Altered box and more happy mail

Last week I found an old box with magnet closure in the paper recycling bin next to our house. This bin is my main supply of old magazines, boxes, cardboard etc, as the people in our house seem to be good at throwing away.... Somebody had evidently wrapped a lot of brown packing tape round it, which left some nasty marks when removed.

I cleaned it a bit with some spirit based cleaner, and then covered the top, back and front flap with torn paper, using some old book pages and lots of golden gel.

When it was dry, I gave the whole of the outside of the box 2 coats of champagne acrylic paint, which I watered down over the torn paper backing so that the print remained visible. I added some rose transfers, and then some clear aging varnish and distressed some parts with DI in forest moss and Victorian velvet.

I finished it off with some pretty, cream coloured lace, and a hitch fastener on the front flap, which makes it easier to open the magnet flap. And last but not least, I added an old ear-ring with a pretty cameo. The inside of the box has been painted plain white, and I will fill it with some little presents and use it as a gift box.

I am linking to the anything goes challenge at Recycle, re purpose and re-invent challenge blog.

This beautiful postcard dropped into my mailbox yesterday. It has been sent by Linda, a very talented photographer and crafter living in California. Thanks a lot, Linda, it will be treasured!

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

Tag Tuesday & More

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is *seabirds*. My tag has been made from a strip of water colour paper, on which I painted the sky before adding the sand and water, for which I used torn strips of paper with edges inked in wild honey and blue jeans DI. The strips give the illusion of more depth. The deckchairs and beach huts have been stamped onto patterned paper and fussy cut before being fixed on. For the chairs I used foam squares to add more depth. The boat and the birds have been fussy cut and decoupaged, and then I added a conversation from gull to gull....

For week 2 of the *silhouettes* challenge at The Cheerful Stamp Pad I have made a very simple tag with a tree and owl silhouette. The tree is from Tim Holtz, the owl is a digi-stamp. I distressed the background over a small round of paper to make a moon mask.

I got some happy mail last week from Karen. Not only did she send a tidy packet of crafty goodies, but also these beautiful little tiles and an altered scrabble piece. They really are miniature art.works. Thanks a lot, Karen, they will be treasured!

So, that was all for today! Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Twinchies and Mini Moos

Hi everybody, hope you are all enjoying a restful weekend. Here it is still cold, wet and windy, with storms and thunder and lightning, so good weather to stay home. I even tidied my arty kitchen today, and it looks quite good now - wonder how long it will last?

Over at 'Out of a Hat' Creations' the theme this week is Twinchies.  I had some painted paper remnants left over from other projects, and used them to make these twinchies. I stamped and white embossed them with a script stamp, gave each a little strip of gold glitter paper - left over from Xmas - and then decorated with them with all the tiny things I could find - some angels, a CI image, some scraps of ribbon and flowers etc.

They were fun to make, and I will use them as card toppers.

I recently ordered some postcards from MOO for Kat's postcard swap, and while I was at it, some mini cards. You can upload up to 100 photos - I think I managed about 80 before I couldn't see straight any more - and then you need to crop and edit them, and get these wonderful little cards. This is just a selection, I didn't want to spread them all out to take photos. It's interesting to see little *slices* of larger paintings and photos. The pics here look a bit blurry, sorry, but the weather was not good for taking photos today. But I think you get the idea what they are like.

Here's wishing you a good Sunday. Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Jason in Germany and Paint Party Friday

Hi everybody. It's Party time again, and that means time for Paint Party Friday, year 2, week 18, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, week 28. This week our participants are visiting Germany!

Jason, Cissie, Thelma, Shannon and Queenie are busy planning. To keep their strength up, they make frequent visits to the fish and chip shop, and keep themselves supplied with mounds of cream cakes, smoked salmon sandwiches and buckets of tea. The plans for the wedding and the reception are finished, and they have sorted out who is going to live where after the wedding. Queenie has decided to stay in London, and is going to take over Jason’s flat and shop in Lewisham, so she has a bit of distance to the others. Jason and Shannon are moving into Thelma’s flat, and the shop downstairs is empty, so he will be selling his *antiques* there. Thelma is moving into Cissie’s flat, as she has loads of space, and they are going to do a flat-share. Jason has sorted out a lot of antiques, valuable old books, assorted junk etc and is planning on selling it at a flea-market in Düsseldorf, which should bring more money than one at home. Valerie has organised a stall at a big weekly market there, and they will be staying with her, and doing a bit of sightseeing. They hire a van to transport everything, Cissie and Thelma make them mounds of sandwiches, food and drinks for the journey – ‘Mum, we’ll be there this evening!’ says Shannon. ‘Bloody ‘ell!’ sighs Jason, ‘We’ll need a larger van to get all that in!’
Off they go, and arrive, as planned in the evening in Düsseldorf . Valerie is pleased to see them, and has cooked dinner. They are tired, so after a 'light' meal of Schnitzel, chips, salad, bread and butter and a few litres of German ‘Alt’ beer, they hop into bed.
After breakfast the next day, they drive to Zons, a little medieval walled town on the other side of the Rhine. They drive through the town, and cross the river on the ferry, and explore the pretty little town, with its quaint old houses, mill, tower, and little watch-towers on the walls. Shannon and Valerie have to forcibly stop Jason buying more antiquities junk at a shop there, and distract him with a good pub dinner and a few glasses of beer.
On the Friday they go around Kaiserswerth, where Valerie lives, and love everything there, especially the ruins of the Imperial  castle. Valerie and Shannon stand at the top, and Jason is downstairs on the tow-path, pretending to be Romeo and calling to his beloved Shannon to come down and join him, much to the amusement of passers by, who probably think he is an inmate of the psychiatric clinic…. They drive around in an old yellow jalopy, and have fun.

