Some note-cards

Hi you all, hope your weekend weather was as nice as it was here. It was warm and sunny, and I spent a lot of time on my balcony, reading, painting and crafting. I even had my meals outside. Made a nice change to have such lovely weather.

Here are some of the note-cards I made last week. I thought I would package them up in little boxes or folders, and use them as presents. They each measure 4x3", and as they are small, it is possible to use up lots of small scraps to make them.

That was all for today, have a great day, take care, and thanks for looking in!

Postcard Challenge and Paint Party Friday

It's Friday again, and that means it's time for Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's postcard challenge, where the theme this week is Egypt.

Jason and Shannon have been very busy getting their shop ready, and next week they will be opening. In one of the boxes of ‘rubbish’ as Shannon calls it, they find a heavy, black stone statue of a cat, with Egyptian hieroglyphics round the base. Jason is convinced it must be a real antiquity; the rest of the family is sceptical. They take it with them when they meet for their daily fish and chips and sit round the table, with the statue placed rather incongruously between the salt and the vinegar.
Jason says, ‘It’s real, I can feel it in me guts!’ Shannon laughs, and tells him that he’s probably feeling the two portions of fish and chips in there! Cissie, Thelma and Queenie are not at all convinced. Cissie exclaims, ‘Well, first of all we’ll give it a good scrub, it’s filthy.’ Jason is horrified, ‘That ain’t filth, it’s patina!’ ‘Whatever, I don’t like it on my table while I’m eating!’ squeaks Thelma, ‘I bet it’s full of germs!’ Queenie makes a decision. ‘Well, put it back in the box for now, so that the germs don’t jump onto Thelma, and tomorrow you can take it to the British Museum and ask about it. If the people there don’t know, who will?’ They all find this a good idea, especially Latif, who has been eying the dirty statue on his clean table with very bad grace, and finish off their meal happily. On the way home they buy cream cakes for tea at the baker’s, and take them back to Cissie’s and Thelma’s flat.
The next day Jason and Shannon set off for the British Museum in Great Russell Street, and are completely overawed as they see how large it is.

Entrance is free, so they march in, holding their statue. They get stopped straightaway by the security. ‘Whatcha got there?’ asks the man.'You can't come in here with something like that!' Jason and Shannon explain, and after some phone calls, he allows them to go through to the Egyptian department, and says that someone will be waiting for them there.
They are very impressed just by the enormous size of the place, and Jason is thunder struck by all the Egyptian mummies and figures and other artefacts. ‘Blimey, I could make a fortune selling these!’ he says. Luckily, nobody hears him.

 They are met by one of the  museum’s curators, who is very friendly, examines their statue, and says it is very beautiful, but only a replica. He tells them that it is  Bastet, who was a goddess in ancient Egypt, and that cats were worshipped and even mummified. They can hardly believe their eyes when they see some of them in the museum! Bastet was the goddess of love, joy, music and dance.Her duties were to watch over the moon at night so that it didn’t get stolen, or eaten by mice, and she was the protector and patron of pregnant women. Shannon is totally starry eyed when she hears this. ‘We’re keeping her!’ she says. ‘A wise decision!’ says the curator. ‘It’s not an antique, but beautifully made of black basalt, and really beautiful!’ ‘Well, okay!’ says Jason. ‘We’ll put her on the table in front of the window, she’ll look nice there!’ They spend a couple of hours walking round the museum, and look for everything connected to Bastet.

(All photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

After arriving home, they tell the story to Cissie and Thelma. ‘Well!’ says Cissie. ‘When it’s been scrubbed clean of the patina of antiquity, it might even look nice! Who wants tea and cake?'

This is the postcard they send home:

For Paint Party Friday, I have carried on with the Egyptian theme. I painted 2 triangular canvases some time back to use up some leftovers of blue and purple paint. Today I added the glitter, and painted the moon. The picture of Bastet has been collaged. It is not finished yet, and I am not sure which motive to use for the second one; time will tell!

That's all for today. Have a great weekend, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

More cards

Hi you all! First of all, thanks to all those yesterday who left me good wishes for my cat-scan. The appointment wasn't until 4.30 in the afternoon, so I tried to keep myself busy making cards and eating chocolate till it was time to go, as I was rather hyper....  I found a parking space directly in front of the radiologist's, so that was something. I was terribly nervous, I hate going into those machines, but the people were all very nice, and understanding, and did their best to calm me down. I didn't have to wait at all, so it was over in half an hour, but it was a long half an hour! Anyway, now it is over and done with, and I can go to my doc next week to get the results.

These are some of the cards I made in my nervous frenzy. The square cards are just under 7" square. I used a cream coloured card with a light shimmer. The first one has a background paper in 70s look, and some strips of different designer papers across the front. I once again used my umbrella man; this time cut from paper which had been painted and drawn on, and which I then cut up and used for die-cuts. I think the colours go very well with the background papers.

The second one is again various designer papers layered one over the other. 'Live' has been cut with a Sizzix die, and for embellies I used a gold-sprayed flower, a strip of gold embossed paper and a piece of thin ribbon.

This one has been made similarly, using different papers. The top paper is from Graphics 45, and the diamond in the middle has been cut double and decoupaged to give more depth. The word is again cut with a Sizzix die.

And here again, the same but different!

I am linking to Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge.

I think these cards could be used for men or women; whatever, I am slowly replenishing my stock of cards.

Hope you all have  great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Inchies

The challenge this week at the 'Artful Times' Blog is to make inchies.  So, yesterday I decided to inch my way into the kitchen and get started. Good that Neet didn't ask for anything big, there was just about enough space left on the table to work in this small scale. I found some inchies made of mount-board - no idea where they came from, and used them as the foundation. The first two have been covered with scraps of some script paper. I then added the rose transfers, before giving them three coats with clear varnish. I did this with all of the inchies, front and back. I wanted to make them into magnets, which I will do as soon as I have found where those cowardly magnets have hidden themselves.

