Maisie and Alice for J52

Just popping in between some scheduled posts to add this page for 

Journal 52 week 22, 

 this weeks prompt was Wings.

Today has been a little damp, well,  wet to be honest,

 so out came the crafty stash from the caravan cupboard.

The background is a variety of stencils.

Some Paper Artsy Houses and of course Tim Holtz's Quirky Birds.

The story for goes like this..........

Maisie has been hearing strange noises in the roof of her house,

it was  especially loud when she was trying to get to sleep.

Alice, to put her mind at rest, told her  it was the fairies

 and that they were only trying to get her attention.

It had been a while since she  to believed they were real.

I wonder????????

Thank you for calling by, I always appreciate your comments.

Good Advice

Week 20 over at Journal 52 and the prompt is Good Advice

A quick  journal page today using Gelatos for the background, I don't have many colours and this may be a good thing as I am not sure I like the results. Obviously need a lot more practice.
The flowers and girl with umbrella are stencils.
Sorry I am unable to give the maker of the stencils as I store them without the original packages.
It is a Dylusions stamp with the quote..............
Change for no one
and believe in who you are.
This fitted so well with advice my grandparents gave me many, many, years ago
....be true to you......
I never forgot and happily passed it on to my own sons.

Thank you for stopping by, the comments you leave for me are always appreciated.

Crowning Glory

Crowning Glory

is the new challenge theme over at Try it on Tuesdays

This time we are wanting to see a crown  somewhere on the entries.

Now this doesn't have to be on someones head, please pop over and see all the

 fantastic examples the DT have made.

Another card from me this time, with a bright base layer, 

and a one layer background for the Dina Wakley image.

The background started off with a small sprinkle  of blue Brusho powder, spritz with water and some stamping with my favourite french script stamp. When dry I used fossilized amber and cracked pistatchio  on stencils and to fill in the white spaces.

A fussing cut and coloured main image.

Adding some Antique gold, and aged green  Frantage powder.

You wouldn't want to know what I said  at this stage as the green powder tipped over the desk, me and the floor, completely missing the tray.

The word quote is from  Dylusions set.

Thank you for taking time to visit me today,

 the comments you leave for me are always appreciated.

Observations

A journal page I did for Journal 52, the prompt for week 18 was Observations.
Another playtime with some of my Inspired by Banksy stamps from Bee Crafty.
My take on the theme was that while some wall art is acceptable,
 makes you look at it and enjoy what you see.
Some can is just plain in your face and bordering on vandalism.
Phew! that got my thoughts out in the open.
The background  is a mop up of purples, a wall stencil, Vintage Photo distress ink used here and a leafy stencil, I think I was hoping it would look like ivy climbing up the wall.
This is another scheduled post, sorry I am not a regular visitor at the moment,
I will catch up with you all soon.
Thank you for calling by, I appreciate your comments

Sea World for AJJ

Another fun page for Art Journal Journey.

May's  theme is 'The Sea'.

This is a digital page using some stored images and some free from the web.

Alice the goldfish, is furious with the results of the competition
 and hopes Mary, the organiser, in the  fetching scaled red suit  has an answer.
Alice thought the Beauty Contest was for the residents only
 and not the visitors and thinks its all been fixed.
Can you just imagine fish going on strike to settle a dispute.?
They'd make quite a splash about it.

Apologies if I don't get to visiting you all over the next few days ,  its the National Land Rover Rally.
I have scheduled a few posts and I do have the wellies  in the caravan.
Many of you may remember past photos of mud and ponds,  wonder what this year will bring?

Thank you for stopping by, will catch up soon.

Cross stitch

Crafting for me hasn't always been papercraft. 

I used to do cross stitch as a way to unwind in the evenings, especially after a day

 that involved working with children who needed extra help with their education.

 Back then the fingers were a bit more nimble and the eyesight a lot sharper.

I decided to share one of my many pictures today, with a reminder that there is still another week to run on the current challenge at Try It on Tuesdays which is Sewing and/or buttons.

It was had to get a photo as it is behind glass, but I think you will be able to see it okay.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look, I always enjoy reading the comments you leave.

Fredo and Gertie on Holiday for AJJ

A journal page made quickly and  just for fun for Art Journal Journey

The theme for May is The Sea

The painted background is acrylics and Distress stains,

the beach huts are a stencil. [Sheena Douglas]

 I nearly forgot to leave a space to  stamp in the characters [Art Impressions stamps].
I know the images are a bit small for the size of the page, but hey I'm not stressing over a minor detail.

You can maybe guess that like most of my 'for fun' pages this  has a bit of a story.

Well,  here are Fredo and Gertie, sunning themselves on the beach.

Notice Fredo may be on holiday, but he still wears his socks.

Gertie has a large glass of something alcoholic in her hand 

and is  telling poor Fredo to do something about the sea, 

as she is going to get her feet wet!!!!

I wonder what his reply to that was??

I would like to say Hello to my new followers and thank you for joining me on my Crafty Journey.

Thank you for taking time to stopping by to take a look, 

I always appreciate the comments you leave for me.

One image, 3 cards.

An  additional  post  following  a post I wrote yesterday  here and over at  Stamps and Stencils,

where I re-visited the technique of triple embossing.

At the end of the post  I showed  3 cards using the same Banksy image from Bee Crafty,    This  is to show you some of the details of  how they were made.

