Our feathered friends

Hi everybody!

Today started out cool and misty again, but by the time I was ready to go out the sun was out and trying to chase away the clouds. But it was a pleasant temperature for walking, and I enjoyed my walk to Kalhum to visit the ducks and geese, and then a stroll along the Rhine.

This is another of my FT pieces for Gecko Galz. I used an image from the Musical jewel it collage sheet and the background paper is from the Background Jewel it  2 sheet. I used dark grey mirri-card for matting the image, and mounted the BG paper onto a green card blank to pick out the green in the BG paper. For the embellishments I used a shabby bow, and a textile rose. The little birds have been cut using a MS punch from scraps of black card, mounted with foam squares and given gem-stone eyes. This card reminds me of spring and the birds making their music.

Material list: card blank, image and BG paper, paper birds, ribbon and flower, mirri-card for matting.

 The path through a patch of woodlands between our little lakes:

Flowers growing through the paving stones:

The goslings are nearly as big as their parents, who are still watching over them fiercely, and have managed to look after all of their children, none of the 8 is missing.

There are lots of lilly pads on the duck ponds and in the moat, and I am looking forward to seeing them bloom:

This fellow thinks he is boss and chases all the others away from 'his' pond:

Reflections:

And the stone lion was holding his nose into the sun:

As I got back to the Rhine the little pleasure boat was just taking on passengers for a trip to the old town in Düsseldorf. It's an enjoyable outing, but rather expensive, so I shall continue to walk....

Hope you enjoyed 'our' Sunday walk today, I enjoy taking you with me!

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

Mixed bag for the weekend.

Hi everybody!

I am sitting here trying to write my blog and getting very frustrated because either my ancient lap-top or Blogger or both are on a go-slow, and everything is taking ages to load. Well, I just hope it doesn't get worse!

This altered journal is another of my Gecko Galz DT projects. I used a ready made journal  (6x4"), painted the edges with bronze metallic structure paste, and then covered the front and back covers with some scrunched up bronze metallic paper from my stash. The beautiful image is from the musical jewel it sheet. I matted the image onto some bronze mirr-card and blue card-stock. I love the combination of browns and blues. I embellished the spiral with some ribbons in brown and blue.

Material list: Journal, paper for matting, image, structure paste and bronze paper.

Today started out cool and misty, and the sun chased the mist away bit by bit. This was the view from my window when I got up.

On my walk today I took some photos of the old tombstones, which are set into the wall around the church of Saint Swidbert.

And inside the church I saw the pattern of light from the stained-glass windows falling onto the stone floor.

I met this little beetle as I left the church, it's about an inch long and was so sparkly with its striped suit in metallic optic. Not a good photo, it didn't want to stand still for me!

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

Happy colours and sparkling images

Hi everybody!

It's weekend again, the weeks seem to fly by more and more quickly the older I get.

This morning started out cool and misty, but in the afternoon the sun came out and the skies were blue again. The green of the fresh grass and trees is just overwhelming, and I can't see enough of it. The first green of the leaves is always such a special, intensive colour, just wonderful.

The two cards here are part of my DT work for Gecko Galz this month. These images have been printed onto some of my hand-painted and stamped background papers. The ink stays wet for some time on the acrylic paint, so it is possible to emboss it after printing.  I used tinsel hologram EP. The images are from the silhouettes stamp set. Strangely enough, I have 2 of the images as stamps as well, but the digi-stamps have the advantage here that they can be printed in almost any size, which makes them very flexible. I matted the images with dark grey mirri card, and used card-stock in petrol and purple for the cards, to complemet the colours in my background paper. I used coordinating ribbons and flowers as embellishments.

Material list: Image SO8 from Silhouette stamps, hand-painted

BG paper, EP, card-stock. scrap paper for matting, embellishments.

(Material list: Image SO6, card-stock, hand-painted BG paper, EP, embellishments, scrap paper for matting.)

I am linking to Paint Party Friday and AJJ, happiness, as these are colours which make me happy again and again, and to Paper Saturdays

This is taken from the old walls looking down into what used to be the moat - can you see the horses grazing?

The path along the wall:

In the park:

Wishing you all a sunny weekend!

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

Playing with colours

Hi everybody!

The week is racing by, and I have had a busy week doing this and that and not really getting anything finished! I made some backgrounds using lots of colours, that was fun, and I hope that I will get round to finishing them next week. I see a lot of figures lurking in the first one....

What will this one be? I had fun heating and bubbling the colours to give some texture.

And I think this will be an underwater world:

This one is more or less finished, I painted another 2 figures like those I did last week inspired by Thierry Noir. But I like the background best, once again heated and bubbled to give texture.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and kristin, and to AJJ, hosted by the sweet Susi, 'Happiness', as these strange figures make me happy.

And here are some photos from my walk this morning.

Walking through the fields:

I loved this view looking over the roof of the old Langer Hof at Kalkum to the church spire:

And of course, I had to visit my ducks and the Schloss where they live:

And on my way home through the park I saw a crane sitting on the roof of one of the neighbouring houses, not a very frequent sight. I watched it for a few minutes till it spread its wings and flew away towards the Rhine.

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

Tag Tuesday

Hi everybody!

Another week has flown by and it's time for a new edition of Tag Tuesday. Our theme this week is

'The fantastic and strange'. My first thought was yikes, what do I do for this? My

second thought was much the same!

In the end I remembered a picture in one of my strange books. It's called 'The infinitely great and the infinitely little and was published in 1885. There are a lot of engravings of all sorts of things, animals and places that were surely weird and wonderful to the people reading it back then.

My fave illustration when I was a little girl was this one, and especially the caption under it, which reads, 

'Gnomes of the German Legends laying bare the skeleton of an ichthyosaurus'

I was most astonished that a book which was supposed to be scientific, was talking about German gnomes! I have seen a lot here, but mostly in people's front gardens....

Anyway, to cut a long story short,  I used the picture to make my tag. 

The clean shoes are to change into so as not to take too much dirt home to their house, where I presume they were living with  Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, who kept house for them. And they probably found the skull during the excavations....

This wonderful tree is standing in the garden of the Florence-Nightingale Hospital

The rape seed is already flowering along the Rhine:

And I was once again fascinated by the wonderful clouds this afternoon

And last but not least, I have managed to open my Etsy shop. I started it in 2011, and have just got round to putting in some stock, so I would be happy if you would take a look, and even happier if someone would buy something! Bit by bit I shall be adding more items.

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