Hearts and Flowers at TioT's

Hearts and Flowers

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

Its a multi layered hybrid journal page from me today

The design team are sharing fantastic examples on the TioT's blog, 

 I hope you will pop over to see what they made.

This inky tag was my starting place, 

Next a  photo  which Elizabeth at

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths kindly shared and said we could  use. It was taken when she visited the zoo, you can see the post here

Yep,  I think they go well together as a starting point.

You will see on my finished page that many digital layers were also added.



Thank you for calling in to see me today,
the comments you leave are always appreciated.

If you've called in for Tea day,
 please scroll down to my earlier post.

See my side bar for information

 about my digital additions.

Mimi needs a coffee

Hello T. day friends 

and everyone who takes time to call in , you are very  welcome.

First of all my T day related post,  for Bleubeard and Elizabeths.

I have been trying to get some crafting done to take my mind off other things that are happening  at  home, our old Meg is not so good these days.

Anyway, I had  a few things to use up, a die cut cup, a fussy cut cat  as well as a rather messy background in my journal. I also used this calendar page, I had used the day by day pages in my daily planner I shared a short while ago.

It  has a bit of a story going on so I will be just in time to add this to Erika's current theme of Tell me a Story at Art Journal Journey

Mimi loves cooking with wine, but much prefers to taste it before she puts it in the dish. By the look of her here, she has had a few tastes over the top and needs a coffee to get over it.

Now for me I would pass on the wine, move the cat to her own dish and make myself a cup of tea.

So I did go and make a brew,  and settled  in front of the computer with my trusty TeaBag

If you are interested in seeing the digital page I was creating ,

 its here  on my other Blog..

Thank you for calling in to see me 

Happy Tea Day

Year of the Rooster

Happy Chinese New Year.

I started off making this digital page for Art Journal Journey

 where Erika's theme  for this month is Every journal Page Tells a Story.

I have been thinking a lot recently about animals and if only they could speak to us and maybe  tell us, what they think, how they feel, are they well, are they happy.

In my imagination these two birds are discussing  their  morning call,  ''crow,''

 and perhaps it may sound better on the ear  of the humans if it was set to music.

Now that would be something to hear.

So as its Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rooster

 I was able to add a the internet searched medallion. 

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are most welcome here.

Smile and make someone happy.

A journal  page for Art Journal Journey

where Erika has chosen the theme...

Every journal page tells a story.

This page  has  a background made a while ago and until now

 I wasn't sure how it would be finished off.

The flowers stamps are Paper Arty, some fussy cut as they didn't stamp so well on this heavy paper..

The smiling faces were computer generated.

As for the story,  when every thing is cold and grey in the winter months, nothing can  cheer me up as much as a smile. from  a family member,  friend or even a passing stranger.

.

Earlier this week a friend had a significant birthday and I took her a large bunch of roses and other blooms, needless to say there were many smiles .

We cannot know how folk feel inside, so give a smile and make someones day.

Thank you for stopping by to see me today.

Your visit and comments are always very much appreciated.

Its T day .---teapots and tags

Hello friends a warm welcome to all who  call in to see me  today.

At   Bleubeard and Elizabeths   its 

T stands for Tuesday

So this is my tea related post.

I had some new Paper Artsy stamps last week and this is the first chance I have had to ink any up.  I decided on a tag, this may stop me from adding too much.

The tag is also a reminder for the current TioT's theme...Anything but square.

 A sprayed ink base, 

I did try to stop here, but went on to add a little texture through a stencil,. Not a good idea when I found I had gone over some of the image. This had be re -stamped and fussy cut.

As you can see Mr Robin is still hanging around ,  he is my mug of choice for today.

Tea Pots for T day.

I do have a few teapots on  the dresser and I did try to get photos,  but  its  in the hall,  I had to move them to a lighter shelf so I could get a better picture.

The elephant one  is about 40 years old  bought in France, if I remember it was a promotion pot for  a brand of tea. It has been well used over the years, but is now in retirement.

This little stove has never seen hot water, It would only hold half a cup.

These two pots were presents from my sons. Those of you who follow my ramblings will know that one of the  family's main outdoor interests is  competing in Off   Road Land Rover competitions.

