Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Tag Tuesday Tag

Hi you all. It's Tag Tuesday again, and the theme this week is gardening and everything related to it. I am just as good at gardening as at all other household tasks; all I know about this theme is that gardens should have flowers and plants in them, and that they attract bees and butterflies and birds etc. So, I have made 2 tags with flowers and bees. For both tags I have used some scraps of Anna Griffin paper mounted onto card from an old calendar. The first one has been made with a gel image transfer.



Thanks to all who sent hugs yesterday, I really need them just now.
Have a good day you all, take care and thanks for visiting!

Monday, 14 May 2012

Monday, Tags and Postcards

Hi everybody, hope you all had a good weekend, and a happy Mothers Day. Here the weekend was, as usual, filled with scintillating conversations with myself and the heavy sounds of silence. At least I had time to craft and paint, so I suppose I should be thankful for small mercies, even when it's sometimes hard.

It's the second week of the Tag challenge at The Cheerful Stamp Pad, for which I made 2 tags. The background paper is a freebie from Free vintage digital stamps. The steampunk trunk and animals on the second tag is an image from Inka Heaton at *Altered Artifacts*, the other images are from my stash.




Then I finished off two more postcards, very grungy again....



And last but not least, I painted a canvas for next week's PPF, here is a small piece as *sneak peek*:


Okay, that was all for today. Hope you all have a good day, take care and thanks for visiting!

Friday, 11 May 2012

Cissie on tour and PPF

It's Friday again, and that means it's party time. At Paint Party Friday it's Year 2, Week 9, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge has reached week 19 already, and our participants are off to Bulgaria.

Jason had a hard time of it with his mumps, but is now on the way to recovery. He has decided it’s time he gets back to his own flat and his antique shop. Cissie and Thelma are planning a week in Bulgaria, first visiting a spa in Velingrad, and then a few days by the Black Sea at Sunny Beach. One afternoon they are all sitting together in Cissie’s living room, enjoying their afternoon snack of smoked salmon sandwiches, stuffed tomatoes, Danish pastries which Thelma brought, and the usual mountain of cream cakes *To keep up the boy’s strength*, as Cissie says while stuffing a large Éclair sideways into her mouth.
Cissie is still a bit worried about Jason going back to his flat, and she and Thelma are hoping to find him a new shop and flat a bit nearer, where she can keep an eye on him. She does not want a repeat of Jason’s Twilight Saga at Mr Deepdown’s. But Jason doesn't know of these plans yet.
Cissie says: ‘Jason, we’ve been thinking. You know there have been burglaries near here the past few weeks. I would like you to stay here for another couple of weeks, while we are away. Shannon – Thelma’s daughter – will pop in every day to keep you company, and you two could go to the shop a couple of times and get it cleaned up. What do you think about that?’
‘Yeah, well, not bad really’, answers Jason. ‘Can she cook?’
‘Don’t be so bloody cheeky, you!’ Hisses Thelma. ‘You are sometimes very ungrateful. And anyway, you can go the the take-away for lunch every day!’
‘Well, I only asked ‘cause she’s such a scrawny moo’ explains Jason.
‘Don’t dare to call my Shannon a scrawny moo!’ thunders Thelma.
‘Well YOU always call her scrawny old moo!’ says Jason.
‘That’s different,’ spits Thelma, ‘She’s my daughter!’
‘Have some more cakes’ says Cissie. There’s nothing like a bit of good food to soothe the nerves!’

Jason and Shannon bring Thelma and Cissie to the Coach Station at Victoria 2 days later. For a *scrawny moo*, Jason has to acknowledge that she is as strong as a horse, and has less problems heaving their humongous cases into the coach than he does. After waving them off, they drive back to their fave chippie for a meal, and make a plan of what they can do to pass the time....
As Cissie and Thelma drive off, Thelma says: ‘I just hope your Jason doesn’t take advantage of her while we’re gone!’ Cissie says, ‘You don’t need to worry, they can take care of themselves’, whilst thinking that it would be a miracle if he didn’t at least try it....

They are on the road for three days, stopping at hotels in Eastern Europe along the way, where the beds are bad but the food is good. They arrive tired and travel worn at the beautiful spa of Velingrad, where the first evening is spent being massaged, floating in the beautiful pool, and stocking up on calories. They have a luxurious room, the town is wonderful, and they much enjoy the treatments and wellness, and of course the good food, which reminds them of the cuisine in Greece and Turkey. In any case, plenty of everything, so they are happy.

Velingrad

Maslen Nos on the Black Sea

(Both photos from Wikipedia Commons)

After three days they move on to Sunny Beach on the Black Sea. The food and their hotel are both good, but Cissie is annoyed by the crowds of young men and women with red, sunburnt skins who lounge about all day drinking. ‘They must be Germans!’ she says, ‘They are always so loud and drink too much!’ ‘Strange’ says Thelma, they’re all talking English, listen!’ ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ says Cissie. ‘British people would never behave like that in public! Anyway, the Germans are known for being good at languages!’
They fly home from Burgas Airport, and Thelma smiles slyly when she sees that the 'Germans' are flying to London, too! Cissie and Thelma are happy to see Jason and Shannon waiting for them, arm in arm, at Gatwick.

