Sunday Sunday

Hi everybody! I'm a bit later blogging today, as I had a sleep-over at my friend's yesterday. We had a fun *old girls'* day, with the usual mixture of chatting, coffee, biscuits, eating, chatting, coffee, biscuits and playing cards and Kniffel - a dice game. I did remember to take my net book, and internet-stick etc, but forgot that the pictures I wanted to show you were on my computer here at home - duh!
This is a little Xmas maze-book from Friday;

I used one sheet of Kaisercraft paper for the pages, the covers have been made with beer-mats covered in some hand-made Indian paper. I used different scraps etc out of my stash for the decorations, and the little bird is a Sizzlets die cut.
I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day.
Okay, that was it for today. Hope you are all having a great day; I am off to do some crafting before it starts getting dark. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Santa's Elves are working Overtime....

Yesterday I managed to get a lot done - including some housework and washing! I had to write that, it doesn't happen here that often! But the main part of the day was taken up with making tags and some other Xmas things. I had the whole table full of tags and all the bits and pieces I need for them, I had Stickles and glitter everywhere - including in my hair and on my face, and felt a bit like a house Elf. Those of you who are Harry Potter fans will know what I am talking about. At least I was an assistant Elf to Santa for one day! I had to take the photos in batches this time, as it started getting dark early and I had to be quick. The tree tags are similar to those I made recently, just used a different TH embossing folder, and the other ones are more *musical*. I took 2 large sheets of notes out of a book, and glued them to a sheet of dark green card-stock before cutting the tags. A strip was left over, and I will make 2 book marks from it. But not today! The musical ones have been dressed up with lace and ribbon and silver mesh, I had fun making them!

I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day
So, I think that was enough for today. I made a mini book, too, but I will save it for tomorrow. Here's wishing you all a great day. Take care of yourselves, and thanks for dropping in!

Paint Party Friday 36 and a Story

Another week has sped by and it's Friday already, which means it's time for Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. If you have time, please hop over and take a look at what the others have been up to,
It's my turn to carry on the *Never-ending-story* over at Amy's Blog this week, so I wrote a rather short continuation of the story, and painted a picture to go with it. You can read the rest on Amy's blog under *Once upon a time* if you feel like it.
My illustration is a mixed media piece. I painted the background with 2 shades of blue and a spot of yellow using a wide foam brush. The waves have been painted with the same colours, using paint a bit thicker. The flying horse has been stamped onto a page from an old lexicon, cut out, and coloured with water-colour pencils. The wings have been cut with a Sizzix die-cut out of the same paper. I drew the red-haired girl on a scrap of card, coloured her with water-colour pencils again, and used lots of ice-stickles to give some glitter. For the horse's mane I used some reflex pearls embedded in glossy accents to give more texture. After sticking it all together, and nearly getting stuck to the paper myself, I added a few gold stars, a moon, and more stickles for glitter and shine, and then it was done.
This is my part of the story:


What had happened?
The blue horse held his breath, his heart beat faster, and he was afraid, more afraid than he had ever been in all his life. Where had the beautiful red-haired girl disappeared to? The mist swirled round him, blinding him, and suddenly, he was falling – down, down, down. He whinnied in fright, but at that moment he landed softly on something that felt like a huge cloud, and then he felt a hand touching his mane….
It was the red haired girl, who sobbed with relief that they had found each other again.

They looked at each other, and she held him tight till she could stand without shaking. Then they looked around to see where they were. It seemed to be a big cavern, with an enormous pile of white feathers in the middle, from which a long, narrow passageway led.

Without speaking they went towards it, although it was dark and cold. She held tight to his curly, blue mane. They walked for many, many hours. They were both hungry and exhausted. Suddenly they both stopped in their tracks. They could see a tiny light ahead of them. This gave them new strength, and they started to run as fast as they could, towards the ever-growing light, till they were free.

They were standing on a pebbly beach, looking at a seemingly endless sea. The moon and stars were shining brightly in the sky, and reflecting on the waves like little diamonds.

“Climb onto my back,” said Blue Pegasus. I will fly you home….”

While I was looking through the old lexicon, I found a bank note to the value of 500 million marks!! printed at the time of the great inflation in 1923, and at the time probably not worth the paper it was printed on. But interesting to find, and still in mint condition after nearly 90 years!

I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day.

Well, this post has almost become the never-ending-story, so I'd better stop. Here's wishing you all great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Another cold and frosty day.

Yesterday morning when I got up the sun was just rising, and the frost was sparkling on the fields; it was so lovely I had to run out onto my balcony - in my pajamas! - and take some pictures of the start of a wintry day:

I needed to do a bit of shopping yesterday, but I waited till the sun had melted the ice on my windscreen; I HATE having to scrape the ice off before I can get going! And I spent most of the rest of the day in my arty kitchen, painting my journal pages, making cards and drinking coffee. This time I have changed from geese to turkeys in my journal pages, as I am sure a lot of them will not be looking forward to Thanksgiving! I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day

I am hoping the weather will be just as nice today, so that I can go for a walk along the Rhine. Here's hoping you all have a great day. Take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Frosty Wednesday.

Hi everyone! It's another cold and frosty day here, lovely weather for crafting and painting.
I had a good, crafty day yesterday, making cards for my neighbour who needs a batch of Xmas ones, and playing in my journal, which will soon be full.

For the journal pages I stayed by my theme of the poor geese getting fattened up ready for holiday dinners. This time I sprayed the background with blue, and painted the geese with acrylics, adding the details with felt-tips. I am linking again to AEDM at Creative every day

The cards are all about 7" square, and I used background papers from the DCWV Christmas stack. I think I prefer my little tags for myself, but if I am making things for others it's best to make what they want! I have used vintage German scrap for the images. I still need to do a few more, so will get to work on them later.

Hope you all have a great day. Take care, and thanks for dropping by!

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!