It's Friday already....

Hi you all! Where did the week go? Time has been flying by this week as fast as the clouds chased each other over the sky - with wind, rain, a little sun and plenty of storms blowing over us. At least it wasn't boring!

For Paint Party Friday - hosted as always by Eva and Kristin - I started this painting, but it is not yet finished. The background has been painted, sprayed and dripped with metallic yellow, spiced marmalade ink and a dark red Adirondack spray, plus a few drops of gold ink. The flowers have been stamped and painted, but need to be worked on. The blue is a lovely metallic colour, the photo does not do justice to it. I am not yet sure how I will finish this - time will tell. I am calling it 'If you are going to San Francisco'.

This piece has been made for the Alpha Challenge at the Craft Barn. I chose 'C' for clock. I used too much paint and spray, and the dictionary page has almost disappeared from view, so I typed the definition and added it. The background has been painted with turquoise metallic paint, then sprayed with Adirondack ink. The clock motives have been stamped and embossed with white EP.  I have started a second page but do not know if I will get it finished in time!

Here's wishing you all a great weekend, take care, and thanks  a lot for coming by!

Moo Mania - Postage Stamps

Hi you all! Thanks for the good wishes yesterday after my fall; I have been taking it easy at home, and am being VERY careful on the stairs!
At Moo Mania the challenge is to do something with postage stamps, so I thought I would give it a try. I have a box full of envelopes with lovely stamps, but couldn't bear to cut any up for the challenge, so I am happy to say that no real stamps were harmed to produce these moos! The Moos have been made from scraps  pasted onto old moo cards and stamped with mail-art stamps using Archival black and red.

This one has been made from a scrap stamped randomly with various stamp and postage motives, and some added cut-out pieces. 

For this one a used a scrap of black/brown patterned DP, which I stamped and embossed with white EP before adding the cut outs with foam squares.

This one has been made using tiny strips of some stamp-printed DP over some matting made from various scraps.

The background has been made from the stamp-printed DP, over which I stamped, and then added a penny black cut through diagonally. I hope that doesn't count as treason!

The last one has been made from a scrap of old book paper, which has been gessoed, distressed, stamped before adding some cut out stamps.

I had fun making the little moos, they seem to be rather addictive!

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

Tags made of this and that

Hi you all! Here it has THAWED! It's already 13° this morning, wild, wet and windy, but not cold. The birds are singing again; when it was so cold I only saw and heard the ravens, jackdaws and magpies, and they are not very musical. They sit in the trees behind the house, and watch  my their balcony to see when I put out food. It's really entertaining to watch them.

The first tag is for Tag Tuesday, where we are doing 'D' this week. I chose d for dream, as we all need our dreams. The background has been made from paper, covered with tissue and mod-podge, and then pushed about to give the structure. Then came several layers of gesso, paint and sprays, and some inka gold in copper to highlight the texture. The little girl is a stamp from LaBlanche, which has been fussy cut, coloured and popped up with foam pads.

I made these two tags a couple of weeks back, and lost them under a mound of other stuff. I found them yesterday while looking for something else....

I have used cardboard, Utee and scraps again. I am really enjoying working with cardboard just now.

Yesterday I oversaw the last step when going downstairs - I wanted to go for a walk - and fell. I managed to get up again with the help of the banisters, and then crawled back upstairs to nurse my bruises. I don't seem to have sustained any bad injuries, but I have a lot of aching parts now that I could have done without! And the moral of the story is - take care! Have a good day, and thanks for visiting!

Three Challenges

Hi you all! It has started thawing here, but the snow hasn't gone yet. The rain falling on top of it has turned it into a sheet of uneven ice, very unpleasant to walk on. My walk today was rather shorter than usual, it was just very strenuous balancing over the ice and trying to tread into the foot prints others had left to make the going a bit safer!

This piece is for two challenges, At Fashionable Stamping Challenges the ladies want to see some love shown, and at Sugar Creek Hollow they want to see lots of layers. The background of my hanging has been made from cardboard - partly peeled, gessoed, and embossed and stamped with Utee gold. I used various papers for matting. The background for my tag has been distressed with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo DIs, and stamped in Adirondack Espresso with my 'love' script stamp and some flourishes. The tag has been stamped with the same colour, and matted onto 2 layers of bronze and brown paper. I added some ribbon and lace in coordinating colours, and a stick-pin.

