Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Tag Tuesday-Statues

This week on Tag Tuesday the subject for our tags is
Statues.
For my tag I have used some images from The Graphics Fairy. These
statues were found in a German cemetery. I thought they were
very beautiful. I have placed the statues on a multi-coloured gelli
background and added some embellishments.


Here are some close ups.




I am taking a break from blogging and Tag Tuesday for a while.
I am going to enjoy the English summer and  also going to France
in August.
See you again in September!

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Tag Tuesday-Summer Holiday and Bugs

There are two tags for Tag Tuesday, this week.  
I am a bit behind as I have had a busy and exciting week.
I attended a batik workshop, which you can see in the
previous post of this blog.

The main excitement was seeing the Queen when she
came to open the new look Reading Railway Station  on
Thursday. I was right near the front and got such a clear and 
close view of Her Majesty! She looked lovely and her
face lit up when she saw the crowd. She had her photo
taken with the construction workers. They were all in 
bright orange, she in bright turquoise, a perfect
contrast!

I have been thinking about summer holidays, and
for me that means one thing-France and sunflowers.
My tag is stitched. For background I used a rough textured
fabric, coloured with Inktense blocks. i added layers of 
stamped sunflowers, and put in some beads for seeds. 
The border is a pretty French braid from a flea market.
I photographed it on my Rough Guide to France.





Here is my Bugs tag, a week late, but I am sneaking it in!
I chose dragonflies for their beauty and jewelled colours.
The centre of the tag shows a dragonfly , on top
of some hand made papers, which I have drawn into and picked
out the raised lines, making it look like plants. I used
Origami paper, washi tape, a stick on border and cardstock
for contrasting colour.
As I took the photo, a dragonfly  flew over my head! We do have
a lot in our garden.

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Batik workshop

Here is the work I did today at a batik workshop. 
It was run by Jelly in the Oracle in Reading, and the tutor was
Caroline Streatfield-Chalk.
It was the first time I have done batik, and I really liked doing it.

The tools are called tjantings

 My work with wax on



After wax has been removed



Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Tag Tuesday-Japan

This week our tags on Tag Tuesday have the theme Japan.
I found I had a lot of Japanese ephemera for my tag, and in fact I could have made a collection of tags!
I have made a kimono out of origami papers, and set it on a background of a Japanese catalogue, which has an assortment of odd things in it! I used some of my rabbit paper to make a frame, added the needle papers from my Sashiko needles-a type of Japanese embroidery. You can read about it on my blog here.
I photographed my tag on a catalogue of chop sticks. 
Thanks to my husband, who brought these bits and pieces back for me from Japan.



Monday, 7 July 2014

Lytes Cary Manor

I spent a lovely weekend in Somerset, where we visited Lytes Cary Manor.
The house and gardens are beautiful.









Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Tag Tuesday-Garden Party

The theme for our tags over on Tag Tuesday this week is Garden Party.
I have made a very summery tag!
 I found the beautiful image of a hedge gazebo on this week's Graphics Fairy.
 It is from a French gardening book c 1859. This was collaged onto a gelli printed backrgound. The image of the lady and little girl are borrowed from Georges Seurat's painting: A Sunday Afternoon at the Island la Grande Jatte.
I have added garden decor in the form of floral fabrics. stick on butterflies, and a very handsome peacock paper cut out.


Close up