Less is more Challenge and just playing around.....

Yesterday I started playing with some of my new stamps. I loved the cube with geometric shapes and a gingko leaf that I got from Hein design, and combined it with another stamping-cube that I bought from them last year, and my new tiger and leopard stamps, and just played around, which is very therapeutic.
This card has been made for *Less is More* masculine cards.

I have kept the 6" square card very simple again, one layer, a coloured square and Mozart in profile, and instead of a sentiment some notes and his name.

The next piece is a contrast programme. I made it for *Try it on Tuesday* *Chocolate* theme, and then fell asleep on the couch last night and forgot to upload it. But as it as planned as a little present for a friend, it will not be wasted. I used the packaging of some very lush chocolate bars which were filled with mousse, cut the tag, heart and wings from it and took it from there. I added a vintage image, a sentiment made with my Brother p-touch, and a golden heart. I tied a chocolate stick into the ribbon instead of a charm, and stuck a small bar of chocolate onto the tag, so now I truly have a chocolate tag.

The little cards following are just try-outs, I used half postcard sized scraps to play with my new stamps.

GC Challenge95 *Typewriters*

Hi everybody! Another sunny but very cold day here. And just a short post today as I need to bake cakes for this afternoon, and get the shopping beforehand to have some goodies to bake cakes with....
This is my entry for the Gingersnaps 95 *Typewriter* Challenge.

This was my interpretation of strong types!
The typewriter images were freebies downloaded long ago and I don't know from where, the strong man on the left came from June at Dezinaworld, and the matting is white card stamped with a script stamp. Was a fun theme!

Have a great weekend, and take care. Thanks for looking, and extra thanks for those who leave a comment!
Tomorrow I am off to the CREATIVA, the biggest crafting Fair in Europe, so will be reporting about it on Monday.

Archaeological Findings in the Bottomless Pit

One of the themes over at Gingersnaps this month is Zentangle, a sort of repetitive doodling. I am not going to start doing this again, as I remember that I was addicted to these scribblings 20 years back, and filled several sketch books with them. I don’t think it was called anything then; people who saw it made comments like, *Well, if it helps….* So I decided to delve into the depths of the Hall Closet, AKA the Bottomless Pit, and look for them….
I found loads of forgotten treasures. Several new sketch books, canvases, paints, paper, ribbons galore, old photos, boxes and frames to alter and much more. But the sketch books I was looking for have not yet turned up, just a few pictures which were in a folder: a vase of flowers that I did when I was at school, some pictures painted at the beginning of the 1990s etc. So sooner or later I will have to climb onto my ladder and search the top compartment – help!
But something really sad happened while I was pushing and pulling to get at my things.
Really, really tragic.
Get your hankies ready, Ladies.
My iron (sorry to swear) fell from the top shelf and smashed onto the floor. I am thankful to say that it did not fall on me, but it broke into two parts, and as a little piece has broken off, I can’t fit them back together again.

And I can’t afford a new one just now, so – wait for it – now I really can’t do any i*****g any more! Do I hear you sobbing?? Or are you getting envious, ready to seize those irons and hurl them to the floor?
And the name of the manufacturer of the iron is *Hit Company*. Fitting!
It must have been my lucky day.
Anyway, here are some of the pics I discovered while excavating the dark depths:

The catty pictures have ben made using 2 different templates that I cut from card to mask the white areas, or, as in the seond picture, to mask the background.

This was a picture which I did on holiday at the North Sea, and tried to get the effects of the waves and stones and seaweed etc.

Well, that was it for today, more to follow, so watch this space! Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Gingersnap Challenge *Get to work* & some Black and White....

Yesterday I decided it was high time to start using all the bits and pieces I have been collecting for this month's them over at Gingersnaps. I have made a LO for GC93 *Get to Work*

The background paper is from K & Co, I had a whole stack of these lovely papers, and this is the last one, so it was hard for me to actually use it!
The main picture is from a Chicago office at the beginning of the last century.

I have added some vintage pics of a horse drawn bus in England, a gentleman on his way to work in a bowler hat, a man heaving sacks of coal,a man in a balloon - I think this image was a freebie from Dezina World - and on the right side, the elderly man with the stick is my great-great Uncle taken in Berlin in the 1920's. The telephone is a picture I printed, cut out, and glazed with glossy accents to make it nice and shiny. I used a crumpled up tag for the title, and that was it.

