Masculine!

Hi everyone! Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Make It Masculine' - we would like to see anything with a masculine take on it, although Father's Day is coming up and cards would be great!

My Dad is sadly no longer with us but I still think of him every birthday and Fathers Day especially.

I have made a birthday card for someone special in our family.

I used a selection of Tim Holtz stamps to make my card.
I stamped some text and number stamps for the background and then some more onto card and a tag which I had previously added Vintage Photo distress ink.

I do hope you will join us at TIOT this time. The Design Team have made some terrific example to inspire you here!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands For......taking a walk...

Hi everyone! The weather changed last week from being very hot to very cold and eventually damp wet!! 
This was the opportunity we had been waiting for....we hadn't had a walk for ages, in fact the last time we walked any distance was way back at the end of March!

We had been past the path to the river once or twice on a short round the block walk and it always looked very busy by the river - we guessed (correctly) that most folk would be staying at home last Wednesday so we got our coats on and set off.

Not a soul around until we met one of our neighbours being pushed in her wheelchair by her son and after a quick - socially distanced - chat we were on the path!

The playground was closed - gates were chained (although on our second walk of the week on Friday someone had found a side gate and pushed it open and was there with his two children- while he was on his mobile phone!!) It is very overgrown and I hope it will be able to open properly soon!

 The island in the middle of the river seemed larger than we have seen it, but then we realised that a lot of the greenery has disappeared - probably down the river when we had the bad storms!

The heron found a sheltered spot though!

We walked back through the village. Not many folk around at all but it was very cold!

On Friday a slightly warmer day, we followed the same route but we took a walk through the housing estate - I would have liked to take a walk along the woodland path but hubby wasn't happy about the prospect of meeting someone on the narrow path so we walked to the other end for a look in the opposite direction just as some one disappeared from view!!

We haven't been out since, but are planning something special on Thursday!!

Yesterday as I pulled up our hallway blinds there was a horror story - a bird - we think a sparrow hawk had flown into our window.

I rushed out and looked over the rails but couldn't see anything, so I think the bird that did this...

...must have a had a headache for a while!

You can only see one wing clearly here and the breast features and feet but we could see both wings and a fanned out tail!

I am  trying to finish a travel journal that for one reason or another didn't get our last destination of Prague photos in it!

You may remember we visited Budapest, Vienna and Prague back in September 2018.

I had prepared some backgrounds in the A5 notebook but I had a little bag of scraps and glue etc .

 I added pages as necessary 

I only discovered that this was incomplete when I decided to have  reminisce and look through my old travel journals!!

In order to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth at the Altered Book Lover for T stands for Tuesday I have a photo of a treat we had last week!

While we have been in lockdown we have been sent a weekly menu of the food being cooked by our chef John! He has cooked some lovely meals over the years and we have often gone to the dining room to meet friends and have lunch! Since the dining room had to be shut, meals have been delivered to our door as long as we order in advance.

Over the years too there are special evening meals that are either cooked by John or a guest cook! 

We decided that to support the budget we would order at least one meal a week - it's often Fish and Chips as he makes the second best we have ever tasted!(The other being the Midland Hotel in Morecambe)

Last week we found that one of the guest cooks was repeating one of the meals that we missed while away once! Lots of people had told us how good it was, so when we saw that Kasia - one of the Duty managers was cooking her Polish Schnitzel we leapt at the chance to try it.

It was indeed delicious,and served with carrots and peas in a special sauce, marinated cucumber and potatoes with dill. We drank water with it.

The only downside to having the meals delivered is that for hygiene reasons at the moment they arrive on polystyrene plates!

I hope everyone is well and coping well in what is still quite a dangerous time - as my son keeps telling me  - if we go out in public we must wash our hands thoroughly!

We would without him telling us but it's good to be reminded by him!

Take care, thanks for looking, Chris

Time to sew!

I had intended posting this yesterday but somehow it was ignored!
I have indeed had time to sew. I have been using my evenings in front of the TV to put some finishing touches to something started last year...and that's not all!

I have made a journal page - no mop ups this time (although there are plenty of those in various journals!)

I started by blending some Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Milled Lavender,Evergreen Bough and Dusty Concord onto my page.
It is here that I should have a photo as I dampened some lace stamps by Crafty Individuals and stamped and dabbed with a paper towel to lift the ink.
Next I stamped the sewing machine stamp designed by Sharon Bates - one of the new stamps by Crafty Individuals.

