Crafting to keep warm....

Hi everybody! It's another cold, dull and frosty day here. Yesterday I was very brave again, packed myself into as many layers as I could manage and went walking along the Rhine. It was good to get out into the very fresh air, but even better to come home again to hot veggie soup!

i have been playing with cardboard again, and want to enter these 2 pieces into 2 challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show want to see something in the style we are known for, and ABAC want to have everything tied up. My style is very mixed, but I love playing with cardboard, string, scraps of this and that, and a little bit of gold and/or lace. I have loved painting and crafting as long as I can remember, and always had to use what was at hand rather than buying stuff, and I am sure this is not a bad thing! Both the tag and the hanging fit this description.

The tag has been made from distressed cardboard, some Utee gold, scraps, some home made beads and a piece of ribbon. The bead is just falling off in the first picture, but I have now used more glue to keep it where it should be.

The hanging is made from cardboard, partly peeled, painted with gesso and stamped. The matting has been made from an assortment of scraps, and my fave umbrella man is making another appearance. I love the quote I have used here, which is from Luciano De Crescenzo.

That's all for today, I need to get dressed and go for a walk - brrrrrrrrrr!

Take care, keep warm, and thanks for visiting!

It's cold outside!

Hi you all! Another cold and frosty day is closing, and today I braved the elements and went for a walk along the stream, which much to my astonishment is not frozen over; there were even ducks swimming along. This week should be getting colder and colder according to the weather men. Really not necessary, it's cold enough!
Here are some impressions from my walk along the stream. Sorry the first photo is so dark, I don't know why!

I spent the rest of the day trying to keep warm at home, and crafting. It's Tag Tuesday tomorrow, and we have reached 'C' in the alphabet, so I decided to be really original and chose 'cat' as my word.  I drew a zen-doodle cat, which I mounted onto a tag made from some card cut from some Prima packaging, it is much too nice to throw away!

And I spent several happy hours playing with cardboard - ripping, gessoing, playing with Utee and making a nice mess in my kitchen. This hanging has been made with small scraps from other projects, and an image from CI, mounted onto a square of cardboard painted with gesso and distressed with Victorian Velvet DI and gold Utee The flower has been die-cut from some ancient book paper, and dipped in clear Utee, into which I have stamped with a script stamp.

I will share the rest of the projects I made in my next post. Till then, keep warm, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Challenges

Hi you all, good evening from freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing Rhineland, brrrrrrrrrrr! It snowed again nearly all day, and when the snow stopped we had ice rain, with chaos on all roads and motorways - lovely weather to stay at home and play! 

I have made another tag for Simon Says Stamp and Show 'Lace Love' challenge. I have used a cardboard tag, partly peeled, gessoed and  embossed with Utee gold, into which I have stamped. I used my fave umbrella man again, but this time he is carrying roses home - perhaps he had a tiff with his wife and wants to show he is sorry! I have used some scraps of sack-linen, paper and lace as matting.

At Artful Times they want to see time on an ATC, here is my take on the theme. I distressed the card with ancient linen and vintage photo, then used various stamps from Paper Artsy to randomly stamp the background in Vintage Photo DI. The quote has been written using a template.

That's all for today! (Did I hear a sigh of relief?)

Keep warm, take care and thanks for visiting!

My most used stamp(s)

Hi you all, hope you are enjoying your weekend. It is very cold here still, but we didn't have any more snow today. But we will be in for some surprises in the next few days - we have warm, wet air coming from the south, and icy cold coming from the north east, and they will be meeting more or less over our heads, so we must expect snow, freezing rain and icy roads. Good excuse for me to stay home and get crafty!

At Out of a Hat Creations the ladies are asking us to use our favourite stamps, or stamps that we use most. I have such a lot of faves that this is no easy task, but there are a few stamps which I use a lot for background stamping, and I have used them here. I messed up a piece of canvas I was painting last week, the colours would not behave as I wanted. When the paint was dry, I stamped it using my script, diamond, clock, swirls, and face stamps - all from LaBlanche, using embossing ink and white EP. I stamped randomly in all directions. 

Then I used my dies to cut different things - words, umbrella men, and some bigger pieces to use for tags. I cut some little birds with a Martha Stewart punch to use up the smallest leftovers. As the canvas is rather rough, the embossing is uneven, which gives a great distressed effect.

And I made these two tags using some of my 'bits'. 

For the first one, I cut a tag from cardboard which I distressed, gave it some golden edges with Utee and added some lace and some of my embellishments. I am also entering this tag into the Simon Says Stamp and Show 'lace love' challenge.

