Signs of Spring and Happy Mail

Hi everybody!

Spring is really springing here. The past 2 days have been a bit cooler, with a little rain, and that has really done the plants and flowers good. At SOARTFUL Challenge the theme is signs of spring, with shades of green and other colours.  I have made a collage of some of my photos and paintings of the past few days which I  then gave a springlike frame online, and now love it. I think I will print this one out and hang it up.

Today I discovered that my little Samsung camera has a video button,and tried it. I think I need to find the instruction booklet, as my filmed duck looks like it is on speed. Hope it is at least good for a laugh!

 

Same problem with the geese and the goslings!

I hope to soon be able to make a video which doesn't look like it has been left over from the early 1900s....

And I recently got Happy Mail. This card was sent from Diane. She sent it early, as the other cards she sent took loooooooong weeks to get here, so this one arrived in 3 days! Thanks Diane!

Christine sent me a get well card and present which was also on its way for four weeks. I think the customs are to blame, as they hold the stuff there for weeks before they put their little stamp on it and decide that it is really just a normal letter. I will have fun using all these nice embellishments, and the card she made is gorgeous. Thanks Christine!

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

Impressions of spring

Hi everybody!

Just a quick post this evening.

This little girl looks like the spring fairy. She has been stamped and clear embossed. Does EP get old? Mine is not embossing smoothly anymore. The background paper is from Gecko Galz's Solarium paper pack. It has been matted with black card from an old calendar and mounted onto some hand-painted background paper. I made it back in February for another challenge and couldn't find it, and it turned up under a heap on my table while I was looking for something else.

I am linking to FSC, 'Silhouettes'.

Outside all the trees and blooming and budding. This tree with different coloured blossoms is in a neighbour's garden:

The apple trees lining the fields behind the house  are blooming sweetly:

The path is not covered with snow, but with fallen petals, which were cascading round me as I walked along the path:

 

The lilacs belong to the house next door:

 

The trees in the park are in full bloom:

 

And this little fellow kept a watchful eye on me:

 

Hope spring will soon visit those places where it hasn't arrived yet!

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

Journal Pages, Pictures and an art project

Hi everybody!

The weekend is nearly here and I am sure some of you will be looking forward to it!

I made another mixed media journal spread using some 'paint mess' pages. I spilled a big dollop of terracotta paint, so used it to cover 2 pages, and then did a bit of brush wiping on top of that. I added the blue round the edges with oil pastels, as it looked a bit sad. I collaged lots of stuft, stamped Ryn's lovely bubbles, added fragments of text, and of course, Mr Umbrella Man had to join in again. The text is from Psalm 72:6,  *He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth*. I don't know why, but this text was floating around in my head as I made the page. I love the Hebrew poetry of the psalms, which repeats ideas using different words instead of rhyming.

I am linking to AJJ, Happiness, as there are lots of things here make me happy - the lovely stamp from Ryn which Sandy sent me, the animals, butterflies and birds, Mr U.M., and fragments of words.

Also linking to Paint Party Friday, Simons Monday Challenge (anything goes) and Paper Saturdays.

This morning I walked along the Rhine, and round by the church and heard a duck quacking from somewhere above my head. I looked up and saw a duck sitting on the top of a high wall:

The Hedge between my fave path and the school playground:

 

And last but not least, I am joining in a pay-it-forward art project. Here are the details, and I would be happy if some of you would join in:

* Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014 *

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.

You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

The rules are simple:
– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.
– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in between.

I'm paying this forward thanks to Marji  Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists.

First five, GO!

 Step 1Copy&Paste this (see below) as your latest entry on your favourite social website (in my case, its this blog) 

 
Step 2For the first five people who comment on your blog entry saying they want to participate, you will do an art trade with them that must be completed by December 31st 2014. I would count as the first person so technically you only need another four. If you find your friends are keen you can do as many as you want.


Step 3All forms of art count including creative writing , photography, digital anything goes!
 
