Black, White and One Other Colour

It has been such a sad week, hearing the loss of Shaz Silverwolf, and I am sending love and hugs to all the deskers who are feeling heavy of heart this morning.

 

I have done a little crafting this week, having been inspired by the current

   Tag Tuesday challenge to use black, white and one other colour only.  I decided to add bright green to the mix. 

 

I quite liked the colour combo so I used it to make a little Valentine card for 

the Hubs. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW 

  

Fairy Garden Tag

 Sitting on my desk today is a tag - yes, a little bit of creativity has happened!

 I noticed the latest theme for Tag Tuesday is 'Fairy Garden' and that gave me the inclination to make a tag! It also meant I could use a little Lavinia fairy stamp that hasn't seen the light of day since I purchased it for a very specific project that I then never got round to doing! 

 

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Animal Tag

Over at Tag Tuesday the theme is 'Animals' so I've put together 

an animal tag using a beautiful paper napkin that I've been saving for just such an occasion!

I added fussy cut leaves from an old book and I also found some rusty metal palm leaves and tied them on with sari silk.

A Gold and Silver Tag

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is Gold and Silver. 

 Although not easy to see I started with a silver wash over the Kraft card tag but unfortunately the camera has had difficulty picking up the shimmer from it.  

Bunnies and Butterflies Tag

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is Bunnies and Butterflies.  So here is my Spring offering - a little more pink than planned but I struggled to work the colours around the stamp, which I was determined to use!

A Paris Tag

The theme is Paris over at Tag Tuesday.
  Despite using pretty much everything 'Paris' that I had - rubber stamps, stencil, real stamps, and a photo image it still doesn't scream Paris to me!  Perhaps it's the colour, which somehow morphed from pretty spring colours into rusty autumn ones - don't ask me how!

Spring is in the Air

'Spring is in the air' over at Tag Tuesday, so here is my Spring themed tag - 

with Pussy Willow stems, hard frosty ground and hints of new growth.

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.

TAGS AND BIRDS

Our garden has been full of sparrows lately - we are filling up the bird feeders daily, and it's lovely to see them.  They are such sweet little birds and with their numbers declining I am so pleased we seem to have a permanent group living near us.

I am linking up with Color Me Weekly and Mosiac Monday.

For Tag Tuesday the last two weeks themes were 'Sepia' and 'Music'.

Here are my two offerings:

 For the theme sepia I decided to look through some old photos that have passed down through the family to me, and I came across this one - the couple have been in our family for years but I don't know who on earth they are!  I think the girl was a childhood friend of my father, which puts this photo in the 1940's, which also ties in with her dress style.  I was intrigued about what their situation was - is he going away, has he just got back home, is it war time.  I've never been able to throw the photo away in case I ever found out anything about them.

I liked the idea of him being away from her and carrying a memento - did he have a lock of her hair or a scrap of a letter - I've collected little precious pieces and clipped them in front of the photo.

This tag represents the theme music.  I distressed and stamped a background pattern onto a manila tag and a scrap of sheet music.  I added some lace and what should have been two Song Thrushes - however, I had to use artistic licence as these are Field Fares!

TAG TUESDAY - MOON AND STARS

This weeks Tag Tuesday theme is anything to do with the moon and stars.

I made two tags using a wonderful old book from the late 1800's that I found in a charity shop, about the Heavens.

The splodges on the right hand tag are gold leaf flakes - I just could not get them to look gold and shimmery in the photographs!

In keeping with the Tag Tuesday theme I photographed the face of our old grandfather clock - I rather like the sun and moon dial (although only the stars were visible when I took the photo).

I am linking this to Color Me Weekly.

HALLOWEEN AND AUTUMN CUPCAKES

I'm afraid I haven't taken part in Tag Tuesday for two or three weeks, as I have just been too busy with other things.  However, I needed some tags for Halloween night and this weeks theme for Tag Tuesday is Halloween so ..... here they are!

I used a selection of rubber stamps for the backgrounds and then added some wire, beads, feathers and bits and pieces from Michaels that I picked up when I was over in the US in August - I just LOVE their stuff!

I am busy preparing for Halloween night and have started decorating my dining room.  I probably wouldn't be so bothered about it if my two young half-American nephews weren't so into it big time!

The spiders web table cloth, feathered birds, black blossom branches and black leaf garlands are all from Michaels, once again!

I am linking this mosaic to Mosaic Monday.

October is a busy month for birthdays in our family and I made these Autumn cupcakes for my sister's birthday at the weekend (I just had to include something Autumny - I couldn't help myself!).

