October Journal Page

I am very lucky.  We live in a very beautiful part of the country (Scotland)  and each month I have tried to depict the changes I have seen in the fields and woods surrounding our house.  The idea is to make a memory book of the changing seasons.  The month of October is a big card in the annual change.  We see the foliage on the native broad-leaf woodland change colour and, in some cases disappear altogether, and due to the reducing canopy, we  notice the abundance of roe deer in the wood - all preparing for the annual rut.  Fungi has been very common this year due to the damp, warm autumn.

This is an A4 spread on two A5 pages, hence the centre fold.  I have used stamps from Impression Obsession and Chocolate Baroque (trees), Stampin' USA (leaves), Lavinia Stamps (shrubs), roe deer (Penny Black), fungi (Chocolate Baroque).  I have used various Distress Inks and dye based inks from Stampin' Up.

I should like to enter this layout in the Craft a Scene challenge "Trees".  Thank you for visiting my blog and for your encouraging comments.  I do appreciate them all.

DragonsDream TIO #106 - The Da Vinci Code

When we went to Manchester in August, to visit our youngest daughter, Eleanor, we were lucky enough to see an exhibition of H.M.the Queen's Da Vinci drawings and sketches at Manchester Art Gallery.  Apart from being blown away by the energy and power of  his work, I was fascinated by his use of drawing medium - red chalk. I just assumed his drawings would be in grey, black or brown but many of them - including a large sketch of seed heads like the Queen Anne's Lace, were drawn in a very bold red.  Over the centuries the colours have mellowed to russet and honey but this only adds to their charm.
I have used stamps by Penny Black, A Stamp in the Hand, Judikins  and Stampin' Up for my tag. The inks used are Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Distress Inks Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick, Wild Honey and Dried Marigold.
Thanks for visiting my blog and do feel free to leave a comment - I appreciate them all.

DragonsDream TIO #70 - Delicate

I found this challenge very interesting and informative. I watched the video (link on DragonsDream TIO blog - see side bar) a few times and then sorted my stamps out, ink pads etc and had a go. My first effort was the one on the right. I used tattered rose DI for my main colour and scattered straw, bundled sage, dried marigold and shabby shutters for the overstamp. Unfortunately, I forgot to overstamp the background texture before overstamping the flowers. My second attempt is on the left hand side. This time the colours used were tattered rose as before, but then tumbled glass, dusty concord, scattered straw and bundled sage for the overstamped flowers. I think quite a bit of research is needed to find which colours go best together as the most unlikely colours take over when spritzing the stamp.

My stamps were a Clarity poetry stamp embossed in white, a Canvas background stamp from Stampin' Up and Queen Anne's Lace stamp from Penny Black.