For the second one I used the distressed background, with some coordinating embellishments for a quick tag.

I had great fun playing, as always!

Have a great weekend, take care, and thanks for visiting!

PPF - just playing with paint

Hi you all, it's Friday already and that means it's time for  Paint Party Friday again. I have been playing with colours again, splashing, spritzing, spraying and just having fun and watching what happens. I made another piece, too, but didn't like it, and it has now been stamped and cut up to start life anew as something else, but more about that in my next post.

This has been painted onto a sheet of water-colour paper, 60x40 cms. I used a fine-liner to outline some of the splodges. I had fun painting!

Here's wishing you all a great weekend, have fun, stay safe and thanks a lot for visiting!

Alpha Challenge & Altered Notebook

Hi you all! It's still very cold and icy here, it keeps snowing, and I am trying to keep warm! I am enjoying watching a family of magpies behaving like vultures eating all the food on my balcony. They get very annoyed if other birds come too near, and squawk and flap around; they keep me entertained!

At the Craft Barn there is an 'Alpha Challenge' running. The alpha this week is 'V', and we can alter dictionary pages or choose other means to show the alpha. I first thought of doing V for Valerie, but I was afraid people might think I am getting big headed, so chose V for Victoria - the Queen of England from 1837  till 1901. I made a collage, with a dictionary page - where she is mentioned - as background. I used different images of her, stamps - including the famous 'Penny Black -, a post box with her monogram, a Victorian lady and two stamped 'V' monograms. The one at the top was stamped into molten Utee extra thick EP, and the other one has been stamped onto a scrap of brown miri card, using a Tsukineko glue-pad and perfect pearls. The stamp is part of a beautiful set from LaBlanche.

I have photographed my page on my book of the Kings and Queens of England.

Here I have used a bought spiral-bound notebook from the discounter. I removed the covers, painted them with 2 coats of acrylics, and then crackled them- After that I did some random stamping in Stazon timber brown, and distressed the crackled finish with Inka Gold. The little girl has been printed onto transfer paper, ironed on to canvas, and cut out. I gave the cover 2 coats of clear varnish.

This is the inside cover with an ex libris

The little cutie close up

The back cover

Inside the back cover

So, that was it for today! Have a good day / good night as the case may be, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Tag Tuesday and more.

Hi you all! I think I need to start thinking of some elegant titles for my posts; every time I start a post I forget all the ideas I had! It's Tuesday again, so time for a new tag. Last week it was the letter 'A', which means this week is 'B'. I think it could be 'C' next week....

My theme is B for Botany. I kept the colours simple, mostly in the brown/cream range, and the flowers look dry and brown - it's winter. The butterflies are a little reminder that spring will come sooner or later!

And I have made a shadow box for the 'Things with wings' challenge over at ABAC.

The box has been covered with strips of paper, painted with bronze and gold acrylic paint, and the edges have been dipped into gold glass glitter (Say that 10 times quickly!) I filled the background with some flowers and a leaf in turquoise, and bedded the larger head, with stamped and fussy cut wings in it. The gold thistle was left over from Christmas decorations. The large wings on the smaller head have been  cut with TH's dragonfly die from paper which has been hand painted and stamped. The heads were made in a mold and polished with Inka gold in copper. 

Here I have 'framed' my shadow box, together with some other strange, winged creatures.

Have a good day you all, keep warm or cool as the case may be, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

More Challenges

Hi everybody, hope you all had a good and restful weekend and are ready to start the new week. It is still very cold here, and I woke up this morning to a white, white world - snow again! But when it is too cold to spend a lot of time outside, it's good weather to stay home and craft.... I have been practising stamping the past few days. I couldn't do any stamping for weeks as my hands were so shaky, but slowly I am getting back to doing things again. I still drop a lot of things on the floor, and have problems picking them up again, but it is much better than it was a few weeks back, so that it really good.

I have made this hanging for the Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme this week is planes, trains and automobiles. I used a square of cardboard, which I ripped, painted with gesso and decorated with  Ultra Thick EP in gold. For the background I distressed a piece of speciality stamping paper with DIs in antique linen and vintage photo, and did some random stamping with various steampunk stamps using Adirondack espresso. 

I mounted the card onto my cardboard, with some matting made from scraps of other suitable papers, and 2 die cut and distressed cogs. I added some lace, which makes a nice contrast to the 'masculine' images, and two more images which were stamped, fussy cut, and mounted with foam squares. I tied it all up with string, and added two metal cogs instead of beads.

 

It was fun to make, and I am happy that I can use my stamps again!

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