A flying journal page!!!

The internet connection at our caravan has been the worst ever this week so now I am home I can Thank You all for your kind comments for my TIOT/T Stands For…post last Tuesday, and also for the scheduled post showing my swap pages.

I have at last had time to play along at Art Journal Journey where the theme is Mary's choice of 'Maps'

A lot of my time has been taken up with watching the birds - especially the blackbird who is taking treats back to the nest for his partner who must be sitting on eggs in the hedge! I missed getting a photo of him, as he would fly in, rest on the railings and then fly directly into the hedge - his beak always had big juicy worms in it!
We have also had a lot of sparrows feeding their young and we also have the swallows flying around too.
So.. my page is about the journeys birds take..

..even on short journeys they have such purpose although seemingly fluttering around aimlessly!
The other week I was privileged to witness a buzzard come to collect it's young from the barn across the road for it's first flight! We had heard it for days squeaking away and hubby caught sight of it near the entrance the day before. I saw the adult fly in, and then not long after they both flew out and the adult was clearly being encouraging, flying around the young one! They flew off across the fields to who knows where, but I bet the adult had a plan!

My page began with a sprinkle of Infusion powders and then a spritz or two. The maps were cut from an old calendar page and the bird was stamped and coloured. I'm sorry but I don't know where the stamp is from - it has become separated from its wrapper.The flying bird are from Paper Artsy - one of Darcy's sets I think.
I added some Crayola Twistables - gold and turquoise and smudged them around the edge of the bird, the maps and little at the bottom.

I am of course on catch up…..everywhere!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Childhood memories swap pages

As you may know I am taking part in a journal page tip in swap,these are the pages I made for Norma's theme of Childhood memories.

I had something in my mind about how a child develops

 The first page is about experimenting - I used to love watching, first my boys, then my grandchildren, jumping and wading in puddles. I made a rainy background and fussy cut a stamped Mabel Lucie Attwell image. The puddle is some acetate made to look like a puddle using alcohol inks.

 This page is about learning to read and write. The images are Graphic 45 and the backgrounds are some inky stencilled and stamped water colour paper. The abc letters are from a set of alphabet beads that I bought thinking they were a whole alphabet- they only contain a-m so not really useful for making up many words!

 This is about a child's love. Another Graphic 45 image and some stamped Crafty Individuals toddlers. A little bit of stencilling and layering onto lace and punched paper lace. Butterflies, both from my stash and punched plus a computer generated quote.

 This page is about imagination - another Graphic 45 image and some toning paper to mount it, a stamped background, Lindsay Mason's teddy bear and another Crafty Individuals toddler.
The flap lifts up to reveal another line of the song - in my bestest childlike writing!

 This page is about outdoor play and exercise - most children get plenty of thumb exercise these days with electronic gadgets, but there is nothing like playing outdoors! The stamped silhouette is swinging from some cloud paper. Oh! and a couple more Graphic 45 images, the little buttons came from a little shop on my travels to Kirby Lonsdale in Cumbria and I thought they looked as though they could skip - I was right!! 

Finally this page is about childhood dreams or ambitions. For a long time I wanted to be a nurse, before changing my mind several times and eventually teaching Special Needs children. 
I used Transparent 3D gloss gel through a music stencil before adding the images

The ballet dancer at the top was free with a purchase at the craft shop I visit sometimes. I added some feathers so that she could dance in Swan Lake! The stamped girl is another Lindsay Mason image. The other images are yet again - Graphic 45 - I added some white pen to make it pop!The quote is from the same LM set.

I used another of my Mabel Lucie Atwell stamps for the front of my information tag.

I am so enjoying this swap, not just for the lovely pages I am receiving, but for the way it is making me think and craft - I know I am not much of a one for embellishments on journal pages but I think I'm getting there - albeit slowly!!

Thanks for looking, Chris 
  

TIOT - all about men……and T stands for trekking!

Our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday is 'It's All About Him' The Design Team have made some fabulous examples to inspire you so do please hop on over! I have made a card for my youngest son's partner. He has travelled far and wide on Trains, Boats and Planes so my card reflects that. My good blog friend Pamellia inspired me to try layering images and I must say I had fun with this!

I started by making a background of half patterned pair and half corrugated card.

