Chirpy Chickens .......Diary day week 26

Friday is Diary Day....... week 26

I remembered to get a photo of my page before I added the stencils this week.
The chickens were fussy cut ,  the sentiments  and microphone were stamped.
 I added a few scraps of washi tape  and used distress oxides  for  the stencils.

In case you are wondering about the page I showed a few days ago trying to cover the print it is still work in progress, I have another couple of weeks to get it sorted, when I get home.

Gosh,  week 26 and half the year is nearly over.
Thank you for all your  visits to  my blog.
It really makes my day to read the comments you leave for me here.

Things with wings....... at TioT's

Things with wings is the new theme at
  Try it on Tuesdays

Please pop over to see how everyone interpreted the theme and I hope you will join us there.

I did remember to take a couple of photos   as I created this page, in my 8 x 8 inch journal,  but I was having fun and the camera was forgotten.
I used an older distress ink pad for the background. .
Next I placed positioned the owls, they had been torn from an old calendar.
I used a Tim Holtz stencil using a couple of green distress oxide shades. .
Die cut wild flowers were added next, a scrap of lace and material flowers.
The insects were computer generated and last of all I added the quote in the computer program I use.

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

Food

This is a food [ and drinks]  related post today,

 I  picked up a free paper when I was shopping for  the weekend groceries.

This article was about the foods that we liked to eat over 8 decades....
 Jam Roll in the 40's.... sounds good
Fish Fingers in the 50's...mmmmmm
Spaghetti Bolognese in the 60's,,, still a favourite for me now.
Chicken Kiev  in the 70's.... its years since I had one of those.
Curry in the 80's .....  yes ...still on my list of all time must have and go to foods today.
Thai Fishcakes in the 90's.... yes those would be on my list today as well.
Sushi in the 2000's ... a HUGE NO from me for this meal
Vegetarian food and home made bread  in the 2010's.... a Yes from me.
Although I am a meat eater, I love vegetarian food  as well.

So there was my trip down food memory lane.
I wonder what your favourite  food choices would be?

I am sharing this photo of my husbands favourite summer style cooking on the BBQ.
This is what he cooked for the family at the weekend....
,,,beer can Chicken. The bird sits on an open can of beer on a metal plate so the juices can be saved to make a sauce. . He let me take the lid off for a few seconds to get the photo. It takes about two hours to cook this way but is worth the wait.

I will add this page to Gill's theme over at

 Art Journal Journey

Inspired by.........
Hi everyone at AJJ, for some reason I have been blocked from adding this post .
I will try later, it could be the area we are currently staying.

It wouldn't be Tuesday without me taking a visit over to
 Bleubeard and Elizabeths

 where we are always made very welcome with a post that includes a beverage of some kind.


I am  trying to get a bit in advance with covering the printed pages in my weekly diary.
Currently this page has had a coat  of white gesso, which has had no effects on  the original.
I am now on the process of trying thick white acrylic and yes it has a hint of pink in it picked up from another project.  I will smooth it, but I wanted to get a photo of my cuppa to share today.

I

Internet reception this coming week  could be a bit hit and miss, I hope to be able to add this post to AJJ and T stands for Tuesday and   I may be late calling in to see you.
Have  a good week everyone..

Inspired by ......Klimt

A journal page using  more of the Klimt  cards Valerie sent to me a while ago.

 So once again he is the inspiration for my journal page.

I also really  liked this quote of his that I found on the internet.

On  the left I have a collage of the few photos I remembered to take. The initial background and  some of the pieces I wanted to use. I also added a few scraps of material and printed canvas border.  In case you wonder , no, it is not my stitching, this was added in the computer program I use [notes in my sidebar].
So this page is for Gill's theme at
 Art Journal Journey
Inspired by....



Have a good weekend
 and thank you for calling in to see me today

Happy Voices .... Diary Day week 25 .

 Friday is Diary Day and we are up to week 25

I really  am addicted to using napkins and could not resist this set coming home with me.

How cute are these two.. I did later think ... when will I ever use these.....
However when we had the warm sunny weather  last week it was good to hear the children playing in the gardens and parks when we were out and about..... Having fun.
 I remember my own boys loving being outdoors in our garden.

The page in the diary was already  coloured grey, which is also the base colour of the napkin. I added the stencils and a bit of random stamping.
Not the neatest of pages but I  don't mind.
I will join in at
  Art Journal Journey
 for  Gill's .....' Inspired by'..... theme
I was inspired by the  Happy Voices and sounds of children playing.

