Paint Party Friday and the sun is shining!

Good morning you all. We had another stormy evening and night here, wet, wild and windy! Lots of thunder and lightning, too. But now the sun is shining, probably specially for Paint Party Friday!

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise in the post, a mail art envelope filled with goodies, and I will show the pictures tomorrow, as today is Party time. I have been painting a lot this week; it seems to do me good just now. Kristin and Eva are hosting PPF as usual, so go on over if you can and see what people are up to.
I have painted another one of my blue self portraits, I have called it *Self dialogue with poetry*. I don’t know why I keep wanting to paint these stylized portraits just now, but I think in art it is good to do what you feel is right, and this feels right for me just now. Here it is.

In the dialogue I am talking to myself, or reading poetry to myself, something I often do, as there’s nobody else to talk to. But at least I get halfways intelligent answers, so that’s something. And I only get to hear poetry or books I like! There are some of my favourite authors there – Heinrich Heine, Paul Celan, Annette von Droste Hülshoff, Nelly Sachs and Rose Ausländer, to name just a few. Being surrounded with words and music I like to hear is very important, and I often listen to music or poetry from CDs while I am painting. And I have taken a photo of all three *blue ladies* togther. Had to put them onto to the floor for that, ans make sure my toes weren't on the picture.

This is the first time I have put them all together, so I think I will try to make a frame big enough to fit them all.
Then I did a lot of green painting yesterday, which has to be kept secret till Monday, for thr *Summer of Colour*. I have never painted with green before - just green, and I'm not sure if I will do it again!


In the afternoon I made a tag for the *Grungy Monday* Challenge over at Studio L3. You have to use a technique of Tim Holtz, which can be found on the
Tim Holtz Blog, January 2008
Technique Challenge

I made the skull using this technique, and then made it into a little fairy-tale collage tag. As I love using all these elements, it was. as always, fun to make!

So, that was it for today. Have a nice day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

More challenges and playing with dolls.....

Good morning everybody, Mrs Grumpy here again today, after another bad night. I suppose, to see it positively, having a bad night makes you want to get up, so that's some thing anyway.
Yesterday I got some work done on 2 challenges, for the *Dragons Dream*, where the dragon is dreaming of numbers, and for The Craft Room Challenge , where the ladies are playing with dolls.
For the dragon I made a tag with a collage of numbers:

And for the Craft Room girls I dug out some old dressing up dollies which were cut out of a magazine in Israel in the 60s I think, perhaps earlier. They are very tatty, and have been played with a lot, one has a sewn on head, and the other a sewn on knee!! I have put the dolls onto a simple cardboard background, reminsicent of sandy beaches, sun and sea, with a very simple decoration, so as not to distract from the dolls. I think they are actually meant to be boy and girl, but I have just clothed them with the pieces I still have....

Here they are *as they are*

And here in their trouser suits....

This looks like summer dresses for playing....

And these were the last 2 things I found, pajamas and dressing gown, and some sort of winter clothes.
The tabs which hold the clothes onto the dollies are mostly torn, as is one of the trouser legs, but I will mend them before putting them away again.

And some of you may remember Tee's well traveled torso? Well, not Tee, but the one she sent me. Any way, she had a few days rest, so I got around to dressing her yesterday.
First I mod-podged her and stuck a layer of crumpled tissue all over for *undies*. Then I dolled her up with some pink paper from India, a piece of hand made silk from Julie in Australia, lace and a flower from June, some ribbon and roses out of my stash, and some music sheets printed from a freebie. And her belt was tied round a bottle of bubble bath! And here she is. I have called her Mrs T. Orso:

I hope you like her. If you have any suggestions, let me hear them! I wanted to give her a nice feather, too, but have to find one first....


And last but not least, as a contrast programme, I made another card for *less is More*, as I at last found my embossing folder with the frame....

Okay, that was it for today. Now I am going to start painting something green....Have a nice day, take care, and thanks for looking!

The postie came.....

Good morning you all, hope you all feel fit and well. Ask me how I feel when I have drunk my three cups of coffee, I'm still on number one....
Yesterday the postman came and brought me a big envelope from June of *Dezinaworld*. We were both in a RAK swap over at Tee's blog - Tee is a great gal who is organising fun swaps, so go over and have a look at what she's up to! And here are all the goodies I got in my envelope:


Stop drooling, you all, it's mine!! Thanks again June, and thanks Tee for organising theis great swap around the world!

Yesterday I had another Tag day, I made some challenge tags and some tags just for fun.
First I made 2 butterfly tags for the challenge at Tag Tuesday.

I have used white tags - ran out of cardboard! which have been distressed with TH inks, and then stamped with script and flourishes. I have decorated them with scrap images, flowers, butterflies, a little metal butterfly in addition on each one (which were in my parcel from June), some blue beading and ribbons to finish them off. I reall enjoyed making these pretty tags.




And then I made 2 bird tags for the *Blog Challenge garden*

The first tag is with Red Riding Hood and a tree and pretty birds from German Scrap. The background was distressed as for the butterfly tags. The second tag is cardboard again, got another 6 cardboard tags cut and peeled, and the bird here has been painted. I used some gold and purple paints that were left over, squished them together on a postcard, bubbled it dry and then die cut the bird, great fun! The background has been gessoed and distressed, and has some of the nice flowers and a tiny piece of the lace that June sent me.
And then I made a pink tag for *crazy Amigos* whose theme this week is pink.

And the last tag was just for fun, a boy out fishing.

So that was it for today! It was actually meant to be a short post but then.... Have a great day, take care of yourselves, and thanks a lot for visiting!

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.