Blue & Green Journal page

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

Well what a bloody weekend!!! The weather did not let up for us after Saturday's torrential rain, it made the journey down to Devon and back a nightmare, people just don't drive according to the conditions, Paul was probably tired of me panicking every time somebody did something stupid, I think it was a combination of the circumstances and anxiety about the driving conditions.  I found I was struggling with two different kinds of emotions, obviously the sadness of losing Paul's Dad, he has been the only father figure around for me for the past 10+ years, I also felt an overwhelming heartbreak for Paul losing his father, then there was the children, they were all really upset bless them.  I found when my Dad died that I shut my grieving away to be strong for my Mum and siblings plus our children too, same thing when we lost Mum really.  I really wanted the weather to be calm enough for Paul to get out in the garden so that he had something to occupy his mind, it is his 'happy place' anyway, so getting out to sort out the devastation that Eunice left us would have been helpful.  We spent the morning just chilling out and talking through feelings etc, the weather really had us on the edge of our seat in the afternoon, we were waiting for the back fence to go, Paul went out a couple of times to try and add support to it, but with the bits of wood and glass flying around the summer house I just wanted him inside.  We prepared a Roast beef dinner, Paul does most of it, apart from preparing and slices the meat and making the Yorkshire pudding, although he can do it he chooses not to (probably so he doesn't take the blame if the turn out rubbish)  not that we really have that issue, I use the 'Same measurement of everything method' ie: small cup of flour, fill the same cup with eggs, milk add salt and pepper and a 'slosh' of water to give the batter the consistency of double cream.  What method do you all use,??

I would love to know how you do yours Janet, being a Yorkshire lass, also do you have yours with your Roast beef dinner or before with Gravy??! 

I do hope that the builders are able to get your roof sorted today, the weather couldn't have been worse for you this weekend.xxx

Our Michele had really worrying forecast too yesterday, 80mph winds and chance of Tornadoes!  She said it was quite bad when I spoke to her early on in the day. I hope you escaped without any damage, please go careful to work this morning my lovely. xxx

I was glad to sit at my desk and play yesterday afternoon, I really needed the distraction, after wasting an hour looking at Pinterest I totally changed my thoughts and decided to have a play with my 'Distress Resist Spray'  I took all  the precautions you ladies warned me about, I got myself a big old box and popped some packing paper inside so I could remove it between pages, the first one I did was the one above, I will share blank page below....

As some of you know, it creates a 'distressed' resist that has texture, I think it might stand out better with Distress Stain sprays rather than Distress Oxides.  For all the faffing (getting the box etc) I would have got similar result doing Emboss Resist with Clear Embossing Powder, so the jury is out so far!

I have tried to capture the texture and the shine that the spray leaves when dry.  I do like the effect but will reserve judgement until I have played more.  I thing you MUST have ready is a bowl of water to put your masks/stencils in the MOMENT you have used them, don't let the Spray dry on them (it dries really quickly too)!

I was so undecided what to use on my page, first I thought of using a Dragonfly but placing was tricky because obviously nothing was going to stick to the Resist background, so I decided on my 'Bargain' Woodware stamp from Hazel Eaton's shop, I thought that as it was a distressed stamped image anyway any missed bits wouldn't matter, do I stamped it in Versafine clare, them made the mistake of adding black embossing powder, it stuck to everything, all of the resist spray even though it was totally dry, so I carefully brushed it all off, I then placed the page back in the stamp platform and restamped in Versamark and carefully added clear embossing powder, purely to seal the black ink in over the Resist. It worked this time thankfully!! I then used a few stencils to add some more detail, a little bit of washi tape too, I finished with a pen nib embellishment. 

I think I like it, one thing I do find helpful is photographing as you go along, it's easier to see how it looks that way.

I hope that you all have a calm and safe Monday, 

Sending my love and hugs to all of you, Gentle hugs for our Brenda & Lynda,

Sandra

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