Baby .... it's cold outside!

Happy Thursday folks .......

It's been freezing out there today ..... brrrrrr! We still haven't had any snow ....... not yet anyway!  I do hope you're all keeping toasty and warm.

It's been nice and cosy in the old craft room though.  I've had the day to myself .... nowhere to go, no little man popping in and nothing urgent on the To Do list ..... it's great being up to date!
Ooops shouldn't really have said that ..... the postman brought happy mail this morning from the lovely Lucy from Sweet Poppy Stencils ......... lots of gorgeous new designs coming up.  Guess what's top of the To Do list for next week!

I made the most of today and caught up a little bit more with my journal ...... Creative Journaling 365 is very addictive!
Pages 8, 9 and 10 are all done ........ does that mean I'm only 2 days behind?  Whoo hoo!!

Page 8 ...... the other half of the Brusho page.  Remember I coloured both pages at the same time. Sprinkled Brusho onto one page, spritzed with water and then closed the journal ..... easy!

This page has one of my favourite sayings on it ....... I love it.  This version is from a set of Tim Holtz stamps ....... simply stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with a white detail powder

It goes perfectly with the Harmony Girl from Unity Stamps ....... another favourite

To finish off I added some tiny water droplets ..... stamped in Versamark and embossed in clear.  You can just about see them in this close up ..... they're there, but only when the light catches them

 Pages 9 and 10 are a double page spread ..... is that cheating?

The last few days I've spent quite a bit of time checking Estate Agent websites ...... hence the journal spread.  I've mentioned that we were looking to move in the next few months.
Now I don't mind looking for new houses .... when there's plenty to look at.  That's not the case at the moment unfortunately.  We've seen a couple of possibilities and we're viewing a few more tomorrow but have I mentioned I'm a little bit fussy ..... and not that easy to please!  Well come on ..... I need at least one room with loads of natural light!

We should really build our own ..... not ourselves,  but you know what I mean ....... it's just something we've never got around to doing. We've bought off plan before which was nice .... I got to choose everything that went into it ..... the floor tiles, the bathroom tiles and the bathrooms, the wooden floors, the kitchen etc. That was so much fun.

Anyway .... where was I ........ oh yes houses
I started by applying heavy white gesso through a brickwork stencil directly onto the journal pages. When this was dry (it didn't take long) I used Distress Inks to colour the background ..... I love how the gesso picks up the colour

Now to create my little scene ........ all the stamps, apart from one, are from a fab little JOFY set (JOFY 29) I stamped the tree and the fence, masking the tree trunk before stamping the fence, and then heat embossed with a clear powder

I then used Distress inks to add the colour

The house has been stamped onto coloured pieces of cardstock from my stash, and then fussy cut and layered
The house on page 9 is on card coloured using PaperArtsy's Infusions ........ little bottles of colour pigment mixed with walnut stain, that you use a bit like Brusho  ...... I've actually used them again in a different way for pages 11 & 12 but you'll have to wait for those, they're not finished yet!)
The house on page 10 was stamped on a pretty piece of card coloured using a stencil and Brusho's I think

There's little bits of an old book page on there too ......

The Home Sweet Home is from the JOFY set ...... a little bit of doodling there to make it look as though it's hanging on the wall

Another sentiment on page 10 .... this time from Inkylicious ......

And to finish off I stamped the keys (JOFY again) and doodled some more to make them look as though they are hanging over the page.

Well that's me done for tonight.  Time to snuggle under a blanket and catch up on some TV I think.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your evening, and stay warm.

Cheerio until next time ....