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Wednesday, 9 August 2017

To be or not to be?

Hi Everybody!

For Jo's 'Poetry in Motion' theme at Art Journal Journey
I have a digital piece put together from various images and
documents found on the web (Wikipedia) and some super freebies 
from Serif. William Shakespeare was a poet and writer who was
well loved in his day at the court of Queen Elizabeth I and who
is still popular with old and young today. The quote is. of course, from
Hamlet:

HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.






For our 'Use your scraps' theme at Tag Tuesday I have another tag.
I discovered a box full of long and narrow off-cuts from
various papers and cardstock, and have layered and sewn  three of
them here to make my tag. The image was sent to me many moons
ago, and I have forgotten by whom, so if it was from you,
thanks a lot! The words and bicycle are die cuts, ordered from
 a Chinese company which sells wonderful crafty goods
for small change!





And congratulations to ERIKA, who won the postcard I offered on my blog
yesterday. Please mail me your snail mail addy!
I will get your 
 card out ASAP when I have the details!

And some photos from here. The first shows the sun drying up
the rain this morning:



This cloud looks like a poodle to me: 


Some pics taken by the market:




Fungi:



Dark clouds:


Rain!





Today it's stayed dry till now!

Have a great day, take care,
and thanks a lot for coming by!

34 comments:

  1. Your Shakespeare page is wonderful, I know you are a great fan! Love the vintage look. The tag is great, too, very peaceful, would make a nice masculine card. Lovely photos as always. The rain was bad here, too. Have a nice evening, hugs, Sarah

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  2. The Shakespeare page is amazing Valerie and you found a very handsome picture of the great man..we had to learn that speech when I was at school and I was amazed to find that most of it had remained in the depths of my brain.a wonderful tag today as well..I will try and make another one tomorrow as today has been mainly at the hospital and here and there.

    Great photographs as always and you can see how wet it has been but better now I hope.

    congrats to Erika and I am sure will love receiving the postcard.

    Take care

    Love Chrissie xx

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  3. Wonderful page and tag and great photos! Thank you for joining AJJ once again.

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  4. great, Hamlet, did you know all hamlet come to my town Elsingore, and proform on our castle Kronborg
    http://kongeligeslotte.dk/en/palaces-and-gardens/kronborg-castle.html

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I know and would love to visit there one day, so romantic. I saw a film about it on tv recently

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  5. Hamlet is such a tragic tale and the quote is very moving, as is the beautiful and poigniant page you have created! Your imagery, as always, is perfect from the aged paper, script, open book, picture of Shakespeare himself and the nymph playing the pipes 😁. I love the blue flourishes you have added too - perfect! Your tag is wonderful and I'm loving the die cut bike and words. The poodle cloud made me smile too 😁. Wishing you a great week and thanks for joining the theme at Art Journal Journey again! J 😊

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  6. Fabulous Shakespeare art piece, love it!
    So nice to see the flowers and fungi in your photo's and yes, I too think those clouds look like a poodle.

    It's been raining non stop in the UK today ... don't they know it's meant to be summer!!!

    All the best Jan

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  7. Cool tag and wonderful tribute to Shakespeare. hugs, tEresa

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  8. Oh my! You certainly captured the soul of Shakespeare in your page. The bicycle with the basket looks like it's posing to imitate the bicycle in the picture. Fun indeed. No rain here. Sunny sunny sunny

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  9. Oh I love Shakespeare and your piece is so wonderful too! The tag is very fine as well. Your photos are gorgeous, the one with the dark clouds captivates me...

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  10. Fabulous digi page with one of the best pieces of literature ever written, gorgeous tag too!

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  11. A wonderful page and tribute for the Bard. I think many of us had to learn by heart that piece when we were at school.
    Its a super tag and the bicycle die cut looks great.
    We've had wind but no rain yet like other parts of the UK.
    Yvonne xx

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    Replies
    1. I still know the text by heart although these days I forget a lot of other things. The weather is bad every where just now.

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  12. Wow- you did get some heavy rain. But those puffy clouds you showed us before were really beautiful. But I love the tribute for Hamlet and the Bard. It's a great play and you represented it nicely! The tag is cool too. I haven't heard of Chinese dies here in the US, but they look like they do an excellent job.:) Happy mid-week. Hugs-Erika

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  13. grossartig Hamlet -Inzinierung ach so wundershcön romantisch dieser alter Styl dein Journal!!!
    Dein Tag ist auch so schön und toll ausgedacht.
    Deien Wetterfoto sind ja klasse und die Pilze. Bei mir vor der Tür ist einen grosser Baum der schmeisst schon seine Blätter wie im Herbst!!!
    Lieben Gruss Elke

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  14. Thanks for the thought provoking poetry in your AJJ page today. Beautiful tag, congrats to Erika for winning the postcard! I do see the poodle in the cloud!

