This and that on Friday

Hi Everybody!

I am not sure where the days between Monday and today went, but they went!

We had a grey and cold day here, but we have to take the weather as it comes, 

and just hope it won't get really bad!

At Art Journal Journey we still have one week of 'Inspired by the Masters', and I have another Van Gogh inspiration today. I kept to the same theme as 2 days ago, with a window looking out onto a scene. I painted the background (A3) with blue over gesso, and then had fun spritzing white paint and gold ink onto it. My coffee maker now has some white and gold spots on it, too, I think it looks quite nice. The scene in the middle is one I painted for the last 'Inspired by' challenge, and didn't use because I didn't like the colours. This time I gave it a coat of diluted gesso, which made it much better, and then glued it onto my blue page. The window frame was made with strips of white card, and the flowers and trellis were punched with some gorgeous giant punches that a friend sent me for my birthday. 

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

I have been rather fascinated by the toadstools growing on so many trees around here. We used to call these ones 'fairy steps' when I was a kid.

These are really huge ones on a massive, old tree, that lost half of its branches in the big storm back in June last year.

And believe it or not, the blue balloon is still bobbing along the Rhine....

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

More textile art journaling.

Hi Everybody!

We had very frosty, cloudy/sunny winter weather today, which I much enjoyed on my walks along the Rhine. The meadows are now mostly free of water, but the river level is still rather high.

For Art Journal Journey, inspired by the masters, I have another textile journal page inspired again by Sheila Hicks woven art. I started out with a piece of cardboard from some packaging, which I painted with black gesso and then stamped with a background stamp. Probably a waste of time, as you can't see much of it....Then I cut vertical slits into it with my cutter. I wove various ribbons, pieces of linen, braid and yarn through the slits. Then I stitched round it with zig-zag stitch to hold it together at the sides. I sewed it onto a piece of hand-painted and stamped paper (A4), which I then sewed onto a large piece of coloured card. I wrote 2 quotes about weaving round the edges. 'We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing' (Louisa May Alcott) and 'Life is a loom, weaving illusion' (Vachel Lindsay). I am enjoying doing some textile art journaling just now, perhaps I will make another one!

I m also linking to Moo Mania and More, anything goes.

Yesterday evening the clouds lifted and we had quite a nice evening sky.

This morning started off beautifully too, and stayed nice all day.

Te geese and ducks are still enjoying the abundance of water just now:

The sky was really impressive:

And I watched this boats man cleaning the decks while chugging along the Rhine.

But why did this blue balloon choose to go for a swim in the Rhine?

Perhaps we will never know....

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Van Gogh and Happy Mail

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are having a good day, and that the weather is being kind to you!

For 'Inspired by the masters' at Art Journal Journey I have made a piece (A3) reminiscent of Van Gogh. I have painted this scene many times for various projects. Today I decided to cut it into squares to look like the view out of a window into the dark night outside. I started off by masking the area I wanted to paint blue on my journal page, and splattered it with white paint and fairy dust while it was still wet. The starry night picture was painted onto a piece of cardboard packaging and cut into 9 more or less equally sized pieces. I glued them to the background and then added a picture of Van Gogh's self portrait, mounted onto a scrap of hand-painted paper. I wrote a quote at the bottom.

When the masking tape comes off you have straight edges:

Today I have some happy mail to share with you. The wonderful card and stencils came from the lovely Teresa in Canada. She sure knows what I like playing with - lovely stencils - THANK YOU!!! I especially like those basic shapes,  and have often wished for stencils like this!

These lovely things came from from dear Susi.

There is a new journal, and a handmade journal cover, a gorgeous card in Susi's inimitable style, stamps, a new Craft Stamper magazine and some stickers. Am I lucky, or am I lucky? THANK YOU!!!!

This Christmas card has been traveling from the States for nearly 5 weeks, but found its way at last - snail mail! It was made by the talented Sandy, who makes the most gorgeous altered paper bags you can imagine, with an enormous attention to detail. The tag was in the front pocket and the card inside. 

THANK YOU!!!

If you have time, look at the blogs of these lovely ladies if you don't already know them. Thanks again to you all!

And now some of my visitors from today:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tiot, Inspired by and Tag Tuesday

Hi Everybody!

We had a cold, grey and frosty day here. I saw on the news that there was chaos in some parts of the States due to ice, so take care those of you living in those places.

Today I made one piece for two challenges, Try it on Tuesday and Art Journal Journey, Inspired by.... At Tiot our new challenge runs for 2 weeks, and you are asked to use fabric (not ribbon) on your creation, so I hope that lots of you will join in. I was inspired to make this woven art-journaling by Sheila Hicks, an American Textile Artist, who makes wonderful art with weaving. I started off by making a little frame out of cardboard, which I threaded up with twine.I wrote a quote onto a piece of paper, which I placed under the strings.  I then stitched it to a piece of partly peeled and painted corrugated card in A4. I wove various strips of fabric - vintage linen, vintage braids, string, fibres, fancy yarn and burlap through the frame. When it was finished, I stitched with zig-zag stitch down the sides to hold it all together. For the background I took a slightly larger piece of chipboard, painted it with terracotta and added some gold Utee round the edges before gluing the woven piece onto it. The quote I used is, 'We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning' (Henry Ward Beecher).

I like the idea of having a message hidden in the work. To finish it off I added some beads threaded on to twine and a couple of feathers. I will use this as a journal cover.

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is 'Texture'. I used corrugated card, partly peeled and gessoed for the base. I added some strips of paper recycled from old projects and a piece of fabrick as matting. I stamped the image of Da Vinci's Leda (Lost Coast Designs) onto card with archival brown, clear embossed it, and distressed the card with vintage photo. As embellishments I used various scraps of ribbon, a wire flower, some fibres and a muse token.

Also linking to Moo Mania and More, anything goes.

The sun kept trying to appear, but didn't have much success.

Two ravens were my first visitors this morning, which annoyed all the other little birds....But I love their glossy blue-black feathers.

The Rhine is sinking further, so that's good, although there is still too much water.

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!