Monday 3 December 2012

WINTER LANDSCAPES

Winter seems to be well and truly here - we've had several frosty mornings and the woolly jumpers are out!


I used a Kim Klassen texture for this photo of the New Forest - I love the warm, rusty colour of the dead heather at this time of year.

Appropriately, the last two themes for Tag Tuesday have been 'Keeping Warm' and 'Winter Landscape'.

For 'Keeping Warm' I decided to crochet a small panel using different wool and yarns that I have made scarves with over the years.  I love knitting and crochet but I don't do shapes!  I added buttons to give a 'wrapping up warm' feel to the tag - I rather like the natural colours in this and think I might make a real scarf using these same left over yarns.

For the 'Winter Landscape' theme I decided I would carry on crocheting and I made two small trees which I attached to tags - the first tree trunk was stitched using dark grey embroidery thread, and the second was a piece of black satin ribbon - I think the trunk would look better with a thinner ribbon, but unfortunately that is all I had!

I am linking up this week with Colour Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.

16 comments:

  1. Oh my...you've managed to make neutral grays, browns, and taupes look absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous! Both your images and your creations made me gasp. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. I love your mosaic photos, Diana! You have certainly captured the essence of winter here. The first tag is great, gives the feel of cosy jumpers and scarves, and the woollen tree tags are so sweet!
    Jane
    www.texturetrail/blogspot.com

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  3. Your Christmas tree tags are delightful! What a wonderful idea, and a great occupation for cold winter days - unlike here at the moment in hot summer Australia. I love the muted winter tones in you mosaic. I am linking up to you through Mosaic Monday,

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  4. Your mosaic is absolutely stunning, and the tags are wonderful. I love this post!

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  5. OH I just love those neutrals........we're under the snow up here in Perthshire today but our scenery was just like yours over the weekend. You never cease to amaze me with your creativity Diana. Just love those crochet tags especially with the christmas trees.

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  6. Outstanding and oh so very beautiful!

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  7. Oh Diana, I just love your winter pictures, and how you've interpreted them! Beautiful as always! You've really captured that late autumn frost with the still-brown hues to perfection.

    Thank you for your two lovely comments! I am really pleased that you are enjoying my step-by-step journey through my album - I really go into all the detail for my own benefit and sometimes worry that people would get frustrated with so much detail, so it's nice to know it's appreciated! The distressing tool is the little round thing with a handle, in the photo - each notch has a blade in it, and you run it up and down the edge of the card to rip up the edge. You can also do it with an open scissor blade but this is easier. When you add distress ink, it goes really dark where the fibres are damaged, giving an even more distressed look. The blending tool is the Tim Holtz one - a wooden handle with velcro to hold a foam pad. I don't use these very often and usually prefer the Inkylicious Ink Duster brushes, but they do make a lovely distressed edge and are quicker! As for the Distress Inks, I think they are probably my Desert Island art/craft material that I could least do without, lol!!

    I was a bit worried that the UTEE'ed sentiments wouldn't flatten out, but I left them overnight underneath my paper stacks, and they are lovely and flat today, without having cracked, so that's OK.

    I've just uploaded a post about the first lot of photos I've done. I've had Such Fun with them this afternoon!

    I do hope you make an album, too. It's something I've been wanting to do for ages, and it's even more fun than I thought it would be. There are loads of Youtube videos to get you started, but be warned - most of them are from the USA and often use materials (paper bags, envelopes etc.) with their own measurements, and which aren't obtainable here, so a certain amount of adaptation is needed.

    Shoshi

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  8. Hi Diana

    I always look forward to your posts they are guaranteed to be full of loveliness :)

    Your mosaic is beautiful... especially the frosty heart shaped leaf. A Cercis?

    I LOVE your tags, the little trees are perfect, trunks too!!!! I adore them - so sweet.

    Karenx

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  9. What a beautiful post... Gorgeous tags full on natural fibres.. such pretty trees! Love the colours.. your right the first tags yarn would make a delightful scarf... Hugs May x x x

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  10. Your pictures are beautiful, Diana! You capture the frost so well. They look chilly!! Your tags are great. I love the crocheted trees! Warmth to compliment the winter landscape!

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  11. Your mosaic is beautiful and I love your tags. Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  12. Beautiful frosty photos up there! And I just love, love, love your tags :) I'm a knitter and crocheter too, though I haven't done much of it lately. What you've done to bring together tag art and crochet is just adorable. Great work as always :)

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  13. Thanks for your visit, Diana, and your lovely comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed my old photos. I think it's very special when you know the stories behind them - I just wish I knew more! I expect Esther was a nurse in WW1 but unfortunately none of these photos are dated - anyway, I so agree with what you say about her starchiness, and I can imagine all her patients "lying at attention" in their beds when she was around!

    If you look on my blog (RH sidebar) and find "Inkylicious Ink Dusters" in my labels list, the oldest post contains a video tutorial on using these wonderful brushes. They are so lovely to use and you can build up really subtle blending with them. When I got them you could only get them in sets of 3 but you can now get sets of 5, and you may even be able to get individual ones. I find my 3 work OK because you get 6 ends, and that covers most of the basic colours. One great advantage over the foam blender is that they are so soft, and you can distress the edges of quite thin paper without it snagging.

    Shoshi

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  14. Wow, where to begin! Your gorgeous photos as always - the area you live in looks so beautiful - I love the serene icy shapes. It never gets cold enough here for that!

    And I adore your tags! Before you even said you were thinking of making a scarf out of the first one I saw it and thought that it would make a beautiful one, with the rich neutral colors and cozy fuzziness. And those little crocheted trees - sheer genius, with the button and the simplicity of the background. If I saw one of those in a store I'd snap it up!

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  15. Hi Diana, thanks for your visit, and you're welcome re the info on the Ink Dusters. I wouldn't be without them. They are a lot more comfortable and natural to use than the foam blender, too, because you can hold them like a pencil. I've been using the foam blender quite a bit on my album though, for a quick distressing of the very edge of pieces - held up rather than flat on the table and a quick flick flick flick around the edges and it's done! It does take longer to build up the intensity of colour with the brushes but it's a lot more controllable.

    I've now more or less finished page 1 of the album but I keep thinking of more things I want to add! This is turning into such a fun project.

    Shoshi

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  16. Do you know, I didn't realise that I wasn't a follower of your blog - but that's just been rectified! I adore your sense of creating style - your collage of winter pics is gorgeous. I could actually have that as a poster on my wall! And I adore the little crochet Christmas tree tags, that's so clever. Love them :)
    Hugs, LLJ #27 xx

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