Two cards for less is more & some challenge Tags

Good morning you all! After the brilliant sunshine yesterday today is cold and overcast. Looks like summer's not here yet! But the main thing is that my coffee tastes good!
Yesterday I sent 4 mail art envelopes off at the post office. They were taken in frozen silence once again. This time it was Mr Grumpy. His comment *If this is your idea of a joke, it's not mine* Anyway, they are on their way, if Mr Grumpy likes them or not....
Then I discovered the tags I made a few days back for Dragon's Dream TIO, so I think I just have time to blog them! The theme is fish.

As I did not have any fish stamps, I just stamped some shells and the crab, and then drew the fishes and sea weed. I added dew drops for air bubbles, and some dried grass for more see weed, and a couple of glitzy stick on fishes.


For *Less is more* we need to make a square card, and put our motive into one of the corners or into the middle. I have used two of my lovely stamps form Character constructions, the little girl bird and the nest. I stamped the images onto the cards, and then again onto white paper and coloured hthem with water colours. I did some paper-piecing onto the front of the dress to make it look fuller, and the birds have beady eyes, and there are some blue glass beads and a pearl on the dress front. I then decoupaged the painted and painstakingly cut out motives over the stamped images, and that was it, then everything else was forbidden anyway!

So here's wishing you all a happy day, whatever you are up to Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday Lynne!!!

Good morning once again from sunny and warm Rhineland. Yesterday it was really cold, today it's back to summer, so Looks like it will be a paint-on-the-balcony afternoon!
But the most important news of the day first; It's Lynn's birthday. She has a wonderful blog, *Adorn*, where she shows her lovely, delicate creations, always with lace, ribbons and flowers. I love her things because they are genuinely pretty and feminine, and she's a nice young lady as well! So, all together please,
*Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ly-ynn, happy birthday to you!* Hope you all sang loudly and clearly so that Lynne heard it up in bonny Scotland!
I didn't do much crafting or painting yesterday as I was busy tidying. I got one shelf in the bottomless pit sorted out - more or less, discovered a lot of old friends again that haven't been around for ages, and just didn't have too much time or energy after that,
But I did just manage another mail-art envelope and a few tags, so the day was not completely wasted!
Here they are:

The first tag has been made from cardboard, partly peeled, and then rubbed with clear embossing ink, and embossed with EP in mixed metallic tones, and then dusted with perfect pearls in pink and gold and heated again. I added a few glass splitters in pink, then some stamping and rub-ons to make the background. ! have used some vintage scrap images and 2 prima leaves and a flower. I have given the little girl a *necklace* made of glass beads fixed with glossy accents.

The second tag has been made from the packaging of the prima leaves, their packaging is always much too nice to throw away! This time if have used images in blue and turqoise, and a different prima leaf and flower. The little girl once again has a beaded necklace, I have decorated the tag witha bow and a beaded pin that I recently made.

And the envelope will be winging it's way to America in the course of the week. Today I have three of my envelopes to take to the post, so it should be fun meeting old Mrs Grumps again! But while I am at the post office,I can cross the road and go to the stationer's, and stock up on those pretty vintage images while I am there. And opposite the stationer's is a delightful café where they sell home baked cake, so I think I will have a little outing today....
I wish you all a day filled with sunshine, contentment and music. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

A sunday sketch or 2 and some mail art.

Good morning from cold, wet and windy Kaiserswerth. Who's taken the nice weather? Was I listenin' to the wrong channel when the weather men told us it would be nice?
And I'm still tired! (Well you went to bed too late again!)Need to drink enough coffee to get this written and then bath and probably another hour in bed, or 2, it's Sunday!
And Sunday means sketch day over at Sophia'a Blue Chair Diary, although I just looked at her blog and she doesn't seem to be home. Still, here's what I made.
They are dream sketches again. In the first one someone had taken my ballons away, and let them float so high that they were over the rainbow. Everyone was there, watching, but I couldn't see them again. and was cross!

