Journal 52 week12

The Journal prompt for week 52 was a Mandala. I may have deviated a bit with my take on this, but I could only use what I have to hand in the caravan. There is a circle, I used a small plate for the template, its decorated  using   some of my Sheena Douglas stamps and colouring pencils..   If you have read my earlier post about 'mud' you will see that things have been a bit different recently for us in caravanland.

  So we have had a change of location today. Waved goodbye to the family who have returned home to clean the muck off the motors.  We are now staying  at a beautiful  site at Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

All firm ground, so the rain just bounces as it falls and makes a few puddles.

I hope to be catching up soon with you as we seem to have internet reception.

Sharing a little MUD

Hi every one. Have managed to get some internet today and thought I would show  you a little of  what I  have been up to in,  my my non craft world of Caravan land. This past week we have been with the family at the National Off Road Land Rover event and as forecast there was MUD, lots of it and constant rain

Now you would think that was enough mud,  'but',  in the early hours of Wednesday morning at approximately 5 a..m. this was our wake up call.

Out side Chez Meggy's joint

 That's us on the right, with our friends who all  enjoyed the same pool.

Don't think we'd all been up that early in years and at times like this its good to know you have good friends.

Time to leave  with our family's  Big Boys' Toys .

It took  the two landies to get the caravan out .

We are now on firmer ground, weather update, still raining

Again, not sure when I will get to visit with you all, hope you had a smile when you saw these phiotos

and yes I was wearing my Union jack Wellies.

Feminine and Fancy

We're  going  all ' Feminine and Fancy'  at Try it on Tuesdays  for our new theme. please pop over for all the details and see what we made.

This card was made using layers of papers and images. from Graphics 45,  and my stash.

It only needed a few trimmings to finish.

One of the easiest cards I think I've made in ages.

This is another scheduled post, I  have my fingers crossed it goes out okay.

Thank you for stopping by and I will catch up with you all soon.

Eat, Drink and be Merry

Our new theme at Sugar Creek Hollow  is  'Eat and Drink'.

As always our style is vintage/Shabby Chic.

This is the card I made for my husbands birthday earlier this month and yes he did like it.

All the stamps are from the same set, but  I have not got the original packaging but I think they are from Creative Expressions. . The wine glasses were stamped on acetate

All the shading is distress inks, Antique linen, vintage photo and Seedless preserves.

Thank you for stopping by I appreciate your comments.

This is a scheduled post as I will be at the National Land rover event with the family this week.

I have packed the wellies in the caravan, so ready for all weathers.

I will catch up with you all as soon as we get an internet connection again. 

Journal 52 Books

Journal 52 and its already week 20. 

The prompt we were given this week was Book Inspiration.

I love reading books, and like many  authors,  I  choose a book to suit my mood. One thing comes that  high on my list  when reading a book, is that it must have an ending. Not necessarily  happy, but a definite conclusion. I went back in time for my inspiration book, . A Secret Garden by Fances Hodgson Burnet.
Using the title  as the prompt for the background and flowers.  The actual cut out book print pieces I used  came from old books picked up in junk shops.

I have been seeing some fabulous journal pages in many of the inspiring blogs I visit.
 Many times I have have thought I would join in at the Art Journal Journey but never quite had the courage to do so. However,  the theme is Circles and maybe , my round flowers  and background splodges will be okay.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, the comments you leave are always appreciated.

I may not get to visit you all for a few days, but will catch up soon.

Say Cheese

At Fashionable Stamping Challenges the  new theme is to make/alter something that is, ' 3 D '   it could be a bag, box, jar etc... Please pop over for all the information  and see what my design team sisters made. We have our regular sponsor Flonzcraft and as always stamping must be the main feature on the project.

I think you may have guessed  how this box started off, you know the famous round cheese  variety, thats even better when its a bit squidgy in the middle.

The box was first painted all over  with cream acrylic. The inside is plain cream. 

 I then cut a circle of card to cover the lid and a strip for the side and stamped them up. 

 All the images and background are from  Stampers Anonymous sets.

