Cemetery Hill on a Lazy Susan

My Lazy Susan is finished.

For the past couple of days I rushed home from work and sat down at my desk to paint. I didn't clean. Laundry is still in the hamper. I ate bread and snacks all week for I didn't go grocery shopping. Phone was left unanswered.
I just put music on and painted. I would love to come home to one of these houses. Alas, my home is an apartment in a large block of apartments but a girl can dream.

The trees are turning golden in the crisp cool air of fall. I added some tombstones around each house.

And all the houses got details going on. Wooden boards and window panes.

Some effective shadowing and a gate to the neighboring cemetery. They say those are the quietest of neighbors.

And bats are patrolling the sky in search of pesty little bugs.


I enjoyed painting it but I feel it took me way too long. If I want to do this to make a happier living and reduce my hours at the dayjob I really really need to speed things up.

It is a shame that there are only 24 hours in a day. From those 24 hours most of it is spend on sleeping and work. But I pledge, I vow that by this time next year I will work less hours at my day job and more hours in my livingroom studio. I just have to.

And now it is Saturday. Blissful Saturday. I have so many things lined up to do.... but that is for my next post.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Be joyful in whatever you do :)

I´m sure I was an...

...architect in a previous life. Like a good 140 years ago.

I just love to paint houses. Victorian houses. I only paint the ones I would like to live in. Oh, if only I could...

The Lazy Susan I started a few days ago is coming along nicely. The houses are build, touch need some touch ups. The landscaping has had it first layer. The trees are grown....
I love trees. I need trees. Trees are amazing. And the road is added too. We do need a road if we are gonna move in.

And as a reminder... here is how it started:

Still loads of work to be done. The bushes in the garden have to be added. The trees need more details, and no garden is finished unless it has atleast a handful of tombstones. We also need some bats and some fences. And last but not least .... a moon. A beautiful full moon.

Thank heaven it´s Sunday today. Not having to go to work and simply spent it with a brush in my hand makes me so very happy, I can´t tell you how joyful I am.

Time to make myself a nice cuppa tea. I think I´ll have coconut tea this time, gonna brew a large pot. Then it´s back to painting. Yeay !

Wishing you all a wonderday day, doing the things that you love.

My creative juices are flowing again.

Wow, I am feeling so very much alive. I'm seeing bright colors, and looking at people, buildings, cars etc when I cycle I see the light and shade of each thing I see. I am looking through painters eyes.

Nooooooo, I have not taking a happy pill.
No, I am not on drugs, nor did I have a drink.

Since participating in this E-course I am feeling so much wonderful energy of every "classmate", it's just bouncing of my screen. Every one of them is so damn talented, I feel very humble being apart of this amazing group.
And amazing enough, everytime I login to our private Facebook page the group seems to grow in numbers. Right now our group is 414 Flyers strong.
414 people who inspire me! From all over the world. This is an amzing experience!

Because of this I have started a new Halloween painting:

The first layer is up and also went in with some details:

Not by a long shot this is finished soon but I love it that I started it. I have had a creative block for so long, I was worried if it would ever come back.

And... because I can never work on 1 project alone I started on a new Lazy Susan as well:

I am feeling energized.

Lazy Susan

Last year I went to Ikea and purchased 10 Lazy Susan's with the idea to paint them with halloween images. I started with one and only worked on it in the beginning. Then other projects got my attention and the lazy susan was left in the cupboard ....forgotton and alone. Till in the first days of March of this year I told myself to finish the thing or get rid of it (basicly I needed more space in the projects area). So I did finish it and I want to show you the finished product form start to finish:

I first selected 5 of my favorite houses and put them together on a sheet to have the details with me while I painted.

Then I sanded the top of a lazy susan and gave it a background of warm yellow and orange. I then sketched the 5 houses with more or less the same distance between them.

Next in line was to add color to the houses. I never paint the houses the original color, I like to add a personal touch. And in my mind on this block (circle) the houses have these colors.

Then I added some roofs. Very essential item to have on a house. And I decided that they'd all have a low stone wall.

I then landscaped the gardens and forests behind the houses. Also the road and steps were added.

I then added a few more coats of paint to the houses and did some more layers of landscaping... added some rocks to the walls and gave it some real lawns and some trees that really stand out.

