PEACOCK COLOURS

Last weekend we took my eldest step-son, who has autism, to Staunton Country Park (near Havant).  He happily fed the animals and I happily photographed this handsome fellow - well he's handsome from the front but his tail was a disaster!   He seemed so used to people that I'm sure he was posing for me!

One of my favourite colour combinations - blue and green - and no, they aren't false nails, they are beetle wing cases!

I am linking to Color Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.

Since trying to send specific information to a blog friend a few weeks ago, and it kept failing, I have discovered another three people who aren't receiving emails if I send them by clicking the reply button in my mail box.

I don't reply to every comment by email as I would have no time left for blogging! But I can only apologise if you haven't been receiving the odd little email from me, commenting back on something you said or thanking you for dropping by.   

So here's another big thank you to everyone who visits and takes the time to leave kind and supportive comments - each and every one is truly appreciated.

TAG TUESDAY CATCH-UP

It has been a few weeks since I posted my Tag Tuesday entries on my blog so I though I would play catch-up.

This weeks theme is 'Rock Pools and Beach Finds'.  For this I used a found piece of heart shaped sea glass,  which I wrapped in wire and glued to a piece of silk.  I attached this to a 'mess' of ink and gel medium and added some silver flakes.

Last weeks theme was 'Swimming'.  I used vintage images from the Graphics Fairy and 'somewhere else, I can't remember where'!  I emulsioned the background and stamped a swirly pattern to give an underwater feel, then added some small pearls.

For the previous week the theme was 'The Beach'.  I decided to keep it simple and stick to just rubber stamping (I think most of them are from Oxford Impressions).  The fossils and text were embossed in gold and look quite shiny and metallic.

And that's me all caught up!

There are some fantastic tags over at Tag Tuesday - why not take a peek!

A NICE CUP OF TEA!

  This week I am linking up to Color Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.    The teacups originally belonged to my Great Grandmother - sadly a few years ago a shelf collapsed and most of it was smashed, so I only have a few pieces that aren't covered in large glued cracks!

I used French Kiss textures on this last photo.

I'm now going to sit back and relax, have a nice cup of tea and enjoy a good book!

THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

A very big thank you to the extremely talented Shoshi over at  shoshiplatypus.blogspot.co.uk.    She has nominated me for The Versatile Blogger Award - thank you Shoshi!  Do take a wander over and see the amazing work that Shoshi creates - her blog is well worth a visit.

Now I need to do the following:

1.  Thank the person who nominated me and leave a link to their blog.

2.  Include the award image in this post.

3.  Give 7 random facts about myself.

4.  Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and leave a link to their site.

5.  Let the other bloggers know they've been nominated.

So, here are 7 random facts about myself:

1.  One of my favourite books is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

2.  I collect dead things - bees, moths, butterflies, maybugs etc (they are already dead when I find them, I don't kill them myself!).

3.  My favourite band is Jethro Tull

4.  I am terrified of slugs (yes, I know I can out run them so why be scared!)

5.  I adore my two nephews 

6.  Jane Goodall is one of my heroines

7.  Odilon Redon is currently top of my favourite artists list (it changes regularly!)

And here, in no special order, are my nominations for The Versatile Blogger Award - each one has been a joy to visit, an inspiration, and a source of kind words and encouragement.  Why not take a look for yourself!

1.  Terri at art-life-rust.blogspot.co.uk

2.  Karen at littlecraftingmiss.blogspot.co.uk

3.  Lynn at oneImadeearliertoday.blogspot.co.uk

4.  Mel at theyorkshirefox.blogspot.co.uk

5.  Jan at Jansartyjunk.blogspot.co.uk

6.  Carrie at pocketsizestudios.blogspot.co.uk
7.  May at mayshappydaze.blogspot.co.uk
8.  Kathy at paperpumpkin.blogspot.co.uk
9.  Joanna at fiddlesnips.blogspot.co.uk

10. Barbara at barbarascraftroom.blogspot.co.uk

I don't know if I'll get to 15 as several people I had in mind have buttons on their blogs saying they don't do awards - and apologies if I didn't see any 'don't do awards' buttons on the above blogs!