So the blue one has special memories for us all. 

This last teapot was a gift from my hubby . I have to  smile, as it is always known as the" choose your own".

 My brew of choice would be a Hot cuppa,

while the rest of the family would like a nice glass of wine with their cheese. So one pot  suits all.

Thank you for calling in to see me.

Happy T day .

Imagination

Imagination is a wonderful thing.

Children have it when they play, theirs can be a magical world of make believe,

 as well as the reality of learning and growing up.

  But stop and think.... how as adults do we use our imagination.

Easy to answer for folk who love crafting and creating, 

we use it without thinking when we sit down  and pick up the first pencil or piece of paper.

.

 Read a good book and you can be transported into another place, or time.

Do you ever get so engrossed in a book, that you cannot put it down

 and it becomes real in your head, as the story unfolds.

Faced with a problem do we wonder/ imagine how we can sort it out

My   hybrid journal page started off with this, inky and stamped   ATC 

We had no TV's when I was a child , toys were mainly home made and the garden was a magical place for me.  At bed times we always  had stories.

 I think this is where my imagination all began.

Back then,  I thought there was a fairy living among the flowers, something  I have never forgotten.

It made the huge garden feel safe  with her

 watching out for me.

My own boys always loved adventure stories at bed time and probably would have wished for something entirely different to live in the garden and laughed at their mom for wanting a fairy to live there. 

So I am linking with friends over at Art Journal Journey

and Erika's theme for this month

Every Journal Page tells a story......... this was one of mine.

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are very welcome here.

Pieces of paper

The other  day I shared some pages from a diary/planner  I have been making.

I had lots of scraps  and left over cut outs. that were much to good to throw away and after visiting  one of my  blog friends  Chris

 and seeing how she had been using up her scraps, I decided to use some on this collage page..

Now,  as to the story behind this page, it is known that  I am a hoarder.,

Pigs will certainly fly,   if I ever have a 'proper' clean up in my craftroom.

I never know when to stop adding things to my journal pages

 and have to give myself a talking to,  about when enough is enough,

so no changes here.

A few paint smears and a digital word stamp added ,which kind of says it all for me today.

''I don't want to get down from my cloud.''

If I do I will be back in the world of,   'the now'  

 and I would much rather spend more time crafting.

I will be linking up with the folk at

Art Journal Journey

where Erika's theme is ..., Every Journal Page tells a Story

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are all very welcome here.

Its ..........Anything but Square--at TioT's today

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

Anything but Square.

This time I decided to alter my pencil pot, 

The team have had some fantastic ideas for this theme, I hope you will pop over and take a look.

On the left are a few photos

 I took  during the process.

Top left....

the original box, very pink and covered with scraps of torn paper.

Top right......

a few layers of white acrylic paint, I quite liked the uneven surface at this stage , so just added some extra texture using stencils.

Middle photos.....

  show one  side and the back, more stencils,  a few stamped images,

colouring with pens, some blue distress ink and gilding wax.

Bottom photos....

 show the other side and the front.

Here I added a cut out heart shape  made from corrugated paper and a wooden bird shape.

My pencils now sit on my desk  in a shabby chic style box, 

which I enjoyed  altering.

Thank you for calling in to see me today,

I always appreciate the comments you leave for me.

If you called in for Tea this Tuesday, please scroll down to my earlier post

T stands for Tuesday and a Diary

First of all hello and welcome to all of you stopping by today

 and to the folk who  share a cuppa and natter , over at 

Bleubeard and Elizabeth

where

 T stands for Tuesday.

I have seen many friends in Blogland keeping a daily planner/ diary,

 I've never been able to keep one going, good intentions blow out of the window.

But, I think if I  leave it open  on my desk at night,

 it will prompt me to write even just one word a day.

 Cardboard at the ready to  make the binder, piles of papers collected over the years, a hole punch, glue and  another of my bargain buys a 2017 calendar for £1

This was taken apart. I will be using the fun pictures in other projects

It is so dull today that the photos aren't that good, but I think you will get the idea

I was quite careful when sticking stuff down to leave openings to tuck things in

I have more photos  to take  of the other pages.

