Tim Holtz distressed!

Today seems to be another cold and dismal day. The weather here is totally crazy; we get 1 or 2 days when the temperatures soar,followed by thunder and lightning and rain, and it feels like autumn again. I'm sitting here wrapped in a blanket this morning, feels strange in the middle of July,
Today I got another friendly letter from the Town authorities, with a small - and very bad! black and white photo. Apparently I was exiting the tunnel by the Rhine and must have been driving a bit too fast. The strange thing, is that I drive through this tunnel every Monday, on the way to my Doc's, and then again on the way back. It is always full, stop and go traffic, driving slower than a snail walks. On one day, there was no traffic jam. And I was evidently so happy that I exceeded the speed limit. So I will have to make another donation to the town funds! Why don't they give me a rebate for all the times when I had to crawl through there? Life is sometimes unfair....
Anyway, today I did not drive through the tunnel, and spent my time crafting and painting. And I did some H*******k. It was probably the shock from the speeding fine!
At the *Three Muses* challenge blog, they want to see famous people steampunked. Hmmmm! I was rather at a loss whose picture I should use. Then I remembered a photo of me taken with Tim Holtz, when he visited our little craft shop last year. Well, I'm not exactly famous, but Tim is definitely famous, at least in the blogging and crafting world, so I decided to distress Tim! I printed the photo onto a transparency in black and white (no coloured ink in the printer, I think it drinks it at night when I'm asleep!). Then I distressed some water-colour paper, using the clock and cogs templates, and a home made spray using vintage photo ink and perfect pearls. I die-cut more cogs using the *gadget gears* die, and cut a few pieces out of a Dezinaworld Steampunk sheet, and pushed them all around till I liked it. Then I added a TH branch tree, and a die cut of a winged lady that I got from a friend. And finally, I gave Tim a game-spinner. The King of distress has been distressed!

And on the *Blog Challenge Garden* Rebecca wants to see tags with a black and orange colour combo. Not really my fave, but what to do? I found a white tag on which I recently stuck two printed strips before painting it with gesso and leaving it in the kitchen. So, I distressed it with wild honey, rusty hinge, and a bit of black, and then stamped butterflies in black all over it. Caroline recently sent me a giant, die cut butterfly - in black! Predestined for this tag! And I have had an orange, acrylic flower in my stash, waiting to be used.....And here it is! I'm not sure if I really like it, I think I need to cut the wire stem off the flower!

And I was a busy bee yesterday. I made a little book for the Craft Room challenge. The ladies there want to see butterflies this time. I used 2 sheets of paper from the *Sasha* stack from Anna Griffin. One sheet has been cut to make the pages, and then I cut butterflies out of the second sheet. The paper is pale blue with flocked butterflies in different sizes on one side, and the reverse is plain blue. The first page was cut into 6 equal pieces, and I arranged them so that 2 matching pages always came together. The book is bound very simply, with two holes through the middle of the pages and a contrasting ribbon pulled through it. I have only decorated the plain pages, and still need to find some butterfly sayings to write into it, but here are some of the pictures:

Oh dear, this has turned out much longer than I intended again, sorry! Wish you all a lovely day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

It's cold again!

Good morning you all, hope you are all fit and well. Yesterday was extremely hot here, but very humid, and in the late afternoon we had some storms and rain, which cooled it off a bit. It thundered and rained all night, and now we have a cool 15°c, so just half of what it was yesterday. Crazy weather! I went to my friend Inge yesterday, she rang up and asked if I wanted to go over for a few hours, so I hopped into the car and went. We absolved our usual programme - drinking coffee, snacking, eating, chatting and playing cards.
Yesterday evening I managed to do some crafting, today I have reserved for painting, just don't know what yet.
I managed 2 tags, a card and a gift box, then spent the rest of the evening with my feet up watching TV.
The first tag is for Grungy Monday over at Studio L3. This time we had to use the Techniques of Tim Holtz from Day 7 of the 12 days of Christmas from 2007
I used a cardboard tag, painted with gesso, and then distressed with Victorian velvet before clear embossing. Then I rubbed over the background with forest moss. I stamped over the background with a script stamp, and then decorated with some mini envelopes, tied into a bundle like love letters, an image from CI, and a fountain pen and ink bottle, which have been stamped in several colours and then cut out and fixed with foam pads. I added a scrap of forget-me-nots and printed the title with my Brother P-touch.

