Valentine's Day and Happy Mail

Hi Everybody!

It's weekend, wish you all a good one,

and a happy Valentine's Day - you can never have too much love!

I have made 2 Valentine's cards that I want to share with you today:

I used 6" square cards for both. The first card was covered with shiny red paper (which Suze used to wrap my Christmas presents). I added a metallic border along the left side. The heart is made of chipboard, and has been gessoed, covered with scraps of vintage papers and gilding flakes, and glazed with crackle lack. The roses are  rub-ons. I added some flowers and ribbon as embellishments.

I am linking to Simons Monday Challenge, red and pink and to ACC,

wrapping paper

The second one has been made from a gold card, with a mat of glittered white roses. The heart is a book mark, cut from an ancient die, and stamped with my fave love stamp. I added some pearls and flowers as embellishments.

And now I would like to show you some happy mail that reached me this week.

This beautiful heart was made by Maelchen, who recently had a giveaway on her blog, and I was one of the lucky winners of one of her dreamy hearts. It is just stunning, and even nicer to have and hold than on the photos. Thanks for this wonderful present; it will be treasured!

Diane sent me a whole roll of washi tapes in various widths and colours, and as they are plain, they can be written on, or stamped or drawn on, just wonderful! Thanks for this lovely surprise, Sweetie

And last but not least, Carolyn sent me this wonderful card and a set of  Monet cards, which have pictures and plans of his garden, and lots of information. I am looking forward to using these in some creations in the near future. Thanks Carolyn, this was a wonderful surprise!

It's great to have so many good Blogger friends, hank you all!

And now some pictures of my hungry visitors again. I love watching them hungrily pecking their food each day, and love to see them on my balcony.

Have a great day you all, take care of yourselves,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Birds, humans and circles

Hi Everybody!

Here in Rhineland we had a sunny day, and it was also the start of carnival. In Düsseldorf and Cologne it's the day when the ladies take over the power, and storm the town-hall, dressed in all their fancy costumes, and a good time is had by all....This is not really my cup of tea, but a lot love it, and my friends Gabi and Karina were there, and had fun. I  went for my walk, as always, and then baked lemon muffins for when the girls came back from the celebrations.

Today I have another Van Gogh attempt for Art Journal Journey, Birds, beasts and humans,  and Moo Mania and More, circles. This time I tried to copy Van Gogh's self portrait, using the same method as for the others I did. The background was painted with acrylics and the portrait painted on a separate sheet with water colours and pastels, before I cut it out and pasted it onto the background. I added some circles in white pastel chalk.

Some of the birds who visited me today:

The cormorant is back on his pole:

And the heron was out fishing again:

Gabi and Karina took a selfie in front of the town-hall:

And these lovely ladies have very impressive costumes, too.

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Thursday this and that

Hi Everybody!

Hope your day was good. It started out cool and rather misty here, but this afternoon the sun came out, and that was just great!

For Art Journal Journey, 'Birds, Beasts and Humans', and for Moo Mania and More, circles, I have made another journal page in A4. The background was painted with diluted acrylics in yellow and orange, and then stenciled with various motives from CWS using forest moss DI. The head stencil is home made, the little girl with the balloon and the quote are both from Stencilry.org and have been stenciled with black soot DI. The circles were drawn by hand.

You can see all the entries for AJJ by clicking the link on the side bar.

And I couldn't resist taking photos of the sun beginning to set this afternoon:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Circles and starfish

Hi Everybody!

Quick post this evening, it's late and I want to get this post scheduled

and then sleep!

Today is the begin of a new challenge at Moo Mania and More -

CIRCLES.

You have two weeks, and we accept work in all formats, not just Moos, so get those creative juices flowing and link up your creations.

I made a journal page, which is also meant for Art Journal Journey,

Birds, beasts and humans. I painted the background (A3) with metallic paints in blue, purple and green, and spritzed it with some gold ink and metal patina, and sprinkled some fairy dust onto it.  I stamped into it using a large background swirl to give more texture. When it was dry, I stenciled the figure in the left lower corner with gesso. I drew the starfish using a home made template, and drew hundreds of tiny circles inside them, using various gel-pens and white highlighter. Then I drew more circles coming from the figure at the bottom and floating over the page.
The link on the side bar takes you to AJJ's Pinterest page, where you can see all of our entries.

Today was grey and wet, so there was not much to see on my walk:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

A heart, an owl and some birds

Hi Everybody!

Today we have a new theme at Tag Tuesday - Valentine.

Hmm, not really my fave theme, and at the moment I can't cut things, so I am showing a refurbished Valentine heart from last year. I added new flowers to freshen it up, and it will have to do this time. I can do some painting and doodling just now in spite of my injuries, but it is not possible to use scissors!

For Art Journal Journey, 'Birds, beasts and humans', I made an owl page. The A4 page, painted with black gesso, is a remnant from another project. I added colour with oil pastels and pastel chalks. The owl was added with a stencil, using gesso sprinkled with fairy dust. When it was dry, I coloured some parts with gold gel-pen. I added some little scrolls and stars, and stenciled the houses along the bottom of the page under the light of the  moon.

If you click the link on the side bar you can see all the entries in our Pinterest gallery.

I enjoyed watching the birds this morning

The heron and gulls were out fishing again

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by.