January Blues and Sunday Stampers Challenge #240

I could hardly start by NOT mentioning the weather now could I? - being a Brit and everything! We are shivering under a blanket of snow here in rural Staffordshire, and however beautiful it looks I have no love of the white stuff!

Here is a pic of the view from my bedroom window this morning. It has stopped snowing, but I think this is just a brief respite before it starts again tomorrow. The grey patch at the end of the paddock is our "lake", which formed during the recent "rainy season"  and was starting to soak away (it's about half the size it was).

I think this snow might well have done for my cut-and-come-again lettuce which I was still harvesting on Christmas Day!

Anyhoo - to the crafting... I'm getting a feel from my recent blog hopping that it's not just me who is suffering from a lack of inspiration in the craft room. I had put it down to the January Blues but my suspicion is that all the Mr Mojos have gone AWOL and are sunning themselves on a Club Mojo cruise in the Caribbean. I just hope their return journey wont be affected by the weather!

 I really struggled with Hels' challenge this week. By Thursday I still had no idea what I wanted to make for the Dreams prompt, doubly frustrating because I wanted to join in with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday over at Stamping Ground - but all that was on my desk was a cutting mat - not very interesting to share with the world! Finally - out of sheer desperation - I opened my fledgling art journal, got out my water soluble pastels and went to work. 

The result is a UFO, an almost finished journal page which is lacking that certain something, a focal point image which at the moment, even after spending half an hour searching The Graphic Fairy's gorgeous blog, is eluding me. Any road up, apologies for this not being finished but, for better or worse, here it is.

Some close ups

The Deets

Stamps

Flourishes - Artemio

Text - Paper Artsy Hot Picks HPXT04

Bluebird - Partners

Inks

Staz-on - Jet black, Midnight blue, Cotton White

Promarker - Sky blue

A word to the wise before I go, I might be teaching grandma to suck eggs here but I made the mistake of using Staz-on cotton white ink on a stamp which I had previously inked with SO jet black, and although I had cleaned my stamp with a baby wipe the white ink seamed to react with the traces of black to make a dirty grey ink and ruin my brand new ink pad. The moral of the story is buy some Staz-on stamp cleaner when the thaw comes!

And finally, because this picture makes me smile... this is a shot taken recently by Moonshine Minor for art homework. The brief was to take a photo of his most prized possessions...  

I love the reflection of his monkey onesie on the ipad screen.

Keep safe and warm and see you soon.