When will summer show her face?

 Hi you all. It's still really cold here, but, the weathermen have predicted that it will get warmer - it will also be very wet, windy and stormy, but I suppose we can't have everything!

The theme over at Moo-Mania is to make a storage or box for Moos. I have made another of my pocket books, and filled it with a selection of Moos. I used the leather look paper again for the covers.

 One day I might manage a photo with clean fingers!

I used designer papers from Anna Griffin.

And I have made some more journal pages for the 'Challenge yourself' theme at Art Journal Monthly. My challenge was to make something light and sunny to make up for the missing summer. Every time I painted something last week I wiped  the brushes and the remaining paint here, which gave me a basis which only needed a bit of background stamping / stenciling, and I used some Artemio stamps for the grass and plants over the green paint at the bottom of the pages. I added a little profile of summer, with flowers in her hair, and the two other figures made with stencils. I think a lot of us are asking ourselves the question I have asked! It was fun doing something a bit lighthearted this time!

I like how the colour used for the stencils has remained a bit transparent and still shows the background.

Here's wishing you all a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

More mini books for Paper Saturdays

Hi you all! It's still very cold over here, hope it is warmer where you are!

Today is Paper Saturday at Manon's blog, and I am sharing 2 more little books I made. Each is made from a single sheet of 12x12" paper, and folded and cut a bit to bring it into book form. The spotty paper is from Graphics45, the other one from 7 Gypsies. The first one has been decorated with a spirit doll, and for the second one I used a wooden embellishment from crafty Emblies, which has been polished with Inka gold in copper. The covers have been varnished to make them more durable.

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

Make new from old

Hi you all! Greetings from freezing cold Rhineland, I never expected it to be like this at the end of May, so I have been crafting to keep myself warm - better than going out at the moment!

It's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.

I have been busy painting a little spice-rack, which I found some months back in the paper recycling bin - where it shouldn't have been, as it's made of wood!  But anyway, thanks to whoever threw it in there! I painted it black, then gave it a coat of crackle varnish before painting again with white with a touch of green in it, and it developed lovely, big cracks! It wasn't quite green enough, so I distressed it with various shades of green DI.

Then the fun work began. I stamped some paper with flower motives from Crafty Individuals, using a little less ink than usual to give a faded look. I painted the flowers with a water brush and DIs in shabby shutters and crushed olive. I wanted it to look like old-fashioned wallpaper. I used various stamps to decorate the edges and the sides, using Archival Olive. Then I looked for scraps, bits and bobs and small creations to fill the shelves and decorate them. The rack is 9x7".

A view of the side panel showing the stamped script

The front edge stamped with a tiny flower motive

Crackle varnish on the watering can

One of my mini books and a tin

A heart from crafty emblies, painted, distressed and crackled for another project, and then not used, fitted here perfectly. The flower was on a present I got.

A little jar which held a free-sample of jam was pressed into action. The lid has been painted and then stamped, and the jar filled with little beads etc.

(The green thumb is not part of the decoration!)

A ribbon flower fitted perfectly on the top of the lid

A little die cut bird keeping an eye on things, and a vintage lace trim

The cameo has been mounted onto a bottle cap, which I painted black and distressed with distress EP

I really had fun altering this piece, and it will look good on my kitchen shelf (when I have tidied up a bit!)

I am linking to Fashionable Stamping Challenges (alter it)

Sugar Creek - use scraps and what you have (rack, background paper, glass jar,  mini-books etc)

Simon Says Stamp and show - use your favourite ink (Archival and green)

Pan Pastels - new beginning (for an old spice rack)

Have a great weekend, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Flowers for Artful Times

Hi you all! It's time for me to post my challenge for Artful Times,  before the two weeks are up! The ladies have set the theme, 'Bloomin lovely'.

I have made 2 cards. The face in the first one has been drawn, she has flowers and butterflies instead of hair. I couldn't make up my mind whether to colour the face or not, I wanted it to be a contrast to the flowers. The flowers and butterflies have been punched with X-cut 3D punches.

For the second card I have used 3 different stamps from LaBlanche - the face, the flowers and the bee. Some parts have been stamped twice, cut out, and raised with foam squares. I masked some parts while stamping to get all the bits in the right places.

