WOYWW 752

Hip Hip Hooray, I have started my Christmas cards.  Any more of you WOYWW'ers been Christmas card making?  Bet some of you have finished them not just started them.

Went down to Ruthin on Saturday to the Hallaganza at Lavinia and saw lots of lovely ideas and spent lots of lovely lolly.  Yes, had to buy those new stamps and this Christmas my cards will maybe have a fairy on them.  In fact on Monday I did three cards featuring the two fairies that have just come out.  I fell in love with them.  The fairies, not my cards.

To be honest I didn't need to go down to get inspired, the design team had been working hard and putting lots of their ideas on the net.  It was one of Tracey's videos that inspired me to use the fairies and so I stamped them up and added a bit of other stuff, a bit of colour, some holographic stuff and I had them done.  They are the ones that will go abroad.

So here is my craftroom counter in all its mess:

and my little table

Hopefully by next week I will have lots more Christmas cards done.  The one I really wanted to try I didn't realise I needed some small snowflakes to make it and I don't have any suitable in my stash.  Ah well, next year ...

In the meantime here is a catch up on some of my journal pages - I'll just show you the Lavinia inspired ones.  I don't know who inspired me with this lady (Zia) in her top hat but Jo was responsible for the inspiration behind the mousey clockwork one.

this one below is purely mine

This was intended for a challenge called 'animals gather' but I was too late (didn't read the rules) so I added some gears later and used it in my 'in gear' theme.

I've been Lavinia all the way recently as I did some 3" x 3" squares for a challenge Jo put up but I will show those to you next week in case I don't get any Christmas cards done for you to see.

In the meantime stay safe and well and hopefully we will meet up here again next Wednesday with all the other WOYWW gang.

End of the Month - Art Journal Journey

 Well, October is over and my planned post did not come to fruition.  I copied some "gear" quotes for you and they all came with a heavy white line across them.  Even when I deleted them one by one and retyped them myself I still had the heavy line.  So I give you the link instead: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/gears-quotes.

Talk about everything going wrong.   I decided to do a picture using pumpkins for Halloween but then I got carried away and so I ended up with my pumpkin houses but no gears.  So I decided the only thing to do was to attach some like falling leaves (substitute gears for leaves) for Pippin to be looking up at.

Here is my amended picture for my final contribution

May I thank all who entered a page in their journal for my theme at Art Journal Journey and a big thank you to Elizabeth for inviting me to be a guest host.  It has been a pleasure seeing what you all came up with and I thank you for it.  Tomorrow brings a new month and a new theme so it is exciting.  See you there!

Art Journal Journey -Two for One

Here we are, almost the end of October and time to bring my theme to an end at Art Journal Journey.  I still have three pages I previously made to show you so will show you two today and just one tomorrow.

These are not for my square journal but will still go in my Lavinia one if I decide to put them there as they are all Lavinia stamps I used.

The top one was simply a piece of cardstock on which I used Distress Inks in various greens and yellows and then the stencil, Lavinia, was used.  I often wonder when using this stencil have I got it upside down or the right way up?

It just had a selection of Lavinia cogs, wheels and words stamped on it and then some clocks, a compass and some more gears to give it prominence for my theme at AJJ.

The bottom one was where I had made a card and then stamped some images, again from Lavinia, on it but I had smudged the card.  So in order to save it from the bin and not add to the landfill problem I cut the two hearts out using a Spellbinders die.  I decorated a piece of cardstock with purple and pink DI's and stamped time words all over randomly.  This then had the two hearts cut from its face and I slotted the previous hearts behind it.

I hope this gives you another idea on what you might do if you too spoil a card with a silly smudge or something similar.

Art Journal Journey - Zia

 Just in case you are all wondering who or what Zia is, she is the Steampunk Lady from Lavinia Stamps.  Now I obviously got this idea from one of the design team but I cannot remember who, maybe it was Emma Jo?  I do remember on the original she had the mask on her eyes, I just put goggles on her.

To colour my page I used my stencil brushes which had left over ink on them, most likely Elements inks as those are what I use with these brushes.  So it was a mixture of pink, blue and purple.

The first stamping I did was Zia but with the top of her head wiped of ink so that the top hat would fit there.  This was with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.  Then I stamped the Top Hat and finally the Goggles.  I used the Angel Wings, first of all with Nocturne, and then the ones behind with Memento London Fog.  The cogs and the words down the right hand side were both stamped with Nocturne but the words were second generation stamping.

The final thing was to give Zia some red lips and lilac shiny laces on her hat (gel pens).

Although she will most likely go in my Lavinia Journal which is roughly 9.5" x 8" she was produced on a smaller piece of cardstock (7" x 7").  When I put her in my journal she will have some work done on the page, as will all of my pieces, to tie her into the actual page.

It is nearing the end of the month of October, oh dear, one more month and we will be into Christmas with a vengeance, so there are not many more pages to show you for my theme at Art Journal Journey.  I have so enjoyed making these pages and now will enjoy adding them and extending them to include the whole of the page.  I think I will probably start with this one, it's the smallest so neds most work.

