Autumn

Today I am sharing  this mixed media/hybrid journal page.

It started off with a watercolour wash and some  ducks enjoying themselves, they came  from a torn napkin.

I was able to change the colours to autumn tones,  move them closer together

and add some extra details in the digital program I use [see my side bar].

It was a fun page to alter and I did try a few ideas I had  buzzing in my head,
 maybe the ducks had been  frightened by witches on this Halloween night.
 But as I love animals, decided they could have fun on  this  autumn evening and play at the bottom of the garden in the pumpkin patch.

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

Trick or Treat winner

Trick or Treat Napkin give away winner 

I may have managed to work Mr Inlinkz, so you could  join in,  but I did resort to an old fashioned way of picking out a winner.

The good old , put the numbers in a cup, mix them up,

have a rummage in the bottom, then take a pick.

Yes, its a big cup, but as many of you know I do like my tea.

I also learnt a lesson,  its hard to open a scrap of paper with one hand, so I had to put the camera down as I opened the number to show you all.

 6...... Froebelsternchen....Susi.

I hope you will enjoy using them.

Thank you  to all of my friends to joined in  my little piece of Halloween fun.

Happy Halloween

Halloween wishes  everyone

who may call in to see me  today .

Its T stands for Tuesday and I will be sharing my cuppa with friends at 

Bleubeard and Elizabeths

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

First of all I want to show you a super book I found  in Barter Books last week.

I have mentioned this store before, situated in the old Station at Alnwick in Northumberland.

No money need be spent if you take books in to trade, which we always do.

The book is called....

The Vintage Tea Party and its full of super photos and recipes.

The table is set  and friends are gathered on the first full page picture in the book.

I will share more of this book in the coming weeks.

We went into the town for a look around and had  lunch in this old fashioned cafe.

Yes it was tea as usual for me . 

Our meal was a giant Yorkshire pudding filled with 

sausage and a rich gravy. This was a meal by itself but it came with a side of peas and chips.

 Sorry no photo, but have my word it was delicious.

There are a  number of lovely shops in the town.

These two windows  in the wool/ haberdashery shop were lovely.

One for Halloween and the other for Remembrance day which is in November. Almost every thing on show  had been knitted  including the poppies.

This is the collage  of the photos that I was messing about with drinking my 'Spooky' brew.
The cup won't be making many  appearances  on my table
 as I am not overjoyed  seeing spiders up that close

Happy Halloween Tea Day everyone

Sunshine in my soul

When the sun shines, does it make you feel happy inside?

This is my last page for Elke's theme..... Landscapes of the Soul,  over at 

Art Journal Journey

After a number of cold, dull days, today the sun is shining

 and what a difference to my feelings this has made.

This page began with me colouring, then fussy cutting this lady from one of my colouring in books. Another bargain buy, it is great what you can find when looking in bargain baskets and  on reduced counters. 

Here she is  stuck  to  the page, a painted

  base, random  script stamps

and stencils. Perhaps you will notice her she  looks lighter on the journal page. When I had coloured her it was  a dull day, and the  light wasn't so good for photo taking, so the photo looked darkerl

 Today the sun is streaming through the window

 and she looks  paler.

 In real life she looks okay to me , this makes me happy.

It is all about doing what is good for you .

I added a few more additions in the digital program I use.

 [notes in  my sidebar]

Thank you Elke for making me look inside myself  and   think  outside my comfort zone this month.  I have enjoyed your theme at AJJ.

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

My Halloween Treat give away is  HERE,

One more day to link.

Halloween fun

Happy Halloween 

Claude and his good  lady   are discussing his latest artistic creation.

He is a firm believer that art is good for his Soul

 and Halloween is just the best time of the year to be creative. 

I do wonder what his Mrs  is thinking.

Last time she saw him painting at this time of year,

 she was convinced that her bum didn't look that big.
This painting is of the kids, they look happy in the painting on the wall,
but I think Claude is about to upset his Mrs again.

This is  a page from my 8 x 8 inch journal.

It is a watercoloured  and splashed brusho base .

A variety of stencils. including the skeletons and a die cut cat.

The words, bird and children in the picture were added in my digital program.

Landscapes of the Soul

 is Elke's theme  over
at Art Journal Journey.

so Claude if off to join the folk over there.

Creating art in any form is good for the soul.

Now for a bit of Halloween fun,

It's  'Trick or Treat Time'.
My regular followers know I use Napkins  on many of my mixed media projects and have collected and been given many of them. This is my treat for one of you.