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  15. OMGosh! I could totally see a poodle stretched out relaxing!!! LOL
    Your digital piece is beautiful- well done Valerie!!
    And your scrap tag,yells FUN!I always love to see what you create with your scraps- you are so good with using these up!
    sending hugs,Jackie

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  16. I know I'm late visiting, but I've been offline all day today. More on that later.

    There is a weekly TV show on now about Shakespeare as a young man. Although little is REALLY known about him when he first moved to London, this show focuses on his religious beliefs and his early plays. Your tribute to him is fabulous.

    I also really LOVE that tag. The bicycle die cut and the stamped image tie in so well together.

    I think that poodle needs a hair cut, or at least to be combed out (grin).

    Your comment about the H2Os actually mirrors my sentiments exactly. My shimmering mists are much more fun, because the H2Os are either too thin or too thick and you have to wait for them to either dry a bit or get a bit wetter. It's a pain. I hope you play with yours because I DID like them on black paper, as long as they were light enough.

    Hope your day is going well. It rained here most of the day and night, too.

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  17. Your shimmering Mists are lovely, and those twinkling H2O s are nothing in comparison🐱

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  18. wow,deine seite ist sehr klasse und das tag mit dem bike ist wunderschön.
    tolle bilder hast du gemacht,der regen in der natur kann so schön sein.
    die blumen im strassencafe sind wunderschön,da würd ich jetzt gern einen cafe trinken.
    hab einen schönen tag.

    hugs jenny

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  19. A fabulous tribute page to Shakespeare. and a wonderful scrap tag, love the little bike embellishment.
    Wonderful photos and that cloud does look like a Poodle. We've had two dry days now, but more rain forecast tomorrow for the N.E.
    Avril xx

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  20. Love the art today and your photos are fantastic as always. Love seeing the rain photos as we are still fry here and I am dragging Hank around the place to water things :( It's been a long week for me as the energy levels are still depleted after last weeks stress with my dad. Talked to him last night and he sounded great... ready to fire all of the HOme Health People who come to PESTER him he says. Yesterday was his 87th birthday and he was angry he couldn't go to his favorite Chinese restaurant to eat. I guess if he's wanting to get out and about he's getting better :)

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  21. Wonderful art and photos! Love the poodle! :-)

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  22. Hi Valerie, as always there is lots to see on your posts :) Your digital page is fabulous and the tag is a beauty as well. Beautiful photographs as usual too! I hope you are doing well, Shirleyxx

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  23. Loved everything about the pieces, especially the first one: the iris, the book, Shakespeare, etc. And including the verse from Hamlet: icing on the cake:)
    I saw the poodle!!!

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  24. Klasse das Shakespeare Bild, toll zusammengestellt die verschiedenen Motive. Auch das Tag ist schön gemacht, gestanztes Fahrrad vor Fahrrad-Foto finde ich eine tolle Idee. Gefällt mir sehr. Das schöne Wolkenfoto ist diesmal mein Favorit deiner Fotostrecke. Wir hatten hier heute Regen den ganzen Tag lang und dunkel war somit auch, was etwas müde gemacht hat.
    Liebe Grüße
    Sabine

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  25. Fabulous journal page! Love the bicycle tag - very clever! Great photos once again - well done for capturing the rain! Chrisx

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  26. OMG I'm back in my O Level English class lol. I wish I could remember more useful stuff, like where I parked lol. I love those die cuts, they really pack a punch xx

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  27. I love coming to your blog! Your art is fantastic! You always put a smile on my face Val! Amazing photos! Those rain photos are brilliant! Big Hugs!

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  28. I love the idea of use your own scraps! And you know, even when it's raining you make the area in which you live the most beautiful in the world.

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  29. Yep I saw the poodle too!! Wow this is great work!! Promise I'm not a stalker...just catching up...teehee!!

    Peace Giggles

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  30. My you've been busy, Valerie. I came from Tag Tuesday to see more about your tag. It really caught me eye. It's so 3-dimensional. Fabulous job!

    Hugs, Eileen

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