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

Mistakes, cars and a Latte

Inspired by....... Mistakes.......
and how I never like to discard things without trying to solve the  problem.
for Art Journal Journey

and Gills theme for this month.

This page has quite a few  covered up mistakes, one  I will admit to straight away  is that these TH stamps are hard to stamp out on top of painted brusho backgounds,
 another is to be sure that the paint is dry.
Message to self......
 Look for inspiration before you tear the page from the book  .
 To cover the mess,, I water brushed the stamped area blending the blue shades that had smudged.
Made sure it was dry this time.
 I re- stamped onto tissue and  used an acrylic binder to stick it down.

 Stencils are easy to use on these paints and  help cover many faults.

The small word sentiments are stamps,

 however the  one about making mistakes is computer generated.

Now I am off to visit with friends at

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths

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

This weeks photos are from a visit we make to an Auction House when we were in Yorkshire last month.  A  super huge auction house in Leybourne., very spacious inside with function rooms as well as the auction , it even holds wedding receptions.

Cars of all ages were up for sale, many having catalogue prices for many  thousands of pounds.

I was really interested in  the children's toy cars and posters  that were also for sale.

This toy car was my absolute favourite, imagine being a child back when this was new and finding the crate to open on Christmas morning.
 Well,  you can dream and I also think the parents would have to have  plenty of cash
 to buy this  for a gift. In the auction it sold for  £2,100

Our treat of the visit was to have a meal in the restaurant. Iced water was our drink with the meal. I took a photo of my starter, crab cake, then sat back and enjoyed the rest of the meal until it was coffee time. We had a Lamb main course and passed on the dessert.
  A Latte for me to end this meal. Yes I do have the very occasional coffee.


Thank you for calling in to see me today.
I hope you all have a great day.

As my journal page is male themed it would also  fit

 the current theme at Try it on Tuesdays

which is for the boys and has another week to  run.

Da Vinci....Diary week 24.

Friday is Diary day.... week 24.

I have been looking through my stamp collection recently and came across a number that had been pushed to the  side of the shelf and certainly haven't  seen any ink in a very long time.

In fact the ones I used today,  I couldn't name the maker or even guess a name.

The cut outs were  computer generated  and I used just the one stencil today and some Vintage photo distress ink, the more layers of colour you add the darker the shade becomes.

I will join the folk over at

 Art Journal Journey

  and Gill's theme.....Inspired by.....

finding these Leonardo da Vinci stamps was my inspiration for today.

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

Follow your muse

Its a stay home and stay safe day for me today,

 the summer has now sent us gale force winds, 

so what better excuse than to have a play in the craft room

This page is inspired  by the theme.... Arrows...... over at 

Moo Mania and More

which I read about and saw a fantastic inspiration page  over on  Susi's blog yesterday

 I will also be joining the folk at

 Art Journal Journey

 and Gill's theme..... Inspired by.....

So this page was created with these  two theme's in mind.

An already inked page in my journal, I used collage stamps[ AALL and Create] and embossed a couple of areas . Embossing allowed me to add more colour and stencils over the page without loosing the images.

I did fussy cut the cute lady in her  purple dress.

She is having a bad hair day like I am today.

I made the arrow with a scrap of paper and the wording was computer generated.

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

For the Boys ... at TioT's

For the Boys.... a masculine theme  for this challenge

 at Try it on Tuesdays.,
it could be  baby boys, boys, teenagers, adults.... to grandfathers.
Please pop over to see how we all interpreted the theme and I hope you will join us there.

I am needing a few male Birthday cards , this is one of the cards I made....
Layers of paper for the background and a Tim Holtz stamped image.
A little shading with Vintage Photo distress ink, all tied up with a piece of string
 and an added sentiment.

Thank you for calling in today,
I always appreciate the comments you leave for me.

Movies, visits and food.

Hello T day friends, where we all gather at

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths

to share a drinks related post.

But first of all I am sharing a digital tag

that I made for the challenge over at

 Tag Tuesday

the theme is.......'A night at the movies'

There are a few older  movies that I can watch again and again

and have to admit when there is nothing worth watching on our TV they are my go to choices.

Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Dances with Wolves,  West Side Story, The Sound of Music to name a few. Of the more modern films it would be The Lord of the Rings collection and because I don't feel I have grown up yet [big laugh out loud] the Happy Potter series.

