WOYWW 400

I can hardly believe that it's a whole month since the beginning of the year! We thought we were going to take things at a more leisurely pace to start the year but that hasn't happened, although we have had time to visit the cinema more often! (more later)
I bet Julia at the Stamping Ground can't believe that this is the 400th WOYWW since she started this fabulous link up!
My desk is in need of some care but, believe me, the rest of the craft room is getting better! 

The only thing that wasn't there before I took this photo is the tag which the other week hadn't been touched since I sorted some bits and pieces out for it…it is still waiting for some ribbon or thread to finish it though! 
The paper covering my desk has some testing of a newly carved stamp - I am quite pleased with it although it took a bit of tweaking!
The Carabelle Studios star stamp needs putting away and my little scrap box is overflowing(no surprise there!)

Cinema Trips
I think I have space for a couple of film reviews!

"Lion" which we saw last week was just what it promised to be - an uplifting true story of a boy separated from his mother when he was young and re-united after being adopted in Australia, miles away from his home in India! The time passed so quickly and showed some great scenery too!

Yesterday was hubby's choice - "Hacksaw Ridge" - I must confess I knew nothing about the film and judged it from the poster - I wasn't looking forward to it at all! How wrong could I be? Yes, there is a lot of blowing ups and gore but the story is an amazing true story. Although I did feel slightly wrung out towards the end of the film the final scenes lifted me up again! 

We went into Manchester instead of our usual cinema and we both saw the film for the grand total of £4.50, (quite a saving from our usual) Of course we used Two For One code from Compare the Market.
We then went for a free lunch(strictly an Afternoon Tea) by using a voucher I had from M and S! As we had gone by the Metro with our free passes it was a great outing for the price!!!

I am on my way to visit!

Thanks for looking, Chris

   

Not all heart!

Our new theme this time at Try It On Tuesday is 'Hearts and Flowers' and once again the Design Team have some fabulous examples to get you started. Of course by the time two weeks is up it will be Valentines Day but there are lots of reasons to combine hearts and flowers in your projects - I am thinking of my lovely Granddaughter here.

I started with an old ribbon reel, about to be thrown out in my big clearout!!
I painted it with Paper Artsy Fresco paint (a combination of Nougat and Mocha Mousse

I wasn't too concerned with the bubbling as I intended to cover it all with Crackle Paste. Unfortunately when I opened the pot I had forgotten how little I had left and it had dried out - not to worry - I had some crackle paint!
I mixed some up with the remainder of the paint and added a touch of Bougainvillea.

Not quite the effect I wanted as the paint was a little runnier than texture paste!
While that dried and crackled I made the paper ribbon to hold my message

I added text, flowers and the word 'Wonderful' randomly over some paper I had distressed slightly with Distress inks and spritzing.I curled the end with a paintbrush.

As I wasn't too happy with the way the top had turned out I cut out some hearts and inked around the edges and stuck them on around a TH pin. As you can see I decided to stamp some text onto the top too.
Next I wanted some flowers, I decided on blue rather than have too much pink!

They were layered and added to the top and over the side.

After a bit of tweaking and the tag added at the top I had finished!

As you can see the 'ribbon' peels pack a little way and holds a secret message underneath!

I hope you can join us this time at TIOT!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for………time out!

My big craft room tidy was halted last week to take a walk. I had reached the "what am I going to do with all THIS!!" stage!

Our first walk was around the woods at Styall Mill - we walked down past the weir and the icehouse.

I was just looking at the calm pond and the reflections and a heron flew in.

It was a lovely sunny day…..

…..although late in the day and getting colder….

We loved seeing some sun at last!

I don't know whether you can see but the treetops reflected in the pond are lit up with the sun!

The sun was getting lower as we headed back to the carpark.

We stopped at the top of the road for a look at the sun setting.

The next day was cold and we stayed in all day.

We did have a brisk walk around the village on Saturday as we had a run of very cold days!

Fortunately by Sunday it wasn't quite so cold so after church we went into Manchester to catch the Dragon Parade. Our son and Grandchildren had seen it in the square in front of the Town Hall and as we got off the tram (we left our car near a tram station)the parade had just reached the stop!

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the crowds and the colour!

The Dragon goes into the restaurants in Chinatown after the parade this was at the end of his visits and fire crackers were set off from a lamp post

This is one of the colourful stalls.

As I am here for T Stands for Tuesday with Bluebeard and Elizabeth I had better show you a drink….or two!

Our Grandchildren like Frankie and Benny's, it was so busy and I felt sorry for our waitress who was very apologetic that she had spilt my coffee in the saucer as she had to push her way through!

I chose a veggie burger which was delicious and hubby had an avocado and goats cheese wrap - the other three had burgers

 I'm sorry if I didn't get round to everyone last week - I lost the order I was in!

