Another catty hanging

Good morning you all. It's the middle of the week today; as always, the time is flying. I spent a few hours with my friend Inge yesterday, it's always a nice change to all the other days on my own.
It's still very cold and windy here, something like a cross between April and a deep freeze. But at least it's not raining (yet)!

Today I want to share the second wooden hanging I made at the weekend. It has worked like the one from yesterday, just some other flowers and a different cat. I am linking again to Artful times and Simon Says Stamp and Show - anything goes.

Today I need to do a bit of the dreaded H*******k, not nice, but necessary!

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

Tag Tuesday Tag & a Challenge

Hi you all! It's Tuesday already, and time for another Tag Tuesday Tag.
The background of the tag is a piece of waste cardboard which I used to try out colours while painting last week. I added some floral rub-ons and a butterfly-creation. I found the decorative butterfly while clearing out recently. The body was unfortunately missing, so I replaced it with one of my little heads. Well, not one of my little heads; I just have one and it is rather large. But one I made in a mold and rubbed with Inka Gold in bronze. I fixed it all together using a hot glue gun, and this is the rather strange result....

And for the Artful times Challenge I have made a wall hanging. The theme this time is *a sea of greens* for the background. I used the chipboard backing from an old photo frame, painted it with different green tones, rubbed it with some perfect pearls medium and sprinkled on perfect pearls in green and bronze. After it had been heat dried, I added some stickles in green and bronze again; the bronze gives the green more depth. The cat is one of 3 chipboard die-cuts which I have had for ages. I grounded them with gesso, and then coloured them with DI bundled sage before adding perfect pearls in green and bronze again. Then I arranged the different embellies from my stash, and that was it. I have started a second one which I hope to finish later. I am also linking to Simon says stamp and show, where anything goes this week.

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

Manic Monday

Hi everybody, just a quickie today as I have a lot to do.
I have made a tag for my DT piece for the second week of the *past times* challenge over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad, sponsored by Altered Pages.
The tag has been cut using TH's cabinet card die, stamped with a BG stamp in resist ink, and then coloured with vintage photo. The second layer is a script stamp (LaBlanche), stamped with the same colour, and then the image stamped on top of that, once again using the same ink. It appears to be a little darker because it has been clear embossed. I gave the lady a necklace of liquid pearls, and decorated the tag with some vintage lace, a narrow ribbon, and a flower made up of die-cut old paper from the 18th century with a prima flower sandwiched between. I fixed it together with a string knot.
I finished it off with a metal word *spirit*

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks for looking!

Sunday, cold and damp and no sun

Good morning you all. No spring feelings to the weather here just now, just plain cold and damp; not my favourite, and not good for aching bones either. But on the plus side, I slept till after 8 this morning, which was good, as I am mostly awake before 6.
Yesterday I had fun watching the blue-tits devouring the fat balls on my balcony. A couple of sparrows joined in, but they all got their turn. Then a big, black crow arrived and started feeding. The little birds were all in the tree, really getting their knickers in a twist about the big intruder, who looked like he was going to eat everything. Then the blue-tits all flew at him together, and he flattered off, croaking loudly his lament, and the littl'uns were once again the kings of the castle and able to enjoy *their* food.

Today I just have one tag to share. I spent a lot of time painting yesterday, but it's not finished yet. I have made a tag with a sponged ink background for the Unruly Paper Arts RAQ 1. I used my birch tree mask, and sponged gradient colours of DI through the trees. The word *Treasure* has been used as focal image over the trees, and I added some prima flowers and ribbon in complementary colours. I am also linking to Simon Says Stamp and Show, where this week a TH technique must be used.

Okay, that's all for today. Have a good Sunday, whatever the weather, take care, and thanks for visiting!

And the Winner Is....

Hi everybody, it's weekend again!
27 people left comments on my giveaway post, I put the names in my grey cap, shook them up, and then pulled a winner! And it is...................drumroll................Carol of SilverSprings Acres of Love. Then, because it was fun, I pulled another name, Sue from Sue the Iron. Both ladies will be receiving little packages with tags and some crafty surprises, I will get them off on Monday. Sue, I don't have your email, please contact me with your details! I have Carol's mail addy already.

The following tag has been made with the Craft Room Challenge - Music - in mind. I have made a double tag. Both tags have been stamped with a music score (LaBlanche). The background tag was first stamped with my fave background stamp and resist ink, and sponged with DI vintage photo. I stamped the top tag with my Leonardo Da Vinci lady, who has been coloured with water-colour pencils. The quote is from Shakespeare, and the trimmings from my stash.

Here's wishing you all a relaxing day. Have fun, take care and thanks a lot for dropping in!

Iceland or Iceland?

Good morning you all, it's party time again. Eva and Kristin are hosting Paint Party Friday again. It's week 5 of year 2 already! And Darcy is hosting week 15 of her Postcard Challenge, where our participants goal is Iceland....

