DIY ~ Make Your Own Valentine's Day Cards

Nothing is more personal than a handwritten note, so why should Valentine's Day be treated any differently? Show someone you care by making your own Valentine's Day cards. Get your construction paper, felt, scissors markers and glue... add some stickers, glitter, stamps, paint brushes and paint... and go to town! I promise you will have fun!

Related: Love Birds on a Wire ~ a watercolor painting

photos: flickr, martha stewart

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Rooms and Art dipped in Purple

Astonishingly a lot of rooms have been designed in and around the colour purple. But then 2 purple hues, Purple Vine and Cashmere Rose were the Pantone Fashion colours of 2007 - so I shouldn't be astonished at all. Additionally you can find lots of silk brocades and other textiles in purple although I have always thought that this colour is generally used very sparsely because it is such a strong colour.

Used in accessories such as cushions and tableware the colour certainly becomes an intriguing design element.
Rooms designed in all kinds of purple hues and shades make a strong statement although sometimes a bit less would be better - not?

(images are from following websites:

cocomale.com, modern-interior-decoration.blogspot.com, harmonyandhome.blogspot.com, julianinterior.com, homeinteriordesigndecoration.blogspot.com, thebusinessofcolor.blogspot.com,homedit.com, homes-interior.com, shinedesign.blog124.fc2.com, homeinfurniture.com,chictip.com, patriciagrayinc.blogspot.com, trend-dir.com, decorati0n.com, arhzine.com,besthousedesign.com, blogcatalog.com, best-interior-design-home.blogspot.com)

Although I do not use the colour purple very much in my art work you still can find a couple of purple splotches in my paintings. I think it is time to create some more...

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Introducing a New Blog...

Hi dear Readers and Bloggers,
just wanted to inform you that I have a second blogger blog about

Art and Interior

with the Entrecard widget.

This new blog is all about ideas how art and interior design can create a harmonious entity and to demonstrate where art could be applied into a perfect home.

I very much hope that you will enjoy this new blog also. If you would like to see much more photos about my artwork, especially large detailed photos you would need to check out my German blog

Design und Kunst

where you will find all the works under their titles in the respective category. English descriptions can be read under

Images and Imagination

Bamboo - another Silk Carving©

This is also not a photo from a natural bloom or blossom but a silk carving© of a plant that has many faces. More about the making of a silk carving you can read here

Bamboo serves many purposes besides being a multi-facetted garden plant, looking marvellous and being food for animals.
Bamboo is used mainly in Asia as construction material for whole houses and as scuffolding for multi storage buildings. Who has ever seen these amazing suffoldings reaching far into the sky knows what qualities the stems of this plant has. Additionally growing very fast and in multiple forms gives this plant a special importance.

In other parts of this world bamboo is used for building whole ships, for floors and furniture, decoration and even for dishes and clothing. I think there is no plant with more applications than bamboo besides being eco friendly, non-toxic, renewable.

But there is one downside to this plant also: When it blooms the plant dies and animals who feed exclusively on the leaves and sprouts of bamboo are in great danger of starving as it can happen with the big panda bears in China.

Every few years the bamboo starts to bloom and it does not do it in small groups but in whole areas at the same time. Which means that the bamboo dies in large patches. The pandas' natural habitats have become very constraint due to the growing of Chinas's population and cities and the bears don't have the chance to move from one territory into another any more because they cannot cover big distances. So the fate of these magnificent animals seems to be doomed.

Although China has initiated several breeding programs and plans to release the bears, who have been born in captivity, into the wild, I doubt that this will be a success. Too much territory has already been destroyed. And when there is no habitat to live in what sense does it make to increase the population?

"Bamboo", 59" x 15", Silk Carving