Little Foggy Garden Embroideries and WOYWW

 I've finally got round to finishing the little 'foggy garden' embroideries that I was making in my last post and I've attached them loosely to my sketchbook - I'm not yet sure if they will stay there or if I will do something with them. 

Not a desk shot but this is a corner of my studio that just had the late evening sun hit it while I was up there - it made the glass jars sparkle so I grabbed a photo before the sun went down completely.

 I'm joining in with Sarah over at WOYWW this week. 

Deconstructed Collages

A couple of collages this week, still following the challenges in the Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  Well one collage actually.  The top one was started in December - I got stuck and left it. This week I decided to stencil the word Paris over it.  Instantly regretted it.  I made a pig's ear of the stencilling - a rookie error, the stencil wasn't taped down securely.  But also it was accidentally upside down (I really should have known better!).  So as the requirement was to deconstruct a collage and peel layers away I deconstructed it and re-made it using bits of the first one.   What a palaver for something I'm not overly keen on anyway - they say it's the journey don't they!

I know I keep banging on about my recent big clear out - last week was a Logarithms book I was thrilled to find and this week it's floppy disks - remember those!  We found a box of about 400 in the loft and went through them destroying any that had personal info on - it left me with a lovely little pile of springs and some odd metal pieces.  I don't really know why I'm keeping them at all, but they were irresistible to me!

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

Sorting Yarn

I still can't get to my desk this week, but a crafty/woolly sort-out is taking place from my armchair! 

  My yarn baskets are stuffed to overflowing, and my studio is still full of boxes waiting to go back into the eaves. During this chaos and with the merest tap against the baskets, I've managed to send balls of wool rolling all around the limited floor space, channelling quite a few along the narrowest of gaps to hidden corners of the room.  It's one heck of a job to find them all and even now I suspect some are still lurking under my desk and cabinets!  

The plan now is to reorganise, rewind and hopefully reduce the quantity in each basket so it becomes less precarious and more manageable - definitely an 'in front of the TV' job!

 

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

Trying To Get A Little Bit Festive

Just beginning to feel festive and having a bit of a play to see what I'll be doing for tags and cards this year. 

I don't think it will be this!  Despite using Fired Brick Distress ink over the background and on the flower it has turned out pink!  Now I'm not a 'pink' person at all, least of all at Christmas, and even with snow and glitter it still doesn't look festive to me.  So I'm now having a re-think....!  

And while I'm having a re-think I 'm joining Julia over at WOYWW this week!

Spring Pinks

 Getting a little tired of the bright green I've been working with lately I decided to add some vivid pink - a choice helped along by the beautiful bundle of cerise sari silk I found at the Needlework Fiesta few weeks ago.

I used the little frame stamps from May's Forgotten Stash post here, and I made a series of little Spring windows again.

Th backgrounds are Brusho's on clear texture paste - a technique I found on the Country View Crafts blog, although they were using Infusions and not Brusho's.  I have recently purchased the Infusion powders but felt they weren't as bright and vivid for what I wanted on this project. 

I received another beautiful ATC in the post this week from Jo (Twiglet), and I'm thrilled with it - I love the colours, especially that beautiful bright pink -  very appropriate for my 'pink' mood this week and very gorgeous!  She also included a card showing close-up the beautiful and intricate work of her daughter Maxine (Tilly Tea Dance) - a big thank you Jo!

I am linking up with WOYWW this week.  

Spring Garland and WOYWW #310

I needed to get this out of my system.

I've had the flowers and berries in my loft for several years and 

have been wanting to use them - but no idea for what.

Now I have no idea what to do with the finished garland!

But I feel better having 'scratched that little itch!'

I'm linking up with WOYWW - why not pop over and see what other people have on their desks this week.

Peonies

I was so pleased to find that Mosaic Monday is now being hosted by Judith over at Lavender Cottage - thank you Judith!  Next task - to put together a mosaic to post on it!  I have a great love of Peonies but can't seem to grow them in the garden - they simply disappear over winter, never to be seen again!  I took these photos a few weeks ago after finding a bunch of them in my local store - I was unable to resist!

Summer Of Color Week 4 and ICAD

Well, this weeks colours of charcoal grey and pink for the Summer of Color challenge have been an unmitigated disaster!  I have long had a love of Japanese gardens - I think the order and symmetry appeals to my slightly obsessive compulsive personality!  To me the colours conjured up the simplicity and tranquility of Japanese gardens, and I tried to capture the essence of it, leaving some areas unworked and keeping the design quite minimal.  However, what was going on in my head wouldn't transfer down through my hands into the work!  I don't think my ideas gelled really - the colours are too 'thick' - maybe a more watery delicate background, like a translucent colour wash would have worked better.  I don't like feeling this is unresolved so I might have another go at it!

I'm also linking up to the index-card-a-day challenge over at Daisy Yellow.

Summer of Color week 2 and ICAD

For this week over at Summer of Color the colour scheme is hot pink and orange.  I decided to combine this challenge with the index-card-a-day challenge at Daisy Yellow.  

I ended up doing six cards based on a coral theme - I had to work hard at not making them red as that is the colour I had been using for my coral based work a few weeks ago.

I used gelli prints for the backgrounds and prepared a selection of cards ready to use each day with the backgrounds already glued on.  The gelli prints looked too dark against the buff background so I painted the cards cream.  I then spent about half an hour a day machine stitching, gluing and hand sewing them.

Some close-up shots

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!

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 1

I'm taking part in this years Summer of Colour challenge - each week for six weeks we shall be making art based on an ice cream colour combination - how yummy!  This weeks prompt was rainbow sherbert, with oranges, pinks, yellows and a bit of white.

As some of you may already know I have rather an obsession with pollen and seeds, and I decided to continue working along this theme.  

To the Navaho the Pollen Path is sacred.  It represents the source of life and the path to the centre of existence.

The words on the second piece of work are from a Navaho night chant:

In the house of life I wander,

On the pollen path,

With a god of cloud I wander,

To a holy place,

With a god ahead I wander,

And a god behind.

In the house of life I wander, 

On the pollen path.

 I have a small south facing flower bed in a corner of my garden that has become a vivid pink and orange colour scheme - it's wonderful and the colours really buzz in the hot sunshine. I must admit it doesn't look so good on dull days, that's when the pastels come into their own, but it more than makes up for it on sunny days!

So, still being very 'into' this colour scheme, I decided to put together a photo mosaic of pink and orange flowers to link up with Mosaic Monday over at the Little Red House.  

Finally I made a colour palette, still in the same theme of pink and orange but not as vibrant as the rainbow sherbert ice cream colours.  I love how the flowers change from a delicate mauve/pink to the peachy colour as they go up the stem.  I am linking this to Color Me Weekly.

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.  

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

Christmas is fast approaching - more gorgeous, bright and twinkly colours everywhere I look.  Here's my colour scheme for the tree this year -

 hot pink, orange, gold, cream and aubergine!

Have a happy, creative and colourful Christmas