Alpha Challenge & Altered Notebook

Hi you all! It's still very cold and icy here, it keeps snowing, and I am trying to keep warm! I am enjoying watching a family of magpies behaving like vultures eating all the food on my balcony. They get very annoyed if other birds come too near, and squawk and flap around; they keep me entertained!

At the Craft Barn there is an 'Alpha Challenge' running. The alpha this week is 'V', and we can alter dictionary pages or choose other means to show the alpha. I first thought of doing V for Valerie, but I was afraid people might think I am getting big headed, so chose V for Victoria - the Queen of England from 1837  till 1901. I made a collage, with a dictionary page - where she is mentioned - as background. I used different images of her, stamps - including the famous 'Penny Black -, a post box with her monogram, a Victorian lady and two stamped 'V' monograms. The one at the top was stamped into molten Utee extra thick EP, and the other one has been stamped onto a scrap of brown miri card, using a Tsukineko glue-pad and perfect pearls. The stamp is part of a beautiful set from LaBlanche.

I have photographed my page on my book of the Kings and Queens of England.

Here I have used a bought spiral-bound notebook from the discounter. I removed the covers, painted them with 2 coats of acrylics, and then crackled them- After that I did some random stamping in Stazon timber brown, and distressed the crackled finish with Inka Gold. The little girl has been printed onto transfer paper, ironed on to canvas, and cut out. I gave the cover 2 coats of clear varnish.

This is the inside cover with an ex libris

The little cutie close up

The back cover

Inside the back cover

So, that was it for today! Have a good day / good night as the case may be, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Tag Tuesday and more.

Hi you all! I think I need to start thinking of some elegant titles for my posts; every time I start a post I forget all the ideas I had! It's Tuesday again, so time for a new tag. Last week it was the letter 'A', which means this week is 'B'. I think it could be 'C' next week....

My theme is B for Botany. I kept the colours simple, mostly in the brown/cream range, and the flowers look dry and brown - it's winter. The butterflies are a little reminder that spring will come sooner or later!

And I have made a shadow box for the 'Things with wings' challenge over at ABAC.

The box has been covered with strips of paper, painted with bronze and gold acrylic paint, and the edges have been dipped into gold glass glitter (Say that 10 times quickly!) I filled the background with some flowers and a leaf in turquoise, and bedded the larger head, with stamped and fussy cut wings in it. The gold thistle was left over from Christmas decorations. The large wings on the smaller head have been  cut with TH's dragonfly die from paper which has been hand painted and stamped. The heads were made in a mold and polished with Inka gold in copper. 

Here I have 'framed' my shadow box, together with some other strange, winged creatures.

Have a good day you all, keep warm or cool as the case may be, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

More Challenges

Hi everybody, hope you all had a good and restful weekend and are ready to start the new week. It is still very cold here, and I woke up this morning to a white, white world - snow again! But when it is too cold to spend a lot of time outside, it's good weather to stay home and craft.... I have been practising stamping the past few days. I couldn't do any stamping for weeks as my hands were so shaky, but slowly I am getting back to doing things again. I still drop a lot of things on the floor, and have problems picking them up again, but it is much better than it was a few weeks back, so that it really good.

I have made this hanging for the Fashionable Stamping Challenges where the theme this week is planes, trains and automobiles. I used a square of cardboard, which I ripped, painted with gesso and decorated with  Ultra Thick EP in gold. For the background I distressed a piece of speciality stamping paper with DIs in antique linen and vintage photo, and did some random stamping with various steampunk stamps using Adirondack espresso. 

I mounted the card onto my cardboard, with some matting made from scraps of other suitable papers, and 2 die cut and distressed cogs. I added some lace, which makes a nice contrast to the 'masculine' images, and two more images which were stamped, fussy cut, and mounted with foam squares. I tied it all up with string, and added two metal cogs instead of beads.

 

It was fun to make, and I am happy that I can use my stamps again!

Have a great day, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Challenges & More

Hi you all! It's freezing cold here, but we had some SUN today, so in spite of a thick frost on the fields it was possible to go for a walk. And I have some good news today - I won the drawing over at Simon Says, which means a 50$ voucher - whoopee! Thanks to those who alerted me to my win, Terry and Maura. I was on the blog to look at the theme of the next challenge, but never looked to see who had won. It was a lovely surprise for the weekend!

At 'Artful Times' the current challenge is to use 2 embossing folders. I have made a wall hanging using cardboard, which I distressed with gold ink, and lots of ultra thick EP in gold, into which I also stamped with a LaBlanche background stamp to give some texture. I embossed some scraps of gold paper, using folders from TH and Spellbinders. I printed the image of the girl onto a transfer, and ironed it onto a piece of canvas, frayed the edges and distressed them with DI in Antique linen and vintage photo. I distressed all the 'matting' with the same inks, and layered them onto the cardboard. I tied the 'package' with string, and threaded two of my handmade textile  beads onto the ends. That was it! I am also entering this into the challenge at 'Simon Says Stamp and Show', where the theme this week is 'Embrace the old' - using up old stash, or other things already in the cupboard, or making something 'vintage'. 

