Thursday Theme: Deutschland!

Wow, did I lose track of the weeks or what?  We've been surprisingly busy since getting back from vacation in Germany, with family visiting from Germany (yes, you read that right) and trying to get settled back in.  But I haven't forgotten the blog, or you.  And I realized finally that it's Thursday, which means it's time for a theme!  Until last night I hadn't done much art in the last few weeks, but even though I now have some pieces that relate to each other that I could show, I'll hold on to those and instead show you some of the inspiring sights I saw in Germany.  It's a beautiful place, and I saw stuff all over that inspired me, from the landscape to the wildflowers to the castles to the floor tiles.  So here we go.  I'll mostly let the photos speak for themselves.

 

(This is the view from my first castle.  Real castle!  The next few photos are from there.)

(There happened to be an equestrian tournament in town while we were there, in the park on the grounds of a palace.  Sweet!)

(This castle just happens to be chillin' in the middle of the park.)

(These next few pictures are from the monastery where The Name of the Rose was filmed.  Awesome!)

(Germania says:  "Come at me, bro!")

(We spent a weekend in a castle hotel as a wedding gift from the family.  Best thing ever!  The castle ruins were amazing and overrun by nature.)

(These last pictures are from the cathedral in Mainz.)

It was an amazing trip, and this is only a tiny few of the photos we took.  But they're a decent sampling of settings and patterns that got my creative mind going, so maybe they'll do the same for you.  Bis später!  (See you later!)

Thursday Theme: Background Check

More backgrounds for my tagebuch! I've done some on Kraft paper tags now, too. More efficient photos this time - the second photo is the same tags as the first photo, but flipped over. Same techniques as last week, but with some stamps this week.

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

It's gloomy outside, but I'm in a pretty good mood anyway. Two years ago, I married my best friend, the most handsome and sweet man in the world. It was a beautiful day and we were the absolute cliche of the blissful couple. So on this gloomy day, I gave him this. The more I look at it, the more I see things I could've done better, but I made it with love and he likes it so that's all that matters. In a way, I guess an imperfect canvas is like a marriage; there are always things you could do better but if you live with love and at the end of the day you're happy together, you're doing pretty well.

Thursday Theme: Background Check

I'm back with a new theme this week!  All week I've been working on incomplete projects.  Not finishing ones that are already around, mind you, but on creating intentionally incomplete projects.  See, Mr. Pocket and I are visiting his family in Germany soon, and since it will be my first trip to Germany, I wanted to keep some kind of travel journal.  And then I got to thinking about the German word for diary or journal, which is Tagbuch, or day book.  And I thought hey, that has "tag" in it.  I'll journal on tags!  But of course I can't just journal on plain, blank tags, and I don't want to have to bring a lot of supplies and start each tag from scratch, so I'm working on a big batch of tag backgrounds to take with me.  I'm doing both sides of each tag so that there's not a front side and a messy back side.  Here's what I've got so far:

This last one is the one I'm least pleased with.  If I make enough backgrounds, I might not use this one.

 

For all of these, I've used Distress Inks, Perfect Pearls Mist, Adirondack Paint Dabber, and Michelle Ward stencils.  More to come!  I need lots of 'em.

May Day!

In honor of the first of May, I bring you All of the Flowers.