A Walk in the Woods and another card for Less is More

Good morning you all. Here the sun is shining and the birds are singing, but I am not sitting outside on my balcony. I have the door shut tight. Yesterday the farmer who owns the fields behind the houses *fertilized* the ground, and there's a smell like a giant manure heap out there. So I'm staying in....
Yesterday I went walkies with Emily, my friend's little dog, and we had a nice stroll through the woods. The trees look so wonderful, I love the mix of light and shadow, and the wild flowers growing there. Emily enjoyed snuffling about, following little trails with her nose on the ground and her tail in the air, so we both had a good time.

I loved this huge, craggy tree stump, reminded me of a fairy castle....

Forget-me-nots growing wild under the trees

I don't know what these pretty flowers are called, perhaps one of you does?

Magnificent tree trunks....

Trees curved and twisted.....

And this one reminded me of one of my lovely *Lavinia stamps*. so when I got home I made it into my second entry for *Less is More*
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Here I have stamped the fairy tree onto acetate using black Stazon, placed it over a print out of the tree, and mounted it onto an easel card with a hand-written sentiment.

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

A Bird Book and a Card for Less is More

Monday again, and another week has begun. I have been busy crafting again over the weekend – what else? And the time just flew by. I have been busy on another little book, a paper bag album this time. They were in the kit I bought from Alyson. I covered the bags with paper from Daisy Ds, and then stamped them with script and flourishes in Victorian velvet distress ink. The edges were distressed with antique linen and Victorian velvet. After that I started with the decorating, using rub-ons, lace, die cuts, flowers etc. The birds have been die cut from paper which has been painted, stamped sprayed and embossed – I always use my paint & colour remains for this, saves wasting, and it’s a good way to try out patterns and techniques, too. After it had all been embellished, I cut part of the bag base off, punched holes along it, and sewed the pages together, strengthening the spine with some sewn on canvas. The covers have been made from distressed and embossed chipboard, and fixed with sticky backed canvas. It was the first time I have tried to put a book together like this, and I need to refine my technique, but practice makes perfect, so I will be trying it again. I took the photos before sewing the pages together, as I didn’t want to force the pages wide apart. I still have to make some tags or other little things to put into the bags, but apart from that, it is finished.

And I managed a card for *Less is More*. The challenge this week is to use acetate, so I stamped my little row of houses onto acetate using Stazon black, mounted it onto yellow and then blue card, and then onto a yellow card in landscape format. The sentiment has been written by hand.

I very much enjoyed reading all the comments on the pictures I posted yesterday, and I do love to hop around all the blogs and visit people all over the world to see what they are making. And believe me, there is so much talent being shown, just great!
Okay, that was it for today. Thanks for dropping in, have a great day, and take care!

Some pictures and a Sunday sketch

Hi you all, good morning. It's sunny and springlike here, so that's good. Yesterday I got some plants for my balcony, which had been marked down to less than the half, so for 3,20 I got 12 sturdy fuchsia plants, and now I have my two flower boxes, a tub and 2 pots filled. They have survived their first night, and looking really cheerful, so I'm happy about that.
Recently I promised to show some pictures of my arty kitchen, and I have thrown in a few of the rest of my arty place to go with them. Here we go. It started with this - I put a frame round 2 of my creations....

And then some more things arrived....

And then a few more....

The opposite wall was already in use....

And it just went on growing....

And growing....

The green cuckoo clock is not a cuckoo clock but a cowmoo clock: every hour a cow comes out and moos...

You don't believe it? Shame on you!

And in case you think it can't get worse - IT CAN!!

Spare parts....

Bottoms up....

Heads without bodies....

And bodies without heads.

And my Sunday Sketch for *Blue Chair Diary*, done while sitting on my balcony this morning and drinking my coffee: the view of the trees, sketched with Caran d'ache crayons. I added 2 birds which I die-cut, from paper which I painted with metallic colours and stamped and sprayed before cutting. These are to represent all the birds that visit my balcony every day.

