More glittery tags, the August ATCs and Freddie's family back again....

Some of you may remember my saga of Freddie & his family, who were always bungee-jumping right in front of my window, just there where I sit at the computer. Well, they were outside on the balcony, and I was inside, but who wants to be spied on and observed by artful spiders who spun off to the roof where I couldn't get them as soon as I went onto the balcony with vengeance on my mind and a spider splatter or spray in my hand.
For the last few weeks, one of them has once again taken up residence on my balcony. This time at the left side, at the front, and it sky-dives upwards to the balcony above if I go anywhere near it. OK, As long as it stays that way, I don't mind tooooooooooo much, although it is growing and growing and I feel very threatened by its antics.
But yesterday evening.....I went into my bedroom to close the curtains, and saw something black moving on the ceiling....I automatically scan all rooms when I go into them to make sure they are spider - free, and this one wasn't! It wasn't really a large one. But as Einstein taught us, everything is relative, and any spiders bigger than a pin-head are large. And according to this way of thinking, this one was very large, at least an inch - including legs. What a dilemma. I did not want to use an insect spray, as they are not good for my asthma, and especially not in my bedroom. Then I remembered Trick 17 - hair-spray. I always have a large can in the bathroom, which I don't use, because it also sets off asthma atacks.(Well, what I mean is, that I don't use the hair-spray, I have to use the bathroom from time to time!) It's the extra strength, long time hold from *ALDI'S*, so I held my breath and gave three blasts at the spider. It did start to move away, but that was even worse, because I could never have slept there with a spider in the room and not knowing if it was dead, alive, or just waiting.....I didn't want to use the hoover, as it was nearly one a.m., and I did not want to wake up the (sometimes) rather crabby old lady who lives downstairs. What to do?? Decided to try with a perfume spray. Got it as a present from one of my old ladies last year, a sweet and very cloying smell, rather reminiscent of flowers at a graveyard. So, I held my breath again and gave it three sharp blasts - no reaction, it was still running round the corner of my bedroom, jigging around, and causing my blood pressure to rise. I did even wonder if this was the sort of emergency that would justify ringing the fire brigade, but didn't fancy having to explain it all to them on the phone. Anyway, they refuse to take off their boots before they come in, and I didn't want that, either!! So it had to be the hoover. I up-ended it so it wouldn't vibrate too much on the floor, stretched the tube upwards, and swoooooooooooooooosh - the spider was gone. *Another spider gone to rest, safe at last on Abraham's breast; ashes to ashes, dust to dust, If the Spray don't get you the hoover must!* Switched the hoover off very quickly before anyone could locate where the noise was coming from, took the hairspray and perfume back to the bathroom, washed my hands, and went for a drink of water to calm down....
Five minutes later, as I crept back into my bedroom, all was quiet save for the ticking of the clock. But the smell of perfume and hair-spray with a hint of hoover dust was somehow evocative of an oriental brothel (NOT that I have ever been in one!!) And with this smell in my nostrils I slept and dreamt of - I'm not going to tell!!
Well, after reading all that, you have deserved to see the pics - 4 new glittery tags in mini-size and the four ATCs I made for the August swap on DC. Thanks for looking by!

Another glittery tag and some flower cards.

Had a bad day yesterday, so didn't get round to much, but managed to make one glittery tag using TH's *alteration* die, but with a fairy in the cage instead of a bird. My friend Inge got a most wonderful rose given to her last week, a really giant one in a bautiful terracotta colour, so I had to take a pic. And then I made her 4 simple letter cards, all the same, so she will be able to think of her rose for a long time. Thanks for looking!

A lazy day and some glittery tags....

Today was cold and wet. It poured all day, adding water to the flooded areas in East Germany, who must be having a terrible time.
I decided to make the best of the day and just be lazy. It was too cold to have a pyjama day, but sweat shirt and joggers are comfy,too. After drinking lots of coffee to get awake, I managed to get some post ready, filled out some forms, and got it all in envelopes ready to take to our post office tomorrow. There's a new lady now, she even knows the prices, is efficient and friendly....wonder how long she will be staying there?
On DC we are doing a glittery tag swap, so I decided to practice. Got 4 large and 4 small tags cut, distressed, stamped and glittered with *Stickles*. Good tip - (Maria, please note, this time I have written *tip* and not....)don't answer the phone when you have *Stickles* on your fingers....perhaps we could do a swap for glittery phones?
Decorated the tags with everything-to-hand again, one has gadget gears cut from grunge board, distressed, partly embossed with bronze, powdered with perfect pearls and fixed with buttons. The other two have half a *fanciful flight* dragonfly on them. Each has a word - cut from my *Chocolate kisses* box - as decoration. They are more sparkly in *real* as in the pics, as it is difficult to get them at the right angle to photograph them. Had fun making them, perhaps I will get the others done tomorrow, today is my lazy day....

