Everything but the kitchen sink.

Hi everybody!

It's weekend again, I know some of you will be looking forward to some time to relax and play. As a pensioner I have weekend every day!

Thanks for all the good wishes for my eye-hospital appointment,  the post operative control was okay, and the retina on my left eye was lasered to stabilise it. It was all rather strenuous, but I'm happy it's over and done with till the next time!

Yesterday I finished  doodling the images on my Journal-page, and I like how it has turned out.

Today I am had time to play again, so made a collage using the other half of the brush-wipe page I used yesterday. I printed the image of the lady with hat, after reducing some of the decorations digitally. Then I threw everything I found flying around on my table onto it, after stenciling the background with diamonds, numerals and alphas. I added some scraps of old letters too, and a fussy-cut TH bird which I stamped with Archival black. I am linking to AJJ - fantasy scene and to Paint Party Friday,

and Paper Saturdays

On my way to the Eye specialist this morning I met this little fellow on the path near the Old Ferry. He let me get quite close, too. I love how the fur blends with the colour of the earth:

And then he decided to dive back into his burrow:

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

Journal pages

Hi everybody!

I spent a lot of time walking around yesterday, had to visit various doctors, but they all have their offices at nice places, so I do enjoy the walking, even if it was a bit much  - 18000 + steps!

Today I have my next appointment for examinations and treatment at the eye clinic, so that should supply me with plenty of exercise to get there and back!

This journal page has been made for 2 challenges - 'childhood' at Moo Mania and More, and 'Fantasy scene' at AJJ. The background was painted with leftover colours, and then I used stencils with a white gel-pen for the images and writing. Some of the images have been doodled, I think I will doodle the other images, too when I have time.

 The background for these  journal pages were brush-wipe pages. The colours were rather hard, so instead of painting over them, as I usually do, I used some cut outs from a magazine in fitting colours which have been languishing in one of my folders for many moons.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

And here are a few photos from my journey today - 

A wonderful willow:

The farmers are all busy ploughing and getting thir fields ready:

I saw these buds down by the old ferry, I hope to see what they turn into next time:

The trees are getting greener from day to day:

And I saw this pretty ceramic house number:

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

Memories

Hi everybody!

Today was a cool and windy day, but good weather again for walking, and it's always good to come home and warm up with a hot coffee before doing some painting and crafting.

I have made a little memory frame for the childhood challenge at Moo Mania and More.

I used a childhood photo of Erika, a distant relation who I cared for for some years before she died. I love this photo of her in her winter coat and muff, and have used it in many projects. It must have been taken in winter 1916. I made several of these frames some time back, but always gave them away, so this time this one if going to hang on my memory wall and stay with me. I added a TH swivel pin with chain, and a token.

 The reverse shows part of an old family document from the early 18th century.

Yesterday I showed this picture of a little path I discovered on my walk. I somehow hadn't noticed it before, and when I saw it was called Max Clarenbach Weg (Weg = path, lane) I wanted to explore it. Max Clarenbach was a German painter, (1880 - 1952) who studied and was later a professor at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, and was famous for his expressionistic paintings of the Rhine and its landscapes. He was born in Neuss, and lived and died in Wittlaer, the next little village along the Rhine from here.

The path leads down to the Rhine, with tall hedges and walls screening some large and elegant villas on the right, and fields on the left.

Once again, I found some very interesting walls:

 The hedges were really huge:

 

 This mossy wall had lots of little recesses - I wonder what they were used for?

At the end of the path I turned into a little lane next to a pub, and saw this relief of the artist on the wall, so this was evidently where he lived, and the pub is one which he often visited.

The lane leading to the Church:

The 'Schwarzbach' , the stream flowing into the Rhine:

The landsape with trees which is so typical for here:

Looking back to the village from the tow-path along the river:

A painting of Max Clarenbach,looking towards Kaiserswerth, and showing that the landscape has not altered much:

 You can see more of his paintings  here

Hope you enjoyed our walk today!  

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

Double Tuesday again

Hi everybody!

Today is the beginning of a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday, and the theme is music. You have 2 weeks to get your creative juices flowing and make something for our challenge. At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is spring flowers.

For TIOT I made an easel card. I used some speciality stamping paper from LaBlanche, and distressed it with gradient colours using tumbled glass, Victorian velvet, wild honey and forest moss. I stamped it with a music stamp (LaBlanche), and then printed a digi-stamp 'music of love' from Gecko Galz over it. I matted it with black card from an old calendar, mounted it onto a pale yellow card and added some ribbon and a flower as embellishments. I added the sentiment to the stopper (sorry, don't know from which firm the stamp is)

I made a tag for Tag Tuesday last week, and then couldn't find it when as I wanted to take a photo of it. So I made  a second tag, and as I was rummaging on my table to find the ribbon, I found the first tag. Now I have 2!

The first tag has been made from scrap card from the recycling bin, which has been distressed with tumbled glass, faded jeans, dried marigold, wild honey and crushed olive. (The scrap card has been distressed, not the recycling bin!) I smooched it through some water, dried it, and repeated the procedure till the colours were right. I stamped it in layers, using the palest colours in the background and the darkest ones at the front to give depth. I started by stamping some foliage from a tree stamp (LaBlanche) along the sides and bottom edge with crushed olive. Then I stamped a layer of plants from a Stampendous TH set with Archival olive, and then did the top layer, with more stamps from the TH set using Archival black which I clear embossed. The flourish at the top, the butterflies and the quote were also done with black. I added a bit of colour with some gel-pens, some textile flowers, a beaded stem and a butterfly as embellishments.

 The second tag has a background of peeled and painted cardboard. The BG paper is one of Astrid's lovely Freebies which she generously offers from time to time. I added a vintage image, a TH bird, stamped and fussy cut, with a beady eye,  and lots of flowers. Here everything is flowering just now, even roses, it is really unbelievable, but lovely, and my tag is a tribute to it.

The full moon beguiled me last night, and I couldn't sleep, and watched an ancient movie, 'The Mummy', with Boris Karloff. I have seen it before, but I love these old films!

This is a little path I discovered  and explored on my walk today, I will tell and show 

you more about it tomorrow.

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

Birds, blossoms and bark

Hi everybody,

I wish you all a good start in the new week.

Today I am showing another DT card I made for Gecko Galz, this time for the cross promotion with Jodie Lee, who is offering a beautiful set of papers, 'Nature's Garden'.

I have combined it with an image from the Shabby Chic Gardens Collage Sheet 1. The image and the background paper have been matted with dark brown mirri-card, and mounted onto a 6x6" white card blank. I see that I used the BG paper upside down, but it still looks good - I made the card before the eye OP! I wanted to keep this card simple and in neutral tones.

My material list: white card blank, mirri-card, image, BG paper from Nature's Garden number 6, and the die-cut swirls.

 

The fields behind the house where I live have bushes along one side, and at the moment they are all blossoming - so pretty:

 

The tree bark fascinated me, it has such wonderful colours and textures:

 

And this is something I have never seen before - a nettle growing in a hollow tree:

 

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