Hearts and flowers

Hi everybody!

We've had a couple of cold and damp days here, not good for the aches and pains of my old body. I still went out for my walks, clocked up 15000+ yesterday but only 13000 today - it rained too hard. But I did a few kilometres on my stepper to make up for it, although being outside walking is, of course, much nicer.

I like to eat Bressot Camembert cheese, which always comes n pretty little round, cardboard boxes, which are really too good to throwaway. I re-purposed 2 of them. I gave the lids a coat of off-white emulsion paint as a base.  I used structure paste to make the diamonds with the stencil Diane gave me, and then gave it a coat of pink paint. Isprinkled on some Frantage shabby pink embossing powder, and then used some Inka Gold in  gunmetal grey to tone it down a bit. The rose was stamped twice using the free stamp from Craft Stamper (thanks Sandy!), coloured with water colours and then given some sparkle with glitter paste before being fussy cut. I mounted the roses over each other with foam pads to give more depth. The wings are a TH die-cut, painted silver, and the heart was made in a mould (mold for those on the other side of the big pond!) using candle left-overs. I painted it pink to match the box, and swiped it with the gunmetal grey. By the way, it's not a good idea to speed up the drying of the paint using a heat-gun on wax....A little strip of lace was used as an embellishment, and now it is ready to begin its second life with a chocolate marzipan heart in it....

I am linking to FSC, Hearts and flowers.

The second box has been covered with a silver doily, and the sides with a strip of paper from Basic Grey's True Love digital set,  pp1. Gecko Galz is doing a cross promotion this month with these products, and you still have time to enter the challenge on the GG website.

I stamped flowers from the paper, and heaped them on top of the box, placing half pearls in the centres of the top ones. I gave the paper round the edge a coat of paper varnish to make it more durable.

This was a quick and easy make over, and has made another home for a chocolate Valentine heart....

I am linking to Manon's  Paper Saturdays

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

He-Art-ShAdow Men

Hi everybody!

Thursday started off here cold, misty and damp, so my morning walk was rather chilly at the beginning, but still nice. In the afternoon the sun came came out and lured me out for another walk, so I clocked up 17.000+steps again, another 8 miles. But I must admit I am always super hungry when I get back, and had to eat carrot cake to replenish my energy levels.

I had fun visiting my feathered friends, as always.

I love how these two are snuggling together, they let me get right up close, too!

Waiting for the boat.

 Once again, all the gulls are looking in one direction, except for an odd man out in the middle, he was watching me.

For Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, I have painted a set of two canvases, each 15x7 1/2". I painted the backgrounds with a warm cream, and used various shades of brown for the shading and framing. I used my diamond stencil from Diane with structure paste, and highlighted it with cinnamon Stickles. I used my own stencils for the men, and drew them with charcoal, adding a bit  of colour with some brush strokes and  using punchinella as a stencil. I used pastel chalks to add more colours. I have called this set He-Art ShAdow Men. I am linking to Simon Monday Challenge -  'A' is for....and to Country View Challenges, Monochrome.

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by, your visits and comments are always much appreciated!

Moustache you a question....

Hi everybody!

My finger is feeling better, and the big bandage is off, I just have a plaster now, which makes things a lot easier.

Today was cold, damp and misty, but I enjoyed my 2 walks along the Rhine, and clocked up 16.000 steps, that's good 8 miles again, so I was happy. Not many people were out and about, but my quacking friends are always there:

A neighbour for whom I sometimes make cards brought me two boxes of elements and cardstock last week, one for men and one for women. It is stuff which I wouldn't have bought myself, but will be great for quick cards. I made some up straightaway, before chopping my fingers veggies, so here are the first masculine ones, all with moustaches:

#1

  #2

 #3

There was a #4, but it went off with my neighbour before I got round to taking photos!

They are quite fun, and I think it is good to have a few ready in my card box.

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

Not so Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

It's time for another edition of double Tuesday, with my tag for Tag Tuesday and my DT piece for Try it on Tuesday.
Thanks for all the good wishes for my finger. I am not usually so clumsy, but as I can't see much on the left side at the moment, accidents seem to happen. I hope it will be easier after the eye OP.

Well, my tag for Tag Tuesday is not finished, and I can't finish it just now, as my poor, cut finger is playing me up a bit. Our theme is myths and legends, and I started on a tag with giants and brave knights, so I asking you to IMAGINE the tag this week - sorry!

But while we are on the subject of Tag Tuesday, the lovely Mo, a fellow Tag Tuesday member, sent me a wonderful parcel last week with lots of goodies, including a beautiful calendar-tag - which I have here on my desk, hand-printed and painted papers, designer papers, pergament paper and tissue paper, gorgeous serviettes for scrapbooking, embellishments, vintage book pages and more. Thank you so much for your kindness Mo, I will have great fun using all these goodies in my work.

