The Age of Aquarius

Hi everybody!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

Today was another www day - wet, wild and windy. There were not many people out, so I enjoyed my wet walks, well wrapped up with scarves, duffel coat, cap and gloves, and a big umbrella. It was at least possible to use it today, yesterday I would have flown away like Mary Poppins if I had opened it! I managed 14000 steps, not quite my usual standard, but okay for this weather. And it's always nice to come home and get warm and dry, and drink hot coffee afterwards!

The theme at AJJ this month is Zodiac signs. Since I read the announcement, I have had a melody going around in my head - 'Aquarius'. As a child of the flower power age this was - and still is - one of my fave songs, and I have lost count of how many times I watched 'Hair'. So Idecided to try to paint it. I painted the background with various blues, including some metallic ones, which looks nice, but made it very hard to photograph. I used my rollergraph to stamp stars over the background, which I embossed with white EP and gold perfect pearls. I also stamped my fave swirls, as they fit good to stars. The aquarius image is an old woodcut printed onto tissue and glued on, the moon was drawn with the help of a dinner plate, and my glue-stick helped with the planets. The number 7 is of course, a magic number, and the moon is here in the seventh house.  I wrote the text with a white pen, but it sometimes looks golden because of the reflections; the whole thing was a nightmare to photograph, especially on such a dark and dismal afternoon! But I did have fun making it, and using plenty of fairy dust as star dust, glitter cream and gold ink!

              When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

I am also linking to Country View crafts, painty pleasures.

I didn't take many photos outside today, not easy when you are battling with wind and a giant brolly!

But I had to take this one - can you see what's sprouting on the tree?

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

Man's best friend

Hi everybody!

At Conny's Mix it Monthly the theme this month is pets, so I decided to do a page with dogs. I would love to be able to have a dog again, but it's not possible just now, so I will just have to keep walking on my own. The background has once again been made with a brush-wipe page, onto which I did some background stamping and embossing to give some texture. Then I gathered all the doggy pictures I found in my bit boxes, added a few other little animals for company, and a heart as it's coming up to Valentine, and it-was-on-my-table-and-kept-falling-off-and-now-it-can't-anymore-because-I-have-stuck-it- down-firmly! I must have picked that silly piece up at least ten times!

I am linking to Paper Saturdays and Mix it Monthly and Paint Party Friday

Today was a very wild and windy day, with gale force winds, rain and sleet. I went out for my shopping, and decided to walk home along the Rhine, where I had to keep my head down and battle against the wind. But then I had to cross over 2 open fields to get back to the street I live in, and the wind almost blew me off my feet, at one point I had to hold onto a signpost! But I got home safely, if rather wet and wind-blown. And it was beautiful watching the clouds racing by.

And I promised Sandy and a few others to add my flapjacks recipe, so here it is:

300 gramms of Rolled oats
50-75 gr. soft, brown sugar
about 150 gr. golden syrup or treacle (don't be stingy, more is better than less!)
200 gr. butter
half a teaspoon salt.
You can also add some rasins or nuts.

Melt the sugar, syrup, salt and butter in a large saucepan stirring well. Add the oats and mix well. Pour mixture into a baking tin lined with baking paper, spread out evenly (about 1/2" thick). Bake at 180° for about 25 mins. Cut into squares while still hot and leave to cool.
Enjoy!

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

A journal of many colours

Hi everybody!

Yesterday we had a wild, wet and cloudy day. In the morning I had a longish walk, and in the afternoon a rather shorter one, as the clouds looked  threatening and I didn't want to go too far. But I managed a walk along the Rhine, and enjoyed watching the sun trying to squeeze through the clouds. My total steps today were just under 18000, so I was pleased.

This week I have been playing a lot with paint, and little scraps of paper and gold leaf. I made a journal, using scrap card, which I textured with crumpled up tissue, applied with mod-podge, and then given a coat of gesso. When it was dry I daubed it with paint in blues, violet and metallic green. Then I added the scraps of old letters and books and the pieces of gold leaf before giving it all 2 coats of clear varnish to make it more durable. I divided it into 2 pieces to make the front and back covers, and lined the inside covers with some turquoise  textured card. I cut the pages to size and bound it all together with my BIA. The beads I have added as embellishment were some that Debbie sent me, and are hand-rolled from clay and beautifully painted - thanks a lot! They are perfect here. I have another journal ready, too, which I will show another day. I like playing around and getting painty and sticky.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and to Country View Crafts Challenge, painty pleasures.

The skies over the Rhine were really dramatic this afternoon:

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

Duck tales (tails) and an altered note book

Hi everybody!

Today started off very overcast, and in the course of the morning black clouds did their best to hide the sun. This afternoon the sun managed to take a front seat and beamed at us, sending the temperature up a few notches, which was pleasant. I was able to take 2 walks along the Rhine, and around our little town, where I explored all the little paths on or around the old fortified walls, and found a few corners which I hadn't seen before. And of course, I visited the ducks, they just seem to wait for me!

