Wednesday

Good morning everybody, hope you are all well. I feel better today than I did yesterday, although I still have a cough. Hope it soon goes away, it disrupts my crafting! Yesterday I didn't feel like doing much, so I just altered some notebooks, and finished off a maze-book I started the day before. And I have some Journal pages to share with you, although I think I still need to do some work on them. The maze book has been made from Kaisercraft paper again. I used beer mats covered in red metallic paper for the covers, added a die-cut bird and some holly-leaves for decoration, and some Christmas tags in the diagonal pockets.

The notebooks have been covered with different papers, and decorated with ribbon, lace, TH branch-trees, and vintage images. They are quick and easy to make, and will, I hope, make nice little presents.

And here are the journal pages, in which I have evidently been thinking about Christmas...

I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day.

And I have another joke from Narda:

Hospital regulations require a wheel chair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet, who insisted he didn't need my help to leave the hospital.
After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator.
On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him.
'I don't know,' he said. 'She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown.'

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

Tuesday

Another day has been and gone, and I don't know where the time went. It starts getting dark really early now, and I think I need a better light for crafting in the evenings so I can see the colours properly.

Yesterday I made some *stocking fillers* - mini notebooks which are easy to put in an envelope and send as little presents. They are each made from one sheet of 12x12" double sided paper, which gets cut into six equal parts and is quicly fixed together to make the book. I haven't decorated the insides, as I think the recipients should have some room for their own notes or pictures or whatever. Each book is 4x3".

The first 2 have been made using papers from *Fancy Pants*; I have arranged the pages so that the different sides alternate.

This one has been made with *Kaisercraft* Paper:

And here I have used paper from *Webster's Pages*:

For this one I used another lovely paper from *Kaisercraft*:

The hardest thing in making these books is to cut up the beautiful paper....But I was very brave! I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day.

And to finish, another joke from Narda:

A little old man shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool... After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split.
The waitress asked kindly, 'Crushed nuts?'
'No,' he replied, 'Arthritis.'

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

Just Another Manic Monday....

Monday again, and another week has begun; let's see what it brings!
I didn't get much done yesterday, just finished some journal pages and made the Decmeber calendar sheet for my friend. I think this is the first time that I have been finished so punctually!

I started the journal pages on Friday, using some paper napkins with images of Buddha, which I applied after painting the background with red, yellow and black acrylics, sprayed with spiced marmalade ink. I then added some sayings of Buddha. I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day

And this is my big, fat journal, almost full. When it is full - I have another 10 pages - I will paint the cover so it doesn't look so shabby!

And Narda sent some jokes yesterday, so here is the first one for you:

A Couple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember ..
Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair. 'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he asks.
'Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?'
'Sure..'
'Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?' she asks.
'No, I can remember it..'
'Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so as not to forget it?'
He says, 'I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.'
'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she asks.
Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!'
Then he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, The old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.. She stares at the plate for a moment.
'Where's my toast ?'

Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Sunday Sunday

Hi everybody! I'm a bit later blogging today, as I had a sleep-over at my friend's yesterday. We had a fun *old girls'* day, with the usual mixture of chatting, coffee, biscuits, eating, chatting, coffee, biscuits and playing cards and Kniffel - a dice game. I did remember to take my net book, and internet-stick etc, but forgot that the pictures I wanted to show you were on my computer here at home - duh!
This is a little Xmas maze-book from Friday;

I used one sheet of Kaisercraft paper for the pages, the covers have been made with beer-mats covered in some hand-made Indian paper. I used different scraps etc out of my stash for the decorations, and the little bird is a Sizzlets die cut.
I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day.
Okay, that was it for today. Hope you are all having a great day; I am off to do some crafting before it starts getting dark. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Santa's Elves are working Overtime....

