Collage - Image Pairings

In between making a small handful of Christmas cards this week I've continued with Challenge 6 in the Collage Workbook, which is called Image Pairings - to cut an image in half and use each half in a separate and distinctly different collage.

I chose the image of the birds hovering over the sea, and found the collages weren't as distinctly different as I had imagined they would be!  However, it was an enjoyable little project.

Together you can see the continuation of the main picture.

I have also been playing about with some more collages - not quite in the order of the book but I suddenly had an idea and had to act on it!  This one is about peeling back the layers to reveal what's underneath - quite a messy process!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Midnight Garden Tag and WOYWW

I've been on a bit of a roll with these garden tags - I love the garden at night and this is another play with my favourite tag stamp (the other two are here and here).  I've enjoyed gently playing at tag making while my hand recovers but I really should move on to birthday cards soon as October is a hugely busy month in our family and I'm currently crafting quite slowly!  

I'm linking up with Julia this week over at WOYWW

Summer of Colour - Week 1

   This week's colour prompt for this year's new Summer of Colour was Citron Green and Turquoise.   For inspiration I played about with gelli printing using just those two colours, and I then used a couple of the prints for the background.  I also used a stamp I carved of a fern leaf, and added stencilled dots and shapes.   

Some detail shots - showing the 3D butterfly, and details of the background gelli prints.

The two colours haven't quite gelled for me in this mosaic, but I thought I'd include it anyway as I'd done the work on it!   The cat was made by my mum who loved working in clay, the butterfly wing and beetle are from my collection of dead things - isn't he gorgeous!  And as you can see from the Alchemella Mollis in the centre, we've been having a lot of rain! 

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 - 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!