Have you got a  project  of your own.
 Would like to share with me this weekend.
If my experiments  using  the basic  Inlinkz tool have worked
 you will be able to add  a link to your blog.
I will pick a winner and
  send  a  Halloween Treat to one of you after the weekend.

Circles for TioT's

Circles....... is the new theme at

 Try it on Tuesdays.

I decided to make a card for the theme, using an inky  splattered background.
Then I  added some stencils of circles before the stamped images.
 The Paper Artsy stamped flowers  were  water coloured.
I frayed the edges of the layers with my trusty old blunt scissors.

The DT had lots of fantastic idea's for the theme, please pop over for the
 challenge details and see what they made.

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

Home and Away

I am starting off with a journal page .

Yesterday on  my digital blog I shared a page about Solitude. Relating to the fact that I enjoyed being alone in the quiet of my home and doing some crafting.

 The page is here if you would like to see it.

I was also working on this mixed media hybrid page .

I used another piece of pre- inked and stenciled card as a starting point with a couple  of the Affirmations stamps I couldn't resist a short while ago. I made a mess of trying to stamp a hair style, so I covered most of it up with gilding wax..

The base in my journal  was book print scraps, random stamping and white gesso and watercolours.

I gave her hair a new style, using autumn leaves and berries in the digital program I use.

I will be adding this page to Art  Journal Journey

and Elke's theme of  Landscapes of the Soul.

Now its a  hello to  friends over at 

Bleubeard and Elizabeths

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

Autumn has really arrived in the North Eastern part  of the U.K. now.

Here are a few photos  in my back garden, we often wonder when is a good time to gather the leaves   in no time,  it looks just the same as if we hadn't  brushed them up. .

As you can see it is a dull day, like most days here now.

 However the sun  did  decide  it would like to show its bright side  earlier last week, so we went to visit Rothbury a  small market town in Northumberland.

What a difference some sunshine makes. It is a quiet town, it also has some  interesting shops .

Our destination was a small cafe, popular with the locals, you can see my hubby looking through the window to see if there was a free table.

 In summer the seats outside are popular, it also sells yummy ice creams, 

 the sun may have been shining but it was very cold.

I would describe it as a no  frills cafe,   but have to say the food is home made and delicious. 

The aroma of cooking  from outside draws you in.

The staff treat their customers well and  are very friendly.

We both had the steak and ale pie and chips.

Tea for me and Coffee  for Dave. 

Thank you for calling in to see me 

Happy T day wishes to you all.

Its dark outside

I am sharing a Halloween tag with you today.

I think it took longer to get an acceptable photo than it did to make it.

It is a simple distress ink base layer and some stamped images.

I am not sure who was the maker, as they are unmounted rubber,

but I do know they have made an appearance here on my blog for a number of years.

I used water colour  for the extra  shading.

I will be linking to...

Tag Tuesday 

where the theme is ....Autumn and/or Halloween.

also to...

Moo Mania and More

where the theme is Halloween Time.

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

Emotions of the Soul

A mixed media/hybrd journal page  for
  Art Journal Journey
and  Elke's theme of,,,,, Landscapes of the Soul

To begin.  I had started making this tag a while ago. On the left is how she is layered into my journal.

The artfully posed lady was telling me her story,

 how  her lover  had cast her aside for another.

Jealousy, fury  lost love and what did his new lover look like,

were questions that all had to be answered. But deep down, she knew it was time to leave the past behind, be free.to fly on her own and enjoy living once more.

You can see that as well as digital additions to finish the page, I used a  few scraps of materials as layers. Torn pieces of book page,  a mop up water colour and inky background.


Thank you all for calling in , you are all most welcome here
 and I hope you have a lovely day today.

Digital information can

be found in my sidebar.

Just be YOU

My first share with you today is a hybrid page  for

  Art Journal Journey

where Elke is hosting this month theme 

Landscapes of the Soul.

I had a small piece of coloured and stenciled card, found in the pile of stuff on my desk, that just has to be saved  for when it may be useful.

I'm sue you know that feeling well. The stamps are my new ones, I told you about in an earlier post.

It was a mop up page in my journal and I added a few digital extras [notes in my sidebar].

I think  that  often, we will  think we cannot do something,

but, perhaps after searching the why's and where's  we actually can.

My Gran always used to say there is no such word as ' can't',

search inside yourself and you can.

Now  I'm off to share my weekly cuppa with friends at

Bleubeard and Elizabeths

It is so dull and grey here  that  it  got me thinking of our summer stay in Yorkshire.
Today we have to have the electric lights on and it is only mid day.

That day in July, sun was shining, the sky was clear and you could see for miles. When we stopped at the top of the pass to get some photos .
not another person was in sight, nor did we see many cars on this country road.... The Buttertubs Pass
It is a well known road to drive or if you have strong legs to cycle.

