It's nearly Halloween....

Hi everybody, hope you are all fit and well and ready to enjoy your weekend. Our weather is not so nice today, looks rather changeable, but I hope it will stay dry enough for a little walk into *town*.
Yesterday I wanted to have a rest day, with a break from crafting, and lots of time for reading, but then my journal suddenly appeared on the kitchen table and called me....and I answered. I had fun as usual, spraying, splodging and smearing, and when it was dry, doodling and collaging. I used TH inks in spiced marmalade, wild honey, rusty hinge and forest moss, once again the colours of Autumn that I like so much. For the collage I used some pictures out of a crafting magazine, a vintage scrap and a floral rub-on.

And while I had my inks out, I made a card for 2 challenges; for the *one colour challenge* at Simon Says Stamp and Show, and the GS 124 - *Blacks and Grays `* at Gingersnaps

And Narda sent a little Halloween joke yesterday, so here it is:


A bald man with a wooden leg gets invited to a Halloween Party. He doesn't know what costume to wear to hide his head and his leg, So he writes to a costume company to explain his problem.

A few days later he received a parcel with the following note:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a pirate's outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and, with your wooden leg, you will be just right as a pirate.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

The man thinks this is terrible because they have emphasized his wooden leg and so he writes a letter of complaint. A week goes by and he receives another parcel and a note, which says:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a monk's costume. The long robe will cover your Wooden leg and, with your bald head, you should really look the part.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

Now the man is really upset since they have gone from emphasizing hiswooden leg to emphasizing his bald head, so again he writes the Company another nasty letter of complaint.

The next day he gets a small Parcel and a note, which reads:

Dear Sir,
We have TRIED our very BEST.
Please find enclosed a bottle of molasses and a bag of crushed nuts. Pour the molasses over your bald head, pat on crushed nuts, stick your Wooden Leg up your backside and go as a caramel apple.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

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

Paint Party Friday Again.

Good morning everyone! The week has flown by like a jet-propelled bat, Halloween is just around the corner, and it's time for Paint Party Friday today, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day; the trees all looked so beautiful with their wonderful colours, and it was hard to keep my eyes on the road and not keep looking at the trees while driving to the shops. In the evening it got very windy, and the wind was howling all night, and making the branches of *my* tree tap at my bedroom window. Or could it have been the ghosts and witches practising for Monday?

In the afternoon I made a spread for my journal, something similar to one I made some weeks back. I may still add some more doodling, but can't make my mind up yet. I used pen and black ink, water-colour pencils and felt tips to draw and colour. It was fun making it, but I liked the last one I made better. Perhaps I should give the background a bit more colour; the blue is so pale that it can hardly be seen.

And I must confess, I have been hiding this painting for 3 weeks. I was supposed to be an autumn witch, but somewhere, something went wrong....I hope it doesn't scare you too much!

Here's wishing you all a great day and a good weekend. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Hard Times....

I spent quite a lot of time yesterday collaging little bits of paper again. After managing to clear part of my working space the day before, I wanted to carry on the good work. BUT....every drawer I opened, in the hope of being able to find a small corner to stuff something into, was already full. Now I have no idea who always stuffs small scraps of paper, wonky die-cuts, badly stamped images and images which nobody needs into my drawers. The paper was even sorted into colours, some of it fixed together with paper clips or rubber bands, so it can't have been me, as (1) I don't clear anything away, (2) I am not a sorter-outer and (3) I swear I have never seen this stuff before! Anyway, I filled several pages in my journal with collages again, and the drawers are just as full as ever. It must be the pixies....I also found 3 hot glue guns, masses of glue sticks, and 2 pairs of socks. WHO put them into my kitchen drawers? But I must admit, I was rather proud of myself for even THINKING about tidying up. (Note to self : give yourself a mental pat on the back. Or do I mean a pat on my mental back? Can one have a mental back to pat? Or do I mean a mental bat on my pack?) (Second note to self : Shut up! Show them the pictures!)

Okay, here the pictures from 2 tags and a double page spread in my scribble-a-day journal, which is fast becoming a stick it each day journal. The tags were fun to make, trying to use up all the last drops of spray in my mini-misters before washing and refilling them. The first one is again Autumn themed, in case you didn't notice. The second one should have been something quite different, but the pansies fitted best to the background colours. I dyed the little lace scrap to match. Actually, the lace fell into the ink on my craft sheet, but the result is the same!

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

Poison Bottles and More....

Hi everybody, I had a nice time staying with my friend, but it's still nice to be back home again, and have all my crafty things waiting for me. And there's no bed like one's own bed....
Yesterday I had fun making more decorations for Halloween. I altered 2 bottles which I can use for condiments. For the large one, I cut a label from TH's Halloween Resist Block, which I distressed with some barn-door red. I threaded some ball chain into a little skull to hang round the bottle neck. I went to my neighbour to ask if she had a wine-cork for the stopper, but she didn't have any, so I had to sacrifice myself, and open a bottle of red wine - just to get the cork, of course. But I have to admit that the wine boosted my crafting spirits.... No, I didn't drink it all! The hand on the top was from a back-scratcher that recently broke. I gave it 2 coats of white acrylic paint, which I heat-bubbled, and then distressed with distress inks in red and blue to give a little atmosphere. The smaller bottle has a label from the Graphics Fairy (thanks!), a skull, and a little booklet with evil recipes. As I had no stopper for the bottle, I fixed 2 skeleton arms together to make a *plug* for the bottle neck. They were great fun to make, and I am wondering if my guests will dare to use the condiments in them....

