Light, shadows and fragments

Hi you all!

I have had a busy week, moving furniture round and trying to get my stash reorganised, not an easy job. Now it is tidy, and I threw out a big sack of bits and bobs which  am sure I would have been able to use sometime, but for which there is unfortunately no space in my little apartment. Before the big clean out, I knew exactly in which pile I could find stuff, now I can't find anything. But I have made a resolution to put labels on all those tidy drawers and boxes, in the hope that I will find my way around sooner or later.

For Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin, I have once again re-purposed some old canvases, each 15" x 7 1/2". After painting the backgrounds with light colours I did some stenciling with a CWS stencil and then used some templates I cut myself to draw the shadow figures on the canvases, before painting them with black acrylic. Some of the figures need a second coat of black, which still has to be done. I found a pile of old letters in my stash, which were written on very thin airmail paper back in the thirties and forties, and which are, unfortunately, disintegrating, so after copying them, I glued some fragments onto my canvases.This letter was written in 1945.  At first I wanted to paint over them, but decided to leave them as they are. This is my way of trying to conserve these fragments. I have called this set of pictures 'Light, shadows and fragments of the past'.

This picture shows them in place on my kitchen wall.

 

I am also linking to the 'three Muses' challenge - use script, text or type, and to 

Our Creative Corner - words.

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

Journal pages

Hi everybody!

I had a busy day yesterday, and got a lot done, which was good.

I made another journal page, once again with squares - this theme has many possibilities!

I painted the pages with light brown paint, and cut the dark brown shapes out of paper and glued them on to make the chess board. It was more difficult than I thought to get them in the right size and perspective, but I tried! The chess figures have been printed, fussy cut, and given 2 coats of clear varnish to make them look like polished wood. I rolled them over a pencil to give them depth. For the lettering I used some sheets of leftover alphas. I hate throwing them away, and there are always lots of letters which don't get used up. So this time I mixed the colours, added some white alphas to fill in the gaps, and went round them all with a black gel pen to give them a more unified appearance.

I am linking to AJJ - squares.

That's all for today, take care, have fun, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tags

Hi you all! 

Today I have some tags to share.

The first one has been made for the new challenge at Try it on Tuesday,  'create a scene'. Any theme and any style is possible, it just has to be a scene - so you have two weeks to make a scene and enter it!

I used a tag cut from corrugated card, painted and distressed, and with an image from CI added, as well as the little vintage boy image. The shell is not a real one, it has been made in a mould and painted. I added a fish as charm.

 

I am linking my scene to Crafty Individuals Challenge, anything goes

At Tag tuesday the theme this week is complementary colours. I took purple and yellow, and made 2 tags. The first one has been painted, and stenciled.

 

The second one is a tag which April gave me already stamped with Frida. I painted the background yellow, coated it with glue and added the yellow glass beads for some texture. I gave Frida two coats of matte varnish, and  mounted it onto a purple tag. The ribbon came from Mexico, from Donna, so fits well to the tag!

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

Islands in the Stream for Paper Saturdays

Hi everybody!

I still seem to be a in a blue, square modus, so here is the second blue picture I made on Thursday - I always mix too much paint!

The background is watered down metallic turquoise and blue. When it was dry I stamped squares again using inks directly from the ink-pads in tumbled glass, blue jeans and chipped sapphire. The 'sun' has been stamped with orange chalk-box ink, and the tree is a die-cut from Diane. The gull and buoy are pictures cut from a carrier bag I had. I love these blue tones just now, can't seem to get enough of them! I thought of 'Islands in the Stream' as I was making it,  so that's my name for it.

I was pleased to see that my 'Green Man' was chosen among others  in last month's 'Show and tell' at Artists in Blogland.
 I am linking to Manon's Paper Saturdays and AJJ, squares.

Have a nice day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Shades of summer

Hi everybody!

I am happy to say the big heat wave has broken, and it is now fresh and cool - lovely!

It will warm out again at the weekend, but not with extreme temperatures, just normal summer days - that's fine with me!

I have been working on a lot of stuff this week which I can't show yet, as it's being made for something I can't talk about yet, so we will have to wait. But I did manage a journal spread for PPF, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin. I am also linking to  AJJ - squares,  Colour this quote at Artists in Blogland,  'Seize the Day', and Journal Journeys - what summer means to me. I am also linking to Out of a Hat creations - things beginning with 'B' - blue; and to the Three Muses challenge - circles or squares

I have used my fave summer colours here - aqua, turquoise, blues and greens, and pale yellow. I colour washed the background and then used a CWS stencil to add the squares and rectangles in the background. The next layer was made by using the ink pads to stamp squares in greens and blues. Then I used a small template to draw squares of different sizes with a fine liner in black. I added more colour to some of the squares by colouring them with pastels. Then I took scraps from one of my wonderful boxes - parts of holiday photos, painted scraps, pieces of images and patterns, and cut them into squares. I pushed them around till I liked the way it looked, glued them down, and finished! Well, not quite, I added a few coordinating embellies and a quote from Bill Gates.

'Seize the day', is, for me, an invitation to use the day to create something, then no day is perfect for me when I have not been creative.

I hope you all seize the day to do something good for yourselves, then we can't be good to other people if we are not good to ourselves! Take care, have fun, and thanks for coming by.

Tag Tuesday Tags and more

Hi you all!

It has been extremely hot and muggy here again, so did not have much mojo for crafting.

I am just showing my Tag Tuesday tags from last week - travel, and this week, weddings.

For this week's wedding tag I used a photo of the wedding of my great uncle back in the 1920s, as can clearly be seen from their clothes. My Mum is standing next to the bride. Her 2 sisters were also bridesmaids, but I couldn't fit them into the frame today, so they got cut off - sounds brutal!  The frame has been made from an old card that I found in my bit box. I wonder of they had a car like that back then?

The travel tag is an altered matchbox. The paper is from Graphics 45, and the dashing young men are on an image from gecko Galz. I glues some map paper into the back of the box , and the train has been stamped with archival in black and then fussy cut. I fixed it with foam pads. I cut a window in my tag, and a corresponding one in the cover of the box before assembling it. I wonder where they are off to?

And this is a piece with a history. I started out about half a year back or more, making 2 pieces for the covers of a journal, both were to be more or less the same. Well, I discovered the envelope with the bits to make this one, and have now finished it. But I can't find the first one....
It has been made from cardboard, partly peeled, and embossed with Utee gold. The image is from CI, and the paper beads at the bottom are some I made this week.

I am linking to OOAH, numbers (on the clock), Craftroom Challenge, Bingo (lace, pearls and brown)  and  Artful Times, let's ribble!
Now I will put this one away till I hopefully find the first one again!

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

A new album - ode to summer

Hi you all!

It is still very hot and humid here, I am not a happy bunny, as I cannot cope with the heat well.We seem to be getting more and more extremes of weather lately.

Last week I made an album, using some of the lovely papers that Christine sent me - thanks again! I made the covers from the back of an old drawing block, and cut a large sheet of good quality paper to make the pages of the accordion inside.

The front:

The first double page, with pockets for tags: 

Details:

The next double side with more pockets and a notebook which can be taken out.

 Details:

The back:

When you turn the page the next pages are waiting:

Details:

The accordion from the front:

And from the back:

This was great fun to make, and is a nice album for summer photos, notes etc.

I am linking to 'ode to Summer' at Simon's Monday Challenge.

Have a great day, keep cool, and thanks a lot for coming by!