The Brickwall layer was made using an embossing folder [Crafters Companion]  Kraft card and Distress inks. Shade with a blending tool then, rub the whole piece,  with the surface of the ink pad, more pressure adds more colour.

On to the fun bit, I made my own mask for the image and swipped  the surface all over with distress stain.

A bit of texture next, with stencil and grunge paste.

More colouring with  some diluted white acrylic. A footstep stamp, then a rub over with White Fire Treasure Gold. Adding one of my triple embossed word plates

For this one I used a Brick stencil  with weathered Wood distress ink,  on the background and some stamping.

I used my home made mask of the image on this  third one. Sprinkled  the card with Brusho Powder and lightly sprayed with water. When it dried out I removed the mask and was able to stamp the image in the in the space. Yes, some of the colour had spread, but I thought it looked okay to use. A little stamping to give the effect of a wall.




The background stamps used were all unmounted and I'm afraid I cannot  for sure name the maker.

Thank you for taking time  to stop by, this was quite a long post. for me.
I do appreciate the comments you leave me.

Inspire ----at Stamps and Stencils.

It is my turn to write the inspirational post today over at
 Stamps and Stencils

These are the finished cards.
I used an Inspired by Banksy stamp from Bee Crafty.

 I hope you will be able to pop over and take a look, I was revisiting a well known technique.

Needlework before housework.

'Sewing and Buttons '

is the new challenge theme over at Try it on Tuesdays.

Lots of ways for everyone to interpret this theme, please pop over

 and see what we have all been making.

I used a Kraft card as my base. With some random stamping using an old hessian look stamped image,  this was also used on the tailors dummy  [A Tim Holtz alterations die cut].  A buttons stencil was used for the layers.

For  the top layer using the buttons stencil, I used a mixture of Blue  and Silver  acrylic paint  [Pebeo]with Glass Bead Gel [Golden gel medium] . The remnants of this mix were used on  the last journal page I showed you.

The trimming all came from my stash.

Thank you for taking time to stop by and see what I made,

 the comments you leave for me are always appreciated.

Pirates Treasure

Treasure was the  prompt for week 17 at Journal 52 

and

The Sea is this months theme at Art Journal Journey.

I did wonder at first where this page was going. I had the ship image [Sheena Douglas]

which always reminds me of the ghost ship from Pirates of the Caribbean .

I searched the net for a couple of free map images and the page just evolved.

Using acrylic paints  and Distress stains for the background as well as some stencils and some random splodging about with some silvered Glass Bead Gel.

The Galleon was stamped onto tissue, the original was well covered and could hardly be seen.

Thank you for taking time to stop by, I do always appreciate the comments you leave for me.

Home Sweet Home for Stamps and Stencils

Its time to tell you all about our second challenge theme over at Stamps and Stencils

'Three of a Kind'.
Ruth is our hostess this month and gave us the theme of Three of a kind e.g. flowers, figure, quotes

Please do  pop over for all the details and see our interpretations of the theme.

I decided to use 3 frames and make a  wall hanging.

As you can see the base is a piece of partially stripped back corrugated card which needed a few coats of cream acrylic paint.

The roof went through a tree bark embossing folder before being painted with acrylics. The colours I used were  Pebeo Iridescent gold and cerulean blue

I used a couple of take away coffee stirrers to trim the roof.

To add textures to the frames and around the house base I added used  Frantage embossing powder. 

Fussy cut flowers and all stamped images are Paper Artsy, these were shaded using water colours.

Thank you for taking time to stop by, I do so appreciate the comments you leave for me

Down by the sea. for AJJ

Another page for Art Journal Journey

The theme for May is the 'Sea'.

There are  some awesome journal pages for everyone to see if you follow the link when you visit.

I used a variety of acrylic paints for the background, having used Masking fluid {Pebeo]

 to cover my stamped image of the lighthouse.

All the stamped images are Sheena Douglas and were water coloured.

The mermaids tails  does shine a bit as I  added a bit of gold mica powder to the paint. 

The suns rays were created by swiping the edges of a lolly stick through white paint and then onto my page.

Thank you for taking time to stop by, I do so appreciated the comments you leave for me.

Go Retro and Always take the scenic route.

There is still another week for you to join the 

 Retro challenge over at Try it on Tuesdays.

So for this card I wanted to use my idea of colours from back then, all Distress inks.

Spiced Marmalade,  Mowed Lawn,  Mustard seed, Walnut Stain and  Abandoned Coral.

Painting the dress with red water colour.

The background is all  layers of stencils [Sheena Douglas] and the stamps are Stampers Anonymous.

Linking this to............
Mixed Media World  2nd Challenge theme is -Use Bright Colours.

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While I had these stamps, stencils etc  on my desk I  used them on this journal page.

The background had been coloured by wiping excess paint off brushes over time,
there was even a little random sprinkle of escaped  Brusho powder.
I added a leafy  stencil  at the top of the page to add a bit of texture and use up some grunge paste

Who said using left overs wasn't fun, it is for me.

Linking this to----
 Country View Challenges theme for May is Simply Scenic

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

Where's the remote? for AJJ

'The Sea',  is the theme for May over at

  Art Journal Journey.

This is a digital page using some of my own stored  images

 and some found that were free to use from the net. 

 I had a story going round in my head of  a TV program showing some colourful  fish.

  The fish with the stripes,   shouting to the  parrot  [Elsie]  to get the remote control, 

then  change the TV  channel and find them some calmer water.

Strange things  can happen, when swimming  in and gazing at  the sea.

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