A tea party, the moon and clouds

Hi everybody!

Today at Paint Party Friday we are having a virtual tea party in support of Tracy, who has been courageously fighting breast cancer this year with a wonderful mixture of toughness, humour and fortitude. My contribution is a painting on cardboard of tea cups, with a quote from William Gladstone. 

I must admit, though, that tea is not really my cup of tea, I prefer coffee!

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 As it is my birthday tomorrow on Winter Solstice I made a painting for myself to celebrate the return of the light. I used acrylics and pastels. I still need to do some work on it, but hope to get it finished today. Sorry about the bad photos, it was dark and cloudy all day, and not good for taking pics of black paintings! It is showing the moon over Stonehenge and the gradual awakening of the hidden colours of the earth.

The photos were taken on my wet, wild and windy walk today, it was fun watching the clouds being blown across the sky at the Rhine.

That's all for today. Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by.

Under the sea

Hi everybody!

Today started off again with a wonderful sunrise, but turned very cloudy later on, although it stayed dry, so I was able to enjoy my walk. In the evening it cleared again and I was able to watch the (almost) full moon rise.

I have finished off some journal pages which have been waiting again for a long time - better late than never.  Here the pages were gessoed, painted with thinned down acrylics, and then doodled. I added some extra colour with pastels. I think I would like to see the sea again, that's something I miss here!

These were the photos taken this evening of the moon.

The black specks on the photo are wild geese flying home. The white spot on the left is a plane.

 

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

Double Tuesday again

Hi everybody!

Today it's time for new challenges at Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is 'starry skies'. I thought of Van Gogh straightaway, and decided to do something in his style, at least a pale imitation of it. I had a square of paper painted with dark blues left over from last week, so went to work, and drew a similar picture freehanded, putting in some of the elements VG uses. I used black ink, pastels, felt pens and a fine, white highlighter. Then I could have kicked myself in the butt, because I remembered it should be a TAG! So, I hacked it into three pieces, mounted them onto gold card, and made a triptych 'starry night'.

At Try it on Tuesday our theme for the next 2 weeks is 'trees', so hope lots of you will be brimming with good ideas to join in the challenge.
I used a photo I took near the Rhine a couple of years back. This little path always reminds me of Narnia, because of the lanterns and trees, but it's not! I painted some peeled, corrugated card with white and put some glitter on it.  The photo has been matted with blue miri card and silver card. I added a vintage image of Saant carryng a Christmas tree, and various blue and silver embellishments, a shabby bow and some bobble band for snow. This is my December calendar page.

I am also linking to Fashionable stamping challenges, holiday spirit.

Today the sun rose at about the same time as I did, so I shot out onto the balcony to get some pics of the wonderful, clear sky:

This was a wonderful beginning to my day, and I was able to enjoy a long, sunny walk after I had drunk enough coffee to get going!

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

Light and Dark - A tribute to Nelson Mandela

  Hi everybody!

I made a new journal spread as a little tribute to Nelson Mandela, a man who really brouht light to dispel some of the dark shadows in Africa with his fight for freedom. The world needs more people of his calibre.

I am Linking to AJJ, light and shadow.

It was hard to take photos, as it was such a dull day, so sorry about the bad quality.

I painted the pages with some cream emulsion paint, and added in yellow, pink, and some gold ink. The blue was sprayed, and other colours added with pastels. The African motives have been stencilled, the photo added with a tissue transfer. Both quotes are from Nelson Mandela.

These photos that I took on one of my wanderings last week also fit well to the theme of light and shadow.

 

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

No sun Sunday

Hi everybody!

It's another grey, damp and misty day here, so I will have to wrap up well when I take my walk later on.

Yesterday was just the same, The Rhine had almost no colour and just faded away into the distance:

These photos were taken on my Friday walk - what a difference the sun makes!

The smoking chimneys are in Duisburg, a neighbouring town, which also boasts the largest river port in the world.

And I love this picture of the people and dogs playing on the beach:

I received some pretty cards and presents this week, which definitely put some sunshine into my day.

This card is from Yvonne, a very talented lady, who delights us with her creations on several DTs. The image is printed on fabric.

And this beautiful ornament came with it, it has a wonderful sparkle, which was hard to capture in the photo:

These lovely ladies came to me from another lovely lady, Chrissie , who makes lovely cards, tags, bags, and quilting, as well as doing lots of walking and gardening.

This beautiful card with the vintage image came from her, too:

 I also have birthday cards from both these dear ladies, but want to save them till my birthday!

This gorgeous card and a die-cut poinsettia came from Carolyn, who not only makes wonderful cards, but is very skilled at digital work on photos, which I always admire very much.

So, a big THANK YOU to Yvonne, Chrissie and Carolyn!

And these beautiful felt ornaments were a gift from the chemist's when I collected my medicine on Friday. They are made of red felt, and each about 4 inches - aren't they nice?

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