A little bit of snowy fun!

I have had a little play, thanks to Chrissie, Valerie, Karla especially for the inspiration to use one of my own photos! But I have been seeing a lot of fabulous digi work and thought it was about time I practiced more!!

I will show you more photos another day but for now I have been using Print Shop, bought for me years ago by hubby. I used to use it a lot for my scrapbooks - until I got the journaling bug
This is for Art Journal Journey where Chrissie has chosen Winter Wonderland for the theme this time.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Polar love

I have another Polar bear page again today to link to Chrissie's choice of theme at Art Journal Journey which is Winter Wonderland.
I love watching wildlife programmes, especially if they have Polar bears in them.

I used yet another insert from the Radio Times for this page, which already had some mop up stencil ink on it. I stamped my swirly snowflakes using lilac and grey inks then used a glittery silver pen to highlight some of the snowflakes. I used some stickles around the edge of the photo then stuck my hand in some of it which transferred to part of the page, so I added more randomly over the page.
The stencil is one I have had for time, as were the cardboard stick ons. I thought the heart looked bit like a 'y' so I added some lilac paint and then wrote on 'love'.

I hope that you have great weekend and that come Monday Google haven't done too much damage to our blogs! Hmmm, 'New, improved' do not go together in my book! I don't really understand much about what is going to happen - Elizabeth explains it so much better so please see this link to find out more.

Thank for looking, Chris

Cold! Definitely cold!

While the Uk is still having grey and damp days, over at Art Journal Journey, where Chrissie is this month's host, we are heading into a Winter Wonderland.
An insert in with the Radio Times had a lovely image of a Polar Bear family that had me heading to my journal!

I used a mask that I have had for ages - not sure where from. but it is a winter scene. Used blues and lilac and added another stencil to make some rays. I used multi media gel to make an image transfer. I drew round some of the trees and added the words (Paper Artsy ESN18 by Sarah Naumann)by inking them separately. Finally I added some 'shards' of organza in blue and grey and added some stickles.

For those of you with snow at the moment I hope it is not causing too many problems. 

I would also like to link to the Anything Goes challenge at Moo Mania and More.

Thank you for all of your lovely comments recently, they are most appreciated!
Thanks for looking, Chris  

WOYWW 344

Happy New Year to all WOYWWers! At last I have slowed down a bit…haven't been to the caravan since before Christmas, too much going on here!! I doubt we will get there this weekend either, although the site is open all year round. We are just waiting for a gap in the round of commitments and appointments!
At least I have had some time at my desk!
I am joining Julia today at The Stamping Ground to show it to anyone  who, like me, loves to know what goes on at other crafter's workspaces.You can find out more info over at Julia's!

What you see here is not one, not two but three journals(there is another propped up on the floor too)I am trying to get ahead of myself - busy times coming up.
Around the outsides are bits and pieces I have been using. The clear box on the left contains leftovers from previous makes that may..or may not.. be useful. There are some Wintery masks, a brayer and various pastes and glues. I have been making some image transfers too.

I can hear you asking…why so many journals? Journalling is what I like doing most and I like to work on different sizes or indeed just different surfaces.I used to love working in small journals and still do for my travel journals, but now I enjoy working on much larger sizes too, although most of my favourite pages are in A5 journals. 

We have a shopping trip planned for after lunch, I am hoping today will be the day I get my new camera, having looked through a few choices I have made a decision!

I'm on my way for a few visits now - I think I will be playing later!!

Thank You for coming along today, Chris

TIOT - and T

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Letters and Numbers' All the details are here, but simply put - you can enter anything crafty at all - as long as it follows the theme.
Following yesterday's sad tale I have a happier take today!
Our nephew's son will be three this year and I am trying to get ahead with having Birthday cards prepared(that's the plan anyway!)

I used Tim's Splatters stencil - turning it as I changed colour and added a few extra dots with the end of a paint brush.I used the star circle from a Paper Artsy Emma Godfrey French set and added abc to the centre of each. The large 3 is an old Papermania one that I actually bought in France on one of my NOZ visits with SIL and BIL -  I got all of the numbers I needed except 0, which I have since bought locally!I was going to colour it but decided that it had more impact left clear!
  
When we went to see him on Christmas Day he had lots of toys delivered by Santa but guess what?…the boxes were the big attraction and he climbed into one and gave us a cheeky grin!

This is the best photo I could get as he kept moving!!

Today is also T stands for Tuesday where you are invited to share drink related topics with Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

The best I can do is show you one of our Christmas Presents from one of our sons!