Also the front cover is work in progress.

The mess with paper trimmings was by now piled  high, time to get a large bag to get the scraps.

loaded into the recycling bin.

As predicted not all the scraps went into the bag.

My choice of drink was plain water with lemon , although it sank to the bottom of the cup,

 I am trying to cut back on the tea for a few days, and water is good for us.!!!!!!

Just off to find a tea bag..... no will power tonight.

Happy T day everyone

Hope

Hope is one of those words we all use and I do wonder how many of us,

  me included stop and think what it really means in our lives.

  This word, I am sure will be included in  many  of our stories and memories.

So  I have made a hybrid page to share over at

  Art Journal Journey

where the theme for the month chosen by Erika is....

Tell me a story....

This is the start  base layers of my page, paint , stencils and another tissue napkin of a robin.

One of my recent bargains  found in the supermarket selling off excess Christmas stocks.

It was finished in my computer program with words and digital additions [notes in my sidebar].

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are very welcome here.

I hope you all have a safe and happy Sunday.

The penguins story

I have made another page in my journal using a tissue napkin. with these lovely penguins on it.

I will be linking with Art Journal Journey

and Erika's theme of Tell me a Story......

The background was a mop up page  with some smeared about thick acrylic white paint. fingers and an old plastic card worked a treat.

 It took quite a while to dry. It was finished off using my computer program.

I

There has been so much on our TV's and in the Press about Global Warming, it does make me think about how we can protect our wild animals for future generations as well as ourselves 

Then, I did ponder on  what the animals would say to us, if they could only talk.

Maybe they wonder how they can reclaim their own territory

 and still  be able to feel  safe there at the same time.

Not all stories have happy endings  and I think we may never hear the end of this one in a way that will be acceptable to all living creatures 

Anyway, my penguins are happy . 

They have just returned home after a holiday in Africa and have some photos for the family album.

They  agreed it was good to get back to the cooler climate, away from the heat they had on holiday.

Thank you for calling in to see me today.

You are very welcome here

How times change

Hello  to everyone who has called in to see me today from

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths

 to  share a cuppa on T Day.

 Putting the world to rights, as I  shared a cuppa,  with a close friend
  on our weekly  get together day,

we talked  about how times change over the years,

 especially what Santa delivered to our children when they were young  on Christmas morning.

Having Boys it was always cars and lego,  we remembered another friends daughter one year asking  for an Action Man toy, then had a good laugh the year she got a dolls pram.
 Her brother and our  sons, fought over the right to push it up and down the garden.

She played with the trucks.

Happy Days and fond memories.

This past Christmas , showing  how times change, my two  sons wanted a New Microwave/ combination  oven and a Coffee machine for their homes .  Cash exchanged hands  and they sourced what they wanted themselves. Much easier for us. I did search the net for the images I used on the digital page, not what they actually got, but similar.
We have visited  with the one who got the coffee machine, it  serves real  good coffee
 [I do drink it occasionally].
My other son says that his  new oven is good as well. So Santa's job was done for another year.

I created a tea related digital  page .

The   friend I mentioned  earlier and  myself  have shared many cups of tea and coffee, support,  companionship, laughs , sadness and tears  over the many years  of our friendship, we met when our children were babies.
So we go back a long way.

However,  I equally value the friendships I have made here in Blogland, you all deserve a mention here.








As there is a story to this post and a journal page I will pop over and link with
Art Journal Journey
and Erika's theme of Every Page Tells a Story

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

I  am also adding a thank you to  Pam from
My Creative Side who sent me this
beautiful piece. It arrived on Saturday, a total surprise and I was thrilled to receive it.
As you can see it is free standing,  she describes  what she uses to make them  here.




Thank you for taking time to call in and share a cuppa with me today.  You are all very welcome.

Morf and Idris for AJJ

Erika's theme for this month over at

Art Journal Journey

is..... Every Journal page a tells a Story.

This tale came to me after finding a file of old photos,
 including this  Bookmark that I have made in the past.
 So I have altered it into this hybrid/digital page.