Just realised there are still two more days in October, the month has 31 days, not 30 so hopefully I can show you another two pages before my guest host stint ends.  That means there is still time for you to join in at Art Journal Journey if you so wish.  Would love to see you there.

Art Journal Journey - Tik Tok

Another page inspired by my lovely friend, Jo Rice,  who is head of the Design Team at lavinia Stamps, and again featuring the playful little mice.  I think Jo has a soft spot for them as I do. They work for so many of the Lavinia designs that the team put out on social media for us all to see.  Many of them also do tutorials so you can join in with them.  (The Design Team not the mice)

Again I have used the top hat as well as the mice for my page and as it is for the theme at Art Journal Journey you will find there are some gears on it.  They make fabulous wheels for things and therefore provide some humorous pictures for cards and journal pages alike.

For this journal page (in my 8" x 8" journal) I first of all stamped the clock in the bottom left corner, just a tiny bit off the page.  Then I carefully stamped the compass on top of it, balancing the "S" for south as closely as I could to the edge of the clock.

Next came an assortment of cogs and wheels in the opposite corner.  Some of these are quite tiny and as there are three sets I have them all mounted on one piece of acrylic.  As you can imagine they are quite easy to lose so it is better to stamp, clean, and return to the carrier sheet straight away.

Then came the mice.  Tilly is the one on the left balancing on the "N" for north on the compass which in turn is balancing on Tick, the clock stamp.  Her friend, Minni, is doing her best to keep upright whilst balancing on two cogs which are in turn balancing on more cogs and wheels.  Oh what fun those two are having.  Somehow I think they are both 'in gear' today.  Apart from the mice who were stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne everything else was stamped in Pinecone.

I just used Elements Lime Punch ink brushed lightly around the edge of my page, leaving the centre white where I  included the two sets of words (words of steam) stamped on cardstock and lightly brushed with Elements Truffle ink.

I hopw you have enjoyed seeing the little mice again. They are too cute not to include in my theme for Art Journal Journey.  If you would like to join in please be sure to read the dreaded rules here first of all.  

Jeudi Journal - Expert Opinion

'Of course I talk to myself ..... sometimes I need an expert opinion!' is the Tim Holtz quote for today to match up with the challenges for Art Journal Journey (In Gear) and a private one with my friend where we have to use Dylusion figures.

'Agatha and her friends meet up on a fairly frequent basis at the local Clockwork Cafe where they had pensioner's days with prices reduced (portions slightly too).  It was Tuesday, the day for 'pie and mash' which Agatha loved more than chocolate, well, maybe not chocolate but something else.  Aggy, as she was known to her friends, sat down in the cafe and waited patiently for Ethel, her bestie, arriving.  Ethel was running late and it was a good ten to fifteen minutes or so that Aggy had to sit there on her own.  

"Bet she is still trying to decide which purple hat she is putting on today" Aggy heard herself saying as she looked around sheepishly.  That had not meant to come out loud like that, was anyone looking?  "Oh dear", she thought to herself, "this is happening too much to me.  Wonder if it is an age thing?  I never used to do that but I find myself talking out loud at home, and there's nobody there to hear me." 

Hastily she began rummaging in her handbag, "I must occupy my mind so I don't say anything again" she said to herself, but silently in her head this time.  "Goodness, what a load of rubbish I have in here.  I never wear that lipstick these days, wonder if it is safe to still use it?  Guess not,  Think I will throw it out."  And so it went on, tickets, receipts for things she had bought, a few tissues and ...yuk ... a sticky toffee.  "Wonder how long that has been there?" she asked herself.  Just then Ethel arrived, as predicted, in a purple hat.  She was a great fan of Jenny joseph's rhyme and had lots of purple hats to choose from.  She didn't mind what colour of clothes she wore, she always had a purple hat on.

"Sorry I am late" shouted Ethel across from the door, "a courier arrived with a parcel just as I was about to set off, threw me all out of kilter, sorry." 

"No worries" said Aggy, "it gave me chance to tidy my handbag out.  How are you anyway?"

"I'm ok" answered Ethel, "apart from my hip.  It's giving me loads of trouble lately.  I think it's due to the cold damp weather we have around here.  If only we lived somewhere nice and sunny.  Think I might have a sore throat coming on" she went on to say.  "I had a bit of a tickle in it last night, so I had a drop of whisky, hoping it would soothe it" she carried on.  "My back's been terrible since I last saw you, I really must go to the doctor and see if I can go to that physio woman again.  She worked wonders on me last time I went" and so on and on Ethel went.  She was a bit of a, what's the word for someone who loves to talk about their ailments - a hypochondriac?

Ethel paused for a moment so Aggy jumped in "Do you ever find you are talking to yourself?" she asked, thinking about the moment she had had in the cafe.

"Oh yes," replied Ethel, "Of course I talk to myself ... sometimes I need an expert opinion."

