The forest is dark and deep

Hi everybody!

I have a scheduled post today for my first entry for the new challenge at Susi's  Art Journal Journey, 'Deep in the forest', co-hosted this time by Sheila.

I worked hard last week preparing stuff in advance because of the OP.

Update

The OP went well, thanks to all who left comments with good wishes. The 'nasty bits' have all been removed, and now it just needs to heal.

For me forests are dark, deep and magical. As a child I loved the fairy tales, and all the creatures who lived in the forest, and was quite disappointed later when I learnt that not all forests were populated by fairies and witches, families of talking animals, elves and gnomes. The background of my picture was painted with left over colours from other projects, and then repeatedly sprayed, dripped and dried, to give many colours and layers. I stamped over part of it with a crackle stamp to give the semblance of foliage. Then I outlined the drips using an electric blue gel-pen. The small leaves falling from the trees have been stamped, and then outlined with a black fine-writer. I drew and painted the little toadstools, and then added my 'inhabitants'. I think I have stayed a child at heart, and still love making magical pictures.

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

Some autumn impressions from the past days:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by.

Another Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

I have a hospital appointment today for a little operation on my right arm, so will not be able to get round and visit your blogs today, and perhaps for a couple of days. I don't know how I will feel afterwards, and how sore my arm will be, so I will catch up with you all when I am fit.

Today is another double Tuesday, that means new challenges at Try it on Tuesday and and at Tag Tuesday. At TIOT our theme is animals, and you have 2 weeks to create something, so hope lots of you will join in.

I made a large hanging, using an image of the 'Bremer Stadt Musikanten' (The Bremen Town Musicians, a German fairy tale). I printed the image onto some printed linen, and fringed the edges. I painted some scrap cardboard with rust Vivacolor and embossed the corners with Frantage aged gold. I sewed the linen to the cardboard, and sewed on a strip of braided string to hang it up. The beaded embellishment was once on a T-shirt many, many years ago, and has been recycled here. 

I am also linking to Art Journal Journey, living beings, as today is the last day of the challenge, which has been great fun.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is 'opposites'. I used my favourite quote from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, as it is full of all the opposites we have to deal with in our lives.  I had to leave out a few sentences as it was too long for my tags, so here is the complete text:

To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to harvest;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

And here some impressions from my walk today:

Not ripe tomatoes, but ripe belladonna - deadly nightshade - which is related to tomatoes and potatoes:

This lonely leaf was suspended in the air, stuck to a fine cobweb thread.

Here's wishing you all a great day, take care,  

and thanks a lot for coming by!

A real sun day Sunday

Hi everybody!

I'm happy to say that we had another wonderful day, a real sun day Sunday.

I spent a lot of time outdoors, walking around, and enjoying the scenery, sunshine and the good air. 

Yesterday I bought a packet of scarf-wool at the discounter's, and knitted it while I watched TV with my feet up in the evening. It was a special wool, with all the bobbles and fancy bits already in it. I just had to cast on 80 stitches and knit 10 rows in garter stitch and cast off, and my autumn scarf was finished.

Miss Plas-Tick, who hangs in my hall, wanted to try it, too:

In the afternoon I started making some tags, and botched twice.  I painted a tag and put it face down on some newspaper to dry, and then screwed up a piece of lovely craft paper by mistake, so I combined them to a new piece. I glued the crumpled craft paper onto the botched up tag, and painted it with some metallics in blue, green and rust, adding a bit of copper embossing powder from Frantage over some stamped swirls.
I am linking to Moo Mania and More, autumnal colouring

Then I sewed it to a corrugated cardboard tag, and sewed the lace and burlap on too. I used some of my embossed, sparkly leaves and seed pods, and a butterfly as embellishments. The photos are not good, it was getting dark and I had to use flash, sorry.

The little path along the stream gets narrower and more overgrown every day:

I went down to the lake, and spent some time there, just enjoying the peace, birdsong, and the sun sparkling on the water.

Then I met some horses on a meadow. The were busy grazing - what else?

At Schloss Kalkum the trees in the park are changing colour:

This duck spent his time chasing all other males away from his harem!

And the wonderful sky this evening wowed me with the beautiful colours, and made a fitting end to a lovely day.

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Owls, chickens, cows and a feather

Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. It started out cool and misty here on Saturday, but got better and better as the morning progressed, so I peeled off my jacket and tied it round my middle while I was walking, and it was good to feel the sun on my back again.

I have been having fun playing with cardboard and old linen again. The background (A4 size) was partly peeled and then painted with terracotta acrylics, and embossed while still wet with Frantage aged gold and copper EPs. I fringed the edges of the linen and printed the owl image, from Gecko Galz (owling for you) directly onto it. Then I sewed it onto the cardboard. I added some leaves, beads, berries and fibres as trim. To hang it up I added a TH ball chain with a muse token. This was a fun piece, I love playing around with everything for autumn and Halloween. I am linking to Art Journal Journey, living beings.

On my Saturday walk I noticed that a piece of a meadow has been fenced off as home for some chickens, who were happily picking and clucking around. They have a very noble, mobile hen-house, and it's good to see chickens living a good life outdoors instead of being cooped up inside.

I carried on down the path towards the Rhine:

The white cattle were all grazing happily, too. The calves have grown a lot.

This ship on the Rhine looked like a swimming mountain range, I don't know what it is that was heaped to mountains, but it looked  very interesting.

And I love this feather that I saw on the path under the trees, still glistening with dew-drops.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!