Woohoo! Paint Party Friday and Giveaway!

Good morning you all. Welcome to another Paint Party Friday! And of course to my giveaway. I am celebrating 100 followers and nearly 50,000 visitors to my blog. So, what am I giving away? Here's the answer:

A set of three butterfly tags.

A set of bee tags:

The set of 3 London Tags, and the set of 3 Paris tags that were on my blog yesterday are also in the giveaway.

This means 3 winners will each get one tag out of each of the sets, a total of four altogether.
And there are 2 mini-books to be had, too.

You can see more pictures of this one here

You can see more pics of this one here














If you would like to be one of the winners of a set of four different tags, or a mini book, please leave a comment, and how I can contact you. If there are more comments than prizes, the names will be drawn.
If you are a follower of my blog, you get 2 chances. Everything easy peasy!
I will be drawing the names tomorrow morning, and will put the names of the winners on my blog. I will send the prizes out in mail art envelopes, and put a few surprises into each envelope,too. So, here's wishing you good luck!
Now to Paint Party Friday
I am showing a set of pictures, done with water colour pencils, which I made a couple of years ago. I was trying to capture the images of a strange dream I had with ducks, beetles, faces and flowers all floating about. It wasn't scary either, just strange!

Okay, this has been a long post again. So, good luck in the draw, enjoy PPF, and have a great day whatever you are up to. Thanks for visiting!

City tags and mail art

Good morning everybody. The sun is shining, and the birds are probably singing, but they can't be heard because somebody outside is working with a pneumatic drill....how I hate that noise. But the weather frogs have promised us that it will be getting warmer, with early summer-like temperatures over the weekend. After freezing our butts off all week, that should make a nice change.
And today it's *Cinco de Mayo*, a day which is celebrated in many countires and towns, and especially n Mexico, where Donna lives. She is holding a big earring giveaway today, so hop on over to her blog in sunny Mexico and read all about it here
Yesterday I had a lazy day, just made some tags and another mail art envelope.

First the envelope!

I very much enjoyed making this collage of printed and stamped elements, even if it means another trip to the post office....
I have made the tags using craft paper. Each tag has been distressed with TH inks in stormy skies, Victorian velvet, wild honey and forest moss. The backgrounds have then been stamped with script in forst green. Then I made a stamped collage on each one, three with a Paris theme and three for my home town, London. I have kept the embellishments to be a minimum this time, as they will all be sent with the post, but more about that tomorrow....Here they are.

I like the muted colours caused by the craft paper, which gives them a vintags look which reminds me of old coloured postcards. Hope you like them, too!
And Lenna has now put my mini-books for her swap on her swap blog, which you can find here
OK Ladies, that was it for today. Have a great day, take care, thanks for visiting and come back tomorrow because it will be surprise Friday on Bastelmania....

Less is More and a Mini Book.

Hi everybody, good morning from very cold and sunny Rhineland. In some parts of Germany there was even snow yesterday, so I'm not complaining, I suppose it could be worse....
Today I want to show you one of the albums I made for a swap. I have 2 on their way just now so I won't say who is getting this one so that it will still be a surprise when it gets there.

The covers have been made from white mountboard, which has been embossed and distressed with TH Victorian velvet. I added a cameo and some velvet leaves from Prima. The pages have been made from Basic Grey Capella, the edges have been distressed with antique linen and Victorian Velvet, and stamped with my fave flourishes and script in Forest Moss. I added layers to the pages with rub-ons, images, flowers etc, and of course lace, beads and ribbons. I left 2 pockets between pages for tags. Need I say I had fun making it?
And yesterday I made a card for *Less is More*. The theme this week has to be *thank you* or *congratulations*. Apart from that, it must, of course be clean and simple. Well, I tried, and here it is.

OK, that was it for today. Have a great day you all, thanks for visiting, and take care!

Well, another day has passed and gone, and another sunny but cold day is waiting for me. Yesterday I posted 2 parcels off to the USA, and had to brave the post-lady once more.

