Stars, clouds and a rainbow.

Hi everybody!

Another week has flown by and it's weekend already, and for me, time to get used to the fact that my Eye OP is on Monday....I have been busy getting stuff for challenges ready as I will not be able to do much for a few days (weeks?).

Yvonne sent me this beautful card with good wishes for my OP, which was a wonderful idea - thanks Yvonne!

This week I made more collages using images from old magazines on painted backgrounds. This is one which I have called  'Faces of the Night'. I chose the faces because they were so expressive. The quote is from Edna St. Vincent Millay.

And I made another zodiac sign piece for  AJJ. The background was a brush wipe page, to which I added some spray inks and glitter, and some scraps of written and printed paper, because I thought of the term, 'It's written in the stars'. The big stars were stamped and embossed with perfect pearls and outlined with a white gel-pen, the small ones drawn with a stencil. The image is from a free graphic from the web, and has been coloured with twinkling H2Os.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday and Paper Saturdays.

Today was mild, but cloudy, and I was able to get out for 2 good walks again, and clocked up 17000 steps. After I got home I looked out of the window and saw some really dark clouds to my left, on the right side the sun was shining and illuminating the trees. It looked quite scary, but after a few minutes of rain it got lighter again, and then the rainbow showed itself. The whole spectacle was over in quarter of an hour, but I did enjoy watching it from my balcony.

Here you can see a second, fainter rainbow above the first one:

Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Memories are like rusty, brown shadows

Hi everybody!

For the past few days I have been playing around with this little canvas, (6x6") on which I have used many photos of my family - great aunts and uncle, my mother, my great grandmother, a distant cousin and even one of me, which is hiding behind the layers, I covered the canvas with strips of old book paper and painted it with gesso, and then applied various photos by transferring them with gel medium. When it was dry, I rubbed  and wiped some parts off to make them more faded, and then added the next layer, together with some random stamping (some large numerals from TH). After that I put on the top layer, using a mix of gel transfers and images printed onto paper. This was once again wiped and rubbed, partly crackled, and then inked and rusted round the edges. Finally I added the fragments of the old letters, and stamped the dragonfly, which I embossed with copper EP. I wasn't too happy with it at first, as it did not stamp perfectly over the other layers, but then I decided that the partly broken and fragile look fitted well to the rest of the canvas. It did take a long time for such a small canvas, but I am happy with the results. Memories fade and become indistinct, and are layered and merged together, but they are still all there. I once asked my great Auntie Fanny what memories were, and she said that they were like rusty, brown shadows that never went away, therefore the title of this piece.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday and to Moo Mania. book pages (which are there, although you do have to look hard to find them under all the layers!)

Yesterday the weather was very mild, it was cloudy, but good 15°, so I enjoyed my walks and clocked up 14,5000 steps.

At the Rhine:

At the little lake - the white blob in the middle is a swan, I couldn't get nearer to take a better photo:

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

Old Book Pages

Hi everybody!
Hope not too many of you are still suffering under snow, floods and other natural disasters. This winter has been really hard for many people. We have been extremely lucky here and had a mild winter, and spring seems to be on its way.

The challenge at Moo Mania is to use old book pages, and at Artful Times it is 'boxing clever', so I have combined both challenges in this piece. I have used another of my Bresso cheese boxes - good that I eat lots of cheese! I covered the box with strips of torn paper, including some illustrated pages, using the strips in different directions. When it was dry I gave it a coat of diluted gesso, and then a coat of modpodge to seal it. I added some TH tissue tape with butterflies and music notes. I punched out 2 butterflies from black cardboard and book paper and layered them, adding some bead trim for their bodies and antennas. I added a strip of beading all round the rim to finish it off. The box has been photographed on an old Art Nouveau dictionary with a beautiful binding and endpapers.

Today the weather stayed dry again, so I was able to get out for my 2 walks again, and clocked up just under 16.000 steps. The picture here is showing a bronze relief on the town walls just opposite the little pier where the boats stop. It shows how the towpath and town used to look. The houses haven't changed that much, but the ships, and of course, today they do not need to be towed by horses, although there are still a lot of horses here.

Here's wishing you all a good day, whatever you are up to. Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

Today is double Tuesday again, which means for me that's it's time for a tag at Tag Tuesday and for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is insects - not my fave creatures, as I always think of little things creeping, flying and crawling around, but I do know how important many insects are for us, and some are really beautiful. I love watching dragonflies and butterflies, with their varied colours and shimmering wings, so I have them on my tags. I made 2 large tags, which belong together. The beaded dragonfly is one that Donna sent me from Mexico, and it made a nice decoration here.

The tags were distressed with DI in crushed olive, dried marigold and tumbled glass and then spritzed with water and dried. I stamped some little swirls in the bakground, but they are here hardly visible. The flower and dragonfly stamps I have used are from a set by Laurence and Morgan, and have been stamped in Archival black. I did a bit of colouring with prismalos and gel pens, and gave the wings some shine with Viva glitter liner. The large dragonfly is a diecut from TH, and has been made with hand-painted paper, the smaller one on the left is one that Diane made and sent me some time back, and fits here perfectly. The leaf and flower are from Prima. The lovely quote on the right tag is from Leonardo da Vinci.

I am aslo linking to FSC, build it up challenge, and have used 6 different stamps.

 At Try it on Tuesday our theme for the next 2 weeks is 'handmade', and must have some handwriting on it. I painted a large tag, and sprinkled it with fairy dust. The clouds, moon and houses were drawn with gel-pen, using a stencil that Sue sent me. The text has been written by hand, and the beads are also handmade.

The background has also been stamped and embossed with gold perfect pearls.

 I was able to enjoy 2 nice walks by surprisingly mild weather today, and clocked up 17000+ steps on my little gadget. When I walk along the towpath by the Rhine I love looking up at the little houses hidden behind the walls. But can you see what's on the wall?

Yes, it's a little canon, a reminder of the good old days when strangers were not always welcome!

I can't remember it being used recently!

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

Star signs and clouds

Hi everybody!

The weekend here went by very quickly. We had another great day, very windy, but sunny and quite mild, so I enjoyed my walks. This afternoon was crafting time, I need to get my Dt projects for next month done now before I go for my eye OP, as I will have to take a break after it for a few days at least.

This is a journal page I made last week for the 'Zodiac Signs' challenge at AJJ. This didn't turn out as I was hoping, but that's nothing new, and I think it's something we all often have to cope with. I painted the background with metallic colours, which look good, but are always hard to photograph. I drew the constellation for Sagittarius and wrote all the negative and positive attributes. A lot of them seem to fit me well, especially the negative ones! The large stras have been stamped and white embossed, the rest has been drawn with a white gel-pen.

The day started off with a wonderful morning sky:

 

People were once again out for walks, with their kids and horses....

 

The Rhine ships always take their cars for a cruise:

 

And the clouds were once again magnificent. I like how the rays of the sun are shining through under the dark clouds:

 

The park is full of crocuses:

 

And the evening sky rounded off a beautiful day.

 

Hope you all had a good weekend, too!

 Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!