Steampunk and flowers

Good morning you all. Just managed to roll out of bed and reach the coffee maker in time, what would I do without it. I start to revive when the aroma drifts towards me, and from then on things start to get better. Now I know why George Clooney is always so keen on keeping his nespresso capsules, I wouldn't give mine up voluntarily either!
Yesterday I visited a friend, so we did a lot of chatting, eating and playing cards, and there was much not crafting time or energy by the time I got home. I managed 2 tags and a small card, and then fell into bed.
First the card. Tall and thin, because it's accompanying a mini bottle of bubbly, and I wanted it to be the same size as the box. And red flowers because the lady getting it likes red flowers....

And I even prickled some parchment for the background, never again!
















The two tags I made yesterday are for
Simon Says Stamp and Show who want to see distressed and torn edges, and for
Sunday Stampers, where Hels wants to see Steampunk. So I am entering both tags into both challenges because I can't decide. I have put some of the great things built during the Victorian age, on one card the Eiffel Tower and on the other Tower Bridge, which I am espcially fond of as I was born and grew up just round the corner from there. The tags are a bit gloomy, then the *steampunk* time, although often shown so glamourous, was a time of fog and smog, stinking factory chimneys, children's labour and great hardship for many poor people in the great cities, of which London and Paris are just 2 examples. On the Paris tag there is a half of a clock, a symbol for the 12 hours most people worked each day. And still a scrap of music - the music hall entertainments were a great source of fun for the people. And on the London tag I have used a black cog as a black sun, darkening the London Skies, and there is a compass, showing the many directions in which the ships steamed to bring back goods. And if you look closely, you will see that the lady driving her chariot is really driving a steaming tea pot, which was the drink for rich and poor.
Sorry, seem to have slipped into sermon mode again, here are the tags:

OK, I will try to do something happier for tomorrow! Take care, have agreat day, and thanks for visiting!

Good morning you all. The weekend has come and gone, but we have one day extra here, as it is Whit Monday, so schools and shops are closed, and no rush today. I am going to visit a friend later on, I hope I find my car. I remember parking it somewhere when I came back from shopping on Thursday, but where? We shall see when I go out.
Today is the beginning of a new challenge. *Things with Wings* over at the *Cheerful Stamp Pad* I am acting as visiting artist for 2 weeks, so please go on over and have a look and join in the challenge, and look what lovely things the design team had made.
This is my piece;

First I cut the tags out of cardboard, which was partly peeled and gessoed, and then I added a drizzle of metallic paint to give it more texture, before heat drying and letting it boil and bubble.

Then I distressed using TH inks in Forest Moss, wild honey, faded jeans and Victorian velvet,

Then the tags were decorated with different elements to give a fairy tale scene - Hänsel and Gretel, little Red Riding Hood, and owls, birds and butterflies, and the good fairy watching ove it all, The trees, made with the TH die cut have been embossed with metallic EPs, and cut apart, so that they appear on all three trees, and the *Wicked wolf* is also crossing over two of the tags, to make the tryptich *fit together*. I have added wings to the tryptich too, as this is about fairy tale magic! Here are some close ups of the three parts.

I must say I enjoy making things like this more than cards....but I have still made 3 cards for Less is More, which is hoping for a CAS one layer tag with few embellishments, and the motive has to be in a frame. So I dug out some little stamps with frames, The flowers have the frame around them already, as does the sweet litttle kitty getting up to mischief. Both stamps are from LaBlanche.

On the second card I have STITCHED the frame, wow what a job, as I can't see to thread the needle!

So, I think that was enough for today. Hope you all have a good day and take care, and thanks for visiting.

Sunday sketches & some sunshine

Good morning you all. I allowed myself to turn over again when I saw that it was before eight as I woke up, and managed to doze off for over an hour. As I then sleepily got out of bed, I managed to turn over my glass of water, so my bedside table is now shiny clean and tidy.
Yesterday I had a paint day. Mixed up some tempura paints and just got started, so that was fun. There's a new blog event going on called the *summer of colour*, and the theme this week is blue, so I painted in blues. I've been rather hoooked on blues the past few weeks after not using them for ages, and painted a mixed-media self-portrait with *Blaue Gedichte* = *Blue poems*. This is a little pocket book, where all the verses are printed in blue, and have blue as their theme. Some are very sad, too, but it's a little book I love. Anway, I have sacrificed one of my copies - the tattiest - to use in the picture, at least some bits of it. I'd better show the picture, so you know what I'm warbling about, and then I can tell you more.

