Monday and Summer of Color - if you can call our weather summer!

Hello you all! Another cold, wet and dismal day here. But the weather prophets have promised us that it will get a little warmer tomorrow, but will stay just as wet....and then we should be getting storms again on Tuesday and Wednesday, and in general, still no sign of summer!
Yesterday was a day of little catastrophes - my hair-dryer started sparking and smoking, my printer has finally had a complete breakdown, a fly caused havoc in my kitchen....

For the *summer of Color* Kristin wants to see purple. I had three pictures ready, and as I was clearing up, a rather dozy fly kept zooming at me and annoying me. I tried to swipe it away, missed, and swiped away the jar with my painting water, which completely drenched one painting, splashed the others, and also ruined several tags I had finished, and a pile of stash which was also on the table. So, the tags, stash and one picture landed in the bin, and the other 2 pics were just splashed, so I managed to patch them up a bit, but the colour doesn't look as it should. And I still haven't caught that scum-bag of a fly!
The first picture is a mask, and the second one is for the grand-daughter of an ex-colleague, who loves hearts, flowers, Seventies Style and purple....

Today I have to go to the dentist again, not looking forward to it, but it has to be! I hope I will be in a fit condition to do some crafting when I get back home.
Have a good day, take care and thanks for visiting!

Sunday and no sun again.

Hi everybody, hope you are all well rested. It's cold, grey, dismal and pouring with rain again....The great German Poet, Heinrich Heine - who was born here in Düsseldorf - wrote in one of his poems: *Unser Sommer ist nur ein grün angestrichener Winter....* - *Our summer is just a green painted winter....* He was soo right, nothing seems to have changed - weather wise - in the last 200 years!
Today is time for Sunday sketches over at Sophia's *Blue Chair Diary*. I didn't get round to sketching or painting much this week as I had a couple of days where I wasn't feeling so good, so I want to share from you 2 flower paintings from long past days. As much as I like flowers, I never really enjoyed painting them, but I tried! The second picture, painted with water colours, was one we had to paint directly without drawing first, the first one has been painted with oil.

Yesterday I made some tags for various challenges, but only got half as much done as I wanted, because I was permanently searching for all the things I tidied away in the course of the week; while they were all lying around on my work-space I had no problems finding them. It was just a little problematic to find a space to work on!
The first one is a Grungy one for *Grungy Monday* over at Studio L3 This time we had to use Grunge Paper or grunge board, using Tim Holtz's techniques
I made a tag out of embossed grunge board, distressed with Victorian velvet and Inca gold. To make a contrast I decorated the tag with a vintage scrap image, some ancient paper, Prima leaves and some flowers, combined with a TH Adage ticket and a grunge board flourish. I finished it off with a bow made from ribbon and string, to combine both styles again.

The second tag is for this week's challenge at Blog Challenge Garden, where Rebecca wants to see Butterflies this week. I made a simple tag, with a distressed and stamped background, a big flower and a sparkly white butterfly.

And the last tag is for the Dragon's dream TIO, who wants us to look to the skies this week. I used a mix of water colours and distress ink for the skies and grass etc. The eagle has been stamped with archival black and clear embossed, and is holding 2 red balloons in his beak. I wrote 2 sayings round the edges. You will have to turn your computer round if you want to read them! And there is a little gold fairy sitting on the fence, waiting to fly home....

So, I think was enough for today. Havea lovely day, take care and thanks a lot for visiting!

Paint Party Friday

Hi you all, it's Friday again, and we all know what that means - Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. I was very groggy all day yesterday, and didn't get the painting I was working on finished, so I am sharing 2 pics I made some time back. They have been made using the marbling technique, dripping the colours onto a bowl containing wallpaper paste, and then moving the colours around a bit with toothpicks. It's always fun doing this, because you never know how it will really turn out....In these two pictures, which are, of course, completely abstract, I see a Japanese landscape in the first one and a dragon going for a walk in the second. And what can you see?

And I managed 2 ATCs, not much in comparison to what I usually do, but I spent most of the day resting on the couch. The first one is a picture out of my *Pride and Prejudice*, a very nice illustrated edition from 1902. For the second one I used one of the fairy tags Zoe sent me.

I am feeling better today, so hope to be able to get down to a bit of crafting again this afternoon.
Here's wishing you a great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Cold, wet, windy and feeling bad....

Hi everybody, hope you are all fit and well. I feel very groggy after my dental treatment yesterday, and am not exactly looking forward to the 2 big appointments next week to finish off the job. I won't treat you to all the nasty details, but it was NOT nice!
Yesterday I did some clearing up and tidying in my bottomless pit aka the hall closet, and found lots of pre-cut cards for ATCs, so made a few yesterday, and a tag. Here they are:

I think I will have to make more of them as I still have soooooooo much stuff to use....
Sorry, this is another short post, I really don't feel so good just now.

Havea good day you all, take care and thanks for visiting!

A quick hello....

Hi everybody, just a quickie today as I have to go to the dentist. What's worse than a dentist? No dentist and toothache!
The Harry Potter film was great, I enjoyed it very much. We went to a cinema where they show the original, English version, not the German translation. I always feel like I am really in the wrong film when Harry Potter and all the others are talking German, it just doesn't seem right.
I didn't do any crafting yesterday - shame on me! as I was out all day, so want to share the second little fairy tale book I made a couple of years back. For this one, too, I wrote a poem, and used the *Fairy Tale Stack* as background.

Hope those of you who share my love for fairies, magic and mythical beings enjoy it!
Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!
Update!
Just got back from the dentist, with 2 new appointments for next week, this is going to be expensive!

It's Tuesday and the sun is shining!

Good morning you all, it's Tuesday again - just in case you haven't noticed! I am glad I managed to write the title before the sun disappeared again, perhaps we will have a nice day! Yesterday I was out and about nearly all day, and I did not have much time or energy to do much when I got home. It took ages to get home from the Doc's as there was a giant traffic jam. At least I didn't have any chance of speeding through the tunnel and getting a ticket this time! I had to get some shopping, too, as my fridge was almost empty, and I was sooooooo hungry that I really had to restrain myself in the store so as not to rip open the packets on the spot. But I bought myself a ready made sandwich - a luxury I don't usually allow myself! and wolfed it down in the car on the way back.
So, all I have to share with you today is one of the little books I made on Saturday at my friend's place, and a card I made on Sunday for my neighbours' anniversary. The little book is a folder which I made following the same pattern from Lesley that I used last week.

The card has a special envelope, made to match, as it would not have fitted in a normal one.

I am looking forward to this evening as I am going to see the new Harry Potter film with a friend, who is also a Potter fan.

Have a nice day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Summer of Color and this time it's red....

Good morning you all, hope you all have a good week. Monday is here again, and that means it's Kristin's *Summer of Color* challenge again. Our theme for this week is red. I painted 2 pictures, both very different.
The first one I have called *red sky at night*:

The background has been drawn with water soluble wax crayons in several layers. Each layer was painted over separately, and the next layer drawn onto the still damp color of the layer before. The houses were painted with black tempera onto a separate sheet, then cut out and glued on, as were the creatures with wings! I like the feeling of movement that the background gives.

The second picture is one of my wild ladies again. The roses have been stamped with a stamp from LaBlanche. I have written different rose quotes round the contours of the head.

And I made tags for 2 different challenges. The first one is for *Just for fun* where they want to see cardboard this week. As this is one of my fave materials, this was not a problem.

And the next tag is for Gingersnap Creations for the GC109 *On the Road* challenge. The lovely punky tea-pot lady stamp is from Character Constructions.

So, I think that was enough again! Have a nice day, take care and thanks for looking in!