Bright and cold Tuesday

Good morning everybody, hope you are all feeling well and fit today. It's still very cold and frosty here, the fields outside are all sparkling with the frost, but the sun is shining, and it looks very pretty! I had a nice walk along the Rhine yesterday, and through our shopping street, although I didn't buy anything. But as soon as the sun goes down, the temps drop again, and it's back to deep freezing!

I spent the rest of the day sitting next to the radiator in my kitchen and playing with paper, paint, glue and pictures, as usual. The cold weather inspired me to use some serviettes left over from last winter for my journal pages. The goose was a picture out of my stash. I expect a lot of geese and turkeys in various parts of the world will not be looking forward to the holiday as much as some people are....I am linking again to AEDM at Creative every day

And I got some more tags done, more or less like those from Sunday, just different Santas each time. Out stationery shop has a lovely selection of vintage Xmas images - angels, trees, Santas etc, I think I have bought half of their stock in the past few days....I tried to vary the background colours of the tags, which doesn't show up so well as I had to photograph them using electric light, as it is getting dark very early now.

Oh dear, I wanted this to be just a short post today, but somehow they just seem to grow once I get started. Hope you all have a great day, take care, and thanks for dropping by!

A lazy weekend...

Hi everybody. I am posting much later than usual; I stayed over night at my friends, and then we needed to have breakfast and drink coffee and have biscuits and chat before I came home! I don't have much to show either, as I didn't get much done.
I made a tag from a recycled coffee packet, which I am entering into Simon Says Stamp and Show, where you have to re- or upcycle something. I have made a Xmas tag as it really is a time to get started! The background has been distressed and stamped, and then embossed with a texture fade folder, where I put the colour directly into the folder. Then it was coated with stickles, and I added the vintage Santa.

The postcard has been made for Dragon's Dream TIO, I hope I won't be punished for making a postcard instead of a tag, or perhaps we can regard it as a large, straight sided tag! Our theme this week is *Juliet's letters*. It shows Romeo looking hopefully up to see if his beloved is waiting for him, and a pile of the letters he has sent. I used vintage photo and ancient linen to distress the background, and stamped with adirondack espresso. A few of the flowers and leaves have been coloured in to give a hint of colour.

The next postcard was more or less an experiment, I wanted to do something completely monochrome, and have just used shades of ancient linen, vintage photo etc. I quite like the results, too. I am entering this into JFF *My favourite colours*, although there are a lot of other colours which are also my faves!

I am linking again to AEDM over at Creative Every Day
Okay, that was all for today. Hope to have some journal pages ready for tomorrow, and perhaps some Xmas cards.
Have a great day, thanks for visiting, and take good care of yourselves!

The weekend is here!

Hi everybody, it's weekend already. I will be with my friend today, so probably won't get much crafting or painting done. But sometime it's good to have a little break!

I didn't get much done yesterday either, just my journal pages. This time I used more subdued colours, but I think I will be working with pinks and greens again soon as it was fun. This time my theme was self-portraits. I started off with 2 old postcards with portraits from Paula Modersohn-Becker and Else Lasker-Schüler, and then I went a bit mad again, and added some pictures of me taken in a photo-booth many, many years ago.... I am linking again to AEDM at Creative every day

We had lovely weather here again; it was rather windy at the Rhine, but the sun was shining, so I had a nice walk which blew all my cobwebs away. The weather should stay nice for the next few days too, so hope to get more fresh air.

Here's wishing you all a great weekend. Look after yourselves, and thanks for visiting!

Thursday already.....

Well, the postman came again yesterday, and brought me something - a bill! I suppose it would be too much to expect nice surprises every day! But I had a good day anyway. My friend B came with her little dog, and we had a crafty day. Well, the dog just watched, she hasn't started crafting yet! We were busy with an Advent Calendar for her Mom, we made her one last year, which she liked very much, so we decided to make another one. We used a Sizzix die to cut 24 envelopes from different, coordinating papers, and then glued them together, put numbers on them, and made the tags to go inside. The tags have to be decorated, and we each make 12 with quotes and / or vouchers and little treats to go in the envelopes. When it's finished, we mount them all on a wall hanging, and then the surprise will be finished.
Here are 3 of the envelopes to give you an idea.

