Tuesday 30 January 2018

Girls Night out and a T day outing.


This is  my last page this month for Erika's theme of ......
New Year/ New Adventures, over at 




The page began life with a  a little shading and a stencil of the girls , off  for a night out together. .
In fact all the background is a variety of stencils and distress ink  colours.



I used water colours for the girls dresses.



The second part of my post is to visit with friends over at 

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


We had a trip out last week to  North Shields, a fishing port  near the mouth of the River Tyne before it flows into the North Sea.

Tea day friends  will know we have been here before as is our favourite place for  Fish and Chips 
Today however, was to have a close look at the new sculpture  called
'Fiddlers Green',
that has been  placed as a memorial to the Lost Fishermen who sailed from the port  and sadly never returned

There is a piece here that I found on the internet that  relates to the work involved in its making. It also explains the legend of Fiddlers Green.

He sits and gazes out to sea in the first photo,  the second is  the view out to sea at Tynemouth.

The light kept changing as I waited for folk to move away, but I have to say I was  thinking that all the colour changes  were amazing and I'm sure through time as he gets weathered,  the metal will go on changing colour.  The sculpture has only been in position  since September 2017.

Yes, we did have our lunch out,  came home later that afternoon,
 a little windblown  and ready  to get our feet up and have a cuppa....


Tea as always was  my choice,  with a couple  of chocolate ginger cookies.
A good end to a good day out. 

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

Saturday 27 January 2018

Creativity is good for the soul


A page for

and Erika's theme of New Year, New Adventures.
For me every page is an adventure, I maybe know what I will be using  as my main focus,  the rest just happens, as I get hands busy  and go with the flow.

My starting point was  a page from one of my [Stampington] colouring books.

  I did spend quite a while colouring this page and tried to get a reasonable photo over a few days, each one turned out quite pale, this was the best version.
However I am happy to say it was a good bright day when I took the the next stage  photos, she looked  a better colour.


There was a lot of fussy cutting done to get round this piece and you may notice that some of her hair  details  have gone missing in the cutting.



The journal page background is a Stencil still lurking on my desk from creating next weeks diary page which I shared in my previous post.
The colours I used at this stage are oxide inks,a stamp for the  Creativity quote. The other words were computer generated





Thank you for calling in today, your visited is always  appreciated.

Friday 26 January 2018

Diary Day Week 5


Friday is Diary Day,


Hi everyone, where are the weeks going,
 a few more days and we will be in the second month of the year.
The photo on the left shows the next pages in my Journal diary. I rather liked the bright colours pre -printed
 as my starting point for this week.

On the right you can see some of the  items I used to add my own
touches to the page.
My additions were, stencils, stamps, a tissue [Jane Davenport] as you can see I still have another lovely lady to use some time in the future. 
I used Oxide inks to add more colour.


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

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Fire and Ice.....Hot or cold Colours at TioT's


Fire and Ice .....
 Hot or Cold Colours.
is the theme for the new challenge at
  Try it on Tuesdays

I chose to use Hot Colours  on this card today.
Please pop over to TioT's to see how we all interpreted this theme.

The poppy stamp [Sheena Douglas] is water coloured.
I used distress inks to colour the immediate background.
The coloured layer is one of my own printed out papers.
A few trimmings came from my stash and now I have a simple  card,  that  was quite quick to make which may suit a few occasions.



This is the same card with the colour changed digitally  to   'cold blues'.
The red poppy card will be used   for a  friends Birthday. Fortunately they don't blog so I am safe to share it here.
The blue poppy I altered, just for fun. I have kept a copy of both on the computer
 for future reference.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you will join us over at TioT's with your interpretation of this theme.



If you have called in for T day, please scroll down to my earlier post

Happy Tuesday, A Tag a Page and a Brew.

Happy Tuesday everyone
and to friends   calling in from Bluebeard and Elizabeths 

where its T day and we are always made welcome with a drinks related post


You can still have an adventure on a snowy day.
[Last week we had a number of those days here].
The best thing to do on days like these are to create a mess and have some fun.
So my first share today is for  Erika over at
  Art Journal Journey

 and her theme for the month of  New Year, New Adventures





Notice I was amply supplied with my  mug of tea,
although I have to admit I was having so much fun it got forgotten for a while and was cold when I  remembered to drink it.