It's no secret that we are coffee lovers, although hubby does have tea too, so this is an ideal present and we have already started on one - Caramel Chocolate - delicious!
I can add another photo though…

I would love to tell you that this is our Christmas table- alas no!
On New Years Eve hubby decided to take me on a Mystery trip! As we turned each corner I tried to guess but never expected to end up here..

We had passed through some beautiful scenery

Eyam Hall is a National trust property and had been dressed in Christmas style.

 Behind the tree someone has engraved with very beautiful writing - we could only get this close but as the garden look so interesting we will go back later this year.

We followed one of the walks on a leaflet we were given - for those who don't know, Eyam is know as the Plague Village as in 1665 they shut themselves off to prevent the plague, which had been brought to the village from London, from spreading. You can read more here if you wish.
We visited the museum which was very interesting and then as it had started raining started to head home!

This was where a another treat came, as through the rain we saw an eerie light.

It really did pour down!

The rain eventually stopped!

A lovely treat day, I think you will agree!! I hope you are not asleep by now, I realise I have, yet again, rambled on a bit!

Please take a look at our challenge at TIOT and hopefully join in with this first challenge of the New Year - lots more lovely challenges to follow too!

I also hope you will accept Elizabeth's invitation to T!  

Thanks for looking, Chris 

Lets make a snowman!

When I saw Susi's post this morning the title and the snowman brought a memory back from around thirty years ago.

My youngest son who was only 3 at the time had a role in the Play School concert. He sang his solo really loudly and I had tear in my eye! 

"Let's build a snowman, 
Round and fat,
Let's make some snowballs, 
throw them at his hat"

The only thing is that as he got to the last line the children at the side threw cotton wool snowballs - lots!!! Although during rehearsals he had been told that this would happen the children had only pretended to throw snowballs.
He turned and gave them such a disgusted look that he brought the house down….

….but I spotted the tears in his eyes!

I was feeling brave enough to paint straight into my journal. The snowflakes are using a stencil and the snowballs are some dry embossed paper.

This is my latest entry to Chrissie's Art Journal Journey challenge - Winter Wonderland.

Oh! and I still get a lump in my throat when I think of this!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Journal pages on the second!

Warning - I may ramble…..!

My calendar journal was ready yesterday but I wasn't! 

We went for a New years Day walk with son and grandchildren - although the walk didn't quite turn out how we intended! Watches were synchronised and we set off at the appointed time, heading up hill on quite bumpy roads towards Rivington Pike, info here, which I'm sure many of you know as being a fantastic viewpoint for looking out over the Manchester area! 
I do have some old photos but can't find them, these are from the internet

Unfortunately, son who is a regular visitor to the Pike, took the wrong turn and we sat getting colder by the minute waiting for him! By this time I needed a loo - a walk back in the opposite direction to the Pike, so while hubby walked back with me we told the others to go on ahead and we would meet up with them! Not easy as we thought and we didn't meet until we were all back at our cars!! 

It doesn't look it, but by this time it was getting dark - and very cold!

Then it was off to Franky and Benny's where hubby and I had refillable coffees and some bread and dips(too early for a full meal and my medication)and the others had some yummy food!

My journal pages

I would like to link to Art Journal Journey where Chrissie has chosen a brilliant theme - Winter Wonderland.
I used a bit of leftover waste as a stencil over the whole page and drew the trees using a water brush and my Inktense pencils. Drew on some 'snow' with a Signo white pen then spattered with gesso for a snowier effect. The journal squares are from another piece of Gelli print snowflakes.

Today of course, being the 2nd of the Month, is time to link to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog(I haven't forgotten you Squiggles, I know you are there too!)

My second look on the 2nd comes from two years ago

The original is here and was posted on 6th January 2013
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Time to take down the decorations!

...well, as my background - I took down the decorations in the flat yesterday, not wanting to tempt fate by leaving them up beyond Twelfth Night!I hope you like the background which a piece of needle felting I did last year. 

I have been doing some journaling - mainly on my knee in front of the tv while we do some catching up on recorded Christmas tv!

This was started following a walk at Holker Hall before Christmas - I think you may get the picture(we turned back!!)

This background was re-hashed a couple of times before I was happy with it and I drew the face and added the clock and the title (a Sandy Denny classic!)this year!!!

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On Boxing Day 2015 hubby took this photo of the weir - if you can spot it

The island had disappeared 

By the 30th the geese were trying to get back onto the island

If you are still here I would like to wish you the best of everything this coming year!

Thanks for looking, Chris