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 6

It's sadly the last week of Kristin's Summer of Color ice cream challenge and this weeks flavour is Watermelon Ice - in other words bright red with dark brown (for the choc chips!).

I've really enjoyed this colour palette and ended up doing two sketchbook pages continuing my pollen theme.

 I transferred the tree images using Golden Gel and then heated it around the trees to create tiny little white bubbles to represent a pollen 'haze'.  The band above the trees is made of tiny little beads.

I wanted to say a big thank you to Kristin for hosting the Summer of Color Challenge and also to everyone who has so kindly stopped by and left such lovely and positive comments - every single one has been so appreciated.

Still on the this weeks colour theme I think Lobelia Cardinalis 'Queen Victoria' has to be one of my all time favourite plants - these photos are from my garden last summer as it is late flowering and not in bloom yet - I wish it went from Spring through to Autumn!  I am linking these palettes to Rosie's Color Me Weekly.

  

I have been loving these colours and really enjoyed putting together some photo mosaics for Mosaic Monday over at Little Red House.   

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 5

It's the penultimate week for Kristin's Summer of Colour ice cream challenge and this week the colours are Wild n Reckless Sherbert - in other words bright blue, mauve and mid-green.

I probably stand alone in saying that this has to be the most unappealing colour combination for me - I don't think I would ever mix these colours for clothing, home decor or even gardening -  I feel mauve somehow kills bright blue when they are next to each other.  However, I decided to mute the colours somewhat and this helped me create this weeks sketchbook page.

I ended up having real problems with this - it just hasn't worked - I think there is too much going on and I've 'over egged the cake' so to speak!

However, not to be put off I decided to get the camera out and try and continue with the colour theme.  The flowers are a mixture of photos from my archives and a couple from the garden this week - the blue Ceratostigma (centre) is in full bloom at the moment and looking wonderful, as is the purple geranium (bottom left), although they are in completely different parts of the garden!  The last two mosaics are of things I found around the house.  I am linking these to Mosiac Monday over at Little Red House.

Finally, I found this beautiful Passion Flower while out and about this week.  The colours were almost right, but the stamens were yellow.  With the help of Photoshop I managed to manipulate the flower to fit the colour scheme - I do think it's rather pretty with the mauve centre but feel a little guilty at cheating like that!!!  I'm linking this colour palette to Rosie's 

Color Me Weekly.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 4

This weeks ice cream challenge over at Kristin's Summer of Colour was Strawberry Lemonade Punch ice cream - in other words working with the colours pink and yellow.

 I wanted to continue working with my ongoing pollen theme but the colours just kept taking me to the beach!  I decided to incorporate both the pollen and the beach themes and I used images of shells, silver wire and beads, along with a pink cutout tree that I hope looks like coral now that I've cut the trunk off!

It's difficult to see the wires - they just look like pencil lines - so here's a close up of the wire and beads.

This is pretty much all the pink stuff I own!

But I do have some lovely pink and yellow Rockroses and St John's Wort in the garden at the moment - I have added them to some old photos to make a Strawberry Lemonade Punch photo mosaic to link with Little Red House!

While still in the pink/yellow frame of mind I found these beautiful caterpillars on some Verbascum plants at my local garden centre.  We moved the plants they were on to the back of the display so the staff would hopefully not find them and destroy them!  These caterpillars turn into Mullein moths and boy, can they eat Verbascum at a rate of knots!

I am linking these colour palettes to Colour Me Weekly over at Rosie's Leavesnbloom. 

 And finally, after playing around in photoshop with this photograph I took of a fern against a slab of slate, I rather liked the yellow and pink effect I ended up with.  Quite appropriate for the challenge, but not very realistic!