If you have any more qustions, just email me and let me know

I hope you have all stayed awake through this long post!

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

Happiness is....

Hi everybody!

I'm happy to say that the nice weather is still with us, and that spring is springing all around us. I am making the best of it as long as it lasts. Hope you are all having some good weather too.

I made something different for Paint Party Friday this week. I have based my characters on those of the Street Artist Thierry Noir, who was one of the artists back in the 1980s who painted the awful wall dividing Berlin. The wall has long since fallen,  but parts of it have been preserved as the 'East Side Gallery' and is now a national monument.  He will be having an exhibition of his works at the Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch soon, so if any of you live nearby you might be lucky enough to get there.

The East Side Gallery / Berlin

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

I painted 2 creatures like his, and  have made mine face each other. And they are smiling, and carrying a flower - the artists has painted his 'people' carrying this sort of flowers often. I think I am wanting to show that meeting someone, smiling, perhaps giving a flower or a small present, is a way of giving and experiencing a moment of happiness. I have painted mine onto a sheet of paper with the brick pattern, which has been in my stash for ages. I just distressed the wall a bit. I used portfolio oil pastels, painted over with water to stop the colours smudging. The quote is from the Dalai Lama, 'Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from our own actions.'

I am also linking to AJJ - moments of happiness and Moo Mania and More - Twosome
and to Simon Monday Blog - anything goes

And finally a few pictures from today's walk:

Here you can see the pathway I showed yesterday taken from the other direction, and to the left, what used to be the old moat, and is now a part of the park.

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

Twosome

Hi everybody!

Just a short post today, as I need to get ready for yet another appt at the doc's.

But the weather is still lovely, so I will be able to enjoy my walk there and back.

At Moo Mania and More the theme is 'Twosome'. I have used one of the photos I made last week to make a card. I printed the photo of the twosome onto matte photo paper and matted it with scraps of black and blue mirri-card, and some hand-painted paper in greens and blues. Those geese are always in double pack, and really seem to practise synchronised movement!

 And a few more impressions from my walk yesterday;

This rock used to be a fountain, I am hoping they will get it working again:

  And I would love to know what this is is! An old ice-cellar perhaps? Or the entry to an underground shelter left over from the war? Or? What are your ideas?

 The lovley lane from the park to the Rhine:

That's all for today, take care of yourselves, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by.

Another double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

We had another beautiful spring day here, so I was once again able to walk along the Rhine and round about our little town. The nights are still quite cold, but it soon warms up once the sun comes out.

Our theme at Tag Tuesday this week is school days. As someone who spent many years at school, as a student and later as a teacher, I still have a soft spot for school themes, although I am happy that I don't have to teach any more.

This tryptich tag is one I made some time back, but as it fits the theme so well, I decided to post it again.

The second tag has been made from a piece of my precious Graphics 45 paper, which is very difficult to cut into! I mounted it onto some black card from an old calendar. I replaced the picture the little girl is holding with a little blackboard, after fussy cutting round her litte fingers so it looks like she is holding it. I added the second blackboard paper-clip instead of a band or ribbon. The images on the tag remind me of my own schooldays.

At TIOT our them for the next 2 weeks is to use some beading. I made a tag using seed beads and home made paper beads. The tag has been stamped, and then I put some glue on some of the background spots and sprinkled the seed beads onto them. I used some brown lace between the top and bottom layers of the tags, which were fixed together with an eyelet. The flower is from Prima, the wooden violin from Crafty Emblies and the lovely fibres from Sandy! The home made beads were made from scraps of embossed metallic paper.

 

Today a lot of the meadows along the Rhine were covered with dandelion 'fairy-clocks', a lovely sight. As kids we used to enjoy blowing the seeds away.

 This path along the top of Barbarossa Wall always reminds me of Lantern Waste in Narnia. Perhaps that's one reason why I so much love to walk along it - another link to my childhood.

That's all for this time!

Take care, have a good day, and thanks a lot for coming by!