It has been drawn with watercolour pencils, pencil and black ink.
The second picture has been painted with water colours. It was on of these strange dream scenes where everything was sort of wrong, although it looked normal at the time. There were large building with lots of windows, but no doors leadin in or out, the park was full of fishes and sea weed, and I was getting wild because they weren't driving in the right direction.....

And yesterday there was nothing worth while watching on TV, so I finished off my Mail-Art envelopes. Now I have 5 to bring to the post office this week . It's gonna be happy dragon day!:

I had a happy time playing with lots of stamps, old and new, and then adding other bits and pieces to finish them off.

And to end, a list of senior texting codes, sent me by friend Narda In Illinois, who always sends me something to lagh at each day!
SENIOR TEXTING CODES:


ATD -at the doctor.

BFF -best friend fell.

BTW -bring the wheelchair.

BYOT -bring your own teeth.

FWIW -forgot where I was.

GGPBL -gotta go, pacemaker battery low.

GHA -got heartburn again.

IMHO -is my hearing aid on?

LMDO -laughing my dentures out.

OMMR -on my massage recliner.

ROFLACGU -rolling on floor laughing and can't get up.

TTYL -talk to you louder!


So, I wish you all a nice Sunday, take care, and thanks for visiting!

A Mixed bag and a nice write up by Cindy Adkins.

Good morning Ladies and any Gentleman that might be out there too. I am happy to say that I slept again for nine hours, and will probably need a double portion of coffee to get me quite awake today.
A big thanks to Cindy Adkins who has featured me on her blog this morning, it is vey kind of you. Cindy has lots of awesome pictures of her blog, especially of her beautiful house, which has been rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina with an enormous amount of hard work, and is well wrth admiring, as is the lovely, feminine work she does....
I am going to visit my friend today, so we will be playing cards, chatting and nibbling all day; oh well, I suppose you can't paint and craft every day! (WHY NOT??)
I did get some things finsihed yeterday, though:
The first two pieces are a rather crazy mail art envelope, ready for the swap at Tees as soon as we know our swap partners. One shows the front, and the other the back. OMG, if I hadn't written that you would never have noticed it! (Goes off to get secong mug of coffee)

The next one is a set of 4 *tea cards* I made for the challenge at JFF where this month the challenge is to make cards llike those mini ones we used to get inside the tea packets.

And then I made a little key ring album of it, using some Brooke Bond Photos for the front and back covers:

And I got another mailart envelope done, this time using a lot of collage. It will be on its way to America next week, too.

And last but not least, I finished a little linen bag that I started a week ago. The image has been printed onto sticky backed canvas, and then given a row of stitches to make it hold better, and just a little trim with lace and ribbon. I know I should have I****d it before taking the picture, but as some of you may remember, my iron fell from the top shelf of the bottomless pit (AKA hall closet) some weeks back, and has since been discretely buried....

OK, that was it for today. I am still having probs keeping my eyes open, and my fingers are getting knots in them trying to find the right keys. Have a nice day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Woohoo, It's Paint Party Friday again!

Good morning you all! Friday again, and that means another Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. It 's been a windy and rainy night here, still seems to be rather blustery outside, but I slept likle a baby for 9 hours. Yesterday evening I visited my neighbour, and we feasted on cheese, crackers and ProSecco, a wonderful Italian fizzy wine, and It seems to give you a good night's sleep, too. I'm having light problems keeping the key board and screen focused, but I'm taking it slowly! And it's a party!!

Today I am sharing two more of my masks, one in cool blues and greens, the other in warm shades of orange and red. I love painting these faces, divided up into so many colour splashes, and every now and then I just get the urge to paint things in this style, so I do it!

And I made some more tags yesterday. The first one is for the *Spoon challenge* at *Blog Challenge Garden* where you need to make a tag with a spoon - a real one or a picture of one. I have used a spoon which I altered – and blogged – at the end of April. I have mounted it onto a tag, made from the packaging of some Prima flowers, it is a nice weight of cardstock and will not collapse when I put the spoon onto it. I just added a few floral rub-ons. The spoon shows an image of a distant relation taken back in 1916. The spoon is from my cutlery drawer, there are still way to many flying about there that never get used, so one by one they will be transformed....Watch this space!