I used pieces of book paper,
torn tissue, lots of watercolour paint, stencils, die cuts, washi tape and stamps.
All the things I love to use, sometimes the results can look a lot neater than this, but I went with the flow and had a good time. That's what crafting means to me.









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


I also made this tag for the current challenge theme at
Tag Tuesday

which is Anything Goes

It is a larger size tag, cut from a left over piece of card which I covered with a piece of a
 coffee cup napkin.
I added the die cut cups and leaves using distress ink to add some colour.

I hope this tag  appeals to the folk who prefer coffee as their drink of choice,
 I'll stick with the tea today.

But if you would like a glass of wine at the end of your day.
 Here is a collage  page I made  in my computer digital program ,
 using the tag, and  a fun wine drinkers  napkin given me by a friend.




Thank you for calling by to see me today,
 your visit and comments are always very much appreciated.


Saturday 20 January 2018

A garden guest

Another snowy and frosty week here,
 just the kind of days when you want to stay home and keep warm.
I did try to have a bit of a tidy up in my craft room, but  came across this napkin with the robin on the spade handle and the tidy up was history.

Napkin stuck in place first, some background shading and then a bit of random stamping.
The quote is computer generated, it is one I had saved
 and I am sorry I cannot remember where I found it.

Maybe the quote doesn't quite go with the  robin, but it conveyed to me that,
in making this page I had started doing one thing [the tidy up] 
 and ended doing something that appealed to me more.

I will be joining the folk at

and Erika's theme....New Year, New Adventures..
Thank you for stopping by to see me today.
I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.


Friday 19 January 2018

Diary Day week 4


Friday is Diary Day
Week 4 of my  weekly Journal Dairy.


The next  spread in my diary  had a pre- printed colouring page. [on the left].  Not an image that I would have chosen for myself,
 but this is part of the fun. 
 I added two stamped images of the birds.
I think the bird looking  from the side lines cannot believe what he is seeing.
Gesso and tissue were used  to cover up the quote as I wanted to add  some positive thoughts.
This image was sure out of my comfort zone.
I used distress ink to give more colour to the background. 
The stencils were handy  and added to the messy fun I was having.

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


Tuesday 16 January 2018

Mr Fox.... and .......Tea.... because its Tuesday.


I often say a huge thank you to the folk who design rubber stamps.
I am hopeless at drawing anything as detailed as this fox.
When I saw  Sheena Douglas's   stamp I was reminded of our neighbourhood fox,
 he's not been seen for a while.
I'd like to think he was safe in his lair with his mate.

The stamp was a Christmas gift, I have yet to ink up the other one which is a hare.



I stamped  him onto water colour card, borrowed husbands masking fluid and water coloured the background.
Then I coloured him in with water based pencils.











I added some digital background layers and the card is ready to print out to send in the mail.

 current challenge theme is Favourite Things.
I'm sure my regular visitors know I love to  to alter pieces in a computer program, as well as initially getting hands on messy.




I have been also sorting through some photos taken in Yorkshire  last year
[I can say that as its now 2018].  It 's so dull and grey here I thought I would share these photo's of warmer sunnier day with friends over at

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



Hardly any folk around, but this is as close as we got to the ruins, as we were on our way home from  a long day out. the birds were singing .
 It is hard to describe the peace and tranquility we both commented upon.
We had stopped earlier  for a  snack  lunch in the market town of Masham .


Our sons, both  bikers, have  always told us to keep a look out for where the bikers, parked up and ate.



They have an eye for  wholesome no fuss food .

So here we are in the market square in Masham on  hot sunny Sunday afternoon. Lots of motor bikes and pedal bikers around and there it is.
An open window straight into the kitchen of a cafe with the most amazing aroma's wafting across the square. Folk standing around waiting for their orders to be made up.



I can thoroughly  vouch for the bacon and Mushroom   roll that we ordered, together with the tea.
 No posh  cups here.



One last page from my digital playtime using Mr Fox.
I'm sure adventures do await us all if  we take time to get away from the pressures of everyday life and get out and about in the clean country air.. This is an easy remark for me to make, as being retired  we can get off in the caravan , sit and watch nature at its very best and   see the changing countryside around us.
I will add this page to
  Art Journal Journey

and Erika's theme of New Year, New Adventures.

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

Digital information can be
 found in my sidebar.

