Paint Party Friday and some more challenges....

Good morning everybody. As you know, yesterday I woke up really grumpy, and today is not much better. So I distracted myself by keeping myself busy, sort of crafting like crazy, crop till you flop, paint till you faint, scrap till you..............................now, now! Scrap till you yap!
Anyway, it helped to get through the day.
For Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin, I am sharing another *dream* picture, then this was a face that was watching me in a dream. Just floating about and looking, and only the head and the blue and silver hair, no body....

It has been painted with tempera colours.

I have made a small canvas - 4x4", which I am entering into 2 challenges;
*The written Word* at the Three Muses Blog and *Alter a canvas* at Alter it Monthly

The canvas has been covered with criss-cross strips of an old book, and painted with gesso. I added some TH tissue tape and a rub-on flower to give the background more depth. The text has been die cut. The book pages that I used are from the 18th century, and have lasted over the centuries, the book in the background is a parchment bound book from the 17th century; the written word has the power to last.

Then I decided to alter a little chipboard frame I was given recently, 3x3". I have used a picture of the London Eye, an eye - stamped and watercoloured, and some London Images (Stamp by Artemio) for the *Just for Fun* *I spy with my little eye* challenge.

The London Eye image is from Crafty Individuals. I have placed the frame on a picture of a London Street to put it into context.

And while I was watching a totally stupid film on TV - there was nothing else worth watching! I altered a little tin. It was a peppermint tin, which I painted with white paint, and then sanded a bit before stamping the music notes and the Mozart head on it. I painted over it with TH clear rock-candy crackle glaze, and rubbed a little colour into the cracks to make them show better, but it was hard to photograph. I am making a mini song book for a friend, which will be placed in the tin when it is finished.

Well, I think that was enough for today. I need to do my weekend shopping and a tiny bit of h*******k to ward off the chaos that will result if I do nothing!
Havea great day, take care, and thanks for looking!

Challenges Galore

Good morning you all. I have woken up feeling like the lady at the post office - grumpy! And that in spite of lovely weather. Today is a holiday here in Germany, it's Ascension Day, and also Father's Day. This means that nearly every able bodied man goes out with his friends, mostly pulling a *Bollerwagen*, a little cart with a handle. I think they were really made for kids; kids who don't like sitting in a pram any more love being pulled along in a little cart! But on *Father's Day* the carts get loaded with *refreshments* - barrels and/or crates of beer and a picnic, and the men all go off somewhere to enjoy the countryside. I don't know if they are all capable of enjoying it after partaking of the *refreshments*, but that's the tradition here.....
Yesterday I had a crafty day. First I tidied my working space. Sorry, but I had to, when my AWS (Available Working Space) is less than the size of an ATC, I do it. And yesterday I managed some tags and a canvas.
The first tag is for 2 challenges, Dragon's Dream TIO and the Blog Challenge Garden. The Dragon wants to see timepieces and the Challenge Garden soft pinks and greens, so here is my tag:

The Tag has been made from a piece of corrugated card from a box. I distressed the background with bundled sage and Victorian velvet, and then sprayed it in walnut green using a TH clock template. I stamped a part of a clock (LaBlanche) and some flourishes before embellishing with some floral rub ons, two halves of a clock (pieces of time) and a few cogs. The clock faces were also sprayed and brushed with perfect pearls. I coloured a white rose to match, and added *time* cut from a package and glazed with glossy accents. Then I gave it my last remnant of pink lace, a bow, and a time quote, and it was finished.
Then I made another tag with a matching pocket for the Dragon, as time and time pieces are favourite themes of mine.

I made the tag from a 6" square of coredinations paper which has been sprayed using TH templates and moonlight spray from My tattered angels, as has the tag. I also used some home made spray using spiced marmalade ink to make a contrast to the blue, which I used on the reverse of the tag and pocket. They have been stamped with various motives (maker not known) using Stazon timber brown. The back of the tag has been stamped to match the back of the pocket. For embellishments I added a TH disc, a piece of ball chain and some beads from an old necklace.

Then I made a canvas which I am also entering into 2 challenges; *Passion for Fashion* at Daring Cardmakers,who are being sponsored by
*Imagine that*
and *Anything goes* at the Craft Room Challenge and *At the Mall* GC105 at Gingersnaps. Oooooooooops, that makes three!