Aggy just sat there, that wasn't what she had expected, or was it?  She knew Ethel better than Ethel knew herself in many ways.  "Perhaps the best thing to do is just leave it" she muttered to herself.  "Are you having a pudding?" she asked.'

I knew which character I wanted to use, she was just Ethel, so I found a page I had torn from a journal once and decided to use that.  I began with my background using a few different blue and green Distress Oxides, then I mixed in a bit of Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed, didn't like them so I went back to the blues and greens.  I finished off with a few gears in the corners for the Clockwork Cafe using my little Tando stencil and Chipped Sapphire.

WOYWW 751

Another week has flown by and still the "C" cards remain a mystery to me but I am hoping to get started on them in a big way when I go on a workshop with Jo Rice early November.  I wonder how many will be showing "C" cards on WOYWW today.

In the meantime here is a card I made last week for my friend's daughter's 16th birthday.  I normally do 'horsey' ones for her but this time I wanted to do something and include pumpkins so I chose to use 'Bijou' again on his branch.  I was going to put Bijou on a broomstick but decided that that might make it a bit too Halloweeny for her and not suitable really for a birthday card.

The card looks a bit wonky but I must have put it in the scanner like that as I did mount the image part carefully.  I used Elements Della Blue for the background and Inktense pencils (watercolour) for the remainder.  You can hardly see on here but I grounded the pumpkins with a grey pastel pencil.  The window frames on the pumpkins were highlighted with sparkly gel pens as were the vines on the tree.

I've been doing some small things too but I'm leaving them until next week to show as I might change one or two of them but in the meantime here is my desk/desks.

This is my desk on the counter which runs along two sides of my craftroom.  It just shows my journal page for tomorrow which is a mish mash of Distress Oxides and some gears in the corners.  The page is now decorated and ready for tomorrow's post.

The one below just has one of my small pieces on top of some scrap papers that I am working on at the moment.  The best white inkpad I can find at the moment is my Brilliance,  Brilliant White one but I am wondering if the Hero Arts one is a better white.  That is just a strip I cut off a card I had made to the right and then a pencil and my towel.  The dirty white one above is what I used on my stamps (hence the colour) and a pad of kitchen roll with loads of colour on.

That's it for this week.  Hopefully see you next week with some new stash and some of those small pieces I have been making.

Art Journal Journey - Ruby Slippers

 No it is not the Wizard of Oz or Judy Garland that is dominating the page in my journal today but there are a pair of Ruby Slippers for Art Journal Journey where my theme is 'In Gear' and maybe ruby slippers are classed as 'gear' for the fashionable young lady about town.

Or what about a pair of 'green high heeled boots'?  Great gear again for the discerning steampunker.

I found these two images already stamped on a sheet of white cardstock in my box of stamps and thought how lucky I was as they were perfect for my theme "In Gear" at Art Journal Journey.

As my Promarkers are nearing the end of their life I decided that today I would use my Inktense watercolour pencils and so I sat and thoroughly enjoyed an hour or so of pencil colouring.  Of course the real joy comes when you have coloured everything in and you get the brush and water out to start bringing the colours more to life.  At least that is how I feel.

With the Ruby Slippers I decided that the toe caps and heel parts would be metal so I coloured them in two shades of grey, adding some brown and orange to the gears to represent rust.  I chose a different shade with the green boots for the metal parts and used a light mustard colour for the leather straps plus some Glossy Accents on the screw heads and the watch face.

The gears I had cut out ready to use were all white ones and so I decided to use a black page and rather than paint one and risk it becoming patchy I used black card which will then be stuck into my square journal.  I simply played about with the gears deciding where to put them and settled on three areas as you can see.

Art Journal Journey - Time Traveller

 Guess what I found yesterday?  I had no idea I had a stencil with gears on.  It is only a small square stencil with some tiny gears grouped together but I did not know I had it, it has 'Tando' written on the top of it in a black Sharpie.  I am going to have to do another page just to use it the one time.  Maybe I should go through my stamps and things and see just what I have hidden away that I have forgotten about.

I bet there are several of you who are as guilty as I am and do not really know all that you have.  It comes from having been stamping for quite a number of years where the style of stamping has changed for me.  I did tell you I used to be into Steampunk and I've also had phases on Asian, Victorian, Egyptian, Time and others as well as the usual flora and fauna.  I think some of them change and I am waiting for them to come back around so that I can start using them all again.

This is, again, a copy more or less of a canvas I did some years ago.  It used another of Tim Holtz type stamps, from Stampers Anonymous I think, which I was heavily into at one time.  

As you can see I have used only a few gears in this one.  I did stamp directly onto my 8" x 8" journal page those rather exciting looking gears in the bottom right and added a few, along with tickets etc that I had fussy or diecut, at the other side.

But before that I coloured my page using Broken China and Salvaged Patina Distress Inks and then stencilled some leaves to break up the background.  Next I stamped the rather stern looking gentleman in the top hat, I think he has a monocle when I look closely at him and then added the diecut gears and tickets I mentioned previously.  These were stamped and cut out on cardstock that had been coloured with various Distress Inks.

