Wednesday this and that

Hi Everybody!

I'll make the introduction short today - hot and humid, I need sleep!

For SOC the colours this week are green, green and pink. I made a mixed media piece to fit the challenge post-postage at Art Journal Journey, too. I used a postage stamp with Andy Warhol, which I digitally altered to get my colours. I printed the stamps out and collaged them onto an A3 sheet painted with gesso. I added some stamping and the quote, which is from AW himself. The black and white stamp at the bottom is one made using a stencil (Stencilry.org) and digitally altered to make the SOC 2015stamp.

This is the original stamp:

At Tag Tuesday our theme this week is friendship.

I used Michelangelo's wonderful painting as my image as I wanted to use the quote, 'Where hands reach out in friendship, hearts are touched by joy'. I mounted the image onto scrap card and gave it a coat of Deco Art crackle varnish. I surrounded it with a frame made with Golden crackle paste, which I painted with gesso and then distressed with various shades of gold, green and black, adding some perfect pearls for more effect. I wanted to create the effect of an old plaster wall with the painting in the middle. I mounted it all onto peeled Cardboard, painted with gold chalk paint. The quote was written onto a separate mini tag.

Today we had blue skies, sunshine, and it was hot, hot, hot!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

A new challenge, 'Frame it' at TIOT and Post at Art Journal Journey.

Hi Everybody!

I hardly dare to say it out loud, but today was a bit cooler outside, and the temperature is now 'only' 28° in my place tonight. Tomorrow it will be hot again, then Wednesday and Thursday will be cold, but it will be scorching again at the weekend. And at the end of the month they will tot it up and tell us that the average weather was normal....

For Art Journal Journey I made a vintage mixed media page. I used a copy of an old letter for the background, which I collaged onto an A3 sheet which was painted with a mix of gesso and titan buff acrylic paint from Deco Art Studio, to try to give the look of old paper or parchment. I added some coordinating stenciling round the edges, and stamped some images - fountain pens, nibs, vintage lady and post marks with Archival black. I used some washi tape and collaged 2 pictures of Queen Victoria and a lady cut from a 19th century ladies' magazine. The post in England was reformed and organised during Victoria's reign - the post-box is also from that time. As embellishments I added some Victorian stamps and a 'V' stamped into gold Utee cut to the form of a stamp.

At Try it on Tuesdays we are starting a new challenge today - 'Frame it'. Projects of all formats are welcome, and should have a frame on them. You have two weeks to get inspired and link up your creations.

I used a cheap white wood frame from IKEA, which I coated with plaster. I pressed mother of pearl circles and small shells into it while it was wet. I got a huge bag of them from the thrift shop for 1€.  I saw a frame like it in a gift shop here, and copied the idea. The background has been stamped with swirls and flowers using white gesso. I used a heat gun to fix the large shell and the starfish, and now it is hanging in my bathroom.

I am also linking to Moo Mania and More, swirls.

This beautiful dragonfly stopped for a rest on my balcony early this morning, and allowed me to take a photo. Isn't nature wonderful?

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Presidents, postage stamps and thunder storms

Hi Everybody!

We had another very hot day, but with several bouts of very stormy weather

with thunder, lightning, wind and rain. And a few minutes later the rain had just evaporated. There are still storm warnings for the night, but I hope it will be a tad cooler tomorrow.

For Art Journal Journey, post and postage, I have another page to share. In the week before the challenge began I managed to get 19 pages made, and have done a few more in the meantime, as I wanted to have less stress with making a new page every day. Now I am stressed by having to choose which page I show!

Anyway, this is an A3 mixed media page with postage stamp men. The paper was painted with gesso, collaged with paper scraps and stenciled with various stencils to make a platform. I used stamps showing some of the US presidents, and the quote was googled.

The bird photos were taken very early this morning before sunrise, I think they were waiting for breakfast:

Shortly after sunrise the clouds starting massing for the first big storm of the day:

The rain was really heavy:

I am hoping very much that we soon get back to our 

normal 'summer' weather!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Stamps and dragonflies

Hi Everybody!

We had another extremely hot day with temperatures over 38° again,

and the nights are tropically warm, too, so it's hot days and nights just now!

For Art Journal Journey, post and postage, I made an A3 mixed media stamp collage. I grounded the page with gesso, and then set to work gluing on the stamps. Not a difficult task, but a sticky one. I did not try to sort them, just worked randomly to make a colourful patchwork. When it was done, I used black acrylic paint to stencil the dragonflies, and edged them with white when it was dry.  

Our little town is decorated with bunting just now for the Marksmen's Festival - Schützenfest- which is taking place just now.

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!