Bold and Bright: ITCHYCOO PARK

This is my  weeks entry to Tuesday Taggers, Bold and Bright.

My first title was Psychedelic Garden but then I heard Itchycoo Park and thought that it must have looked like this.

IN MY FATHERS SHOES

This is my entry for the Graphicus May challenge. Blue and Travel.

This is in memory of my Father. I did not start out with the intention of creating lots of memorials for loved ones. I has just happened. I think the spark was kindled with the mention of Father's day.

I also have vivid memories of playing with these shoe trees when I was a little girl. Fascinated with them and making them plod across the floor, wondering how feet could ever become so big? Hence "Take a Giant Step" 

It also relates to those times in your life when you take a step outside of your comfort zone. It always feels like a "Giant step"

Yes this is actually one of my Father's shoe trees which I just could not discard when he died. They had such memories for me. I am not quite sure of the symbolism of shoes, feet? If anyone knows maybe they could enlighten me. But it certainly feels significant.

Layered onto the foot are a couple of sayings that I particularly like:

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single cup of coffee."

"Give me back my Father's shoes and let me walk in those"

I toyed with the idea to use signposts to hang the shoe tags on as there is a strong connection with travel, but decided to use a branch since the main focal point is the shoe tree. A twig doesn't sound quiet right.

The tags are self drawn onto coloured card and distressed with Tim Holtz distress pads. The stamps used are the Elusive Images Paris stamps.

This piece was quiet difficult to photograph and in the end I had help from my loved one to get some better images. Thanks John.

MY FIRST TWINCHIE

This is the first time I have ever made a Twinchie! It is from  Something Completely Different blog. The colour theme is pink and green. The lace is from my stash which I had space dyed several years ago and pulled out of the drawer.

THE NEXT LEVEL

My link to The Next Level. We shall have to wait and see what will come on June 1st? 

NEW SONG

This is my entry for Tuesday Taggers, called New Song.

It may be a bit difficult to see but the concertina tags are folded and stitched onto the backing tag so that they stand proud. The bird is a new stamp from Elusive Images that I love. This has been cut out and sits on the concertina tag to look as if she is flying. 

 

WHAT? NEVER SEEN A DIVA BEFORE?

This is my last minute  entry for the challenge relating to wood. The wood is a piece we saved from doing up our old house. It had layers and layers of old wallpaper and some had wonderful rich colours on them. You can see the remains of the deep blue in the background. We could not burn it all as it was part of the history of the house and they just don't make wallpaper with this quality of colour anymore. 

I have had a week of moving everything around in my work room/play room. I have a wonderful space in the attic of our house. I love it, but in some ways it is not the most practical space with the slopping roof. Most of my shelves had to be on the gable end where the chimneys ascend. They need repair and have been crumbling and producing so much mess. I have been ignoring it for as long as I could dreading the upheaval. This was the week it was. Not finished yet but I just had to stop and make something! So here it is. Hope you enjoy her.

Is anyone else the same? Once you start tidying and moving, can you find those essential ingredients you need to create?

Now I will endeavour to link to the challenge blog. I will try to add the bog label onto my blog but may well leave that until tomorrow.

No I will do it today, now!

  

Fields of Gold

This is my entry for the March challenge with Graphicus. The theme was Sing and Yellow. I have used Sting's song "Fields of Gold" as it has a particular meaning for me. It reminds me of a loved dog I shared my life with. She used to bound through the fields leaping with joy and of course her name was Barley. When I hear this song it fills me with love for her, not sad memories but joyful ones. Thank you Sting.

In this challenge I used the Meadow themeplate and one of the Birds themeplates. There is a Tim Holtz stamp of stitches used that came from his Fashion Plate which is available through Graphicus. The papers where sprayed with glimmer mists and glimmer screens were also used.