So, that's enough. I'll be back tomorrow evening with my post for Paint Party Friday.

Till then, take care, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!

Alpha Challenge 'K' and Happy Mail

Hi you all!

I spent a lot of time perusing the dictionary to find a 'K' word that I liked, and then decided to look in the German Dictionary, as in German there are a lot more 'K' words than in English. So I chose the word 'Köln' - better known in the English speaking parts of the world as Cologne.

Now this is a strange choice of word for someone who lives in Düsseldorf, as the two towns have not always been the best of friends over the past 1000 years or so, to put it mildly. There were even real wars between their armies, but these days it is more like a friendly rivalry. One of the causes for the discussion these days is the beer. (Although that was not why they went to war with each other!) In Düsseldorf people drink 'Alt-Bier', and in Köln they drink Kölsch.

Kölsch

Alt-Bier

 And each town says that the beer from the other town tastes like 'Pferde Pisse'. (No, I'm not going to translate it, it's rude! Use your imagination!) I don't really like beer at all, but if I had to choose one, I would probably opt for Kölsch - but don't let anyone in Düsseldorf  hear that! 

The next point is that both towns believe that their Karneval (carnival) is the biggest and best. Of course, the people of Köln are wrong! During the mad days of Carnival, the 'war-cry' here in Düsseldorf is 'Helau' and in Köln it's 'Alaaf'. And after consuming large quantities of alcohol, neither side knows the difference any more.

Another thing Köln is famous for is 'Kölnisch wasser' - Eau de Cologne. The oldest manufacture in the town is from Farina, but the other brand, 4711, is better known in the world, although these perfumes are not my taste either!

(Beer and cologne images courtesy of Wikipedia)

Yes, well, I seem to have digressed a little, but I wanted you to understand what I put in the 'word-clouds'.

The silhouette of Köln has been pasted over a dictionary page, coloured with prismalos. The definitions are taken from Webster's Thesaurus.

The beautiful Cathedral (Kathedrale in German, another K, but also called a 'Dom'!)

Linking to the Alpha Challenge at the Craft Barn.

And I got a lovely parcel from Jeanie in England, with loads of goodies for me to play with! Thanks a lot, and it will all be put to good use!

On the wild side

Hi you all! The lovely weather has left us, and we are once again back to dismal grey, cold and rainy days! 

Today is the begin of a new challenge over at Try It On Tuesday, with the theme of 'On the Wild Side'.  The challenges are all 'anything goes', so as long as you stick to the theme to use birds or animals, you can make whatever you want. There is plenty of time for your entry, as the challenges all run 2 weeks.

I made a card, with a very wild looking ocelot, who looks like she has a long party night behind her!  It is an easel card.

The stopper is made of a little envelope, which would hide a voucher or some money, and the small card on top can be opened to write a greeting.

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

Warhol-Eyezing, More Mini Books and Happy Mail

Hi you all, hope you are enjoying the weekend. I don't want to say it too loudly, but we had sunshine all day and it was warm today. It felt like Spring! But - from tomorrow on will be wet, windy and really cold again. We just have to take it as it is!

The challenge at OOAH this week is eyes. I made some photos of my eyes a few weeks back, which I then drew, coloured and digitally altered, as I did the photos. Here I have taken my drawings and changed the colours.  I printed out small thumbnails, and cut them with an inchie cutter. Sorry about the poor quality of the printing, my HP printer is not doing a good job. I glued them onto scrap card  and made them into bookmarks.

It was a fun experiment, which I will repeat when I have a decent printer.

And I made 2 more mini books with pockets for tags or little pictures. They are really mini - the larger one is 2x1/2" and the smaller one 1 1/2" square. They can each be made from a 6" piece of DS paper.

Each book has 2 tiny tags, stamped on one side with a heart and with 'for you' on the other (stamps from stamping up)

And now for the star of today's show - a wonderful mini-book from Yvonne that arrived in the mail and caused very loud screams of delight, which caused my neighbour to ring and ask if all was well.... Yes, it was more than well! Just sit back and enjoy the beautiful photos, and look at the gorgeous papers, lace, ribbons, pictures, stamping and embossing - and it's MINE!!!! Thanks a lot Yvonne, it will be treasured!

I think that's enough for today. Take care, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!