The next stage was to cut out a birdcage in gold mirror card and stick it down, covering the top of it with various leaves and flowers in varying shades of green coloured card.  I wanted to give the impression of the extra pieces flowing down the right hand side and across the base of my page.

The last thing was probably the most fiddly in that I cut out some small letters spelling 'time traveller' and sticking them down in as straight a line as I could.

I hope you like my latest page and it inspires you to look through your old stamps that you don't use as much now.  You never know, you might find you have something tucked away that you can start to use all over again.  It might even fit in with the theme at Art Journal Journey which is "In Gear".  (Remember you can do some machinery or a mode of transport as they contain gears as do lots of other things - my 'Time' box is being raided soon to see what I have in there as pocket watches have gears.  Or maybe you can think of something of your own?)

The moderators and I would love to see you join in with this theme over at Art Journal Journey.  You still have a week to enter a journal page.  Be sure to read the rules here first though.

Artful Journal Journey - Monocled Man

This morning I have another page for my theme over at Art Journal Journey.  Again featuring an old stamp - but one I have never used before.  I decided that this Monocled Man could fit well into the theme I am guest hosting at Artful Journal Journey.  I have no idea who makes this stamp, and the gears that you can see at the base of the page, as they came on the same sheet along with the words I used.

To begin with I used a stencil from Lavinia, using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then I stamped the gears and things on the bottom of the page with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.  The gears were diecuts.

I stamped the monocled man and the words on a piece of white cardstock and cut them both out but as the man had 'unruly hair' I also stamped him direct on the page so that I would get the strands of hair showing even though he was an overlay.  Lastly I decided to use some Glossy Accents for his monocle.  When dry his face was stuck over the stamped image.  You may notice his eyebrows are very wonky. I sat for a few seconds trying my best to get mine like that, I had the most peculiar expressions in doing so but never achieved his look.

I am glad I found this unused image as I think it can be used again, especially for a male card even though he is quite big.  He would probably work with a travel theme, using the suitcases as shown in one of my previous pages this month.

Have you any NBUS stamps (never before used stamps) as my friend, Darnell, often talks about?  I wonder if you could find one like I did and use it for this theme in some way?  Why not pop along to Art Journal Journey and join in.  Before you do you must read the dreaded rules here to make sure your entry is accepted (not cards, ATC's etc).  The moderators and I would love to see you and your journal page.

Jeudi Journal - Questionable Morals

Oh dear, the snarky comment from Tim Holtz this morning is "You drink too much, you have questionable morals.  You're everything I ever wanted in a friend." So now I need to think of a story to include this comment which I am not finding easy.  I have been stamping and fussy cutting some figures so hopefully I can use one or two of them as they will be the correct size for my square journal.

"Lolly had gone Downtown to Gear Alley where her friends all hung out.  They were known as 'GAG' which stood for the 'Gear Alley Gang'.  Jax and Alfreda, her two best buddies, were already there as was Eric, the boy she knew had a crush on her.  Lolly was not a particularly nice girl and could be bitchy to others making their lives a bit of a misery.  In fact she and Jax tried to make Naomi's life a misery whenever they could and poor Naomi, who had been elected leader of the gang, spent many a sleepless night because of the snide comments they made whenever the opportunity arose.  

It was Jax who had got there early that day and she had been speaking to Eric who had asked her to have a word with Lolly as he wanted so much to be her boyfriend.  Jax promised she would have a word with her friend as soon as she could.

Lolly arrived, wearing a new blue dress and some shiny new boots she had bought the day before.  Lolly was never short of money and spent spent spent whenever she could.  She had even been to the hairdressers that morning and had a new hairstyle to impress others with.

Jax wasted no time at all and whispered in Lolly's ear that Eric wanted to be her boyfriend.  Lolly was not too sure about it, to be honest he was too nice for her.

"Get your head in gear.  Why don't you tell him "You drink too much.  You have questionable morals.  You're everything I ever wanted in a friend." said Alfreda laughingly.

Lolly looked across at him, realised he was wearing quite new and fairly expensive clothes, and he had the latest fashion, a straw boater on his head.  Maybe he wasn't too bad a catch despite his bad habits.  Besides which she would be the first to have a boyfriend in GAG.  It might not be a bad idea.  It could be useful to have a boy in the little coven she had made.  Yes, she would have Eric dangling for a short while whilst she made her mind up; and she could use him to her advantage too with his questionable morals."

For some reason I found this comment a little difficult to use.  Maybe the 'nicer' comments of late did it.  However, I began by colouring my figures in and used colours from the cooler range as the leaves were falling outside the window and reminding me that autumn is here and soon the leaves will be in the lovely rich reds and oranges that I so enjoy.   I wanted my page to be autumnal but in order to join in with my theme at Art Journal Journey I had to include, not leaves, but gears in some way.  Despite managing to slip the words (in gear) into the conversation it wasn't enough so I decorated the top of the page with a selection of gears.  I just hope this is acceptable especially as it is my theme, 'In Gear', I am trying to show.  I and the Moderators at Art Journal Journey would love to see you join us with your rendition of the theme.  Go on, I know you can.

