Lumiere Durham 2011

Wow oh Wow! That's all I can say about the Lumiere light festival .... yes it was busy and yes we had to be herded in crowds around the city, especially up the narrow streets to the Cathedral, but generally, folks were chatty and happy and patient and it was so worth it. The city has been buzzing with a real feel good factor over the last four days...

Go here to see some of what I've seen over the last three nights in Durham...

We had a fabulous weekend, our dear friends Dave and Jayne came to stay and they have just left so I thought I'd do a quick post - I haven't downloaded the photos from my camera yet so I hope I've got some images as good as these :)

Its the last night of the show and we have enjoyed it so much we are going to brave the crowds and go to see the Crown of Light show at the Cathedral again - spectacular - if you get chance to go when the event comes here again (as I'm sure it will!) don't miss it!

Chasing my tail!

I can't believe November is upon us already! Time is passing by all too quickly for me - while I was in the process of preparing November pages for my 365 journal, I flicked through earlier months - such a lot has happened this year some amazingly happy, such as the marriage of our youngest daughter :D and some desperately sad, like serious illness for family and friends :((

And I can reveal that in less than eight months we will be moving to Brighouse in West Yorkshire where Andy has been placed as Curate to St Martin's & St John's churches.

Yikes! It seems like yesterday that we moved to this lovely city of Durham and I confess to feeling more than a little sad to be leaving :(

But things are gearing up and if there is one thing I know, its that time waits for no man so my motto is "Onwards and Upwards"

I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging regularly but I do make stuff - honest - just never get round to posting what I've done! So here is a little of what I get up to in between posts....

I bought this book a year ago and love flicking through the pages.....

I thought I'd finally 'dip in' and have a go....this is my first attempt at making paper cloth, it was fun :) I shall use it to make ... something... don't know what yet but I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is the October page in my 365 journal, a challenge set up by Kate, which rolls over each year - jump in and have a go, its great fun, this is my second year and I've enjoyed looking back at my daily snippets.... quite enlightening!

And this is as far as I've got with November....

... choosing the background papers for the journal blocks...

.... and this was how I started...

I'm sure you've all read the news but I'm still giving a celebratory shout to Dyan, Ranger's new signature designer... we all know it is well deserved and now she will get to impart her wonderful quirky style further afield! Congratulations Dy!

Better late than never....

Recently, I spent a fabulous weekend at my fave place to learn all things arty, with international artist Dina Wakley

And being in the company of our good old Yorkshire home grown international artist Dyan Reaveley also made the weekend for me.... fun and laughter all round!

...they are a bit of a comedy double act!

Kate, Sarah and lovely Jude...

Emma and Ali ...

That was Day one - I got so absorbed after this, the camera was forgotten. We learned how to draw birds (the easy way with the use of tracing paper!) and paint them, feathers and all ...day two was making a mini book depicting where we have come from, where we are now and where we are heading and then binding it altogether using a Coptic stitch method. (sorry, no photo's as I'd left the camera in my other handbag! Mine isn't quite finished but I may post it here when its done) But my favourite day was day three....entitled "Intuitive Art"

We had tutorials in stages.... scribble???!!!!

....brush over the scribble lines with water....

choose colour, paint in between your scribble..... don't forget the shading.... we also removed paint by rubbing with water through stencils and added texture using modelling paste pushed through stencils...

...you will end up with something like this....

Then Dina held up our work one by one and we all said what "saw" it was quite amazing really - we all "saw" different things, people, people riding a bike, fish, windows, doors....

.... so the next stage was to "force" what you saw - go over the areas you wanted to keep, making the "person" "fish" "window" or whatever it was you "saw" then block out the surrounding area with colour and paint in as desired.... here is Dina's finished interpretation of what she "saw" - herself, with a basket full of balls - and some of them were up in the air...

So here is how I started.. scribble...

Once it was painted in - no photo of that stage! and my work was held up, Bezzie Su said it was like someone was praying over me... which is quite appropriate for me, I went with that theme and I've called it "The Blessing" My soon-to-be Vicar husband is praying over me... this is my nearly finished version....

We went on to use the same process to make a book which I LOVE.... I will post that next time... don't want to overload you all :D

Great Days!

I've been playing in my Teesha Moore style journal - mucho fun....

...lovin this one...

and this one is a work in progress..

We've had some great days with family and taken opportunity to make the most of this gorgeous weather - been off day tripping on the Northumberland coast. And managed to spend a couple of days with our beautiful great niece, Freya Lily.... looks like she's strangling me here! (we're in the Undercroft restaurant at Durham Cathedral)

...and she always cries when Andy picks her up...

365 Calendar

September completed... and I love how October is looking - couldn't resist giving you a preview - I love how the leaves look...

...close up...

Didn't we have a loverlee time!

Just a quickie post to share the few photographs I managed to take of the Birthday weekend at AFTH...

Dyan was kept busy at her demo stand..

Fabulous cupcakes were on offer all weekend made by Teresa...

Of course Bezzie Su was there keeping everyone refreshed in between texting and facebooking and demo-ing and generally making everyone welcome...

Ben and Katie manned the till and stocked the shelves as all the goodies were snapped up....

Kate dressed for the occasion....

My class hard at work - where am I? I'm behind the camera!

Happy Birthday AFTH!

Well here is my Dylusions contribution in celebration of the 10th birthday at AFTH

It's a page in my art journal....

The background paint colour is Dylusions periwinkle, the head and legs of the image are from Travelling Travis, the outfit is made up from Dyan's Downloads - body and arms and I've also accessorized with sunglasses! the 'skirt' is the top of a large toadstool from the Doolally Doris plate. The banner is stamped onto paper, coloured and (patiently) cut out and comes from the Bags of Bunting plate.

The rest is doodled and coloured by moi!

Happy Birthday AFTH - one of my most favourite places on the whole planet!

Just messin'

Since Andy arrived home on Thursday, we've had visitor's and 'phone calls from family and friends wanting to know how his trip went, so another busy weekend flew by.

At this moment in time he is sleeping like a baby! I think the jet lag has finally hit him, so I took the opportunity to have a little play....

I did a resist technique with perfect medium and clear embossing powder on both tags, then let loose with paint and spray inks before stamping images and quotes, cutting out and arranging nicely...

Here's a journal page from last week....

I told you I'd started sorting out my supplies, well, I re-discovered stamps and images I've had for ages and like I said, my mission is to use them. Of course the paints and spray inks are Dylusions, the stamps are a mixture of Invoke Arts, Teesha Moore and Wendy Vecchi, the image is also Teesha Moore.

Andy is stirring now so I'm away to do a little packing ready to go back to Durham. I am taking my arty stuff so he's helping me pack the boxes - many, many, many of them!