New Challenge at More Mixed Media Blog

Hi Everybody!

On the 5th of each month we start a new challenge at More Mixed Media. All of our challenges are anything mixed media goes, with an optional colour element. This month the colour is brown. You have 4 weeks to link to us, so hope to see you there. I made a mixed media 10"tag. The background was part of a larger painted and collaged piece which I chopped up to use for tags. The diamonds were made with embossing paste through a stencil, and then I sprinkled iron flakes onto them and rusted them. I added some rather chaotic elements of paper dolls and other cut outs, a small piece of embossed card left over from another project and a feather which I found on my balcony. I sewed it all to some wild, spotty cardstock that I have been trying to find a use for:

This piece was made months back, but I never posted it, and it has lots of brown, so I am including it here, too:

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday

And some photos taken at Hofgarten watching the water fowl:

That's all for today!

Have a great one, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Midweek post

Hi Everybody!

It's Wednesday already, where do the days go?

Hope your week is going well. The weather has cooled down after the big storms at the weekend, and it's mostly a mix of clouds, sunshine, some rain - which we badly need - and wind. And I feel better and can breathe again properly.

For Michele's challenge at Tag Tuesday, I have one more tag, a hybrid one. I used digital images from Serif and a photo of my mother as a child. The cross stitch was also added using a digital airbrush - that was fun! And no mess to clear away afterwards:

Recently at art group I had leftover colours on my palette, so I scraped them all onto an A2  (17" x 24") sheet of heavy paper, added some gesso and then pushed the colours about with a brayer. I added some splatters of black China ink:

Back home, I made large circles and painted them with diluted, transparent acrylics, so that the background stayed visible:

I wanted to use it to cover a bargain journal, 12" x 8 1/2". I got it for 3,99€ because the covers were a bit dirty. It's medium quality paper, and will make a nice on-the-go art journal  /calendar for the coming year:

Then I set about making a cover for the journal. I folded the excess paper from the top and bottom back and then cut it off:

This left me with 2 long strips as extras:

I used wide washi tape in turquoise to cover all of the edges of the cover, and folded the parts which will be the flaps on the cover:

Then I started doing my crazy sewing round the edges. The machine kept refusing to sew, the thread broke time and time again, and I was frustrated so decided to leave it till the next day to prevent myself from beating the silly machine with a hammer!

 After cleaning and oiling the machine, and talking nicely to it for an hour or so, it behaved better, and I was able to finish the sewing and make 2 bookmarks from the left over strips:

Now I like it!

I am trying to make more usable art these days.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday

Some pics from yesterday's morning walk:

The leaves are falling:

Clouds and sunshine:

One of my fave views to the old customs house:

The fire brigade boat coming in to land (It was probably time for breakfast!)

Lots of seagulls bobbing along the Rhine:

The crows and seagulls always enjoy picking over the ploughed fields:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

T stands for 2nd on the second

Hi Everybody!

Hope September has started well for you. Have a great week and a wonderful month.  At Elizabeth's blog it's time for 2nd on the 2nd, a linky party where we share a piece posted in the past. (Spellchecker  just tried to alter 'linky' to 'kinky'!) Later on it will also be time for T stands for Tuesday over at her blog, so I am rolling both posts together here. I chose this A3 journal page as it was made at the beginning of September back in 2015. The upside-down text is also worth reading!

And this piece fits for TSFT, and was made in 2016, so I am including it, too. I altered an old photo with some graphics from Serif. And here also a hearty welcome to all of the ladies of the T Gang who visit here:

And this is my new Coffee plant. It should grow into a sturdy and leafy tree in about 10 years, so check back then for a pic of me hopefully sitting under the tree drinking coffee from my own beans!

At the market place:

I saw this furniture waiting to be collected yesterday afternoon. Pity I couldn't carry those chairs home, but 3 miles on foot with them was not a possibility!

Transport on transport:

Nathalie enjoying ice coffee - I enjoyed mine, too:

Salads from this week - with lettuce, tomatoes, mini-peppers, cheese, cashews, blueberries and pumpkin seeds:

Clouds and sunshine on my evening walk:

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!