Summer of Color and some cards for Less is More

Today it is time for *the Summer of Color* hosted by Kristin. This week our color is yellow, not usually a color I like too much, but I suppose you have to try everything! Yellow reminds me of the sixties, with all the accompanying social protests and demos against war, the bomb, against nearly everything, a lot of which I joined in at the time. It was the time of the Beatles with their *yellow submarine* and Donovan with *Mellow Yellow*, which I took as theme for my first painting. I used a mixture of tempera, acrylic and metallic paints, some of which I heated and bubbled to give texture. The background has been stamped with TH ink in wild honey using some bubble plastic as a stamp. I added some of the text of Donovan's son, gave the lady a feather in her hair, and lots of daisies, one of the symbols of the anti-war movement. And of course, the famous symbol for *ban the bomb* in the right hand corner.

For the second picture I got a bit carried away with the sixties themes - psychedelic patterns in orange and yellow form the background, and in the middle is a *magic mushroom*, which unfortunately led many young people to bad dreams and worse caused by drug misuse. After painting the background with water soluble wax crayons, I drew different psychedelic patterns in black ink, and wrote the titles of a lot of the protest songs of the sixties, as well as some of the sayings of the time, like *Make love not war*.

And I made two cards for the *Less is More* challenge. This time our stern task-mistresses want to see shades of blue. I distressed two narrow strips of card with TH inks in faded jeans, stormy skies, tumbled glass, broken china and chipped saphire, applying the colors diagonally, starting with the darkest. I left some tiny spaces of white here and there to give the impression of sky. I stamped the cards with motives of the Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. I mounted the printed strips onto white cards. The birds have been drawn with black pen. The first card has only been stuck along the sides, so that the picture stands out from the card.

I think this should be enough for today. Have a great day you all, and a happy 4th of July to all my American friends. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Sunday Sketches and 2 challenges

Good morning everybody. Today it's time again for *Sunday Sketches*, hosted by Sophia over at *Blue Chair Diary*. I didn't have time to make another sketch, was busy painting yesterday for the *Summer of Color* on Monday, so I am sharing a picture I made a while back. It has been painted with tempera and water color pencils. It shows a topsy turvy world where land and sea have somehow got mixed up.

The second picture I am sharing is one that was made more than 50 years ago, when I was in the fourth year at Grammar School. It has been drawn with colored pencils. There is a remark on the back from the teacher saying that I pressed too hard. We had a very strict and dour art teacher, but the year after we got a different teacher, and with her it was much more fun!

Yesterday afternoon I had another try with alcohol inks, I don't really like working with them as they always spark my asthma, so this time I had the window wide open. I don't have many colors, so I just had to use what was there. First I made an altered coaster as a little wall hanging, which I am planning to put on the front of my journal and not on the wall. I coated the coaster with pearl silver metallic structure paste, heated and bubbled it, and then dripped the inks on and blew them with a straw. I made 3 holes at the bottom and hung 3 TH word tags on, which I colored to match in red, blue and yellow. I chose the words live, love and hope. I am entering this into the *anything goes* challenge over at *Just for Fun*

Then I made a tag using alcohol inks in yellow, black and gold. This is made using Tim Holtz' tutorial, which can be found here: I found a picture of a *yellow lady* in my stash, mounted her on a scrap of hologram card, and then onto the tag. I gave her a feather, some lace and a necklace, and used an old ear-ring as charm to hang at the top. I am entering this tag into the *Grungy Monday* Challenge at Studio L3

And the last picture is a sneak-peek from my yellow painting tomorrow. Can you guess what it is? It shouldn't be toooooooooooooo hard to guess!!

And now for my surprises which arrived in the post yesterday, a beautifully painted box, filled with goodies form Zoe. The box reminds me of Merlin and magic, just lovely:

And inside the box were lots of surprises. A miniature canvas with easel:

A Stylish dressing up doll, which seems to have about my figure!?

A beautiful hand-made card

An altered spoon in steampunk design, with loads of tiny cogs and gears fixed to it:

2 little albums full of gorgeous images for tags and ATCs etc.

And last but not least, a set of flower fairy die-cuts.

As you can see, I was a very lucky bunny and it cheered me up a lot to find such lovely things in the post. Thanks for your kindness, Zoe!


