Mirror mirror

Oh my, it's time for self portraits across at DLP and as I 

A) don't really like people todo photos of me

B) don't do selfies

C) I am sure I can find a whole heap of other excuses for not having photos of myself

I was delighted to see that one of the organisers had put a link to an app for converting a photo into a drawing / sketch/ painting etc and you'll find it here http://www.snapstouch.com

I tried to take a few selfies....dreadful! Finally settled on one that was not too awful and did the conversion, traced and coloured with wax crayons.....I look very serious and think it might look more like me when it's upside down.

Bill had gone out walking and when returned & saw my efforts.....he sent me a different picture to try where I'm wearing my favourite knitted top from last winter & my fake fur cuffs, damn but fur is tricky to try & paint/draw!

This time I went with watercolour pencils for the face & top and distress inks for the hair & cuffs.

I then decided to colour the print-off's that I had used to trace from....a more excentric person all in all!

Shades of Toyah Wilcox perhaps lol.

I think I would prefer to have purple hair rather than green....

Suffice to say that I do not intend taking up a career in painting portraits!

I have had a good giggle and will probably try a few more but maybe go towards a more Picasso style.

Goodbye

....to the month of August!

I did some more catching up over the weekend and some sketching (not finished those self portraits yet so you'll have to wait!)

DLP advice to your younger self using some die cut letters, stash paper & washi tape & a copy of a photo aged about 3 1/2!

Journal 52 plans

And as it's Monday it's also time for our new inchie necklace

I never got round to making an ATC for this week!

Garden is next on the list of "to-dos" so I'll try to get back to the self portraits later....

Late

More finished items....

DLP photographs & memories/ all that I have to remember you

I stamped lace onto the pages before adding real lace, die cut mulberry paper & a copy of the only photo that I have of my great aunt Daisy (seen here on the left with her sister Louie on the right).

I have a beautiful circular knitted shawl that she made for my christening. Sadly I have no memories of this lady as she died about 1958 when I was very young!

Also to share are this week's inchie pavilion being the theme

Yep, I know, can't draw!

And the ATC of the same theme

A free stamp for this one :-)

Catching up

Some more pages finished, I had part done them whilst away...

journal 52 perspective- I could not resist using Escher's Tower of Babel

The road less followed just had to be the "col d'Allos" closed from October/November until May & sometimes even June depending on the amount of snow that needs to be cleared....the road was last used on the Tour de France in 2000 & the finish in Praloup last held in 1975! 

 And the current one is Keys...

Over at DLP we have positive point vs layering / time keeps on ticking, this theme was posted the week of my birthday so I've used the card from my dad and an image of a small girl that is reminiscent of me as a child 

One page still missing from DLP & Positiv Journal and then I'll be all caught up! Those ones are of course the ones that have failed to inspire me so far :-(

Rudolph day

It's now only 4 months to Christmas Day....how scary is that! My collection of cards is growing nicely & I doubt I will get caught out this year LOL.

All those toppers that have been sitting in a drawer have certainly come in handy!Im entering them over at http://scrapsoflifebyscrappymo.blogspot.co.uk

I have also finished 3 of the 4 pages missing from POSITIV JOURNAL...

books read this summer

A couple of fortuitous cards that were library shelves,  some piles of books that I stamped & coloured and printed covers of some of the books I read on my kindle this summer.

Addictions....

I gave up smoking years ago, my phone does not work at home as we are in a black hole, I need the Internet to blog my journal pages so no giving that up, I enjoy a drink but not to excess soi guess it will have to be biscuits! This was done with some biscuit images from a recent supermarket magazine...

Siesta time.... I dream of a hammock under a tree with a pretty view & a good book....pretty much what I've had for the past 6 weeks but in a zero gravity chair!

A image that was in a magazine that a friend had left on my desk....and a free stamp - coloured with pencils.

Lamps

Inchie time is here again and our latest subject is Lamp, I have somehow managed to delete my original inchie (boohoo!) but I've managed to secure an image of a head lamp that I have cut to size

And I had my ATC but that's been lost too! I'll just have to share that one later!!!

We also have a wonderful display of crafts of yesteryear in the village, amongst the displays were some old lamps, painted boxes, quilts...

