Storms, rust and a dragonfly

Hi Everybody!

We had a couple of storms yesterday which were really scary,

I nearly fell off my chair because the thunder was so loud! It rained very heavily, and even my balcony, which has a roof and usually stays dry, got soaked,

and my living room windows got wet for the first time in 10 years (except for when I occasionally clean them!) The Rhine is still very full, and no end to the bad weather yet - thank goodness for waterproof coats and wellies!

I am taking part in a swap with a group of lovely people, one of whom is my dear Elizabeth. Her chosen theme was rust, and as the pages have arrived I can show the ones I made for her. The dark rust on the backgrounds was given to me by dear Susi, as she had rust paint and mine had dried out! Thanks a million for helping!

The first one is a 'portrait' of Elizabeth with her cats, Bleubeard and Squiggles:

After finishing this page I heat dried the paint on the reverse,

which made the cat's head swell up and bubble - aaaaaargh, it looked awful. So I made a second head and fixed it over the first, and covered other strange bubbles with the metal ornaments. It was not as I intended, but that's life....

Here I used some rusted old linen:

I sent the tags to accompany the pages:

And for Art Journal Journey, maps, I have another dragonfly piece, using stamping on a map background:

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

I discovered this tree in our little town last week. The flowers are gorgeous,  and smell wonderful - does anybody know what it is called?

Sorry, this post is a trifle looooooooooooooong......

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Wednesday Mixed Bag

Hi Everybody!

Our theme at Tag Tuesday this week is

'Whatever the weather'. 

For my tag I used a piece of the paper I painted last week. The lady

is a home-made stencil and has been airbrushed.

And we are beginning a new challenge at

Moo Mania and More -

Be inspired by the photo collage.

 Be inspired by one of the photos or colours in your project. As always, projects of all formats are allowed, and you have 2 weeks to link your work.

I combined my piece with a vintage map (courtesy of Wikipedia). The map is a hand-drawn one from the 15th century, but was re-drawn from one made in the 13th century, so gives us a medieval view of the world as people then knew it.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, maps.

The Rhine is still very full, the heavy rains are keeping it well filled.

I spent a lot of time just watching the ships, large and small, and letting the world float by:

Some are really huge:

And as always, I was drawn to this little corner with the wonderful hollyhocks:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Tuesday this and that again

Hi Everybody!

For Art Journal Journey, maps, I made another London piece, combining an old photo of the Houses of Parliament with a map and a face profile I drew.

Today is also Elizabeth's T Stands For Tuesday, so a big hello to all of the T Gang. I made a very quick page in my journal, which is now so fat that it gets harder and harder to take photos:

This beautiful cappuccino was served to me at the ice parlour:

There is always a biscuit served with it; these are the 2 different sorts which have been served lately . Did I manage to contain myself long enough to take photos? No, I opened the papers very carefully so that they still looked like new, and took photos of them when I got home!

And now even the sugar is in  new and arty packets:

Today it has been raining very heavily and I got soaked on my way home today. But on one day we did have a lovely sunrise:

There is always lovely fruit at the market:

The roses look almost too heavy for their stems:

 This morning started off cloudy and just got progressively worse:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Maps and More

Hi Everybody!

For Art Journal Journey, maps, I made a journal page after playing around with

a dragonfly stencil, a map stamp and a script stamp. Unfortunately it got splashed with water which made a few splotches, but that's life! The background was painted with blue and white metallics. I stamped the squares using  distress ink-pads stamped directly onto the paper, and the circles were made with a sponge. 

Yesterday started out sunny, but soon clouded over:

I enjoyed my walk to the supermarket:

The horses are on a meadow opposite the supermarket, and although it is directly under the flight path of the planes, it doesn't seem to worry them at all:

 

The little wayside chapel has been nicely restored:

This villa along the road is for sale. I will not be buying it, as I don't have the millions they are asking for it....

There are a lot of statues in the gardens and grounds:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!