This particular day our destination was Hawes, in the Yorkshire Dales.
Which of course meant a  reviving  cuppa , with  a cheese and onion  sandwich in this super, small cafe.  I couldn't get many photos as it was full of folk, we were lucky to get a table beside the window, but what really appealed to me [besides the pot of tea] was the handmade bears  all around the room. I'm sure they were watching and listening in to the many conversations.

While we were in Hawes we had a look around the Rope Factory
An interesting place,  we  were left to look around, but on the down side, not much information  other than the link I added.

In the yard as we left the factory, were a few  metal sculptures, but like most places on that warm day, as I said earlier in the post, too many folk to get a good photos.
  However we had a super day out and that what makes the memories.

Thank you for all your get well wishes last week, the aches and pains are much better, many of my friends had a similar reaction, so we were able to chat comparing notes and laugh at ourselves.   It was better than letting the results of the jab get us down.

Thank you for calling in to see me today.
I hope you all have a Happy Day.

A visit to the dark side.

A visit to  darker inner places today.

 I think we can all have those kind of days,

 when everything seems too much for us and we just want to hide in the dark.

Well the page may reflect days  of despair  and soul searching but I can assure you that I enjoyed creating the page for

  Art Journal Journey

and Elke's theme of Landscapes of the Soul.

There is nothing better to lift my spirits than slapping and splashing paints and inks on a bare page.

I used this quote.....

Deep into the darkness peering,

long I stood there, wondering feeling,

doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal

ever dared to dream before.

On the left is how my mixed media  page began with watercolour washes and brusho powders that I allowed to run over the page. The result looked like a dark, moody wood.

Just the place where these two witches [paper cut outs TH]  would lurk  as they get ready to scare folk on Halloween night.  The words  were computer generated,  the web and cat were also digital additions.

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

I am adding a reminder for the current 

Try it on Tuesdays theme, '  Its Halloween Time'

all the information is Here.

Dawn

"The dawn awakens my sleeping soul".

An 8 x8 inch journal page for Elke's theme of.....

 Landscapes of the soul..... this month  at........

Art Journal Journey

This is a photo of the base layers.

A watercolour wash, then layers of stencils  using oxide inks.

The flower border is pieces from a torn napkin.

The words are from  new set of word stamps I couldn't resist buying [Lynne's Affirmations].

The dictionary snippets, birds and the sunburst were added in my digital program. [Notes in my sidebar].

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

It's Halloween time at TioT's

Its..... HALLOWEEN TIME..... at ....

Try it on Tuesdays

for the next two weeks we hope you will pop over and join us  to celebrate Halloween.

The design team have made some fantastic projects  to share with you.

I have made a hybrid journal page. It started out with a water coloured background and some stamped images. 

The scene was completed in my digital program with a number of layered up digital images.

This group are off to a Bottle party, but by the look on their faces I think they have been drinking  their bottle gifts before they arrive.

Thank you for stopping by today, you are always very welcome here.

Digital information can

be found in my sidebar.

Tags and Tea

I am starting the post with Tags for

 Tag Tuesday

the theme is All Creatures Great and small.

I have two tags to share  for the theme and had hoped to post them Saturday, but

things  do not always go to plan.
 I had my annual Flu injection on Saturday  and took a reaction to it, so I haven't been feeling so good. Mind you this is not unusual for me, it happens every year, but this one is worse than usual. Three days later and I still feel rough.  Enough moaning Yvonne.

 On the first tag  I stamped these two fun critters, they are best friends even though there is a big difference in their heights. I layered the tag,added some scraps of material.

 The splatters were added digitally.

The tag on the left is all digital images added to a corrugated base tag of my own. 

I do hope the elephant is a friendly one.

Now I am off to visit with friends over at

  Bleubeard and Elizabeths

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

In the summer when were were in Yorkshire I took many photos that I am just getting round to sorting out, so I thought I would share some today from our visit to Richmond and its ruined castle.

In its day Richmond Castle would have been a huge imposing  sight, it was built

on a hill overlooking the River Swale.

 Restoration has been carried out in the 12th century Keep

The next two photos were taken of the view down the valley through a gap in the  crumbling walls.

Considering the age of the castle, I am  surprised that as much of it still remains.

They began building it in 1071

After our visit we walked back into the town for a late  lunch. 

We were lucky in our timing and I was able to get one photo inside. 

As you can see my usual drink was a pot of Tea

with  a tasty tuna, sweetcorn and mayo jacket potato  for my lunch.

Thank you for calling in to see me, I hope you all have a good day.