Owls, light, shadow and some Christmas thoughts....

Hi everybody!

Time is flying by, in a couple of weeks it will be Christmas and the year is nearly over, I can hardly believe it.

I have made another journal spread for Conny's 'Mix it Monthly', where she wants red, yellow and green and owls. I put all the colours into the background again. I started with a coat of cream coloured emulsion paint which was mixed with some yellow and gold paint leftovers. I sprayed onto it with some red and green inks while it was still wet, and stamped into the wet with various background stamps to give some texture and pattern. After it had dried, I used various stencils to add more patterns, ivy,script and numerals, using DI peeled paint. The owl is another one from the set I won, and has been drawn with a greeny-grey pen and edged with gold. The quote is from Benjamin Franklin.

 This also started life as a double page spread, but somebody spilled coffee over it, so one side had to be cut off! I wanted to show light and dark with the moon in the night sky, or rather the (wo)man in the moon. The quote is from Allen Ginsburg. I used acrylic paints, pastel chalks and felt pens.

Linking to Art Journal Journey

The mixed media pages here were made a couple of years back, but are once again fitting to the season, so here they are again:

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

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

A recycled wreath and another Christmas Market.

Hi everybody!

Today I want to show you a recycled wreath I made last week. I found 2 long, plastic orchids in the recycling bin, so I brought them in, gave them a wash, and then bound them together to make a wreath, which is about 12" in diameter. I sprayed it with silver - also a find from the recycling bin - and then used the hot glue gun to fix on the pine cones I gathered up on my walks over the past weeks. I gave it another light spray with silver, added some silver 'fairy-hair' and a bow, and a loop to hang it from - then it was finished. It looks very pretty on my living room door, and I like making things which don't cost anything.

 

Yesterday I was up early, and as the weather was beautiful - sunny, but cold - I decided to go on an outing. I took the tram into Düsseldorf Altstadt (the old town) and then walked around the Christmas market there. It is much bigger than our tiny one here, and goes through several streets and squares. The first picture is in front of a big department store. They were just opening up for the day, as I went early - I don't like being there when there are a lot of crowds.

This is a special clock in Schneider-Wibbel Gasse (Tailor Wibbel Lane). He was a character in a book about Düsseldorf, written more than 100 years ago. The doors open at the times written and Schneider Wibbel comes out and sits there sewing while  music plays.

This is the old Rathaus - (Town Hall) and the booths in front of it.

At Burg Platz (Castle Square) there is a big wheel. I would have liked to have gone on it, as I sure there was a wonderful view from the top, but it was too expensive. The Tower is all that is left of the castle, and now houses a ship's museum.

The market booths here were the ones I liked best, made up to look like streets of old houses, and were very pretty. It was also very expensive, they wanted 4,50 for a coffee, so I didn't buy one. But it was nice to look at.

The Church of St Lambertus is famous for its wonky spire:

 

I then had the mad idea to walk home along the Rhine, I thought it would take about 1 1/2 hours, at the most 2. It was a great walk, I really enjoyed it, but the route was much longer than I thought. Anyway, three hours later I arrived back in my little town, rather exhausted, and was happy to sit down in the bakery and drink a coffee to give me enough strength for the last lap home.

I was dog tired by the time I got here, but sort of happy, tail-wagging dog tired!

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

A (missing) Partridge and 3 French Hens

Hi everybody!

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is 'The Twelve days of Christmas'.

I didn't find any fitting stamps in my stash, so had to re-think the story, as I wanted to do the partridge in the pear tree.

The background has been stamped with a LaBlanche stamp using a glue pad and gold EP. The tree has been die-cut with a TH die using gold textured paper, and I must tell you, it is a pear tree. Those red heart shaped fruits are Christmas pears. And the partridge? Well, it unfortunately flew away just as I took the  picture, so you will just have to imagine it on the tree. But I am sure you can see that the 3 French hens stayed put for the photo. They have disguised themselves with Christmas hats and scarves, embellished with glitter liner, so that they don't look out of place.

I had a long, cold walk again, which I enjoyed, although the clouds sometimes looked very threatening. But it didn't rain, so it was even a dry walk today.