WOYWW 750

 "Here we are again, happy as can be, all good friends and jolly good company."  I think it goes on to say something about never minding the weather but after that I am stuck and I haven't a clue what the song is or who sung it but I do know it is showing my age.  (I've just looked it up and it was first brought out in 1931 but I like to think the version I am thinking of is by Alma Cogan in 2016.  The first one would make me about 92 I think.)

Anyway, it is a pleasure on a Wednesday to share my desk with everyone at WOYWW.  A really happy group of people with no recriminations as you get so often in so many groups, particularly comprising of ladies.

I did think I would have some birthday cards to show you but thankfully at our club on Saturday we made some cards with Lynne.  It's always a good class with her as tutor, she puts so much work into the preparation and it pays off.  Two different techniques using 3D folders were shown as you can see in the photo below.

You will notice the white one is slightly different to the other three.  The central sprig of mistletoe was cut out with a matching die, another diecut image placed underneath it and then the two put back into the gap in the card.  With putting the card back through the embossing folder it gave the 3D effect but then the central image was raised even higher.

There was one folder of Lynne's that I want, it had a matching die which she cut out in vellum and attached pearls to.  It looked stunning and was a firm favourite of mine.  That plus a village one but I must try my scene folder first before I buy.  Spend spend spend.  But can't wait for her to be tutoring again.

I don't know what I will be getting on with before I publish this, if anything, but maybe something can be added  to to show I did something at home during the week.  I've been too busy messing about with Minutes as I had a meeting to chair before the class last Saturday.

We've just had two new doors fitted and now the phone line is down, plus we had a guy came to fit a new track, at the same time as the door were being fitted,  in our huge lounge window, so we need to get BT out to get reconnected but it looks like it's going to be Friday.  Hopefully all will be sorted by the end of today.

Here are the pages I have done in my journal for Art Journal Journey from last week to today (I've provided the link in case you want to view some of the other entries, there are some really super ones.  Hope that is ok with our Julia,):

That's all for now folks, toodle pip!

Art Journal Journey - Women

 I found these two women in my Steampunk tin of rubber stamps - both by Deep Red- and so I decided to pair them up along with Janet Klein's "Gear Up".   They are "Lady Cyclist" and "Lady Captain".

     

I simply stamped them with Versafine Clair Nocturne on cardstock that had been edged with black ink and then covered the images with clear embossing powder.  I liked the look of them with the stamping all shiny and so I decided to leave them without any colour.  I was going to fussy cut them up but looking at all the small detail I decided against it.

those dangly bits 

and feathers on both ladies

The stencil I used was Replenish by Lavinia and I pounced Distress Oxides in Shaded Lilac and Wilted Violet through with a stencil brush.  I felt it needed just the subtlest hint of colour,  It still needed something so I added a few gears in the bottom corner and finally I was happy with my page.

So here we have another page for my theme at Art Journal Journey - In Gear!  This is obviously a page with a lot of gears as both ladies have them somewhere on their person but there are ways you can produce a page without actual gears on.  Lots of machinery has 'gears' so including some would work, as would a mode of transport.  You just need to get your head 'in gear' as they say, and you will find lots of things you can do for this theme.  Hope to see you at AJJ soon.

Art Journal Journey - Mousey Antics

Here is another Journal Page for the challenge at Art Journal Journey where I am guest host for this month,  This one features the mice again and the top hat from the Steampunk range at Lavinia stamps.  It looks as if the naughty little mice are having a great time with those top hats.  Again it was inspired by the work of the lovely talented Jo Rice who heads the team at Lavinia Stamps.

I think someone is going to have a tumble if he is not careful and if the other one blows his penny whistle hard I think he could 'become a cropper' too.  Just look how precariously the hats are balanced and on gears as well.

Again I took inspiration from one of Jo Rice's designs, with her permission, but made one or two slight adjustments from her brilliant idea,  My background was lightly coloured with Versafine Clair Morning Mist ink through the Red Brick stencil and all the images were stamped with Versafine Nocturne ink,  The butterfly and the steampunk roses were coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils and the laces in the top hats were coloured with a red and a gold Posca pen.  I used brown and grey pastel pencils to colour the hats very lightly.

All the stamps and the stencil are from the Lavinia range.  I think it is Moo who is hanging on to the brim of the hat and I am sure that is Bibi who is playing the penny whistle, the pocket watch is called Tock.  

I do hope you like the little mice along with the birds and the spider who seem to be having a great time rolling along on the gears and the pocket watch and it inspires you to join us at AJJ.  Please check the rules before you join us.

Art Journal Journey - Birdie

This is one that I did as an extra and decided to publish today rather than wait a couple of days for the next one for my theme at Art Journal Journey where I am guest host.