Thanks for looking, Chrisx

Lady of the Manor!

Definitely not talking about myself here! 
I have just had to buy one of Paper Artsy's new Lynne Perella sets! They are all so beautiful but this set reminds of one of our favourite things to do in the Summer - visit country homes(usually National Trust as we are members)
Often while we are walking around I can imagine what it must have looked like with the ladies walking around in their long dresses! This set has this wonderful stamp in it with a scene much like we have seen on our travels!  

There is a new challenge at Paper Artsy too so this was my inspiration to choose pink and orange.

 I used various Distress inks blended to make the background and a TH stencil with Crackle paint mixed with Fresco paints

The lady was stamped and fussy cut and I added a touch of what was left on my inky sponge!
The background was stamped with Lin Browns oats and some leaves and numbers from Hot Picks 1010, 1060 and Eclectica ESN18
The quote is one that has separated from the set it came in and I can't find where from at the moment!

I would like to enter the challenge Topic 1 - Pink and Orange at Paper Artsy

I would also like to join Erika's theme at Art Journal Journey - Tell Me a Story

Thanks for looking, Chris

Night time crafting!

You may remember me mentioning that I was up in the middle of the night last Saturday (no idea who or what woke me!)and was inspired to use my new stamps in my Garden Journal which is all about remembering my Dad!
I had gone to my craft room to potter so that I could go through a 'going to bed routine' again. While I was there I decided to look through some old journals but stopped when I came to  the Garden Journal. As I had been sorting scraps there were some sorted into colours so this page was made just by looking through these. 
I stuck some down at the time but then doodled on the infusions scrap and added some chit chat words during Sunday.

   

By restricting what I did to just using what I could reach I felt settled very quickly and went back to bed….and slept!

The flower stamp is from Woodware and was leftover from a card I made a while ago! 

I would like to join in with Erika's 'Tell Me a Story' theme at Art Journal Journey as this page tells the story of my interrupted night.

Thanks for looking, Chrisx 

T stands for……..the real sort out!

Having sorted through my scraps - which I must admit was enjoyable it's now time to get down to it and REALLY sort out my room! At the minute my desk is piled high, the floor is littered with boxes and bags and I am trying to be ruthless!

We haven't been out much, although we did take our eldest son out for coffee before a visit to Creative Recycling. He has plans on setting up his workshop to use recycled materials to create some art, as hoped he was inspired by the visit. 
As for the drinks we had…I forgot to take a photo so I have taken a photo of our Winter mugs,(the Christmas ones have been put away)for a visit to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's for T Stands For Tuesday. 

This was taken at 4p.m. this afternoon and it was already quite dark as we have had another of those grey days!I used my phone camera as it has a torch on it too so I could get a reasonable photo!

As we are here for

I thought you might like to see this that I found in a magazine a while ago.

I think it was advertising a kettle maybe as there are similar advertisements for other appliances, but I had only cut off the bottom of the page! I think this goes for my own preferred mug of coffee too! 

I am hoping that now I have made a good start it won't be long before my desk is clear enough to play again!

So far our internet connection seems to be holding on so I should be able to visit more easily! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

I had a dream….I think!

I have no idea why but I had a disturbed night last night! I woke up at around 1.30a.m. The only thing that was different to my usual routine was going to bed half an hour earlier than usual! I was wide awake and after an hour I still hadn't got back to sleep! Nothing for it but to get up and go to my craft room - this worked once before - I allowed myself 25 minutes - and then went through my bedtime routine again! It worked, although I didn't wake up very early and we seem to have been behind all day. Forgot to mention that hubby started with a cold yesterday so we could both benefit from a lie in anyway.

After breakfast I went to my craft room. During the night I had found an old journal that I started years ago in memory of my Dad. His work and his hobby was gardening. He was a foreman at a large nursery and his own garden was his pride and joy! 

I used my new Paper Artsy stamps to create this page. I already had the flowers cut out as I used part of them on yesterdays page,

The page had some mop up gold on it. I stamped some random text over the page and one of the small stamps around the edges, which was coloured in with a combination of watered down Bougainvillea Fresco paint with Are You Cerise Infusions and gold pen. The tape at the bottom is an image transfer from flowery page in a magazine. The words are all from a Paper Artsy Sarah Naumann set (ESNO4)The 'an' was the start of 'anything' picked out with a distress marker.

As I was making this page I did wonder if a dream had woken me up, although if it was that I have no recollection of it!

I would like to enter this in Erika's 'Tell Me A Story' theme at Art Journal Journey.

Also
The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Challenge  - Anything Goes
and  
'Anything Goes' at The Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge

Country View Challenges also has an 'Anything Goes' theme.

Thanks for looking, Chris