Sunday Sketches and Catching Up on Challenges

Yesterday was a good day. I stayed home, didn't go shopping, didn't tread in paint - I just had a nice day crafting. Before I could start, though, I cleared my table as much as possible, so that I had room to work. I can actually see the table top now!

Over at Sofia's *Blue Chair Diary* it's time for Sunday Sketches. I want to share a couple of the sketches from my *75 days, 75 sketches* book. I have completed 19 sketches up till now; some passable, some good and a lot bad, but I am practising and learning. In the past few days I have been sketching everything in my top drawer, and things flying about on my working space!

Then I spent some time catching up on challenges. The first one is for *Try it on Tuesday* where we had to use an old stamp. I used one that I have had for 3 years and never used, it's just not what I like, but i think it's made quite a fun tag. The background has been distressed and sprayed, and the image - from LaBlanche- has been stamped with soot black and embossed with black EP.

The second tag is for the GC 115 at Gingersnaps, Tribute to Teens. I have used an image from Scrollsworks. The background has been distressed and sprayed. The film strip has been printed onto acetate. The text round the edges reads: *Teens - the time when the film of life starts to get faster, and then runs wild before getting normal again*

The card has been made for a challenge at Splitcoast stampers, using scraps and 2 images from Crafty Secrets, which were among the things Jan kindly sent me. The love heart was made for another project, where it didn't look right, so I cut it through the middle and turned it into wings.

And last but not least, I got another parcel yesterday, this time from Narda, who sent me an assortment of crafting goodies and embellishments - silk roses in all colours, dimensional die-cuts. bows, bling and rhinestones galore, ribbons, and the most wonderful sequined, beaded and crocheted bands, so I am going to have fun with these things. It was a bit like Xmas for me this week, I feel really overwhelmed from the kindness of friends. Thanks a lot, Narda!

Okay, I will save the other things for tomorrow, this post is long enough! Have a good Sunday, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

The weekend is here.

Hi everybody, it's weekend again. Yesterday I went to my friend Inge's and spent the day with her. I had a very big surprise when I went down to my car, as the windscreen was iced over. This must have been the first frost night here in this autumn. Last Saturday it was 30°, hot and sunny and the temps have dropped a lot, especially during the night. I think I can start looking forward to Halloween!
And when I got back home in the evening I needed to do a bit of crafting. I didn't manage a lot, just my journal, but that was fun. I had some remnants of paint over from the day before, so I smudged them around the edge of the pages using a paper nib, after spraying a bit of diluted re-inker on the pages. And my pages once again reflect the colours of autumn. I added some little drawings in black ink, a few quotes about autumn and some journalling, and that was it. Today I am going to try to do something different. The journal is a good way experimenting, with everything - the good and the bad, kept together, to look back on. Learning by doing.

Ans as it's Saturday, another joke from Narda:

Little Susan was mother's helper. She helped set the tablewhen company was due for dinner. Presently everything was on, the guest came in, and everyone sat down. Then Mother noticed something was missing.

"Susan," she said, "You didn't put a knife and fork at Mr. Smith's place."

"I thought he wouldn't need them," explained Susan.
"Daddy says he always eats like a horse!"


Today I plan on having a quiet day at home, crafting, reading and resting. Hope you all have a great day, too. Take care of yourselves, and thanks for visiting.

PPF and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Hi Everybody! Another week has been and gone in the wink of an eye, and it's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted by Eva & Kristin. I want to share a painting I made of my dog *Struppi*, many, many years ago, in 1979. I dreamt of her last night, and in my dream she was looking at me just like she is doing in the picture. She was the best dog we ever had. The picture hung for years at a friend's house, who gave it back to me a year or so ago. The gold round the edges was not from me, someone must have tried to dress it up, I had a dark brown, shadowy edge which I liked better. But I was pleased to get the painting back!

And I would like to share my journal pages which I made yesterday. The pages have been painted with water colours, then stamped using TH *barn door*. I added some Halloween die-cuts and some verses about autumn. I can't seem to get away from this colour scheme at the moment; the autumn colours just make me feel good.

And now for the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY.

The Good - I got a wonderful parcel from Jan yesterday, full of goodies. I was really overwhelmed at her generosity, and will be having fun playing with all my stamps and embellies and other lovely things in the coming time!

Many, many thanks Jan, for a thoughtful and more than generous gift!

The Bad - is dropping some red paint onto the kitchen floor, treading in it with bare feet, and spreading it through the whole apartment. By the time I noticed it it had dried, and I had to crawl round on my knees to scrape it off the floor.

The Ugly - I got post from the town authorities again today. My car had exceeded the speed-limit while exiting the Rhine Tunnel again, and I have to pay 15€. They sent a photo as proof. Now I am wondering - who is this fat and ugly old woman who keeps driving my car too fast?!

Surely this can't be me?

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

Play-Time

Hi everybody, hope you are all well and fit. We had a chilly night here, and it is still really nippy this morning. My visit to the dentist wasn't tooooooooooooooo bad yesterday, the next appointment is in 10 days, so I have time to recover before then!

I was back home early, so had plenty of *play-time*. I did some more painting on my little chest of drawers, and I think it is slowly getting done. If I had known how long it would take to paint it I wouldn't have started, but after 4 coats of paint It seems to be all-white. Now I can do the other bits and bobs.

I also managed my journal pages, and 2 tags. The first tag is for the *Three Muses* autumn challenge, the second one came into being while fiddling about with all the odds and ends littering my table, and believe me, there were enough to choose from. Now I have half of my working space cleared, which is a lot for me. The Three muses tag has been distressed with wild honey and forest moss, and then stamped with leaves (Lavinia Stamps) The leaf is made up of three stamps, so you can use a different colour for each lyer to give a real autumn look. The sentiment has been computer generated and printed onto a transparency. I have hidden a little witch among the leaves and toadstools; Halloween is coming nearer.