The post lady made her ususal speech. Bla, bla, bla and she can't understand why anyone would want to make or get anything like *that* as she thumped the stamps onto it. And she was extra annoyed because I asked her for some pretty stamps this time. She only had to put them on one package, because I had stamped the other one at home, but even that was evidently tooooooo much for her! I think I will try another post office next time, even if it does mean a longer journey - they can't all be that bad.
Anyway, I had a mail from Lenna of Lenna's creative swaps, who has received the mini books I sent to her, and she was delighted with her mail art package, and has put a photo of it on her daily photo journal, so that's something! http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=1128177&month=5&year=2011
In one of the packages I sent was a mini book for a swap, pictures will follow in a few days. And in the other one was my *egg-swap* organised my Tee. I had to send to a lady in the south of the USA, and as I did not fancy making another egg, and Easter is over, I used half an egg to make an altered canvas. The lady I have to send my swap to has a blog called *The Cranky Queen*, so I took that as my prompt and made this:

I hope she will like it, I had great fun making it. The egg has been stuck into some structure paste, with which I coated the 4x4" canvas. I painted it in royal blue, before doing the queen's make-up, using acrylic paints and felt-tips. Her hair has been made with fairy hair, used by florists - and by me - and her crown is an old brooch. Then she got some rose earrings, a lace collar and a pearl necklace, and her majesty was finished. I think I was still under the influence of the royal wedding! I really enjoyed making this, so hope that the Crank Queen will like it too. I have told her that I am blogging it today, so she has the choice to look now or wait and see it later as a surprise when it arrives.

And the rest of the day I spent playing about. I read on several blogs about friendly plastic, and especially Zoe made a lot of pretty things with it. So I ordered a little bag of pellets, and tried it out. They are easy to soften in hot water, and to start off I decided to try squashing it into a mould, which I did. The first few I made looked awful, but the good thing is, that you can throw it back into the pot to warm it again and start anew. At the end I had five more or less successful hearts. Two have been coloured with Inka gold in silver and gunmetal grey, 2 in gold and grey, and one in bronze and grey. I used the heat gun to glue a large glass pearl onto each of them, which can be used to thread a wire or ribbon through them. They will make lovely embellies for paper work, and can perhaps be used as pendants or key rings - I will continue playing!

So, once again this post is longer than I intended, but never mind. Hope you all have a great day, take care, and thanks for dropping in to visit!

It's Monday again!

Hi you all. Good morning from sunny but very windy Kaiserswerth. I wonder why the birds don't fall out of the trees when it's sooooo windy? I have not got any big plans for today, just want to take it easy again and do some painting.
Yesterday I painted my journal for May. I have done it differently. I have painted a scene, not of anything in particular, just something where you can look into the distance and see the sky and hills in the background. Then I have stamped some gothic windows on the hill top, so there's a place to look out, added a few others stamps, words and sayings, and the rest will be filled in in the course of the month.

The first 2 show the double pages before and after stamping.

I plan to write something each day, as before, but just where I want to; perhaps I will add more pictures, or sayings, I don't know yet. I just don't want it to be so regulated as last time. The stars are there to accompany the saying *Follow your star*. I will take another pic at the end of the month when it is finished. I am entering my journal into the challenge on the 'Kathryn Wheel* Blog
And I altered a tin. It is a small round tin which had a scented candle in it. I peeled off the label on the top, painted it with Viva-decor metallic structure paint in raspberry, and then added wings painted in lilac to match the cameo, and some pearls. The bottom half has been covered with some silver paper cake band, cut down to fit. This will go in my collection of little tins holding family trinkets. I am entering this into *Try it on Tuesday* who are being sponsored by the *craft Barn*.

OK, that was it for today. I have some more pictures to show you, but they will have to wait till tomorrow! Have a great day, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Sketch Sunday.....

Good morning everbody! Well, it is half past ten here and I have just rolled out of my bed. Slept for nearly 12 hours, so I must have needed it, and I do feel better for it. Had a lazy day yesterday, just made an egg for an egg-swap I am taking part in, but this is really different, more a three dimensional canvas with an egg....you will see it soon, once it has arrived at its destination!
Today is Sketch Sunday over on sophia's *Blue Chair Diary*, so I have some sketches to show you, and then please look at the others who post their art their, it's really worth taking a peek.
I have gor 4 sketches out of a series which I called *Looking for a Hiding Place* to show you. They have all been drawn with wax crayons fron Caran-D'ache, a swiss firm who manufacture wonderful drawing and writing things.

I know these pictures do not conjure up a happy atmosphere, but they were made at a time when I was trying to think about some of the the things that had happened to me as a child, and how I felt then. And painting seems to have a very therepeutic working, at least for me.
On a happer note I played around with some pins and beads. I wanted to buy some decorative stick pins, but they are always so expensive, so I made some myself with some of the left-overs from album making. Here they are:

My table now looks a lot tidier, and I have a litttle supply of pretty pins for my next cards and albums.
So, here's wishing you all a great Sunday, hopefully together with your families and friends. Take care, and thanks for looking in!