Well, enough for today. Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. Take care, and thanks a lot for visiting, I do appreciate it very much!

Journal for July, a blog award and mail art sent

It's Saturday again, the time is flying by, and I never find enough time to everything I would like to....Did I hear someone say, *Get up off your butt, switch off the computer and you might succeed?* I enjoy my computer time, and the contact with the world it makes possible.
It's a cold and grey day again, feels more like autumn than summer, but we did have 2 hot days this week!
Yesterday I finished my journal pages for July, almost on time!
I used lots of printed tissue and different pictures left over from various projects, which I gessoed onto the pages. Then I painted round them using water soluble wax crayons, and then stamped, drew squares for the days, and generally had a bit of a play till it looked more or less like I wanted it to. I am linking my journal to *The Kathryn Wheel*

Then I sent off a mail-art envelope for a swap I'm doing with Carolyn. It was once again admired from the new young man at the post office, I can still hardly believe it! Hope it reaches Carolyn soon!

And I have received a Blog award from Joni Nickrent at *Pop Art Minis* , a fantastic artist who makes wonderful pictures.

This award comes with *conditions* - I have to reveal 7 things about myself, and pass it on to 8 other bloggers. They, in turn, have to do the same!
OK. first the juicy details about me;
1. I like blogging
2. I hate h*******k
3. I love painting
4. I hate i*****g (can't do it anymore since my i**n fell out of the closet and broke!)
5. I love crafting
6. I hate clearing up and tidying, although it is often necessary....
7. I think my life has been much improved by contact with the lovely, generous community of bloggers, and I would really miss not having you all as part of my life.

Now, I have to pass this award on to 8 other worthy bloggers, no easy task by so many great people out there.
But I have chosen eight, and I hope they will accept their awards:
1.Donna of *Donna did it* , who is a fantastic artist and a wonderful friend
2. Tee of *The Altered Paper*, who organises swaps and challenges to keep us busy
3. Zoe of *This little place* who always finf time to leave nice comments
4.Cindy Adkins who is a lovely person with great style and a big heart
5.Julie of *Sesenarts*, who makes dreams out of silk and fabrics
6. Carolyn of *Digital experiments* who is a lovely lady with a big heart.
7. Susan of *The Twilight Zone*, who spends her time between Kindle, Cropping and Vampires and
8.Jo of *Fiddlesnips* who always makes me laugh, as well as being a very talented artist.

I could have named many, many more, but 8 is 8....
Well, after linking so many names I need a coffee. Have a lovely day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Paint Party Friday and Post from Mary....

Well, I hope that Blogger does not b*gger around all day like yesterday, couldn't post till the late afternoon, couldn't leave comments, I was SHUT OUT! What the heck was I supposed to do all day?................ Now, sit down before you read this, it's gonna get nasty!

I did the H*******k!! Tidied, cleaned, polished the floor, scrubbed - yuck! Sorry to use so many bad words, but I'm still in a foul mood after yesterday!
So, back to the nice things, it's Paint Party Friday , hosted by Kristin and Eva. I painted a lot this week. On Saturday evening I did a sketch of an *autumn lady* for Sunday sketches, and thought I should use the inspiration to paint all four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter. So I had a great time painting. And here are the pictures:

Now you know why I NEEDED to clean my kitchen!

And on Wednesday evening I got a packet from Mary Albrethsen
We took part in one of Tee's famous swaps, this time for an altered mini composition book. Mary sent me not only a beautifully decorated book, but a wonderful ribbon rose brooch in blue and green, a pretty painted bag, another book to alter myself and a lovely, personal letter. Here some pics, showing the front, back, the brooch and the inside of the notebook.

Thanks so much Mary!

I started on my Journal for July, it will be finished later today, si will be blogged tomorrow, just one day late! Have a nice day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting.

Is it really Thursday already?