For one of my DT pieces at Gecko Galz I made an altered notebook. I used some background paper from my stash, and images from the 'Celtic Twist' digi-stamp set. I measured the notebook, and cut the paper exactly to fit the height, and  4" longer than the all round width, so I had enough to make 2 flaps inside to take tags or notes etc.  I used the image ct1 for the front and back covers, mirroring the image for the back. The tags have been made using ct22. The digi stamps can be printed out to almost any size. I glued the flaps with double sided tape.

The tags fit into the pockets at the front and back.

 Material list: Notebook, BG paper, Gecko Galz Images Celtic Twist 1 and 22, glue, ribbon, double-sided tape.

 The clouds today were really impressive and beautiful - 50 shades of grey?

The ducks were happy as always

 

There was a  picture was in our local paper today, showing 2 geese, who knocked on the door of a bus with their beaks and tried to get into it. No, they didn't want to go anywhere, but had seen that the driver, during his break, was unpacking his sandwiches! You can see the photos here.

And my ducks were waiting for me at the corner of Market street as always!

 

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

Double Tuesday with Double Shadows.

Hi everybody!

It's time for another double Tuesday at Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is Australia. For my tag I used  a painting in Aboriginal style which I made for a challenge last year.I cropped the image, and then reduced it to tag size. I gave the image a coat of clear varnish, and matted it with black card. I added the map of Australia and some ribbon and beads with a gecko charm which I had stashed away in one of my boxes. I knew I had it, the surprise for me is finding it at the right time!

 At Try it on Tuesday our theme is travel. As usual, you have 2 weeks to join in with the challenge. I have once again used TH's Mr UM, I don't know how often I have used this die cut, but it was a lot, and fits well to this theme. I have used a stamp from Scrollswork for the Sandwich-man, I love this combination of the 2 men, which I have also used many, many times. The background is corrugated card, painted with white gesso, and matted with burlap, ribbon and DP, and a liberal coat of embossed Utee. The image with the sentiment and cases is from CI. The ball-chain is also from TH, the beads have been made from dictionary paper.

 I am also linking to Artful Times - Tim Holtz tags, and Moo Mania, embossing.

My neighbour went walking with me again today, I think I have infected her with the walkie-bug.

The lovely avenue of trees along mossy grass verges was taken in the sculpture park, as was our double-trouble shadow picture.

The second double pic was taken along the Rhine Embankment.

We walked over 14000 steps, and this afternoon I went for a second, shorter walk, bringing my total to almost 20000. It was cold and frosty, but wonderfully sunny, and we really enjoyed being out and about.

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

A tag and a Sunday walk along the Rhine

Hi everybody!

Today was a Sunday which deserved its name - the sun shone all day, and although it was cold, it was good to feel the sun on my back while walking- 19000+ steps today!

There was a lot going along down at the Rhine :

Ships chugging along in both directions:

The ferry manoeuvering into position:

 

And people, dogs and even horses being taken for a walk:

 

The challenge at FSC is to make a tag. For my tag I used a leftover piece of textured paper. This is made by scrunching tissue paper onto thin card, fixing it with Mod Podge, and then painting it with gesso before colouring it as desired. I used various blues and some copper Inka gold to bring out the highlights.

Then I glued on fragments of printed and written paper and some gold leaf, and gave it a coat of clear varnish.

 

My image is a fairy stamp from Lost Coast designs, which Jeannette recently sent me. I stamped the image twice onto speciality paper from LaBlanche, fussy cut them, and fixed them together with foam squares. I used twinkling H2Os to colour her dress and wings.

I added some flowers to try to cheer her up, she doesn't look really happy!

I am also linking to Tagalong, favourite technique - one of my faves is making backgrounds like this.

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

Nice weather for the ducks

Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. It poured here today, so it was a wet walk and puddle-jumping day - not that I minded. We have to take the weather as it comes. I had a long walk this morning and a shorter one in the afternoon, and managed just under 16000 steps, so I was happy. There are less people around in 'bad' weather, so it's like having the world to myself. I only saw a few other all-weather crazy walkers and runners, and a couple of dogs tugging their glum looking 2 legged tin-openers along behind them.

The ducks, gulls and geese were happy.

 

 

At Gecko Galz there are lots of new papers, collage sheets and digi stamps for February, including images and papers suitable for spring and St Patrick's Day, so it's well worth taking a look. This card has been made with an image from the 'Artsy Jewels' sheet. the images can be enlarged and printed in the size you need. I matted it with a piece of blue coredinations paper, and some hand-painted paper in blue, green and gold. I chose a metallic card blank 7"x4". I added a blue bow and threaded some of my home made paper beads and a couple of glass beads onto the ribbon.

Material List: Image from Artsy Jewels, card and background paper for matting, card blank, ribbon and beads.

Here's wishing you all a great day. Take care, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!