Off on a bike to Paris..... a recycling collage for AJJ.

 I have   a last page .... for Alison's Recycle/Collage  theme over at 

Art Journal Journey

  If time had allowed I would have liked to have  made  more this past month.

I have many pieces of napkins, stamped and printed tissue that  maybe should have been thrown away, but, with a recycle theme  at AJJ it was just about finding enough of the pieces, that might  fit  together for the page I had in mind to create.

 A little  shading  with  distress ink helped to blend them altogether.  As you can see I also added some other scraps. The tape with the wording had been sent to me by a friend.

I am not happy with the photo as it makes the page look much brighter than it is in real life. However I am not complaining as the sun has been shining for a welcome change here today.

Thank you for calling in, your visit is really appreciated.

Under Cafeine ....Diary day week 17

Friday is Diary Day week 17 .....Under caffeine 

Well these two cats look like they have been out partying all night

  and really do need a cup of coffee.

I used gesso to cover the colouring in pre- printed page,  I am now on the repeat pages in the diary, so  gesso  will be used quite a bit now.

I used  stencils for the background,  and stamps for the images and words.

Thank you for calling in today. I hope you all have a good weekend.

Tea time , sugar lumps and Abbeys

A Tea time  collage page.

Nearly all recycled bits and pieces and magazine cut outs . 

I added some colour and random stamps to fill the white space.

Regular callers here will guess that I will be sharing this page over at

 Art Journal Journey

 and Alison's Recycle /Collage theme.

However its also Tuesday and Tea Day.

an opportunity to visit with friends over at

  Bleaubeard and Elizabeths

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

More photos today from our trip to the Scottish Borders.

These ones are of    Abbeys we visited. 

I am so pleased we are able to keep these buildings even  though they are now ruins. If buildings could talk, these ones would have a story lasting hundreds of years to tell

First stop Dryburgh Abbey

[Link for information]

There was a small museum, mainly boards with facts and other stones,

 I took these photos of the more interesting ones.

....................................................................

Kelso

Now this was a ruin, but the stonework looked magestic

[Link for information]

Now was a good time to stop and find somewhere to have a   break

We found a lovely old pub that served small portion meals at lunch times.

Simple  homely food,  I had lasagna , chips with a salad side 

which I completely missed off the photo.

The tea was hot and strong and very reviving, so restored we set off  back to Melrose where we were staying,  to see their  beautiful old Abbey 

..............................

Melrose Abbey

[[Link for information]

There was an interesting museum building  on the site as well

The workings  of this turret clock looked amazing and were  well looked after.

I was also interested in some model figures on show, 

the work and detail in their making , they must have taken hours  to construct.

Well thank you if you have stayed with me through this post,

you will have gathered I like old churches and ruins.

There is one more  Abbey we visited, but I will save that for another day.

Happy Tuesday wishes to everyone who has called in to see me today.

Happy bEARTHday

I created this page in my journal using a hessian      base.

The flowers' discs were cut from a magazine, their backing, stalks and leaves are old book papers.
The washi tape is the only item besides the glue that is used for the first time, but even that is quite old as it doesn't stick down any more, without help.

.

The bird , a fussy cut was needing a home, don't look to closely at the colouring of him, he is not good close up.

I have been making a few recycled collage pages this month, this really gets me to think about the discarded and wasted materials that get  thrown away on our earth.

Packaging. plastic, chemicals  for a  start  but it would take many hours to make a full and comprehensive list.  We need  to protect our environment today and not tomorrow.

This is a date I have to admit not knowing  the connection to environmental  issues until I started blogging and met folk folk  who promote  the date of Earth day.

Today is also special for me as it is the Birthday of my eldest son.

A  friend in Blogland celebrates a Birthday today as well,
Happy Birthday Elizabeth,
 you are an inspiration for us all.

I will join friends over at

  Art Journal Journey,
where Alison's theme this month is...Recycle/Collage

Also addind a reminder for the current Try it on Tuesdays theme....
Natures Beauty

Have a happy Day everyone and spare a thought or two
about how we can save our world for future generations.

Spring has arrived....... Diary day week 16

Diary Day....week 16

I began by covering the page with a thin coat of white gesso.
Next came some random stamping using some leaf images.
I had a piece of napkin that I wanted to use  as it made me think of warmer days.
 I am keeping my fingers crossed on talk of the weather. We actually have had sunshine today [Thursday], all the windows open  at home, feeling warm in the garden, bliss.
Even the birds were singing and that is  a welcome sound.
Well, it could all change tomorrow, but today was  a good one.
Maybe  Spring , is here at last.


Thank you  for calling in to see me
 and I hope you all have a lovely day.

A tag and a page

A digital  tag for the theme...

.Black,  white and a spot of colour

over at Tag Tuesday

Apologies for having two spots of colour, I hope this will fit the theme.
It was harder than I thought just using black and white, so thank you for the challenge.

Next is another  Recycle Collage page for 

Art Journal Journey

and Alison's theme of Recycle/ Collage

I recycled a lot of bits and pieces for this page,
 including bits from magazines, napkins. materials etc.
The lace I remember coloring with inks a long time back for another project and it turned this rather bright neon green,  not thrown out but carefully saved [thrown in the bits box] for another day.

I am really enjoying Allison's theme this month, I hope to get a few more bits and pieces used up.

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

Digital information can

be found in my sidebar

Natures Beauty... for TioT's

Natures Beauty

 is the new challenge theme over at

  Try it on Tuesdays

Please pop over for all the details and see what we have all been making.