The second piece is a tag made for the 'Clocks' challenge at Out of a Hat Creations.

The cardboard tag has once again been peeled, gessoed and 'gold plated'. I stamped various clocks onto my background paper. The small clocks, also stamped, have been mounted onto painted and distressed jigsaw puzzle pieces. The skull is a reminder that clocks count the hours, days and years that pass so quickly. The winged clock, and the other stamps used are all from Paper Artsy, and the clocks here have been fussy cut and glazed. The little brass charm says 'Life is measured by moments'.

I think that was enough for today! If it's still icy where you live, take care! Have fun, and thanks a lot for visiting!

It's warming up....

Hi you all, after the extremely cold and snowy days we have had recently, it feels positively warm today - 2°C! By the middle of the week we have been promised spring-like temps of up to 15°C. There's still a thick blanket of snow outside, so I am hoping they are right! I Have been keeping up my long walks each day, and am really proud that I managed to get out in spite of the big freeze, pains and not wanting to go anywhere.

Today I have some notebooks that I altered to share with you. I made these a few weeks back, but never got round to showing them. They are A6 size, with matching book-marks. Two have been decorated with TH's Umbrella man, Two with wooden ornaments from Crafty Emblies, and the last one with pen nibs, fancy cut from the paper, rolled and glazed to make them look genuine.

Hope you all have a great Sunday, take care, and have fun!

Thanks, as always, for coming by!

It's still freezing here....

Hi you all, hope you are managing to keep warm. It was -9° when I got up this morning, just freeeeezing! It has warmed up a bit during the day, but it's still -3°. I went out for a walk again. Yesterday I walked through the fields, it felt like the wastes of Siberia - looked like it, too, and all I met was a fox, who glared at me and then ran off as fast as his legs would take him. Today I took a longer way, past the duck pond, and the stables. The pond is partly frozen, and the horses were all wearing their winter coats, as I was, too. I stomped through the snow for a good 5 miles, so I was very proud of myself, and very tired by the time I got back.

 For Paint Party Friday I am sharing a doodle drawing/painting. It has been drawn with a fine liner and coloured with prismalo water colour pencils and paint. It is trying to show a bad dream.

I have made a card, which I am entering into 2 challenges.  At Craftroom the challenge is to do something monochrome, and at Art-Cards-Challenge Blog they want to see something with a Tamp-a-tile. I have kept my card in brown tones, using DI vintage photo and Adirondack Espresso. Different parts have to be masked to get the patterns where they should  be. The background stamps used are all from LaBlanche, the Leonardo lady is from Lost Coast Designs.

This shows the stamping before adding the embellies.

Well, I think that was enough for today, hope you haven't gone to sleep already. Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Crafting to keep warm....

Hi everybody! It's another cold, dull and frosty day here. Yesterday I was very brave again, packed myself into as many layers as I could manage and went walking along the Rhine. It was good to get out into the very fresh air, but even better to come home again to hot veggie soup!

i have been playing with cardboard again, and want to enter these 2 pieces into 2 challenges:
Simon Says Stamp and Show want to see something in the style we are known for, and ABAC want to have everything tied up. My style is very mixed, but I love playing with cardboard, string, scraps of this and that, and a little bit of gold and/or lace. I have loved painting and crafting as long as I can remember, and always had to use what was at hand rather than buying stuff, and I am sure this is not a bad thing! Both the tag and the hanging fit this description.

The tag has been made from distressed cardboard, some Utee gold, scraps, some home made beads and a piece of ribbon. The bead is just falling off in the first picture, but I have now used more glue to keep it where it should be.

The hanging is made from cardboard, partly peeled, painted with gesso and stamped. The matting has been made from an assortment of scraps, and my fave umbrella man is making another appearance. I love the quote I have used here, which is from Luciano De Crescenzo.

That's all for today, I need to get dressed and go for a walk - brrrrrrrrrr!

Take care, keep warm, and thanks for visiting!