Less is More, Sunshine and Mexican Fiesta Feelings....

Another sunny day filled with sunshine and bird song here, a real SUNday. So I will be going for a walk, and doing some painting out on the balcony later. Right now I am just enjoying my first latte and watching the view while I type.
First of all I have thee cards ready for *Less is More*. The challenge this week is to do a one layer card with the focus on the sentiment, so here are my attempts:

This one has an embossed edge to focus the saying, which means *The years have left you untouched - it was the weekends that marked you*

The saying here means *Love is the best sort of madness*

*God didn't want to do everything himself, so he created mothers*

Then I wanted to show you pictures from my big Mexican sunshine package which arrived on Friday from Donna, so here are some of them:

As you can see, not only an exciting envelope, but really stuffed with pictures and little artefacts, ribbons, postcards - I especially love those of Frida Kahlo - and some beautiful, brightly painted tin objects and ribbon. And a tiny little nicho with glass in it, I will be able to push a picture behind the glass. As you can imagine, all things for me which are very inspiring, and I want to do a large painting /mixed media piece this week and incorporate some of my new treasures into it. Thanks again Donna, for my lovely bundle of inspiration, and I hope you don't have to wait too long for yours, which is on its way.

And I received another parcel yesterday, full of lovely things which I bought from Alyson, in England, I will put the pics on my blog tomorrow, so watch this space!

So, here's wishing you all a great day, take care, and thanks for looking and leaving a comment.

Paint Party WEEKEND

Well, I would love to tell you all that I have been painting to my heart's content, but I haven't as I am staying with a friend who likes playing cards.
But as it was Paint Party FRI Saturday, I thought I could at least show a pic of a painting I made 20 years ago. I was in a very bad mood when I painted it, and was listening to a German Group called *Die Toten Hosen* - the Dead Trousers, who did - and do - lovely, aggressive punky hard rock. And for some reason I needed it that evening. I had a basement flat, where nobody could here me, so I rocked my corner of the world and this picture came out of it:

I called the painting *Industrial Sunset*, and it seems quite appropriate today in view of what has happened in Japan.
It has been painted using oil on Canvas, and is def. not a masterpiece, but it is a memory of a bad mood and some great musik, even if I don't anymore know WHY I was so bad tempered!
I am entering this into paint party Friday.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day you all, take care!

Friday already....

Well, this week has flown by, it's Friday already and I haven't managed half the things I wanted to do this week. But I enjoyed the week, so I suppose that's something.
Yesterday I got a parcel from Mexico, with lots of pictures and little artefacts in it, there was so much in it, that I still haven't been able to take it all in, but the colours brought so much Mexican sunshine with them, that I feel very inspired to do some things in this style. Thanks a lot Donna, pictures will follow on Sunday!
Yesterday I managed 2 challenges, the GCSP07, Gingersnaps *once in a blue moon* challenge. There are more than 100 challenges to choose from there, so I chose GC 12, *Journeys*. While sifting through some old family papers, I discovered a photo and a postcard, sent to her in 1939, and decided to use these for my LO. The paper is from Making Memories, and I have just used some ephemera as embellies, and a tag for the journaling.
The photo of the 2 rather ragged Beduin children intrigued me, and I wonder what happened to them later in life?

The second piece I made is for the *Three Muses - Victorian Elegance* challenge. I have used a photo of an Aunt of my grandmother, Lily, taken about 1890, when she was 16 years old. I cut the photo out and placed her on a background which has been distressed in gradient colours, and then stamped with flourishes and script in Victorian velvet. I added some floral rub ons, paper lace, a cameo and some paper roses.

I was amused to read in my comments yesterday that a lot of post office workers seem to disapprove of *fancy* parcels and envelopes, I really thought that it could only happen here!
Have a great day you all, thanks for looking, and take care!

Taking a parcel to the post....

