Inspirations: Critter (Formentera II)

Look at the beauties!

I am so proud of some of the pictures I was able to snap this summer.

Little dragons, little jewels, sparkling in the sun. 

In blue and green and turqoise...

I have a lot more pictures... some of them below because I love how you can see the scales, how they looked at me and the camera (I was maybe 20 cm away from them, lying on the ground ^^), how cute their long tongue is... and how the try to lift their legs, especially the back ones, because it was so hot! 

I just love them!

The pityuse lizards are a species (with a lot of subspecies) special to Ibiza and Formentera (Podarcis pityusensis). 

Years ago... my old silver stuff...

For a short explanation: my uncle (the brother from my father's side) is a silver smith and his wife a gold smith. During the 9th class (school) I had to do a work experience for three weeks. My aunt had a shop and studio with another artist in a little and also one of the oldest quarter in bremen (it is called "Schnoor" ). 

I learned how to work with metal... cut, sand, solder... It made a lot of fun! This little lizard is my final piece I made during my time in her studio. My design, my work... I was soooo proud (and I still love it!). It is a hollow body made out of silver.

Oh... is this long ago... I mean, huh, I was fifteen! 

This were my first practises... (yea, I still have them all ^^) 

Only a little silver UFO pin is missing... *sniff*

This was a present for my 16th birthday. It was from my aunt and my grandma (from my german family part / father's side) together. My aunt made it after my design and my grandma got the stone... a gorgeous and big precious opal... (no, I don't want to now how much it cost)

You see, my love for cephalopodaes and tentacles is an old one ;)

I tried to catch the beautiful play of lights... but in reality it is more stunning and intense colours :)

A little how-to-do for your own stencils...

...and my newest favorit one! Look at the cute (Yes, I think he is cute ^^) grashopper above! I took one of the pictures of my inspirations: critters (botanical garden Leipzig) and converted it to a black and white image. Just use the image editing functions programms like word have integrated. Better ones are not necessary for you just want to make a stencil out of it. I play a little bit with the contrast and the brightness until I see the lines I want to cut.

The grashopper image:

In b/w and printed:

Most of the lines are easy to see and therefore to cut. But some points are a little bit difficult and have to be modified (hope you see the circles, if not: just enlarge the picture!):

All pieces have to be connected to each other. If not you can either leave a little connecting space (red circle) or move the object a little bit (green circle, originally the legs were crossed!). And if a little detail is missing just add it! Like I did with one of the legs (blue circle).

And another example this time a flower (Inspirations: Flowers (botanical garden Leipzig)).

Printed after some modfications (contrast / brightness) in b/w

Cut out

The negative image

The positive image

If you are not satisfied you can easy modifiy a picture like this. For example if you would prefer that all petals are to be seen separately just cut a line between the two connected ones. Really easy. And don't be frightened to lose your worl. Just make pictures of your stencils and print them out again! This way you can keep your original one and try out a lot of modifications of the shape until you like it :) Also a way for creating stencils with different sizes. Make a picture and print it at the desired size. All what is left to do is to cut it out again ^^

The next one is take from my collection Formentera: Critter. Here I just added the missing tail. I made it a little bit more curvy ^^

And the gecko... think I will change the head a little bit but not now (as soon as there is a specific project for ^^). But the movemont in the body is great!

More envelope... and some speech bubbles!

I like the silhouette of the bird cut out with music notes. The upper spech bubble is the place for the stamp therefore it is with words. The lower speech bubble is to write the adress on it. Of course a small tentacle is somewhere to find ^^ Like I always say: "Oh, it's nice but it would be but a lot nicer with a tentacle on it!"

Another one on the back! The little clock is just clued to the top side of the closer of the envelope. It will be glued down to close the envelope as soon as I will send it.

I like to make a lot of speech bubbles (and cut some more other little things out ^^) to have a stash of them. Just use everything you have at hand. Coloured paper, with some written things on it, music notes, whatever. The really colourful ones are made out of the paper I have on my desc to protect it when I am painting. Speech bubbles make nice undergrounds for quotes, adresses, stamps, photos... just everythin, like a litte frame.

The other envelope is made out of my lizard photo which belongs to my Formentera: Critters collection. Some stamping, some little drames, a little bit of black colour, a lot more of silver embossing (a little bit difficult to see on the picture)... there it is!

And the back:

I prepared a larger stash of basic envelopes. So they are just a hand away to make something with them. The only thing I am still missing is a good system to order all my stuff especially the little pieces.

To make the basics I just print pictures in black and white (still no owner of a colour printer) and fold them to an envelope (look here for instructions). As picture I use ones for example ones from the really cool collection of the graphics fairy, I also found pictures at FarFarHill or I simply use my own paintings, photos and craftings for this.

This one is the print of "Written".

A photo from my Formentera: Critter collection.

The print of my painting "Wildling".

My favorite cat from graphics fairy.

Also from her: The Tour Eifel.

And from FarFarHill this little bird.

So many possibilities... too many sometimes ^^ Like this you can also make cards and collages or scrapbooking pages. :)

Formentera: Critters

One of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen! Her owner found her in a trash can! An adorable accidental mix between some siam and a tabby cat? 

Look at the blue eyes!

GECKO!

He was in the toilet, hiding for the day...

A lot of lizards...

Out of wiki:

The Ibiza Wall Lizard (Podarcis pityusensis) is a species of lizard in the Lacertidae family. It is most closely associated with the island of Eivissa, or Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands, but has become endemic to Spain.

A sub-species, P. pityusensis formenterae, is limited in natural habitat to the island of Formentera, south of Ibiza, but has been transported by man to several other locations in the Mediterranean. The Formentean subspecies tends to be more brightly coloured than its Ibizan and mainland conspecifics.

They are really curious (I mean there could always be something to eat?!) 

Invading your space.... (in this case the terrace)

Sometimes they show a lot of similarities with cats especially if food is involved:

Are you taming them... or are they taming you...?

Yes i know, sea gulls are the rats of the sky. Still I like them!

Snails, the three on the first pictures are dead, just the houses...

But these snails are all living! Just having a break for the summer (to hot, to dry...)

Most of the time they form colonies of the same kind. But from time to time a snail wanders in the wrong colony ^^

To be honest: I am a little bit frightened of spiders. not too much... but if I don't have contact to spiders for some time it gets worse...

Having a closer look at them helps! Because spiders are real beauties! They have wonderful coloured eyes (most kinds have!) and their pattern is often ornamental! And they make gorgeous spider webs! They are all belonging to the genus Araneus but this kind of them is better known as diadem spider, cross spider or simply garden spider. But these terms are generally used for nearly all orb weaving spiders!

Have a closer look!

Another one, this time you can see her bottom...

I think they are both female because they were 2 to 3 cm big.

Again, have a closer look!

In the summer you can here this sound in most mediterranean countries: the buzz of the cicades!

A dry shell of a cicade after skinning...