Puzzled owl?

 I've not joined in
THE OCTOPODE FACTORY FRIDAY CHALLENGE for quite a while now so thought I would this week! I made a tag.......not done that for a while.....it was fun :)

 The theme is BIRDS OF A FEATHER......I used one of the owl rubber stamps

 Detail of the top............

 

and the bottom ..........

....and a fun way to stand a tag up.......a bulldog clip!

Frustrating.......

Have you ever spent time trying and trying to get something to work and it just won't come out how you want? Well that's what I've been doing for the last hour or so..............I now have 2 journal pages......one that is completely gessoed over ready to try again and another done but no use for what I needed it for! Aaarrgghhhhhh!
So, I decided I needed something I was happy with otherwise the time would feel completely wasted. Sitting on the side was a few pages from a dictionary and some new stamps.......................

 so, stuck two dictionary pages in a journal.......no colouring cos that was the bit that for some reason was not working...........................

 Stamped the hares (from 100Proof Press) onto card and coloured and cut out....................

 stamped the circles (100 Proof Press) and then added the words....................DONE!

What's black, white

 and "red" all over? A newspaper of course!
That is all I could think about when I saw the theme on CRAZY AMIGOS this week.....it's black, white and red!

 So with the newspaper thing in mind I used a piece of book paper across the centre of the card to represent it, I also stamped the pumpkins onto book pages and then cut them out.

 The alphabet is ALPHABITTIES by STAMPOTIQUE and the pumpkins are rubber stamps from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY.

 Sooooooo did you know that Hallowe'en is coming?????

Roses are red

Altered Alice challenge time again!! This time we are sponsored by CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS.......each DT member was given a pot of garnet paint.....a lovely bright sparkling red. So, to go with the paint what else could we use as inspiration but the chapter of the book where the playing cards are painting the white roses red!

 I used the red paint to stencil roses across the pages before adding small playing cards.

 The hand guiltily dripping red paint is from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY

You might wonder why I have the numbers 2,5 and 7 on the page......if you read the chapter in the book these are the numbers of the cards that are painting the roses and arguing between themselves!

A La Dina

It has been an absolute age since I last made a card, in fact I can't remember when it was!! I had dropped into thinking that cards were somehow "lesser beings" which of course they aren't and so stopped making them. I intend to rectify that situation starting with these!!

 I bought these DINA WAKLEY (you should visit her blog if you don't already know it......she has a fab style all her own) stamps recently from THE STAMP ATTIC.
I intended using them in my journals mainly but they are equally good used on cards. I used the top page off my work pad that was nicely splattered/sprayed and splodged as my background, adding extra touches where needed......the odd bit of stencilling through sequin waste, extra spray of ink, strip of book paper, punched hearts etc etc.....a bit like a journal page really....only smaller!!

 This is SILHOUETTE SCRIPT

 and this is GRUNGY SILHOUETTE

To alter a page

is the challenge issued by dt member Valerie Wilson this time at STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS CHALLENGE. As always there is a $30 gift voucher up for grabs for the winner.

I have taken a slight liberty.....as is my want :)............with the theme! I took some book pages and folded them, then I took a book cover and cut it down to make new covers for my new book and then glued a piece of page around the spine

The images I used are GOBBY LIN (6116) and GOG LIN (6118) by Jill Penney........confession time....these images were not an instant favourite of mine but they have really grown on me, they are so whimsically cute!

 I like the way the little characters are peeping out of the pages......can you just imagine them peeping cautiously out as if to see if anyone is around? or is that just me?

 Stampotique stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

The theatre

here in Crewe, Cheshire is 100 years old this year. There will be a week of celebrations in September including an exhibition of pieces based around the theatre and its history.......I am going to have a canvas panel in the exhibition that will be similar to this journal page.

 I was allowed inside the theatre to take pics.....the one on the right is of one of the boxes overlooking the stage........the one on the left (and below) is of the outside of the theatre

 This plaque is on the wall outside

The ballet dancers came from a leaflet advertising an upcoming performance.

I do love adding words with strips of paper :)

One of the reasons

things have been a little quiet on here is that I have been preparing for the customer exhibition being held at my local craft shop......THE CUBBY HOLE......the shop is run by my friend of many years CAROL. Part of the shop is used as exhibition space for local artists and the current...as of yesterday.....exhibition is called SHARING THE DIVERSITY......customers were invited to create one piece on the theme of summer that would be displayed as a collage of pieces and one other new piece on any theme, then 2 or 3 other pieces that could be older work. The preview night was last night and was a great success.

 

 This is the collage of summer themed pieces........

 my summer piece!

 And this is the new piece I created for the exhibition....it's called "FROM THE PAGES OF A BOOK"

 The rest of my pieces......I carried the book theme over to these too..............

 This is my "about me" label!! Short and to the point!

This was also a new piece......the other two....the steampunk and Alice themed pieces were older pieces.

Travels near to home

 As you may have gathered if you visit my blog regularly I love to travel and see new things......while I do love to travel to places far and wide I also think we should appreciate what is on our own doorstep!
So today a friend and I headed to CHEDDLETON which is near LEEK in Staffordshire.......the reason for this visit? To go to St Edwards church....pic above!

 Inside this church is a most beautiful stained glass window by the pre-raphaelite artist EDWARD BURNE-JONES.
Three panels with angels with red wings!

 Edward Burne-Jones was a friend of William Morris and a partner in Morris's company.

Another friend of Morris was Thomas Wardle who was a silk importer, dyer and printer in nearby Leek and William Morris who believed in only using natural dyes, spent three years at the factory learning dyeing techniques before he started his own famous company........you may wonder why I'm rambling on about silk dying but there is a connection with the church! The chancel roof is painted with symbols significant to the local community......one of these is a plant called the Wild Madder which produced a dye used by Wardles company to dye silk fibers. This also leads to the next connection...........

 Wardles wife Elizabeth was given some of these dyed threads and asked to devise a method of embroidery to encourage the use of the silks. In 1879 Elizabeth founded THE LEEK EMBROIDERY SOCIETY .....it became well known for large church embroideries........and there was a beautiful example on display in the church.......I apologise for the poor pics but the embroidery was behind glass and the light from the windows behind did not help! I hope you can see how beautiful it is.

 I hope you don't mind me rambling away about all this stuff.......but I find it fascinating and I hope some of you do too!!