black is beautiful

Sorry all ... it's been a long time, I know. Life is just unpredictable and gets in my way too often at the moment.
Anyway. All that talk with Iris about pan pastels inspired me to make a small TAG booklet on black paper.

All images on the covers, inside and out, are from Brett Weldele, those on the TAGs from de stempelwinkel. They are stamped with versamark ink and coloured with pan pastels.
The pockets are coin envelopes made from black sturdy paper, stencilled with interference acrylic paints.

Thank you ever so much for having a look and have a great sunday everyone.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Banksy-inspired TAG

Hi and hello everyone.
I've borrowed a book about Banksy with lots and lots of his art from someone and as a little thank-you I made this TAG.
In the book Banksy is quoted as follows for example:

"I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said 'that's clever, 

it's an anagram of art' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along"

On a base of kraft cardstock covered with a little gesso the background is made with brusho, slightly dried with a heat gun and again moved around and blended with gesso and my fingers.

The stamp images are from Viva Las Vegas Stamps (the Banksy images), Cherry Pie, Stampinback, and De Stempelwinkel.

With this TAG I'm joining the challenge #75 'rethink gesso' on the TAG along blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

tags - de stempelwinkel

Hello and good morning.
It's my turn again over on the de stempelwinkel designteam blog and if you'd like to have a look at the tags I'd love you to visit. Thanks so very much and have a great weekend ...

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

a bunch of gelli collages

Hi all ...
Seems 'Summer' is over, doesn't it? Yupp, I'm a bit pessimistic on that one.
My little daughter finished her swimming class today with rain and about 16°C - maybe 17°C. Anyway, this is just a quick post to share some collages I made with gelli plate printed paper and fuzzy cut stamp images. You may have seen the one or other but I wanted to collect all of them in one post.

The stamps I used are by de stempelwinkel, artemio, oxford impressions, hampton art, paper artsy, Brett Weldele/stampers anonymous, and viva las vegas stamps.
I made the bookmarks to leave them behind in a small telephone booth library in the area of our local swimmingpool. I hope they'll find new owners who like them a bit :-D

Thank you ever so much for stopping by and have a great weekend.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

bookmarks to abandon - de stempelwinkel

Hi and good morning all ...
Again it's time for another designteam post on the de stempelwinkel designteam blog:

To see and learn about the details please hop over to the de stempelwinkel designteam blog ... while you're staing there you can browse the blog for all the great pieces my fellow DT members made :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, it's always a huge pleasure to 'see' you.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

still alive

and kicking, I am.
I have to sincerely apologize for not being around more frequently - and for not commenting on my favorite- and other blogs.
I'm okay so far, it's 'only' that life is very, very busy and stressful at the moment - once more :-( In addition to that the children have Summer holidays and there are quite some logistics to do and things to organize ... oh well, I don't want to get too private here :-)
I'm going to share some pieces I made inbetween, just cards

a birthday card on commission for an acquaintance, she wants to go to the USA this year and got a voucher for a visit at the EmpireState Building

 

a birthday card for a coworker, the first double sided card I made for one of them :-)

another birthday card for a collegue

a card for another coworker who left our department

three TAGs - just for fun and with leftovers

and a good bye for one more coworker who left for another employer

So, just you can see I didn't quit crafting, although I didn't do anything for myself ... 

Oh yes, I did - this one:

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and having a look.

Have a great week everyone - 

hugs, Suzanne xxx

sometimes it pays off to have a closer look .../TAG - de Stempelwinkel

Hi and hello everyone ... I hope you are well, wherever you are.
It's my turn again over at de stempelwinkel designteam blog and this time I made a TAG with my absolutely stunning new stamps. I think they're very versatile, I have a few things in mind for future projects at least :-)
To be honest I completely forgot that it's my turn today because of the madhouse I have at home these days, so I made this quite quickly this morning before I went to work between getting the kids ready for school and kindergarten and having my dose of caffeine.

Please hop over to de stempelwinkel designteam blog and have a look at all the gorgeous arty projects my teamies come up with.

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look. Have a great day.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Mail Art Swap

Initiated by the Art Journey Challenge 'Mail Art Envelopes' some time ago I did mailart swaps with two very versatile and talented ladies: Alie and Tera.

Please have a look at the most wonderful and gorgeous mail art I got from these inspiring ladies

from Alie:
this beautifully colored and stamped envelope

plus one of her famous most wonderful and bright TAGs

and from Tera I got this most elaborate and artful envelope
front and back

 and a fabulous matching card

 I thank you so very much ladies, it has been such great fun to create my envelopes and to swap with you.

I'd so love to do more swaps at some point, mailart, TAGs, ATCs ... whatever. Love this.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a quiet week ..
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

stamped stuff and an altered calendar - very picture-heavy post

Hi all :-)
I'm apologizing in advance because this is going to be - very atypical for me :-D - a picture-heavy post.

First I'm sharing a bunch of cards and a TAG I did last week. Another coworker's birthday is around the corner and after I absolutely didn't have any idea the first day I made four simultaneously and had to concentrate to not mix up my ideas :-) but hey, I think even that would have been interesting.
First up the two blue ones I shared over at de stempelwinkel designteam blog:

And those are the two other cards I made to choose from:

Two cards and a TAG I made and sent off resp. gave away:

another TAG:

and last but not least a calendar I bought the other day - before and after:

Thank you so very much for taking the time for a visit and your patience with all my pics.
I hope you will understand that I don't have the time at the  moment to give the details on each make. If you have a specific question or just want to know how one of these was made please leave me a comment or use my email-address in the profile - thanks so much.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Z as in ...

Zoo :-)
Not that this is a favourite thing of mine, but with the ingredients of the new TIO challenge (the letter Z and a face) this is what came to my mind, considering the stamps I own.

stamps I used:
man: oxford impressions
elephant: acapella stempel
giraffe: katzelkraft
bird: crafty individuals
letters: artemio
plus: a small stencil

The background is made with Adirondack colorwash and muted down with panpastel white, the images were stamped with different Archival inkpads and colored with watercolor pens.

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look. Have a great day, all you welcome visitors and much appreciated followers :-D

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

C as in ... - de stempelwinkel

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well ...
This time I'm sharing a TAG over at de stempelwinkel blog.

I'd love and appreciate to welcome you there and of course if you'd have a look at all the wonderful DT makes.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

a TAG today ...

Hi and good morning on a rather chilly Saturday ... oh how I wish Spring would come soon. My bones seem chilly and stiff still and I'd love to feel them warm and flexibel again :-/

And a big WOW and *happydance* - I have 99 followers *YAY* - never dreamed of that. Thanks so very much all of you who follow my humble attempts to create something like art.
Time to think about what to collect as a giveway when there/you are 100 followers :-)

Today I'm sharing a tag I tried, inspired by the wonderful and exorbitantly talented Mark. 

I struggled with the crackles. I don't recall what I threw onto it and you can't even recognise them on the pic.
I dabbed acrylic paints on the tag from mounting board Mark generously sent me, grey, light blue and a bit of turqoise on the edges. The man and the floor are stamped on acetate and painted on the back, the pen nibs were stamped on the acetate as well.
Pieces of mesh were added onto the background I tried to achieve those crackles. Then some iridescent copper was dabbed onto the cracks. Finally I assembled the two things and used small brads to hold the pieces together.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx