Ice Art and a tag

Hi everybody!

We had a nice and frosty weekend here, with lots of sun, so I was able to enjoy long walks on both days. Both days started off with morning mist and frost on the fields, and I love looking at the frozen leaves and grass.

This was my favourite photo from my walk on Sunday, I love the way the water in the puddle has frozen - even puddles can be beautiful!

And a blue sky makes it just perfect.

I took this photo on the way home, this is a little street round the corner from here, and it looks like those horses were waiting to get on the tram! Perhaps they wanted more horsepower?

This was taken Sunday just before dusk....

And this was Monday evening.

 I do love to see the moon when it is still light!

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is Capital cities. But I made the mistake of  preparing  a tag for the theme decay, which is not due for 2 weeks,so had to shake out a very quick tag for this week. I chose New York. At least I now have one tag ready in advance. And I know it's NOT the capital of the States, but it's the capital city for me!

I used a scrap of painted paper, which I stamped and white embossed, and then added the Statue of Liberty. Can you see what I changed on her? The other embellies were in my stash.

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

Silence is golden

Hi everybody!

It ws much colder here today, but the sun was shining, and I was able to have a good, long walk, which I enjoyed very much.

This photo was taken from the park, and my shadow was in the fields on the other side of the road!

I made another journal page for the 'silence' theme at AJJ.

I have used a photo of a Buddha head that I used to have. I painted the background with grey and black, and then sprayed some purple and green inks onto it, added a few drips of gold ink and some glitter, and sprayed it all with water to make the colours move. I stamped into the background using various background stamps without ink while it was still wet. I printed the photo out and fussy cut it before glueing it to the background. Then I added some metallic accents round the head with Inka Gold in gold and gunmetal grey. I outlined the head with a gold gel pen, and wrote the Buddha quote with a white pen. I like the way it has turned out

This week I got another Christmas present from Diane - she sent it off in good time, the German customs evidently held it up for nearly 3 weeks - thanks guys! 

This beautiful card was in an envelope with a matching envie liner. It is a gate-fold care, with a wonderful hologram snowflake,  just gorgeous.

The snow queen is inside:

And this is my WONDERFUL pedometer - what fun I am having running around with this! Tonight it is showing that I did 17,901 steps today, so that was good! I have been wanting a toy like this for a long time - thanks Diane!

And lots of lovely goodies - CDs full of ideas, tips and tricks, shiny materal, little cards with dried flowers, wooden frames, super earrings, and a whole pile of stencils that she cut with her Zing - wow!

Thanks again for your kindness and thoughtfulness!

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

From dawn till dusk

Hi everybody!

Today (Friday) was a wonderful day, which started with a beautiful sky just before sunrise, continued with crisp, cool and sunny weather, with a wind that was fresh but not too aggressive, and made us a present of a lovely sunset over the Rhine, perfect! I was out for three walks, it was just too nice to stay home and do the planned H*******K, and I felt that I needed a relaxing day after my hospital eye-examination marathon yesterday, where I got 5 hours of exams and tests. I have a date for the cataract OP, February 24th, and will only have to stay one or two nights in hospital. It's a bit complicated as I have already had a lot of eye OPs, but I am sure it will go well.

So today really was a gift, and I made the most of it, who knows how the weather will be tomorrow?

My shadow was so long, it was on both sides of the stream!

The clouds were racing along, wonderful to watch, they seemed so full of energy!

And the Rhine was illuminated by the sunset.

This card is one of my DT pieces for Gecko Galz.  I used an image from the Winter Garden 2 Collage Sheet. If you buy images this month, you buy one and get one free, so hop over and have a look!

I painted some corrugated card with white emulsion paint and glitter. I mounted the image, which was printed onto matte photo paper onto bronze mirri-board and grey card, to pick out some of the colours from the image. For embellishments I used some half pearls, brown lace, and a golden ribbon. I added the photo of Erika, a distant relation who I cared for for years, as I thought she looked so much like the little girl in the image - their clothing is similar, too. Erika's photo was taken in 1916.

(Material list: cardboard, paint, ribbon, lace, image, paper for matting, embellishments)

I am linking to Paper Saturdays

Have a great day, take care, keep warm or cool as the case may be, and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!