And the two blue tags seem to be a hangover from the day before, they are just for fun.

That was it for today. Thanks for visiting, have a great day and take care!

Lots of Tags....

Good morning to you all! I hope you all slept well and are feeling fit. It's a windy day here, the trees are all being well shaken, but the weather men said that it will be blowing better weather our way, so let's hope they are right.
Yesterday I had a tag day, which was fun, as I enjoy making them. Over at the *Three Muses Blog* they are celebrating their second birthday, and the theme this week is blues, so I made a set of 3 blue tags in honour of the three lovely ladies who run the blog.

I don't usually work much with blue, but when I do I am always amazed how lovely it is, and what a variety of lovely blues there are, so I think I will try to use it more often. I distressed all of the tags with DI in faded jeans, tumbled glass, stormy skies and chipped saphire.
The first tag has some random tea stamping on the background, using stamps from Artemio and Character Constructions. The table with the lovely tea cup is also from Character Constructions, and has been stamped with archival black and then painted with water colours. I gave the cup a gold rim with an Edding, added some blue floral rub-ons and some tea cup and tea pot buttons.
The second one has been stamped with a beautiful, dressy bird and some some small birds, also from CC. Mrs Bird has been stamped, painted with water colours, cut out and decoupaged. Her hat has a feather on it, and seems to be able to fly of its own accord. I have given her a bow to match her dress, and all the birds have beady eyes. The wings got added just because they were (1) left over from the day before and (2) a very pretty shade of blue!
The third tag has a background stamped again with script and flourishes, and then little boy blue as a motive. I wonder how little boys would react today of their Nannies tried dressing them in an outfit like that? No wonder he doesn't look too happy!

Then I made two vintage tags for the challenge at *The Rubber Cafe* where the theme this week is vintage. This time I distressed the tags in Victorian Velvet and Antique linen, before stamping the backgrounds with my beloved script stamp and some flourishes. Then I added some floral rub ons to both tags. The lovely lady was a freebie from ??? I've forgotten again, she has been printed onto acetate and then fixed to the tag with glossy accents. Added a shabby bow and some beads threaded onto a piece of wire, and some lace and beads at the bottom. Et voilà!

The second tag has a vintage image of a little boy selling doves, I think he looks so adorable! The TH *Adore* adage ticket was just the ticket here.

So, I did make some more, but I think that was enough for today, as I need to get ready to go out, Havea great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

A family album

Good morning you all!
Yesterday I was totally nerved that Blogger was having attitudes again and making it difficult, if not downright impossible, to leave a comment on other people’s blogs. So I decided to work on my album, which I did, for about 12 hours, and then it was finished….Actually I had wanted to do a little bit each day, but once I had got my teeth into it, I couldn’t stop. I may still do some work on it, but I think I will leave it as it is. I have kept the journaling to a minimum, just written names and dates etc by hand.

I did not want to cover the pages, so I distressed them with antique linen and Victorian velvet, and then stamped the background with my fave script and flourish stamps in Victorian velvet. I did not always use matting. I put some scraps of non-woven fibre material behind some of the pics, or used a paper lace doiley, or just adorned the photo with lace and flowers. I did not have a plan, I just worked each page as it came, so as not to make it too rigid. The photo of my Great Grandma Rachel has been decorated with 5 little baby heads, representing her 5 children and her many grandchildren, great grandchildren – my generation – and the three newer generations which have arrived in the meantime. Then I have put photos of my Mum and me, both taken when we were 9 years old, but 30 years apart. Her photo has been framed with pink lace – thanks Lynne! – as this was her all time favourite colour. I have kept the scrapbook just to these four generations; the next generation will have to make their own. This is just for me.

I had a fun day sorting, cutting, sticking and embellishing, and I think I am pleased with the results. And I can always alter things if something else occurs to me.

Well, that really was all I did yesterday! I did not swallow any pearls instead of pills, nothing strange happened and I even cleared my mess away when I was finished!
Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!

The skeleton in the cupboard and other tales....