Friday 12 January 2018

Friday is Diary Day


 Friday is  Diary Day
I have set myself a challenge to keep a year long weekly  journal diary  this year.
The first two spreads I have already shared.  I am hoping to show you my prepared pages  for the next  week,   a few days before  my journal week begins, hopefully  on Friday's.. 
So,  here is week 3.
I added stencils  with oxide inks. The stamps were water coloured
Mr Mouse is hoping to fly away, with his home made wings and begin his  weeks adventures.
I hope my plans for this diary will take me on adventures as well.

Another page  that will hopefully fit Erika's theme of
New Year, New Adventures at...

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


Thursday 11 January 2018

New beginnings

Sorry if you call here for my T day Post you will find it
HERE




















''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This tag is  for the challenge  over at 

the theme is..... New Beginnings.
Most of the additions to the tag are computer generated, the base is however a corrugated base.
I spent quite a while stripping the surface off some card to use sometime in the future,  did I need to do this, NO, I have a pile of the stuff in a pending paper pile, that never seems to  go down in size.


I grabbed these papers from the said  pile  to use as the background layers  of a journal page.
The  stripped back  corrugated piece,   printed paper [my own design], an embossed brick pattern on kraft card and a  brusho mop up... stencilled then stamped with tiny pearl drops as accents.

A plus side of using a computer to layer papers is that I am able to blend  them together, the minus side is that I still have the original  papers on the pile.





This is the hybrid  page I  created, for my digital journal, adding the tag and a silhouette figure.
I hope she has  many new adventures in the coming year.
I will be adding the page to

and Erika's theme of New Year, New Adventures.

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

Digital information can be
found in my sidebar.

Tuesday 9 January 2018

Favourite things at TioT's


The first challenge of the New Year at
 Try it on Tuesdays..........

 is...... .Favourite Things.
We are also welcoming a new member to our design team
 Jo from Lets Art Journal

Please pop over and see what our  Favourite Things are and we hope you will join us there.

 It was not easy to pick out my favourite things, my new journal weekly  diary  planner  came first on the list, this is the second week. 
I have always loved using stamps and stencils, they came next  with of course the distress inks.
I added some torn patterned tissue another big favourite. Oh dear the list is getting longer,
but I  had to add  the numbers and a last quote using the digital computer program I use.
So my list is..... journals, inks, stamps, stencils, napkins and  some digital extras.

I think we will all find it difficult to narrow down our crafting goodies to just a few items.

I will join friends at
  Art Journal Journey
as well today. for Erika's theme of  New Year, New Adventures

This is the first weekly,  hands on,  creative  journal diary I  I have started.
The one for last year was a page for each month..

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

Monday 8 January 2018

Warmer days and a cuppa


On a really frosty day here in the north east of the UK. I  got to thinking about warmer days.
First call for  this post   will be to say  hello to friends over at.....

Every week we are made very welcome with a drinks related post.


A  cuppa is a must for me when I am in my craft room,
the choice is  usually tea with a splash of milk.

I have  added some work in progress photos, the background was a brusho mop up background, top photos on the right.
As it dried I realised it was a terrible muddy colour,
a sprinkle of red powder and a spritz of water seemed to cheer it up.
I had the  found scene from an old calendar , that I wanted to use, together with the
 die cut days of the week. If you look closely at the  bottom photo, I had stamped a sentiment that  I ended up colouring over as well, thanks to the fact that brusho powders have a mind of there own, when adding water..
The words and modes of transport  were computer generated .

It may be cold outside but I am ready for a warmer adventure, so will join the folk at ...
and Erika's theme of....
New Year, new adventures.

Thank you for calling in today, your visit is always very much appreciated.



Saturday 6 January 2018

Creativity


I am following my adventures in creating hybrid art .
It is so dull in the craft room today, that even the daylight bulb in my lamp seems dim.
Fortunately I have a few base journal pages I can use, so it was just a question of adding 
some digital additions to make the page  come alive.

New Year, New Adventures is  Erika's theme for January at..

I think fun  will feature  on my, ' to do'  list for this year,
 especially  when I'm experimenting  in my own crafting world.
No pressure, deadlines  or must do today.
I may even make some special birthday cards in advance of needing them.
Well it is just January and I can always  dream that this will happen.

Thank you for calling in today.
You are all always welcome here.

Digital information can be
found in my sidebar.