Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

This is a last journal  page from me for this months challenge theme ....

 Lets Celebrate.... set by Sheila over at

Art Journal Journey

The page began with a pieces of striped  coloured tissue, stuck to a random  coloured, background page.

I then fussy  cut out some bottles and glasses from a free supermarket magazine. A bit more colouring with oxide inks to fill a few white spaces.

It was then taken into the digital computer program I use for the extra details to be added.

This page also fits these other challenges. so I will also join the folk at ...

Moo-Mania and More
where the theme is....
Welcome.......Somebody/Something/The New Year
and

Take a Word
This weeks theme is....... Celebrate

Thank you for calling in to see me today, your visit is always appreciated
 and you are always welcome here.

Its T Day.

.

The first photo I want to share with you today is  of the  Nativity

 that has sat in  a corner in our lounge for many years at Christmas time.

Yes, the pieces may  look  quite modern, but the potter who made it,  we  thought was way ahead of her times. She assured us back then that no piece she made would ever   be the same. We asked her why she never added detail to the faces, her reply was that we all had different images in our minds about how this special family should look . 

  Hello T day friends at Bleubeard and Elizabeths

where we are always made to feel very welcome with a drinks related post.

 I hope you all had a lovely  day yesterday.

I thought I would share one of the gifts that this guy in red brought me .

It is this gorgeous tactile and wonky piece of tree trunk.

One of my sons  bought it from an artisan woodworker ,

 who creates sets of drawers from logs of wood.

The drinks have been flowing these past few days here, mainly tea for me with an occasional coffee,

but to celebrate Christmas day, I did join the family last night  with  a glass of fizz, I had to wait until this morning to take a photo as the light was to dim. Hence the bottle is empty  and the glass needs a hand wash with the others.

If you live here in the UK I hope you enjoy today's Boxing Day Holiday.

[I've added this link if you are interested in finding out about this bank holiday]

Well this has been a share of the two sides of Christmas,
the festive ones with families and the giving of gifts.
But, personally I think its also a time to remember the true meaning of the season and take time to share some love and hope for more peaceful times in the world.

Happy T day wishes everyone and thank you for calling in to see me today.
Thank you for the friendship, the  feeling of belonging found  here, in this welcoming  crafting family,  when we visit together with our wonderful hosts.
Elizabeth, Bleubeard and Squiggles .

Christmas Wishes

To all my blog friends and followers.

I wish you all a very Happy Festive Holiday and hope that the coming

New Year will be a good one for you all.

Yvonne xx

A winters day.

This is the tag I made for

  Tag Tuesday

and the current theme of Christmas Memories

On the left you can see my starting point for  today's tag and page.

The tag was added to a corrugated card base .

Both pieces were completed in the digital computer program I use [notes in my sidebar].

A distress ink background with a tiny bit of embossing .

A stamped snowman and a couple of found relative pieces.

Torn paper strips for the snow across the bottom.

When I saw these two boys I was immediately taken back to when my boys were small, They loved the snow and making snowmen in the garden. Woolie hats , warm, clothes and mittens. The difference would  with these two would be the footwear, wellies were the choice as shoes  were of no use for the snowy ground.

I used the same starting point for this digital journal page,

which I will add to Sheila's theme.....Lets celebrate..... over at 

Art Journal Journey

Thank you for calling in today at this busy time of the year.

I went for a last grocery shop for some vegetables and fruit,  this morning, it was unbelievable the number of folk in the store.

Leaving the car park was worse ,that was a traffic jam in itself, it took 25 minutes

 to get on  to the  road.

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays and T day wishes.

Hello everyone  and  to friends at

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths

where every Tuesday we are always made very welcome with a drinks related post.

I think we are all busy at this time of the year, but I have to find the time to have a crafty play, before things get even busier here,  even if it is digital/ hybrid journal pages.

When I was making my Christmas cards using this stamped image, I did an extra copy to add to 

my digital journal.  Simple layered cards again with a ribbon trim.

I will be sharing the journal page  with the folk at 

Art Journal Journey 

for Sheila's Lets celebrate theme.

