Seaside and Mini-Books

Hi everybody, hope you are all well and fit. We even had sunshine here yesterday, but we have been promised bad weather again - rain, wind, storms etc from tomorrow, so looks like it will be back to our summer like a *green painted winter*, as Heinrich Heine said. (He was a great German Poet, who was born in Düsseldorf at the end of the 18th century)

Yesterday I made a card for the challenge over at the Artful Times Blog, where the theme this week is *I do like to be beside the seaside*. I painted the background in a watery blue-green, stamped some shells, and added gold-glitter for sand. The wave has been fussy cut from some designer paper. I added 3 images from CI, and put some blue and green stickles on the waves. I mounted it onto a piece of greeny-blue paper, with some blue fibres, and added a little dolphin for fun.

And I finished my matchboxes, here they are, all four in a row. The first one I showed yesterday.

I have used scraps of designer paper to make the cover-side of the *books*, and have used the same text on the reverse of  all three. It is a quote from Ecclesiastes III, *To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.....*. It is quite addictive once you start on these little things, and anyway, there were 4 matchboxes in the packet....

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

Tag Tuesday & a Matchbox Mini-book

Hi you all, it's time for another Tag Tuesday. Our theme this week is *Tales of the Riverbank*. I sat here, storming my poor brain, and wondering what to do, and then I remembered that I live round the corner from the Rhine, and there is a stream directly next to the house here - duh! Problem solved! I made a collage of photos taken along the riverbanks - the ruins of the castle, the shore, the houses, boats and the ferry. The background is a photo of the stream next door, complete with the ducks swimming round. I mounted the photo onto a piece of hand-painted paper in watery green-blue, and added a ribbon made from some matching gauzy material strips, and a little shell, from the shore of the Rhine. 

I have included the original collage, too, as the colours in the tag seem to be a bit changed .  The photo underneath shows the colours better.

And I decided to make some more mini-books.this time accordion books in matchbox cases. The matchbox has been covered with scraps of designer paper, inked and varnished to give an aged look. The little book has been made from a strip of waste paper, distressed with DIs in Antique linen and forest moss, and stamped with various small motives and quotes.

It was fun to make, and I have another three nearly finished, which I will show sooner or later. I am linking again to Out of a hat creations.

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

Little books

This weekend I have been busy making some mini-books again. The ladies at  *Out of a Hat* creations want to see mini books measuring no more than 3x3". My first one is 2 3/4 x 1'3/4". I cut three small pieces of chipboard from an old drawing block, and glued them onto some leather-look paper to make the front and back covers and the spine.

The pages inside have been made from handmade paper, torn to size to keep the edges rough, and then inked along the outer edges. I fastened each double page with fine twine to a small piece of card, which I then glued into the spine.

I then added some end-papers (7 Gypsies) to give the whole construction more stability.

The second mini-book is 1 1/2x 1 1/2". I made a maze book from asheet of 6x6" double sided paper, added chipboard covers covered with scraps of designer paper, and some paper roses formed into a little bouquet with silicone glue. Inside I folded some of the corners to form pockets, and trimmed them with some mini-pieces of lace.

The last book is one I made last week, and is small, but not mini - it's 4x3". The covers were made with chipboard from the same drawing block, covered on both sides with blended paper, which has been varnished and distressed before adding the rose and a final coat of varnish.

The pages inside have been distressed and each stamped with a quote.

The book has been bound together with string and thin ribbon.

Hope you all have a great Sunday. Take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Paint Party Friday and Cissie in Australia

It's Friday again - in case you haven't noticed - and time for Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, week 25. Our contestants are heading for Australia this week.

Cissie is not at home. Thelma knows where she is, but has been sworn to secrecy. Jason and Shannon think she is looking after a friend who has been ill, and enjoy having Cissie’s flat to themselves.
 In reality, Cissie has embarked on a diplomatic mission to Australia, to try to find Jason’s Mum, so she can come to the wedding. If you remember, she almost got eaten by a crocodile many years back, and since then keeps changing her name and moving home so that the crocodile can’t find her…. Jason hasn’t heard from her for years. Cissie knows she was last heard of somewhere near Canberra, and that’s where she heads for. The journey is long and stressful, and Cissie is relieved when she can at last move freely again.
 She spends a few days at a hotel, is able to see some of the sights, and make contact with a private detective who has promised to help her with the search. She visits Government House, Parliament House, and a wild-life sanctuary, where she can admire parrots, crocodiles, kangaroos and koalas. She does not have much time as she needs to find her sister, Queenie. She is at least happy that Canberra has plenty of shops and restaurants, even if she does not find a fish-and-chip shop.

(All photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

The detective does not look like Cissie expects him to. He turns up in khaki shorts and shirt, calls Cissie ‘Mate’, and is very cool! He says he has some addresses for them to check out, and that they will need to be out and about for three or four days. Cissie packs her case, tells the hotel she will be back by the end of the week, and off they go.

Back in London, Thelma is getting worried. Apart from the postcard that Cissie sent on the third day in Canberra,she has not been in contact for ten days. This is something quite unheard of, as Cissie needs to communicate with friends and family several times a day.
The hotel hasn’t seen Cissie since she left with Dougie, the Private Eye.
 Where can she be??
Stay tuned….


For Paint Party Friday I want to share some of my heads (?!?). This isn't finished yet, I have just been playing around  this week with colours, just having fun!

So, that was all for today. If you want to know what has happened to Cissie, be sure to read next Friday's episode! Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

More grungy tags

Hi you all. Today I have 2 more tags to share, both grungy, made with a blended paper background, gessoed,  and distressed with forest moss DI. The first one has an image from CI, the second one a rose rub-on from LaBlanche. Both have been decorated with my home made *Xmas* beads.

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

Tag Tuesday

Our theme this week at Tag Tuesday is *green*. I have used mostly re-cycled materials - green! and a lot of green stuff. The cardboard has been distressed, gessoed and then painted green, before being inked with gold and green. The image is from Graphics 45, the lace has been recycled, and the beads have been made from painted paper, rolled round a knitting needle. I made the beads to hang on presents last Christmas, put them in a tin, and forgot where they were....Last week I found them again, so here they are on my tag.

This is the tag made for 'The Cheerful Stamp Pad' *In the Garden* Challenge. You still have a whole week to enter! I made a tag from distressed and embossed cardboard. (What else?!) The image is from Graphics 45, mounted on a scrap of card, stamped with various motives in forest moss. I added 2 rub on roses and a feather.

That's all for today! Take care, have a lovely day, and thanks for visiting!

New from Old

Hi you all, it's been wet and windy  here up till now - what a summer! But today I woke to SUNSHINE! It's still a bit windy / cloudy, but how nice to see the sun!

Today I want to share my freshly painted and grunged sewing table. This week I want to start on a bookcase, but it will just be painted white. After adding the rose rub-ons to the drawers I aged and crackled them with a 2-component crackle varnish, and then gave them a bit of colour with green ink, some black paste and a little Inka Gold. I quite like the way it has turned out, and if I don't like it some time, I can paint it again!

Have a good Sunday, take care, and thanks for dropping in!