That week went by in a flash.

It has been a busy week.  Last Saturday was my second visit to Bolton for a family history course, there was a lovely golden sunrise in my rear view mirror as I left Grimsby.   Further up the road the rain started and was chucking it down over the hills.   These courses are so interesting the knowledge will certainly help me in my research.

On Monday it was a long drive down to London to pick my son up.  He is resting between opportunities (his phasing).  Mark is a chef but not as lucky as those you might see on the TV.  Having him staying means I am eating 5 star food every day, mine is now his kitchen and mostly he is to be found in there throughly enjoying himself.

We have also gone out and about to help him get orientated here as it is his first visit and like all of us having a real break from work and the pressure thereof is being expressed by all those aches and pains that have been suppressed coming out.   Mark's next kitchen comes up in about a month so staying with me is going to give him a deserved breather, when he is working he works very hard.

How Minx and especially Harley have taken to all this is a whole other post on it's own, that maybe one day I'll write.

Then today it was back to Bolton for this week's course still a wet drive but so worth it!

In between all this toing and froing there has been a little time in the craft room.   One Powertex/mixed media project is underway, for now here is another 6 inch square fat book page I played with.

The base this time is a piece of Tando chipboard.   Gotta love this stuff it takes so much punishment.  Using my always at hand ink dusters the base was coloured with Adirondack and Distress Inks.   The roses and butterfly have been stamped onto white paper with Memento ink and coloured with Chameleon Pens prior to being fussy cut out.    To help work out where the paper pieces should be adhered the board was stamped as well.

Once the roses had been positioned I felt something less prominent was needed to the left.   The advantage of having a house full size stash is having just the right stencil.   The image was dusted on with more Adirondack inks and knowing that the dusting would go over the edge of the stencil another ragged edge laid down and dusted over as well.  The stencil image has been gone over with water based felt pens.   To complete this page gilding flakes have been applied.

Still just getting my hand back in but Mark assures me that the fussy skills are enough to make graffiti artists stencils.  I wonder if Banksy will give me a job, mentioned this blog post to Mark who said "Never mind Banksy, you can be Mumsy".

As always there are a couple of challenges I'd like to share this with.  Not looking for prizes just like to think that someone see this after going to the effort of writing it!

The Artistic Stamper - Roses are Red.  Now I'm fairly sure that Valentines prompted this theme but my Mackintosh style roses do fit the theme.

More Mixed Media - A monthly challenge for all of us who enjoy mixing it up.   They have an optional theme this month "Red".

The Butterfly Challenge - This fortnightly challenge is an ever popular challenge a lot of thought goes into each one.   There has to be a butterfly and this fortnight something beginning with P like Pink and Paper piercing.