A Tag and some Photos

Hi everybody!

The theme at Tag Tuesday this week is eyes, so I decided to use this image from Gecko Galz, as I love these owls and their funky eyes. I was going to call it 'Owl be seeing you', but decided against it as I didn't want everybody shouting at me....

We have had very changeable weather with blue skies, clouds and rain chasing after each other, which gave me some lovely pics....

And I noticed on my walk yesterday that the summer flowers are on the way out and the Autumn colours on their way in....

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

A Halloween Card

Hi everybody!

For the month of September I  have made several things that I will be showing bit by bit. I am starting off with a card I made using an image from 'Costume Party 2' by Gecko Galz. I am Guest Designer there for this month. I made a double Z-fold card, and mounted the image on a mat of turquoise paper. The side 'wings' of the card have been covered in some paper which I digitally altered to get matching colours. I used some die-cuts made for me by Diane as embellishments, and added a bow and some beads - from an old earring - to the focal image.

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

Paper Saturday

Hi Everybody!

Today is Saturday, so time for Manons's Paper Saturdays, where you can link up anything made using paper.

Today I have a tag to share, which I am also linking to Simon's Monday Challenge, dotty.

The background has been distressed with wild honey and died marigold, which I then sprayed with water to give it more movement. I made the dotty background using a scrap of sequin waste and inking with peeled paint and rusty hinge. The leaves have been stamped with a three part Lavinia leaf stamp using color box inks in orange, dark green and brown.

 

For the embellishments I used some of the leaves I made last Sunday from painted paper and paper scraps, die-cut, varnished and crackled. I like to be able to make my own unique embellishments this way.

The sentiments are from a set by Hampton Arts.

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

Halloween Canvas

Hi everybody.
I was pleased to see that I made the top 3 again at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, especially as this was the dreaded 'Clean and Simple'!

Another week has flown by and it's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin. I have made an 8x8" canvas, using an image from Gecko Galz for the focal image. I painted the background using colours that are in the image, which I printed onto canvas. The leaves are those I made last weekend from painted paper, which was die-cut, varnished and crackled.

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

Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday Challenges

Hi you all!

Today is challenge Tuesday for me, as this week both the Tuesday blogs are due.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is the Swinging Sixties. I made a tag using images from Gecko Galz. I loved the warm colours from the sixties, and all the things we were hoping for - peace,  love and harmony. It was a decade that marked my transition from school to studying to starting a family and my first job as a teacher.

 

The challenge at TIOT is to use three different, fancy edges. I am not really a fan of fancy edges, so decided to get them all onto one piece of paper . I used X-Cut punches to do the flowers and butterflies on the left and right sides, and a Marth Stewart punch to do the lace edge at the top. I mounted it onto some partly peeled and white-painted corrugated cardboard. I punched some more flowers for the centre, and used buttons as embellishments, string for the stems and some cut-out leaves. The paper is from Kaisercraft, it has 2 different sides, which I was able to use well here. I tied it all up with some string and added 2 of my home made paper beads. I will use this as a page for my calendar.

That's all for today. Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!