Good morning everybody! It's a lovely, warm and sunny day here, and I've just been watching a whole swarm of coal tits chasing a magpie away. I suppose that bird was getting too close to a nest.... They all seemed to be shouting at each other, and although the magpie is much bigger, it was sheer outnumbered.
Yesterday I took my parcel to the post. The lady in the post never looks happy, but this time she looked thunderstruck. I gave her the parcel.
She asked *What's that?*
I said *A small packet*
*You've DEFACED the whole front of it!*
*It's not defaced, it's art. I like it!*
*I don't. Where I am supposed to stick the stamps?*
*There's room at the top and all round.*
*If I had anything to say, I would forbid it!*(Swatting the stamps on like she was trying to kill a cockroach)
Thank God she doesn't have the power to decide!
What a miserable woman!
In the afternoon I visited my friend for her little birthday party, where we had lots of different cakes and coffee and enjoyed good company for a couple of hours. Emily the dog was there, too - with B, and after checking us all out and lots of tail wagging, positioned herself under the table chewed her leather bone and was happy. If anyone mentioned her name, she thumped her tail on the floor, so she was evidently keeping up with our chit-chat,too!
This is the mirror which I made on Sunday for Inge's birthday, didn't want to show pics of it before she had got it. It's a *less is more* mirror, she doesn't like too much decoration, and as she plays the piano and is very musical, I made it black and white like music sheets:

The frame was covered in strips of music paper - printed from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff - and strips of my old magazines, painted with gesso and decorated with TH's musical tissue tape, and stamped with some music notes and a head of Mozart, which I covered with glossy accents to make it stand out.
Yesterday evening I NEEDED to do some crafting, so that I didn't get withdrawal symptoms. And I needed some exercise after eating all that cake!
I altered another little picture frame. This time using gold structure paste, which I heat dried till it bubbled and burnt, and then toned down a bit with Stazon *timber brown*. I polished the sides of the frame with inka gold. I made a flower from gold metal using TH's *tattered florals*. Some of the petals were embossed using a Kohinoor paper stump, and I distressed them all with Stazon again. After curling and layering the petals, I fixed them together with a brad and hot glued them to the frame. For the picture inside I distressed a ceramic card using TH inks in gradient colours, stamped a setting sun with colour box and the houses and balloon with archival black. The row of houses wasn't long enough for the card, so I did some doodling right and left, and added to it. Then I wrote a quote along the left side, from a song we used to sing when I went to school: *Golden gleams the western sky, where the sun is sinking*. And I am entering this frame and picture into Hel's *Sunday Stampers* Challenge, which is *Golden slumbers* this week.

Well, enough for today. Tomorrow I will put up some pictures of my arty kitchen. Thanks a lot for looking, and have a great day, whatever you are up to. And take care!

New Challenges on Gingersnaps

The main theme this month at Gingersnaps is the Orient, which gives us scope for lots of ideas, images and colours. The Chestnut Theme challenge GC97 starts today with the theme *Geishas*. This is my interpretation of the theme:

This is a mixed media piece using collage and stamping. The geometric forms are from Hein design, the bush from LaBlanche. The flower is from Prima.
This was not the only card I tried with this theme, here are my first attempts, with which I was not really satisfied:

Here again I have made a mixed media piece with collage, stamping, and a feeble try at origami for the flowers. The image was from my stash. The tiger stamp was a bargain from EBAY, manufacturer unknown!

Here I have used an Image from *Geisha Gallery* and flowers from my stash.










And yesterday I found time to complete my GC94 - Office supplies Challenge. I had an empty chocolate box (thanks, they were DELICIOUS!!) which I covered with mod podge and strips of antique magazines, parts of print outs with writing on them, stamped script etc - a good way to use up left overs that sometimes get binned. I gave it a coat of diluted white gesso when it was finished, and then filled it with diverse ancient pens, ink cartridges, paper clips, a tape measure, scissors, a pencil, a pencil sharpener and a mini stapler which never worked. And of course, a mini telephone, which is off the hook, so as not to disturb the workers - *Please hold the line!* I fixed them all with the hot glue gun. No blisters this time, B has lent me her one, which is bigger, and much more difficult to burn yourself with, as it also has a great stander which is really stable - woohoo! Anyway, the result was another shadow box for my arty kitchen wall. When the wall is full I will expand into the hall!

