Boxes

A  page from my journal putting me into little boxes.

I used various Distress Ink pads to create the backgrounds to these boxes then filled them with things that are important to me.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

- ♥ -

More Wrecking

As you can see I am in the process of completing page 25 in my Wreck This Journal.  I have Distress Inked the centre of the two pages and used some of my stamps that have a "weather" theme.  A little Stickles on the rainbow cloud and that is it.

I thought that documenting the weather would show how time is passing as we go from Summer into Autumn.  But then again living in Great Britain we can experience all four seasons in one day! hahaha.

Thanks for stopping by.

- ♥ -

Last day of the holidays . . . .

. . . . and guess where I have been today?

Yep the ExCel centre to watch the Paralympic Judo!  

It was brilliant.  My son and I had tickets and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've never been to a live sporting event before and I must say I didn't realise what I was missing out on,  of course my son, a keen football supporter, knew what to expect.  We had great seats and saw all the action.

Brothers Dan and Marc Powell were completing for Team GB and although they both lost the first rounds Dan was in the final match on the mat for our session and he won and he's still in line for a bronze medal.  Go Dan Go!!!

I'm afraid I haven't any pictures of the day as I left my camera at home - what a wally!

After the ExCel we went on the Thames Cable Car on the way home.  Fantastic experience and on a clear day, as today was, the views were amazing.  Remember your Oyster card as it is cheaper and quicker.

Found Wrecking Journal

Hi everybody I was reminded about my "Wreck This Journal" by a friend this week, thanks Gez, and I decided to do a few more pages in mine.

I have randomly numbered my pages and am doing them in numerical order. (I did cheat a bit and took it into the shower when I hadn't done many pages though)  Good job I did!   As you can see the covers have fallen off. haha

When I sent it through the post it came back without a scratch!  

Yesterday I completed these two pages and the journalling on the pages speak for themselves.  But I'll explain the chunk missing from the left hand page of the "climb up high" prompt.  It comes from the previous page which was to pick up the journal without using your hands . . . .   I used my teeth! hahaha

The pencil rubbing I remember doing this as a kid but I seemed to have lost the nack now! 

 I'm only up to page 28 so still have plenty left to Wreck.  How is yours looking?

H is for holiday

Hi there. I wanted to show today my letter H page in my 2012 A-Z Journal.  By this time in the year I was hoping to be at least half way through the alphabet so on letter M or N but I am a little behind.

So H is for Holiday and I used my recent trip to the Lake District with my daughter as inspiration.

The page was  originally a yellow/orangey colour but I wanted to change it to green to match the wonderful scenery of the area,  so I painted the page with every substance I could find on my craft desk; haha Gesso, ink pads, spray inks, masks and coated all that with some Golden Gel Medium (I like the way it gives the page a shine and a flexibility).  Some doodling following Lindsay Ostrum's direction from her book "Creative Doodling for Kids" (yes I know it says for kids but it isn't really there are some fab fonts in there) and stamped and cut out trees - I think the stamp is a Bo Bunny one, as are the Explore and the chevrons.  The Journey awakens the soul is a Tim Holtz one I think.

 These are the next two pages of "stuff" that I accumulated over the few days we were there along with some photos which I made into three photo strips.  Lots of stamping and distressing on these pockets and the letter H is complete in my A-Z Journal.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and having a look at my work.  Have a great day.

- ♥ -

Family days

Today is the birthday on the oldest and one of the youngest members of my family.  So I was busy making two cards this week.

Firstly my Dad who is 84 today

and then my neice who is 7

I think I should of put a glittery number 7 on her card as it is missing something I feel.  Oh well it is already in the post so hayho!

Thanks for stopping by.

- x -

Snail mail ... here goes

Just to satisfy Tracy aka Queenie I have photographed "step by step" the process of making this journal page.

Sorting through my craft stuff I found this cute snail from a Bang on the Door calendar from I think 2006!  I cut him out and stuck him landscape in my journal with Golden Gel Medium Semi-Gloss.

I then took a Adirondack Brights ink pad in Sunshine Yellow and stamped some on an acrylic block taking my water brush I applied the ink to the top of the page.  I found that if you spray water on the page first the ink spreads better.  Notice how the ink hasn't coloured the Gel Medium - but I quite like that.