The trimmings were scraps of fibres etc

The shading is all Tea dye and vintage photo distress ink, with a touch of gilding wax here and there.

I think I may be making more of this masculine style box, fill  them with a few nice chocolates when I need a small gift for a male. This one is going to be used by my OH .

Other challenges entered--

At A Vintage Journey they have just announced the new theme for Challenge No 6 which is 

'All About Him'.  The girls here would like us to be inspired by the work and products of Tim Holtz.
 I use  his products on a regular basis  and am always inspired by the way he can take things from everyday usage  and totally transform how they look.

 At the Craft-Room Challenge  the theme is ' Recycle'. [Thank you Annie for mentioning this to me].

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, I do so appreciate your comments.

Flying by.

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 2

This week Linda at StudioL3   has us turning to page 56 of Tim's book, we are asked  not to go into the details of the technique, but  it did  involve some sparkly stuff,  something I don't often use.

 Also  there is a  super prize being offered from The Funky Junky

Again, I have made my piece into a card. Layers of Kraft card, one of them a resist paper and one embossed on a piece of an old cardboard box.

 Then out with the vintage photo and  tea dye distress inks  for the shading.

I will also join the new challenge over at  Thats Crafty the theme is That's Krafty

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, the comments you leave me are always appreciated.

Journal 52 Photography and a trip down memory lane

This weeks prompt  for Journal 52 --week 19  was Photography.

 Back in the day,  before digital cameras my OH took loads of photos,  Many in Family scrapbooks, most now stored in a huge box. We had a trip down memory lane, sorting one for me to use. This was one of  our many  choices,  a small town in Alsace not far from Colmar.  You can tell one of the enjoyments of visiting France was not just the scenery. I used a set of Creative Expressions stamps to decorate the page and distress inks for shading.

 This is a page from one of  my old scrapbooks, back then [1980-90s]  ,  we used to buy wine direct from the vineyard into a small cask.  Usually arriving there on our bikes. Go back to our caravan, and bottle it into a posh  labeled empty bottle and enjoy.

 You can maybe tell how my crafting has changed over the years not a sign of any inks,  distressing, just the papers, still as this book was put together  years ago, I wouldn't change the memories it holds for anything  in this  world..

Thank you for stopping by, your comments are always appreciated.

Mail Art

Our new theme at Try it on Tuesdays is     'Its in the Post'.
I decided to go down the Mail Art route, there are so many ways you could interpret this theme.
Also the gang  at TioT's are welcoming Nikki, Chrissie and Margik, to the DT , it would be good if you could pop over and say hello.


So on the left is the front of my envelope.

I used the same stamps front and back,  a selection including Stampers Anonymous. The birds were clear stamps, the packaging long since discarded as I store these all on clear acetate.
I used mainly  Potting Soil and Fern Green Archival ink to stamp with. Using the same stamp twice in some places to give a shadowy effect.
Water colour to shade the birds.
Vintage Photo and Antique linen distress ink for the extra shading

All I have to do is make a card to go inside and get it posted.

Other challenges entered------
Challenge 55 at Artful Times    Mail Art
Moo Mania and More--  Mail

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. The comments you leave are always appreciated.

May

I have been late making my calendar  page for May, there never seems to be enough hours to go round, I often wonder why  time flies, maybe is an age thing as you get older. 

Fond memories is Challenge No 5 over at A Vintage Journey so this was just the prompt I needed to get started. 

I know the image of the couple is a 'found photo' but for me it evokes the memories of my  grandparents who's wedding anniversary was  in May. They had been married for over 50 years when I got married and were devoted to each other. I won't share with you how long ago that was as we are nearly there ourselves.

So this page , random base stamped as always and Vintage Photo distress ink used in copious amounts is    in keeping with the rest of my calendar pages. My Tim Holtz inspiration comes from the way he uses
 'found  photos ' and bits and bobs, includes them  into collages, which with imagination can mean something to the person creating the piece.  His inspiration does make you look at thing differently.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, your comments are always appreciated.