Here we have 'Idris,' the friendly dragon,
 getting quite a surprise when he sees  'Morf'' giving him
 a  big cheesy grin.
He wondered WHY?  Morf .......usually ran away when saw him.
He smiled back and gave him a wave and they got chatting.
Morf said,  that his big brother  had told him there were no such things as dragons and that they were monsters he should be scared of.....  why was he making up stories  about seeing  dragons.
Idris sighed and told Morf, that many folk were frightened and  didn't believe he was real.
Maybe,  Morf would go and tell evetyone,  that all Idris wanted,
 was to be friends. He couldn't help how he looked, inside he was just him, a big friendly dragon.

Mind you I think I may have got a scare seeing the grin
 on Morf''s face and ran off in the other direction.. if I'd been Idris.


Thank you for calling in today, you are most welcome
 and I appreciate the comments you leave for me.

Me -- for AJJ

I don't make New Year resolutions because no one I know has ever been able

 to keep the ones they made.  Last year however, when,  I decided to keep going 

with creating digital pages.

I found something out about myself .

. Crafting -the hands on way- some days is painful, as I have already mentioned in previous posts.

 I always start off  a craft session, in  my craft room and see how the land lies with my grip.

If its okay, off I go getting messy, inky and generally having a good time.

Sometimes, when things end up on the floor too many times for my liking and paints etc have been spilled  across the desk. [mopped up on journal pages, no waste].. 

 I now, don't get upset,.

 Take a few photos of what could be used in my digital pages

and turn on the computer.

  Digital opened a whole new outlook on crafting and has enabled me to continue
 with a creative hobby that I love.

So that is my story today to go with this journal page for

Art Journal Journey

where Erika has set the theme ....

Tell me a story.

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are very welcome here.

----------------

My new header was made using  a journal  page you can see   here

Digital additions today
mainly from A Young
kits  at Oscraps.

A Tissue for TioT's

Our first challenge of the year over at Try it on Tuesdays is......

A Tissue

We want you to use tissue on your projects, stamped tissue  , crumpled for texture.
 patterned napkins etc etc. 

Please pop over to see all the fantastic  ideas and projects  the team  have made for this theme.

I had this lovely packet of paper napkins to use with our Christmas meal, but when I opened them out I realised  that a few of them would never reach the table.

I used an 8 inch canvas as my base,

Covered with a layer of scrunched up plain tissue and lightly shaded with some Vintage Photo distress ink.

I think you will be able to see the texture better on this photo. I had light problems over the days I was making this. Mainly dull, with the occasional glimpse of the noonday sun.

I used acrylic  Bindex to  secure the tissue.

Next came the added textures through stencils and when they dried  I smeared with a little gilding wax.

Each napkin had 4 prints of the deer,  so I did make a few cards at the same time
and also started a journal page

If you want to see what happened to the journal page, please scroll down to my earlier post
where T stands for Tuesday.

I think that this is quite an economical way to make cards, if you have pretty tissue napkins in your cupboards.

Thank you for calling in to see me today, you are most welcome and
your comments are always appreciated.

Notes and reflections on Tea day

[This is how the  journal page , you can see  in my TioT's  post later today  was finished.]

But I will start by saying Hello to all the folk from....

T  stands for Tuesdays

................and friends who call in to share a cuppa today.

Happy New Year wishes to you all,

I was using Napkins for my DT project and as there were  4 lovely deer images to each napkin ,

I decided to use one to make a page in the journal.

For sure there was cuppa, close to hand as I got started with the stencils and the vintage Photo distress ink .

At this stage I wasn't too sure  about how I wanted it to look, so after the photo was taken I went off to the computer for a bit of digital inspiration, also to add a few word..

Yes, by now the tea was stone cold, but habit  had me take to cup with me.

A year ago if anyone asked me about digital crafting,

 I think I would have said,  I wasn't  happy with how it worked for me.

But,  months later, I have to tell you that.  I did try,

 I  got out of my comfort zone and now,   thoroughly enjoy creating digital pieces.

 On the days when my hands  declare they won't grip stuff.

I can count on a couple of the fingers still willing to press the keyboard
 and move the mouse on the computer.

So, note to self,  I will  remember,  it will  never work, if you don't keep trying..

Happy Tea Day.

For digital information

see note in my sidebar.