It is an image by Stampendous and reminds me of a wooden bird I once did with Tim Holtz years ago at CHA.  I am afraid my wooden bird has lost lots of his bits and only seems to have a little propellor and a measure stuck to his tail left.  Maybe now is the time to resurrect him.  Here is the page:

He is a Stampendous image, as I said, and he was coloured in using Inktense watercolour crayons.  I tried to get as close to a rust colour as possible and went with grey and some other orangey colours as well.  I don't know where the words came from but I thought they were quite apt.  The cogs were a diecut cut in a beige coloured cardstock and the stencil is from Lavinia, again a second image where the stencil had been used and the ink left on, was spritzed and placed ink side down on the card.

Maybe I should find some feathers for my Tim Holtz bird, I'll certainly be looking at some of my wooden gears to place on him now I have got him down and dusted him off.

Would love you to join us at AJJ with your 'In Gear' creations.

Jeudi Journal - Forever

Another Snarky Comment from Tim Holtz and some figures from Dyan Realey, both Ranger Designers for my journal today along with Wendy who is working to the same parameters.  This time the snarky comment is a well known one "We'll be best friends forever because you already know too much."

It's Thursday, so the day we link up to Art Journal Journey where I am guest host this month and have chosen the theme "In Gear".  As I tried to explain on the opening page of AJJ you don't necessarily have to have any gears on your page as there are other ways to incorporate the wording.  In this journal page I have included a motorbike which has lots of gears to make it go - as Johnny knows only too well as he tinkers about with his in the garage.  The moderators and I would love you to join in but first please read the dreaded rules here.

"Bettina and Sarah have always been best friends since school days, and nothing, not even an interest in boys, has ever split them apart.  Even as small children they told one another their innermost secrets and so it has been right up into their early 20's.

"I'm going to tell you a secret" said Bettina, one day to her friend Sarah.  "Johnny and I are getting married.  We haven't told anyone yet, as he only proposed to me yesterday.  It was so romantic, we had gone out for a meal to Fabio's Italian restaurant and he got down on one knee ....." and she related the whole story to a wide eyed Sarah who was so pleased for her bestie.

"Have you told your parents yet?" she asked.

"No, only you know.  He's coming around tonight to see my parents and then he is going to formally ask my dad for my hand in marriage."

"Oh how sweet.  That is something not many seem to do and I think that is lovely. Shows how much Johnny thinks about you.  Have you got a ring yet?" asked Sarah with a tear in her eye.

"No, we hope to go at weekend, he thought it best to wait until he had spoken to my parents before we bought a ring.  Tempting fate and all that.  Besides which he has been so busy working extra hours at the garage to save for the ring and he is talking about selling his beloved motorbike to help us save for our own home.  I can picture him now with his cheeky smile.  Oh Sarah, I do love him."

"Bettina, I am over the moon for you, I will of course expect to be a bridesmaid.  But why are you telling me this now, why not wait until you have both seen your parents?"

"Of course you will be my bridesmaid, my chief one, you're my best friend" she said tittering.  We'll be best friends forever because you already know too much.  And I tell you what, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I couldn't wait to tell you.  I am bursting with joy."

Background is Speckled Egg and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxides with a little splodge here and there of Tumbled Glass, the base is Wilted Violet, stencil unknown.  The two female figures are from the Dylusion range and the young man at the top is by Janet Klein for Aall & Create.

WOYWW 749

The days are drawing in and it gets dark quite soon here in the north of England, that seems to make my days so much shorter and therefore they seem to pass even more quickly.  Saturday was dry and quite warm where we were and we went for a walk in the park and enjoyed seeing all the families out with the children enjoying themselves.  I guess the kiddie train had stopped running when October came in but the trampolining was still there for them to enjoy as was the crazy golf.  I hope the latter stays open, I fancy a game myself.

I started sticking some of my work in my Lavinia Journal but I spent too much time hesitating as to what to put on the blank part of each page.  That to me is more daunting than a whole white page.  I just need some ideas to link up the rectangular images so they don't look as if they have just been 'plonked' there.  I managed two pages that is all but both still need some work on them.

I did promise you I would show you the pages I have been uploading for my theme at Art Journal Journey although it seems a bit silly as you could just scroll down to them.  Anyway, here are the two from the last week

I did intend making a good start on my "C" cards, especially if the weather kept us in a bit, but the internet was non existent and so I couldn't find anything to inspire me and my own inspiration was lacking.  (So bad was the internet that we had to go to sit outside the 'bins' which are close to reception to get on the internet so I could link my posts for Art Journal Journey and do my commenting.  We got some funny looks from people emptying their rubbish.)

When I got home I stamped some hats for the two "C" cards I had done whilst away.  I thought the Santa hat looked fine on these cards but had to try a dickie bow and a straw boater.  There's also a top hat and a witches one to play with, courtesy of Crazy Birds.

