Change

The first part of the week was glorious, we sat out, wandered up the valley with the dog

Caught up with some friends....And then it got a tad cooler! Last night the Mistral started to blow & I got very little sleep - it even lashed it down with rain at 2am.

I did manage to stay up to date with my journal challenges & im here to share....

Journal 52: monochrome

 A prepped page in shades of sage/ yellowish green. I added some scraps from a colouring book page and a drinks mat (which adds a little pinky lilac)

Art prompts galore time/vintage

An advert for old motorcycles, an old fashioned advert for a children's book that I've added to a black label that has a little doodling on it done with a white pen.

Colour me positive: Dream big

Another prepped page with stamping, ticket washi tape, a temple dancer from a travel magazine and a lady in a strange hat that I seem to think was from a packet of savoury biscuits! I love to wear hats & the bigger the better!

DLP where we are still out on a limb. This week we had to use a PAC that someone else had drawn on. As I had no such thing with me I used a piece of happy mail gelli print cut to ATC size, added washi, an owl from stash, doodles & stencilling, coloured the 2 wacky owls in the top corner & calling it done. This improvising lark is not easy when you don't have your full craft room available lol!

Every inchie Monday : bulldozer

Well of course...that was not going to be easy to fit on an inch now was it, so let's take a step sideways & see what a rummage in the scraps could turn up....a piece that I've cut from the horoscope page in the Sunday Times!  A bull dozing!!!

Hopefully this one will have given you a giggle. See you all again soon with more tales from the mountains.....

Wow

We made the big trek to the Alps and the weather is FABULOUS - not that I want to make anyone jealous but I've been able to sit outside in a short sleeved T shirt for the past 3 days....the temperature in full sun.....34C! After all the grey skies & rain that we had in Scotland I really feel like I've gone to paradise.

I came away with prepped backgrounds in my journals in an effort to keep what I need to bring down to a minimum but the bag still seemed to weigh a ton. Here is what I've managed to improvise

Journal 52. Full moon / Lunacy

Obviously I came away without a moon but I just happened to need to open a pack of Coffeemate and the seal is embossed foil! Moon sorted :-).  I then wrote the lyrics to a song from my childhood that my mum loves : Full moon & empty arms. I know the Katerina Valente version although the most known seems to be by Frank Sinatra ( someone else mum was very partial to!). I filled the loops in my writing in with assorted coloured pens.

For Colour me positive : Believe in yourself and magic will happen.

More of the pod stencil, Tim Holtz CARGO stencil, I filled the letters in with metallic Derwent pencils.

Art Prompts Galore Circles are the order of the day!

Underpaper , Gelli print circles & added doodling took care of that one!

Inchie this week is Village

And as it's the 25th tomorrow and the first Rudolph Day of the year I even have some cards ready for next Christmas!

Assorted mop-up backgrounds & Tim Holtz blueprint stamps!

May the sun shine on you all & bring some joy.....see you again soon!

It's that time.....

My bags are packed & in the car! I'm actually on the road....we decided to head off early wind to the travel forecast and will be laying my head down on a pillow in Northumberland tonight. Tomorrow will see me on the ferry from Hull, an overnight crossing to Zeebrugge in Belgium before more miles - or should that be kilometres, through France as we head to our little chalet for a couple of months.

I managed to put together 3 put of 4 of the journal challenges thanks to having some prepped backgrounds so here they are....

Colour me positive make today so awesome yesterday gets jealous

Stencils over acrylic paints, stamping & a quote that I discovered in a bag of goodies that a friend gave me.

Art prompts galore pockets

Fabric scraps with an overlay of net that has been machined in a grid pattern for the bottom layer, the pocket itself is scraps with an overlay of very fine chiffon (as in the scarf variety!) a couple of brads or represent the rivets :-)

Journal 52 favourite song or song lyrics

Acrylic paint, stencil that has had2 shades of blue sponged through. The lyrics are to a favourite French song from my school days in the French Alps. I remember using the same lyrics 2 years ago when Bill was laid up in hospital & I first started with Journal 52.