I made the decorations out of sugar paste and painted them with food colouring - I was quite pleased with the overall effect of them (from a distance!), but I think the painting could have been a lot better.  I was quite nervous of painting on sugar paste, but I should have been bolder and braver and put more paint on them!  I'll know better next time!  

A CELEBRATION OF AUTUMN

Everything is feeling so Autumny!  There is a wonderful array of coloured berries around and quite a few of the trees are beginning to change colour - I love it!

This handsome fellow in these lovely Autumn colours was strutting around a farm we visited recently - I fell in love with that gorgeous golden brown colouring with a dash of bright red!  I am linking up to Colour Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.

Still on the Autumn theme, for Tag Tuesday last week I decided to make some tags using embossed velvet.  I know I've mentioned it in the past but I LOVE embossing velvet - it's the only time I enjoy using an iron! There is some info on it here. 

One of the velvet tags all ready to go - I was quite pleased with how well it matched the gift bag and wrapping paper.

AUTUMN BULBS AND TAG TUESDAY CATCH UP

There is a wonderful Autumn feel in the air lately and while mooching round my local garden centre last week I noticed these colourful bulbs all ready for planting - I rather like the textures and colours of the different varieties.  I'm afraid the photos aren't brilliant as I was taking them in rather a hurry and had an armful of shopping! 

I am linking these to Colour Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.

 I also thought I'd post two tags that I have made over the last couple of weeks for Tag Tuesday.  The theme for the first one is 'Autumn Fruit and Berries' and the second one is 'Owls'.

On both tags I added a top tag of printed acetate - old text on top of the Rose hip image and a tree silhouette on top of the owl and printed silk panel. 

If you want to see some fantastic tags why not pop over to Tag Tuesday and have a nosey!

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!

WOYWW#160 AND TAG TUESDAY - TALES OF THE RIVER BANK

Here's my desk for this week's WOYWW - if you want to know more pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and visit a huge number of other peoples work spaces - it's great fun!

I have just started this week's Summer of Colour challenge - to create art based on the colours pink and lemon for Strawberry Lemonade Punch ice cream.  I have found a few bits and pieces for inspiration and my sketchbook page is in the middle of drying.  On the left are some packets of decorative pins that I recently purchased and haven't found space for yet, and I haven't got round to putting away the hot plate and wax yet - how lazy!

I came across this lovely stamp while desperately searching for some glimmer of inspiration for this weeks Tag Tuesday theme Tales of the River Bank.  As soon as I found it I knew it had to be used!

I carefully picked out the colours in the stamp and made some colour bars as a background, using embroidery silks wound around strips of card.  I painted and splashed a tag to give a watery feel and attached the colour bars.  I then attached the stamp onto the bars with Sticky Fixers and added a fishing fly that I hooked through the stamp.

TAG TUESDAY AND A GREEN THEME

Not only did Summer of Colour challenge me to work with the colour green this week (mint choc chip ice cream colours), but Tag Tuesday also had a green theme this week - double struggles going on!

However, I finally produced two tags - not because I was working away happily in the colour green but because I wanted to improve on the first tag! 

They are made up of cut and torn images, phrases and words from an old book on trees I found in a charity shop.  I also used inks, pastels and acrylic paint. 

CAMPING AND TAG TUESDAY

This week's theme for Tag Tuesday is camping, and it has brought back lots of many happy childhood memories.  Every year my parents took us camping and to be honest I don't know how they did it!  We had all our stuff piled high on the roof rack of our old Morris Oxford car and my sister and I sitting in the back on the pillows and sleeping bags (no child booster seats back then!).  We were often huddled into the tent while it was lashing with rain and our poor mum would be trying to stop us bickering and getting bored.  

I have never wanted to go camping as an adult, but I still look back through rose-tinted specs at our childhood holidays!!!

Here is this weeks camping-inspired tag and below is an old photo from the '60's of one of our camping trips.

Aah, happy memories!

TAG TUESDAY AND DIAMOND JUBILEE

Not surprisingly this weeks Tag Tuesday theme is Diamond Jubilee!

I found this wonderful stamp in my stash and decided it had to be used when I saw the words Jubilee Jamboree on it.

I really love the colour red, especially when it is used in small amounts as an accent colour - I think it has such an impact - so I decided to keep the tones of the tag fairly neutral in order to emphasize the stamp.  In order to stop it becoming too bland I also added one piece of bright red bunting.

After a Jubilee weekend full of fetes, picnics, fly-pasts, fireworks, a hog-roast, live music, aching feet and much, much more I am now off to watch the rest of the celebrations live on TV!