I have called the picture *Blue self portrait with blue cat and blue poems*
I have painted the hair in different tones of blue, turquiose and purple, and divided the colours with silver, Her face is blue, and she is looking at the book titel. Fragments of the poems are floating around in the picture, and the blue cat is under her chin like a scarf. I won't bother to to translate the poems, anyone who is interested can do it with google. But one of the poems is by Rose Ausländer, a holocaust survivor who died in the Old people's Home where I worked after I had stopped teaching. Her poems are always worth reading though often very hard, very sad, if you can get them English, have a look. I do not usually run around with blue hair - although I will admit to pink and fiery red in younger years . And I would love to have a cat again, althout it would not have to be blue as in my picture. I am entering this painting into *Sunday Sketches* over at Blue Chair diary* and at *Twinkle, Twinkle,The Summer of Colour*


And apart from that I wa not lazy all day. I made 2 mail art envelopes which will be winging their way through the world this week.

They are both completely different, but were,as always, fun to make.
I hope you all have a lovely day, take care, and thanks for visiting.

Sunny Saturday....and some freebies from days past.

Good morning you all. The sun woke me up very early this morning, perhaps it wanted to play! Looks like it should be a nice day. Then I could either go to the flea market on the other side of town - always very full of everything, or I could walk along the Rhine into our little *town' and drink a cup of coffee,
But first I must tell you a story, about the Post Office yesterday. I walked in - the place was empty - and Mrs Grumpy Drawers said, very friendly, *Good morning!* Never heard tones like that before. Then I showed her my envelope and she opened the flap at the side so I could push it through to her,
+OOOOOOOOOOOOh, how pretty!* she warbled, *Somebody is going to love this!*
*Have you got any pretty stamps?* I asked
+Oh yes, lets see what matches the colours - yellow there , and the blue airmail sticker there - now it looks even better*
*Ye-e-es* I quaked as I gave her the money.
*Bye and have a lovely day* she called after me!
Now I am wondering what happened. Did I imagine it all? Did Aliens come overnight and change her? Did she win in the lottery? I have
no idea. Where has she hidden her dragon? I need to take another envelope on Tuesday, we will see is the change still holds good....
I spent yesterday crafting - what else - bur can't show you what I made till tomorrow or Monday, so I will show you a piece I made at the beginning of the week, which then disappeared under a big heap of papers.
It's an altered canvas, also for the theme *things with wings*, which seems to have kept me occupied this week. But if you are curious to se a bit of what I am hiding and why, look here:

The background has been made with torn strips of paper and then gessoed, before adding a stamped owl - stamped on tissue and then stuck on with mod-podge, and some winged figures. I twas hoping that the whole thing would be it a bit darker, which I would have liked better, but it will have to stay as it it. Next time i will colour the gesso first, that should help.
And now some freebies for you to download. They are the latest fashions from spring 1900. Enjoy!!

The first one shows a cap for ladies to wear after getting up in the morning and before having their hair dressed by their maid. It was, of course, very important, that the man of the house did not see his beloved
wife in a state of disarray. Ladies, please take note!!!

This shows a suitable spring jacket for a girl of 12 years. The next 2 pictures show comfortable play clothes suitable for 4-5 year olds! Poor kids

And the last ones show suitable playclothes for 4-5 year old boys for playing in the garden or park, probably accompanied by a nanny!

Okay, that was it for today, don't forget to get your kids dressed suitably before you let them out, next week I will show some baby clothing!
Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting.

Tim Holtz meets Paint Party Friday , Just for Fun!

It's Friday again, so that means - welcome to Paint Party Friday, hosted by Kristin and Eva.
Today I have 2 pieces to show, a mask and another mail art envelope, made for dear lady I know, which means braving the Dragon AKA Mrs Grumpy Drawers at the post office to send it off ths morning, filled with some nice surprises.
So, first the envelope:

The centre piece has been painted with tempera colours, and then I have added some collaged strips round about to make it bigger. I have used rub-ons and stamping to add more motives, and the adress label has been printed from a *Graphics Fairy* freebie. I like the overall effect of this mixed media piece very much, it just remains to see how it will be welcomed at our little post office....
And now to the mask:

For this piece I used tempera colours again, just in completely different colours this time. I think I must have been feeling like this some days this week after not sleeping though several nights again- But last night I fell asleep straight away andd didn't even turn over, so I got over 8 hours sleep, which is unbelievable, and for which I am very thankful! But back to my mask! I really enjoy painting these things at the moment, and I don't know why, and I certainly don't know what moved me to use this combination of colours, but I like to paint without planning, just following my feelings, and that's what came out!

And now to something different, that I have made for 2 challenges today. Over at Just For Fun, they want to see *All things Tim*, and on *Studio L3* they want to see Tim Hotz's distress ink, and I've used plenty of that!
I have made another tryptich out of corrugated card, which has been partly peeled, gessoed, and then distressed with faded jeans, stormy skies, wild honey, Vctoriam Velvet and Forest Moss. Then I rubbed some clear embossing ink over it, and sprinkled it with some mixed remains of embossing powder, which gave a shine of silver or bronze here and there. After that I treated it to some gold perfect pearls, which I also heated. I stamped some flourishes on the background using forest moss, you can't see much of them, but I like to know there are *hidden* elements in each tag. Fot the decorations I made a tree of life, cut so that the cardboard *ribs* run diagonally to the background for more texture. For the middle part I have stamped a Tim saying onto some card and decoupaged it, and added a game spinner to help move the point of view around. The jigsaw pieces are a symbol for life, you have to move everything around till it fits. I have also used part of the packaging from a TH clock stencil under the two boys with their bike (image from CI), to show that our time is limited. On the right part I have added the three words which we can't do without in life, hope, dream and love, together witha stamped film strip under the plastic one. Can we influence our film? And lastly 2 cogs. No real reaosn, I just love them and try to sneak them into lots of things because of it. Sorry for the rather long sermon, sometimes i get carried away....Now for the pics!

