Mail Art ready to send

Another week has begun, and I hope to get a bit of shopping and perhaps a tiny bit of h****work done today. Yesterday I spent a lot of time doing nothing, but I did manage to  get a large mail art envelope done for my neighbours, who are in the north of Germany just now. The background has been painted with water-colours, and then I stamped the houses, the sun and the trees, and used some  prismalo pencils and cut outs to add details. The address has been written on a cloud, I just pixelled it here. It was fun to do something different and summery.

So that's all for today! Have a good day, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Challenges

Hi you all! Hope you are enjoying your weekend! I spent my time yesterday doing some odds and ends for challenges. The first piece is for the Challenge at Out of  a Hat Creations, where the theme this week is sewing. This is something rather difficult for me, as I can't see to thread the needle, but fortunately my sewing machine was loaded. The image has been printed onto canvas, and sewn on with the machine, which was not behaving well, and kept sticking. I then put some lace at top and bottom, sewed a button on - by hand! - and added a tassel made of string and beads. This is the second little bag I have made, and I still have one more to decorate, just not today!

The second piece is a tag made for the 'Renaissance Men' Challenge at Frilly and Funkie Blogspot. I have chosen an Image from Leonardo da Vinci. The stamp is from Lost coast designs. The background tags - one over the other - have been distressed and stamped. I added some lace, some sequin flowers and a string and ribbon tie. I am also entering it into the 'hey girl' challenge at Simon Says.

That's all for today. Have a good Sunday, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Whitechapel to India and back in one day

Hi everybody, welcome to another edition of Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, where our participants are off to India.

It’s less than 2 weeks to the wedding now, and tempers are definitely getting rather frayed, to say the least. The ‘oldies’ are happy that Shannon and Jason are going out for the day. Jason has told them that they are ‘off to India’ for a day. ’Don’t be stupid’ they shout in chorus.'It's much too far!' ‘Yes, we are’ laugh Jason and Shannon. ‘Well, actually we’re going to Brent. A friend of Shannon’s is tourist guide at the Neasden Temple, and we’re getting a guided tour, and then we’re going to a posh Indian restaurant!’ And with that, they wave goodbye and go.
They take the tube from Aldgate East Station - next to the wonderful Whitechapel Art Gallery -

and after changing to the Bakerloo Line at Paddington, take a tube to  Stonebridge Park Station, and then walk along Conduit Way, hand in hand, to the Temple, which is called the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.

(Temple photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

 Their friend Abha –her lovely name means ‘lustrous beauty’- is waiting for them, dressed in a gorgeous Sari. Shannon sees Jason looking at her a few seconds longer than necessary, and gives him a discreet kick on his ankle, which causes his eyes to water, when Abha turns to point something out to them….At the visitor’s centre they see lots of photos and a film about the building of the Temple, built entirely using traditional methods and materials. Neasden’s Swaminarayan Mandir is Britain’s first authentic Hindu temple. It was also Europe’s first traditional Hindu stone temple, as distinct from converted secular buildings. It is a part of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha(BAPS) organization and was inaugurated on August 20, 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The mandir was built and funded entirely by the Hindu community. The entire project spanned five years although the Mandir construction itself was completed in two and a half years. Building work began in August 1992. On 24 November 1992, the temple recorded the biggest-ever concrete-pour in the UK, when 4,500 tons was put down in 24 hours to create a foundation mat 6 ft (1.8m) thick. The first stone was laid in June 1993; two years later, the building was complete. Angkor Wat in Cambodia is larger but is no longer used as a Hindu temple. It has even been entered into the Guiness World Records as the largest Hindu Temple built outside India.

After touring the different buildings, and admiring the beauty of the temple, they go with Abha to the Shayona restaurant opposite the Temple. The ambience is a trifle more swishy than their usual chippie, and they enjoy enormous amounts of delicious Indian foods from the well stocked Gujarati buffet. After they have eaten and drunk their fill – probably enough to feed and water a herd of hungry elephants – they take leave of Abha. Shannon snarls into Jason’s ear, ‘Don’t dare to kiss her goodbye!’, and so Jason just shakes hands, and they walk off to the tube. The time spent in the tube is great for catching up on some snogging, much to the delight of some kids sitting opposite, and they arrive home in time for a light meal consisting of mounds of smoked sandwiches, Greek salad with feta cheese, strawberries and ice cream and a variety of cream cakes. Here is the card they send home, showing Abha in front of the Temple:

For Paint Party Friday I want to share some journal pages I made using collage, paint, spray etc. Everytime I got something done, I painted over it and started again, but have decided to leave them as they are now, as I am sure they would not be able to take another layer!