This week is flying, , by quicker than I can think. On Monday and Tuesday it was extremely hot - the temps went up to 37°, and then yesterday morning after rain and storms it was cool 15°. I never know what to put on - summery cropped trousers or pullover and jeans. What a summer.
But on Tuesday a wonder happened. I went to the post office to send off my altered spoon swap, of course, in a nice mail art envelope. There was a young man behind the counter this time. And what did he say ? *Wow, how lovely! This must have taken hours to make, I love it!* I was really in a state of shock as I left the office. Was he real, or was I having hallucinations? I hope the first one.
Yesterday I visited my friend for our old ladies' gossip and game day. We have breakfast together - I buy fresh rolls on the way there - and then chat, play skipbo, eat lunch, chat, drink coffee, play skipbo etc till it's time to go home.
Anyway, I didn't have too much time for crafting, but managed to get 2 tags done. One for the *Dragon's Dream Tag it on*, and one for *Simon Says Stamp and Show* - a word. Hels has a similar theme with words, so I am entering the words tag into her challenge at *Sunday Stampers* too.

The dragon this week is Zoe, and she is dreaming of being by the sea-side. I made a distressed and gessoed cardboard tag, and painted the sea and the beach with structure paints, which I then heated and bubbled to give it texture. Then I added a little captain, some shells and birds, and a TH ticket. And a bit of glass glitter for sand. That was it!

For the *word* tag, I gessoed a distressed tag, and added some torn strips from an ancient book - words! Then I distressed the tag with TH inks in tumbled glass, wild honey, Victorian velvet and forest moss. I pasted another page onto a piece of mountboard, and die cut the word *Live*. It has also been distressed and stamped with flourishes, as has the tag background. I used some TH type pieces to make the word *word*, which I tied on with some string. Of course, I had to put a leopard on the tag, too.

And I die cut and punched some birds from some scraps of alcohol inked paper, that was toooooo wild to use for what I was intending it!

And in the evening, my neighbour rang and brought me an envelope that had arrived while I was out. It was my swap from Mary,I will show the pics tomorrow, Blogger is very problematic again today!
Well, that was it again. More tomorrow! Have a great day, thanks for looking and take care!

A Mixed Bag

Yesterday I spent most of the day painting again, and On Friday all will be revealed for *Paint Party Friday*.
But I couldn't resist doing a bit of crafting. I am visiting a friend today, and she gets a page each month for the calendar I gave her for Christmas. As it's holiday time, I made another *bathing beauty* tag, and fixed it to some striped paper, which was lying about on my working space. Added a bit of golden glass glitter as sand and a shell, and it was finished. The shell is not a real one, I used *mold and pour* to make a mould, pressed a shell into it and filled it with some modelling plaster. The good thing about the home made ones is that you can paint them any colour you need, and as the reverse is flat, they are easy to stick onto paper or card. A quick and easy page this month.

Then I made a summer tag for the *Blog Challenge Garden* , where Rebecca wants to see summer this week. Hope you soon feel better Rebecca, and enjoy your break! I used corrugated cardboard, painted with gold acrylic paint and distressed with TH inks. I added some music paper, a transparency with flowers, and some German scrap images with roses and a little girl.

And then I saw the three little angel heads and thought of the sketch for *Less is More*
But this is definately the last one for this week!

And VERY IMPORTANT! June at Dezinaworld is celebrating her 500th follower soon. So hop on over to her blog and see what wonderful blog candy she is offering!

Okay, that was it for today. Have a great day, take care, and thanks for stopping by!

Challenges at *The Cheerful Stamp Pad* and *Less is More*

Good morning you all, seems like we are in for another hot day. Yesterday the temps climbed to over 30°, after only 11° on Saturday, a big difference. But it should cool down again tomorrow, and then we will see if the summer is over before it has begun!
Yesterday - and at the weekend, I did a lot of painting, but don't want to share the pics till they are finished.
For my DT piece over at *The cheerful stamp pad* - where the theme for this challenge is *my favourite background*, I did one of my 5S pieces - splodge, smudge, smear, spray and scratch, which is always fun! Especially the heating and bubbling afterwards. This was the result:

Then I distressed the edges with TH stormy skies and forest moss, stamped some floral images along the bottom, added a few small black flowers, a black bird (Sizzix sparrow die) and a TH branch tree in front of a setting sun made of a scrap of gauze material. Then I added the leopard on the left, and that was it. There's still plenty of time to enter the challenge, so hop on over and have a look!

And I made another card for *Less is More* , taking care to follow the sketch again. This time I placed a strip of green- blue paper across the card, cut some clouds from scrap paper, and punched out three cows. The sentiment has been computer generated.

So, that was it for today. Thanks to all who left such nice comments on my paintings yesterday and Sunday, I very much appreciate it. Have a nice day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!