Weekend this and that

Hi Everybody!

I enjoyed watching the day grow light and a beautiful

sunrise again this morning, but there was a thick

frost on the fields, and there's definitely

a nip on the air. But the buds are growing bigger

and the birds are singing loud and happy,

so I hope that means that spring is on its way!

Today I made a simple tag for the transport

theme at Simon Monday Challenge. I wanted to use the die-cut 

balloon and cogs that dear Gill sent me in her wonderful

parcel. But I also wanted to make a balloon out of material,

so I sewed some little squares together, (thanks Chrissie) and 

cut them into a circle form to fit over the die cut.

I sewed 3/4 of the way round, and then 

pushed some padding into it to make it round. The 

background is a 10" craft tag, which got a quick coat

of cream coloured pain from Pentart, before being

collaged with stencils, a gift from  Sandy. I left the 

edges rough so that you can see the crafty BG. 

The wonderful quote is from Leonardo,

 and the threads for the tassel were pulled from a piece

of linen when I was fringing it. I sewed the whole thing onto

some recycled black  card from an old calendar.

I am also linking to More Mixed Media, anything goes.

Last night the clouds were rose and gold from the reflected sun:

Sunrise was beautiful:

Jack Frost had walked over the fields:

The buds are growing:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Friday morning sky

Hi Everybody!

The storm seems to have blown over, and it took quite

a lot of trees and branches along with it. Today is

cool and clear and the sun was shining again, so

that was good.

Some of you may have seen this mirror when it was on my untidy

table being altered:

I remembered to take a photo almost at the beginning. The paper in the middle was just to keep the mirror from getting too dirty:

I threw lots of different scraps, pastes, paints, crackle etc at it:

And here is the finished result. The idea was to look at it first thing

in the morning to improve my attitude:

I am linking to Paint Party Friday.

 The sky this morning was beautiful:

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Have fun, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Paint Party Friday

Hi Everybody!

This week has flown by, or perhaps been blown away by

the stormy winds we have had these past 2 days.

I hope it soon calms down and turns towards spring.

Today when I was waiting for the bus, I was surrounded by 

strange beings - a cow and a bear, 2 very sexy nuns,

some milk maids, a devil, Pippi Longstockings 

and 2 Japanese schoolgirls  in cake-frill short skirts.

And when the bus came along it was filled with more

strange folk. No, I haven't lost my last remnant of sanity -

today is the first day of the carnival here in Rhineland,

and strangely costumed people are in the majority. They

were on their way into Düsseldorf to join in the fun and parades,

and some were already very drunk   rather 'merry' although

it was still early in the morning.

Today I am sharing a 12"tag, made from partly peeled corrugated

card and collaged and painted in several layers, with some added 

stamping on the top layer. I used some swallows from a stamp set 

sent to me by Sabine, and some washi tapes from Gill - 

thanks ladies:

I added some moulding paste and art stones to make the centres

of the flowers, adding Stickles to give them some glitter:

I am linking to Tag Tuesday, spring flowers, Paint Party Friday, Stamps and stencils (paint, crackle and texture) and More mixed media, anything goes.

And I have one last piece for Linda's lovely challenge of 

'50 shades of red' at

Art Journal Journey

Here are the last photos taken at the museum, I love to walk through the rooms and view my fave paintings and installations:

This is a piece made by Marcel Broodthaers out of mussel shells:

 I can never resist viewing Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró,

Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Carlo Carra, Kurt Schwitters,

Paul Klee, Franz Marc and Amedeo Modigliani. It's a strange 

feeling, humbling and inspiring at the same time,  to stand 

in a room surrounded by these

great Artists, 

Have a great day you all,  take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!