There'e the trusty cuppa beside the computer and in case you wonder what the pages  I  was working on look like, 

they are  here

on my Digital blog.

Last photo of the day is of our tree,

Happy T day  everyone
 and my best wishes to you all for a Happy Holiday and Christmas.

Having fun

A couple of hybrid  journal pages to share with you today.

both were started in the usual inky, hands on   manner

 and then finished in the  digital computer program I use [notes in my sidebar]

On the left is how the first  page started out.

 Watercolour wash and some raised stencils.

This first one is all about celebrating and having a good time.  I am sure there are many folk out

 having parties at this time of year.

The staff in the local hairdressers were telling me about their outing last week and they were still  on a high as they described the fun they had.

This is a more quieter celebration page.

My ballerina's wish came true and she hopes  yours will  too.

I will be joining the folk over at Art Journal Journey

  for Sheila's theme of

Lets Celebrate

I am also adding a reminder for the current Try it on Tuesdays 

Challenge theme of

Twinkle Twinkle.

Thank you for calling in to see me   at this busy time of the year.
Your comments are always appreciated.

Bringing home the tree.

A  page for Sheila's theme ...... Lets Celebrate.... over at

Art Journal Journey

The background  was a sprinkle of green and brown  brusho powder  , that I wiped over with a wet wipe to blend the colours near the center. I knew I wanted to use the tree stencil  for woodland. 

I also added some raised stencils around the edges to give a bit of texture. 

The images are found relatives [TH].

It must be good to live in an area where you can go out, to choose and cut  your own Christmas tree

and quite magical for families to do this together to celebrate the season.

Thank you for calling in today. 

You are always  welcome here.

. 

A favourite stamp

I am sharing a Christmas card today that I know has now reached its destination.

I used an old favourite Traditional Santa, stamped with Brown Archival ink  for the top layer, 

 edged with gold embossing powder.

The rest of the card is  layers in  cream  and brown,  with one of them embossed ,   a lace trim completed the card..

I will be entering these Challenge themes....

Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme is....Celebrate

also 

Moo Mania and More where the new theme is...... Christmas

Thank you for stopping by today, your visit is always appreciated.

No stamps, no ink and no mess. and Rudolph brought the tea.

Its Tuesday so it must be time to visit with friends at 

T Stands for Tuesdays

 at Bleubeard and Elizabeths,

where we are always welcome with a drinks related post.

 I will begin with a trip up to our  market town of Hexham last Saturday where they were holding the Christmas fair.  We went early as I had a grocery shop to do as well.

Not many folk about and the car temperature gauge was  about minus 2

 and it didn't rise above zero all day here.

As always there were  food stalls, as well as craft stalls.

Some of the photos are a bit hazy, but it was so cold you could see your own breath as you breathed out.

The Coffee and foodie stalls were just getting organised

Lots of crafty stalls, but most of the stall holders don't like you taking photos.

The Alpacas   just arrived as we were leaving.  I don't think they would be feeling  cold with their thick wool fur.

Back home and after thawing out and some lunch,

 I needed to finish this last batch of Christmas cards.

Rudolph looked after my afternoon cuppa.

For these cards, I used Kraft card as a base. 

Cut out the material squares from a remnant  piece of cloth that I had stored from ages ago and frayed the edges.

Simply stuck down on the card and a bow added.

Hence the title of my post....

no stamps, no ink and no mess.

Well if I am honest there was a bit of mess with all the threads of edges I pulled.

Thank you for visiting with me today,

you are always welcome here.

Celebrate and be Merry

This is a hybrid journal page for

 Art Journal Journey

where Sheila is hosting this months theme of.....Lets celebrate

The page all began with these two Christmas cards from a batch  I had been making, with stenciled backgrounds

I  thought the cute stamped images[Paper Artsy]would be fun to use on a journal page as well.

I used one of my own digital journal base layers, adjusted the cards in the digital program I use. Then I added a few extra images to create the snowy scene.

I think these two will be have a good celebration, she seems to have a twinkle in her eye and perhaps rather likes her friend.

Thank you for stopping by today,

 the comments you leave for me are always appreciated.

Digital information can be

found in my sidebar.

Celebrate in the snow.

