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.

Meet Blossom

Meet Blossom. Blossom is my entry for the Graphicus challenge for April. The challenge colours were Pink and Green and the subject was Blossom.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating Blossom and seeing her come to life. I felt the only place I could photograph her was in the garden amongst the Forget-me-nots. I am not sure whether the background is too busy so I have also used the old oil tank as a back drop. Which do you think is better?

The rubber stamps I used on the dress and the ballet pumps was from the Damask Backgrounds. The lace design stamped onto the silk fabric and used for her gloves was from the Damask Squares themeplate. The flowers were from the Poppy Collage and Daisy collage themeplates. I just love these flowers printed onto coloured paper. They create a good grunge look. The paper had been coloured first with pink and green glimmer mists. The other papers used where from the K & Co Classic Boxed set. Blossom was further embellished with gems.

Blossom's face was stamped from a recent Guild stamp and was cut from the jesters face.

Plum and Gold

This is another entry I made for the Graphicus Guild for the Plum and Gold challenge.

It involved quite a few techniques but one that does not show up well in the photo is the guilding I added to the swirl design on the Harlequin Rose and also around the edges of the petals. It really makes it luxurious.

And inside...

If you haven't already seen the Harlequin Rose theme plate from Graphicus it is a true winner, filled with delightful images. A real classic.

Recycle Reuse

What to do with your old laundry soapboxes! This is one that I have reused and altered.

It was great fun to do and very absorbing. Details of which are in the Graphicus Guild newsletter. If you do not know about this Guild take a look. I get real pleasure from it as well as it being informative and I think good value for money.

It is also my entry to the Recycle challenge with Arty Girlz. As you can see it has recycled an old washing powder box which are strong and sturdy. I have been meaning to put these to reuse for sometime. I have used Graphicus/Elusive images stamps to stamp onto scraps of paper which were left over after using  papers printed  from Artylicious CD's. Sakura Gelly Roll pens were used to highlight sections further.

Charmed Stamps

Here is some more blog candy up for grabs.

This is the sort of thing that confuses me as how to link to?

An experiment that may work?

If you click it will it take you to the candy?

I will post and try.

No it didn't work.

But yipee I have fiddled and explored some more and I think I have got it to work.

Here is the site as well: http://charmedstamps.blogspot.com/

Here is my entry for "Colour your World". I only saw the competition with Charmed Cards &Crafts at the last minute so not much time to create an entry. The prize of the "Copic" pens/markers look great. Love to play with them. I coloured this with the Inktense crayons by Derwent which are fabulous. Great rich colours.

Brag Bag

Hmmm........

All this blogging is still rather new to me. Just trying to feel my way around. The basics are quite straight forward sometimes! Other times I get confused. I think depending on how tired I feel. I still need to discover how to add backgrounds and jazz it all up. Maybe one day.

This is an image of my brag bag I made. I love this idea of having a bag to show off and carry around your artwork, and to change as and when. I am surprised these creative little bags did not take off more. I loved doing it as for me is was combining many different things together, mixed media collage. However photographing it was difficult with the reflection from the plastic.
The Brag Bags are available from Graphicus if you feel like making one
htpp://www.graphicus.co.uk

At home I wish I had an elephant and a peacock on the roof

This is a piece I made for the Graphicus Challenge in February. It was great fun to make and I enjoyed combining the different materials together. Quite whimsical both visually and the concept. Hope you enjoy. I certainly enjoyed making it.

I have just heard I won the challenge. How can I say I am over the moon, delighted, jumping for joy. It gives me a real buzz and a good boost.

The stamps are from Graphicus from various themeplates. I cannot remember all their names off hand but if you don't know their stamps go and have a look. and enjoy yourself.

http://www.graphicus.co.uk/