I am also entering this as my second take into GC 10& Packaging materials over at Gingersnap Creations.

Well, I have think I have warbled on long enough for day, so here's wishing you a great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

More Tags, Challenges and a lot of fun....

Good morning, just managed to drag myself out of bed and stagger to the coffee machine, I know if I manage that then the rest will be easy. Now I am sitting here with a large cup of frothy coffee with chocolate sprinkles on top and beginning to wake up.
Looks like it will be another hot day here, the cool air from yesterday has disappeared, and the birds seem to be having a who-can-sing-the -loudest competition.
I had a another crafty day yesterday, doing some tags for challenges,
First I made something like I like, so it's made of cardboard and grungy, and it's going to be ny entry into Simon Says Stamp and Show a tag and Dragon's Dream TIO where the dragon wants to see things with wings, so here is it:

I made 3 cardboard tags and some wings which I painted with gesso and then distressed with TH inks. The heads have been stamped onto speciality card from LaBlanche using forest moss, and then cut out and fixed to the tags. I have kept the embellishments minimal, as I want the beautiful faces to be in focus. Just added a few small flowers, and two leopards, who are strolling through all three tags. I joined the tags with twine to make them into a tryptich, and added the wings. I very much enjoyed making it, and like it the way it is.

And then I made another card for *Less is More* where it's still monochrome week. Here my new try:

I like this card better than I did the other 2 I made at the beginning of the week. The sheep have been stamped with archval ink in black, and then the middle one has been watercoloured black, and the grass and sentiment have been added with black ink.

And I'm still not finished....I made a tag for the Three muses challenge, where the theme this week is exotic birds.
I used a cardboard tag again, painted it with gesso in white and a splodge of gold left over from something else, bubble dried it, distressed it and used one of my birds cut from my own painted and stamped papers. Added a few flowers, and it was finished, too.

I'm not really sure that I like this one, so perhaps I will alter it later.














And then our grumpy parcel postman came yesterday, and brought me a packet that Tee (Creations by Tee) had sent off to me in April....They had been examining it at the customs and have such a lot of work to do, that they needed almost 2 months to check out that my present from Tee was not a lethal weapon or stuffed with contraband....Tee, thank you soooooooooo much for my lovely present!

Tee had packed the torso into a pretty envelope decorated with butterflies, and sent me a beautiful pink tag with it. The second picture shows the torso getting some fresh air on my balcony after beein locked up in an envelope and handled by customs officials for nearly 2 months! I wonder what they thought it was???


Anyway, now she has landed at my place and will have a good home, and I am looking forward to getting her dolled up - any ideas?
So, here's wishing you all a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Tags and an album

Good morning you all. We had a stormy night here, with thunder and lightning and loads of rain - hope the farmers will now be happy -and even the birds seem to be tired this morning!
I had a crafty day here yesterday, couldn't seem to stop, but can't show you everything as some things have to stay hidden for a few days for one reason or other. But I can show you some tags, so here they are!
The first 2 have been made just for fun.

Both tags have been made from recycled manila paper, and distressed with TH inks in stormy skies, Victorian velvet and forest moss. The backgrounds have been stamped with script and flourishes in green. Then I added some floral rub-ons, vintage scrap images and some little embellishments.
The next tag has been made for the challenge at *Blog Challenge Garden*, where the theme this week is *make it masculine* in honour of Fathers' Day in the USA. I have made a cardboard tag, as I cut up another empty box yesterday and made 15 large tags from it, which I *peeled* while watching Horatio Cane triumphing over the criminals of Miami....
The tag has been painted with white gesso, which I heat dried to speed it up. It smelled like burnt toast, but it bubbled nicely. I am now wondering what they put in the toast - cardboard and gesso? But I digress again. It has been distressed with Th inks in faded jeans, wild honey and forest green. The image used is from Crafty Individuals, the mini tag has been stamped with an artemio stamp, cut out by hand and distressed before being given the message. Then I added the masculine decorations, and that was it, quick and simple, but fun! I am also entering this into the Gingersnaps GC 106 *Use packaging materials*

And I can give you a sneak peek at the little album I finished yesterday, don't want to show it all as it would spoil the surprise for my swap partner.It's a small album with a travel / Paris theme.

Okay, that was it for today. The parcel post just came and brought me something, so I'm off to open it....Thanks for visiting, take care, and have a great day.