New challenge at MM&M and lots of this and that

Hi Everybody!

At Moo Mania and More we have a new challenge beginning today, 

'At the Beach'

I made a 6x6" card. The sky was painted, the sea and beach were made with strips of torn, hand-painted paper. The ship, deckchairs and beach huts were painted, fussy cut and fixed on with foam squares. I added some cut outs and a sticker-fish, a stamp and a star-fish charm. The birds were drawn. As always, projects of all formats are allowed, and you have 2 weeks to join us. Hope to see you there!

For Art Journal Journey I made another 'stamp' using a painting made a couple of years back. The painting with the heads is  one of my fave pieces.

Today my neighbour invited me to accompany him on a little outing to a forest near here, where we enjoyed walking along muddy, narrow and steep paths. I will show pics of the forest tomorrow. Here are just a few photos of the village nearby. I hope to visit there again!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tuesday challenges

Hi Everybody!

Our post and postage challenge at Art Journal Journey is nearing it's completion; on Saturday we will be starting our new challenge with a good theme

and a lovely guest designer, so don't forget to drop in at the 1st and see

what's going on.

I made another A3 vintage page, using an image I found in my stash. The background was painted with a mix of gesso and titan buff, and after fixing the image to the middle I used a large flourish stamp to stamp rather randomly around the edges using rusty hinge DI. I added more stamping using archival black, a vintage envelope  and some stamps.

At Tag Tuesday our them is photography. I made a 'camera' using an image and some squares of black cardstock. I glued 2 CI images behind some filmstrip foil.

The background is a page from an old Sears and Roebuck Catalogue from 1899. I scanned it, printed it out to size, matted it with some linen card and some browny-black card.

Here are the scans of 2 pages from the S&R catalogue, feel free to download and use them in your work if you like them.

And a couple of photos from sunny Sunday:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Postal History

Hi Everybody!

Hope you had a good weekend, and wish you a good start

in the new week.

For Art Journal Journey, Post-postage, I have another journal page,

this time a vintage one again.  The document I used in the background is a copy of one of mine from 1825. 

There was a postal service in the UK from 1516 onward, but at first only for the use of the King and court. In 1635 the post went 'public', and the recipient had to pay the postage. Various improvements were made in the course of time, and the first official post coach ran from Bristol to London in 1784. In 1793 the staff got uniforms, and an investigations branch was opened to prevent criminal acts - theft of post etc. In 1840 the uniform penny post was introduced, and for 1 penny, to be paid by the sender, post could be sent anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland. A few months later saw the arrival of the Penny Black, the first adhesive postage stamp. The postman's uniform shown  is from the middle of the 19th century  and the post box here was used before the red ones which are still in use today.

Hmm, got carried away a bit there!

Today started off Sunday, and was a pleasant, warm day with a nice breeze - a nice change from the raging storm of the day before!

The farmers were busy baling hay:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Sport and Stamps

Hi Everybody!

We had a wet and stormy day here with heavy rain and gale force winds, but it has cooled us down, which I find quite pleasant after the hot weather.

It was good weather for staying home and crafting!

Our challenge 'Post and Postage' at Art Journal Journey runs till the end of the month, another 5 days, so you till have time to join in if you would like to.

I made a quick and simple A3 Journal page. I found lots of sport stamps in my collection, and wanted to use some of them. The sport-kids have been doodled and coloured with India ink pens. The title was stamped with a set of Alphas from TH. I am always happy when I see kids playing games outside and not sitting home in front of the computer!

This morning started off cloudy, and the sun tried to fight a way through the clouds.

And then it rained

And rained all day....

Have a great day you all! Take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!