Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's day











OK the card is for the challenge at 365 day cards and I made it for my mom. She is not for pink and soft daffidils. She often likes the "manly" colours although she loves black and white which i have made for her in the past. I used the cuddlebug and added cryatls and stickers (stars). Now the main thing below...I did NOT do. This is what my mom created when she had her eyesight. They are made with real eggs! Today is mother's day. I realize that, at times, I can be impatient with my mom, who is 82. I can get frustrated because I can see she seems to be having trouble with her memory and I am concerned. She got her mRI done but we now have to wait to see the Dr. I hope it is nothing like Alzheimers. I own a duplex and she lives in the upstairs area so I try my best to be with her because, she has always been there for me. She started creating these "faberge-style eggs when I was little. She told me that they used to make creations with eggs when she was little in Germany. I didn't understand and asked her to make one and that is how it began for her. Over the years she could not find the right "stuff" to place inside the eggs so she decided to make them all. Yup the fairy and the lady and the little bird are all handmade by her. The Midieval Lady is in a goose egg which she did cut out as you see here. She made the lady out of bread dough. The fairy egg is from an emu egg. The egg is a dark green and if one slowly chisles into it it goes lighter and lighter til it is white. She decided to create the door in the image of a kingfisher. When you open the door(she hinged it) you see a midnight dream. She painted the background and created the fairy including the wings and her little dress. I think she may be about an inch, maybe an inch and a half long. She always said the smaller the better! I wish i had this artistry and patience but, I do not. Now she has macular degeneration and for a few years now she can not do her work. At least I have some to look at and I want to share with you. I will show a few more this week since i will honour my mom for the week in this way. She deserves it. My friends, when I speak of her life, state she could write a book and i do believe she could. I will write about her a bit tomorrow but I can say she survived the war (she is german), she survived a very bad accident and so much more but that is for tomorrow. I apologise if i bore you but I just wish her work could still be seen. To all mother's out there-happy Mother's week!




Sunday, May 2, 2010

CraftyCreations-Backgrounds

At Crafty Creations, the challenge is to make/create your own backgrounds. I decided to try 3 on one card. 2 worked:) I stamped the blue berries in vintage Ink (Floral) and cut it out. I took black card stock and stamped and embossed the Happy Birthday in silver. I used chalks on the black but that didn't come out at all in the picture. The first background I used shimmering mists in blue and sparkly silver..oh yeah I first used my cuttlebug, then I sponged on lavender and red from my memories ink pad...and then the shimmering mists. The other background, I used perfect pearl powders in mystic blue, bronze and dreamsicle. I brushed them on and then layered the card. I finished it off with little crystals and silver border stickers. I really enjoyed making this one but boy are my fingers blue!

Hedgehog Heaven "Guten tag"


Ok on "Flutterby Wednesday" the challenge was to keep it simple. I hope I did! I stamped the hedgehog with the little butterfly in basic black and embossed him. I coloured him in with tombow markers. a while ago I bought some shimmering mists and I tried it out on some green scrap paper. I didn't like the way the paper looked but later I bought a small flower punch(from that terrific sale at "my" stamp store (Duffy's Classic's) and I tried it out and it seemed to work. I just glued them around the image and added flower crystals and then I tried to cut out the bright blue paper in a nice symetrical way....I should know better. I can never make a straight line and everything always seems a bit crooked...oh well. Now my lovely little german hedgehog..actually Austrian, well, I had to put her beside the card. When I went with my mom to Austria in 1972(I was 8), I bought 2 of them, one for me and the other I gave to my best friend(she got the boy hedgehog). I have cherished mine ever since. In Europe they are crazy for hedgehogs and a lady (Marlene-check out her blog) talked about her pet hedgehog the previous week on her blog, so I had to post this dirndle (Folk dress) girl in:) Auf Wiedersehn!