The second piece is for the challenge at 'Out of a Hat' creations. This week we had to choose a row from a bingo card, and I chose the row with bling, hat, bow and stamp. All stamps used are from Catherine Moore. I have let Araminta - my bird-lady - star in this one again. She is wearing her best dress, which has been stamped, paper-pieced, coloured and varnished. I gave her a white bow, and she borrowed her Dad's best hat. The chair is also stamped, as is the little branch at the top, and the flourishes. The bling is on the flowers. Araminta thinks she deserves the title of 'Miss Cabinet Card 2013'.

And lastly I have managed to do the first three pages of my calendar for this year, and it's not even the middle of  January! I have decided to use things which I have already made, as there are always plenty of things flying around.

For January I used a piece of paper on which I did some fun stamping in layers, one over the other, some embossed, some layers hardly visible.  I love playing around with things like this. All stamps here are from LaBlanche.

For February I used my umbrella man postcard, as it is often a wet month....

For March I have used a scrap of marbled paper made some time back, matted on red and gold, and mounted onto a piece of dark red card with some gold background stamping to frame the picture.

Well done if you stayed with me to the bitter end, the post somehow got a little loooooooooooooooooooonger than planned!

Enjoy your weekend, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Paint Party Friday and more....

For Paint Party Friday , hosted by Kristin and Eva,  I am sharing a picture I painted when I was in the fourth grade at primary (elementary) school. It is very tattered and torn, I discovered it folded into a large book. I am amazed at all the detail in it, I think I could paint better then than now, or perhaps I just don't try to do things like this anymore. At school you have to do what you are told!

I have started a lot of things this week, but not finished most of them! These two tags/ bookmarks / whatever  have been made from the back of a painting block that I have been using to try out stamps and colours. I just added some colour to the bird, flower and eyes, and then a bit of Stickles. I think things like this are too good too waste! What do you do with your scribble paper?

For the Craftroom Challenge I have made a large tag. The theme is 'Valentines', and I have tried to convey the idea of fading memories of a past romance  The background of the tag has been distressed with antique linen and vintage photo, and stamped with roses, French script, and some Paris motives for a (hopefully) romantic flair. I stamped the next layer of images with Adirondack espresso, before adding the love letter - also distressed and stamped with the same colours. I added some textile violets -- which I found in my fridge!!, some images from CI, and ribbons which I trimmed with home made beads. 

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

Tag Tuesday Tag and more....

I have a mixed bag to show you today. My Tag Tuesday tag is a day late. This time we are making alphabet tags for the first half of the year. My lady is holding a card which says - 'A is for adventure - dare to be different!'

I had a go at making postcards from paint-chip cards. I am not so sure if I like them or not, but it's always worth trying. 

For the first one I just used a die-cut word and a strip of paper lace from a Martha Stewart punch, and clear varnished it. It's a bit too minimalist for my taste!

I like this one better, especially the quote from Mahatma Gandhi.

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

More Postcards.

Hi you all, another week has started, let's see what it brings.  I managed to get out for a walk today. The water level of the Rhine has dropped, and it looks like it's slowly going back to normal, but the water looked so muddy,  the sky was grey, the wind was cold, and I did not enjoy my walk along the towpath as much as I sometimes do. But my cup of hot cocoa on getting back home was good!

I have some more postcards to share with you today, once again made in mixed media techniques, using scraps, paint, die-cut waste, and diverse bits from my bottomless bit box. 

Here I used a  fussy cut scrap of designer paper - I think it was Webster's pages - on a painted background with some added bits and bobs and some hand-doodling.

Here I used the waste from an umbrella man die cut, over some paper which I had used to try out various stamps.  The miri-board shows the reflection of my hands!

Here I made a background of torn paper scraps, painted over with metallic paint. I printed out the picture of Anne Frank, and added a sentence from her diary. The cut off tree and clock symbolise her life, that was cut off because of the abject wickedness of the Nazis. The Hebrew text reads, 'Hodu L'Adonia, ki tov, ki le'olam chasdo - Praise the Lord, for he is good, for he loves the world'

For this postcard I used one of the envelopes that Donna sent me, as these stamps are just too good to hide away. Tissue tape, aqua paint and a cut out of a man who seems to have had a good time complete the card.

My Tag for Tag Tuesday will be a day late this week, so till then, take care, and thanks for coming by!