I always have a cuppa close by when I work on my photos in the computer

and I did have many to edit and look at after my trip to Carlisle Castle last week

This is a follow on to my last blog post, where I shared photos of the Weeping Window

This is a collage of some  the Sculpture photos taken in other areas of the UK.

It was good to see this photo exhibition on display in the Castle grounds.

I added one of my own from my visit  to Carlisle.

We also visited the Military Museum  in the castle grounds.  I didn't have much success with photos mostly the fantastic displays were behind glass, but here are a few so you get the idea of the displays

On the top floor of the museum building was an Art Exhibition

by modern  artists  called.... Remembrance 100

 We did ask if we cold take photos, but  when I was searching a link I saw that they had copyright 

stamped over all  the images. So I will leave it up to you if you want to go and take a look.

We had been snacking  and drinking lots of water all day, but before we left, the aroma of hot meat pasties from the food tent was just too tempting.
We'd passed  it a number of times during our visit and finally gave in  and were not disappointed with the flavour.


Thank you for stopping by,
I hope you all have a lovely day.

Poppies from the Weeping Window

In 2014  there was  a display of poppies at the Tower of London

to remember the  100 year anniversary of the First World war,
 not every one was able to visit our capital city to see this awesome display.

Between 2015 and 2018 venues were chosen all around the UK

for  two  Poppies sculptures to go on Tour

On Tuesday this week we were able to go and see the 'Weeping Window'

at Carlisle Castle.

On the left the view of the castle as we walked over the green, you can see the poppies falling from the turret. 

This visit was awe inspiring and I created a page  in my journal for me to remember the occasion

I used, brusho colours on  a wipe to for  the background,
using stamps, stencils, scraps of

leaf die cuts and a fussy cut watercoloured stamped poppy.
I also stamped the quote which I think was a good one to use for the page.
We must never forget .

I will be joining friends over at
 Art Journal Journey
and Gill's theme of...... Inspired by'...............

Here are a few photos of the sculpture

This photo is the entrance to the Keep just on the right side a the stone staircase. I missed most of this from the photo as I was trying to avoid   getting people in the photo.
So it was a hot day and there were a few stairs to negotiate to get onto the castle walls, but in the next photo you can see
that [for me] it was well worth going up.

You could walk under the arc of poppies  on  the castle wall,
before it tumbled over to sweep down the  lower wall and onto the grass.











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

Frida.... for diary day

Friday is diary day week 23

The inspiration for my diary today  comes  from the artist  Frida Kalo.

That and a set of stamps that have only been inked a few times.
A sprinkle of brusho powder   on top of a white gesso wash  that covered the original  printed background. This time I left quite a bit of white [for me] and coloured the stamped images with water colour paint

I  have  also created a digital journal  page   using layers of digital pagers and images.

I will join the folk over at Art Journal Journey
again today and Gill's theme  .....
Inspired by'......




 Its been really warm and humid here these past few days.  I hope you are all having some sunshine today.

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

Digital information can be

 found in my sidebar.

Happiness is...... Tea and teapots

Hello to everyone who calls in to see me today,

 it's T stands for Tuesday

and we are always made welcome  with a drinks related post at

 Bleubeard and Elizabeths 

I will begin  by mentioning where the idea for this journal page came from.

I was reading an article in a Daphne's Diary magazine,  about an artist called Maria Pace-Wynters and the picture [ left] just inspired me to make a version to share on T day and at AJJ.
 I had made myself  a pot of tea and it was good to sit and read for a while.

I started by painting the page shades of blue.

The woman I
used is  a Jane Davenport image on tissue.

Next a bit of fussy cutting for the stacked cups and butterflies, also found in  old magazines

I added the words and a scattering of daisies in the computer program I use.

I will be joining the folk over at 

Art Journal Journey  and

Gill's theme of.........Inspired by....

If the article in the magazine hadn't inspired me this photo on the right  , taken when we were in Yorkshire in May
in the Tea Pot factory]Leybourne] certainly did.
We had visited last year and I felt just the same
 this year....
 a kid in a sweet shop not knowing where to look next.



Of course I couldn't resist taking  more photos of the teapots waiting to find homes in the shop.

I'll leave you with a view of the other side of my mug and the new tea pot my hubby bought for me while in the factory shop. An everyday kind of pot, which I fell for when I saw the bicycles.
Part of our trip away was to see the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race.


Happy Tuesday everyone,
I hope you have a lovely day.