GETTING MARRIED

I have been out of the loop for a while as I got married last week.  We decided to get married about a month ago and although it was a very small affair, there was a surprising amount of organisation to do, and very little time to do it in!  Thankfully it all went very smoothly and we had a wonderful day.

I am now getting back to normality and have just spent a happy afternoon playing with Photoshop.  This is a photo I took of a Flowering Currant -it's a wonderful plant to look at but it smells like cats pee! 

GOLD PHOTO MOSAIC

I've recently made this photo mosaic based on the colour gold.  It started with photos I took at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, Cheshire last year, and I added some photos from my archives that I felt matched the mood and colour quite well.

Last week I turned this image, and a few others I had put together, into greetings cards to sell at our local beach cafe.  

  

I am linking this to Mosaic Monday over at the delightful Little Red House (see button on right).  There are some fantastic photo mosaics being posted each week and I would thoroughly recommend a visit.

A BRIGHT PINK HELLEBORE

 The Hellebore is one of my favourite winter flowers.  I'm afraid I only have the pale creamy pink flowers in my garden so this was photographed surreptitiously in a local garden centre! I managed to walk away without buying it (quite an achievement for me) but I really wish I had.  I'm sure I could have found a tiny space for it somewhere! 

I'm linking this photo to Colour Me Weekly - why not take a wander over there and enjoy the colour palettes being posted for this week's challenge.  

WOYWW - STENCIL CUTTER AND EASTER CARDS

For What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday this week I have to show off my new 'toy' - a stencil burner - it's brilliant and cuts stencils in a far more accurate way than the Stanley knife did.  In order to get a quick 'play' with it I cut out a simple outline of a chicken and decided to make some gelli prints.

For the printing I chose to use the colour scheme from the Witch Hazel colour palette I made for 'Colour Me Weekly' a couple of weeks ago.  I found that the printing worked quite well despite mixing Dulux emulsion (and anything else I had) with the acrylic paints, and my gelli plate remained unharmed!

I turned a couple of the prints into Easter cards and added some stitching in the golden yellow colours to highlight the 'combs'. 

It wasn't until I photographed the cards that I noticed how tatty my table is - I don't notice it in real life!  The stains are where my water pot for paint usually stands - perhaps I'll try and do something about it - or perhaps not!!!

PUSSY WILLOW COLOUR PALETTE

I'm joining in again this week with Colour Me Weekly over at leavesnbloom.

I splashed out on a large bunch of Pussy Willow the other day and now have bundles of it and odd twigs all around the house.  I love it!

WOYWW - WHAT'S ON YOUR WORK DESK WEDNESDAY!

My work desk was left like this on Tuesday night, all ready for the morning. 

There's a handful of cards with photos glued on, waiting to be stamped on the back and put in cellophane bags (I'm selling them at our local beach cafe/shop).  While letting these dry I prepared a page with cream emulsion, ready for a new piece of work. 

There is also a rather large pile of rubber stamps that I am thinking of e-baying, but the question is whether I'll ever get round to it, or will they end up in a charity shop when I can't stand looking at them any longer!

Why not whizz over to WOYWW (badge on right) and have a look at other people's work desks - I love it but then I am inherently nosey!

GPP STREET TEAM - 'RESTRAINING ORDER'

It's the very last Street Team challenge and only my second one, but I shall be very sad to say goodbye as I have so enjoyed doing these two challenges, and I've really loved seeing all the wonderful work from the other participants.

This month the challenge is to 'hold back' on what we put on our page - I guess the term "less is more" applies!  

For this challenge I have re-worked an old theme - a lot of my work focuses on capture, ownership and possession.   

This time I have tried to concentrate on the large space in the middle of the work - I realised most of my work is compacted into smaller areas - I quite often work on square paper and so this tall rectangular book has enabled me to consciously change proportions.  I am pleasantly surprised at the result - it's not as sparse as I thought it was going to be.   

'Capture or release?'

Thank you to Michelle for two fun months (I wish it had been longer) and to all the participants who have left kind comments on my work. I hope our paths cross again in the future. 

TAG TUESDAY - BIRD THEME

Bird houses, birds carrying banners, threads and ribbons etc, and collections of bits and bobs for nests are themes that have been occurring in my work for many years.  For this weeks tag I have returned to an older piece of work purely because I have been short on time - it's been a hectic week.

She has been collecting 'beautiful things' for her nest just like most of us collect 'beautiful things' for our nests!

I brushed cream emulsion over a beige tag, added distress ink around the edges and attached a glassine envelope.  I added a roof and base from a photo I took of a beach hut, and then filled the envelope with 'beautiful things'!  I embellished the front of bird house and also used rather a large amount of Sticky Fixers to create depth.

Items include: stamp, feathers, pin, watch hand, lace, copper wire, cotton thread, pearl, button, cut out images of shells, moths, and a white bud and text from a vintage letter.

  

She's been quite busy!

COLOUR ME WEEKLY

I recently discovered Colour Me Weekly and I became instantly addicted to   colour palettes.  Why not take a meander over there (there's a badge on the right) and enjoy the photographic delights on offer.

I decided to print a few of my colour palettes and have a 'play' in my studio at good old-fashioned colour mixing.  I spent a few happy hours mixing every tube, pot and bottle of paint I had to create the exact colours on the photographic palette.  So far that is as far as I have got, but I am planning on now using these individual colour schemes for pieces of art.  I'll post the results in the near future (if successful!).