Before I stuck it down I added a dotty stamped edge with some old Invoke stamps that I had forgotten about!

I stamped the images onto a variety of papers and then got out some embellishments I might use…
I arranged them onto the card and photographed it before going out for a walk.

When I came back I wasn't entirely happy and as you can see some of the items didn't make it to my card!

As it's Tuesday I am also joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth for T Stands for Tuesday with my drink.

Last Friday we went out with my son and eldest Grandson and Granddaughter we went by different routes as he is nearer to a Motorway while we took a scenic route.
We went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park - my son's favourite place to visit and one of mine too!
We made up a flask of coffee to drink when we got there as we knew there was a lot to see and didn't want to spend time queueing twice in the cafe (we had lunch there - no photos - oops!)

We have visited this park quite a few times but I have never been in Spring - The flowers were fabulous!

There were some excellent exhibitions on too as well as the permanent exhibits….
……these by Not Vital...

 Can you see hubby reflected in this piece? He came in, walked straight out and sat on the bench - he is not a fan of modern art!
He may have a point!

!!!!

…and these by Kaws

 He did enjoy this exhibition - we had a 4 mile round trip walk( a lot of it uphill) to reach it though!

 We all liked this tuning fork exhibit that hubby came across first!
Lots of animals around - mind your shoes!

We walked to the building here...

and back to the building in the distance, in front of the village…

After a lovely drive home we both slept really well!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

My Calendar Journal

I am a little late showing you my photo of my calendar journal for this month - I have started to fill it it in now.

An infusions sprinkled background and journal spots with some stamps from a French flower set I bought when we went our big France trip!
I masked some of the flowers and then added some punched Hydrangea flowers.I wrote 'June' and doodled inside the letter outlines!

For those of you keen to see what I got up to last month here is May all filled in..

  I'll be back in around 12 hours with my TIOT/T Stands for... post

Thanks for looking, Chris

Just a flower!

I am still in the process of making my craft supplies easier to access - it is taking longer than I had hoped as we keep going out!!!!

I started this page a while ago but have just got around to finishing it - I just needed some crafty time to chill today - before going out again!

 I used my 3D transparent glaze through a TH mini stencil then sprinkled some infusion powders over the page and spritzed it

The flower from PA Hot Picks HP1009 was stamped and coloured in with Distress inks, I outlined it with one of my many pens.
I added some black Stickles to the centres and added some random diamond stamping and the Visible Images quote today.

I would like to enter the following challenges
Stamps and Stencils- Floral Frenzy
Mixed Media Monthly challenge

I have chosen the Get Texty theme

Thanks for looking, Chris

Second Look on the 2nd

This is post from 2 years ago and I used my favourite Lynne Perrella stamps 

My travel journal from our last trip away(to Italy) was without a cover - it now has a cut out LP picture and I've used my new favourite die too!

 The background was made using parts of Paper Artsy LP stamps and a couple of stencils. The cut out itself was done using Faded Jeans on the top layer and Ripe Persimmon underneath.

I am just hopping in with my Second Look on the 2nd over at The Altered Booklover - Bluebeard and Elizabeth's blog.

I really have been quite busy again today!

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW 365

What's On Your Workdesk? It's Wednesday again so time to show what you're up to! 
Julia at the Stamping ground is our usual hostess but she is recovering from major surgery - I am not the only one who will be thinking of her and wishing a speedy recovery!
Of course this means that someone else is doing the biz! Lunch Lady Jan is doing a great job of holding the reins of this fabulous link up around the World, popping into crafty spaces, whether they be neat or not!
On my desk is a little collection of ATCs

Top row from the left is the 1 card (and a lovely poem) that 2 Annie(Wipso) and 3 .Jo(Twiglet)sent their Atcs in.
Bottom row is from the left from 1 Debbie (Tatteredrocks ) and 2 Shaz (Silverwolf)

Thank you ladies for these beautiful ATCs
There are still 2 that I am expecting so I hope to show you those soon.
This was on my desk before I pushed them aside to take the photo..

If you would like to see how the page you saw last week ended up you can see it here

I am off to the cinema with my Granddaughter to see Angry Birds…what on Earth am I thinking….???
The menfolk are going to watch Warcraft…that's what I'm thinking!!

I'll be back to visit later, Thanks for looking, Chris