The journal pages were made on Sunday, with all the scraps that were once again littering my table, made into a rather haphazard collage.

So, I think that was enough for today. Have a good day you all, take good care of yourselves, and thanks for visiting!

Tuesday

Good morning everyone! I am still at my friend's place, and wanted to do my blog, as usual, from here. I remembered to bring my Netbook and modem, but forgot that the pictures that I wanted to share with you are on my computer at home!
But I do have a joke that Narda sent. It's a bit naughty, you have been warned....


Last week, Ethel checked into a hotel on her 70th birthday. She was a bit lonely. She thought, "I'll call one of those men you see advertised in phone books for escorts and sensual massages."

She looked through the phone book, found a full page ad for a guy calling himself Tender Tony-a very handsome man with assorted physical skills flexing in the photo. He had all the right muscles in all the right places, thick wavy hair, long powerful legs, dazzling smile, six-pack abs, and she felt quite certain she could bounce a quarter off his well oiled buttom....

She figured, what the heck, nobody will ever know. I'll give him a call.

"Good evening, ma'am, how may I help you? Oh my, he sounded sooo sexy! Afraid she would lose her nerve if she hesitated, she rushed right in, "Hi, I hear you give a great massage. I'd like you to come to my hotel room and give me one. No, wait, I should be straight with you. I'm in town all alone and what I really want is sex. I want it hot, and I want it now. Bring implements, toys, rubber, leather, whips, everything you've got in your bag of tricks. We'll go hot and heavy all night - tie me up, cover me in chocolate syrup and whipped cream, anything and everything, I'm ready! Now how does that sound?"

He said, "That sounds absolutely fantastic, but you need to press 9 for an outside line."

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

Monday again....

The weekend has sped by, and I seem to have very little to show for it, but I enjoyed it, and that was the main thing. Sometimes t's good to be busy doing nothing.

Yesterday I decided to smarten up some skeletons. I am sure we all have skeletons in our cupboards, and the poor things only get taking out at Halloween and spend the rest of their lives (??) in some dark boxes, keeping some dusty pumpkins, Easter Bunnies, and Christmas baubles company. Can't be fun. So I thought I should at least get 2 of mine all dolled up for the festive Halloween season. Here they are, Miss S.Keleton and Mr B.Ones, I think they make a lovely pair.

And I made 2 tags for my DT pieces at The Cheerful Stamp Pad, where the Challenge this week is Thanksgiving. I distressed the tags with TH inks and sprays in spiced marmalade, wild honey, barn-door and forest green. Then I stamped them using the Lavinia 3-part leaf stamp using red. green and black. I have decorated the tags with German scrap images showing a filled basket of fruits and some fabric leaves. The sentiment on the first tag is *Give thanks to the Lord for He is good*. The second tag has more or less the same sentiment, just in Hebrew, and spoken *Hodu L'Adonai ki tov, ki le olam hasdo* - Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for He loves the world. I added a flower fairy tag, and some images printed onto transparency foil.

And that was all I managed, but I enjoyed my lazy day. Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Cold and sunny Sunday

It's another clear, windy and cold day here, after a very frosty night, and I have been watching the sunrise, something I never tire of. I wonder what it is that fascinates us all so much with sunrise and sunset?

Yesterday I worked on an altered box for the Just For Fun challenge, which was to alter something from the bedroom or sewing box. I found a rather battered square box with a nasty, water-stained blue covering. I covered the outside with scraps of some ancient books and some music sheets which have been decaying in my cupboards for years. I can't bear to throw them away, so I am using them bit by bit for different projects. I used mod-podge to fix the scraps, and then gave it a coat of diluted gesso after it had dried. The lovely, art-nouveau paper with the lyres which I used for the lining was an end paper from a music book from 1900. I have also mod-podged the inside, so that it will withstand some wear-and-tear. I covered the edges with TH tissue tape, and rubbed round them afterwards with some inka-gold. I painted the rim round the base of the box with gold-bronze paint. I have glued a tiny magnet into the front of the box and under the lining of the lid, and put a gold button on just for decoration. The top has been decorated with a paper-lace doiley cut into four, some paper daisies and a picture of Mona Lisa, with a metal frame. I will be using the box to store my *best* buttons - the mother of pearl ones.

Apart from that, I spent the rest of the day with my feet up, reading, drinking coffee & nibbling biscuits. In the evening I re-watched a DVD, *Nirgendwo in Afrika* (Nowhere in Africa) based on the novel by Stefanie Zweig. I love the book and the film, so it was a pleasant way to pass the time.

Hope you all have a good Sunday, whatever you are up to. Be good; if you can't be good, be careful, and thanks a lot for stopping by!