Here I have used TH fragments to cover two mini photos, left my Mum and that's me on the right. The 'backsides' have been made and varnished as before.

For these two I used some scraps of marbled paper for the front, adding a piece of old jewelry and lots of glossy accents on the left, and a stamped heart and a little key on the right.

I managed to find one little what-not or whatever it is called to make this one into a pendant. The background is again marbled paper, and the hand a little charm

And this is what the famous 'backsides' look like.

Was fun doing something different!

I am also entering the inchies into the first challenge at ABAC - anything but a card.

This afternoon I have an appointment at the radiologists for a computer tomography (cat scan) to look into my knee. I hate going into that machine, so please keep your fingers crossed for me that I don't take fright and b*gger off before they get me into it, as I had to wait two months for this appointment!

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

Tag Tuesday -Circus

The last weeks at Tag Tuesday have not been easy for me, as there were a lot of themes which are not really mine! I think it will be getting better from next week. This week it is circus, and as I do not like circus or clowns or animals in cages and dressed up dogs and pigs etc, I decided to make another dimensional tag, this time of the big top. The background inside the tent has been decorated with some Graphics 45 paper , and some silver spangled ribbon for curtains, and a clown is peeking out to entice people in....I have mounted it onto a ribbon spool again - how good that I did not throw those empty spools away! - and the rim has been painted with green and 'grassed' with some green glitter-flock powder.

Here's wishing you all a great day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Two Masculine Cards

Hi you all! Hope you enjoying a good Sunday. I slept late today - a real wonder - for which I was very grateful, as mostly I wake up before the birdies get going!
Over at 'Out of a Hat Creations' the ladies want to see us using our fave techniques this week. Difficult, as I have so many. But I decided on using layers, which is something I love, whether in painting, scrapping, card- or tag-making. I have made 2 more masculine tags in muted shades, using my much loved umbrella man from TH. I have used different papers from Bo Bunny, Graphics 45 and a steampunk freebie from 'free vintage digis'.

Okay, that's all for today! I will be back on Tuesday with my new circus tag. Take care, and thanks for coming by!

Cissie in Budapest & PPF

Another Friday, another Paint Party Friday, and another week of Darcy's postcard challenge, where our participants are off to Budapest.

The happy family has had a busy week. Queenie has opened her shop in Lewisham, and has called it ‘All our yesterdays’, where she is selling vintage clothes from the 40’s to the 90’s, bric-a-brac and accessories, like hats, handbags, gloves etc. The ladies think it is wonderful, and spend time reminiscing about how they loved this and that. Shannon tries everything on, and has a whale of a time. Jason watches, with his usual charm, and says, ‘Bloody ‘ell, ‘oo would want to wear old shmattes (Yiddish=rags) like that?’ ‘Yes, you always look so smart!’ hisses Queenie. Cissie and Thelma tell him that the only time he was decently clothed was at his wedding. Shannon says, ‘Leave him alone! He can’t help it. And I like him as he is!’

This week Cissie is off on her own. Thelma’s knees are hurting, Queenie is busy, and Jason and Shannon are still at it every day. I mean, of course, busy getting their new shop ready to open. Cissie has a very distant cousin at least 5 times removed who lives in Budapest, and she flies over to visit him. She hasn’t seen him since he was a knock-kneed teenie, so is rather surprised when I a skinny, bearded old man collects her at the airport and kisses her excitedly on both cheeks, making all her chins wobble.

Bálint lives with his wife Dora in a large flat in a beautiful, old Art Nouveau house in Buda. His wife is as round as he is thin, and she and Cissie have one thing in common straightaway – their love of food. The table is laden with Hungarian and other culinary specialities morning, noon and night. In between the ladies go shopping, and enjoy cakes and snacks in some of the many cafés and bakeries in the town. They take a coach tour to see the sights. The word ‘coach’ comes from the Hungarian word ‘Cocsi’ = wagon from Kocs, the place where coaches were first made.
They see theDanube River, the famous lion guarding the Chain Bridge, Heroes' Square, the Parliament Building, Fisherman's Bastion, St. Stephen's Basilica, and from Gellért Hill with Buda Castle on the left.

The Chain Bridge

The Museum of Applied Arts

Keleti Station

Buda by night

(Photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

Dora shows Cissie the enormous Station, and the Doháni Street Synagoge, the largest in Europe. ‘And our Metro is the second oldest in the world’, says Dora proudly. ‘Yes’, says Cissie, 'only our Tube in London is older – we had the very first one!’ ‘Right!’ says Dora, ‘But our food is the best in the world!’ ‘Oh yes’, sighs Cissie happily. She hasn’t even missed her fish and chips while enjoying goulash, chicken paprikash, game stew with dumplings, dobos cake, strudels, pancakes and much, much more.

Cissie is sad to leave her cousins, but has enjoyed every minute of her stay in Budapest, and invites them to come to London to visit her and Thelma soon.
But as always, she is happy to be going home again. ‘The food was wonderful!’ she tells he family. ‘But the tea was awful!’ This is the postcard she sends them:

Cissie's Hungarian Delight

For PPF I just have a work in progress to show; had a nasty time at the doc's yesterday and did not feel up to much when I came home. I am still playing with my marbles. The beads have also been marbled, I am still not sure what background to use. Time will tell!

Have a great day you all, have fun and take care! Thanks for coming by!

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS

The cactus mystery has been solved. A neighbour bought it for me as a little thank you for taking in his parcels!