And after B had gone home, I finished my journal pages that I started yesterday morning. I painted the pages with gesso, and then used a wide brush to slop on two different blues, some white and some yellow. When it was dry I started drawing some stars, and they somehow turned into sea-stars, so after doodling them, I put in the rest of the under-water scenery, using water colour pencils, vintage scrap, and some cut-outs. The text has been printed onto acetate. I used *Ariel's Song* from the Tempest, as it is a poem I like very much. And I wrote a Beatles verse along the side - *I want to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade*; The Beatles and Shakespeare go well together. It was great fun to make, and I am always astonished that I start off with a brush and some colours and it just turns into something without being planned. I am linking again to AEDM at Creative every day

And I got another good joke from Narda. Here it is:

This is the story of the poor blonde flying in a two-seater airplane with just the pilot.
He has a heart attack and dies. She frantically calls a May Day:

"May Day! May Day! Help me! Help me! My pilot had a heart attack and is dead. And I don't know how to fly. Help me! Please help me!"

All of a sudden she hears a voice over the radio saying:

"The is ATC. I have received your message and I will talk you through it. I've had a lot of experience with this kind of problem. Now, just relax. Everything will be fine! Now give me your height and position."

She says, "I'm 5'4" and I'm in the front seat."
O.K." says the voice from the tower. "Repeat after me: Our Father. . . Who art in Heaven. . . .."


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

The postman rang again!

This seems to be my lucky week - the postman rang my bell again, this time with a big, fat envelope from Yvonne. Inside it was a beautiful card, a tag, a wall-hanging and loads of lovely lace in different colours, just what I needed, as my supplies were running low. Thanks a lot, Yvonne - it was a great surprise! The gifts were all wrapped in pretty paper napkins, which I will definitely use in my journal, and sent in a stamped envelope. Here are the pics of my lovely things:

Yesterday started off cold and misty, so after I had got my shopping, I settled into my arty kitchen and got down to work. My fingers were itching to splodge about with more paint, so I grabbed my journal and did just that. I used blue, white, yellow and ochre, which I applied with a brush and a spatula before heating and bubbling a bit. I added some gold streaks and drips with a Krylon pen and some gold ink before collaging dome pictures and music notes. I don't think the results are really important, for me it's just doing it that is important just now. I am linking again to AEDM at *Creative Every Day*

And I decided to make another card using a favourite stamp. I distressed the speciality stamping card from LaBlanche with ancient linen and vintage photo, and stamped the image with vintage photo before clear embossing it. The embellishments have been kept simple again, some scraps of lace, a sentiment and a stick-pin.

I was pleased to see yesterday that I made *Top Three* again at *The Craft Room* for my black and white skeleton tag, and last week I was chosen again as a Ginger Gem for my *Horror Stories* piece. How sad that Halloween is now over!

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

When the postman rings....

Yesterday the postman rang, and that means he has something nice for me. This time it was a lovely painted and collaged postcard from Katie. This came as a complete surprise, and was like a ray of sunshine to brighten the cold and misty day we had. Thanks Katie! There's nothing nicer than a nice surprise! I just love the way Katie's girl is looking.....

And I finished off the journal pages in my giant journal. I used the rest of the colours from Sunday. This time I used a postcard from Hopper, an antique photo of someone I don't know, and some rub-ons. I did some random stamping on the background, before adding the rest, and chose images which fitted to the background colours this time. It was, as always, fun to make, especially the little surreal effects. I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day

And lastly I made a tag for *The Dragon's Dream* TIO, which I somehow didn't get round to the past couple of weeks. The dragon has been dreaming of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, so it had to be something steampunky. I covered a tag with some adverts from a German paper from 1899, *Steampunk time*, glazed it with mod-podge, and then added 2 images and a sentiment from *Scrollswork* stamps. I added a clock as charm.

So, enough for today! Hope you all have a good day, take care and thanks for visiting!

Colour mixed with black and white

Hi everybody, hope you have all had a good weekend. was at my friend's for 2 days, and we spent our time playing cards, eating and drinking coffee.....So, when I got home today I was really keen on getting going with paint and paper again! I made some more pages in my journal. I painted the background with gesso, to see if the colour doesn't sap through so much this time, and then slapped on some blue, white, yellow and ochre, using a wide brush and a plastic spatula. As usual, I had squeezed too much paint out, so I also painted 2 pages in my giant journal to use it all up.

When the pages were dry I did some background stamping, using random stamps that were flying about, and then I added 2 black and white pictures. The left one shows POWs from WWII, the second one three of my older siblings, taken at a wartime rally *Wings for Victory* in Trafalgar Square. I added a bit of journalling, and it was done. I rather like the mix of colours and black and white, and will be doing something similar in my big journal for tomorrow. I am linking once again to AEDM at *Creative Every Day*

Okay, that was it. I have my appt at the doc's today, so I'd better get ready for it.
Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!