I added a Singer receipt and some haberdashery items from another CI stamp and then stamped some of the lace.
I used watercolour crayons and a water brush to colour parts of the machine and the Visible Image watches that I had added.
I used a fabric scrap did some random stitching on my sewing machine and then stuck it on as though it had been sewn by this machine.
The lace was just handy on my desk so I stuck that on too!

I have two boxes of quote stamps taken from various sets. 'Creative Life' are by the Artistic Stamper and the other quote is a Visible Image one.

I know this is just right for Halle's theme 'A Stitch In Time' at Art Journal Journey.........
.......but I am also entering at:-

More Mixed Media - 'Anything Goes- optional purple'

The Artistic Stamper Creative challenge - 'Retro' 

Penny Black and More - 'Favourite stamps'  This is a new stamp but it is already one of my favourites - I do have a lot of favourites!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Recreation time!

Hi everyone! After yesterday's rain the sun has come out again this afternoon! We have a full fridge again and I have had some crafting time as well as some time for reading!

I have made a tag using a couple of cute stamps designed by Janet Klein! I have loved her little characters for a while and now I have some of her Aall and Create stamps.

I made a background using matching stencil and stamp, also by Aall and Create.I used the stencil twice, once by putting Ripe Persimmon DI ink on the stencil and spritzing and pressing onto the tag, then by putting ink through the stencil with a sponge. I then used the stamp and Turquoise ink. I also added some music with a stamp by Indigoblu. I stamped the little girl onto white card then stamped the legs again and drew to extend their length. I coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush and helped her to dance by letting her kick her leg up! 
The flowers from another set were stamped and coloured and I added some ground with a watercolours pencil. 
The words are from a TH book.

I am entering at Simon Says stamp Monday - Make Your Own Background
and
 Tag Tuesday - Dance, Dancers, Dancing - Michelle's choice this time

Stamping Sensations - Make it Colourful

Thanks for looking, Chris
  

Crafting Together

Hi everyone! I hope all is well with you. We are getting through quite a lot of the little tasks we set ourselves at the start of lockdown! I don't think we are anywhere near the end yet but we will be ready for a little more freedom!

I had a lovely time on Friday morning having a video link playtime with my dear friend Sarah. I took a hint from lovely Alison Bomber of Words and Pictures who had a Skype session with friends, but we each chose three elements that we should include.

We planned using the same stamp set that we had just bought from Aall and Create - the new butterflies designed by Olga Heldwein.

We had a supply of..
Distress(any items we had)
Brusho
Black and white pens
a small amount of papers/ephemera from our stash,
a stencil 
and were allowed three colours of our own choice
plus the usual basic crafting supplies.

My three colours were - Picked Raspberry,Mustard seed and Peacock Feathers.

We were so busy chatting, and being interrupted by Sarah's adopted cat, although I think it is the cat that adopted Sarah, that I forgot to take any photos of the process!

 I had put ink on through a stencil but it was very bright in places so I used a stiff brush and put some Versafine black through that I had used for stamping.
You can see one of the butterflies I used from some cake cases that Sarah had told me about years ago from Sainsburys!I stamped part of a wing over to give it some texture!

Once I had stamped and fussy cut the butterfly I stamped a part of it  onto coloured paper and cut out the circle as well as some of the flowers to colour in.

I coloured in some more of the flowers and berries with water down DI

 The words were on a piece of book paper I had intended stamping on, but there were so many combinations of beautiful words I use some here and saved the page for future use!

I added some white spatters with a posca pen
We hadn't discussed a time limit so reached a point where we were reasonably happy.
After lunch I doodled with a black pen around the spatters and coloured a few more berries.

We had used pretty much the same supplies, Sarah chose her Distress using darker shades of the same colours Mermaid lagoon, Victorian Velvet and Scattered Straw I think, and used the other two wings from the set - now we need to use the other two ourselves...

Sarah sent me some photos via Whats App but I can't transfer them to my computer!!This is a screenshot. It was good to catch up and it put me in such a good mood I have got lots done since!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands For........the lull...and a little bit of Second look on the 2nd

Hi everyone, I think I've reached a point where I am waiting for something, but not sure what!!
The tidying of my craft room has come to a temporary halt - I'm buying some new storage boxes and waiting for them to arrive but I don't think that's it....
I haven't does much crafting lately either..I'm waiting for Mr Mojo to come marching back soon....but I don't even think that's it......
I'm just restless and not settling to anything - I have been trying to finish off some UFOs in this lull...maybe that will help!