On the way home we went for our jabs to a walk in centre as our GP surgery is lacking in sorting them out for us.  I've been a bit more wary of being in a crowded place as the news tells us that hospitals are getting full of Covid patients once more.  A stern letter is on its way to my GP asking why I had not had mine as yet.  Yesterday morning I woke feeling a bit like a cold was starting and then the pharmacist who did the jabs warned us that we may feel like we have a cold for the next couple of days.  Ah well!

So it's Toodle Pip for now, see you over at Ms Julia's for the linking to all the WOYWW desks.

Art Journal Journey - Going On a Journey

My large Dylusion Journal is almost full so I have been working in my smaller square one which is just slightly larger than 8" square and I have been working mainly on cardstock 8" x 8" and then sticking them into my Journal.  This is another of those pieces.  This one is almost a copy of a canvas I once made and taught down South some 10 or 12 years ago.  Some of the rubber stamps I could not find and so have substituted others which means that the layout is slightly different too.   This is for the theme at Art Journal Journey where I am guest host for the month and chose "In Gear".

I began colouring the background with Mustard Seed Distress Ink and then with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink I stamped the man with the watch and the luggage, both old Tim Holtz type rubber stamps.  I have quite a few of these men (I think they were drawn by Brett Wilder but I may be wrong) in different poses/costume etc and I remember at the time I became rather addicted to purchasing them.  They have been useful over the years and still are, especially for male cards etc.

Next, using a piece of sequin waste and Vintage Photo DI I stencilled some dots over the page.  Again using various rubber stamps I built up the background with advertisements and ticket images.  

I wanted to stamp three moustaches, as on my original canvas, in the top corner but I could not find the stamp so I used another one and stamped it three times.  Guess what?  I found, later, that I had originally used a diecut for the moustaches, and I still had it.  The story of my life.

I continued building up images on the background and I coloured some cardstock with various DI's so that I could diecut some gears to give an injection of colour.  I also stamped some tickets and things and cut out some butterflies.

The next thing I added was a gold key.  No idea why.  I had included one on my original canvas and liked it.  Finally the letters spelling out 'journey' were diecut because he looks as if he is certainly setting out on one with all those cases.  I wonder where he is going? 

Are you going to join us with this theme in your journal?  I do hope so but please read the dreaded rules here before you begin.

Addendum:  We have been away for a few days so I have been without internet and have had to drive elsewhere to link in to comment and to publish my posts.  Apologies for being late commenting but tried to get to you each day.  Thanks so much for joining in with the theme.  (I was sat outside the rubbish bins on the site at the time I linked LOL)

Art Journal Journey - Goggles

 Today I have another page for Art Journal Journey's challenge "In Gear" .  This one is featuring some of my older stamps which I have had for some years, mainly from the time when I was heavily into Steampunk.

 I started this on a sheet of 8" x 8" buff coloured cardstock which I then cut down slightly so that I could stick it into my 8" square Journal.  Using a selection of Victorian advertisement rubber stamps I covered the whole sheet using both Versafine Clair Pinecone and Acorn inks, first and second generation to give it an "old" appearance.  Next I stamped a couple of images using Nocturne ink including the image of the Steampunk guy wearing goggles on a separate piece of white card which I fussy cut out.

I decided I wanted to add a little colour into this page and so I used Elements Pinecone ink to lightly colour a small piece of card onto which I stamped the baggage check image.  Finally I added some cogs and wheels that I had die cut in black cardstock.

I hope some of you will be joining us at Art Journal Journey this month but please read the 'dreaded rules' at the top of their page firstly.

Addendum: I know my theme is "In Gear" and not 'Steampunk" but as the two are closely related I thought I would give you this link which I just came across yesterday in Pinterest.  I haven't read it myself as yet but it might be useful to some of you.

https://einatkessler.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-make-a-steampunk-project/

Jeudi Journal - Headache

Well, this is another of my journal pages for the "In Gear" challenge I am hosting at Art Journal Journey and this one does not have a gear in sight.   I decided not to include any gears as such but if you look there are lots of gears hidden away.  The car, the bicycle and just ever so faintly you can see the ferris wheel - all have gears inside them to make them work.  In other words you could say they are all "In Gear".

This was an already coloured page in my square journal so I put some Elements Olive Green on with a brush to make a kind of darker splodge in the middle and then did some stencilling.  Then I added some stamping using Versafine Clair Nocturne and Momento London Fog.  The figures are, of course, Dylusions.  For our Journal challenge (between ourselves) Wendy and I have to use Dylusion figures and a Tim Holtz' snarky comment, which this week is  "You smell like drama and a headache, please get away from me".

"Billie is working in her father's garage and as usual her overalls are full of grease and all manner of things.  Her hair is hanging over her eye so that it is almost a wonder she can see what she is doing.  Suddenly she hears a noise outside and sees it is one of the girls from college, Serena.  Serena is at college on a beautician course and so the two girls are polar opposites but they just happen to have the same friendship groups.

