Cissie and the Leprechaun

Welcome to another Paint Party Friday, week 19, year 2,  hosted by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, week 29,  where our participants are off to Ireland this week.


Cissie and all the family are feeling a bit nerved. What with starting to move, swapping flats, getting the shops ready to open by September at the latest and planning who’s going to sit where and with whom at the reception, they are all worn out. Especially the seating plans prove to be difficult, as they are afraid that when certain people get seated next to one another, it could lead to a minor major outbreak of hostilities. At last, the plans are more or less done, and they decide to reward themselves with a night out. Cissie and Thelma want to go to the Chippie. ‘Noooooooooo, we’re there every day!’ the ‘children’ shout. Queenie then says, ‘Why don’t we go to the folk song night at the Irish pub?’ Shannon and Jason like the idea, as Jason loves Guinness, and so Cissie and Thelma grudgingly agree, although this is not their idea of a night out. They get changed to go, and Cissie emerges from her bedroom wearing a rather tight, green costume, and a green hat with a green feather and a shamrock in it. They all stare open mouthed, and Cissie is gratified. Jason whispers to Shannon, ‘Bloody ‘ell! She looks like that Henry VIII statue at Madame Tussaud’s!’ Shannon answers, ‘More like an overstuffed Robin Hood from Sherwood Old People’s Club!’ and they can’t stop giggling. Queenie thinks ‘Well, how lucky that nobody knows me there!’ Thelma is, as usual, a little bit jealous that Cissie is getting all the attention, and asks, over-sweetly, ‘Is the feather from your budgie?’ ‘No, dear,’ answers Cissie, it’s from Uncle Jo’s parrot!’.

They set off for the pub. The barman manages to find them a table, and can’t take his eyes of Cissie and her green curves….She is not so fond of Guinness, but has one to be a sport, and then changes to Irish Coffee, and the more  she drinks, the happier she gets. They join in with the songs - the foggy dew, the rose of Tralee, The wearing of the green and many, many more. They eat lots of pub snacks – crisps, Scotch eggs, sausage rolls and nuts etc. and really enjoy their evening. Jason and Shannon  move to another table, where some of their mates are, and spend the evening happily singing, snogging and drinking, although Shannon only drinks coke….

They take a taxi home, as they are all rather tired, and the taxi driver is not really happy that they sing 'Whiskey in the Jar'  and ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ all the way home.   ' They must have emptied all the 

jars at the pub, as full as they are!' he mumbles.

The Mountains of Mourne

The Uragh Stone Circle

The Giants Causeway

(Photos courtesy of Wikipedia)

 Cissie is so tired, that she just falls onto her bed, fully dressed, and starts snoring straightaway….She is in Ireland, wandering down a country lane in the gloaming. Then she hears a lilting voice calling her name, and turns off into a little copse, where there is a strange tree, very ancient and gnarled, with a little door set into the trunk. ‘I wonder who lives there?’ she asks. ‘I do!’ says the same little voice. Cissie can’t see anything and goes nearer. The voice seems to be coming out of the branches, and Cissie looks and looks, but can only see a little flash of red and green,  not more. ‘Are you one of the little people?’ she asks. ‘I surely am! He answers, ‘I’m Padraic the Leprechaun, at your service, ma’am!’ ‘Well, could you come down and take a photo of me standing here?’ she asks, ‘Nobody will believe me otherwise’. ‘In Ireland everyone will believe you’, he says, ‘But I’ll take a photo for your folks back home; Londoners only believe what they see!’  
Then Cissie hears more voices, and someone is shaking her. She opens her eyes, and sees Thelma and Shannon, who are standing next to her bed. Cissie needs a few minutes to come to herself, and then tells them she dreamed she was in Ireland, and met a Leprechaun. Thelma and Shannon have a good laugh, and say that it was no wonder, considering how much she drunk the night before. ‘You probably swum over in a glass of Irish Coffee’ they jeer.
Two days later Cissie gets a postcard:

If you are wondering why Cissie looks so much thinner here, just remember - it's a dream! And in case YOU don't believe in Leprechauns, I found this illustration in a very serious book from 1885 called 'The Universe' from Mr Pouchet, and published in London by Blackie and sons....

For Paint Party Friday I am sharing a picture I painted last week, once again a Klee-imitation, painted with acrylics. It still needs a bit of work on it, as the colours are rather patchy.

And here again, with a digital restyling.

That's all for today. Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting.

Box(ing) Day

I was not feeling very good yesterday. I should have spent the day with my friend, but rang her to say I was staying home. I went back to bed for a couple of hours, and felt a bit better when I got up again. But I decided I needed to do something that was just fun, and I remembered making origami boxes with the kids at school when I was teaching. And so I made boxes. The first ones were exactly the right size for the twinchies I made last week. I used lavender cardstock for the 'bottoms', and some patterned paper in a lighter shade for the lids. Then I mounted the twinchies on them, and they were finished. I think they will make nice little present boxes, so will put them away and hope that I find them when I need them.... If you want to know how to make these boxes, I found some instructions here: Origami folded paper boxes 

And these 2 boxes have been made of two coordinating papers from Daisy Ds. I have had them in my stash for ages, and am happy to have found a project to use them.  The paper for the lids has been cut a quarter of an inch larger than for the 'bottoms', so that the lids fit easily. The boxes are fun and easy to make!

I made some more more boxes for notes, but I will show them another time.

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

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!