Joint Venture and blue skies

Hi everybody!

Happy Sunday!

This piece is a joint venture made with a little girl, Sally, who I looked after for an afternoon this week while her grandmother had an appointment. She enjoyed making this page for 'Deep in the forest' at Art  Journal Journey. She chose colours which I would perhaps not have used, but they are her favourites The paper (and my kitchen floor) were sprayed well with a pink spray. Then she chose 'Dark peony' fluid chalk ink and I showed how how to rub it into the cracks of the CWS stencil. I held the stencil, so my fingers got to be the same colour! When it was dry she looked through my bit boxes to find nice things to put into the forest. She made up the owls from a decoupage kit, and the fairy was one I stamped some time back for a challenge and did not use. I helped her with the mushrooms, and showed her how to use my Big Shot, with which she cut TH's bird branch. She spent the rest of the afternoon cutting images with the Big Shot, and took them home with her when she went, so she was a happy bunny. It was fun working with her!

We had a golden October day here, with wonderful blue skies, which looked really magical. I spent a lot of time outdoors walking round and taking photos. Here are some impressions.

Morning sunrise:

Blue skies:

The castle ruins -

Can you see the little crescent moon at the top left?

And the evening sky

Forest, fungi and thirsty horses

Hi everybody!

We had a mixed bag of weather today - wind, rain, sunshine, clouds, but it could have been worse. I enjoyed my walks, managed to do the laundry in between, looked after  the granddaughter of an ex-colleague for a couple of hours, and found time to do some crafting and painting myself this evening, so I didn't get bored....

Last week an 8x8" canvas fell off the wall, and scared the life out of me, as I was watching a thriller at the time. I suppose it would have been worse in the middle of the night. Anyway, it was one with lots of bits and bobs on it, which all fell off,  so I re-used it for this week. I think it is the third time it has been re-worked. I gave it a coat of paint, using metallic blues, greens, purple and rust. The background was already embossed using a CWS stencil and embossing paste.  I die cut the trees using the TH branch tree, painted the left one with rust and silver, and the right one, made from corrugated card, has been painted with rust and embossed with Frantage in gold and copper. I added more seed beads to replace those that fell off and rolled under all the furniture in my living room, and splodged some gold ink on for the moon. I made the foliage on the trees with gilding flakes. Added a few dew drops and stars, and that was it - 'houses in the dark forest'. I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin, and to Susi's wonderful Art Journal Journey, deep in the forest.

Today started off well with a lovely sunrise:

I love the changing colours everywhere:

Lots of fungi are popping up all over the place.

This one is a brown fly agaric, next to a tram stop.

And the horses had managed to reduce the pile of hay they had   since yesterday, and were busy drinking out of the old bath tub today:

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

This and that on Wednesday

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all well and fit.

We had another nice day here, rather windy, but a nice mix of sun and clouds, blue skies and grey. We are expecting wet weather again tomorrow, so it's always good to be able to make the best of the good days.

This Tag (8") is one of my DT pieces for Gecko Galz this month. The background paper is  'Province Town harbour' from the 'Mayflower' paper pack. I inked the edges with wild honey and rusty hinge DIs. The image is from the 'Be thankful' stamp set, printed onto acetate. I kept the embellishments simple, using just burlap, a horn button, an embossed leaf and seed pods.  The background paper and digi stamps can be printed out to any size, which makes them very flexible. I am linking to Moo Mania and more, bright and cheerful.

I love these trees growing rather wild behind the little lakes here. It is a nice, overgrown area where I like to wander.

I saw this strange fungus along the bank of the stream. Was rather hard to take a photo, as I did not want to slip down the slope into the stream. It looked furry, and had a diameter of good 6". Perhaps someone knows what it is?

The clouds scudded along all day, blown by a very stiff breeze. 

Recently I have often seen crows down by the Rhine, they seem to find food there. Perhaps they go fishing?

He's definitely got something in his beak.

And the horses were partying....

Have a great day, whatever you are up to, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Another Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

Every 2 weeks here it's a double day, with new challenges at Try it on Tuesday and Tag Tuesday. At TIOT our them is 'spooky' , and at TT 'Autumn extravaganza'. Both themes that I really like.

For Try it on Tuesday I made a witch house from an altered box. I painted the outside and inside 'walls' a nice, mouldy looking black, papered the walls with Halloween paper, and hung up some fancy curtains. The furniture is minimal, the witch Evilena, does not like clutter, and is quite happy with a pumpkin to sit on, a broom to get rid of spiders and to fly,  a good selection of poison bottles and a spell book she inherited from her grandmother.  Her daughter wanted TV, but Evilena did not allow it, so her DD left home.

For Tag Tuesday I made a quick autumn tag. I used a scrap of cardboard (8") from an old box, which I embossed with Utee gold into which I stamped while it was still warm. The other side is a scrap of painted card. The leaves are natural ones, which have been embossed with tinsel EP, Frantage gold and Frantage aged copper. A few seed pods and a scrap of burlap, together with some recycled  embellishments finished it off. I am linking to Soartful challenges, leaves.

I have been trying to get a photo of this woodpecker for weeks, it flies off as soon as I move to the window. But yesterday I managed to catch it, sitting in the branches of the birch tree.

I saw this web today between the stones and drain-pipe of one of the ancient houses here. I was surprised to see how strong and waterproof a spider's web is, and how beautiful:

And the evening sky was once again a treat to see:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by.