Halloween, Autumn and Happy Mail

Hi everybody,

we had a wonderful day here yesterday, warm and sunny, what a great gift. So, of course I went for a walk, and enjoyed the wonderful colours of Autumn:

And last week I got a surprise package from Yvonne. I am sure I woke the neighbours up with my squeals of delight again!

This beautiful little book - which was her DT piece for TIOT - is now mine! I love little books, and especially Halloween ones, I wonder how she knew it?!  You can see some of the pages here, and you can see the others on her blog if you follow the link.

 

Now, isn't it gorgeous?! Thanks a lot, Yvonne, it will be treasured!

And it didn't come alone - look at these beautiful fabrics - I see some wonderful Christmas projects coming on with them!

 

And London fabric - I think my squeals here were of the sort that can probably only be heard by bats....

I just LOVE this celebration of my home town!

And lovely lace....

 

And trimmings and tags:

Thanks Yvonne!

And this crazy owl card came together from various flying bits and bobs this evening while I was trying to clear up my table.

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

All the Tuesdays again.

Hi everybody! 

Today is challenge time at Try it on Tuesday. The theme for the next 2 weeks is 'Halloween', so all you ghouls  girls have plenty of time to come out with some bewitching ideas.

I made a set of ATCs with travelling case. The skellies, shoe and hat have been cut with a Sizzix die, the heads were sent to me by Donna, as was the lovely spider, and the background paper. I have been very lucky this year that Donna and Diane both sent me oodles of Halloween goodies, and I have had great fun using them, so thanks again, Ladies.

 The inside of the case is TH Halloween paper.

The paper for the outside was again from Donna.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is Autumn. I have used one of the photos I took at the Rhine on Saturday, and mounted it onto mats in brown and corn yellow. I added some embellies, and some coordinating ribbons, stamped the sentiment, and it was finished - 15 minutes from start to finish. My feet were hurting and I wanted to rest!

 

This tag is for the Tag Along Challenge, where the theme this week is haunted house.

Nearly all of the die cuts came from Donna again, except for the tree, which was from Diane.

I had fun making this crazy haunted house anyway. I cut the fence wider than the tag and bent it round, so that the tag can stand on its own.

I am also linking to Make My Monday - Halloween and
Simons Monday Challenge

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

Getting ready for winter....

Hi everybody!
Hope you have had a good weekend.

I am busy knitting my winter accessories just now. Here I have combined two pieces that I made. I started by painting a 1,80 meter crepe-de-chine scarf with silk colours in green and brown tones.

Then I knitted a scarf in the same length, using a fine sock yarn in wool and polyamide.

Then I sewed them together - by hand. I wanted to use the machine, but it did not want to work with these materials.

And I made a cosy loop scarf, which winds twice round my neck, doesn't slip about, and will keep me warm on cold days. Here Miss Red is modelling it for me:

And here it is wound round my neck, I had to take the photo myself and somehow couldn't manage to get my head onto it....

It feels really good, the silky part is good to wear next to my skin, and the double layers are really warm.
And last year I knitted a hat from the same wool, and hope to find it before it gets really cold!

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

And another one....

Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Here in Rhineland we had sunshine, and the temps were a lot milder, so it looks like we will be having a few pleasant days.

This is another one of the Halloween she-art pieces I made last week. The background was painted, sprayed, and colour was added with pastels. I stamped some spiders' webs and bats. The witch is from the Gecko Galz collage sheet 'witchy women'. The frame around the witch is from Jessica Sporn's frames stencil.

At Moo Mania the theme this time is 'eyes', so I have put some eyes (Flonz crafts) and my text on a moo card. The witch, cat and hat are stamps from Close to my heart, and have been embossed with extra fine EP. I used less ink than usual on the witch, so she appears to be transparent. This was really just a bit of fun with left overs. I am linking to AJJ - she-art and Moo Mania - eyes.

Today I made the most of the good weather and went for a walk again, along the Rhine Damn, admiring the meadows and trees, and the ships and barges which are constantly passing up and down the river.

Then I spent some time climbing up to the top of the castle ruins, and admiring the wonderful view from the top - which in the old days was useful for watching for enemies and stopping ships to exert taxes....

 

This little motor boat was so quick that I only just caught it:

 

And as much as I like modern art, I think they could have found a better place for this piece than on the castle ruins....Perhaps he's supposed to be keeping guard.

 

And of course, there are dungeons....

 

But this was my fave pic today - somebody has added a graffiti to the public toilets opposite the church, making a smiling face - perhaps he was just happy to have found them on time. The light reflections are from the stained glass windows of the church.

 Hope that you have enjoyed your tour today - I certainly did.

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

A halloween card & some photos

Hi everybody!

At FSC the challenge this fortnight is to use stencils or masks. I used a TH spider-web stencil to make the background for my card. It has been distressed with DI in tumbled glass, faded jeans and chipped saphire.

I stamped the background here and there with a crackle stamp before adding the top layer of stamps - the witch, cat, hat and sentiment are from a Halloween set by close to my heart, that I won in a challenge last year. I stamped the images with archival black and embossed them with EP extra fine in black. The owl corners have been punched, and the bow made from some distressed gauze. I mounted the card onto a black mat and used a 6x6 card in dark blue.

I am aslo linking to Artful times -  feeling distressed, and Manon's Paper Saturdays.

I had a long walk today, through the fields, past the lakes and stables, and then into 'town' and along the Rhine. I was really tired, so I went into the bakery and treated myself to a large cappuccino - naughty but yummy!

There are several of these tunnels along the path through the fields. They lead under the motorway to the fields on the other side, so that wild animals can get from one side to the other in safety. In winter I met a fox that had just crossed through, but he was not pleased to see me!

When I stopped to take a photo of these ladies, they all looked at me as if they were wondering  what I was up to...

The horses all turned their backs on me and got on with their grazing....

Tomorrow the weather should be better, so I hope to have another nice walk, perhaps in a different direction this time.

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