6th page for my Book of the sea.

At the rate I'm going with this, I shall be finished before the end of the year, and have to think of another long term project. I am really enjoying finding different techniques to use for the pages, and before I've finished one, I start another. Here is the next one. Here I have used on the main strip fabric sky and sea, with free machine embroidery. French knots added to the surf and sand. ( cut calico)
The beach huts and seahorses are cut out from fabric ( I will make my own for another page), and the shells are stamped. They are all on separate strips of calico, cut to different lengths.

Tag Tuesday -- Decay

As I can't get to sleep, I decided to come to my workroom and get the tag done, On Tag Tuesday the theme is decay, and I thought of leaves straight away.
The background is made up of texture paste at the bottom, crackle paint in the middle and distress ink at the top all done months ago. I stamped some skeleton leaves at the top, stuck on a decayed leaf and made two with card and distressed them.
At the bottom I stuck on some decayed leaves, flowers ferns and seed heads that I had in my stash ( I knew they would come in useful one day)

Fabric Book of the sea

Here is another page for my fabric book of the sea. This time I used a photograph of some little girls on the waters edge. I printed it on to fabric and then built the scene around them. The sea is felted and machine stitched, and the sand is calico with a few French knots for pebbles.

Every Inchie Monday -- Ballet

On Every Inchie Monday the word is ballet. For the sewn one I made a very tiny tutu, and a little pair of ballet shoes. They look like two different pinks, but the fabric is shiny, so reacted differently with being scanned. Very fiddly it was to.
 For the drawn one I have used the title of a ballet rather than trying to draw a ballerina, It is done on watercolour paper with watercolour paints. Swan lake seemed to be the obvious one to do, as drawing figures I can't do.
Do go and see what the others have done, it's surprising what different ideas we all have.

Tag Tuesday -- Myths and Legends

This week on Tag Tuesday I had only mermaid stamps that I could use, and they are all too small. As I have a friend with loads of them, I used one of hers, and stamped it onto a large tag. I coloured it all in with inktense watercolour pencils, and twinkling H20 paints. The lower seaweed is embossed, and the fish stamped separately and stuck on.

Tag Along -- Baby it's cold outside

On Tag Along the theme is 'Baby it's cold outside'. I seem to have a thing about pine trees at the moment, and have made another Wintry scene with Tim Holtz die cuts and some stamping. At the bottom is some glittery paper, that I cut to shape. The background is a 'mop up the ink off my craft mat' and looked a bit wintry. The snow on the trees, and some on the ground is puff up paint. The whole tag has a smattering of diamond stickles on.

Artful Times -- The year of the horse

On Artful Times we are celebrating the Chinese Year of the Horse. Oh dear I thought, I'm not into horses, and won't have a horse stamp. Surprised I admit, I did have a small one on a set with other animals.  I don't remember seeing it before, which means I haven't used any of the others either.
The tag is distress inked and sprayed with a silver ink. I embossed the horse with copper onto a smaller tag. All the other elements apart from the writing background and bamboo, are all embossed in black.

Every Inchie Monday -- Brown

On Every Inchie Monday the word is brown. I have made three, two fabric and one card. For the fabric I made a crazy quilt and a needle punched felt one. Both have beads sewn on. The card one has of course a shrink plastic brown bear on center stage.

Tag Along - Winter trees

The theme on Tag Along this time is Winter trees. I thought this was going to be easy, but I found it quite a challenge. As I like lots of colour, making something Wintry was difficult.
The background was done with distress inks sprayed with a white shimmery spray I stamped the trees with Pine needle distress ink, and bordered it with a die cut. At the bottom I use some puff paint to look like snow. I couldn't resist putting an owl on the branch.

Tag Along -- Home Sweet Home

Having just come across a challenge site called Tag Along, I just had to join in, you know what I'm like for tags. It's called Home Sweet Home, and I just happened to have a little fabric bird house that I had made and not used. I had dyed the fabric and stenciled some flowers on the bottom. The bird is made out of fabric paper, and the word printed onto fabric. The top leaves are stamped with paint, and the lower ones are fabric. I have sewn all the leaves and house on with the machine.

Tag Tuesday -- Capital Cities

For my tag on Tag Tuesday this week, I have used a tag that I had already put a textured background on. It was texture paste that I had coloured blue. I have no idea what I did this for, but I thought it looked a bit like windows in a tower block. I stamped Big Ben, and added a 3D red bus, and telephone kiosk, some ribbon of the Union Jack and crowns. I stamped a pigeon, and put another one on top with a foam pad
A stamped London and a postmark were also added.
      I had made another one before this, but wasn't so happy with it. The tags were both coloured with distress inks, and on the second one I added a small rectangle of a printed London handkerchief tissue. The Tower Bridge and label were stamped. Union Jack buttons and ribbon and a crown brad were added.

Every Inchie Monday -- Amulet

This week on Every Inchie Monday it's amulet. I decided to go Egyptian, and drew one with silver and gold pens, with a faint black outline. The other one I made out of fabric and thread. That one has a bead in the middle, as I don't like doing satin stitch. They haven't scanned very well, especially the metallic pen one.

Tag Tuesday Winter Lanscape

I am making this for Tag Tuesday just before the next one is due. So much for getting things done in advance.
The background is distress stains, and I have used an old photograph as the main focus. The die cuts  are mainly Tim Holtz  dies and the whole lot have diamond stickles on for a frosty look.
I must get my days organised a bit better.

Every Inchie Monday -- Alice Blue

It's the first Inchie of the year on Every Inchie Monday, and I have half promised myself to try to do a sewn one every week. Please don't hod me to this, as I will fall by the wayside very quickly.
I went for the only Alice Blue I knew, and that was Alice in Wonderland.
The first one is Alice taking the potion to make her smaller, so that she can get through the door. The second one, she has shrunk, and can now go through. They are of course made out of shrink plastic.The third one is the fabric one.

Another page for my sea book & Artful Times Challenge - Blue

I have wanted to tear strips of fabric up and make a sea picture for ages, put couldn't get the inspiration. So as I was feeling a bit down with a lousy cold, I thought why not give it a go. It can always go in the bin.
So I tore up bits of fabric, laid them on a base fabric with some sari ribbon, fancy yarns, and some special shiny fabric I had bought especially for my sea book. I then covered the whole thing with organza, and used the sewing machine to anchor it all together. I then added beads and some French knots. The foamy bit at the bottom is distressed lutradur.
As the theme on Artful Times is blue, I will enter it in that as well.

Tim Holtz style tag for 2014

I am so behind with making last years tags, I thought I had better start as I mean to go on this year. Don't hold me to that though, life does seem to get in the way. We really hope to sell the bungalow this year so I am trying to get ahead with my craft projects.
This is the tag for January, and you can see Tim's version of it here on his blog.
This tag hasn't scanned well as there is a lot of shiny surfaces.