Calendar Challenge and more post....

Today is the first of December, the last month of the year. The year has flown by so quickly, I can hardly believe it. It's time for the December Calendar Challenge over at Kate's *Kathryn Wheel*, to which I am linking. I painted the background of the pages with blue, white and gold, and then added the penguins, which I cut from paper napkins and glued with golden gel. The snowballs have been cut from white drawing paper - by hand, as I couldn't find my circle punch! I inked the edges with stormy skies to give them more depth, and spread some blue ice stickles over them, which I also used on the snow and penguins to give some glitter. The snowflakes were in the mail I got from Sandi yesterday. I will definitely be carrying on my calendar journal in the new year, as it has been fun planning a new theme each month, and seeing what other people have made.

Yesterday I had to get up very early to go to the dentist. It was still pitch-black night when I got up, but just before I left the sky was beginning to show the first streaks of colour. I made 2 snapshots, which are not very good quality, as I have to take my photos with my cell-phone camera. But I rather like the grainy look of the sky to the east, and the second one shows the lights of the Düsseldorf airport twinkling in the distance.

I won't bore you with the gory details of my session with the dentist, suffice to say that after 4 injections and 2 1/2 hours being *treated* I was feeling rather groggy and very happy to get home again....and I have to pay for it to boot!

Today is the first day of Advent, so B & I *broke in* to her Mum's house yesterday afternoon to hang up the advent calendar we made for her. (We did have a key, though!) Now she has lots of little presents to open each day till Christmas. The finished calendar is just over 1 meter long.

And last but not least, here are the pretty things Cindy sent to me - a crystal bracelet in a pretty blue bag, and a beautiful tag and card, both with my initial on them. Thanks a lot Cindy, I very much appreciate your kindness.

And while I was at the dentist's, the postman came, and as I wasn't home, he left me a notification that 2 enveopes are waiting for me at the post office, so I will go and collect them this morning.

Hope you all have a good day, take care, and thanks for dropping by!

It's Time Again...

Today I have to be sitting in the dentist's chair at 8am. Not usually a time for me to be out and about, but it can't be helped. Oh well, the sooner it starts the sooner it will be finished....

Yesterday the postie brought me two little parcels, One from Sandi in Canada and the other one from Cindy in the USA. Today I am sharing the contents of my Canadian one, the other one will be revealed tomorrow! Sandi sent some lovely papers, embellishments, vintage Christmas pictures and crepe paper printed with Xmas images, ephemera, including a wonderful hand-written page, and a domino-book with Halloween pictures. Sandi remembered that this is my all-time fave holiday! Thanks a lot Sandi, the first pieces have already been used today!

I bought a new art-journal from EBAY this week, and was looking for the right paper to cover it. And I found it in Sandi's parcel!

I hope to start working in it this afternoon, after the dentist; that is, if I am in a fit condition to do anything!
I started on my December Calendar spread yesterday, and hope to get that finished later on so that I will be ready for the first of the month.

I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day. This is the last day of the month, which has been great fun, and a good incentive to get working every day!

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

Fairy Stairs, Moon and Stars

It's another cold and sunny day here; hope the sun is shining for you, too! Yesterday I went for a walk in the woods with Emily, my four-footed friend. It looked like a carpet of leaves had been rolled out in the woods, it was really pretty, and I love the scrunchy sound of the leaves. And if you have ever wondered how a little fairy climbs onto a tree trunk - I have the answer: Fairy Stairs!

And I made the last pages in my journal, and will be starting my new one this week. I started out just making patterns, and then the star developed, and then the moon to accompany it. I used black ink to draw the images, and coloured the pages with pastel chalks, as I love the soft colours they give.

I think the pictures of moon and stars saying goodnight are a nice way to finish my journal, which has given me a lot of fun in the past 2 1/2 months.
I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day

Have a good day you all, take good care of yourselves, and thanks for dropping by!

Monday once again....

