Stay warm and party.

This will  be my last page this month for Chris's theme of

101 Ways to Keep Warm

over at Art Journal Journey.

The animals are having a party today.

They  just need yummy things to eat. perhaps a drink, although they would prefer a glass of water.  

But best of all, they   feel a warm glow inside as they spend happy times in each others company.

On the left is how the page looked in its early stages.

The  base is water coloured. The animals were fussy  cut from an old calendar.

 I also added a few areas of stencilling.

 The dog did have the glass balanced on its head and I thought it would be fun to have ' Bird-cake'   trying to get a sip of the wine..... 'Duck-cup', 

 was not at all impressed with this  and was happy with the cream cake.

I added the party hats, bunting and words in the digital program I use. [notes in my sidebar].

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

Book Marks and a Tuesday cuppa.

I am about to share a bit of a saga with you today.

A while ago I signed up for a  workshop at  the Library in the  next village to us.

Its only open part time and they try to get folk through the door.

It was to be Book Binding........whoopee I thought and waited for the day to arrive.

The week before the said workshop was our   Reading Group........ and imagine  a few of us being disappointed when we saw, that this workshop would now be  to make Book marks.

I thought, as we are trying to keep the library open   I would still go and on the day only 6 out of 10  folk turned up.

It was a two hour session  and the girl leading the workshop was really pleasant  and gave a good demonstration.  

 It was a messy session, we all had a laugh.

Now.... a  big...........  ' However/But   ..... from me'.

on the left you can see the result of the  two hours  session.

It was card,  glued and wrapped in a paper towel, then painted.

This is a good starting point, but what would we add next???

I used to teach this type of thing to the youngsters in school, back in my working life,  everyone has to start somewhere. and its good to get youngsters interested in creating  with everyday items easily found in the home. Find the spark of creating early and it is a gift for the future.
I won't tell you the average age of the group, but we are all retired.

These were  considered to be  our  completed book marks. Like myself most were interested in creating things and  I think  we would have liked to pretty them up a bit.l

I did say that when I got home , I would be changing them to suit my style  of crafting.
The star is reposing at the bottom of the bits box and I think will be eventually thrown out.

On the right , you can see how the additions began , just some scraps of napkins, glued to both sides. I didn't want to add any thickness as  they were already deeper than I would have liked.

Gilding wax and the bit of random stamping you can see in the first photo.

I fixed a couple of charms on to a ribbon at the front of the bookmark,  pulled the ribbon through to the back , simply knotting the strands together.

You can see how it marks the page of the current book. Simply pull the charms over the cover of the book.

I am quite happy with to share with you all today, my finished book marks, much more my style than the ones I brought home.

Now as its Tuesday I will be calling in to see friends over at
Bleaubeard and Elizabeths.
where its T stands for Tuesday and  we are always made welcome with a drinks related post

As I was writing this blog post  I remembered to get a photo of my mug of the day, as always close to hand.
In case you wonder the book is a good one, I am about a third of the way through reading it  and know that it is a book  I would recommend.


I  am adding a reminder for the current challenge theme over at Try it on Tuesdays
'Colourful',  information can be found here


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

Don't stand still and keep warm for AJJ

Another  journal page for Chris's theme of

101 ways to keep warm....over at

Art Journal Journey.

On the left is a couple of photos

 of how the page began.

I found the picture of the children walking through the snow in an old magazine. Yes I do have a large pile of old papers and magazines, that I really should recycle, but the hoarder in me just lets the pile grow taller.

I stuck the torn picture into my journal on a watercoloured base layer.

Then I added  a thick coating of crackle paste and let it dry to see what happened. 

The last stage was in the computer program I use [notes in my sidebar].

I hope you are all keeping warm today, its very cold here in the UK .

Thank you for stopping by, 

you are always welcome here.

Comfort food for cold days

A mixed media /hybrid page today for Chris's theme of

101 ways to keep warm over at 

Art Journal Journey

This page is in my 8x8 inch journal.

Water colour base, a fussy cut picture from a magazine with  a girl in her thick winter jumper warming her hands on a mug of soup.

I have to admit I love a mug of soup on cold winter days. There were some scraps of music paper added , next an  embossed stencil area , which  when it dried out  I smeared it  with gilding wax.

I added the snowflakes and the words  in the computer program I use. [notes in my sidebar].

I know its still supposed to be autumn, but forgive me for using a winter quote, it seemed just right for this page.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog friends who are celebrating  today, I hope you have a special and happy day.

Colourful at TioT's

The new challenge theme over at

 Try it on Tuesdays is........

Colourful

We are asking you to use colour with hardly any or no white area.

There are fantastic examples from the team, please pop over to take a look.

To help myself with this challenge I decided to use kraft card base.

It was easy to add a bit of colour through a stencil.

I had a new Steampunk cat stamp that needed to be inked.

Stamped onto white card, then fussy cut and coloured.

The die cut cogs were cut from a piece of dark  packaging,

I smeared them with some gilding wax and stopped as i thought they looked quite rusty at this stage.

So I have a card made in advance for a fun loving male family friend.

I just wish a fairy would wave a wand and make me some Christmas cards.

Thank you for calling in today, your comments are always appreciated.

Shetland......Up Helly Aa..... and of course a brew.

For Chris's theme of 101 ways to keep warm over at

At Journal Journey

My page today is taking you to a very warm destination 

a Fire Festival

held each year,  a celebration I would like to see, but like many others watch it on TV.

Can you just imagine the heat..............

,

This is a link if you want to find out more.

 The pictures I used for this page were cut from magazines.

I had a cuppa as usual on my craft desk, the hen does make me smile when I use this cup. 

So I will say hello to friends who call in  today

 Its T stands for Tuesday at

Bleubeard and Elizabeths 

where we are always made welcome to share a drinks related post.

 I found a lot more photos from an internet search.  The official  Up Helly Aa site has many more information links.

'Up Helly Aa'  is a spectacular fire festival that takes place on   Shetland,  on the last Tuesday of January. After a parade around the town, with the participants  carrying  torches,  the event culminates with flaming torches being thrown into a Viking Galley!

As you can see on the with this last photo , I had a play with my original page, in the computer program I use.

Thank you for calling in to see me,  I hope you all have a warm and cosy day

Dance to the music.

The new challenge theme over at

Tag Tuesday 

is......Music

The tag was water coloured,

 then embossed with texture paste.

Finished with a little gilding wax.

All the other additions were made in the

 digital computer program I use. [notes in my side bar].

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