My final item is my inchie...a cheat this week as I've cut it out of a housing advert...sofa is the word this week! Actually 2 of them this week as I couldn't decide which one to use and it was only on closer inspection that I realised that they are the same sofa/room and they came from 2 different ads!

Cold

The weather has turned! We have had SO much rain that I swear my feet must be webbed by now but yesterday we actually see a slight glimmer of sunshine which enabled us to see the snow that had fallen the night before- it was so nice to go out with the dog and not need to have my hood up to keep dry! I'm not sure how long this slight improvement will last but I'll not complain.

I'm full of the cold (again!) so it's the spare room for me & the dog....at least when I'm lying there awake I can check stuff on the iPad and not disturb anyone.

Anyway, with all the rubbish weather there has been plenty of time to craft...

DLP have a new format, not yet very sure that I like it, but I'll go with it for now...it's called the un-planner!

Kraft monthly divider with home coloured hole reinforcers/ month to view /prompt: out on a limb / PAC 

COLOUR ME POSITIVE: brave

Mainly stencils for the background, the "doodled" purple border is a stamp I cut last year and the snake is an image from an adult colouring book.

Art prompts galore: BLUE

ATC - distress inks , stencils, stamps

Journal 52: what will you say yes to in 2016 / alternative what will you say no to?

I went with "yes" and those intentions will be added at my leisure! I'm keeping them private....

Again, stencils have done most of the work!

Someone had been asking about envelopes in a feed on one of the challenge sites & the subject of Tyvek cropped up...I posted photos for them to see what can be done with paint & a heat gun!

The bubbly purple bit is a scrap that has been ironed between layers of baking parchment.

Layered, stitched, wired....this was turned into a brooch!

Painted machine stick embellished, shapes cut & wired, attacked with a heat gun....one seriously distressed flower!

The final share for this post is my inchie which won't actually go live until Monday and we are looking at SUN....I COULD REALLY DO WITH SOME!!!

Busy

An inchie to start us off...

Our theme this week....Galaxy.

Art Prompt Weekly I've chosen to do in an ATC format and there the subject is words/fonts

Kraft card, assortment of stamps & white embossing powder.

Journal 52's final prompt for 2015 was gratitude 

Distress ink on an acrylic block, then stencilling then handwriting (Uniball 0.1)

And the first one for 2016 is word for the year...seems quite a few of us have chosen this one or a variation of it!

Stencil for the border, numbers & letters, stamps for the background ( the mosaic type square is actually made from small squares of rubber off cuts!)

I have started work on my DLP un-planner but that share will have to wait for another day. In the mean time I thought I'd share some pictures of the local flooding, you may have seen some of the Ballater floods on the national (uk) news.

These first two are taken adjacent to the bridge over the river Dee near Crathes just to the east of Banchory.

This is usually a small "burn" that feeds into the Dee and this is where the ford is!

In this one the river has come up far enough to flood the children's play park. Two of the gift shops have had to close as they were flooded the other day, we are on our third consecutive day of non stop rain and the forecast is for it to continue for another 3/4 days.

We are hoping that Aberfeldie Castle which is beside the queens estate of Balmoral will not get swept away but it's not looking too promising, their footbridge (suspension) across the river has already gone.

Fingers crossed that the water stops soon.....

2016

It's a new day & a new year so let me wish you all a very happy, healthy & prosperous year.

Formalities over!

...it's a new start with a different journaling group for me over at Colour me Positive and we have a quote: "when you look at life through eyes of gratitude, the world becomes a magical & amazing place"

A sheet of under paper & Dyan Reaveley stamps soon sorted that one out...

DLP starts tomorrow: 2016-the "un-planner" and I can't wait to see what that is going to be all about.

See you back here soon.