Friday this and that and a wild cat:

Hi Everybody!

This past week went by extremely quickly,  and I much enjoyed the time 

Susi spent here with me. Now it's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted, as always by Eva and Kristin.  I made an A3 mixed media page. The background was painted and brayered with green, blue and white, then stamped while it was still wet to give some pattern and texture. Then I threw lots of flying bits and bobs onto it - cut outs, parts of a paper napkin, some alphas, tissue paper, washi tape etc. After that I used one of the new stamps I got at the Stamp Mecca (thanks, Susi!) and put the face next to the 'napkin face' - they make a nice contrast. The face stamp is one of a set of 3 from Lost Coast Designs. To finish it off I highlighted some areas with Gellatos.

For Art Journal Journey, back to school, hosted this month by dear Elizabeth, I made a hybrid piece. I used a photo of Tower College, a school near Liverpool where I used to teach when I was still in England - it was my last position before I moved to Germany. It was a wonderful school, and I was sad to have to leave there.  The photo was masked and then placed on the cardboard background. I used a row of kids cut from a prospect and added the 'back to school' to their backpacks.

I made a second version with b/w  images (from Gecko Galz), I couldn't make up my mind which one to use....

And I have some  more photos taken during Susi's stay here:

These were taken at the nature reserve in the forest:

Wild cats:

Honey bees and bee-keeping:

A hotel for hermit bees:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

In school uniform

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week is going well! Susi flew back home again today, I will miss her very much! But we had a great week, with wonderful weather,and I am looking forward to the next time when we can get together! 

For Art Journal Journey, Elizabeth's lovely theme of 'back to school'

I have a piece made with photos from my school days. The photo was taken with my two best female friends during break. (It was an all girls school) We always had to wear school uniform, and on our way to and from school we had to wear a hat, too - a straw boater in summer and a velour hat in winter.... This must have been taken in September, because until the end of September we were allowed to wear summer or winter uniform. The two teachers with us on  the photo were both wonderful ladies, who really cared about us.

And here are the last 2 weeks' tags for Tag Tuesday-

Paper dolls:

 Children's games:

Yesterday we visited Schloss Kalkum, and this time there were 2 ghosts in the chapel:

The ducks and geese were happy as always:

The Egyptian (Nile) goose mother was watching over her goslings, who are now almost fully grown:

Some of them looked really scruffy while waiting for their adult feathers:

The castle is being renovated, which was long overdue:

And somehow we once again ended up at a restaurant for refreshing drinks and a good meal:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

School photos

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week is going well!

We had fun again yesterday and  today, but the time has flown by, and Susi goes home again tomorrow - all good things must come to an end!

For Art Journal Journey, Back to School, I have another

hybrid piece, using a fun background and an image from Gecko Galz which I masked with a filter. My fave part is the quote, I just love it!

Yesterday we went by tram and bus to Grafenberg, a wooded and hilly part of Düsseldorf. First we discovered this spring:

Then we climbed up and up.....

Till we got to the top and were able to enjoy the view over Düsseldorf:

We headed for the 'Wildpark' - a nature reserve in the woods where you can find deer, mouflons, (wild sheep)  boars, wild cats, owls, bees, and much,  much more. The boars did not show themselves, so we had to be contented with riding on this one:

We saw various sorts of deer:

The 'bambis' were very sweet, and enjoyed being fed by the visitors:

The wild cat was having a midday sleep in her enclosure:

There are lots more photos which I will show another time. Suffice to say that the way home was interrupted by visits to restaurants and the ice parlour....

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!