What Makes You Sing?

Money Talks,,,Chocolate Sings

A creamy piece of Belgian chocolate direct from

Belgium is enough to make anyone´s taste buds

sing a pop tune or even an opera aria for that matter.

Louise from Tag Tuesday wants us to use our

scraps leftover from Christmas. I don´t have

any cardmaking scraps but I have plenty of

candy brochures and wrappers from all this

Christmas Belgian chocolate that we ate.

I know it´s a rough job but somebody has to do it.

I cut up a brochure to create a praline edge at the

bottom as well as the tasty piece my model is holding

in her hand. A blue foil wrapper is used as a collage

element including some of the brochure´s script.

This is all adhered to a watercolor background which I

stenciled with music notes and stamped with flowers.

Go pay Tag Tuesday a vist....you´ll like it and while

you are clicking around the web... go take a look at

Take a Word where the prompt is Music.

More Books

A little parade of some of my handbound booklets.

The book boards were coated with gesso
and then painted with acrylics.

I then cut the book boards in half and made soft

spines out of heavy watercolor paper covered

with book cloth.

The book block is a single signature of around 80 pages which

I bound using a basic pamphlet stitch.

Punch three holes in the spine and the signature.

Starting from the outside,,,thread the ribbon through

the top and bottom holes. From the inside,,,take both

ribbons out through the center hole,,,one on either side of

the ribbon. Tie a knot around that piece of ribbon and

then wrap the rest of the ribbon around the book.

Tie a bow and you are done.

The theme this week over at The Three Muses is the Book.

Bearry Christmas

Bearry Christmas

This is the Christmas postcard

that I sent out to all the children in the relation.

I think the grown-ups appreciated it too.

A watercolor bear standing in the snowy Alps

holding a little reminder that winter doesn´t

last forever.

HAPPY WINTER

Illustration Friday is featuring winter this week

and Sunday Postcard Art has left it up to us.

Go have a look.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux Noel,

Prettige Kerstdagen,

Feliz Navidad and Buon Natale

Wishing each and everyone a very Merry Christmas!

This is one of my necklace tags. It is the perfect accessory for any
well dressed tag this season.

Crazy Amigo, The Three Muses and Something Completely Different
have the theme of Christmas this week. Tag Tuesday is also featuring
the Colors of Christmas with accents in either silver or gold.
Go have a look at all of them for a last little bit of Christmas cheer.

Season´s Greetings

Season´s Greetings

I made this tag using one of yesterday´s Freebie papers.

Scroll down to yesterday´s post to see both of the hand painted papers.

Snowflake Delight

This is the sheet that I used.

Wednesday Stamper is featuring the Snowflake this week.

Handpainted Paper Sunday Freebie 4

Snowflake Delight

Here it is the weekend before Christmas.

Considering the fact that we all might have last minute cards or things to wrap, here is one of my Christmas presents to you. A hand painted snowflake paper using gesso, acrylics, salt, watercolors and a snowflake stamp.

Bavarian Snow

This piece has been sprinkled with authentic Bavarian snow.

I dropped some watercolors and a touch of silver metallic onto watercolor paper and took a handful of snow and gently sprinkled it onto the surface and let it dry.

If you find a use for these papers in your projects, please show me your creation. I would like to feature it in a future Before and After post. You can also see previous Freebie Papers here.

My Kind of Santa

Santa

For all my cat-loving friends...........this is our kind of Santa!

A quick postcard for Sunday PostCard Art....Santas galore.

Sheep Tag

Happy Ewe Year

I have been grappling over this color combination of green, yellow and brown since Tuesday. I finally had to resort to plundering my paper stash and luckily I found just the right color combination.

Then the next hurdle was to use this combination in a holiday theme. For the life of me, I just could not manage to produce a Santa or a Christmas motif using these colors. Today I decided to stop thinking about Christmas and went with the holiday of New Years.

I sure hope that Tag Tuesday likes this tag...as well as Theme Thursday and The Stampman.

Noel 4

Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux Noel, Merry Christmas........

