Tag Tuesday-Books

I made a concertina book for my tag. The book I used for inspiration was Knitting For All Illustrated.

I used collage with images of knitting, sketches and photos from the book

February Sunshine

We had more wonderful weather at the weekend, so took the opportunity to go for a walk by the river at Benson, where we sat outside and enjoyed our coffee in the February  sunshine.

Bees in February

I don't know what happened with the weather yesterday, but we suddenly had a heatwave here. It was 15 degrees, and felt great! I went down to the river and found the crocuses out with bees on them!There is a bee in the second photo, if you look hard!

Texture Trail in Canterbury

In Canterbury at the weekend I went on a texture trail.

Tag Tuesday-Poetry

This week's Tag Tuesday theme is Poetry .
I have chosen to illustrate a poem by C19 English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins. I studied his poetry for English Literature A Level and enjoyed his beautiful  language. Hopkins was a Jesuit priest who used the beauty of nature to show his devotion to God.
For the base of my tag I took some pelmet vilene and coloured it with
Inktense paint blocks and watercolour pencils. Then I machined over in random straight lines with various colours, including some glittery threads. I highlighted it with nail varnish, then added the kingfisher , ribbon and text.

As Kingfishers Catch Fire 

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —

Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Tag Tuesday Album

 

I made an album to keep my Tag Tuesday tags in. I used a plain album , found in Paperchase, and coloured the background with Koh-i-Nor watercolours. Then I added cut out letters from a craft sheet.

Tag Tuesday-Valentine's Day

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is Valentine's Day. Here is my tag, which is inspired by Victorian Valentine's cards. I seem to be looking at the Victorian age quite a lot recently. I think it is because I like the lace and the long dresses!

This is how it started out. The images are clip art from Graphics Fairy. I took the wild rose wreath as the base.This was topped with vintage lace, braid and buttons from my stash. The Valentine's hearts were placed in the corners  and  it was finished off with a lilac ribbon.

Hearts

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is Hearts, so I am happy to post photos of the hearts in my new purchases of Boleslawa pottery from Poland. You may remember me posting about my dresser, which displays my collection, which started when we lived in Warsaw, 20 years ago. I was delighted to find these new additions in HomeSense today. All those years ago, I could never have believed so much of Poland has come to this country!

Tag Tuesday Hearts

The theme for this weeks Tag Tuesday is Hearts. I used cardboard hearts and doodled on them, then filled a large heart with them. The inspiration for this tag came from Christina Perri's song  Jar of Hearts. I would have liked to make a jar of hearts, but this is my version of it, a heart full of hearts!

Snow

We had a good fall of snow overnight, which started in the evening and just kept on. It is melting now, so not serious snow. I just had to get out with my camera before it all vanished! The river was as busy as usual, both human and wildlife. In the garden  some lovely animal tracks, cat and fox.

Design to Stitch course

I have signed up for Shelagh Folgate's new course Design to Stitch.  http://designtostitch.blogspot.com
I really enjoyed Shelagh's Smashee course, which I was on last year and learned so much.

Tag Tuesday Lace

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is Lace. You can find it on  www.tagtuesday.blogspot.com

For my lace tag I decided to do some rubbings of broderie anglaise. I experimented with a variety of drawing medium:- wax crayon, graphite sticks, charcoal, pencil, Markal paint sticks, oil and chalk pastel and chalk. As the pencil worked the best, I then tried with coloured pencils, which produced the effect I wanted. I did a rubbing onto fine tissue paper, then printed it off onto ordinary typing paper, and used this to make a design of a lace fan.

 Close up of lace rubbing with coloured pencil

Part of my lace collection