Some more detailing to the houses, and added some fences, some pumpkins, gravestones, bats and outside lights. And voila..... one painted Lazy Susan. I still need to give it a couple of protective coats of clear varnish but when that's done.... pass the ketchup please.

Victorian houses

For as long as I remember I have had a fascination with Victorian houses (the architecture that is. Most certainly NOT the interiors).
I love all the styles but my heart especially goes out to the:

Bewitched bookmark and challenge gone wrong

Stupid stupid stupid.

Me that is.

I wanted to enter a challenge from Darkness Inspiration and the theme was "Bewitched". I didn't have a lot of time but wanted to enter, so I thought I'd make a little collage. And as I didn't want to make yet another card I decided on a bookmark. I always can use bookmarks.

So I took some pictures of it (that actually took me more time then it took to create the bookmark) and wanted to post it. But then... what is that?... excuse me??... When did it say that!

Supposedly it has to be an ATC. Well duh... I totally missed that when I read it. So I will NOT enter this challenge but at least I got me a bookmark. Now where is my book...

She's on the prowl....

This weeks challenge at Haunted Design House was to create a walking dead diva .... a zombie girl... a girlie girl without the table manners. My first thought was '' where the bleep am I gonna get a zombie girl from''. I don't have any zombie stamps and I didn't want to download a dead flesh munching girl from the internet. So I went through my stamps and there I found my forgotten Vampira rubber stamp from Side Show Stamps. Her eyes are hollow so I thought she could double as a zombie. I gave her a dress of some pink paisley scrap of paper I had as a leftover (don't you just love all those tiny teeny bits-they always come in so handy).


The moon is a rubber stamp from Cherry Pie Art Stamps. I inked it with purple ink and stamped it on silver cardstock. Then added embossing powder and gave it a treatment with the heatgun.
The tree and tombstones I cut out of a scrapppaper I had in a kit bought some years ago. I really have this thing for tombstones. Can't put my finger on it but I am smitten with them. In all varieties. Last year I went back to Edinburgh (where a long time ago I have lived for 2 years) and they have these marvelous graveyards scattered through town. Many many of them. Often overlooked by the people living around them. I think that is so cool. I visited quite a few of them and took like a gazillion photo's. Anyway... rambling on... the houses are from my never ending stash of architecture I have in my computer.

Her hair is electric blue from a gelpen. With a silver gelpen I gave her highlights. Added a silver belt and at the bottom of her dress I added red sparkles from yet another gelpen. And finally with a black fine liner I added tiny branches to the tree.

She is ready to hunt for food now.... so if you don't want to be dinner you'd better hide.

Freaker's- Free-For-All

Tears cannot restore her ...
This weeks Macabre Monday's challenge is Freaker's Free-for-All. Meaning it is left to our desire to create whatever we want. Yay!

I have had this image of this wonderful house in my evergrowing collection of victorian architecture for ages, just waiting for this exact opportunity. I added a fence from a rub-on sheet (can't remember who from). The bats flying around is a PSX stamp. I found this very nice looking tombstone surfing the internet and with the help of Paint Shop added a funny grave epitaph.

Put it all on to black cardstock and voila. I would love to live here.

Raven Inn Collage

Last year I decided to redo our bedroom. It was a terracotta orange but that color was on the walls for 5 years and I was in the mood for something new. So I decided on a nice granny smith apple green. After a enthusiastic start, a doubtful moment in the middle (cursing myself because why the bleep did I start do do this again?) and finally a long awaited finish the room was done.

But even though the room was done and beautifully so if I say so myself, it lacked something.

It needed some umph. Ididn't want to bring out the paint brushes so I decided to make a collage to hang opposite the bed.

I found this wonderful image of this really nice old Victorian. In my mind it was infested with crows and bats hence the name Raven Inn. I found this great banner from an old Dover book, added some chipboard letters, stamped a spider and some bats and last but no least printed an image of a raven, added it at the bottom and voilla. Hung it opposite the bed and yes, I'm liking it. Although.... It's a bit on the small side though so maybe I'll do a bigger one. First have to find a larger frame.

So this is the result of two happy afternoons:

I love this house. Such a shame the house has been demolished decades ago. I would have loved to wander around in it.