And this is the *Remains of the Day Week* Tag:

In the journal pages I have used a poem I wrote 2 years ago, about scrapping - what else? The stamps I used were also ones which were flying about on the table before I cleared up, and I made some outline drawings of other things - pencils, scissors, ruler etc. The strange assortment of scraps were all - you've guessed it! picked off my table, but I think they are a part of every scrapper's life.

So, I think that was enough for today. Hope you all have a great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

A day of washing and challenges

Yesterday I didn't have to go anywhere, so decided to have a nice day at home. Well, it would have been nicer without doing the washing. As you will know by now, h*******k is not my strong point. Now, doing the washing isn't really bad, but as the washing machine is in the cellar and I live on the second floor, it means a lot of running up and down 3 flights of stairs....oh well, that was also my sport training for this week; getting 4 machines of washing done and dried means a lot of running!
I used the time in between to catch up on some challenges, which I somehow haven't managed to get round to in the past few days. I made an easel card which is for 2 challenges; the vintage one at *Just for Fun* and GC 117, Gal pals, at *Gingersnaps*. I have used a *nice* vintage stamp from Lost Coast Designs, which I bought at the Stamp Mecca on Sunday. The image has been stamped with brown Stazon, cut out and decoupaged onto a patterned background. For the easel I used a pretty, lacy card which I was given on Sunday, and added 3 tiny rhinestones to the front.
Inside the card I added some vintage lace and a rose image. I like the sentiment, which has a little twist to it....

Then I made a tag for the GC 116, Primary Colours, also at Gingersnaps. I distressed the background with wild honey ink, and stamped the pattern with a LaBlanche Collage Stamp in fired brick. I added a vintage bird image, some blue ribbon and blue flowers.

The last - rather crazy -tag I made is for Rebecca's Challenge at *Blog Challenge Garden*. This week Rebecca wants to see a flower pot, and she wants us to think outside the box (pot). She said we could fill the pot with whatever we wanted, so I did....

Now, if you are expecting some pictures of my washing, you are going to be disappointed....
I have to go to the dentist's again today, so please think of me!
Have a lovely day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

The day after the day before....

Yesterday my head was still full of our lovely day at the Stamp Mecca on Sunday. I think we all need days like that here and there to top up our energy levels and just make us feel good.
Yesterday was a busy day. I did more work on my little chest of drawers, but am not yet happy how it looks, so will have to work on it some more. I had my doctor's appointment, too, and it's a drive of about an hour each direction, but at least there wasn't too much traffic. Then I went for a walk with B's doggy Emily, and on the way back it was so windy that her ears were flying in the wind; it looked so funny! She's a dear little thing. I did my shopping on the way home, so by the time I arrived here I was hungry and thirsty and needed a big mug of coffee to revive me. Anyway, after all that I didn't feel like doing too much of anything else, so I just did my journal pages while watching TV. I used the tickets from Sunday, and some of the visiting cards and other things I collected there, and made a collage. I used some gessoed tissue paper on the right page, to cover up two ink spots which had seeped through from my extravagant use of ink on the page before. The hand is mine, I drew round my hand on a scrap of patterned paper, and fixed it with gesso too. The background was a quick one, made by blending ink over some sequin waste. I made sure that the date for the next stamp fair is on the page, too, and an invitation to another one in Holland. And every time I look, I will be reminded of our lovely day out.

So that was all for today. Hope a great day, take care and thanks for visiting!

A Visit to the *Stamp Mecca* in Hagen

Yesterday I went with my friend B to a craft fair in Hagen, a town about one hour's drive from here. We set off early - which is why I didn't get round to blogging yesterday - and were there as they opened the doors to let us in. What a wonderful sight met our eyes - stamps, paper, inks, paints, sprays, and much, much more - it was difficult to know where to start. So first we went round and looked and admired everything, and all of a sudden we were each holding several bags filled with this and that, and I didn't even intend to buy anything. I think there's a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions - but the roads we trod yesterday led us straight into a crafter's heaven. Those crafty things just seem to jump off the shelves and into our baskets! In between we went to the cafeteria there for coffee and waffles to strengthen us. The people were all friendly, happy and chatty. People from the USA, Germany, and various other European countries were selling their goods, and the visitors had also come from lots of different places. There were make-and-takes to join in, demonstrations to watch, and people always willing to give tips and advise. We did two make-and-takes with a lovely crafter called Michael from Strong Stamps, a native of California with a sunny temperament and full of good ideas. It was really good to see such a lot of new things and tank up with fresh ideas. By the time I got home yesterday evening I was completely knocked out, my legs were killing me, but I was happy.

On Saturday I made a good start on my chest of drawers. I had to give it 3 coats of white paint till it was really white, and now I just need to do the drawers, but first I have to buy some masking tape today. Then when it's all freshly painted, I will grunge it up a bit, and then I can show it!

And I made my challenge tag for the Dragon's TIO. The dragon has been dreaming of red wine, and wanted to see mostly red tags. I started with a white tag, which I stamped with a background stamp from LaBlanche, using DI in barn door and poppy red EP from Zing. I added an image from my stash, a red heart, some red backing paper, a red paper clip and a red rose. And to finish it off a red ribbon. Hope that was enough red!

And as I had the red ink out, I did a spread for my scribble journal using a lot of red and yellow ink, and had a good time flicking the ink around. As the colours fitted well to autumn, I used the *prototype* from my Autumn fairy, added a tree, a mushroom, and some thoughts about the magic of childhood. Was fun to make, and good to do something different again.

So, that was it for today. Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!