My land of fantasy

Another week is done and dusted, and it's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

This painting started life as a squirt page - I had mixed some new inks and was trying them out. I quite liked what 'happened', so added a few splodges of gold ink before drying it. Then I had fun playing. It reminded me somehow of a landscape, so I made a lake and added colour here and there with pastel chalks. I outlined some of the drips with gold gel-pen, and then I had a magic castle. I drew in the bird with silver and blue gel pens, and drew a half circle for a full moon, which I coloured with pastels again. It had to be a full moon, as magical landscapes just need full moons. Then a neighbour came in, and said my head was always full of fantastic thoughts and dreams. So I added my head and the quote. I wanted the quote to form a half circle, so I laid a dinner plate onto the picture, and used it as a guide for the writing.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday,  Simon Says Stamp and Show (fly, soar), and Art Journal Journey (the landscape within me)

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

Alpha Challenge 'R'

Hi everybody! I  needed a long time to decide which word I should choose for 'R', but now I have chosen and my page is finished. I chose Rabbi as my word. The background has been painted light blue and then sprayed with a darker blue and allowed to drip. I splodged a bit of gold ink onto it before spraying. I made the three dancing rabbis as templates, so I can use them again, and just had to draw round them with a gold gel-pen and fill in the figures with a felt-tip. The scroll  has been fussy cut, and the definition written there, to give it a central position. I used a stencil and gold gel-pen for the title.

I am linking to the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge

Hope you are having a good day. Take care, have fun and thanks for coming by!

Tag Tuesday, Letter 'N'

Time is flying by and we are already more than half way through our ABC tags at Tag Tuesday.

I was thinking about my word all the way home in the car today, and then decided to take a word that was right in front of me - nose!

I can't remember where I got the image, it was in one of my boxes, and I cut out the silhouette on one side and left it straight on the other. I wanted to keep it simple, so I wrote 'Nose' with white paint marker using my stencil, added an arrow to show the general direction, and a daisy and ribbon as contrast.

That's all for today! Have a good day, whatever you are up to, keep your nose out of trouble, take care  and thanks for coming by!

Going travelling.

Hi you all! No, I am not planning on going off on a journey - wish I was! I have just been working on something for some challenges. Over at Out of a Hat creations the theme this week is travel / suitcase. I decided to make a weekend travel bag from some leather-look paper I have. Here you can see my Fräulein Holzbein (Miss Woodenleg) carrying it. The bag is 7 cms wide, and has lots of travel stickers on it.

The handles were made from long strips stuck with dst and fixed on with brads. The metal corners have been treated with Frantaj patina.

Inside it is lined with script patterned paper and has pockets front and back for tickets, cards etc.

And as you may have seen, there is a bunch of charms hanging from the handle. I made these for the challenge at Artful Times. I made some tiny tags, laid them back to back to make them more stable, and laminated them. The little book (1,5cm x 1cm) has a cover made out of the same 'leather' as the bag, pages  made from 18th century book pages, and it has been sewed together with some gold wire. The charms have been fixed to a TH clip, which I shortened to fit the tiny bag.

And inside the bag is a tag book. I never go anywhere without a book, or my Kindle - which is lighter to carry) and my family used to laugh at me because I always had books in my bag, even as a small child. I have made various tags, some made from old book paper again, some from dp, and some stamped with a travel stamp. I think it was from Tattered Angels, but I can't remember.

Here are the fronts

And the backs....

I made the tag book - and the mini book on the charm-holder - for the challenge at the 'Craft Room', which is 'In the library'. Also linking to Manon's Paper Saturdays

Thanks for visiting, take care, and have a great day!

Spring fashion challenge at Crafty Individuals

Hi you all.Now, I don't want to say this too loud, but the SUN has been shining today. And it was cold, but not freezing. 'They' have told us that spring is on the way. Well,we're expecting another frosty night, and some rain and snow showers, but then it will be getting warmer!! I sooooo hope so!

I was not sure how to get this challenge done. I have lots of CI stamps, but none with fashions. So I decided to design my  own fashions using other stamps. I used THs dress form as basis, and cut some dresses using it as a template, and then stamped them with various CI stamps before decorating them. As I had started off by making more than enough for the tag I actually wanted to do, I decided to turn it all into a CI fashion shop with a spring fashion show.

Here is the whole panorama  of Madam Cissie's boutique. (You can't see Madam Cissie because she's gone out back for a smoke!)

Her husband sits by the door and greets the customers. He knows that he is the boss. All other decisions are made by his wife!

There are lots of dresses hanging on dressforms, and accessories galore, too.

TH coat-hangers are good for hanging dresses on the screen in front of the changing rooms.

This is the star dress of the show, with lace and beads and fancy trims, bet it will be expensive!

And Mr Cissie sits patiently in his corner, the boss must always be dignified.

That's all for today. I am linking to Crafty Individuals Challenge Blog

and to Avenue Create   (spring fever) and

Johanna Sheen Challenge (Spring into Spring)

and Simon Says Stamp and Show (anything goes)

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

I'm in pieces....

Hi you all, hope you are well and fit and that your weather is better than ours! I have been playing around this week with images taken with my old Motorola mobile phone. They are always very small, and only suitable for close-ups. I took pics of some bits of me, and then played around with them. Some I drew from the photos, and then digitalised,  and others are just digitalised photos. Can you tell which ones are which?  It was fun to play, and a good way of changing eye and hair colour in the blink of an eye!

Hope you all have fun today! Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Ancient and Modern

Hi you all. It's time for Paint Party Friday already, time flies! PPF is hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

I have been rummaging in my bottomless pit, AKA hall closet again. I still haven't found what I was looking for, but I did find a bundle of water-colours from the year 1995. I was at a clinic in Bad Saulgau in the south of Germany after breaking my arm in several places, and painting was a good therapy to strengthen it again. I spent a lot of time wandering around, and painting - mostly in the rain! Nothing exciting, but I was pleased to see them again!

And this is not quite finished. I am calling it 'Blind mirror'. I have used gouache. At the moment I can't stop using green and blue, I think I am longing for green leaves and blue skies - spring!

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