Paint Party Friday #43 & A New Challenge

Today is the first PPF in this year, thanks again to Eva and Kristin for continuing to host it. Today I would like to share my journal pages and a colour splodge-and-smear painting.
The journal pages should have been something completely different, but once again, they just seemed to develop of their own accord! I used pen and ink, water-colour pencils, flower rub-ons and some other bits and bobs.

The painting was done some time back, but I can't remember if I showed it or not. It's been painted with tempera colours, splodged on in several layers, sprayed with water, allowed to drip, and then some of the drips were outlined with black ink. I find things like this enormously therapeutic, just pure fun!

I am also taking part in the Postcard Challenge over at *Art and Sole* blog. The challenge is inspired by the Griffin and Sabine Series of books by Nick Bantock. For the challenge we get a different prompt each week. We have to make a story round 2 characters. In one week, A writes to B, and in the second week B to A. The prompt this week is Austria, so the postcard this week has to come from there. But first let me introduce you to my characters:

Auntie Cissie is an overweight, elderly lady, who loves going on coach tours with her friends. She adores sightseeing, especially visiting all the good restaurants and sampling the local specialities. She lives in London, in a house built between a Jewish Delicatessen take-away and a fish and chip shop run by a family of friendly Pakistanis, who are famous for giving huge portions.... Her favourite colours are pink, blue and lilac.

Her Address is Mrs Cissie Brautman, 222 Brickwall Lane, Whitechapel, London E1

She writes to her nephew, Jason, who runs an antique shop in Lewisham, South London. He lives in a flat above the shop, does not really have a clue about antiques, but is sure that he will one day make his fortune by finding a very valuable painting or piece of furniture….He travels round hoping to find a lost Picasso.

His address is Mr Jason Shmitt, 576 Wetwell Lane, Lewisham, London
S E 27

At the beginning of my story, they have not yet seen each other. Cissie’s sister emigrated many years back, settled in Australia, and went so far into the outback that she lost touch with the rest of the family in London. Cissie learns from a friend, who has bought some furniture from Jason, of the existence of her nephew, and that he lives in London. She is overjoyed to finally find a part of her family, and sends him the first postcard.

And here they are:

This week, Cissie is touring in Austria with her friends, where she goes, as always, from café to café, from meal to meal.... Here is the first postcard, the album will follow next week!

I had great fun creating the characters, making the postcard and writing the first part of the story. I am looking forward to getting the next prompt for the coming week, and to see where the journey will take us....

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

Another book and gale force winds

Hi everybody, good morning from stormy, wild and windy Rhineland. I'm glad I don't need to go far today, I think home is the best place when the weather is so bad.

Yesterday I went for a few hours to visit a friend, and on the way home I bought a lovely, large needle, suitable for darning socks and sewing books together. I used some water-colour paper to make the 10 signatures, and sewed them onto covers made from recycled cardboard. This time I added the croco-look paper after finishing the book, so that the spine is covered too, and then used some pearlised paper to make the end-papers of the book. The pages lie completely flat when the book is open. It's still not quite as I would have liked it, but it was much quicker and easier to sew this time with a decent needle, and I think the next one will turn out as I want it.

Okay, that was it for today, the H*******K is waiting - it can't be put off any longer!

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

Christmas post from Mexico

Yoohoo, my Christmas post from Mexico arrived. Poor Donna had almost given up hope that it would arrive here, but today it did - when I went down to my mailbox, I found a big and very decorative envelope waiting for me. Inside I found a beautiful Christmas tag and loads of sheets of ephemera, which are especially welcome, as I haven't been able to print anything for ages thanks to my not-so-wonderful Lexmark printer, which has steadfastly refused to work for many weeks.

I especially like what Donna has written on the envelope!

So now, at a time when other people are taking down their Christmas decorations, I have just put a new one on the wall in my arty kitchen....

I thought very seriously about doing the H*******K yesterday, and went from room to room, inspecting the mess. Then I decided to close the doors and not think about it anymore till Thursday, in the hope that I will be able to find somewhere to start.

I had a try at making a book with a sewn coptic binding, and managed to sew 6 signatures together. I covered some cardboard from the back of a drawing pad with some hand-made Indian paper to make the covers. I just added a brass name-plate to the front. I will definitely try this again, BUT I need a larger needle and some embroidery thread or fine twine to sew it together. As I can't see very well, it was very difficult for me working with a small sewing needle, and I almost sewed my fingers to the binding! But it is an interesting Technic, and I like the way the pages all lay flat

Have a nice day you all, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

More Journal Pages and Tags

Good morning you all! Yesterday I really had to give myself a kick in the butt to get going and do something. I started off by trying to clear masses of bits and pieces from my table, as my AWS (available working space) had shrunk to less than inchy size. There were loads of paper scraps there, leftovers from Christmas crafting, so I cut them all into neat pieces and decided to use as much as I could in my journal to avoid moving them from one corner to another over the next weeks. I painted the pages with brown, yellow and white acrylics. Then I used part of a paper napkin for the image on the left side, before *framing* it with the scraps, making a mosaic. On the left hand side I added a postcard, as it had the right colours! and the text *When hands reach out in friendship hearts are touched by joy*.

The tags have been made for a new blog, *Tag Tuesday*. Our theme this week is snow. I have made 2 tags, using black cardstock from last year's calendar. The tags have been stamped with a LaBlanche script stamp; one has been embossed in white and one with silver. I have used TH's fence and branch tree for both tags, and added some stars, birds and snowflakes for embellishments. On the silver embossed tag I used a flourish stamp in the background, too, which has also been embossed with silver.

Do pop over and have a look at the blog, there will be lots of snowy tags to see!

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

Calendar Challenge January

The calendar challenge over at *The Kathryn Wheel* is continuing this year, and this is my effort for January, which I forgot to post yesterday....I have used *my* faces again, one looking back to 2011 and one looking towards 2012. The clouds have all been outlined with a silver Edding pen to make the silver lining!

And while I was clearing off my table, I decided to use a piece of Graphics 45 paper which was lying around. It was just big enough for 2 tags, I just turned the paper to give a different front each time. I have used my umbrella man again, this time he has been cut out of the cover of an ancient paper back book.

Hope you all had a good start into the new year. Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everybody!

Thanks for being there, for visiting, for all your encouraging comments and for being good friends.
I wish you all health and happiness, and a creative new year filled with happy moments and lots of crafty goodies.

(Image from the Graphics Fairy)

The Last Day of 2011

It's always a strange feeling when one year ends and another begins, but this year it somehow doesn't really seem real. However, it really is the last day of the year, and the last chance to blog in 2011. I have not made any resolutions, as it's just depressing when they all get broken. Hope you will all have more success with yours!

I just have some journal pages to show today, once again, more or less the same as always but different....Sorry that the photos are not good; the light was just bad all day.

And here is a little story which Narda sent me; I think it is something we can all take with us into the new year.

Garbage Truck of Life.
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.
My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!
The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.
My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.And I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump itand sometimes they'll dump it on you.
Don't take it personally.
Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so:
"Love the people who treat you right.
Pray for the ones who don't."
Life is ten percent what you make it
and ninety percent how you take it!
"What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year 2012. Take care of yourselves, have a good day, and thanks for dropping in!