The canvas has been covered with a page from one of my old fashion magazines from 1899 and painted with diluted gesso. I used the TH dress form, cut from an old box, as a template and sprayed it with *Juneberry wine*. Then I added some tissue tape, the dress form, some images and a piece of lace, and that was it.

Okay, I think I have rambled on for long enough for the time being, now I just need to enter the correct link at the correct blog! Here's wishing you all a great day, take care and thanks a lot for visiting!

Art Journal for June and Crazy Amigo Challenge

During my school and student days in England, I often had the urge to write on walls. Graffiti were not as common then as they are now, perhaps because there were no spray cans of paint, and felt tips and Eddings unbelievably expensive. But I didn’t just want to write on any old wall. I wanted to write on a nice, old wall of white stone, like at the Tower Of London or on one of those beautiful, ruined abbeys. I always had a pencil with me, but I never dared. In the Tower you can still see verses etc that the prisoners carved into the wall hundreds of years ago, now protected by glass. But I never had the courage to scribble my initials or write a text anywhere. Pity! So I decided to make 2 Gothic windows in stone walls for my art journal this month, so that I can write my texts or words of wisdom on the stones. And then I remembered the story of Daniel, in Exile in Bablyon, at the Feast of King Belshazzar, where words - written from a hand without arm or body - appeared on the walls, *Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin*, which is mostly interpreted to mean *You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting* (Daniel Chap.5)
So I wrote this on my wall too, and we will see at the end of the month how the story develops. I am linking this to the *Kathryn Wheel*
And here the pictures:

And I also made a card for the *Crazy Amigos* challenge blog, whose theme this week is chairs, I have used a chair and my wonderful little Miss Bird from Character Constructions, I have fallen in love with this stamp!

I stamped the background and then stamped Miss Birdie on a scrap of white card, cut her out after watercolouring her, did some paper piecing at the front of her dress for more fullness, and stood her on the chair. I wonder what she is getting up to there? I am also entering this into Simon Says Stamp and Show, then Miss Bird is really my fave stamp just now!


Well, that was it for today. Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Two cards for less is more & some challenge Tags

Good morning you all! After the brilliant sunshine yesterday today is cold and overcast. Looks like summer's not here yet! But the main thing is that my coffee tastes good!
Yesterday I sent 4 mail art envelopes off at the post office. They were taken in frozen silence once again. This time it was Mr Grumpy. His comment *If this is your idea of a joke, it's not mine* Anyway, they are on their way, if Mr Grumpy likes them or not....
Then I discovered the tags I made a few days back for Dragon's Dream TIO, so I think I just have time to blog them! The theme is fish.

As I did not have any fish stamps, I just stamped some shells and the crab, and then drew the fishes and sea weed. I added dew drops for air bubbles, and some dried grass for more see weed, and a couple of glitzy stick on fishes.


For *Less is more* we need to make a square card, and put our motive into one of the corners or into the middle. I have used two of my lovely stamps form Character constructions, the little girl bird and the nest. I stamped the images onto the cards, and then again onto white paper and coloured hthem with water colours. I did some paper-piecing onto the front of the dress to make it look fuller, and the birds have beady eyes, and there are some blue glass beads and a pearl on the dress front. I then decoupaged the painted and painstakingly cut out motives over the stamped images, and that was it, then everything else was forbidden anyway!

So here's wishing you all a happy day, whatever you are up to Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday Lynne!!!

Good morning once again from sunny and warm Rhineland. Yesterday it was really cold, today it's back to summer, so Looks like it will be a paint-on-the-balcony afternoon!
But the most important news of the day first; It's Lynn's birthday. She has a wonderful blog, *Adorn*, where she shows her lovely, delicate creations, always with lace, ribbons and flowers. I love her things because they are genuinely pretty and feminine, and she's a nice young lady as well! So, all together please,
*Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ly-ynn, happy birthday to you!* Hope you all sang loudly and clearly so that Lynne heard it up in bonny Scotland!
I didn't do much crafting or painting yesterday as I was busy tidying. I got one shelf in the bottomless pit sorted out - more or less, discovered a lot of old friends again that haven't been around for ages, and just didn't have too much time or energy after that,
But I did just manage another mail-art envelope and a few tags, so the day was not completely wasted!
Here they are:

The first tag has been made from cardboard, partly peeled, and then rubbed with clear embossing ink, and embossed with EP in mixed metallic tones, and then dusted with perfect pearls in pink and gold and heated again. I added a few glass splitters in pink, then some stamping and rub-ons to make the background. ! have used some vintage scrap images and 2 prima leaves and a flower. I have given the little girl a *necklace* made of glass beads fixed with glossy accents.