And I got a parcel ready for posting, and made a pretty label for the front of it. I wonder how it will look when the post has finished with it? But life and art are journeys, and the transport here is a part of that journey....

So, that's all for now. Thanks for looking, thanks for all the lovely comments, which are very much appreciated, have a great day and take care!

Sich regen bringt Segen

Good morning you all from not-so-sunny Rhineland. I had a good sleep, I fell asleep over my *Craft Stamper* Magazine. Must have switched the light off some time in the night, but apart from that, I suppose I slept soundly, for which I am very thankful. The birds are still busy singing, and building their nests. Yesterday I went for a walk in the woods with Emily, my friend's dog, and enjoyed it very much. The green of the leaves looks so new and tender, just great.

I even saw some violets peeping out from under the dead leaves from last year.

And lots of trees in the gardens on the way to the woods which were in bloom.

Emily, the doggie who accompanied me, was not so keen on sitting still to have her photo taken:

I was starving by the time I got home, so I delved into my fridge and made myself some sandwiches with some of the (hopefully!)edible bits and bobs I found there, and then got down to doing some crafting.
I altered another picture frame, but this time I tried something new.

I used the aluminium tape I bought at the discounter recently and embossed the strips with a TH Texture fade folder. Then I stuck them directly onto the frame, just piecing them together. When it was finished, I neatened up the back with some strips of smooth tape and distressed the front with archival black. As the pattern is patchwork, you don't notice where it is joined together. Then I made some flowers. I used the aluminium seals which are in a lot of boxes with dry goods, they already had an embossed pattern on them, so just cut them with TH's tattered florals. After distressing with archival black again, I alternated the flowers with some prima ones in black, fixed them together with brads and got these lovely flowers.

Then I made a little collage to go into the frame, and like the overall effect.

I am entering the frame into three challenges:
Simon Says- stamp and show anything but a card;

The Stampman - anything Tim and

Just for Fun
Anything you fancy.


And in the evening, while I was watching TV, I made another little mixed media card, with distressing, stamping, gold foiling, rub-ons and a scrap angel. This is for a swap. I really enjoyed making it, fitting all those strange images together and watching it evolve - that, for me, is always the best part.

OK. That was enough for today! Thanks for looking, thanks even more for the nice comments you leave and for all the nice people I have got to know through blogging, and have a great day!
P.S. Forgot to say; the saying *Sich regen bringt Segen* means something like *Getting moving brings rewards*

Good morning you all. Yesterday the weather turned cooler and rainy again, but it's doing nature good, and the trees have turned green almost over night.

It's so good to see lush green again and flowers everywhere. Perhaps we need winter so we can appreciate how good it is when everything bursts into life again.
Yesterday my friend B came with her little doggy Emily, We had a great day crafting - well, Emily watched - and got really messy with lots of mod-podge and paper and gesso. It's fun working in company, and even more fun with some nice food in between sessions....
I got 2 picture frames and a mirror altered. One of the frames is for a swap I am doing, so I can't show it yet, (Donna, I have to keep you curious!) but this is the other one. I made a little collage to go in it, and kept the theme more or less musical. I am entering this into Try it on Tuesday's altered frame challenge as second entry, if that is allowed. The challenge there is sponsored by *The Craft Barn*

The altered mirror is for a friend whose birthday is on Wednesday, so I'm not showing that today, either.
But I did make 2 cards for the *Less is mMore* - touch of red challenge. The red background to the card with the lady is not part of the card, I just placed it on a red chair!

Well, my weekend was great with so much crafty time, good company and good food, and I hope your weekend was just as good. I know that Jan got a new granddaughter, so here's wishing her and her family, and especially the new earth citizen all the best.
Thanks, too, to all the people who take the time to stop by here, and leave such encouraging comments. Have a great day you all!