Gingersnap Book-marks, Tags and a Match-box

Good morning you all, happy Wednesday Thursday!! Not quite awake, finally fell asleep just before the parcel postman rang my bell like a maniac to leave another parcel for a neighbour....I don't usually mind, but he is such a miserable man; tramps up the stairs, sighing and swearing, and says *Parcel for upstairs*. No good morning, or could you please? So today I said, *That's nice*. He said again, *parcel for upstairs*, so I repeated *that's nice*, and started to shut the door. Then he asked if I would be sooooo kind to take it in for my neighbours. OK, no problem! I think his parents forgot to teach him manners, but from now on I am going to do my best!

Today I want to show you 3 tags I made for the *Grungy Monday* Challenge over at Studio L3. This time it's celebrating Tim Holtz's March 2008 Technique
I used a stamp with flourishes for all 3 tags, but positioned it each time differently. I used Forest Moss, Spiced Marmalade and vintage photo inks, and gold perfect pearls. This is what they looked like after distressing;

I stamped the images with archival black using stamps from Tim Holtz and Character Constructions.

The technique was fun to try out, but it's quicker with resist ink!

And now I want to show you the lovely bookmarks I got from the *Gingersnaps* Book mark art exchange, each one is different, and each one is gorgeous, judge for yourselves:

The first two pictures show the bookmarks from Petra B. and Laura Liddell
Petra has written a quote on the back of hers, Laura an explanation of the Japanese picture and script.

The next picture shows the bookmarks from Sarah and Zoe . Sarah's African lady with the wonderful, beaded tassel and Zoe's very unusual bookmark of my home town and in my fave colours have also won a place in my heart.

Thank you all for putting so much work and talent into these beautiful little art works, which I will treasure!

And lastly, a sneak-peek of my altered *matchbox* for Tee's swap. I tried to buy a large box of matches here to alter, and got told in both possible stores in our little town that large matchboxes are a winter item, and not in stock just now! Are they kidding?? Anyway, I found a box (5 x 3 1/2") without a lid in my bottomless pit aka hall closet, and made a sleeve for it from some cardstock from SEI. I cut butterflies out of the rest of the paper, glazed them with glossy accents, and mounted them on top, with beads for *bodies*. Then I added some pale pink lace and a tassel. The rest - the lining and the goodies which will be going into it - have to stay a secret till they get to Tee!

And a short joke Narda sent yesterday, I think all ladies will love this one:


A woman devised her own system for labeling homemade
Meals she stored in the freezer. Instead of calling them
Chicken Parmigiana or Meatloaf, she labeled them
Whatever, Anything, I Don't Know and, her favorite, Food.

That way when she asked her husband what he wanted
For dinner, she was certain to have it on hand.




Actually, I wanted to do a quick post today....But time enough to wish you all a great day! Take care and thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, sunshine and a mini book

Good morning you all, hope you slept better than I did! If this post is full of typing mistakes, sorry in advance, but I am having difficulty hitting the right keys today, even more than usual!
I want to show you the mini book I made last month for a swap, it has now reached its destination, and is free for public viewing. I made the album very grungy, as the parts of Paris I like best are always the ones where it's a bit dusty and shabby.

Well, that was a lot of pictures and not a lot of text, so here's one of Narda's funnies:

A man feared his wife Peg wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem.
The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea about her hearing loss. Here's what you do,' said the Doctor, 'stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.'
That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He says to himself, 'I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens.' Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
No response.
So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, 'Peg, what's for dinner?'
Still no response.
Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'
Again he gets no response.
So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. 'Honey, what's for dinner?' Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her. 'Peg, what's for dinner?'


'Frank , for the FIFTH and FINAL time, CHICKEN!'

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!

It's Tuesday and the sun is shining!

Good morning you all, I can hardly believe it, but the sun is shining and it's warm again. The weather men have said it will only be for a few days, then it will get cold again, so we will have to make the most of it.

Yesterday I started clearing up in my bed room. There are piles of things that need sorting out, loads of things higgledy piggledy in the wardrobe that need to be put straight, and then perhaps it will look more welcoming. I have decided to do half an hour a day till it's done, just hope that I don't mess it all up again in between.

Yesterday I made some more tags. On Saturday I got another nice box, which I changed into a pile of tags, and so I had an itty-bitty day doing bits and pieces. I did some painting, too, but that has to be finished for Friday, so you will see it then.

One of the tags is for the *Three Muses Challenge* , where the theme this week is *stairs*. I know my title is not very original, but it just seemed to fit!

The next one is for *Simon Says Stamp and show* - a flourish. The tag has been distressed with TH inks in gradient colours, and the background stamped with script and diamond pattern, and then clear embossed. I added a rather surreal mix of images. The top image is from CI, and also has a diamond pattern in it. The flourish has been cut from a piece of embossed and distressed coredinations paper.

This tag has been made using one of the flower fairies I got from Zoe, and the tree has been cut from some paper I got from Gaby. I made a hole in the tag, and pushed the feather into the fairy's hand, so it looks like she is tickling the owls, who are certainly looking rather grumpy! I am entering this into the challenge at *One stop Craft Challenge* where you have to show a tag, and this is two!

So, that was it for today. Have a lovely day, take care, and thanks for visiting. And Many, many thanks to all who visited and left such encouraging comments on my *Sixties* art.

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.