Well, hope you have enjoyed your little tour round a few of my crazy pieces.
Thanks for looking by, and have a great day!

Three Mini Books

Hi everybody, the week has flown by again and it's Saturday already. The birds have been singing outside for hours, tried to ignore them, as I wanted to sleep in a bit, but they just didn't care. Lately a magpie has been visiting my balcony every day, which is strange, as they are usually very shy, but she hops about there every day and seems to be enjoying it. I think she has a good view of the birds in the trees while sitting there....
Yesterday I finished the fourth mini book for Lenna's swap, so next week they can be posted - poor me, another trip to that post office!

Here I have bound the pages using my BIA. I used paper from the Basic Grey *Capella* collection. Some of the pages have been stamped with flourishes, some of which I have embellished with liquid pearls. The covers have been covered with some gold satin.

This time I have made I maze book from one sheet of 12x12 paper. The lovely paper is *herne* from 7 Gypsies. If you want to make a maze book, just google it, and you will find plenty videos and explanations. Maze books always have lots of pockets, where you can put tags or photos. I have put a mini tag into each pocket, and decorated with butterflies, flowers, feathers, buttons etc.

This little album has also been made from one sheet of 12x12 paper, this time a lovely 2 sided paper from Kaisercraft. I cut in in half, and then each half into three pieces measuring 6x4. These pieces were then folded to form the pages. I arranged the pages so that two with the same pattern always faced each other, scored them in the middle, punched three small holes along the centre line and sewed them together with string, very quick and easy. I decorated the book with flowers and butterflies again. I have left the darker pages emty, so that the recipient will have space to pop in some photos or whatever, and tried to decorate the flourishes on the cream coloured sides.

It was great fun making all the little books, now I am going to start on one for another swap, but a bit larger this time.
Have a great weekend, and thanks a lot for stopping by. Look after yourselves!

Paint Party Friday and a Mini Book from Mini Book Thursday!

Well, it's party time again over at PPF, and this time it's about what inspires us to paint. I am showing a picture I made in 1995 and then I will tell you WHY I painted it.

Now, here's the story:
I was in town for my Spanish lesson. I always went by tram, because I could travel almost door-to-door this way without having to search for hours for a parking space in the town centre.
On the way back, I just managed to get onto a tram in the very back compartment. It was quite full, but I found a seat near the door. There was a group of tramps at the back, behind me, all rather drunk and very loud and boisterous. Suddenly one of them, a young man, reeled over to me and grabbed my shoulder and demanded that I take a swig out of his bottle. I said *No, thank you* and hoped that it would end there. It didn't. He got really maudling and then aggressive. His mates thought it was funny, and the other people in the tram all moved backwards, away from us. One man wanted to help, but his wife held him back. Then the drunk squatted down onto the floor beside me, and grabbed my leg, At that moment, the tram braked for some reason, I hit out at him with my left hand, caught him on the chin and he flew backwards and landed at the feet of his mates, more through the sudden jerk of the tram than my punch. But they were all extremely impressed, and thought I was some sort of super-boxer. At the next stop I got out and ran up to the front and got the driver to come back with me. He threw them all out, including all the people who had just stood there and watched, but not tried to help. When I got home, I painted myself as Super Woman, and this picture has been hanging on my wall ever since. I love the strong colours, and the motto *Nemo me impune lacessit*. This is the Scottish royal motto, and translated means something like *No one harms me without being punished* or *Who dare meddle with me?* I think for me, painting is very often a result of strong emotions.

Yesterday I made three mini-books (for Lenna's swap) on one day. I used some of the nice things I bought from Alyson, and some of my stash, and had a whale of a time cutting, sticking and playing with all those nice things. Here are the pics of the first book, the others will follow tomorrow.

So, thanks for looking, and have a great day. Happy holidays for those of you who are starting into their Easter breaks, and a good weekend to you all! Take care!