Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Double Tuesday and more

Hi everybody!

After days alternating between hot and humid and torrential downpours and hailstones, Tuesday is supposed to be more or less normal - I hope so!

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is 'It's a man thing', and I have to admit that I nearly forgot it this time. I made a very quick tag this evening using ready made bits, scraps  and scrabble pieces. 



At Try it on Tuesday our theme for the next fortnight is 'Wish you were here'.
This reminded me of holiday postcards, so I made two using pictures from our little town:



And this piece is the first of my DT pieces for Gecko Galz for August. We have some lovely Japanese Collage sheets this month, and I used an image from Japanese Traditions 1. I used corrugated cardboard for the background, peeled and gessoed. The image was mounted onto a scrap of coredinations paper. The bird and flowers were fussy cut from a sheet of DP.  I kept this simple, as simplicity is the thing which always appeals to me in Japanese art.
(Material list: cardboard, peeled and gessoed, image, matting, ribbon, cut out or die cut images.) I am linking to Moo Mania and More, texture.




I did another nice tour along the Rhine this morning, it was cooler and there was a nice breeze blowing - delightful



And this afternoon I took another photo of the deadly nightshade, which is related to tomatoes and potatoes. 



Monday, 4 August 2014

Frida new and old

Hi you all!

The weekend is over, hope it was a good one for you!

I have another Frida Page to share today. The background has been painted with acrylics, into which I sprinkled some glitter. Later, when dry, I added more colour with oil pastels. The bird motive on the right is part of a napkin sent to me by Susi, I edged it with white highlighter to make it stand out better. I used the stencil from Stencilry again, this time using light colours on the dark background. The Frida on the left is made with a template from Stampington, using papers which tie into the nature / birds theme. 





Linking to Art Journal Journey, Frida and to Mix it Monthly, crazy dresses

This is a Frida journal-spread I made a couple of years back, just wanted to show it here as it fits the theme.






The first part of the day yesterday was great, in spite of the bad forecast, so I enjoyed a nice, long walk. The castle ghost was there again:



Lots of ships on the river:


My four footed friends were occupied with the serious business of grazing:


And I found a relative of the tomato, the deadly nightshade, growing in the fence near the stream:



And I am glad I was back home when the wind started, the skies went dark, and the rain started:


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

Sunday, 3 August 2014

And Frida again....

Hi Everybody!
Today it was hot and humid, so I went for my walk a bit earlier than usual before it heated up even more. I chose the path through the woods, and went to Schloss Kalkum to visit the ducks - and they were all busy sleeping, not even interested in being fed ! This afternoon the skies darkened and we had thunder, lightning, heavy rain falls and hailstones again, and it looks like tomorrow will be similar. I don't mind being out when it's raining, but not when there's thunder and lightning, so the worse case scenario for tomorrow will be a day spent crafting, cooking and reading!

Today I am sharing another Frida Kahlo journal page. I used a photo digitally changed to a pencil drawing, which I then superimposed onto another page of her diary. I find this page very moving, where she is missing her Diego so much. I then used water-colour pencils, oil pastels and a water brush to colour the face.  This time I let Frida speak, and didn't add any other journaling.






I am linking to Art Journal Journey, and to Simons Monday challenge, J is for Journal page.

The apples in the park are getting bigger day by day, I sometimes wish my arms were longer!


I love the seed heads  of the flowers:




Just one left!


  The path through the woods:



The church spire at Kalkum


The beautiful sky over the Rhine:


This picture reminded me of Red Riding Hood and the wolf - the little boy was hanging on to the dog, an Irish wolf hound, who was leading him gently along the path over the old fortifications - a boy's best friend.


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

Saturday, 2 August 2014

More from Frida Kahlo

Hi everybody!
We had another hot day here, but it was dry and no rain, so that's good - we will probably be needing our wellies tomorrow as they have once again forecasted rain, hail etc.

This is another Frida journal page. I got a stencil from Stencilry which I tried out on old calendar pages. Then I decided not to bin it, but to use it as it was, so I added more colour, flowers, some background stamping with a stamp dear  Chrissie sent me, and a quote from Frida Kahlo,  'I paint flowers so they do not die'. I used viva papercolor in burgundy for the stencil, and then filled in the little gaps with various colours using oil pastels. I used the same colours for  the doodled flowers. I am linking to Art Journal Journey  and to Manon's Paper Saturdays






The Rhine is riding high just now after so much rain, and it looks like there are swimming islands where the water has covered some parts of the shore. The swan evidently felt at home there.







Looks like some people were having fun building a driftwood shelter for Robinson Crusoe. I think this is a great way to get kids occupied in the holidays.


 Can you see all the seagulls? They were just bobbing along down river, there must have been hundreds of them:



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