The second tag is for the *Try it on Tuesday* Challenge Their theme is *birds and bees*, so I made a tag, distressed it, added a TH branch tree, and then lots of flowers and birds. And 2 fairy mushrooms, just because I like them.

The card has been made from a kit which I got ages ago in a blog candy, and it always comes out when I need a quick,feminine card. The little present box will be hiding a voucher as a present.

I hope you all have a good and safe day. Thanks for visiting!

Challenges and this and that

Well, the first challenge of today is going to be getting my coffee maker to work. A strange light has lit up that I never noticed before, and it's gone on strike. Yesterday the coffee was still being made perfectly; today -NOTHING! How can a day that starts out like this turn out good? The story will be continued.....
I managed to do my challenge for the *Three Muses* yesterday, I even made 2 things - a tag, and a card. The card has been made using a wedding photo taken in the twenties, with my Mum as bridesmaid. They are all wearing typical 1920's clothes - although I'm not sure about the spats the bridegroom is wearing! so I have used it to make an anniversary card for some neighbours. Even the bride is wearing a short dress!

And I made a flapper tag - or tried to! using a TH sewing room die cut, some fringing and some beads....

And while I had the family photos out, I madea card using a nice picture of my Great Grandma and 2 of her daughters:

They were all ladies witha sense of humour, so I think they would have liked their card!

That was all for today, short and not even sweet, I need to see to my coffee maker!
Have a great day you all, thanks for looking, and take care!

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS!!!!!!

The coffee maker is working again - you have to fill the water container! Ouch, that hurt!

Summer of Color and the Age of Chivalry

Today is once again time for the *Summer of Color* hosted by Kristin. This week the color of choice is brown, not my favourite, I did think of painting chocolate bars, but I was worried about how many I would eat during the process, so I decided on something else. I have a nice, sepia photo of my great aunt taken when she was 18, and tried to paint her, I did lots of sketches and tries, but none of them were right. I chose this one, not because it is a good likeness, bur because it's the expression she had when she was cross with us as kids, when I had forgotten to do the shopping for here, or not thought of her favourite newspaper. She was a very kind lady, and usually very smiley, but this expression must have impressed me!

I used tempera and water colours, and distressed the background afterwards with Tim Holtz distress ink in rusty hinge and vintage photo, to try to imitate the brown curtain at the photographer's. And I added a little gold and amethyst earring for something of a different colour.

After that I needed to do something more fun, so did one of my stylized self-portraits in dialogue with my non-existent twin sister....

I am sure you can guess which one I would rather be!

The double tag I have made is for 2 challenges - Just for fun wants to see plastic or acetate, and The Dragon's TIO is all about the age of chivalry.
I cut a double tag from a page from the WRMK *Fairy-Tale* Stack, and stamped my only suitable stamp on the left hand side - a rather daft looking prince, gazing up to see if his beloved is at home, or wondering if he can climb up the briar roses without tearing his nice, new cloak....
The other pictures have been printed onto acetate - St George having a go at the dragon, with 2 knights waiting right and left if they can be chivalrous and help him, or perhaps if he will kill the dragon for them so that they can go on their respective ways....who knows? The age of chivalry was a long, long time ago, when stories always had happy endings.

OOps, I am adding another card now as I just realized that the closing date is this evening, not tomorrow. I hve made this for the summer birthdays challenge over at the Craftroom. I would have been my Mum's birthday this month, she would have been 98, and the photo shows her with me when I was about 1 year old.

This is a short post today, as I have to be early at the doc's for some examination - yuck!

Thanks for looking, take care, be careful if you meet any dragons, and have a great Monday.

Sketches and MORE goodies!

Good morning you all! Today is Sunday, the sun is shining, and that means sketch time over at Sophia's *Blue Chair Diary*

I made some sketches this week from some photos. Well, I tried. I have a lovely photo of my great Aunt taken when she was 18. I made 2 sketches of it, but tried in the first one to show her at the time when I best remember her, when she was between 60 and 70, but I drew here in the same dress she was wearing with 18. The second one is (or should have been!) as she was at the time.

The first sketch has been made with sepia drawing chalks, the second one with water-colour pencils and I have realised that I am totally out of practice with sketching, haven't done enough lately!

And then I tried a sketch from one of my childhood photos. I used pencil and water colour pencils. I think it's not bad, but on the other hand it's not good, so I think I have to start doing an hour's sketching each day to get back into practice.