Here is the postcard they send to the *kids* back home. Cissie especially wanted me to show a close up of her new shirt and her dangly earrings.




For Paint Party Friday I have one of my masks and a WIP to show you, both painted in tempera paints. I just get the urge to do these masks every so often, and I hope the WIP will be going somewhere sooner or later, although at th moment I think it will be the bin....



Here's wishing you all a good weekend. Take care, have fun and thanks for coming by!

Thursday, 10 May 2012

More Grungy Cards

Hi you all! I had a great surprise at the post-office yesterday. I went to a different one, as it's usually less busy there, and the lady was so friendly I could hardly believe it. She loved all the mail art envelopes, and especially the 2 postcards (2 of those I showed yesterday) which I was sending off. She spent a long time looking at them, reading the quotes, looking for pretty stamps, and even got out the hand stamp and stamped each one individually! Remember that song, *For the times, they are a changing!* Wonders never cease....

I finished off some more cards yesterday, and found 2 of them in time to take photos - the rest are under a big heap on the kitchen table, which I will clear up tomorrow - or the day after....and then I will post them.



I had fun making these masculine cards. In the second one, the left hand image is a gel transfer, the right one a fussy cut image glued on. I like how the transfer is a bit paler. The image is from Free Vintage digital stamps.

Yesterday it was quite warm here, but rainy, and we had thunder storms. Tomorrow should be dry but it will be cold, and by Friday it should be freezing again, as we have fresh air zooming down from the North Pole to keep us on our toes!

Take care, have a good day, and thanks for visiting!


Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Wednesday

Hi everybody, hope you are all fit today. I had a lazy day again yesterday, just here at home with lots of reading and crafting. And somebody must have eaten loads of chocolate again, the packet's empty! I hope I can soon get out and about again! My foot feels almost normal as long as I don't wear shoes, but today I hope to get out to the post office at least, as I want to post off the postcards I made for the Inspiration Avenue swap. I have made some mail-art envelopes for them:


And I finished off some more vintage postcards. I made more than the five I needed for the swap, so have a few extra for sending to other people. They have turned out very grungy this time, but I like them that way! Three more are still in progress, I hope to finish them today.





And here are the 'backsides':


I have crafted and/or painted several things lately using stencils from the Crafter's Workshop. It says on the packaging to send a mail and show what you have made with their products, which I did, and had some things showcased on their blog this week. Here is the link if you want to see: The Crafter's Workshop Blog
Have a good day you all, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Tag Tuesday and some Vintage Images

Good morning. It's tag Tuesday again, and I have a tag of sorts ready. Yesterday was really cool here, but the weather men have promised that the weather is going to warm up from today - but before we get excited, it's going to pour as well. But it will be warm rain. And it should get cold again in time for the weekend - lovely prospects!
I went out yesterday, as I had an appt at the doctor's. I found some very ancient shoes it my cupboard, which I managed to squash my feet into to, so didn't have to go in my old slippers. But it was still painful, although when not squashed into a shoe, it does feel better. But the best thing was the wonderful feeling of relief when I got home and kicked my shoes into the corner....
At Tag Tuesday the theme this week is baking. I leafed through one of my old volumes of the 'Housewife's Magazine' from 1899 and found some nice adverts and images. I chose a very serious one from Dr Oetker's Baking Powder - still on sale today! The ad has a black frame round it, which reminds me of the cards they send here when somebody has died. I glued the image to a piece of scrap card, and framed it with some golden paper lace usually used to put round cakes. As the husband is sitting there reading instead of praising his wifey for baking him such a nice 'Rodon' cake, I added a text to show what she is thinking, 'If I'd have known he'd be reading I'd have burnt the cake, burnt the cake, burnt the cake....' The German text underneath the ad says that Dr Oetker baking powder only costs 10 Pfennigs and can be used instead of yeast, and gives an unbeatable flavour. And if you only use this brand, your cakes will always be successful. You can get free recipes from good firms and from the chemist too! I suppose it used to be a commodity which was sold at the chemist's.


The following images are all food related, and you are very welcome to download and use them.

Nestle's baby milk;





Albert's cakes:


Suchard cocoa:


Müller's invalid stout - especially recommended for people who are sick, reconvalescent and nursing mothers....


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

Monday, 7 May 2012

Manic Monday and a Tag Challenge

Hi everybody, hope you have all had a good weekend. I stayed home - weather was bad - and as I still can't wear shoes it's a bit difficult with going out!
But I used my time to do lots of reading, writing and crafting. I am taking part in a postcard challenge, and got my postcards done. I can't show them yet, I want to wait till they reach their destinations. But I had a really sticky, messy and inky time playing with paper, gel, images, gesso, inks and stamps.

A new challenge is starting over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad, this time tags are being asked for. I used a vintage image from *Free Vintage digital stamps* - see link on my sidebar. I made a triptych tag, using some black card from an old calendar for the base, some scrapbook paper from Webster's pages, and added some school embellishments. I made holes in the sides and tied the pieces together with some silk twine. It was fun to make, and is now standing on my printer. The challenge will be running for two weeks, so plenty of time to have a go! You can make a tag, or something to do with tags - like a tag book, for example.


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