Playing with alcohol inks

Hi you all! Another weekend is over, time flies! It is still ice cold here, and very windy, so a good time to stay home and play. The challenge over at Artful times is to use alcohol ink. My inks seem to have diminished, at the moment I just have blue, yellow and gold. Anyway, I had a lot of fun dripping and blowing the inks in lots of layers to make my under-water landscapes. When the were finished I doodled round some of the drips and drops with a gold gel-pen. This is the first one before....

and then afterwards. This one has been stamped with fishes which I embossed with white EP. I added some underwater flowers, some dew-drops as bubbles, and a real mini star-fish. I matted it with black card and green miri-card.

The second one before.....

and afterwards. I have again outlined the drips with my gold pen, and then added flowers and leaves (Prima) in turquoise. The hand, called a Chamsa, is made from metal, and the stones and decorations are bedded in resin. The Hebrew letters spell 'Chai', which means 'Life' and is used as one of the names of God. I have matted the card with a turquoise blue cardstock.

I am also linking to Simon Says Stamp and show, where the theme this week is water.

I will be back tomorrow with some happy mail received from Donna and Yvonne!

Have a good day, take care and keep warm, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Cardboard City

Brrr! It was sooooooooooooooooo cold today, and as a bonus we had an icy wind blowing us fresh air from Siberia. Even the post man said it was too cold to be outside, so I took his advice, stayed home, and used the time well to do some crafting. The challenge at Eclectic Paperie is to use corrugated cardboard on a project. I have made a mixed media piece, which I am calling 'The surreal world of cardboard city'. The background has been painted and then sprayed. I used 2 stencils from CWS to do some shading in the background. The houses have been made from cardboard which has been peeled, and gessoed. I used the CWS stencil again to add some shading in wild honey DI to give the impression of windows. I stamped various figures with archival black, cut them out, and let them fly through the sky, together with the umbrella man, who has been cut from miri card. I used the waste to add some more shadows to the sky. The giraffe and leopard are rub-ons. This was fun to make, and kept me warm!

Have a good weekend,  stay warm, and  thanks a lot for coming by!

Under the Sea

Hi you all, another week has sped by and it's time once again for Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always by Eva and Kristin. I am also linking to Simon Says Stamp and Show, where the theme this week is 'water'.

I started off by giving the pages a thin coat of gesso, and painting over with yellow, green and blue metallic paints while it was still wet. Then I sprayed with different shades of blue and green, used some drops of gold ink, let it dry a bit and then sprayed again. This is where the dripology part came into the game.  When dry, some of the drips and runs were outlined with a gold gel-pen. I decided to let the umbrella man swim along, so used a die-cut waste as a template and painted him a greeny blue. Then he was outlined in gold. I did some background stamping using my much loved swirl and script stamps, leaves and also 2 ducks, which aren't usually found under water - can you see them lurking in the depths? The fish and the glass cloche were printed onto tissue (both from 'Free Vintage Images') and affixed with golden gel. The other creatures of the deep are vintage scraps. I doodled some sea-weed, and added some rub on butterflies, who are enjoying flying through the murky water with Mr Umbrella man.

I had great fun getting messy here, perhaps not quite so much fun cleaning it off the kitchen tiles afterwards....By the way, I forgot to tell in my post yesterday that I was a lucky winner again this week - I was picked for the top 5 at 'Try it on Tuesday', and won the prize for February, so have a 15$ voucher to spend at Really Reasonable Ribbon - that will be fun! 

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

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!