This week Cissie is off for a trip to Iceland, with her friend Thelma in tow.
A couple of days beforehand, Jason and Cissie are sitting in her living room, enjoying tea, cream cakes and a football match on TV. Jason is only listening with half an ear to Cissie....
Jason, I’m going to Iceland on Friday with Thelma. Could you drive us?
Yeah, why not. But 'ang on, didn’t we go there last week? You bought piles of groceries; you can’t have eaten them all already!
Jason, we are going to ICELAND, not ICELAND!

(Iceland is a well known chain of grocery stores in England)
Well, I’m not deaf, am I? I 'eard you the first time!
Jason, I should say, we are FLYING to ICELAND! You need to drive us to Gatwick!
Bloody 'ell, watcha wanna fly for? It ain’t that far!
No Jason! We are flying to ICELAND. We are not going shopping!
Slowly, reality dawns on Jason. He asks, rather horrified,
Ain’t that somewhere at the North Pole? That place with volcanoes and ponies and ice all over the place?
It’s not at the North Pole, Jason. Your geography is very bad. I looked it up in my atlas, and it’s 3 centimetres further south!
Jason nearly chokes on a bite of cream cake, while trying to make sense of Cissie’s description. He still can’t understand WHY they want to go to Iceland, but as he always loses every argument with Cissie, he agrees to drive them to the airport.
They hardly fit through the door of the car, as they are so wrapped in furs and boots, and clutching thick blankets and snow-shoes. Jason pays for the excess baggage at the airport without saying a word, and watches them waddle off, resembling 2 brown bears looking for a place to hibernate....

After a pleasant flight, they arrive safely and are transferred to their hotel. They spend 2 days in Reykjavik before travelling on to Akureyri.

They are delighted to find real shops and plenty of restaurants, all of which offer a large selection of tasty and high calorie food, even though they are not always quite sure what it is....Perhaps that's just as well!!

(Photos from Wikipedia Commons)

They see the northern lights, and swim in hot springs. And it is not quite as cold as they thought it would be, and Cissie is able to wear her new purple silk blouse and skirt, made by her dressmaker from the silk Jason bought for her in Singapore. And one of the Iceland ponies forms a great attachment to Cissie, and follows her about; she can’t understand why....

And Jason is enjoying his peaceful week at home....

For PPF I once again have a WIP, I quite like it so far, but don't know what to do to finish it again....I have re-used a canvas, which has been painted with several layers of acrylics, after using a stencil to add some texture with structure paste.

I'm sorry I didn't get round to visiting everybody last week; I had problems with Blogger and was not always able to comment, but I was at least able to read the blogs. Hope this week will be easier.
Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!

More Tags, a little Giveaway and a Cloudy Face

Hi you all! The week is flying by again, and the day never seems to have enough time to do everything! Yesterday I went shopping and bought a new mouse - for my computer. The old one was struggling hard to do its duty, but was on its last legs or tracking ball or whatever it is that keeps a mouse going. I had the old one for fifteen years, so I'm not complaining, as it outlived several laptops, but now it deserves to rest.
Yesterday afternoon I had a fun time watching birds feeding on my balcony. I discovered some fat balls in the cupboard whilst tidying, and thought the birds could do with some extra food as it's still very cold out, and they were queuing up and squabbling like kids waiting for sweeties! And while watching the birds I saw a strange cloud scudding across the sky. It was real April weather, wet, windy, cloudy, sunny and cold all at the same time, with plenty of variations. I really can see a face in profile on the left of it - can you?

And I made some tags, playing about with a nice stock of paper which I found while clearing up, and some stamps which had evidently gone into hiding!
The first one has been made with a trimmed cabinet card die-cut. The background has been stamped using the LaBlanche BG stamp that I recently unearthed, and resist ink, which had also disappeared. Then I stamped over it with a script stamp before stamping and clear embossing the image. I have just used Victorian velvet; the image appears darker because it has been embossed and then given a dust over with some perfect pearls in bronze. I added some lace, flowers and a ribbon from my stash.

For the other tags I have used distress ink again for the background, and worked in one colour - broken china in the first one and a pink from colour box fluid chalk inks for the second one. They are just experiments, I do like to just play around and get inky....

I am entering today's tags into the *Inky Backgrounds* RAQ at Unruly Paper Arts

I got a new follower yesterday, Julia Stratford-Wright, so would like to thank her for joining! And I have just seen that this is post number 666! And the first tag today was image 666 - I wonder if this is a special day?? So I will pick one of the people who leave comments today to win a little giveaway; some tags and a few surprises. Good luck! The winner will be chosen on Sat. 14th at 6:6:6 - six minutes and six seconds past 6a.m.

I will be back tomorrow with the next episode of Cissie and Jason. Have a good day, take care, and thanks for coming by!