I love this tree lined path through the fields, where the trees meet overhead to form a tunnel.

The sun made long shadows again:

The sheep were not worried by the clouds building up over the river:

The little stream which runs near where I live joins the Rhine here, and there are always lots of seagulls waiting to catch fish:

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

Duck Tales and Owls

Hi everybody!

Today was another rainy Sunday, but it was much milder than the past couple of days, so I enjoyed my rainy walk. I went to Schloss Kalkum again. As I got to the duck-pond, they all started squawking and trying to push each other out of the way to come over to see me - perhaps they knew I would have some bread and lettuce leaves in my bag? They were behaving really human, like people at the sales, so funny!

I then walked down to the Rhine, and along the tow path. As I got to the corner of Market street, 3 ducks came waddling out at top speed, ran to the edge and sprang into the water, quacking most indignantly. They were followed by a large, brown dog, pulling his 2 legged Tin-Opener on the leash behind him, and the dog yowled with frustration when he saw that his prey had escaped. The man, however, seemed  relieved, and tugged the dog off in the other direction.

At Mix it Monthly, Conny wants to see the colours red, yellow and green (yikes, Conny!) and an owl.

I painted some pages, which had already been prepared with book scraps and gesso, with various yellows,greens and blues, and sprayed in some red ink. The owls have been made using templates which I won last year and haven't used yet, shame on me. I made one white one and one dark one, as I wanted this to fit to the theme of light and dark at AJJ, too. I added some texture to the white one using some puff paint, and the black one got all excited and said he wanted some too, so I gave him a few spots on his ears, eye and nose.

 

 

 This was fun to make, perhaps I will use those templates again!

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

Rain, Mist and Mince Pies.

Hi everybody!

It's been a cold, grey and damp day here, but I forced myself to go for a walk this morning, and in spite of a very chill wind, in the end I enjoyed it. I had the Rhine tow path all for me, even the ducks were hiding somewhere! But somehow the grey and misty landscape is still most appealing, and I always feel very virtuous after walking in the rain - and very wet, too!

For AJJ I have made another journal spread for light / dark.  I painted the background with blue, purple and black paint remnants, and sprinkled on some glitter while it was still wet. The theme of light and dark reminded me of the Creation, where everything was dark and  chaos till God created light. The Hebrew text I have used is part of Genesis 1, verses 1 & 3 - 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...

And God said, 'let it be light' and it was light.

I drew the stars, suns  and planets with metallic pens in gold and silver, although in the creation story the heavenly bodies actually arrive a day or so later  - artistic license!

It was fun to do a different take on the theme.

 

At So Artful Challenges the theme this month is to design a  postage stamp with a holiday or winter theme. I have digitally altered some photos. The home made mince pies - which were really delicious! - have provided the stage for my scene, aided and abetted by my Christmas hat:

This was a fun challenge, especially clearing away all those little pies....Next time I will save you some!

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

First snow

Hi everybody!

After the storm came an icy wind, and that brought us snow. I woke up this morning and saw the first flakes falling, and shot out onto my balcony with pyjamas and bare feet to get a picture.

(Yes, I know that I should have put something on first, but I didn't!)

 After I was dressed in my warm woolies, coat, hat, boots, scarves and gloves, I ventured out for a walk along the Rhine, where the wind was so cold I thought it was biting my ears, and then as I got to the Christmas Market, it started to snow again, and I proudly present my pictures of the market with real snow!

By the time I had done my shopping at the Friday market the snow had turned into rain, which made a slippery mess which was unpleasant to walk on, so I was glad to get back home into the warmth and enjoy a cup of cappuccino.

This beautiful card arrived here this week from Lynne.

She always makes the most gorgeous cards in her own and very particilar style, and I am happy to have this one here on my desk.

And this wonderful piece of lace with St paul's cathedral came with it. She knows how much I miss my beloved London, and I have ideas for turning this into a wall hanging for my bedroom, perhaps with corrugated card and some old printed paper and...and....

It was even tied up with lace:

 I am showing again some journal pages painted 2 years ago, as they seem to be appropriate to the season:

I am linking to Paper Saturdays.

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