When I had finished with the yellow I added some Adirondack Brights ink in Citrus to give the snail something to sit on.  Then taking the Copic Sketch pens in the colours below I added grass detail and went round the very edge of the snail in Y15 just to colour in some of the Gel Medium.

Once I was happy with the background I stuck down an address label that I was sent from Lindsay Ostrum Queen of the inspirational doodling handwriting.  (I've covered my address with the blue card haha! that is not a feature.)

 I added a title Snail Mail in lettering that Queenie Tracy sent me as a prize a few years ago - yet another beautiful find whilst tidying up - why do I always lose things that I put in a "safe place"? haha I outlined these to make them "pop" using a black gel ink pen.

 Next I wanted to add some text so using some Sassafras papers I cut out some wavy lines and outlined them with the same pen.  Then I positioned them and finally stuck them down with Glossy Accents

 I took the same Green Copic Sketch pen as before and dotted around every wavy line to give it some definition.

Whilst I had the Glossy Accents out I covered the title with it and made it shine and stand out.

 et voila with the date added, again using my prize from Tracy, the page is complete. 

Thanks for staying until the end.

- x -

cover it pink!

As the title suggests I was yesterday, literally,  I spilt a bottle of pretty pink ink all over my craft desk!  Luckily the desk got the soaking rather than anything else laying around.

So here is my journal page.

I did go to town on this page ... I think I got carried away ...

So onto the business cards that were already stuck to the page - you can't see them now but they are there haha.

I made a mixture of Gesso, Golden Soft Gel (Semi-Gloss), water and 2 squirts of Dylusions burnt orange pearl micra spray.  And this I sloshed all over the page as a background.

 That bit was really fun :)

Then the inking and stamping frenzy began.  I used the following:-

Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Pastels in purple

Adirondack Earthtones in Wild Plum and Cranberry

Adirondack Brights in Watermelon

Versacolor in Peony and Petal Pink

Pink ink with a nib pen

Versafine in Onyx Black for the stamping

Waterbrush for swooshing the ink around.

Numerous stamps some of which I didn't realise I had!

et voila

Thanks for visiting my blog today

- x -

Olympic effort

This image has been staring at me from the front cover of the Radio Times for a while and I just knew I needed to use in on a journalling page.

I spray-inked the background then covered it in some Golden Medium (I love how this makes the page so flexible and shiny) I'm not sure how you use this stuff properly but I use it to stick the images down and as I said to give the desired flexible, shiny appearance.  :)

I then added the title which is made up from Thickers and handwriting (only because I didn't have an l or y haha) and also some adjectives.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

G journal page

I'm up to the letter G in my A-Z journal and went for "grass" as my theme.

The background has been inked with Distress Inks and the grass is a mixture of Copic sketch pens and crayons.  Some doodling leaves around the page and that is your lot.  A quick simple page for the letter G.

Olympic Torch

Today the Olympic Torch came to the town were I live and as it was visiting it would have been rude not to wave a flag at it. haha.  First Wenlock drove past and a then a woman called Joanna carried the torch on this leg of the journey.  More people than I had expected turned out to cheer and wave and our enthusiasm was not dampened by the down pour that occurred just after these photos were taken.

 

 

Roll on 27th July!

I am really looking forward to the London Olympic games.

Introducing a friend for the summer

Please meet my flat friend for the summer, Fanny, or to give her her correct title Flat Fanny.  Now don't snigger I didn't name her.  She is Flat Stanley's (he of the book fame) relative from the USA. Actually a paper doll drawn by the wonderful Lindsay Ostrum.  Please check out what Fanny has been getting up to all over the world on Lindsay's blog.  

Today Fanny helped me pick more strawberries from my garden as Fanny is showing you there are plenty more yet to ripen if the sun decides to return.

Strawberries

Now the weather here in Great Britain is called a temperate climate and with good reason.  In a day we could have all four seasons hahaha and  that is what it has felt like today.  Mild but breezy this morning, by mid morning (my playground duty) it was April showers.  Walking back to work from lunch it was a warm Summers day (what it should be like here in June) and by the time 3.30pm came along I was wrapped up in fleece and raincoat!  What is all that about?  But I really do love living here and couldn't live anywhere else in the world.

