Me and My Shadow and what we have been up to

Hi everybody!

Another week is speeding by, and I have been making the most of the good weather we have had. It seems to be coming to an end, and we have been threatened with wintry weather next week.

Today (Wednesday) started off beautifully, and after my morning coffee fill-up I went for a walk along the Rhine.

My shadow led me down to the shore, where I looked for pretty shells:

Not only my shadow reached the water, a wave sneaked up on me and sent me home with wet feet and squelching shoes

But I still enjoyed my walk enormously, and always feel good when I am by the Rhine.

When I got back home I finished off my mixed media piece, which I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin, and Mix it Monthly, where Conny wants to see the colours orange, hibiscus and violet and strange head coverings. I am also linking to Moo Mania, as the lady is sporting several birds.

The backgrund has been painted with a mix of emulsion paint and water colours, using a plastic card. I dripped some gold ink over it, sprinkled on some glitter, and then sprayed with thinned down inks to get the colours moving a bit. The image is from a German Housewives Magazine from 1899. The lady was wearing a hat decorated with high straw loops in the original, which I removed digitally before printing her onto an old book page. I then cut round the image before fixing it to the background. After that I just had fun, throwing bits and bobs from one of my bit-boxes at it and arranging them till I liked the result. Of course, Mr UM had to be present, die-cut from a piece of painted and stamped canvas. The Eiffel Tower has been stamped and fussy cut. Some of the embellishments and part of the image have been given a coat of crackle varnish, which is hard to see here. I quite like the finished work, and think a hat like this would perhaps be Ascot worthy. At first I wanted to colour the face of the lady, but decided to leave it as it was as a contrast to the background.

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

Buds, Blooms Birds and More

Hi everybody!

I am sorry for all of you in Canada and the States who are freezing just now, I know that temperatures like that are no fun. I saw pictures on the news, and it looks really bad - take care, keep warm, and stay safe!

Here we had great weather yesterday - mild (14°) and sunny, even the wind was warmish. I decided to leave the H*******K for bad weather and went for a lovely walk to the park,  then down to the Rhine, and along the Embankment on the way back.

The buds are getting really big:

And more trees were in bloom:

The sky was an incredible blue:

And the ducks were enjoing being fed and petted at the corner of Market Street:

At So Artful challenges the theme this month is home with something a bit different, and at Moo Mania it is birds, so I think this little wooden house will satisfy both of them. I covered the house with TH tissue tape, and suddenly Miss Araminta screamed that she wanted to live there - so here she is, in her own home-sweet-home at last.

At FSC the theme this fortnight is raspberry, chocolate and cream - yummy!

I used a stamp from Scrolls Work, stamped with Adirondack espresso onto speciality stamping paper, distressed with ancient linen and Victorian velvet. I coloured the image with some Victorian velvet to give the effect of vintage, partly coloured photos. I stamped and fussy cut a second image, and fixed it over the first one with foam squares to give more depth. I matted the image with raspberry, cream and chocolate, which was mounted onto some paper from DCKW, which reminds me of Victorian wallpaper. I added lace in shades of milk and dark chocolate, some half pearls, and a raspberry bow.

 

And last, but certainly not least, some happy mail from Lonetta who sent me this wonderful New Years Card and a hand painted bookmark last week.

Thanks Lonetta, your creations are wonderful and will be treasured, the book mark is already in daily use!

Sorry, this post somehow got longer and looonger while I was writing it!

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

Sun, rain, winter and shelter

Hi everybody!

The weather is showing us a different face each day - yesterday we had sunshine and technicolor- blue skies, and I was able to visit my friends the ducks at Schloss Kalkum, and enjoy the lovely grounds.

 The Rhine was blue, too.

Today it was wet, wild and windy, but still very mild, and I saw several bushes and shrubs beginning to bloom. I wonder when winter will arrive?

It is another 'double Tuesday' today, time for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday, and a new tag at Tag Tuesday.  At TIOT the challenge is 'In with the new' - to use new stash, or try a new technique etc.

As usual, you have 2 weeks to join in, so hope to see some of you over there with new ideas.

I used a new image from Gecko Galz,  'Winter walk' from Winter Garden Collage Sheet 1. I printed the image onto matt photo paper, and matted it with mirri board and silver cardstock. I mounted it onto a 6"  purple card, which I made into an easel. I used twigs and berries collected on my walks as decorations, sprayed with 'snow' and tied together with a purple ribbon.

 Material list: 6" square card, card for matting, GG image, ribbon, twigs and berries.

(Tip: I put the freshly cut twigs and berries on the heating, and they dried and were ready to use in a few hours)

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is homes / shelters.

At first I wanted to make a house, and then I remembered this picture I had in my stash. I glued it to cardboard from a cereal box, gave it a coat of clear varnish, and then crackle glaze, which I distressed to make it look antique. I cut the middle part away, placed one of my photos behind the arch, and wrote the text of Psalm 91: 1.  I added some golden liquid pearls as a further embellishment.

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

Blues and birds

Hi everybody! 

Today I am showing some pieces made for various challenges. The first card is also another DT piece for Gecko Galz using some of the new January papers. I love the cold and frosty look of this image. The image and papers have been matted and fixed to a white 6" square easel card. I added some matching ribbons and made the stopper out of scraps of the matting paper. I am linking to Artful times, where the ladies want to see blue this time, and to Simon's Monday Challenge - blues

Materials used: white cardstock, blue leaf image from GG Winter Garden 2 collage sheet, background paper from BG Jewel it 2 sheet, blue cardstock and mirri board, ribbons, blue heart from stash.

 My second piece is an altered notebook. I covered it with DP from Anna Griffin, and used an image from the Gecko Galz Shabby Chic Garden 2 collage sheet. I matted it onto some bronze mirri board. The book mark has been made from the same image printed in a smaller size, and fixed to the notebook with a white ribbon. This shows how versatile the images are. This month is a 2 for 1 offer at the GG web site, and a great challenge with tempting prizes, so hop over and have a look!

I am linking to Moo Mania - where it is now allowed to use other formats - 'birds'

After a lot of rain yesterday, the weather cleared just before it got dark, and showed some blue sky - but it was the quiet phase before the storm, as we were later treated to heavenly fireworks with thunder and lightning and torrential rain. In some places hail stones fell, and a lot of damage was down when the wind ripped roofs off houses and uprooted trees.  I know there were awful storms in England, too. Here the weather is too mild for the time of year, and in parts of the States and Canada it is bitter, bitter cold - crazy climate!

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

Journal pages, rain and clouds

Hi everybody!

I have finished some more journal pages, in shades of green, blue and yellow - representing, for me, nature, water and light - the things I always enjoy so much on my walks. The pages were gessoed and then painted with acrylics using a piece of cardboard to spread the colours. I collaged some 'word-clouds' and cut outs from magazines. The tag was one made some time back, it just seemed to fit well here. The hot-air balloon is something that I often see here. The trees have been painted and doodled with a white highlighter and a gold pen. The Hebrew writing on the left side, which is rather diffcult to see here, says 'Tree of Life'. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, the light was really bad all day.

I am linking to AJJ 'silence', as I find my silence and peace outside in the nature around me, and to Paper Saturdays

After several sunny days, the last 2 days were wet and windy, but it was good to walk through the rain, along the Rhine, and just lose myself  looking at the ever changing clouds and sky, enjoying the peace and quiet. The chugging of the boats is a sound which does not disturb like the revving of a car engine and the sounds of traffic. I came home very wet, but happy.