Only yesterday they had sat having coffee together when Billie had been bemoaning the fact that her boyfriend did not understand why she spent so much time at her father's garage when he thought she should be going out with him.  Serena had been one of the less sympathetic ones in the group and had said 

"You smell like drama and a headache, please get away from me."

Poor Billie was most upset and annoyed yesterday but had got over it now so she shouted through the window to Serena but Serena totally ignored her and walked on.  Determined to have it out with her Billie closed the garage door, put the lock on and hopped on her bicycle and tore after Serena.

I think we will leave it there, you really don't want to know what happened next or what Billie said."

WOYWW 748

We are now into October, a month full of rich colours as the leaves turn and fall to the ground.  Oh heck - that means raking leaves up and boy oh boy do we have a lot in our gardens.  I wish we could put giant hairnets on all our trees so that the leaves would not be there for poor Chas to rake up.  Apart from that I love October and the colours it conjures up.

I did promise you that I would show you what I had been making but the three birthday cards for members of our club are all the same and actually copies of what I have done previously.  I just hadn't time to think up anything different.

Good job nobody from the club ever comes on my blog - I can get away with showing you the cards quite easily.

I also said I would show you my blog pages once they had been published, so, to save you going back to the pages here they are

1st October and below the 3rd

This last one is taken from a design by Jo Rice, Head of the Design Team at Lavinia.  Jo did give me permission to use her original design.  I tweaked it a little bit.  More pages next week as we catch up.

Now here is my desk, obviously making a journal page for Thursday when Wendy and I challenge one another to make something with a snarky comment from Tim Holtz' book and use Dylusion figures.  Now you can see how I have been using the bags of heads, legs and bodies these past weeks.

That's last weeks Thursday journal page stood at the back, this one I am doing here is in my square journal, or will be when I stick it in.

That is it for this week folks so head on over to Ms Julia at WOYWW and see what everyone has in store for you.  See you next week hopefully.

Art Journal Journey - Mice in the Library

My favourite designer at the moment, when I want to make a card, is Jo Rice who is Head of the Design Team at Lavinia Stamps.  Jo is a lovely lady and when I asked if I could use her ideas as a basis for some of my journal pages she was quite happy for me to do so.  So with Jo's permission I give you my rendition of the little mice playing in the Steampunk Library:

My background was a second run from the Ornate stencil I had used elsewhere.  I love to do this technique for backgrounds and it means you get two for the price of one in a way.  I had used my stencil with some Distress Oxides and rather than wash it up I spritzed it with water and placed it ink side down on my cardstock.  Left it for a minute or so and then pressed a piece of kitchen roll on top.  Lifting it up you get a lovely muted impression of the stencil.

Next, using the Hill Mask and Graphite Elements ink I made some ground for the mice to stand on.  Then I used the various stamps, (Moo and Tilly, Wizardry, Topper, Goggles, Cog Set 1-3, Words of Steam, and Rose Set), stamping with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and coloured the images with Inktense watercolour pencils.

This started life on a piece of 8 x 8 cardstock and is is now in my Lavinia Journal.  I sometimes like to work this way so that I don't spoil my actual journal pages with any mistakes I might make and not be able to cover up.  Much easier to work on a piece of card and then stick it in my journal.

I hope this has shown you something a little different than the first page for my "In Gear" challenge at Art Journal Journey and I hope you will join in with us.  Just make sure you read the dreaded rules first of all which you can find at the top of the AJJ page.

I love Eva's entry (8) for this theme but cannot find how to comment, Can someone please let me know how to leave a comment on her blog.

Art Journal Journey - In Gear

Are you ready for the ‘off’?  Better get your art stuff  'in gear’ then because that is the title of the next challenge for the month of October over at Art Journal Journey where I am guest host for this coming month.

So just what has gears - clocks have gears, lots of them unless they are of the digi kind.  Lots of Mixed Media Artists have little boxes full of gears that they use - all from old clocks and watches.  I am sure all modes of transport have gears in them somewhere and bicycles have gear levers on them so they must have gears too,

I must have wanted to do some Steampunking again when I chose this for my  challenge, I still remember having quite a crush on 'all things Steampunk' and even decorated a top hat for myself.  But … it doesn’t stop there - as I said above, all kinds of machinery has gears, so you could include different modes of transport  - sometimes we tell people to ‘get your brain in gear’ and if you think about it, especially if you live over in the UK people sometimes refer to what they are wearing as ‘their gear’ (eg "I used to wear trendy gear when I was much younger").  So I hope that has given you some ideas where you might go with this challenge and I hope you can think of lots of other things where you can be ‘in gear’.  See you over at Art Journal Journey?

Here is my first page:

The little figures and words are from Janet Klein's digi images which allowed me to make them any size I wanted.  I coloured them in with Promarkers.  The gears are die cut.

This was a relatively quick and simple page to start the challenge off so I hope this has inspired you all  to 'get in gear' and show us your creations over at Art Journal Journey.  Be sure to read the 'dreaded rules' before you make your entry.  See you there?