Now onto my photo for today - my first two strawberries.  

With this rain it has produced a bumper crop of the fruits, now all I need is some sun to ripen them.  Fingers crossed for the weekend but I don't hold out much hope.  

Whatever you do this weekend have an enjoyable time. 

- x -

Daring Cardmakers

Only Wednesday and I have managed to get this Daring Cardmakers challenge done before it finishes haha.  The challenge was to use sweets on your card.  I knew exactly which stamp I was going to employ and here is my quick card.  I love these My Cute Stamps "Sweet Kawaii" stamps.

National Olympic Sports Day

Well today the sun shone and the Opening Ceremony for National Olympic Sports Day went extremely well.  Dances were performed, torches were lit (albeit with the aid of a fan and tissue paper flames haha), flags were waved and songs were sung.

The whole school came together and celebrated the beginning of our week of sports activities for National Sports Week.

Here are the banners our year group made.

I still think the dragon looks very dinosaur like haha.

Let's hope the weather holds up for the other outdoor sports this week.

I've been sew busy

haha get it ... sew? Last night I finally finished my Olympic flag.  What took you all that time?  I hear you ask, well because my felt squares weren't wide enough I had to cut the circle into four quarters then sew them together.  Plus I'm still not very good with the sewing machine haha.  Don't look too closely at the straightness of the stitching it goes all over the place. haha  Good job it is being used as a flag up on a pole rather than closer to the eye as a table cloth.

 But here it is flapping in all it's glory!

Oh knickers I have just spotted a gap in the red ring that needs to be stitched up. Oh well out with the needles again.

Fabric Challenge

I have managed another challenge, this time Tando Creative (the wonderful chipboard and mask people).  Their June challenge is to use fabric on your creation.  So I made this card -

SSh don't tell my sister in law but the little Scottie dog is cut from a shirt she bought me for Christmas a few years back tee hee.  I stuck the fabric onto some card to make it stiff and easier to cut. I then used a Tando mask "heart flourish" and Distress Ink pad Chipped Sapphire to enclose the little dog.  A piece of red ribbon and voila a card is born haha.

Do have a go at this challenge there is still time before a new one is open in July.  Thanks for visiting my blog hope to see you again soon.

- x -

what a week

At work I have been extremely busy preparing props for our end of year production amongst other stuff.  One Monday it is National Olympic Sports Day and to take part we are having our own Opening Ceremony complete with torches and banners.  Hence why I have been busy and my hands are aching from cutting out cardboard haha.

I first cut out these two heads (an elephant on the left and dragon *cough* yes I know he looks like a dinosaur on the right)  hopefully the dragon will look better painted red!  These will go either side of our banner which will say "Asia" our year group's continent. My Bahrain flag is hanging on my whiteboard and I made it with felt.  I made three more of these felt flags for the rest of the staff in my year. (China, Singapore and Vietnam).  So you see I have been a very busy bee.

what a palaver!

I know we don't pay for the service of Blogger but I wish someone would sort the thing out.  For several days I couldn't access my posts and comments.  My son said to try another browser as he read somewhere that there was a problem with Firefox so I signed in with Google Chrome and that seems to have worked.  Well fingers crossed that this post appears.

I am now late with my entries to these two challenges as they both ended on Saturday and a new challenge set.  Hey ho I am still going to show you them anyway.

The first is for the Totally Gorjuss Challenge 135 "Sunshine".  I made this card with an  imaginsence rainbow stamp and a Bo Bunny sun stamped onto patterned paper.

The next card is for Hazel's Christmas Challenge Number 76 feature a creature.  My creature is a cat sporting a Father Christmas hat haha.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what I have made.  I hope Blogger gets sorted out quickly. 

Happy Sunday

- x -

Busy, busy, busy

That is what I have been at my craft desk this week.  I need quite a few cards for July so thought I had better get some made in advance and then I got carried away haha.

I made this erm ..... what do you call a collection of cards a roundup, a herd, a glut???? anyway here they are.

Some different ones in there as I do try to make a card for the person I have in mind hence the Prada dog in the last one.  That is for my neice and the first one for my brother in law.  :)

Thanks for stopping and leaving a comment I do love to read them.

Have a lovely Sunday - at the moment here it is sunny sssh!  haha