These pages were from the week before, and were also not what I wanted, but sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

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

Altered Notebook

Hi you all! It was warm and sunny again yesterday, three days in a row must be a record in this summer!

This is a little notebook I altered last week. I cut some of this beautiful, crinkly bronze metallic paper to fit the front, and went round the edges with some embossing paste in bronze metallic. The embroidery on the front was originally on an old t-shirt which went to the big washing line in the sky many moons ago, but I couldn't bear to throw the ornament away. So now it has a new lease of life as a notebook cover! The notebook was a cheap hard-cover one from the euro € shop.

 I'll be back tomorrow with the latest adventures of Auntie Cissie, Jason & Co. Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Note Boxes

Well, the sun shone yesterday all day long, probably trying to make up for lost time!  It looks like it will be the same today!

I made these note boxes last week. Here in Germany, it is custom to take a *Mitbringsel* - a little present if you visit someone, and I thought these little boxes with stamped notes would do the job. I have tried to use cardstock and notes in coordinating colours. I have put about 100 notes in each box, and have stamped the top 20 or so. The tutorial for the box can be found here. I have taken 2 pics of each box, one from the front, and one from above. (Hmm, just in case you didn't fathom it out for yourself!)

Hope you all have a good day, and hope the sun is shining for you, too! Take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Tag Tuesday and more Happy Mail

Hi you all! Now, you won't believe this, but we had nice weather all day yesterday, with real sunshine, no rain, and a summery feeling. It should be really warm the rest of the week, too, although it will probably be getting humid and stormy again. Oh well, we just have to enjoy it while it lasts!

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is rock-pools and beach finds. I found the photo, which I have used for the background of this tag, on Wikipedia. I mounted onto a piece of turquoise card, and then went to town decorating it. I added the sea weed on the right, and the shell cut outs at the bottom and left. The clam shell has been rolled round a pencil to make it curve, and been given a pearl heart. In on of the shells a tiny mermaid has taken refuge. Then I added some glass glitter for sand, a shell, a crab and a skull which has some fibres floating out of it. Perhaps I should have stopped there, but I added the fibre bow, the plant diecuts, a little glass bird - looking for fish? and some beads from an old earring. The line on the side says, 'Full fathoms five thy father lies', the first line from Ariel's Speech in the Tempest:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! Now I hear them —

Ding-dong, bell.

Sorry, this photo is a bit out of focus....

I had fun making the tag, even if I did get a bit carried away....

A couple of weeks ago I won a give away at Peggy's blog and she sent me this lovely metal cross, and the two magnetic tiles. I love the beautiful colours. Thanks a lot, Peggy!

I think that's enough for today, I am going out to enjoy the sunshine! Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Sunday Miscellany

Hi you all! Hope you are all enjoying your well deserved weekend! Here we are still waiting for summer. The sun did try to show itself a few times yesterday, but evidently had problems fighting with clouds, rain and wind. Perhaps today, the early morning looks promising....

I have been busy making some tags. The first one is for the 'Time' challenge at Out of a Hat Creations. I have made a metal tag, which has been embossed with the TH  clocks folder, and mounted onto a piece of scrap card to give it more stability. I inked the clocks with Archival black to make them stand out. The lady is a chipboard cut-out which has been in my stash for more than 10 years! At last she is enjoying her coming out! I re-used a plastic clock, which had stopped working, but with a new battery and a bit of dusting it seems to be ticking okay. I bored a hole through the lady's middle (sounds brutal, doesn't it), and fixed the clock to the back with ds tape. I added a metal clip to hold the sentiment, and by which I can hang the clock/tag on the wall. I am also entering this tag into the 'Make my metal altered' challenge at Frilly and Funkie and Simon Says Stamp and Show, 'No Rules' Challenge

The second tag is for the  Travel tag challenge at  Artful Times. My travel goal in Europe would be London, my home town. I made 2 tags. The first one is a tag which can be opened up, with a collage and map inside. The stamps used are from Artemio.

The second tag has been mounted onto an airmail envelope. I want to put some little vouchers inside it. Some friends are visiting London in August, and these two tags  will be attached to  a present I have made for them.

Here's wishing you all a happy Sunday. Take care, and thanks for coming by!