Good morning you all. Just managed to roll myself out of bed and stagger to the coffee machine to get myself in gear. Had strange dreams all night, and feel rather shattered just now, but I think by the third bucket of coffee I should be fine!
Yesterday I started on 2 more books. One is a concertina book, and the other is just an altered note book. The note book has been painted with gesso and then covered with decopatch paper, that has been flying around here for some years. After covering it I gave it 2 coats of mod-podge to make it a bit more finger-print resistant, added some end papers inside made from the beuatiful bags from LaBlanche, my fave crafty supplier, and added a ribbon with some beads as book mark. Now I have a pretty note and sketch book to take with me and jot down all those ideas which invariably occur when I have nothing to write on!

The second book is a concertina album. The covers are made of wood-board. I covered them first with pages from my antique book, painted them with mod podge, and added the photos when it was quite dry. The photos - of my Mum as a little girl, and my Great Auntie, were both taken in 1918, at the end of the First World War. They have been printed onto trnsfer foil and ironed onto canvas. I frayed the edges a bit before fixing them on, and then added some lace and beads. As the book can be used and opened from both sides, I will have 13 pages to use for phtos, and there are some smaller pages sewn in between, which will be nice for journaling.

I will report on the progress of the album in the next few days.

Then I made something really and truly horrible, ghastly, scary. If you are squeamish, shut your eyes before looking! There's a blog called *Haunted House Designs* where they like ghastly things, a sort of all year Halloween programme. Their challenge this week is to make *necro neckwear*! As the only 2 festivities that get celebrated in my house are halloween and my birthday (both horrible occasions!) I thought it's never to early to start making the decorations, so I'll stop rambling and show you my altered pearl necklace:

It is complete with lots of bones (Alas, poor Yorick!), wobbly eyes, a large red bead to represent gellied blood and a bell to call the dead....And I was wondering why I had bad dreams last night! What did Shakespeare say in *Hamlet* - *I could be bounded in a nutshell, and still think myself king of infinite space, were it not that I had bad dreams!*
(NB - she seems to be awake now if she's using quotes!)
And on this lovely note I will leave you for today. Have a great day, take care and thanks for visiting!

Tags, cards and ducks....

Today is Monday but it still seems to be a right sun day! Looks so lovely outside. Yesterday we had lots of showers in between the sunny spells, I suppose they were necessary, as we have not had enough rain here in the past weeks.
I had a lazy day yesterday, I worked on 2 projects I started the day before, but they have to be kept secret for a few days as they are for a birthday of a friend who occasionally looks in here, so don't want to spoil the surprise.
But I did manage a tag for Hels' *Sunday Stampers*, where the theme this time is diamonds and pearls. I was a bit wary about the pearls, as you know, I swallowed some of them down last week, but this time all went well. I cut a dress form with THs alteration die, gave her a dress out of a piece of white netting, added some bejewelled white flowers to cover up some of her bits and bo(o)bs, a pearl necklace, and a hat. Oh, and a beaded heart charm hanging from her belt. The tag background has been distressed with TH inks in gradient colours, stamped with *Love* all over, and has a few added flourishes at the sides.

It looks likes she's been dressed by one of those awful, modern designers! Poor bride!


And what else did I make? I made a card for *less is more*, but this time it seems to be neither less nor more! I will try again when I am in the right mood!

I will try again when I am in the right mood!
And I made the June Calendar picture for my friend. I gave her a calendar for Christmas, and she gets a page each month to add to it. Up till now I have been late with nearly every one, but June will be able to begin punctually! I am also entering this into the *Three Muses* Eggs Challenge.

The images - both from the *Graphics Fairy* (thanks again!) have been roughly coloured with distress inks and water colours, then clear embossed and cut out and mounted onto a 6x6" background. This will in turn be mounted onto the appropriate space on the calendar!
And I wanted to share with you another picture made in the same way as the masks yesterday, which I painted while sitting watching the ducks at the duck-pond near here:

Well, I think that was it for today. It's time for another bucket of coffee here and then I will do my tour of my buddies<' blogs to see what's new. Have a great day, thanks fo looking, and take care!