also for me if the weather forecast is true… 

I would like to enter the following challenges

Stamps and Stencils - Yvonnes theme is 'Time Flies' totally agree with that!!

Our Creative Corner - Mexico Moods

  

I took another look here for some colour inspiration before starting my page

Frilly and Funkie - Things With Wings - butterflies, bird or bees for me usually!!

Country View Challenges - Summertime …Oh yes please!!!

I am also joining Art Journal Journey where the theme this month is TIME - I love this chance to see great journal pages!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T stands for …….time and Dragons!

Really, I don't know where the time is going to these days! It's probably got something to do with the fact that we are having quite a lot of time away from home lately - 'hubby-with-no-hobby' wants to be out and about but not on his own (although he has gone into town on an errand today!)Now, this makes me seem ungrateful, as I too love to be out and about, but also love to spend time in my craft room and I'm not good at speed crafting…
That said, this tag for Dragons Dream TIO - 196 - 'Eight' has only taken me an hour and that's including searching for a small playing card! I was determined to play along this time as I do love the challenges set here and the fabulous team inspiration.

The tag was spritzed and then 'Brushoed' with brown and ultramarine.
Stencilled TH clockwork with Aged Mahogany distress (and stamped some random dots too)
Archival Potting Soil to stamp the image three times - once onto dictionary paper, once onto some manilla paper (so that I could cut out the wings and the face) and once onto the tag itself to layer up.I used a Wendy Vecchi text for added background.
The card and ribbon coloured with Faded Jeans and Aged Mahogany.
I hadn't notice the 8 on the front of the dress until I was cutting out the wings.

Now, that is the first change I made to what I thought was going to be straightforward - a show and tell of something I was doing at the weekend. 

The second change is about what arrived at lunchtime in the late post

Oh yes, customs opened it alright…including what was inside!

Now I don't know what they thought of this but I gasped at it's beauty!!

Karla has sent me this…not only this, but three of the most beautiful ATC's I've seen..

 Wrapped up with a lovely note... 

Aren't these fabulous?!! I will e-mail you later Karla but Thank You so much for brightening my day!!

So, that was change two..

Now the reason I am here is to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T tands for Tuesday

I was going to show you some France photos but I will save those for another time..so what to show you..hold on…here comes change 3……I remembered our new mugs..

The first time we used them we had a 'posh' coffee - ok, it was only one of those packet Mochas but it tasted especially good from our new mugs!! I actually remembered to take a photo!!!

So, off now to get back into my craft room before hubby gets back - I think we may be going out tomorrow!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Using stencils at Try It On Tuesday

Our new theme at Try it on Tuesday is 'Use a Stencil'. I am bit of a stencil addict so really enjoyed making my sample for this new topic!

I started by painting a canvas board with some acrylic paints - I did wonder whether they would mix but I needn't have worried.

The other weekend hubby and I went for a Lindsay Mason workshop - thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but still to post pictures of what we made. The techniques on this canvas are some of the things we learned!

Started with light blue base than added different shades of blue and some lighter brushing over with shades of purple

I then used pewter through a TH harlequin stencil and blue through the clockwork stencil

Then, used hair clay (one with a number 5 in it) as a resist, quite a lot, as I wanted to keep the base showing through!
I painted over with a light blue then left it to dry before rubbing the paint and clay off - I had left it in the sun as the clay rubs off better if warm(a heat tool would have worked too)

Next white through the same stencil

I stamped an old Inkadinkadoo stamp onto some lightweight card and 'fussy' cut it

Next came the paint - to paint out the patterns!

A hint of greenery using paint on a stamp, some gold spots added with the ends of brushes and I added the bird

I added a little Archival ink around the edge, some words and then the whole canvas was covered in Deco Arts Soft Varnish

I have seen Deco Arts products used on lots of blogs but up till the workshop hadn't tried the Media Fluid acrylics - only the crackle paint and paste - I am now hooked!!

I hope you will take a look at the fabulous samples at Try It On Tuesday and be inspired to take part this time.

I'll be back for T with Bluebeard and Elizabeth later.

Thanks for looking, Chris.