Ravages of Time / Ajan syömää

There is a Medieval market in our town this week. I am taking part as a reenactor. We try to be as authentic as possible, down to forks and knives and shoe laces and even the kind of stitches the clothing was sewed some 700 years ago.
I needed a place to keep some of my modern day stuff like a mobile phone, camera and the like. But it shouldn't be a pretty box and look like there would be valuables in it, I wanted it to look as inconspicous as possible. So I made a box that opens like a book and looks like a plank of wood. Nah, a tad prettier than a plank of wood, I couldn't resist the curlicues. One half of a rusty clasp on the side where it opens completes the withered, ravaged look.

Ajan syömä puunpalanen, joka onkin salainen laatikko salaisille tärkeille papereille. Ikävä kyllä ajan hammas on päässyt nakertamaan ja keskiaikaisista dokumenteista on enää rippeet jäljellä. Tein tämän Turun keskiaikasille markkinoille.

It looks like it may have had a picture on top, but that picture has sadly worn away in these 700 years.

It used to be a box in which secret messages were brought from place to place, safely hidden in plain sight. For who would think a wooden plank would be anything else than a wooden plank?

When you open it today, you will find some remnants of those precious writings.

 Sadly, years of abuse have done it's work, they are torn, crumbled, soiled.

There are only fragments left, -  poor historians of today, they will have to make sense of it all!

 Oh, the ravages of time!

The authentic looking manuscript scraps are copies that were aged with some ink, baking, washing, sun and fire. Some were torn before, some after a treatment, then treated a bit more.
Entering this in Steampunk challenge
Eclectic Ellapu

Silly numbers

I made a triptych of atc's for the Moo-mania challenge. There are a lot of numbers in the background and on several curve diagrams, there are car number plates and the large rub-ons. But there is absolutely no point anywhere, I was just feeling a bit silly and light headed from all the sun.

closeups:

TMTA / metal

Think Monday - think metal!
I am a fan of heavy metal, of rusty nails, of odd metal pieces, plates and findings... but for this card I chose soft metals: golden paint, golden gel pen, Chinese silver money with a blue ink wash and a copper brad.
(I have to tell you all this, because you can't really see all of it. A lot of the gold got lost in the photo, and the inked Chinese silver just looks blue - located right underneath the stripey bar... Well, at least the brad is visible! )

Welcome autumn with its golden days
traded

Background was done with watercolor - liked the prompt in last week's Inspire me Thursday and experimented with them on several different surfaces over the weekend. This card is done on plummy 200gm aquarelle paper.

Technique Thursday had a prompt to use circles. I thought, why limit myself to circles in design, why not make something circle shaped. So I experimented with 3¨ rounds. I had something in mind, but filling circle-shaped forms was harder than I thought it would be. Here they are - any ideas what I could make with them?
(And do they maybe feel a tad sparse?)

A story of Elsie and some strawberry juice gone very, very bad

I just had to give the fantasy with wings (challenge by Heather) another try!
And one card didn't seem enough, the words and pictures just kept popping up. Now it is a short story - or a silent movie if you will.

1. Someone pretends it is Elsie's birthday, and she receives a gift. (reserved)


2. Elsie is brought out to the park.


3. Elsie gets thirsty for strawberry juice, and doesn't pay attention to a stupid Faerie.


4. Elsie is only half sorry - now she has a nicer dress than Annie. (reserved)


5. The obligatory teaching in verse-form.

6. Big sister Annie is being very mature about it all.


These cards also take part in Hermine's challenge. She has a downloadable background that needs to be used. I don't know how it happened, but mine printed out practically letter-size! I was able to cut eight cards from it. The fantasy story uses six of them - I guess it counts as having done the challenge... I hope so.

Merry Antoinette

A dress she might have been most delighted in. Great for strolls in the garden and mid-morning tea!
Or maybe it is for the garden faerie? Her best dress, used for dancing at sunrise, or in the deep shadows of the midday.

all pics click for bigTech stuff:
Bodice and dress are paper. Bodice was embossed to a flower shape, dusted a bit with pixie powder. It looked somewhat spare, so I went ahead and sewed four silk flowers and some sequins on. The narrow velvet straps are sewn on with gold thread.

Dress "fabric" was made by gessoing a pink tissue paper, then doubling it over. After hardening it could be cut and sewn. The bottom was cut frilly with "heirloom blade" scissors. The center has a canary stained copy of an old hand-written document.

The flower garlands are cut from "Mini Craft Pack" cover envelopes. (I am such a thrifter - but again, if it can be used, why trash it?) I felt like the bottom needed some decoration, so I quickly snipped a tiny lace bow from my panties (knickers to you all English-speaking folks).

I wish I had those little frou-frou hangers that Sheri has managed to find at her local flea market. Lacking those, I made my own. (Hmm, a bit crooked.) I "padded" the hanger with a paper napkin and attached some gold wire for hook.
The dress is about 20cm /8" high, the hanger measures 9cm/3.5" sideways.

And I totally credit Sheri for this dress. I was so inspired by her lovely frou-frou dresses! Thanks for the inspiration!