Scenes of the reign of the French king leading up to the battle of Agincourt.....I dint mention that I was British! I think this one was €300

A wonderful 3D effect chest

I watched her mark out the pattern on this side in chalk for this one...

She uses enamel paints for this.

Inspired

We have a new theme at DLP....painted/ how do I face my biggest challenge 

I felt quite lucky to have something that I deemed suitable this week

I had a piece of painted paper that I received as Happy Mail, 

some mulberry paper that had mopped up some inks and a "green man" image that just required colouring (watercolour pencils)

That took care of this week!

It's been a challenge to try & keep up to date as DLP spring monthly themes on us and the faces/characters have been a real challenge for me as has been having the appropriate stash, I'm 2 weeks adrift but the missing ones will get done on my return...

I also discovered that I'd managed to delete my inchie for our Lamp theme due out tomorrow but have located an alternative so I'll be back with that one in the morning:-)

Comfort zone

Decided that I had what I needed to create this week's journal 52 page....

It sums up my summers activities!  I've enjoyed reading plenty of books sitting outside on the patio surrounded by nature, birds tweeting & music softly playing and the sunshine warming my life :-) total bliss!!!

Left page

Right page

I can't believe my holiday is almost over and this time next week I'll be back in Scotland ( no doubt shivering from lack of sunshine!)

Walls

Wow, what a night we had here....torrential rain at times, thunder & lightning....and it was so nice to snuggle under the bedclothes after a spate of really hot nights when even a sheet felt like too much!

Blue skies this morning & a breeze so I'll be doing my chores and getting the washing done....but first I'm sharing this week's inchie, theme is wall

A small section of a Chocolate Baroque stamp on a paper scrap

And my atc

Which is a different Chocolate Baroque stamp on another piece of paper from the remnants box!

Sunday

It's amazing the difference a day can make, yesterday we roasted under the sun with temperatures in the low 30s and today it's 15C at almost noon & we've had some rain!

I made some more pages for my DLP journal....

Last week's with the new monthly heme of face, human form & characters, it's about expressive faces & what I can see clearly now. Regular visitors on here will know that I'm not big with drawing people! I think my last attempt was Bill lying in his hospital bed back in January 2014!

I drew an open eye, closed eye and a rather angular face, no pictures to copy from. I decided to add a couple of magazine ads showing eyes that I thought looked quite nice.

The new theme for this week is characters and the prompt if you are going to be weird then be confident about it. We had been down the valley to Colmars in the morning for the fete medievale and so my thoughts were stuck in the days of yore, Knights, damsels etc but when I started drawing my knight suffered  from a panic attack at the thought of climbing on his destrier & thought that as it was so hot it was possibly a better idea to head to the lake and try some deep water driving instead.....at worst he'd get rusty!!!

I hope this leaves you smiling!

Friday already

Where has the week gone? It's been a hot one here with temperatures in the very high 20s to low 30s!

Bailey enjoyed an outing to sample the local fountains...

We enjoyed some fine food...

I got a page done for journal 52(20" challenge)

And tomorrow I'm putting my glad rags on & attending the medieval fete in Colmars les Alpes....

I'll see you all again soon :-)

Monday

A new week in the sunshine and a walk first thing this morning up to the Lac d'Allos which is a large lake at altitude (2230m) so I was higher than anyone in the UK - mind you I am at the chalet too (1800m)

And we saw some marmottes on the way to the refuge too, sitting/lying on the rocks sunning themselves & occasionally scratching fleas!

Always good to see these creatures, they are used to seeing people at the lake so they are not too shy.

And it's inchie day! The theme for this week is windows....

My hotel room?

Acetate aperture 

Hope my sunny skies are reaching you :-)

More pages

I managed a little journal catch up time yesterday as we were having a damp skies day!

DLP real life/ at this moment: I used Under paper & magazine clippings

And for JOURNAL 52 positive change

I'm enjoying fruit that actually has taste because it's been ripened in the sun rather than "ripen at home" stuff that we get in the UK

THE Carrefour magazine came in handy for this one as did the paper bag that some of said fruit came in :-)

Inchies day tomorrow.....