Fairy wishes for SCH

Angels and Fairies,  is the new challenge  theme over at Sugar Creek Hollow.
There is a $12 dollar prize offered by our generous sponsor A Day for Daisies.
Remember our style is Vintage/shabby chic.
Please pop over and see what we all made.

This card is made using a beautiful image kindly sent  for me to use from  our sponsor.
I layered her up using a variety of papers from my stash.  The image was shaded  with water colour paints and I used  some glitter on her wings.
The layer I used for the image is computer generated as I was imagining my fairy standing in a gentle breeze on a sunny day.
All the other shading is distress inks,Peeled paint, Mustard seed and of course Vintage Photo.

Thank you for taking time to stop by, the comments you leave are always appreciated.

Chirp and tweet

Another journal page to show you today. I am trying not to add extra materials or  layers  to the rest of my pages in this book, otherwise it most definitely won't shut. So I decided just to add a few stamped images and  colour them using  water colours.  The background as you can see is  random stencilled. Shaded with  a variety of distress inks.
The bird image and quote are from a Dina Wakley set .
I loved the words,  Keep a green bough in your heart
                              and perhaps a singing bird will come.
Spring is in the air around where I live as we have the dawn chorus to wake us each day.
However,  I do wish some one would tell my feathered friends that 5 a.m. is not a good time to wake me up.
I would like to join these challenges
Thats Crafty Challenge --Spring is in the Air
Stampin for the Weekend --Photo inspiration.
Addicted to Stamps---Things with wings
Country View Challenges --Natures Glories

Thank you for stopping by, I always appreciate the comments you leave

Creative Hands J52 -week 18

Week 18 at Journal 52 and this weeks prompt was. 'Creative Hands'

One of the  suggestions was to draw around your own hand.

This took me way back on the memory scale, drawing round my  hands as a child, with my own boys and  then with the kids at school.

The background is, inked , stamped and sprayed in my usual random manner 

An excuse to get thoroughly  messy, by tapping my fingers on the stamp pad and printing them on the finger ends and as you can see a few other places to use up the ink..

Round the fingers I wrote some things that we use our hands for, they are extremely useful tools.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, your comments are always appreciated.

Dream Big

A new journey begins over at Studio L3, Linda Ledbetter's blog.

Those of you you who follow the style and creativity of Tim Holtz, will know he has a new Compendium of Curiosities book published.  Linda was our guide through the pages of the first two books  and  together with a group of talented inspirational folk is to guide us through Book 3 Please find all the details here  and read about the sponsor for the challenge Inspiration Emporium

CC3C#1

This first challenge was to turn to page 43 and follow the instructions.

I used the panel I made as the top layer for this card, adding a few bits and pieces from my stash.

Thank you for stopping by, I do so appreciate the comments you leave.

Anna's spinning around

'Circle the Globe',  is the new theme over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. 

 This realy got me thinking until I read all the details we were given,--' use any kind of circles on your project'.  Phew was I relieved to read this. It just shows you have to read the small print. We especially need to see a stamped image as the main focus and that the stamping follows the format of the theme. As always Flonzcraft is our generous sponsor.

My focal image of this  sweet little girl is a Flonzcrfat stamp.
Shaded with water colours. The other  shading on the card is Vintage Photo distress ink.
She's spinning around having been layered up with a selection of die cut circles.
The trimmings all came from my stash.

I will be entering this card over at
Crafts4Eternity  -Stamp it.
  May Challenge at Stamping Sensations  -Anything goes[include stamping]


Thank you for stopping by to take a look, I always appreciate your comments

Refresh for Journal 52

Week 17  at Journal 52 and our prompt was 'Refresh'.

This past week we are away on our first  break of the year. What better way to refresh and renew our love of  caravaning and the  great freedom it gives us. We are staying at a wonderful woodland site.  The bluebells carpet the ground, the trees are blossoming, birds singing and we even see the deer when we are out walking with Meg.
This page is made with some of the supplies I have with me . I took a few random stamped and stenciled pages with me, so just needed to add a little bird [Dina Wakley] and draw my flower. These were coloured with pencils.
Thank you for stopping by, I do appreciate  your comments.