The second tag has been made from the packaging of the prima leaves, their packaging is always much too nice to throw away! This time if have used images in blue and turqoise, and a different prima leaf and flower. The little girl once again has a beaded necklace, I have decorated the tag witha bow and a beaded pin that I recently made.

And the envelope will be winging it's way to America in the course of the week. Today I have three of my envelopes to take to the post, so it should be fun meeting old Mrs Grumps again! But while I am at the post office,I can cross the road and go to the stationer's, and stock up on those pretty vintage images while I am there. And opposite the stationer's is a delightful café where they sell home baked cake, so I think I will have a little outing today....
I wish you all a day filled with sunshine, contentment and music. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

A sunday sketch or 2 and some mail art.

Good morning from cold, wet and windy Kaiserswerth. Who's taken the nice weather? Was I listenin' to the wrong channel when the weather men told us it would be nice?
And I'm still tired! (Well you went to bed too late again!)Need to drink enough coffee to get this written and then bath and probably another hour in bed, or 2, it's Sunday!
And Sunday means sketch day over at Sophia'a Blue Chair Diary, although I just looked at her blog and she doesn't seem to be home. Still, here's what I made.
They are dream sketches again. In the first one someone had taken my ballons away, and let them float so high that they were over the rainbow. Everyone was there, watching, but I couldn't see them again. and was cross!

It has been drawn with watercolour pencils, pencil and black ink.
The second picture has been painted with water colours. It was on of these strange dream scenes where everything was sort of wrong, although it looked normal at the time. There were large building with lots of windows, but no doors leadin in or out, the park was full of fishes and sea weed, and I was getting wild because they weren't driving in the right direction.....

And yesterday there was nothing worth while watching on TV, so I finished off my Mail-Art envelopes. Now I have 5 to bring to the post office this week . It's gonna be happy dragon day!:

I had a happy time playing with lots of stamps, old and new, and then adding other bits and pieces to finish them off.

And to end, a list of senior texting codes, sent me by friend Narda In Illinois, who always sends me something to lagh at each day!
SENIOR TEXTING CODES:


ATD -at the doctor.

BFF -best friend fell.

BTW -bring the wheelchair.

BYOT -bring your own teeth.

FWIW -forgot where I was.

GGPBL -gotta go, pacemaker battery low.

GHA -got heartburn again.

IMHO -is my hearing aid on?

LMDO -laughing my dentures out.

OMMR -on my massage recliner.

ROFLACGU -rolling on floor laughing and can't get up.

TTYL -talk to you louder!


So, I wish you all a nice Sunday, take care, and thanks for visiting!

A Mixed bag and a nice write up by Cindy Adkins.

Good morning Ladies and any Gentleman that might be out there too. I am happy to say that I slept again for nine hours, and will probably need a double portion of coffee to get me quite awake today.
A big thanks to Cindy Adkins who has featured me on her blog this morning, it is vey kind of you. Cindy has lots of awesome pictures of her blog, especially of her beautiful house, which has been rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina with an enormous amount of hard work, and is well wrth admiring, as is the lovely, feminine work she does....
I am going to visit my friend today, so we will be playing cards, chatting and nibbling all day; oh well, I suppose you can't paint and craft every day! (WHY NOT??)
I did get some things finsihed yeterday, though:
The first two pieces are a rather crazy mail art envelope, ready for the swap at Tees as soon as we know our swap partners. One shows the front, and the other the back. OMG, if I hadn't written that you would never have noticed it! (Goes off to get secong mug of coffee)

The next one is a set of 4 *tea cards* I made for the challenge at JFF where this month the challenge is to make cards llike those mini ones we used to get inside the tea packets.

And then I made a little key ring album of it, using some Brooke Bond Photos for the front and back covers:

And I got another mailart envelope done, this time using a lot of collage. It will be on its way to America next week, too.

And last but not least, I finished a little linen bag that I started a week ago. The image has been printed onto sticky backed canvas, and then given a row of stitches to make it hold better, and just a little trim with lace and ribbon. I know I should have I****d it before taking the picture, but as some of you may remember, my iron fell from the top shelf of the bottomless pit (AKA hall closet) some weeks back, and has since been discretely buried....

OK, that was it for today. I am still having probs keeping my eyes open, and my fingers are getting knots in them trying to find the right keys. Have a nice day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!