Bird Brain

At last - the holidays are here! Not before time either - if we hadn't broken up when we did, I fear for what may have happened - my brain was just a nano-byte away from meltdown...Hence the journal page above. The borders are a mixture of collage sheets I have collected over time from Collage Anonymous and Crowabout and the figure is from Collage Anonymous with the owl head from Tumblefish. The background is made from Sir Tim's new distress inks.

We have just spent a few days in that most tacky and British of seaside resorts - Blackpool. My Grandmother lives there and we went to see her. The kids love the miles and miles of slot machines there and we spent several happy hours shoving 2p coins into the penny fall type machines. These little critters were some of the prizes we won - how cool are they? Before the kids could attach them to anything, I said I had to photograph them so I could use them on a journal page, which is what I am off to do now.....

Loo Blues

When I was a kid, loo bloo was a strange thing that hung over the edge of the toilet bowl and made the water all blue, and I suppose probably did some kind of cleaning job. Now I am a big girl, loo blues is more appropriate! I am now coming down from my huge strop about how much I do at home and just how disgusting a bathroom/kitchen/carpet has to be before anyone will even consider wiping a cloth round/getting the loo cleaner out/hoovering up the dog hair (oops, think I might be on the verge of another tantrum.....1..2..3..calm...). I think all this comes mainly from the fact that I am overtired, probably more stressed than I am admitting and just plain sick of doing everyone's thinking for them (oops, there I go again...).

Anyway, this started out as an ATC for Marsha's blue challenge, but went a bit wrong, so I re-did it as a journal page to perfect the technique. The floorboards are these strange chinese visiting cards that are made of wood, which I painted and distress inked and stuck on. I added the fish for a little humour (I needed it!) not that any self-respecting fish would live in any of the toilets in our house!

busy, busy, busy

Cor, but life is a bit hectic at the moment. It's at times like this that I am glad to have prepped a few journal pages in advance so that I can have a little fun without being distracted from the work I should be doing! Another three weeks and life should go much calmer, or at least I hope so! Until then, I have pupil assessments to finish, college work to get done, a million one school events and activities to keep up with with my own children, and all this with only one car and that doesn't work very well...I did think that having a husband at home all the time would lighten the load, but as you will be able to tell from these journal pages, it is not always the case....Right need to go and finish the dinner before I head off to a meeting this evening. No rest for the wicked!

June done, July ready!

Seems odd to think that I have been doing this for six months now - it doesn't really feel like it, and I am still really enjoying it. I decided to document my mood or the weather on each day as well this month - just as well we have had good weather recently, ha ha!


So, I am ready for July now. This page has layers of dressmaking pattern, distress inks, gesso, acrylic paint, spray paints and stencils and then stamped over the top. I then cut the petals out of white paper and layered them up into the flower design - all this beautiful weather means that even my miserable gardening skills are resulting in flowers all over the place, so why not in my journal...? I am off to see how everyone else is doing now - I wonder if people will keep going next year too....?