Good morning you all! I just looked at the calendar and saw that 5 weeks today the new year will have already started - yikes! And I am still nowhere ready for Xmas yet, either! Oh well, why should this year be different to all those before it....
I spent a lot of time with my journal, once again just having fun messing around and seeing where the journey takes me. I used some book-pages for the background, covered them in gesso, and then started with some dry transfers, and later adding some cut outs. From there I progressed to stamping, and then after that just used pen and ink and water colours pencils to add some foliage and a bit of colour.

The picture is a mixed media piece I made some time back, and re-discovered under a pile of other things. I used Scrap-book paper from Anna Griffin, which has been drawn on, stamped and painted. I'm not sure if it's finished either, perhaps I will spend some more time with it!

I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day
Hope you all have a great Monday, whatever you are up to! Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Sunday

Good morning everybody! Hope you are all well and fit, It's a cold, grey day here, so good crafting weather! I just have a few things to show you; my journal pages, this time in blue, and a picture I drew over a *waste Page* - I had wiped the colours on my brush off onto the paper, and later decided to use it as a background for a drawing using pastels. I just started out sketching and shading a face, while watching TV, and it looks just like my Mum as a young woman, which totally surprised me. The third piece is a little wooden bird, painted white, edged with inka gold and turned into a tree hanger. And the very last piece is a tag I made last week for the *Cheerful Stamp Pad Challenge* and forgot to show....I am linking again to AEDM at Creative Every Day And to Blue Chair Diary

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

Saturday and weekend

Hi everybody. Hope all those in the USA are still enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend, and that everybody else is also looking forward to a relaxing weekend.
I will be spending time with my friend Inge, and I am sure we will be following our usual program of chatting, eating, playing games, coffee and biscuits, in no particular order and with lots of repeats.

Yesterday I crafted like crazy all day, had to get it in before the weekend began! I started off with journal pages again, which really give me a lot just now. I open the book, and then just start, and it seems to lead a life of its own. I started off my painting the pages with gesso, so the colours don't go through the paper, drew the faces, added some stamping, some magazine cut outs, die cuts and bits and bobs that were flying around my kitchen making the place untidy. At the end, I decided it looked like it was about dreams, added some of my favourite dream quotes, and did a bit of colouring with some pastel chalks. That was it. But I am sure I am not dreaming of things like that every night!?

And I finished another maze book that I started some time this week. I used paper from 7 Gypsies for the pages, and some scraps from the DCWV Christmas Combo Stack for the covers. I made some tags out of the same scraps, and added a few small pieces of lace to some of the pages. The pictures were hard to take, it was such a dark day that I needed the flash for some of them although it was just mid-day.

I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day. I am really happy that I have kept up every day! Perhaps I will join the December challenge, too!
So, here's wishing you all a lovely day. Take care, and thanks a lot for stopping by!

Paint Party Friday Week 37

Another week has flown by, and it's time for PPF again, hosted by Kristin and Eva. Do hop over and take a look at the work of the other participants if you can! I have painted a mixed media piece. I started off with my momentary favourite colours, 2 shades of blue, yellow and white, which I applied with a wide brush. Then I took some of the strips of Embossed paper and a small piece of ledger paper which were in my parcel from Donna, and fixed them to the painting with Golden gel before partly colouring over them. I used Inca gold to add the gold highlights. The wings have been die cut from some old book pages, embossed, and also coloured with gold and blue. The picture in the middle has been cut out of a prospect which I got in a previous parcel from Donna. I added a feather for texture, some lace, some non-woven fibre material, a few remnants of *gold* leafing and some buttons. Then I melted some candle remnants and used the wax to pour over the paper strips, spread it with a plastic card, and stamped into it with a script stamp while it was warm. I then rubbed more Inca gold over it to highlight the stamping and the texture. The pictures show the beginnings, and then the finished work.

And I made some rather crazy pages in my journal, using lots of different techniques, just having fun, just picking things up,and colouring and pasting without a plan. Just seeing what happens. I think I will call it *Fragments of my mind*

I am linking to AEDM at Creative Every Day

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