Pictures of Zons

Pictures of  Kaiserswerth

The Castle ruins in Kaiserswerth

Outside a shop in Zons

The Tower in Zons, once used as a prison

The Mill in Zons

The first card shows them in the vintage car, Jason driving, Valerie in the middle and Shannon at the back. Unfortunately she turned round just as the photo was taken, so you can’t see her face….

The second postcard was taken at Zons in front of the Church. Jason just cannot behave!

The flea-market goes well, and Jason and Shannon manage to sell everything they have brought, which will make a good contribution to starting up the new shop. Back home,  Valerie has to keep saying 'NO!' as Jason wants some of her books and other bits and pieces, but no chance! On Sunday they set out early, with enough food to last a small army a week or two, and arrive safely in London, with an empty van and full pockets.

For Paint Party Friday, I have used the remains of my *wild and reckless* paint from Monday's SOC. I have called my painting *Profiles*. Okay, the name is not exactly original, but I still had fun making it! I have used acrylic paints and Adirondack sprays from Ranger.

And here it has been digitally altered and changed to neon red:

Interesting!

Okay, the end!

Have a great weekend you all, have fun, and thanks for coming by!

Modes of Transport

Hi you all! Hope today finds you all fit and well. Yesterday I made a little mini-book for the challenge over at Artful Times, who want to see something about modes of transport this week. I found a small transparent plastic box in my drawer, which still had a few pins in it, so I tipped them out and used it to make a box for the book. I covered the lid - which was very scratched - with a piece of the same map-printed paper I used for the accordion book, and stamped it with an old car.

The pages of the accordion book have been stamped with different motives to show various modes of transport. The car on the front cover has been stamped, fussy cut and decoupaged. The car and horse figures at the front are pieces from my Monopoly set. These stamps are all from Chocolate Baroque.

The reverse has been inked with ancient linen DI, and stamped with more - and some rather strange - transport ideas. Here the stamps are from Catherine Moore and Scrollswork.

Here you can see the little box at the back, it is just a bit smaller than a match-box.

This was a fun make; I love making little books! (And postcards and cards and tags and cardboard stuff and painting and....and....)

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

Tag Tuesday

Hi everybody! The theme this week at Tag Tuesday is  'Swimming', and that includes everything  that has something to do with it. My first tag is a little man who was determined to fill his pool although his Mum had said no! The photo has been backed with some of my hand-painted papers, and I added some pirate accessories, and Noah's Ark, which I found in my button box.

I love this vintage image. I have mounted it onto a distressed and painted cardboard tag, cut in the shape of a beach hut. The shabby bow is a scrap of cotton, and the sun is a yellow daisy. I have added gold glass-glitter sand and some shells.

I discovered these 2 buxom wenches in their jazzy swim-suits, and had to put them on a tag. The tag is a piece of a cornflakes box, covered with some of the blue cotton I used for the bow in the tag above. I fussy cut the images and then rolled them round a pencil to make them stand out before fixing them with foam squares. I wonder what they won those cups for??

 And these are some mini-flip-flops, which we all need for the beach and swimming....

I made this card for my DT piece at 'The Cheerful Stamp-Pad', using the lovely silhouette from Floppy Latte Digitals, *Music of Love*. I have printed the image onto some glossy paper, over-stamped it with  music notes (LaBlanche) and distressed the background in gradient colours. I have kept the embellishments simple, just a ribbon and a small flower with liquid pearls at the centre. The text is mounted inside the card as easel-stopper.

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

Grungy Postcards and Salvaged Plants

Hi you all, hope you are enjoying your weekend. Here it has been quiet, and I have been rather lazy, couldn't get myself to do much today. I wanted to show you the pics of my 'salvaged plants'. At the supermarket where I mostly shop, they often put plants at the front which have definitely passed their sell-by date, and which you can take for nothing. These were all specimens which looked totally the worse for wear, dried up, drooping and sad. But I took them home, planted them in my flower box, or in pots , and here they are after a couple of weeks of TLC, looking fit and well.

Yesterday I made some grungy postcards for this weeks challenge over at *Out of a Hat* creations, where the theme is to make a travel postcard. I used the blended paper technique to make the background, and then made a collage of little vintage London images. The 'backsides' have been distressed and stamped using images from Artemio and Chocolate Baroque. I have placed the cards on one of my fave books to take the photos, *London Living* from Lisa Lovatt-Smith. The quotes on the second and third cards are  from Samuel Johnson, and the rather original spelling is also from him!

And as I want to send some mail out this week, I have made 2 mail art envelopes, which have been partly printed and partly stamped.

Okay, that was it, time for another coffee. have a good day, take care, and thanks for dropping in!