I am pleased that I managed to finish my DT piece for TIOT before I cut my finger!

Our theme is celebrations, and I have made a little book celebrating Valentine's Day.  The covers are made from chipboard, which have been textured using embossing paste,  painted, distressed, stamped, partly embossed wth frantage gold etc. etc. I used a mix of white paper and DP for the pages.

Front cover:

Inside front cover - I cut all those little flowers out and placed them over each other with foam pads to make a littly posy; the background has been stamped, and partly embossed with frantage and perfect pearls.

Back cover:

Inside back cover:

I crackled and distressed all the images;

I  am also linking to FSS, 'hearts and flowers'

That's all for today, thanks for coming by, have a great day and take good care of yourself!

Journal Page 'Silence'

Hi everybody!

Just a short post today, I cut my finger rather badly while chopping veggies, yuck - had to wash the veggies again!  It didn't hurt at first, but it's throbbing away now. I had to walk to the hospital to get it stitched. But on the positive side, the walk added another  2800 steps to my pedometer, making a total of 16.000 today.

I made this page last week for the 'Silence' challenge at AJJ 

The background has been painted with acrylics, sprayed, stamped and stenciled. The print fragments are from old books and letters and stamps. I added some Hebrew alphas, which are also floating around in space. The figures and head were drawn with a white highlighter pen.

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

A morning surprise and a card

Hi everybody!

I often get woken up early on Saturdays by the parcel postman, who is trying to deliver parcels to other people who aren't home or are still snoring. When my bell rang this morning, I rolled out of bed and stamped to the door ready to beat him into a jelly - at least verbally - and then saw that the parcel was for me! It was a wonderful surprise from Sandy, who sneakily didn't even tell me that it was on its way!  The box was filled to the brim with wonderful goodies:  a huge packet of giant tags (woohoo!), a little votive house building set, a gorgeous tag made by Sandy,  Frantage embossing powders, paper stomps for blending pastels (my finger will be happy about them!), a little block to make an icon, TH paper clip, a glue-stick, 2 gorgeous CI stamps (now I will not be able to make the excuse that I have neither partridge nor pear tree next Christmas), a magazine with a free stamp, glassine paper, tissue paper, painting boards, and a HUGE pile of cardboard. I am only telling you all this to make your mouths water!

And this tag is so gorgeous, it looks like me staggering home with my bags of shopping!

Sandy, thank you sooooo much for your kindness, I always love the beautiful comments you leave on my blog, and you made this old girl really happy with your gifts today!

We had wonderful weather again - cold and frosty but sunny, so I had a long walk this morning, and a shorter one along the Rhine this afternoon, and clocked up 18.000+ steps on my pedometer.

I visited the dilapidated castle again, I am always fascinated by the light and shadows and reflections there, and of course, I needed to take some bread and salad to the ducks!

The rest of the day was spent crafting, working on three different projects at the same time, and none of them are finished yet. The card here is one I made this week for a challenge at Gecko Galz Paper Craft Challenges Group. The image and backing paper are both from Gecko Galz collage sheets, mounted onto some card in a coordinating shade of blue. The birds are from the 'butterflies and birds' and  'beautiful birds' collage sheets, and the background is from 'shabby chic garden 1'. One of the birds has been fussy cut twice, and placed on top of each other with foam pads to add more depth. I added a matching ribbon and some half pearls. I made a seal for the envelope using a digi  from the 'for the birds' did stamp set.

I needed to do something with bold and bright colours!

I am linking to Simon Monday Challenge, Anything goes.

If you have stayed with me to the bitter end, take 10 points, give yourself a pat on the back and go to the top of the class!

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

Ducks and Dance

Hi everybody! 

Another week has sped by, and the days flow along like the Rhine - sometimes sunny, sometimes grey, but always different and interesting.

Today I visited some of 'my' ducks again, and then walked for a while along the Rhine before going to our little market to do my weekend shopping.

Cloud s and blue sky chased each other all day, but it stayed dry, and I managed good 15.000 steps, which made just over 7 miles.

 

Back home there was plenty of time to turn my tidy kitchen into a creative chaos scene, which I will have to clear up before I go to bed this evening. I have made this hanging for the 'monochrome' challenge at Country View Crafts, for which I chose shades of  reddish-brown wth black and white. I peeled and distressed my cardboard, and partly painted it with aged mahogony, onto which I sprinkled some gold perfect pearls for highlights. I added some background stamping using the same colour of distress ink. The image is from Crafty Individuals, and has been stamped with archival black onto speciality stamping paper and distressed with a mix of fired brick and aged mahogony. I mounted onto some scraps of black and dark red card, which I then matted with some hand-painted paper, a piece of vintage book paper and some dark red card. I used a Martha Stewart punch on the edges. I carried on the colour theme with some red flowers, silk buttons and fibres.

I am also linking to Paper Saturdays

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