And yesterday I received a parcel from Canada, sent to me by Leslie of *Harmony Road Studio*, way back in May when she was giving away a blog candy. And now, after 2 months, it arrived at last, brought today by a friendly postie (the other one has probably got his day off!) Thank you Lesley, for all of my lovely goodies! What a feast for the eyes to see so many good things, including the smallest album I have ever seen, stamps, lace and borders,flourishes an altered domino, a wonderful pocket album, and lots of goodies to make myself, including a grunge paper album, key rings and...and.... Thank you soooooooooooo much. With all the goodies I have received in the last 2 days, I should have enough to do in the next few days....

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

Saturday and weekend again!

Good morning you all, or good day or good whatever depending on when you read this. It's dark an wet and dismal this morning, so that would be a good excuse to stay home and paint!
Today I want to share some things with you that I got from 2 Ladies in the USA, from Carolyn and from Karen. Carolyn and I decided on a swap just so, and Karen was my swap partner by Tee's

First of all the lovely goodies from Carolyn, beautiful handmade cards, a tag, and then loads of things to play with - grunge board and paper, mini tags for tags on tags, die cuts, beautiful butterflies, a selection of Tim Holtz clips and memory glasses, tissue tape, glass dewdrops. And not enough, a beautiful Paris folder and a memory capsule with lovely pics in it. And a giant piece of wide, beautiful lace. It's kike Xmas here today! Sorry the photos are bad, it's so dismal outside.

And this is the spoon , fairy card and fairies from Karen:

And as I have been painting all day, didn't get round to much crafting, just got a couple of bookmarks made for friends off to Paris for their holidays, with my Paris guide book, hence the book-marks.

And a blue tag:

And while I had all my blue things round me, a blue card:

So, that was it for today- Havea great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

It's Paint Party Friday again!

Good morning you all, it's Friday again, and that means it's Paint Party Friday , hosted by Eva and Kristin.
I decided I had to do something different this week, although I still seem to be under the influence of the sixties and seventies. The first picture has a typical sixties background, painted in shades of pink, blue and lilac. Then I sprayed the background with home made perfect pearls mist before drawing the dancing queens with help of a template - an enlarged and cut out clip-art - and painting them black. I had to give three coats of black paint, as the gold perfect pearls showed through too much. Then I drew the doodles with black ink, and crowned the queens to finish it off.

The second one has been sprayed again, but this time onto a white background, using different shades of perfect pearls mist. This time I just added one *Queen*, I think she is not only the dancing queen but also the queen of hearts. I have had these golden rub-ons in seventies style for ages, and didn't really know what to do with them - till today. By using other colours and ornaments this drawing is more in the style of the seventies - I'm making progress, wonder when I'll arrive in 2011? Oh, and I forgot to say - the text written round my dancing queen is Abba's song-text, you may have to turn your computer round a bit if you want to read it!

And I made a canvas for the *Sunday Stampers* challenge. Hels wants to see Writing this week, so I gave my canvas a literary touch and used quotes from Pride and Prejudice. I first applied some ancient book pages, scraps of pink silk, and some hand made paper with gesso to the canvas. Then I stamped some images and words from *Darkroom Door* onto tissue and applied them with mod-podge. When that was dry, I started on the next layer. I printed the title page, some quotes, a little silhouette and a picture of Jane Austen as a young woman onto acetate, placing them over the stamped images. I like to put in lots of layers, even if some are out of sight at the end, then they should be like life is, with many layers. I added a large flower, made from the same book pages as the background, die cut, and dipped into molten Utee using the melting pot. The paper became completely transparent, which was an effect I had not expected! Anyway, as you may have gathered, I enjoyed making it and am rambling on too much today, so here are
the pics!

And to end, another one of Narda's jokes. Enjoy!

It was entertainment night at the senior center and the "Amazing Claude" was topping the bill. People came from miles around to see the famed hypnotist do his stuff. As Claude went to the front of the meeting room, he announced, "unlike most hypnotists who invite two or three people up here to be put into a trance, I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience."

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. "I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It's a very special watch/ It's been in my family for six generations. He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting. "Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch..." The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until suddenly------ it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, breaking into a hundred pieces. "Sh*t!" said the hypnotist.


It took three weeks to clean up the senior center.


So, here's wishing you all a good day, take care, and thanks for visiting!