Trying to find spring feelings in the pouring rain....

Hi everybody! Tomorrow is the first day of spring, and we are still shivering by cold and rain and dismal, grey skies. In other parts of Germany it's much worse, as some places it is still like a Siberian winter, but I think we are all just longing for spring, sunshine and flowers. I have a pot of hyacinths on my kitchen window ledge which I planted  last year. I wanted to put them out on the balcony, but I think they are better off inside just now, and they have such a wonderful perfume. My kitchen windows look a trifle 'cloudy', I think I forgot them when I was doing the H*******K....

And as I am trying to get some spring feelings, I thought Miss Araminta would like to come out and show off her new Easter bonnet. She has been stamped with archival black and then coloured with Prismalo pencils and gel-pen. Her hat has been trimmed with lots of flowers and beads, she wanted one to really show off. I have made her a custom-built bird house with flowers climbing round the door, so she can enjoy the garden.

I am linking to Try it on Tuesday (Easter bonnets), ABAC (Spring or Alice),  Craftroom Challenge (In the garden) and Out of a Hat (Easter Bonnets)

I forgot to show my Tag Tuesday tag yesterday, so here it is. I chose K for KITE and KNOT this time. I found some scraps in neutral shades and used them.

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

Of Easter Bonnets and cakes....

Hi you all! Hope your week has started well. I had a busy day today - had to go to the doctor this morning for my acupuncture and an injection, then did the shopping, and baked a cake when I got home. I had time to do some crafting while the cake was in the oven, too! I used a recipe for a boiled fruit cake from Neesie Natters Blog. It's very easy to make and bake and   tastes delicious. Neesie was wrong in one point, though - she said the cake would keep well! Not here! My neighbour loved it, and I am taking a piece to my friend tomorrow, so I'm afraid it will not have a long shelf life!

Here the photo was taken as it came fresh out of the oven...

The text on the napkin says 'It wasn't me'

These are the photos of the Easter Bonnet I made on Sunday. I used a plain, white straw hat, and threw all the flowers and decorations I could find at it. The eggs have been painted with metallic paints, and the green one sprinkled with glitter as well. I used my hot glue gun to fix all the bits  to the hat.

One of my ladies wanted to try the hat on....

And now it's hanging from the bookcase in the hall as an Easter decoration.

I am linking to the challenges at 'Out of a Hat' Creations' and 'Try it on Tuesday',  where the theme is Easter bonnets.

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

A tag and a card.

Hi you all! It's been another very windy day here, so I decided to stay home and watch the birds from my window, and of course, I spent a lot of time in my crafty kitchen. I made some lovely beef and vegetable soup, which gave me a delicious background aroma.

The tag I have made is for Simon Says Stamp and Show, who want to see something shabby chic. I have used cardboard - what else. I painted it first with gesso, then distressed and stamped the background with Victorian velvet and vintage photo DIs and my fave script stamp and flourish stamps. My Da Vinci lady has been stamped with Adirondack espresso, clear embossed,  fussy cut, and mounted onto a second tag. I added lace, ribbons, beads, a Prima flower and some leaves.

The second piece is a Steampunk note card, using  2 Moos as focal image. I am linking here to the Moo-Mania challenge Blog

I will be back tomorrow with a crazy hat that I decorated today. Take care, have a good day and thanks for visiting!

Bunnies and swirls

Hi you all! It's a cold and blustery day here, but no snow and no rain - yet! I braved the elements and went for a walk along the Rhine, but when gusts of wind came it was hard going! And as a reward, the rest of the day has been reserved for reading, crafting, coffee drinking and lazing about. Yesterday I really did a lot of H*******K - it was necessary! And now my apartment is sparkling clean - even my desk is cleared and polished, I had quite forgotten what it looked like!

Today I am sharing a card made for the challenge at Fashionable Stamping, which is about swirls this time. I need an Easter card for a friend, so have used my Alice Palace bunny stamps. I have layered the card up with brown cardstock, a stamped background with text etc, more brown as matting for card embossed with swirls, more brown and then the Bunnies. I embellished it with a scrap of ribbon, some prima flowers, a die-cut swirl , and a carrot for the bunnies.

Also linking to:

Aquariann Bunny Blog Hop

This was fun to make - as always! Wish I could say the same about the dreaded H*******K!

Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks for coming by!

Journal Pages

Hi you all! I just discovered to my horror that it's already Thursday evening, and somehow I was convinced it was Wednesday - where did the week go? I have been busy crafting this week - mostly crazy clocks! - and did not find much time for painting. But I did make these journal pages. I used a piece of crumpled tissue paper while spraying some paper flowers this week, and I found the tissue much nicer than the flowers! I gessoed my paper, tore the tissue in half , and smoothed it over the wet paint. I added a bit more paint and spray round about, did a bit of dripology, and added a photo also printed onto tissue. The flourish, lace and flowers were in the heap of stuff on my table. I used a Sizzix die-cut waste to add 'Live' with a white Edding paint marker. I like the uneven texture of the crumpled tissue. I wrote 'Life is measured in moments' on the left hand side, but it is hard to see here as the pages were still curling after being painted. I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, who are also organising an Auction in aid of Sandy Hook.

I am also linking to Art Journal Journey, where the theme this month is 'special moments'.

Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Steampunk, cuckoos and moos

Hi you all, hope you are managing to keep warm. We had another icy night, after a cold and sunny day. It was so good to see the sun, and although it was so cold, the sun melted a lot of the snow away. But don't worry, it snowed in the night, so everything is white again....I am very much hoping that the weathermen are right and that the temps will be rising from the weekend!
Today I want to share another 'clock' I made yesterday, mostly from junk recycled materials, to fit the challenges at Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Blog and at Moo Mania, where the theme this time is also steampunk.
The owl branch and 'Roof' of my cuckoo clock have been made from cardboard. The moo cards have been made from scrap card with steampunk paper, glazed, and then I  added steampunk eyelets and embellies. It was fun to make, as always.

 And this is one of the crazy clocks I have in my kitchen. It's a cowkoo clock, and the little cow comes out every hour and moos. There is a little sensor over the 'cowshed', so if there is no light the cow stays home and keeps quiet, I don't think I would want to be woken every hour during the night!

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

A Blast from the past and more....

Hi you all from the German Deep Freeze - brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I think we might have to make brightly coloured Easter eggs this year so that we can spot them hiding in the snow....

While I was clearing out I discovered this 'art-work' from my early days. I think it must have been made in the early 1950s. Cutting things out and sticking them into a scrap book was evidently a hobby then, too, although I think my fussy-cutting is better now!

But the back of the page is the real hammer! No comment....

And now to my day's crafting. I made a giant tag from cardboard, which has been partly peeled and then gessoed. I had some paper printed with eggs which I applied to the wet gesso to make the background. When it was dry, I rubbed the backing paper off the transfer to show the eggs. I painted over the background using some diluted metallic paints, and  then built up layers using rub ons and cut outs, then fussy cut eggs, glazed and rolled over a needle to make them look round, and fixed with foam squares. I added two stamped and fussy cut birds (TH), and some flowers, a wooden bird from crafty embellies and a butterfly from my stash, fixed down with foam squares of various thicknesses to give depth. I added the adage ticket and some beads to finish it off. I am linking to Inspiration journal, where we have to add some pop to our work, for example with foam squares.

Take care you all, thanks for visiting, and have a good day!