This is my mixed media/hybrid journal page for the theme.

I used my 8 x 8 inch journal and first of all added some stencils.

The little mouse climbing up the poppy stalk is torn from an old calendar page.

I added some shading using  distress oxide  inks and some stamped leaves.

This gave me my mixed media base.

Next it was off to the computer  for the other additions. [Digital information can be found in my sidebar]
I will be adding those  words free hand to my mixed media page, when I get up the courage to go ahead and do it.



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

Food, a cuppa and bit of history.

Hello everyone  stopping by to see me today,

 this  post has  all kinds of everything,

 it is a real mixture of subjects.

I'll mention my journal spread first, last week as a few of you know we were away in the caravan in the Scottish borders.

One of the places  we wanted to visit was this Smokery

A lovely destination if the weather had  been kind. This particular day it.....snowed.

 We didn't get  walk around the  gardens or see the aquatic center. However I did buy some delicious smoked cheese  and salmon.

The pages are my way of remembering this outing

all cut outs from the advertising booklet, The label from the cheese I carefully  peeled off to use on the left  side of the spread..

All the extra  pieces I used  were scraps, so I will join the folk over at

 Art Journal Journey

and Alison's theme

Recycle/collage.

With all this talk of food it does need a  cuppa to  go with it, so
I am happy to be off to join friends over at
Bleubeard and Elizabeths 
where we are welcome each Tuesday with a drinks related post.
Penny the hen is flapping her wings and saying hello.

Abbotsford........continues
[another link I found with  some tourist type information]

By coincidence my hubby took the same photo outside the house

 as one of the paintings shown inside.

Sir Walter Scott came from quite a humble background and according to one of the house guides was an avid collector, the rooms we were able to see were packed with     interesting items.
A down side was that only rooms on the ground floor were open to the public and I do feel I would have liked to see what was on the upper floors.

[My first post is here]

A few photos in the  entrance  hall

The Library

A room full of guns and swords.

I did like the these wall figures, every one was different.

At this point a coach trip arrived and taking  'people free photos' was impossible,

but I think you can see from these few, how full of interesting things this house is.

Though the arch was the entrance to the family chapel

I was taken with the fact there was a fireplace,  lit  to keep the family warm  on cold days.

All this history  and today's children who visit Abbotsford can play in this
modern futuristic play garden.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you all have a good Tuesday.

Diary Day....... Three men on a bike

Friday is Diary Day week 15

I have now completed the first batch of pre- coloured pages in the diary, they now go back and repeat themselves.  So  as you have seen them all before in previous posts I will try to remember to take a photo of  the early stages

 as I add stencils etc.

I have added some raised stencil area's for texture, as well as to give a bit of colour to the plain side of the diary spread.
It is a Tin Holtz stamp I used of the men
 riding the three seat bike.

Thank you for stopping by to see me today.
 I hope you all have a good weekend.

Tartan pieces

 A recycle page in my 8 x 8 inch journal.

No inks or stencils on this side of the page, it was pieces  of material from the tartan scraps bag I picked up when we visited a  tartan Manufacturers  in Scotland last week.

The Red Kite was  cut from a magazine,the other few additions I had in a bits bag.

This is how the spread looks  some of the left

 side of the page had been stencilled.

I tore the piece of the poem by Blake

 from the same article about the Red kites in the magazine

The label I made when I got back home and added a little more  colour .

I decided to leave this  as it now stands. 

We did see a few of these birds while we were away and they are so graceful

 as they swoop to catch their prey.

I will add this page over at

 Art Journal Journey

and Alison's

 theme of Recycle/collage

 as it is all made from pieces normally thrown away, but to a crafter these sort of items are gold and  always  treasured  to be used at a future date. 

Mind you no one ever told me it might be months or even years before many

 would  be used.

We had had a lovely visit to the Tartan Manufacturers and spent some time in the shop, where  I was allowed to take photos. But as  there were many folk around I can only share a few.

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

Recycle Mania

Recycle Something,
Lots of ideas to see on the

  Try it on Tuesdays Blog,

 please pop over to take a peek and get all the details of the challenge.
 There is still another week for you to join us there.
 I am enjoying this theme and here is  another  make over  I did before we went away in the caravan.

I  decided to change this rather tatty old  paper covered  box [1].

First a coat of white gesso  and a thick cover of Crackle paste [2]

I left it over night to dry out.

I mixed some brusho colours in small spray bottles and kept adding light sprays of paint until I was happy with the shades. [3]

I used a strip if bulap type weave material around the side of the box [4]

 The top I wanted to leave quite plain only adding a ribbon and a spray of paper flowers recycled from a gift I received some time ago. 

Needless to say I did have a few mugs of tea during the altering of this box,
so I will be calling in to see friends at
Bleubeard and Elizabeths

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

Now for another Recycle /collage page,  made with bits and pieces  for
  Alison's theme at
 Art Journal Journey

Made with cuttings from magazines in the stash I have to hand in the caravan , these ones mainly came from a Daphne's Diary magazine.
To fill in some spaced I added a bit of book print.
I toned the bright colours down a little by spreading some white watercolour over the page,
 using my fingers

On the opposite side of the journal spread I added some cup cake stickers--
cakes go so well with a cuppa.
The wording on this side of the page was computer generated , the trusty old lap top computer  gets well used when we are away.There is quite a large white space, but it is a bit calming after the opposite side looks do busy.
We are on our way home today I may be late in calling in to see you.

I hope you all have a super day .