Wednesday, 1 July 2020

Loooong post for various challenges

Hi Everybody!

Today I'm trying three different challenges in one post. The first piece is an A3 mixed media collage with hot colours meant for Erika's new theme, 'When it's hot' at AJJ. I used an image from an old magazine, which I put on a background which was painted with acrylics and pastels, and then collaged it with more magazine cut-outs. I am also linking it to Rain's theme this week, which is to try a different medium








My long legged birds were shown in May, but I am re-showing them for  Elizabeth's 2nd on the 2nd, just because I like them. They were made from home made templates which were collaged using recycled materials and then mounted onto a stenciled and doodled background. My birds are also fitting for Rain's theme, as I went new ways making them:



And I wrote a story for each of my special bird breeds:

'Today I have some more of the strange birds which can only be seen in Balconia-by-the-Rhine. I am showing a pair of wire-legged post birds. These birds have thin feathers and cover themselves with stamps and  scraps of paper or cloth to keep themselves warm. They watch the postmen when they are delivering letters and often steal stamps from them. They are not shy,  and have a loud call which sounds like co-ffeeeee, co-ffeeeee. The male and females look alike, and like the long-legged spotted stargazers, the  female usually stands on the back of the male'



This is the other set of exotic birds found only here in my corner of the world - the long legged spotted stargazers:
 'I used the paper template to trace the birds onto some white linen recycled from an ancient pair of summer trousers. First of all I ironed the material onto some butcher's paper to make it easier to handle. I coloured the linen with some distress ink in wild honey which I ironed to fix the colour. Then the 2 birds got different coloured spots - black spots for the 'female' and turquoise ones for the 'male'. I sewed around the birds with black thread and then cut the beaks and legs from gold cardboard. The wings and tails were made with scraps of gold netting, some sequined tape and gold netting. These birds represent the  long legged spotted stargazers, only to be seen in the land of Balconia-by-the-Rhine. These birds are always seen in pairs, and the female stands on the back of the male so that she has a better view of what is going on in the neighbourhood....In return, the female bird massages the back of the male while she is standing on it....
My birds have been placed onto a hand-painted and textured  A3 (12" x 17") background. The quote is by J.M. Barrie'








And as it's 2nd on the 2nd, I am re-showing some photos from  July 2nd 2016:















If you've got this far and are still awake, congratulations!

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

Midweek post - scrap / junk journal

Hi Everybody!

Happy July!

Hope your week is going well. Here it has cooled down a bit, which is good, but we have still had almost no rain. Grey clouds roll over us, but seem to be as empty as the promises of many politicians....

Today I am sharing some more pages from my scrap / junk journal. These were all made using 'pictures of an exhibition' which I saw a couple of years back in a  neighbouring town, as mixed media collages. I cut the illustrations from the brochure and used them together with other scraps to make various pages:








And I have more pictures taken at the old cemetery which I showed last week:



A headless angel:



Nature taking over:



Beautiful script:


Some families seem to go back a long time:














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

Monday, 29 June 2020

T sTands for Tag Tuesday's New Challenge and more

Hi Everybody!

I just woke up from a night where I actually slept, and I have a sneaky  feeling that I'm not quite awake yet. We had a cool and pleasant night here, and It looks like the hot weather has gone for the time being, glory be! We still haven't had any rain, it stayed extremely hot and muggy over the weekend, but today is gray and cool - lovely!

This evening we will be starting a new challenge at Tag Tuesday, and this time I am hosting, and have chosen the theme of 'Put a sentiment on it'. That doesn't mean it has to be a long one - one word can also be a sentiment.

I have several tags made up already, as I made some of them from a painted masterboard made some time back. I chopped it into three pieces and mounted the tags onto  recycled card from old calendars.

This is the first one. The hello and the leaf were cut from some card painted with alcohol inks, the other bits were in my stash: Your tags can be any size and all formats are welcome, digital and hybrid ones, too, so give it a try! The challenge goes live this evening at 9 p,m: on out blog





I hope to see some of you joining in this time. One dear lady always promises to join in, but she never does.....Perhaps this time?

Tuesday, or better said Monday evening, is also time to join in with Elizabeth's challenge T  sTands for Tuesday, so here I would like to welcome all of  the nice girls from TSFT who visit here:

I went out for a coffee twice this week. Once at the self-service shop, where you get a double cup of coffee for half of the price of a normal one elsewhere:


You help yourselves to coffee after disinfecting your hands, pay for it at the counter, where you have to write down your name  and telephone number, and then choose a table. The tables all have a number on them, and the people at the cash desk write down the number of the one where you sit down. This way they can track possible infections. I also have a Corona app for my smartphone, which should warn me if I'm in bad company....


The second coffee was here at my fave shop, it's nice to sit and do some people watching occasionally.




Here in town they are getting ready for the Town festival, I will not be going anywhere near it, as I know how quickly people forget keeping distance and wearing masks when they are in a crowd. The bunting has been hung:





Refreshments for hot days;


The 'party place' has been set up in the old moat  - there's more space and it's easier to control how many people are allowed in:


My walk back home:



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