This background of Red and White was done with oil pastels and stamping.

Red and White week comes to a close today...time to move on to other colors.

Jingle all the way...........

Inkurable Stampers is featuring other One Layer Cards...go have a look.

More Red and White

Today`s Red and White is a mini book with a Japanese style binding.

This landscape format makes it easy to paint small motifs and fill up the pages with color.

The spine is covered with gray bookcloth. A few beads were added with the knot.

I stamped the cover paper with white acrylics which acts as a resist when dry.
I then did a light glaze of very pale red which was mixed with a touch of iridescent medium.
While that was still wet I wrote some script into the wet paint. When dry, I stamped the
brocade motif in red and added some copper designs.

These little beauties make great stocking stuffers.
Maybe you know someone on your gift list who would appreciate a mini book full of color.

Noel 3

Noel

This is going to be a Red and White week.

This card was made using the assembly line process.

Lay your cards on your work table. Get your watercolors ready. Grab that two inch wide brush

and W-H-OOOOOO-S-H it across each consecutive card.

Remove your cat from the worktable....important step!

Of course,,,laughing all the way and making spirits bright,,,don´t forget a splash of water here and a spritz of paint there. I told you to remove the cat didn´t I. Add a few fibers and presto....you have yourself a one layer card ready for the post.

Over at Keep It Simple they are displaying lots of Christmas cards,,,go have a look.

Red and White

Red and White Christmas

Red is one of my favorite colors....so when Christmas rolls around I never tire of making

cards using the color Red.

Wednesday Stamper has lots of red and white creations this week....

go have a look.

Noel 2

Noel

This Christmas card was masked and sprayed with red ink then stamped with various stamps. I attached a strip of music and a little square of watercolor paper edged in gold with a star and a small piece of red ribbon. On top of that I stapled a gold fabric star with the words Noel.

I finished it off by inking the edges with brown walnut ink.

Are you busy making your own Christmas cards this year?

If you need more ideas ....go check out Inkurable Stampers Shabby Chic Christmas.

Birds of a Feather

Over the years one of my dearest friends Alexanne has rescued more than her share of exotic birds. One of the benefits of having so many feathered friends is...

feathers, feathers and more feathers.

They come in all shapes and sizes. I never cease being mesmerized by the beauty of their color and iridescence.

I attached the feathers of a Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) and a Yellow-headed

Amazon (Amazona oratrix) parrot by sewing them onto a strip of cloth

and affixing them to the card. I continued the stitching around the edge for a frame effect.

Stitching is one of the themes at Gingersnap Creations...go have a look.

Noel

Joyeux Noel

Christmas will be here before you know it. I have been busy making lots of Christmas cards.

More stars of all kinds can be seen over on Wednesday Stamper....go have a look.

Drawing without an Eraser

"Life is Drawing without an Eraser"

This tag/bookmark is made with some of my wet-in-wet watercolor paper.

A closer view of the mingling of Scarlet, Cobalt and Violet onto an already wet watercolor paper.

Allowing the colors to happily move and mesh together on their own free will creates nice soft edges.

Louise over at Tag Tuesday is interested in seeing various background techniques...go have a look at some more as well as over at Theme Thursday where the theme is Faces.

Burning Up

Set Your Mind on Fire

This woman has so many ideas swirling around in her mind that it sets her

brain on fire. See the flames spurting out the top of her head.

She is burning up with ideas.

This ATC represents creative types who are eager to learn more, do more, want

more and create more. They set their mind on fire with their desire to create.

This ATC was made with an encaustic wax background. I thought the hot wax to be the
perfect medium for this weeks theme...Burning.... over at
Illustration Friday.

Friends

"Friend" created by Barbara

Isn´t it nice when your friends think enough of you to send you one of their handmade cards.

My dear friend Barb did just that. Unfortunately, she does not have a blog so I am posting it here. Maybe if enough of you comment it will convince her she has to start a blog of her own.

I really like how she punched the small ovals and attached a ribbon onto each one. The rust, brown and green colors are nice for Autumn too.

