Moon-faces, keys to the kingdom and birds

Hi everybody!

Another warm and sunny day has flown by here. I went to a trial session for dance-gymnastics this afternoon - ouch! For some reason I now have a lot of bones and muscles which are groaning - It was fun, but perhaps a gentler sport might be more suitable for my advanced years!

I have been having fun again with the Dina Wakley stencil I bought last week. This time I painted it onto a piece of old, rust-stained linen to make my hanging. I did not try to wash or iron it, I wanted the original distress to show. I fringed the edges, and then stenciled the faces with Viva-color Rust. The corrugated background  (17 x 37 cm) has been partly peeled, gessoed and then daubed with gold, bronze and rust paints, and embossed with Frantage vintage gold and copper. I sewed the fibres on by hand to give the faces a wild and witchy look, and added some brown glass beads from an old necklace. I  used a piece of an old bracelet to make a loop to hang it from. I know things like this are not to everyone's taste, but I do like grungy stuff. My neighbour thought the linen looked like it had come from a Mummy's tomb....who knows!

I am linking today  to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin, and to Simon Monday Challenge, Rock the techniques and AJJ, living beings

The large texture canvas I started last week is finished, and I have called it  'The keys of the kingdom'. My neighbour looked at it, and said, 'Yes. Well, what is it?' Good question, no answer - I just had fun playing with the colours and texture. As I used metallic paints, the colours seem to change according to how the light falls on it.

Today a big Heron was sitting on the rocks down at the shore under the castle ruins, really beautiful, and it was fantastic to watch it spread its wings and fly off over the water.

And this duck is always the first to greet me - does she know I always have something in my bag for her?

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Flying or floating?

Hi everybody!

We had a beautiful day here. It started off cool and a bit misty, but

soon warmed up, and this afternoon was like a hot, summer day.

The background for this piece was made on Saturday using some of my leaves and ferns. I got a bit carried away with the spray, and it looked more like an underwater landscape by the time I was finished. This inspired me to use Ryn's beautiful rising bubbles stamp, which I white embossed.

Then I got to work with stencils - the houses and sky, the birds from Dina Wakley, and the floating/flying lady, all of which I drew with a white pen. Mary Poppins is a stamp I bought on Saturday from Lost Coast Designs. I stamped her with Archival black and embossed her with black EP extra fine. I fussy cut her and outlined her with white after gluing her between the bubbles. To finish I added my quote and some Stickles.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, Living Beings.

The horses were grazing through their little paradise, as always:

The crows and ducks were partying on the shore:

The logs were washed ashore today:

And the naked man in the market square has got a new head covering:

Have a great day, take care, and thanks, as always, for coming by. I appreciate your visits and comments very much.

Dina Wakley Stencils for Tag Tuesday and Recycling for TIOT

Hi everybody!

It's Double Tuesday again, which means new challenges at Tag Tuesday and at Try it on Tuesday.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is stencils, and I have used the lovely stencil from Dina Wakley again, 'moon faces'. I used a piece of recycled card from an old calendar, and used a small diamond stencil sprayed with blue and brown to make the background layer. Then I added some numerals and alphas with a CWS stencil. The Moon faces were added with Viva Rust and lightly sprinkled with fairy dust. I machine-stitched some fibres for hair, and then sewed the tag with zig-zag stitch to a corrugated card background. I still had the feeling that it needed something, so I cut a little roof out of the same cardboard and stitched it on. The little window face has been made with shrink plastic. I had fun making this one!

For Try it on Tuesday I have used only materials which had been used on other projects. The brown paper bag was punched with my owl punch to make the fancy top. It would also be possible to use a little sandwich bag. The tags and pockets were all on old Halloween projects which I dismantled and re-used  -  make new from old! The black card is from an old calendar. Inside the bag there is plenty of room for scary little presents or treats. This pretty bag was not my idea. Sandy recently sent me one like this, which inspired me to make some of my own for Halloween , and I think it is a really neat design - thanks Sandy!

And last but not least, some photos of the wonderful sky this morning at 7 AM.

Here's wishing you all a great day. 

Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Heavy metal, sunshine and stencil play.

Hi everybody!

Had another busy but happy day here. It started off cool and very misty, but the sun came out and dispelled the mist, leaving us with good weather. There was a festival in our little town today, with an arts and crafts market, a book market along the main street leading down to the river, and loads of stalls selling foods and snacks wafting tempting aromas under my nose. But I stayed strong and just had a coffee at the baker's. In the grounds of the 'Diakonie', a large church based social, welfare and health-care company, there was a huge party, with loads of stalls selling goodies, more food and drink, live music, and fun and games for the kids. I spent quite a long time talking to an artist called Michael Laux, who works with oil drums, old farm implements and scrap metal to make wonderful objects, and with plastic bottles to make creations like tropical underwater plants. You can see more of his work on his web page.

The mask was my fave:

And I got this as a present. It's A4 size, and will look wonderful with a light or candle burning behind it. There are so many colours in the burnt metal, it is fantastic.

And meantime, down at the Rhine, the swan was swanning:

The ferry was ferrying visitors across the water:

And this charming man was playing the violin for the swan, ducks and all who pass by, as he does every Sunday:

Yesterday, when I got back from the craft fair, I needed to go for a walk, and picked some leaves and ferns on my way home. I used them as masks and stamps, spraying them with blue and brown, using a sheet of paper I had already used as underground while stamping and distressing.

When it was dry I just  had to try out the new stencils I got from Dinah Wakley, and kept to a reduced colour palette - black for the birds and rust (Viva) for the moon faces.

I added some white doodling, music notes and a quote:

This is something different to usual, but it was fun making it! 

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, living beings; Mix it Monthly, trees; Artekarten, Stencils and Moo Mania, Music is in the air - and my music is literally in the air!

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!