Water, sky and more

Hi everybody!

Yesterday started off sunny and warm, and a couple of hours later it started raining, and in the afternoon it poured and stormed - we seem to be in for a few wet days so I am glad that I have my new wellies ready to wear! The night was lit up by lightning and the thunder was not good for sleeping....

 I spent the afternoon painting water colour backgrounds in A3 size, This is something which is  very calming and  I like to have a stock ready to work on. This one was perhaps inspired by the lovely sunrise and the blue of the skies and water yesterday. When it was dry I went to work with the stamping. I used Ryn's beautiful sea bubbles stamp, with embossing ink and white EP, as the blue reminded me of waves. The stamp of Leda, looking down on the scene, is from Lost Coast Designs, as are the underwater plants at the bottom. The birds were stenciled with Dina Wakley's stencil. The other stamps were a set I got as a present, and I don't know the maker.

I have written a quote along the right hand side, from Goethe(1789): 

Wind is the loving

Wooer of waters;

Wind blends together

Billows all-foaming.

Spirit of man,

Thou art like unto water!

Fortune of man,

Thou art like unto wind!

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, living beings, and Paint Party Friday.

I saw this huge Dahlia (?) yesterday, about  10" diameter, really beautiful.

The sunrise was beautiful:

And the heron was out fishing again:

And last but not least, the horses, busy grazing, as always.

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!