We are having frosty mornings and the weather men are forecasting

 that this weekend will bring us another session of snowy weather.

 This got me thinking about how my  sons   used to look forward to  the first snow falls,

 all those years ago. They couldn't wait for it to be deep enough to make a snowman.

 Snow at this time of the year usually meant that Christmas was on its way.

 Wool gloves, warm coats and wellie boots   always  in the porch, ready to be pulled on quickly.

 The tree would be decorated ,   the Nativity in its special place.  

 They would visit Santa in   the Church Hall, 

 when he called  in, close to the big day,   to check they were  behaving nicely.  

 Magical Celebrations  that last in our memories for ever.

This is  a page for.

 Art Journal Journey

where Sheila is hosting this months theme....Lets Celebrate

On the left is some of the stages  of this journal page.

Top left.... It all began with a packet of paper tissues with these nutcracker figures .

Bottom left....... some colouring and stencils added.

Top right..... digital additions

Bottom right...... the words and some sparkles added.

Thank you for calling in today, you are always welcome and your visit appreciated.

Digital information can

be found in my sidebar.

Twinkle Twinkle... and a bit of shine for TioT's

The last challenge theme for this year at

 Try it on Tuesdays is.......

Twinkle Twinkle

We have given everyone lots of choices

stars /sparkles/ glitter/ something shiny and we are sure there will be other things you could use.

Please pop over to see what the girls have been making.

I would have to say that shiny things are not the easiest to get a good photograph.

So what did I use... The main image is a piece of a torn napkin, sprinkled with glitter.

Layered onto a piece of silver mirri card [yes it looks gold in the photo]

The actual card has a snowflake pattern. [printed from the computer].

The word panel was embossed and then rubbed over with silver gilding wax.

Thank you for calling in to see me today,

your comments are always appreciated.

Diaries and gingerbread!

These are my last three journal diary pages.

for 2017. It was some of  the folk over at T Stands for Tuesday that got me interested in keeping a daily diary, not something I have ever been good at, always started with good intentions,

 but until this year never completed.

I am well on the way this year to having a full day by day diary filled.

and have some  dates for December in advance.

I am sharing this post with  Bleubeard and Elizabeth 

where we are always made welcome with a drinks related post

I hope you are close to a chair as  this  may be a shock 

to those of you  who know I prefer tea.......

It is a Gingerbread Latte......

and it was as delicious as it looked.

It was a  lovely way to finish the meal we had  eaten in Frankie and Benny's. 

This is a chain of Italian restaurants.

The place was full of folk, so sorry no photos of the inside. 

 OH had a  meat feast Calzone and I had pasta with chicken and prawns.

The smile of the day was a trip to the Loo[WC] where you could listen to an

 Italian-English language tape being played through the sound system.

I just had to have a listen for myself after the OH told me about it  and had a good laugh with a lady of a similar age,  when we heard the translations.

 Shall I say the phrases  we heard were relevant to out location.

Thank you for calling in to see me today and Happy Tea day wishes to you all.

Celebrate winter

There is  super new theme for December  over at

Art Journal Journey

Sheila  has chosen ''Lets Celebrate''.

This began with  a mop up page in my 8 x 8 inch journal.  Next, I used this pretty robin napkin.

I have to add a bit of background story here as to what was going on in my head.

I had been watching the birds in the garden this morning . There was a heavy frost and everywhere was white. We had a robin sitting in the berry bush when  another  turned up close by,  they seemed to be communicating  and slowly came closer together.  So maybe our birds have similar friendships to us and can share the winter berries, celebrating natures bounty.

I wonder.....................if the mice think the same.

Thank you for calling in to see me today,

you are always welcome here.

For digital information,

please see my sidebar.

Just be happy

On a frosty winter day I  had fun making this tag for the

 new theme  at.....

Tag Tuesday

We are asked to used some Lime Green on our tag.

I used one of my own corrugated  recycled tag bases, painted with white gesso first ,

then a blend of my paints to get the base green colour.

The next step was what to use, to decorated the tag,

 most of my images were added in the computer program I use [notes in my sidebar].

Thank you for calling in today, you are always welcome here

and the comments you leave me are appreciated.