T Stands For.........time well spent!

Hi everyone, although I am not getting as much time in my craft room as I expected with not going out anywhere I have been making samples for next month's Crafty Individuals show - the new collection of stamps are a real joy to use!
I made a journal page for Mia's 'Flowers' theme at Art Journal Journey..

...quite simple....I used half a flowery napkin onto a brayered inky page, stamped and coloured the Ellie Mulligan flowers, (a Crafty Individuals stamp)and then used this lovely Tim Holtz girl. I tinted her dress with pink and her flowers with red pen. I added some Aall and Create stencilled flowers and the Paper Artsy quote by Lin Brown.

Now to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth of The Altered Book Lover for T Stands For Tuesday.

Last week Linda at HeARTfully Inspired By Linda shared a recipe (here) that I was really keen to try so last night with all the ingredients purchased I made my version...and I will be making it again on a regular basis, we both loved it! Thank you for sharing this Linda!

A definite case of over acting here when I said 'Smile!' As you can see we had ours with Tuna...it really was delicious!

Last Friday was VE Day and we would normally have got together with other flat owners for a party. As this wasn't going to be possible we were brought picnic food to eat on our balconies!
It would have been very hot on our enclosed balcony so I made arrangements with our next door neighbour to sit at a card table on the walkway  a little way outside our door and her bedroom window so that we could at least see each other and speak through her (closed) window. We often communicate this way, she is new here and hadn't really had much chance to meet many folk before lockdown was imposed!

We had music played to us by another neighbour.

In the evening we saw this tree shining its leaves in the setting sun!

In the bedroom the sun caught this glass vase...and through the window the sun was just behind the trees.

My son brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers when he brought me some shopping.....

...enough to fill two vases! 

I am 'helping' hubby do some painting tomorrow - a job started last year and not completed - we spent time today moving furniture!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Feminine at TIOT

We have a fabulous new challenge at Try It On Tuesday - Lovely Ladies - we are asking you to include a female (or more than one) image on your entry. There's a wonderful variety from the Design Team.

I made a journal page...

I inked the page using distress inks, then added some stenciling with an Aall and Create stencil. I also inked some multi surface paper with DIs and added more stencilling and stamped the large Tracy Evans flower.I deliberately didn't add too much ink to the stamp or press on very hard as I wanted this to be a background that didn't detract from the Stamperia image. I tore around the edges of both and layered them up with some ribbon, a cut out flower and some letters that had been in a box tucked away out of sight for a while.
I stamped Fearless - another Tracy Evans stamp that I felt appropriate for the image and the words.

I hope you can join us at TIOT this time - as usual it runs for two weeks from today - there are a few rules and guidelines here about how to enter.

I've just remembered I meant to enter this at Art Journal Journey and Mia's 'Flowers' theme!

Thanks for looking, Chris 

Cool, but feeling brighter!

Hi everyone, I am feeling brighter now the weather has cooled down a bit! I haven't been doing much in my craft room except some backgrounds in journals and a little bit of sorting.

I really wanted to enter at Simon Says Monday challenge had a Spritz and Splatter theme...one of my favourite things to do, but what to do?

Then this owl turned up..I had stamped it a while ago and it was in one of my Crafty Individuals boxes.

I gave a him a night time setting using some distress inks and stencilling.

The Lavinia tree was stamped and I used some Iced Spruce DI to fill it out a bit. I used a home made mask to dab out some of the colour with water before using dabs of white and silver paint to get the misty moon. I spattered some of the silver paint to create some stars.
I added some finaliser brown on the eyes than filled in with a cheap glitter pen.
I think they look better than left uncoloured...

...I hope you agree.

I would also like to enter at the Craft Stamper Magazine - May Challenge - Anything Goes

I'll be back soon!
Thanks for looking, Chris

T stands for......this and that!

Hi everyone! 
Really....a week? I look around and see nothing that actually says 'mission accomplished'.....does it matter?
The answer is no, not really, we are still getting bits and pieces done or partly done, we are watching some catch up series on TV and still enjoying cooking sessions either in turns, or as a joint effort! 
We had intended doing a jigsaw but the table was needed for sorting out papers and we've given up on the idea for a while! We have both been doing word or number puzzles torn from newspapers or supplements that we would have taken on travels(they are easy to do on train journeys and can easily be discarded once done)No travelling for the time being so we thought why not sit on the balcony and look out at the trees not going by!!

