Of soup, shoes and autumn leaves....

Hi everybody!

Today is a grey and rainy day, I think the gardens and fields all need rain badly, and for me a nice excuse to stay home, cook and play....

I painted two sheets of scrap paper recently with some left over colours, and decided to use the paper to make some autumn leaves. I cut them with my old sizzix die, which makes a gorgeous selection of  leaves.

Then I folded along where the veins should/could be and distressed the edges with chocolate brown and aged mahogany.

Detail, showing on the left my thumb and finger, distressed to match....

 

Then they got a quick coat of paper varnish - I got this stuff in a sale some months back for next to nothing, and it is good, and dries very quickly.

By the time the last one has been varnished, the first one is dry and ready for a brushed on coat of crackle accents.

While the crackle varnish was drying, I chopped celery root, potatoes, apples and onions to make a delicious celery and apple soup, which simmered in the pot while I finished off the leaves, by distressing them again to make the cracks show up. The two coats of varnish make the leaves feel rather leathery, and they are good to work with, and keep their form.

 Here you can see a sneak-peek of some of the leaves in action....

And this is a bowl made of glass with an iridescent glaze, which is called 'carnival glass'. In this piece, the moulded leaves and berries are on the back of the bowl....

 

And I have put my leaves into it till I use them.

 

And look who flew through the open window to stick her long nose into my bowl - autumn and Halloween are coming nearer!

 

 

And this is the soup, which was really delicious, and has given me a full belly while I sit here and type.

And last but not least, the shoes. Aren't they pretty? I was in 'town' this week at the thrift shop, and saw these shoes. They were new, never been used, and still in their box. And MY SIZE! So I asked the lady what they would cost. She said 5€. And then the other lady there told her that I had given a lot of good stuff to the shop, and that I could have them for 1€. So I took them and galloped hobbled off home as quickly as I could. They are really soft and comfortable, made of SILK, no less, and look great with my jeans, a nice contrast! And I am sure there will not be many people walking round with shoes like this. Okay, probably there aren't many people who would want to, but I love them.

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

Paper Saturday

Hi you all!

These journal pages have been made mostly from some stamping try-outs while I was making my CAS cards last week. I wanted to see which combinations looked best....I just coloured in the irises and added a few square quotes and some simple line drawing to try to pull it all together. I am linking to Paper Saturdays and AJJ - Squares.

The stamps used are from Laurentz and Morgen, except for the circle which is from Hein design.

 

And this lovely orange moon lit up the sky 2 nights ago.

 

 

Have a great weekend, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by.

Inspired by ....

Hi everybody!

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

Last week there was an article in our paper about Stephan Lochner's 'Maria im Rosenhag' - Maria in the rose bower. I have seen this picture often in Cologne, and it has always fascinated me. It was painted about 1450, and the original has a golden background with lots of angels and roses. I decided to use just the central figure of Maria for my painting. I drew her on a piece of canvas, and used prismalos and water colours to paint the details in the faces and robes. I used gold ink to paint the halos, and made Maria's crown and brooch with some gold modelling paste, into which I pressed some micro beads. The 'jewels' were made with liquid pearls. In the original painting Maria has a beautiful brooch with a unicorn. I painted some flowers on the 'floor', and added some textile ones and pearls. I placed yellow roses around her head, and the 12 stars, which are often shown in paintings of Maria.

The background is a re-purposed canvas,  (12"x9") which I painted with a mix of dark red and purple, and sprinkled with fairy dust.
I have no idea why I made this, as it is not my style, or my religion, it just sort of happened.

 I am also linking to Piaroms's Mix it monthly challenge, which this month involves dark red, violet, yellow and green, jewelry and flowers.

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

Mini concertina book

Hi everybody!

Just a quickie today as I need to go to the doctor's for some exams.

This is a little concertina book I made with some scraps of Halloween stuff leftover after making some other projects. The book is 2"x2", twinchie size.

Front:

Each page has been decorated with one spooky element:

 

From the other side:

The Back cover:

 

I gave the covers several coats of varnish to make them more durable, and there is plenty of space inside for writing favourite Halloween recipes etc! The edges have been inked with wild honey and gold ink.

I am linking to Artful Times, 'Twinchies' challenge.

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

Tag Tuesday, evening photos and another CAS card

Hi you all!

Yesterday was a rather wet and cloudy day, but towards evening it cleared up and we had a wonderful evening sky.

 

 

And just as I wanted to switch of my camera, I heard a flock of wild geese flying  honking over the house. I didn't have time to do anything except just click:

 

They always fly towards the Rhine in the morning, and evenings they fly back home:

 

Five minutes later the moon popped up between the trees:

 

The card is the second one I made for the CAS challenge at FSC. I am also linking to the summer challenge at OOAH.  I have once again used my distress ink pads as stamps, and the sun has been stamped with a Hein-design stamp using chalk-box inks. The plants and bee are from Artemio, and have been stamped with archival black.

 

I gave the card a frame of turquoise paper.

At Tag Tuesday the theme is Windows, gates, doors and portals . I have used a photo of an archway looking into a garden that I saw in Bad Honnef. I mounted the photo onto some scrap cardboard, and fixed some die-cut 'gates' on both sides.

 

Two more photos from Bad Honnef:

Have a good day, thanks for looking, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Challenges

Hi you all!

At FSC the challenge this fortnight is Clean and Simple. Now, this is NOT my style, but as Yvonne chose the challenge, and she is a lovely lady, I decided I had to give it a try! I used a 6x6" card, and stamped squares - which I have done a lot lately - using the DI ink-pads direct on the paper, and then a 'sun' using a stamp from Hein-Design and chalk box ink. The dragonfly (Laurentz and Morgen) has been stamped with archival black.

But I couldn't resist using a bit of diamond stickles  on the wings, CAS or not....

I am also entering it into OOAH  'Summer' challenge.

 

At MooMania the challenge this week is 'beards'. I have made a mini-book showing famous men with beards. The covers have been made from corrugated card, painted with gesso, and then covered with tiny scraps of print and writing and some little scraps of gold leaf that I re-discovered when clearing out. I went over the covers with clear varnish to make them more durable.

Front cover:

 

Inside:

Sorry, I couldn't resist putting the Beatles and Dumbledore into the row of worthy men - do you recognise the others?

 

Side view, tied with a band.

 

And the 'backside':

I had fun making this one!

And I was pleased to see that my  'shades of Summer' journal page was shown at 'Show and tell Saturday' at Artists in Blogland and that my entry to the script challenge was showcased at FSC.

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