Feathers and scraps

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend is going well.  It was a cold and sunny

day here, very tempting to go out, but I stayed home

to cure my poor ribs. But the days are definitely getting longer, 

it was light till after 5 pm - we're moving towards spring. 

I made some rather crazy tags today. The tags were cut (12"x6") from Amazon

shipping envelopes, which are made of great cardboard. I gathered

a hand full of  UFOs (Untidy flying objects) from my table

and used them. I did the sewing first, and the other decorations afterwards.

 Here is the finished tag, sewn onto a larger

background of blue card.  The blue/gold strips are made of tyvek, painted and then 'blasted' with the heat gun.The birds and spot were stenciled with 

Dina Wakley stencils. The little girl is an image from Gecko Galz.

The sentiment is from Proverbs 9:9

This is how it started out:

I am linking to Country View Challenges, anything goes,

and to Go tag Thursday, feathers.

For Art Journal Journey, Erika's lovely theme of

'Tell me a story', I have a hybrid page with a quote from Poe:

The sky this morning:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Nearly Weekend

Hi Everybody!

It's still cold and frosty here, but we have had
sunshine and blue skies, and that's always
something to be thankful for. My ribs are still very
sore, but definitely a bit better than last weekend -progress!
I was out shopping today with my nice neighbour,
so I have all I need and he even carried it for me.
 I struck lucky to find such a good neighbour!

Today I am sharing a mixed media 12" tag I made. Once again I
put down loads of layers of paint, scraps and fibres, added a metal key-
which just happened to be on the table, some little texture balls etc.
I printed out one of my men, crackled him, and then outlined
him with brown pastel chalk. The tag was then sewn to
a corrugated background:

I started off by gluing a strip of torn cardboard to one side,

smeared it all with gesso and stamped into it:

Here the layers are growing - a lot is hidden when it is

finished, but that's good:

I added the stenciling using 2 new ones from Annette.

The little balls are mixed with embossing paste.

The hardest thing was twisting the top off the jar, and they 

shot all over the floor, which caused my exclamation of

'Oh b*lls', and this time it wasn't even swearing!

My man is in place, just needs to be stenciled over:

Detailed views of the finished piece:

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, More mixed media challenge,

altered eclectics and Simon Monday Challenge, chill out.

These photos were taken from my balcony this week:

And my amaryllis keeps on getting lovelier day by day:

Here's wishing you all sunshine and flowers in your lives.

Take care, have a great day,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Another new Journal

Hi Everybody!

I've just been watching the sun rising, and although I
watch it very often, it's a new miracle for me every time
I see it. I am feeling a tad less achy, too, for which I
am very thankful, and really slept through the
night - another miracle!

I Have been working on this journal for 2 weeks now, and it
is finally finished, with a little help from my neighbour, as
I can't use the paper cutter or bind-it-all alone just
now. It has 20 sheets of A4 water colour paper inside, and
I am looking forward to filling it.
The covers were made from the backing of a
pad of paper, that thick cardboard is always too
good to waste! After pasting it with tissue paper to give it texture,
and adding some bits of string which were flying about
on my table, I gave it a coat of thick gesso and then sprayed
it with some home-made colours. After that I built up layer on layer of scraps, stamps, gilding flakes,  various glazes, including some
crackle glaze in
parts, then some stenciling and doodling:

The reverse side, which made the inside covers,  was

painted white and then covered with some lovely

handmade and embossed paper:

It opensflat which makes it easy to work in:

Here some detailed shots:

This is how t started out after pasting the first tissue layer:

I like this stage, too, before it got collaged:

Here it's on it's way:

 This was the back cover before it got it's final glaze:

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, Erika's lovely theme 

of 'Tell me a story', and to Paint Party Friday, and to

Simon Monday challenge, chill out, as this sort of

work is my art of chilling out.

And I just have a few balcony shots today, as I stayed home

these past days:

My Amaryllis is progressing, too:

Have a great day, take care

and thanks a lot for coming by!