Friday is party time

Hi you all, once again it's time for Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin. Today I am sharing a little water-colour picture I made  many years ago in Israel. I painted it from an old postcard of Rachel's Tomb, near Bethlehem. It is very small, as I didn't have many paints or much paper in those days, and I could not see well enough today to paint such a lot of detail on such a small scale (3x2"). I discovered a few such pics whilst clearing up, so perhaps it is quite good to have a sort out here and then!

The second piece is for the alpha challenge, letter 'H' over at The craft Barn. I chose Hedgehog as my word, and have once again let Mrs Tiggy-Winkle be the star. I printed her onto tissue paper, which I mod-podged onto my page, after giving it a quick coat of gesso. When it was dry, I coloured the image and surroundings using prismalo water-colour pencils and a water pen. The hedge-kids have been stamped with a LaBlanche stamp, one that I like very much, but never use....The eyes have been highlighted with glossy accents. This was fun to make, it takes me back many years!

I am also linking to Simon Says Stamp and Show, who want to see a stamp we don't much use.

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Edible art

Hi you all! Hope you are all well, fit and creative, and not wasting time with things like H*******K! I had to do a little of it today,  so decided to bake a cake as a consolation prize. I made a French lemon cake; it has no butter in it, just cream and eggs and sugar and other little things. I am sure it doesn't have too many calories, and if it does, I don't really care! I took a piece to my neighbour, so hope he enjoyed it, too.

And I made myself a mug of cappuccino, with lots of foamy milk to go with it, and enjoyed my afternoon.

Hope you all had a good day, too! Take care, and thanks for coming by!

Altered Matchboxes & hearts

Hi you all! Another cold and grey day here, but not as cold as it was.

Got a nice surprise yesterday evening, though - I won the challenge at Fashionable stamping, that nice random number generator chose me! This is a good week, as I also won a prize in Gaby's giveaway.

The matchboxes have been made for the 'out of a hat' challenge'. The I added a chipboard tag to the first one, after covering the box with paper and painting the tray inside black.  I added the lady, a feather and a flower to decorate it. Inside there is a heart and a key. The second one has been covered and lined with scraps of script paper. The pen-nibs have been cut out, rolled and glazed to make them look real. Inside the box is an old letter. The pen behind the box has been stamped, rolled and glazed.

The hearts were made as a Christmas decoration....I just found them again as I was looking for the box with eggs to decorate.... I hope I find them at the right time next time I want to use them. They have been made with sequins pinned onto foam hearts.

That's all for today. Have a good day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Tag Tuesday

Where does the time go? Today is Monday, which means tomorrow is Tuesday, and time for another Tag Tuesday Tag. We have arrived at 'H' in our ABC tags, and I chose H for Hedgehog, and for me that means none other than Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. She is busy hanging out the washing - a woman's work is never done - and sees that one of her littl'uns is trying to scarper off to play with his friends. I don't think he will get far!

This is a little book (A5) I made recently. The covers have been made from the back of a sketch block, cut in two, painted first in terracotta and then in cream, before adding a layer of crackle medium. I did some background stamping on the covers before adding the photo of Erika, an old lady whom I cared for till she died 4 years ago. No matter how old she was, she always had to be properly dressed, her hair set and her nails long and red! She loved lace and jewelry and everything that was pretty, so I put some lace around her picture. The images were printed onto canvas, which gives a nice texture.

This shows the reverse.

Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Heavy Metal

Hi you all! It's been another cold, grey day here, with lots of snow. And I have had enough of it! The weather men have promised that the temps will start to climb a bit this week, and that we will see the sun again - I so hope that they are right! And to make matters worse, I had to spend my time doing the book-keeping for a charitable group I am in. I don't know WHY I got this job, as I am really lousy at math and everything to do with it, but today was the day to get it done. I have got it nearly finished, so that's one nightmare less!

The card I have made today is for the 'heavy metal' challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show. I stuck some strips of aluminium tape from the discounter onto a piece of cardboard packaging, embossed it with a texture fade folder, and 'aged' it with Inka gold in pewter and archival black. You can't see the joins in the tape once it has been embossed and treated. Then I cut TH's old jalopy, and wings and a heart from it.  I mounted it onto a piece of Miri board in gunmetal grey, and added a red tin heart that I got some time back from Donna , who often sends me nice odds and sods bits and bobs from Mexico. I matted it with a square of red card before fixing it to a piece of cardboard, peeled (as far as the eye can see) and distressed with Inka gold in pewter again. I found the 4 snap-fasteners for the corners in my button box.

The magazine in the background of some of the photos is from 1913. Miri board is almost impossible to photograph without reflections, so you can see me - luckily very indistinctly - in the background.

I am also linking to the Craft-Room Challenge - something for a man.

I was pleased to see my entry for the 'E' page at the Craft Barn dictionary challenge has been chosen for the 'wall of fame'. I did a page about even numbers. Now I have to decide what to do for 'H'. Making decisions is always a problem!

That's all for today, hope you all have a good start into the new week. Take care and /or have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!

More journal pages.

