Tea

It's Monday & it's cold! A nice hot cuppa to start the day and it's also Tea that is the theme over at every inchie Monday & this time I have several & even have an ATC !

Teapot

Teacup 

Different teapot

Afternoon tea!

And as I'm in a generous mood and the weather is so chilly I've been out topping up the bird feeders which gave me the idea for our DLP challenge this week where we are to use mask/stencil/stamp together and the words are from Henry James :three things in life are important: the first is to be kind, second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. 

I used some messy pages, juniper sprig die to create my stencil & mask and stamped/embossed be kind as well as adding a small feathered friend who has his feathers all fluffed up to keep cosy!

See you all again soon.....

Grid

On grid or off grid? I certainly don't live off grid! Our theme over at journal 52 this week is "grid based"

And I've gone with just some of the items that were lying on my desk....stamps from Chocolate Baroque & inkadinkadoo plus a couple of home made ones, stencilled page that happened to be the right size (!)

 and some ATCs that are also grid/block background based. One is tiny fabric scraps that were bonded onto a base fabric & then over stitched using the sewing machine & some fancy stitches.

I also have 2 pieces of sprayed canvaswork that are samples from a course I did....

They are almost the same size as the pages so I'm thinking I might trim them down slightly and add them to the journal as its loose leaf at the moment & I can incorporate what I want :-) 

Rudolph day

It's a month to Christmas and our last Rudolph Day challenge! I've also been trying to do the 12 tags of Christmas challenge sponsored by the Funkie Junkie so here's what I have come up with this time....

This is Linda's offering for challenge week 5

http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie_26.html

I've gone with similar colours and the randomly stamped background for this as well as the added tree as an extra layer.

Then for her week 4 challenge which you can check out here...

http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/challenge-12-tags-of-christmas-funkie_19.html

I have interpreted this way....

I went with the stripes rather than plaid but I've used the foliage and a poinsettia and as I had 2 striped papers I liked I did 2 cards that are both slightly different!

Off to link with the challenges now, have you got your cards done or started?

Crochet

Wow! It's Monday, it's inchie day & I actually have my photos working! So, without further ado here is every inchie Monday crochet 

I've been hoarding this one for a long time!

I've also added to 2 journal pages....still not finished...

And I got Journal 52 'architecture' done using more hoarded images lol

Athens Acropolis, London Houses of Parliament & Big Ben, Dunedin NZ on the left page

Altered card, 2 images from a recent art show catalogue, leaning tower of Pisa, Rome's colosseum, New York's Chrysler building and another piece of happy mail.

Over at DLP it's masks this week so I used versamark/ clear EP, vinyl  butterflies as masks on the first version

I didn't feel too happy with this one so then I did another sun underpapers, stamped snowflakes that I masked with some paper circles & also used  my TH umbrella man as a mask then gave the pages a coat of black acrylic 

I also stamped on some silver snowflakes & used holographic EP and added a little white pen doodling.

I cannot believe that November is almost at an end until I look outside and see how dark it's got and it's not quite 4 pm :-(...hey ho, it's only a month to the shortest day & the things will start to improve!

Assembled

.....but not finished!

Rear & front covers...

These are unchanged 

I found a "mason jar of tears" that seemed appropriate for the reverse side of the terror in Paris page & as I'd got the shattered stencil on there I decided to add a couple more "bullet" holes.

I've still stuff to do to these pages!

More colour

More play time, more still to do!

This time we play with stencils...

Added a leaf to the owl one, a multi layered flower from happy mail to another & a couple of 2CV bottom right along with some Washi tape

Washi tape & a butterfly, a flower & Paper Artsy image, thistle, stickers & a white flower image.

Forgot to crop this one! TH hearts as shapes stuck on, then the paper was used as a stencil + some stamped hearts - happy mail leaf, Washi tape along with girl stamp, cage stamp & 2 random birds from stash....

I did all these & then realised that I'd not yet watch the latest class video!!!! OOPS!

A colourful journey

How do you tune out the horrors of the world?  Today I chose to make some art that actually reflects yesterday's attack in Paris.

It was not intentional rather an OOPS as Carolyn Dube would say, and so when my stamp slipped on the slick surface was it a tragedy? No, it was an opportune occasion! 

Red paint slapped over the smear +some small blue tiles....a Tim Holtz stamp and I had a new page. Now it's no masterpiece & it's not meant to be, it just had to be because despite not being superstitious yesterday was Friday 13th.

The other pages are just a development of the pages that still have more work to be done on them...

Amidst all the horror of another terrorist attack my thoughts are with friends that live in major cities in France and I hope that all their friends & families are safe.

Colour

My cold has got worse....stuffy nose, cough, headache so I've still got Bill consigned to the spare room in an attempt to stop him getting it!

New TV is installed & he is a happy bunny now we have a larger screen, just as well because the weather is crap....pouring rain! 

None of the above was allowed to interfere with me getting in some play time to keep spirits up and here are the colourful results after I used my kids paintbox to add some colour to yesterday's pages + some over stamping with distress inks...

TH crackle, butterfly script, music score, numbers

TH numbers-  Chocolate Baroque textures x 2

Stampers Anonymous on first 2 TH alphabet (mercantile)

TH damask 1&2, ruler

Edges

A busy day in the garden trimming the conifers ready for winter, taking delivery of a new TV because Bill thought our screen was too small (men & their toys!) and a plumber turning up to sort out my noisy toilet cistern (valve replaced) & diagnose the shower problem....I still managed to put in a little doodle time kind of " a la Dyan Reaveley" on some pages from an old French Art book that I rescued from the bin  whilst on holiday at the chalet a few years ago.

14 small pages ready for some more work.... :-) what a girl does when she's waiting for the next instalment of her course lol!

Journal 52

Childs play.....

I've kept it very simple this week:

Some very discreet stamping in pumice stone on the left, a couple of children images from some happy mail & an ATC that I got from a friend quite a number of years ago....thank you Kathy!

On the right its handwritten script stamping + some dried marigold spots, the image is a copy of a drawing my niece did  4 years ago, my golden retriever Bailey is the screensaver!

Did some work on my a colourful journey pages, we've to find images in the colour print off that we've glued onto the cardboard....

 A monsters head, landscape, clover leaf, bird taking flight,2 hands reaching for each other?

Untouched so far, positive/negative hearts, untouched book print hearts,1/2 heart, star, circles & a strip I liked, partial sun. It's interesting how the printer ink bleeds through the gesso despite there being a skim of PVA over the coloured papers!

Thanks for looking/commenting it's always nice to get a visit :-)

Busy weekend

Aside from making a chilli for us to have after the fireworks I also managed to sign up for a free course, yes I did say FREE, a colourful place to play,I've downloaded the contract, printed, sealed, inked & signed....

Discovered some cardboard to make the pages, gessoed, paper scrapped....

And now I'm ready for lesson 2 

I also got this week's DLP challenge done, November is going to cover stencils, stamps & masks.

This week we need to use stencils (made or bought) & the cue is on the edge of uncertainty what are you afraid of

I had some underpapers that had some stencilling on so I chose 2 pieces that had the same design & similar colours, added more stencilling, doodling & writing. Calling this one done and I have plans for Journal 52 (child's play) my niece did a picture a couple of years ago that is perfect! Watch this space for more lol!