Looking to the skies

Hi everybody!

Hope you are all safe and warm, and that those who are snowed in at home are finding time for crafting and doing nice things. It has been a strange day here - after a night of heavy rain and howling winds, today was very blustery, but mild and dry. This morning we had 15°, this evening at 6pm it was 17°, quite astonishing for the middle of February, so I was out walking a lot, enjoying being blown by the wind and warmed by the sun at the same time. I managed 16000 steps, so that was fine.

At Moo Mania the theme is old book paper. I have made a rather grungy mini key-ring book. The covers have been cut from corrugated card covered with book paper, the images inside are all printed onto paper, and are are from Gecko Galz. I cut the inside pages exactly to Moo size and the covers a little bit wider. I glued 2 pages back to back each time to give them more stability. I finished them off with some TH metal embellishments.

The sky was really wonderful, the clouds were racing over the sky, and really fascinating:

There are clumps of snowdrops and crocuses everywhere, they have opened up overnight.

 

And I found some more strange fungus growths:

I have never found one like this before, the colours were just wonderful. I climbed up a mossy bank to get the picture, and a little boy passing by with his Mum asked, 'Mum, what's she doing up there?' Mum answered, 'We don't want to know!' Well, at least you all now know what I was up to!

Stay curious, stay safe, have a great day, and thanks a lot for coming by!

And another collage....

Hi everybody!

Hope you are all keeping warm and safe; I know there have been more floods in England, and snow-storms in the States - hope your weather will soon be better. I got soaked going out yesterday as we had quite a downpour here, so I sat in the kitchen and made another collage to dry off and warm up. I used the same painted and embossed background as in yesterday's collage, and more magazine cut-outs. I get the magazines from a neighbour, who gets them from a friend, and as I am at the end of the row I can cut them up afterwards, and they give me a good supply of material for collages. The image at the bottom right is a Gecko Galz one, it fitted nicely.  I wanted to show how women in different parts of the world live different lives, and sometimes I think it's a pity that we don't always take enough interest in others, but just concentrate on our own pleasures and problems. I used some rub-ons as embellishments, and some self-adhesive alphas and leaves.

Here you can see the double spread with the collages from yesterday and today - they were not made to match each other, but still seem to complement each other well.

Today it was dry, and cloudy/sunny, so I was able to enjoy 2 good walks, with a total of 17000 steps. Right now the wind is howling, and will probably be blowing more rain clouds along.

I am linking to Paper Saturdays and Paint Party Friday

This lovely chap really posed for me - I paid him in bread and salad!

More budding hedges:

The sky was wonderful again:

And I loved the growths on this tree trunk, they look like shells:

Have a great day, whatever you are up to, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

And they called it puppy love....

Hi everybody!

Today the weather looks dismal, and  'they' have threatened us with rain, storms, sleet and snow showers, but tomorrow should be better, and on Saturday we will be getting warm winds from the south. Nothing like a bit of change, is there? Sorry about all those in England and France, where there has been severe flooding, and in the States, where the snow storms continue to disrupt life.

Yesterday was the usual wild/cloudy/ windy weather, but it was good to walk about in. We started off with a beautiful morning sky and sunrise, which never ceases to fascinate me.

In the afternoon I was not in a good mood - I dropped the milk, broke a cup, and could find nothing that I wanted on my table as it is was so full of clutter. So I worked on one of my brush-wipe pages with some background stamping and embossing, and then threw on a lot of the mess I found - various images, magazine cut-outs, rub-ons, a little photo frame and some vintage scraps, and made it into a collage, which I have given the grand title of 'And they called it puppy love....'. I am linking to Conny's 'Mix it Monthly' - pets challenge, although the colours are not quite as she was expecting, and to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin. I still have enough on my table to collage all the walls in my apartment, perhaps I should do it!

When I had finished I went for another walk round our little town, and came home to a nice cup of cappuccino and a slice of cake, which I think I deserved after completing more than 14000 steps. The clouds were being chased across the sky again, I love to watch them.

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

Here we go round the mulberry bush....

Hi everybody!

Today was a sunny, but rather windy day, and good weather for walking. I enjoyed 2 nice walks along the Rhine and through our little town, making a total of almost 16000 steps. I was even able to sit on a bench in the sun, that was a good feeling! We have stormy weather on the way, so it's good to be able to make the best of the good days. And in between walks, I got three loads of laundry done, running down and up the 52 stairs to the basement each time, which is also a good training!

This card is one of my DT pieces for Gecko Galz this month.  The image is from the Arty Jewels collage sheet. I matted it with coredinations paper and then a piece of hand-painted paper, which complements the colours of the image. I used a 6" green card blank, and some netting to make the bow.

My material list: 6" card blank, image from Gecko Galz, coordinating paper, hand-painted paper, netting, textile flowers.

On my walks through the town I often go over the old walls and fortifications, and discovered this strange tree, which has been propped up with brick supports. It's a white mulberry tree, which is evidently quite rare. This one was planted 100 years ago by silk weavers in Kaiserswerth, as the silkworms like to feed on the leaves of this tree. The sign tells the history of the tree and that these trees were imported to Europe from Japan and China. The tree is a protected species. I will be watching it now, and take more photos when it gets leaves and bears fruit.

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

Hearts for Tag tuesday.

Hi everybody!

Our them at Tag Tuesday this week is 'hearts'. Hmm, not really my fave theme, I am not a romantic type, but as Valentine's Day is drawing nearer, I played with hearts...

The first one was made with a heart cut from corrugated cardboard, partly peeled, painted white end embossed onto the wet paint with Frantage shabby pink. The die-cut wings were given the same treatment. I cut a second, smaller heart out of a fabric scrap, and then threw on all the pink flowers I had, a key, and some pink ribbons.

The second heart is a die-cut chipboard one, which has been languishing in one of my boxes for a long time. I painted it in blues and greens, and then sprinkled it with glitter, and added some crackle varnish. This time I threw on all the blue and white flowers I could find, and some beads instead of a ribbon.

Also linking to the Cheerful Stamp pad, Valentines

Here's wishing you all a good day, take care, and thanks for coming by!

More of the blues

Hi everybody!

After a wild and windy weekend I hope that the coming week will be  a bit calmer, I would prefer not to have to battle against the wind when walking! But I suppose it is better weather here than in many places, where people have been snowed up for weeks, or have been flooded.

This is the second journal I made last week, using blues and purples. I made this one a bit differently. After I had textured the background with tissue paper, I added some of the UFOs (untidy, flying-around objects) from my table to give even more texture, before painting it and adding the printed and written scraps and the gold leaf. I made 2 pockets on the inside covers, and 2 matching bookmarks, trimmed with ribbons and hand rolled beads. Sorry about the bad photos, the weather is not good for taking photos!

Front:

Inside cover:

Inside  back cover:

 Back:

Both journals together:

Here a lot of people seem to take their horses out for Sunday walks:

And more trees are budding:

I saw daisies and clover in the grass, too, and lots of snowdrops and some crocuses.
Thanks for all the nice comments on my 'age of aqarius' yesterday - it was a nice thought that a lot of people were joining in the singing !

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