Hi you all, hope you are enjoying your weekend! It is very cold here, there's snow on the ground, an icy wind and no blue skies. But in my kitchen it was warm, so I had fun creating a journal spread for the last lesson in Carolyn's course 'Use your words'. There is still time to join up and do the lessons at your leisure, just hop over and sign up! The theme for this lesson was 'Playful tag trios'. I decided to make this page as a thank you to Carolyn for hosting this free and fun course. I started, as (almost) always by spraying my pages, letting them drip, and adding some background stamping using rusty hinge DI, which coordinated wonderfully with the spray inks. The same sprays were used on my tag trio, which were cut from a spare strip of paper, and the same background stamps, this time without using DI, just stamping into the wet colours and moving it around a bit. When they were dry, I stamped them with some words in archival black. I wanted a photo of Carolyn, so used the one on her blog, which I printed onto tissue paper,  before fixing it to my page with golden gel. I added the tags, and the message on the right hand side, a bit of stamping here and there, and a crown for Carolyn for giving us such a great opportunity to join in her course.

Thanks again Carolyn, thanks to you all for visiting, and have fun!

Paint Party Friday

Hi you all, another week has flown by and it's party time again! Paint party Friday is hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

I have been busy this week with journal pages for Carolyn's workshop 'Use Your Words'. This journal spread is for the last lesson we had, laugh and play with fonts.

I masked 'my' head before spraying with my home made inks - made from a mix of food colouring, water, perfect pearls, cheap ink from the Euro shop and a lot of hope and guess work. I let it drip, and splodged some gold ink on to it while it was still wet. Once dry, I stamped the 'filling' for my head, using stamps from Paper Artsy, Artemio and LaBlanche. The words have been stencilled using the 'waste' from a sheet of alphas I used up years ago, it's sometimes quite good to keep things till you need them!

The other pages which I made this week can be seen here.

Here's wishing you all a good day, take care, have fun, and thanks for visiting!

Dreaming of London....

Hi you all! After the glorious weather yesterday, today was cold, wet and misty, and there seems to be worse in store for the rest of the week. Oh well, bad walking weather is good crafting weather. I have made this piece for the Vienna Impressions Challenge Blog, where there is a sketch to follow, and a theme of *Reisen* - travel, and you must use a book page or writing in a foreign language. Here in Germany, English IS a foreign language.  I used cardboard, painted with gesso and inked for the background. The printed paper is part of an indenture I have here, which I photographed and printed. I chose London for my journey, as that is where I would like to be. The stamps in the centre panel are from  Artemio, the London script with bus and the London Eye from Stampendous. I love the London stamps, as they remind me of home, especially Tower Bridge, as I was born just a stone's throw from there.

I used some scraps, string and home made paper beads as embellies.

Tomorrow I really must spend some time doing the dreaded H*******K!

Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Sunny Monday, Tag Tuesday and a Pig's Ear

Hi you all! Today we saw the sun again - what a wonderful feeling! It is still very cold, but it just did good to see the blue sky and the sun sparkling on the Rhine. I went for a nice walk, through the park and our little town, and really enjoyed being out in the fresh air without freezing stiff or trying to see through the mist! The weather will be worsening in the course of the week, we have icy winds and snow on its way from the north east, but it felt good to have a nice day today.

But first to Tag Tuesday. Our letter this week is 'G'. I had problems deciding again which word to take, and then I stuck my neck out and chose giraffe. I made a simple tag, long and narrow, using a scrap of printed paper mounted onto cardboard.. I added the giraffe at the bottom, and drew the 'G' at the top, before fitting a giraffe's head onto it. 

These are some of the pics I took here today, showing some of our narrow, cobbled  lanes:

the grammar school:

hazel catkins in the park:

(a sign that spring is on the way?)

a peep through a gate:

and another one:

one of the wider roads:

Another little alley:

Looking down Mill Lane:

And this statue of somebody parked high on the wall of a house:

And last, but definitely not least - When I got home, I met my neighbour, who had just come back from shopping. He had goodies in one of his bags - fresh 'pig's ears' from the baker's. They are giant pieces of very sugary and crispy puff pastry, dipped into chocolate to make sure you eat enough calories.....yummy! This was my reward after a lovely walk! I think it looks as though it is smiling!

Have a great day, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Fun with stamping

Hi you all, hope you are enjoying a restful Sunday. I have been enjoying getting messy and inky again, playing with stamps and colours. My hands are a lot less shaky than they were, but I still have difficulties, and I think it is important that I get plenty of practice.

The first piece is a card made for 2 challenges; the birds and or bees challenge at Out of a Hat Creations, and a second entry for the Fashionable stamping challenge 'Birds'. I was happy that I was chosen to be in the 'Saturday Spotlight' at FSC for my share some love entry which you can see here if you want to.

I stamped a background using my much loved script stamp in vintage photo DI, and the nest and bird - both from Catherine Moore - have been stamped with Adirondack espresso, fussy cut, and popped up with foam squares. I gave them a glint in their eyes with a drop of glossy accents. I used various scraps to cut the background matting, and threaded a ribbon through some slits between the punched paper lace. The little wooden bird is from Crafty emblies. I love doing monochrome stamping, as it reminds me of the prints in old books.

The second piece is also for 2 challenges;  'Eyes' at Try it on Tuesday, and  'Colour technique' at Artful Times.

I masked the middle of the card, and stamped the script, flourishes and leopard with archival black. Then I removed the masking, and added the 'Eyes' stamp in the middle. I used DI in wild honey, forest moss and tumbled glass for the background, and added some highlights with white, yellow and turquoise jelly pens. The eye stamp is from Paper Artsy, the others all from LaBlanche. If you look carefully, you will find more eyes hidden in the picture - can you find them? This is really a bit crazy, definitely not CAS!

I have used this piece to make my April calendar page.

All in all a fun Sunday for me, but I still haven't tidied up my kitchen: Perhaps next week!

Have a great day, whatever you are up to, stay creative, and thanks a lot for visiting!