Yesterday I managed to get a lot done - including some housework and washing! I had to write that, it doesn't happen here that often! But the main part of the day was taken up with making tags and some other Xmas things. I had the whole table full of tags and all the bits and pieces I need for them, I had Stickles and glitter everywhere - including in my hair and on my face, and felt a bit like a house Elf. Those of you who are Harry Potter fans will know what I am talking about. At least I was an assistant Elf to Santa for one day! I had to take the photos in batches this time, as it started getting dark early and I had to be quick. The tree tags are similar to those I made recently, just used a different TH embossing folder, and the other ones are more *musical*. I took 2 large sheets of notes out of a book, and glued them to a sheet of dark green card-stock before cutting the tags. A strip was left over, and I will make 2 book marks from it. But not today! The musical ones have been dressed up with lace and ribbon and silver mesh, I had fun making them!

I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day
So, I think that was enough for today. I made a mini book, too, but I will save it for tomorrow. Here's wishing you all a great day. Take care of yourselves, and thanks for dropping in!

Paint Party Friday 36 and a Story

Another week has sped by and it's Friday already, which means it's time for Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. If you have time, please hop over and take a look at what the others have been up to,
It's my turn to carry on the *Never-ending-story* over at Amy's Blog this week, so I wrote a rather short continuation of the story, and painted a picture to go with it. You can read the rest on Amy's blog under *Once upon a time* if you feel like it.
My illustration is a mixed media piece. I painted the background with 2 shades of blue and a spot of yellow using a wide foam brush. The waves have been painted with the same colours, using paint a bit thicker. The flying horse has been stamped onto a page from an old lexicon, cut out, and coloured with water-colour pencils. The wings have been cut with a Sizzix die-cut out of the same paper. I drew the red-haired girl on a scrap of card, coloured her with water-colour pencils again, and used lots of ice-stickles to give some glitter. For the horse's mane I used some reflex pearls embedded in glossy accents to give more texture. After sticking it all together, and nearly getting stuck to the paper myself, I added a few gold stars, a moon, and more stickles for glitter and shine, and then it was done.
This is my part of the story:


What had happened?
The blue horse held his breath, his heart beat faster, and he was afraid, more afraid than he had ever been in all his life. Where had the beautiful red-haired girl disappeared to? The mist swirled round him, blinding him, and suddenly, he was falling – down, down, down. He whinnied in fright, but at that moment he landed softly on something that felt like a huge cloud, and then he felt a hand touching his mane….
It was the red haired girl, who sobbed with relief that they had found each other again.

They looked at each other, and she held him tight till she could stand without shaking. Then they looked around to see where they were. It seemed to be a big cavern, with an enormous pile of white feathers in the middle, from which a long, narrow passageway led.

Without speaking they went towards it, although it was dark and cold. She held tight to his curly, blue mane. They walked for many, many hours. They were both hungry and exhausted. Suddenly they both stopped in their tracks. They could see a tiny light ahead of them. This gave them new strength, and they started to run as fast as they could, towards the ever-growing light, till they were free.

They were standing on a pebbly beach, looking at a seemingly endless sea. The moon and stars were shining brightly in the sky, and reflecting on the waves like little diamonds.

“Climb onto my back,” said Blue Pegasus. I will fly you home….”

While I was looking through the old lexicon, I found a bank note to the value of 500 million marks!! printed at the time of the great inflation in 1923, and at the time probably not worth the paper it was printed on. But interesting to find, and still in mint condition after nearly 90 years!

I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day.

Well, this post has almost become the never-ending-story, so I'd better stop. Here's wishing you all great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Another cold and frosty day.

Yesterday morning when I got up the sun was just rising, and the frost was sparkling on the fields; it was so lovely I had to run out onto my balcony - in my pajamas! - and take some pictures of the start of a wintry day:

I needed to do a bit of shopping yesterday, but I waited till the sun had melted the ice on my windscreen; I HATE having to scrape the ice off before I can get going! And I spent most of the rest of the day in my arty kitchen, painting my journal pages, making cards and drinking coffee. This time I have changed from geese to turkeys in my journal pages, as I am sure a lot of them will not be looking forward to Thanksgiving! I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day

I am hoping the weather will be just as nice today, so that I can go for a walk along the Rhine. Here's hoping you all have a great day. Take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!