I am entering this card for Barb at Lots to Do where the theme is Friends.

Geisha ATC

Geishas ATC

This ATC has a double photo transfer of two different Geisha fotos. I used gel medium on each foto and after both transfers were finished I used gel medium to glue them together. I guess you could say this is the "old fashioned" way of producing layers. The double transfer was then glued onto some of my background paper.

Asia is the theme at Wednesday Stamper this week....go have a look.

Girly Girls Tell a Story

"Always remember that true beauty comes from within.......

from within bottles, jars, compacts and tubes."

This is a "girly girl" card.
I think these two beauties had fun going overboard. Reminds me of playing dress-up as a kid.
These painted up little faces "tell a story" of two young girls who want to grow up too fast.
At this age girls dream of being a grown up. The irony is.....in a flash....
in the blink of an eye.......you are. But hopefully, not wearing as much make up as these two.

Head on over to Stampotique Originals and Crazy Amigos for more fun.

Angel

Guardian Angel ATC

A sweet image with such an angelic looking face. I knew right away she would be the perfect angel.

She is adhered to some of my watercolor background paper with some added stars and an angel eyelet. Dried grasses are placed on the lower left with a braided gold strip and three punched stars along the bottom. I stamped a few gold swirls on the right side and edged the card with black ink. The last step was to place a subtle golden halo in her hair using antique gold paste.

There are many more beautiful angels over at Take a Word....go have a look.

The Perfect Place for Photos

A hand bound photo album always does the trick for me in showing off my favorite

photos in the perfect light.

This is just one example of what I have been making all week.
Each page has an attached piece of vellum to keep the photos from sticking to each other.
The album is covered with French hand painted marbled paper.


The spine is rounded and coverd with book cloth.
Still many more to assemble,,,back to work.
Wishing you all a fun week!

Autumn´s Glory

Autumn´s Glory

Watercolor 30 x 30 cm

Watercolor with border and frame.

A little further away....as it would be viewed in real life...standing back from the piece.

This is one of the many pumpkin watercolors I have been working on for the last two weeks.

Wishing all those who celebrate Halloween,,,,have a happy one and don´t eat too much candy.

Busy, Busy

I have been busy.

This is a sample of why I have been so busy.

All of the books above start out looking like this.

It entails a lot of measuring and cutting of the book boards.

The cover papers have been painted and as seen here,,,glued onto the book boards.

Here I have used book cloth at the hinge and hammered some eyelet holes.

The last step is to cut the paper used to fill the books.

Two covers are then sewn together with decorative cord and accent beads.

A view of the cords and beads.

Each cover paper is different. This is an example of some of my hand painted paper.

Each book has coordinating book cloth on the hinge.

This paper has a gesso resist and is painted and stamped with acrylics.

This paper is a handmade dyed cotton with added blue coloring. It feels fuzzy to the touch

and reminds me of fluffy clouds in a sky of blue.

Once the books are all finished...they are then packed into hand sewn, felt pouches.

Hope you enjoyed the show. These "little beauties" make great stocking stuffers.

Black and Orange

I have been painting lots of pumpkins lately with lots of leftover orange paint.

What`s a girl to do?

Sooooo, just for fun I painted orange strips of paint onto watercolor paper and made a few

tags/bookmarks.

All the leftover orange paint got used up and I

will attach these tags as little gifts onto my pumpkin watercolor pieces.

Considering that everyone is in the Halloween spirit lately,,,I thought I would add

these tags to the Black and Orange
themes over at Tag Tuesday and Something Completely Different.

By the Sea

By the sea...by the beautiful sea........

Many of us take our vacations by the sea. The sea air does everyone good.
The atmosphere by the sea is always relaxed and carefree.
I have so many sun-filled memories of living by the sea...be it the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific
Ocean or the North Sea.
These tags/bookmarks were done with watercolor crayons and water in sea-like shades
of pinks and corals.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Theme Thursday has chosen
Pink as their theme and I thought I would join in for the cause.