Boxing Day

Hi you all! In case you are wondering about my title today, I am not thinking of the day after Christmas. I am thinking of boxing in two senses of the word - firstly, to show some altered boxes I have made for various challenges, and secondly - ouch! - because I boxed myself under my chin while trying to pull a piece of sticky tape off the floorboards. I am always surprised that things which refuse firmly and persistently to stick to paper, develop such adhesive strength when they fall to the floor....

The first box I have altered is a Swarovski box with hinged lid which I rescued along with its whole family from an awful fate in the old paper box. I sprayed it with silver paint -not really to recommend when there are minus degrees and a gale force wind blowing, but it has to be done outside. After it had dried, and I had thawed out again, I decorated it with lots of bits from my bit boxes - flowers, a cameo, sequin flowers, lace and ribbon. I stamped around the sides using my fave love script stamp, but I could not get a good pic of it.

The second box is a little oval one which was filled with delicious chocolate covered coffee beans - yummy! It wasn't quite empty, so I had to eat the rest. If I can't sleep tonight I will at least know why!

I covered the box with scraps of Graphic45 paper. The strip I had over for the lid was not quite wide enough, so I mounted it onto a strip of brown paper first. I added some lace, a flower and a skeleton leaf, and it was finished. The box is now on the shelves in my hall, holding the 50 cent pieces I need to put into the communal washing machine downstairs.

I am linking to three challenges today:

Out of a Hat creations - who are, by the way, celebrating their first birthday this week - have a variety of things to choose from, so I took vintage.

Sugar Creek Hollow, who want to see an altered state and

Try it on Tuesday, where the challenge is to recycle.

It is still extremely cold and windy outside, so it was great to have a good excuse to stay home and play! Keep warm, take care and thanks a lot for coming by!

Happy Mail received and cards sent

Hi you all, hope those of you in the cold parts of this world are managing to keep warm. Here in Germany and the whole of Europe we are still in the grip of an icy winter. It was definitely warmer at Christmas than it is now! But I am not dreaming of a white Easter, so hope very much that it will get warmer.

I received 2 beautiful Easter cards from Donna and Yvonne.
The first one is from Donna, I love her very determined looking Easter bunny on his way to school! And the lovely rabbit charm on the card. Donna paints wonderful pictures, and if you haven't already visited her blog, please do so!

The second card is from Yvonne, who makes beautiful cards, mostly in vintage style, also well worth a visit if you don't know her blog yet! I love all the layers and delicate colours in this card.

Big thanks to both these lovely ladies!

And I have 2 cards which I have already sent off. The challenge over at  Vienna Impressions blog is to create a card using blue and green and an unusual shape. I have made 2 pyramid cards. The cards can be folded flat to send, and their is a sentiment inside. I stamped 'Gib jedemTag die Gelegenheit der schönste Deines Lebens zu werden' in each card. (Give every day the opportunity to become the best one of your life).

The first card has been made using double sided cardstock. After adding motives on the green and blue sides, I varnished the outside surfaces with clear glaze.

The second card has been made from a sheet of paper painted with green and blue, and stamped randomly with various background stamps. The outside surfaces have once again been glazed. All stamps used are from LaBlanche. The photos of the inside and the other sides have somehow disappeared from my computer, and as they are now winging their way to their destinations, I can't take any more pics, sorry!

That's all for today, take care, have a good day, and thanks a lot for visiting!

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!