I've been looking through some old photos too! Really should do something with them!!

 My youngest arrived with some groceries and these lovely flowers - this is a few days after they arrived when the lilies bloomed.
I promised to show you the new colour in our living room, much better than our old 'magnolia'!

Our TV unit has some bookshelves attached, although what you see here are boxes designed to look like books and they hold all our memorabilia from our trips. It's nice to look through them sometimes. You can also see some of my mini canvases, my little house collection, the wine glasses are awaiting some coffee beans, I use them as air fresheners.the tall greenery on the right isn't real but has built in (and added fairy lights)There are also odd little bits of things that made us smile!

We haven't been out at all this week but we did have a go at making a special coffee!

As it is Tuesday I will share this as my ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover blog for T stands for Tuesday!

It is our attempt at a Dalgona coffee, I thing we need to look at measurements as our ingredients were all correct!
It still tasted delicious! By this time hubby had drunk all his!!!

Now for my Second look on the 2nd...
The link to the post is here and was the first time we had been to visit my Ex SIL and BIL. As you know we are great friends and talk on Face Time every week. I hadn't realised it was so long ago.

        ______________________________________________

I've had rather a lot to catch up on, so although we got back last week this really is the first chance I've had to show any pictures! 
First of all I must say a big "Thank you!" to my xsil and her hubby - we had THE most fantastic time! They guided us through menus and we had some fantastic meals, they drove us all over the place and showed us some real treasures and above all they provided us with some great company - we really did talk for hours!!! Oh! and they also took me to some great places to stock up on craft goodies(more of that another day)!
The journey to Poitiers was an interesting one, the first leg from Manchester to London was the worst - travelling backwards and no window to look out of! We then boarded Eurostar which was much better - more leg room and a view - got to Lille and had time to sit in the sun and have a coffee! Then - the most exciting part - a double decker sncf/tgv to Poitiers and we were on the top deck! Gosh! Did that train travel?!!! We did have a little delay around Paris for work occurring on the track but made up speed and were only about 15 minutes late!

The next day we were taken to Fontevraud Abbey - the final resting place of Eleanor of Aquitaine - I had no idea we were within driving distance so I was excited at the prospect of a visit(I've always had a fascination with Eleanor)
It was raining in the morning and after a fabulous lunch there was no sign of it stopping, so armed with an umbrella, we set off - xsil and hubby went off somewhere else with a promise to pick us up later! 
The abbey was built in 1100 by Robert d'Arbrissel, who put a woman in charge and made a rule that it would always have a woman in charge despite housing both monks and nuns! 

The tombs of Eleanor, Henry II, Richard I and Isabelle d'Angouleme (King Johns wife)

Eleanor supported the abbey by supplying funds to run it and ended her days there

The rain stopped and we went to explore further, the abbey was used as a prison by Napoleon so there was a lot more to see.

The Kitchen/Smoke house and garden

another view of the outside of the Kitchens

a scary carving....

and a beautiful angel

this was on a beautiful wall of roses

Another treat was in store on our way home - we were taken on a scenic route along the Loire, calling to visit a beautiful church and driving past the fantastic Saumur Chateau

As you can see from this page

 there certainly was lots to see in the area 

          -----------------------------------------
There are more posts from around the time if you would like to look - here, here here, here and here!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Stitching - not stitching!!!

Hi everyone! It's a while since I managed to remember to start to prepare my pages for my calendar journal in time for the first of the month!

Yesterday I spent a short time in my craft room to start a background. I must have had Halle's new theme 'A Stitch in Time' for Art Journal Journey in my head somehow as I created a bright page this time, using very similar colours to Halle's first fabulous page.

 This is how this started...

I brayered on some Paper Artsy translucent paints and then brayered some Carabelle texture plates and used them as stamps.
This morning I added some random stamping and then the large sewing machine, both of these are in the Hochanda show tomorrow - the first one is at 7a.m.BST.There is a lot more to the stamp but I wiped off what I didn't want this time!
I also stamped some sewing accessories. I drew in some faux stitches around part of the page and then added some washi-tape patchwork, held together with more faux stitching.
I'm looking forward to brighter days this month!

Here is last Month's calendar page.

Not much happening but a few highs and lows throughout the month!

Details of the Hochanda shows - If you can't see them live you can watch on REWIND on their  website 

There is also an App to download onto your Smart phones

If you can get the TV programmes they are

Thanks for looking, Chris