Yet again more tags....

Actually, I wasn't planning on making any tags, Just though I would play with my TH *Gadget gears* die. Wasn't sure if I really like it. Good news. I LOVE it!! Cut some gears out of different materials - cardboard, which I partly peeled, the brown *honeycomb* paper that you sometimes get on top of choccies, and some shiny gold card that is inside the boxes of Aldi's *chocolate kisses* - I of course ONLY buy them to get the nice golden card for making die cuts, then I have to eat them up so as not to waste. As this has already wasted my waist to the form of a well stuffed sausage, I suppose I might as well carry on.....
Well, back to the tags. Used some card from a tissue box to cut the tags, and covered them with scraps of K & Co paper which has sayings written all over it. Then I rubbed each one with *Stickles* - rubbed it on with my finger to give a nice shine, (on the card, not on my finger!!) and let them dry. In the meantime, I was able to nibble on a few chocolate kisses and distress the cardboard die cuts with ink, some bronze embossing powder, and a sprinkling of perfect pearls in electric blue. Then I decorated the tags with the usual mixture of this and that, fixed the gadget gears with decorative buttons and a giant press-stud and some ribbons to tie the buttons on. The press-stud has been given some gold-leaf edging and then some *glossy accents*. They have turned out a bit different to my usual ones, but I like them, too, and I have managed to use up a lot of scraps in the process ( and enjoy *chocolate kisses!!!*) Thanks for looking! *Everything's good when it's made out of chocolate!*

An outing to Zons, a little mediaeval town.

Zons is a little town near Dormagen, between Neuss and Cologne. It was first mentioned in the 7th century, so it is really rather antique....It used to be one of the places which grew rich on the customs and excise they got from the ships taking their wares along the Rhine....tax is evidently no recent invention!! We drove to Benrath, past the castle there, and then found the leafy lane leading down to the Rhine ferry. We only had to wait a few minutes till the ferry came, and then we drove on. The ferry man came and collected our fares, and by the time we had paid we were already over on the other side. The Rhine is very full at the moment, if the water gets much higher, then the ferry can't cross over. We walked from the car-park past some sheep, which were grazing on the meadows, and then discovered a statue of a Bishop standing there, so we went and greeted him. Then we strolled around the walls, admired the old houses & Inge tried to climb the walls. One of the pictures shows some little silvery plaques, they show how high the floods were in some years. The next pic shows one marker right up at the top of the arch, that was in 1798 and must have been a very frightening flood. We saw some strange *creatures* outside a shop selling lots of fantastic things that nobody really needs but a lot of people like to have....And we met a very friendly white dog, keeping watch in front of his house, and enjoying *talking* to all who went by. We had a nice lunch in an old pub, and then drove home via another route, along the Rhine, through Neuss, a town with a lot of Roman and mediaeval ruins, and then over the bridge in Düsseldorf before driving back to Inge's place. There we enjoyed our coffee and a few games of skipbo before I drove home. I found a nice video of Zons on You Tube, here is the link if anyone is interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znj1R5YQuts.
All in all, a nice day, in nice company.

Damsel in distress again....

....And more tags had to suffer with distress ink from TH, die cuts, stamps etc. Was, as usual, great fun to make, and cheered me up a bit. Used TH alteration dies - dragonfly & bird in a cage, and a sparrow from Sizzix - one of my favourite dies. The backgrounds have been distressed with stormy skies, wild honey, victorian velvet and bundled sage, and the the text has been stamped with forest moss and / or archival black. The dragonfly and sparrow have been embossed with clear embossing powder. Used prima flowers, a LaBlanche clock stamp and some bits and bobs from my magic tins for decorating. The edges have been distressed and decorated with faux stitching. Thanks for looking!

Great minds think alike - or some ATCs made and received

Some ATCs are more fun to make than others, as the themes just appeal more....or less!!
Here is a selection of those done in the last few months; some with the theme *It's a man's world* - how true! sent to Karen; some of my favourite animal - naturally a cow, as my home is full of them, as pics, clocks, lights, tables etc - which were sent to Joanne (who unfortunately didn't get round to saying if she got them or not!), and then *my fave holiday* as theme. I was wavering between Paris and New York, but as I didn't have any suitable embellies for NY, it just had to be Paris. The tags went to Alma and to Susie J. On the day I sent mine off, I got a letter with my ATC and two beautiful tags from Susie, and had to really laugh out loud, as we had both chosen the same theme - as I said at the beginning, *Great minds think alike!* The first pic shows Susie's beautiful tag, the others are my efforts!
P.S. The ATCs for this mo nths butterfly swap are all done and dusted, but I can't show the pics till they have been posted and reached their destinations!!