Saturday, Weekend and an Album

Hi everybody! Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. I still look forward to weekends, although as I don't work any more, all the week is work free for me. Must be a throw back to all those working years, where the weekend was always something to look forward to!

Yesterday I made a quick album in which to put my postcards for the *Auntie Cissie and Jason Saga*. It had to be quick, as I am busy doing lots of other things in *real-life*, although I hate all those nasty but sometimes necessary errands and other things which keep me from crafting and painting! I cut the pages from a pad of craft paper, made a fold along the long side, and then folded the page together, to give a double page for 2 postcards. I snipped off the inside corners, to make it easier to fold, and stuck the outside edge with DST. Made 26 pages, so I have a pocket for each week of the year. The covers have been made from a corrugated cardboard box. The covers have been distressed a bit, and then partly painted with a quick coat of gesso. I lined the inside covers with some cardstock to give them a bit more stability, and then fixed the whole thing together with my Zutter BIA. I decorated the front cover with *photos* of my protagonists and the first pages with some old ads for hotels in Vienna and a few other travel related embellishments. The postcard can then be tucked into the pocket each week.

I am really looking forward to getting the new travel destination on Monday and starting the new postcard!

So that's all for today. Hope you all have a wonderful day, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

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)