I have quite a few backgrounds in some of my journals and I have started making samples for the Crafty Individuals Hochanda shows next month. 
Here is page I actually completed for Mia's 'Flowers' theme at Art Journal Journey.

I used a brayer to put some Distress Oxide colours on my page, spritzing and drying between layers of Picked Raspberry and Tea Dye and then added some stencilling using the dotty stencil and Cracked Pistachio ink. I used a small background stamp by Tracy Evans after stamping and colouring the gorgeous flowers by Bipasha, using Derwent Inktense water colour pencils. 

I also got around to making a cloth to cover the IKEA storage block that my pear collection sits on...most of these were bought for me, I bought one of the wooden ones and then hubby bought me another!

We saw these beautiful colours the other evening, across the car park.

 I also have our drinks of water to show you for T Stands for Tuesday over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog The Altered Book Lover.

This is a meal that we made together, I can't imagine how long it would have taken one of us on our own, as there were so many ingredients in this Tagine - and lots of chopping and cutting! It has a lot of vegetables and a little chicken.

It's a good job we weren't planning on having a dessert...we halved a recipe for 4!!!

As I am so late posting I suspect that once again many of you will be receiving belated T day wishes so can I just say now....Happy T Day to everyone!

I'm sure that you are all doing your best to stay safe, this will all be over one day, but for now we must be patient!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Inertia...almost!!!

Hi everyone! The only plans I have been making lately have been to do with food.

I filled in the last day of April in my calendar journal and realised I had not got anything ready for May and with one thing and another, including to talking to all three of my boys and a couple of lonely neighbours on the phone Friday passed all too quickly!
I must say that one of the conversations was with my youngest who brought me some specialist items(one from his own store cupboard)and  we stood talking while he was on our walkway for nearly two hours! 

Yesterday was food delivery day so before they arrived in the afternoon I made a lunch of bits and pieces leftover from last week so we would have storage room - strangely a huge success!

By the time we had put everything away I only had energy for very simple pages for May.

Distress Oxide inks pressed onto an acrylic block and lightly spritzed and pressed over a spritzed page! A bit of dabbing, spritzing and drying before adding more ink through a new stencil!
I used my new Aall and Create flowers by Olga Heldwein.
Can you tell I wrote 'May' myself?
I am joining Mia at Art Journal Journey with her theme 'Flowers'
Here is last months filled in

I am definitely going to have a plan this month to get into my craft room more....and do something! A lot of my time in there recently  seems to have been going in shuffling things around and coming out again! Yes, I need a plan!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for......time to get things done!

Another T day already!
We have been quite busy this week and that paper mountain has gone down a lot - most of it shredded and put in the recycling bin!
I have had time for some crafting.
First a tag for Tag Tuesday.

The theme is 'Anything Goes', as you can imagine I have a lot of blue scraps - apart from the baby wipe flower, these were all in one of my large pencil cases! 

I also made a Journal page for Valerie's Geometric shapes theme at Art Journal Journey.

I made this on a day when I was trying to work out menus, the sun was shining but you wouldn't know from this page!!!

The sun was also shining here...

 the blossom is bursting on this tree..

...and the leaves are really coming out on this tree at last...

I bought this plant a few years ago but I don't think it's ever looked better than this!

For T stands For Tuesday with Bleubeard and Elizabeth I have gone back to one of the most indulgent desserts we have ever had! 

This was in September 2018 and was taken at The New York Cafe in Budapest - Our drinks came with a glass of water too!

I had a cappuccino and hubby had a very pretty looking hot chocolate!

You want a close up you say? O.K!

Hmmmm!!! Hubby did eat most of this...honestly!!!

Thanks for looking, please stay safe, Chris

Black, White add one!!

Hi everyone! 
We have a new topic at Try It On Tuesday - we are asking you to use 'Black and White plus one other colour'
Please take a look at the different ways the Design Team have interpreted this theme here.

I decided on a quick make and made a card that I hope will lift someone's spirits during these awful Covid-19 times.

I stamped some text using white paint onto black card. The larger 'Believe' was trickier as it wasn't very well defined so I outlined with a white pen.
I turned to my box of die cuts for the flowers - the two white ones are by Memory Box, the green one is from a Tim Holtz set.

Finally, before mounting the black card onto a white card I added some white paint spatters.

I hope you will be joining us this time - the challenge is open for two weeks.
You have the chance to be one of our Top 5 (and also a possibility of being asked to Guest Design for us)

Take care and Thank you for looking, Chris