I won several auctions for stamps on EBAY last weekend, and one batch arrived yesterday - among them the 2 I have used here for these tags. I left them just black and white, as I thought this was most effective for the style of the stamps. The others will be shown bit by bit. I just don't know the manufacturer of the stamps, pity, as I like them very much.

The owl tag has some added hand doodling and a verse running round the edge . *A wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke; the less he spoke, the more he heard - why can't we be like that wise old bird?*

The eagle was very appropriate for yesterday, as I spent most of the day watching eagles hatching out their eggs. The link for the web-cam was given to me by Jan - thanks a lot! It is so fascinating to be able to sit here and watch these wonderful birds in my own home, just great. And this tag is dedicated to them. I kept both the tags very simple ( still under the influence of *Less is more*!) and am entering them into the *Black and White* Challenge over on *Theme Thursday*

So, I'm off to watch those Eagles again....Have a great day, and thanks for looking!

More Challenges!

Good morning you all. It's another lovely day here, cold but sunny. I need to make the most of it today, as the weather frogs have promised us rain later.

The first tag I made is for a challenge that I saw on *Pieces of Whimsy*. Traci had made a lovely creation for her PIT group, and there was a lovely image of antique playing cards to use. I used a manila tag, and distressed the edges and printed the image with adirondack espresso.
I cut out the cards, distressed them and fixed them into a stack with a brad, and they can be fanned out to show as a hand of cards. I added a felt heart and some hand doodling.

The second tag has been made for Tag Tuesday - I hope I am not too late there! It has to be a card with a surprise. I used a manila tag, which has been distressed with Th inks in gradient colours, which show up rather muted because of the manila background, an effect that I like. The door has been stamped with a *Dark Room Door* image is archival black, and lightly coloured with green pencil. I cut round part of the door, so it can be opened. I added bird and flower rub ons around the door for some colour.

Now for the surprise. When the door is opened, there is an image of a laughing garden gnome inside. I'm sorry, but I can't remember where I downloaded the image!

And the the third piece is for the Gingersnaps Yahoo Group Recipe Challenge - 3 papers, 3 words and 3 buttons. I have used one paper for the background, two for the alphas, and 3 rosettes made from the three papers, with the three buttons on top.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

One More for Less is More and Something Brown for ...

Good morning everyone from sunny and spring like Rhineland. Nice to be woken up by sunshine and bird song again!

The card I have made for the *Less is More, Off the Edge* challenge was inspired by the view out of my window. The sun rises in the East, which is over to my right, and I see it through the branches of the silver birch in the garden. And the wild geese often fly past. For my card the sun has been stamped using a round stamp from Hein Design, Belgium and 2 shades of Color Box pigment ink. The leafy flourishes have been stamped using a floral stamp from LaBlanche and brown Color Box, as have the flying geese (Lavinia Stamps). The Sentiment is from LaBlanche and means *Everyone wants to get back to nature, just not on foot*. I distressed the edges and did a few *sun* streaks with TH wild honey. I think I am beginning to enjoy making cards with less clutter on them, and will def. keep on trying!

The theme over at Sunday Stampers is something brown. I made a double mini-shadow box from a manila tag and 2 matchboxes. The tag has been stamped and distressed with Adirondack Espresso. I fixed the match boxes behind the tag after cutting the openings. The boxes have been painted with gold-brown acrylic paint, and then I used some scraps of brown embossed and inked paper for the bakground. The images are from *Crafty Individuals*, the metal corners from LaBlanche, the rose from Netty (thanks again), the heart from my stash and the brown ribbon was from a chocolate Easter Bunny that got eaten last year.

Both pieces were fun to make, as always. Now I'm afraid I must do a little h*******k before getting crafty again, sometimes it can't be avoided. Have a great day you all, and thanks for looking!

Less is more....

I have made these cards for the *Less is More* challenge blog. The theme is *Off the Edge*. The card also has to have little or no embelishments, lots of white space, just one layer, must be clean and simple etc. This is not usually my cup of tea, I prefer to put more on than less. But I wanted to try it, so here are my 2 cards. They have both been stamped with TH forest moss and bundled sage, lightly distressed around the edges, the image is partly off the page, and there are no extra embellishments. And I decided to keep them just one colour, as that is something I do like.
The first one has been stamped with a hedgehog from LaBlanche, and the sentiment means *Paths are created by walking along them*. The seond one is also from LaBlanche, and the sentiment from Dark Room Door.

I suppose it does us good to do something different once in a while, and at least I can now say that I tried.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!