Tag Tuesday -- Squares, grid & mosaics.

For both of these I started off with decorative papers with squares on. I then added texture paste through various grids and stencils. The top one is just texture, with metal grids and mosaic tiles added.
The other one has two Romans on, who were well known for mosaic tied floors. I have added some small mosaic tiles to that one as well.

Every Inchie Monday -- Donkey

I found this one very difficult and am not at all happy with the sewn one. The donkey looks really miserable, too long on the beach with children riding on him. That, plus the fact I have never ever drawn a donkey before didn't help.

Go Tag Thursday -- Ephemera

A very quick one today for Go Tag Thursday, as we are just off for the weekend to one of my daughters, and Peter has already told me the time about three times.

Humming bird

Another lesson from one of the art courses where we drew a humming bird and then collaged the feathers on the wings, with various papers. Most of mine were gelli prints and scrap paper from inking.

Thursday Journal with Neet

This week we are to include a key, so I found a suitable saying and used it with some of Dyan's stamps. The page was already painted so it was just a case of finding some key stamps, of which I seem to have lots. I look forward to see what Neet has done.

Go tag Thursday -- Feathers

Another tag for Go Tag Thursday where the theme is feathers.

Tag Tuesday -- Stones & Pebbles

The theme this week on Tag Tuesday gave me the chance to make a fabric tag with one of my favourite subjects - the seaside.
The sand is calico with French knots for pebbles, the sea is felt with machine embroidery and beads and sequins. The larger stones are from some printed fabric.

Every Inchie Monday -- Dog

This week the animal is dog. Once again my stampbord one is shrink plastic, and the sewn one is of a Dalmatian puppy.

Go tag Thursday -- Feathers

The theme on Go Tag Thursday is feathers. For this one I have used a gelli print background and stamped images. I just had to add some real feathers, I have a large container full of them to use up.

Thursday Journal with Neet

The colour is green is the theme today, and as our internet has been down I am late putting it on. This time I have used all Dyan's Dylusion stamps on an already inked background. My journal is filling up really well, and I might just have to get another one, or use one that doesn't have such good paper in as this one.

Go Tag Thursday -- Alphabet/letter

Another tag for Go Tag Thursday where the theme is Alphabet/letter

Tag Tuesday -- Twigs and bare branches.

For this prompt I did a quick watercolour of a Winter tree and a twiggy hedge. If I had had more time I would have used some die cuts, and might try to fit one in later on.

This is what it is like here, foggy and damp. This is a photo of the oak tree on the edge of our garden.

Every Inchie Monday -- Cat

This week on Every Inchie Monday, the animal is cat. The stampbord one is shrink plastic and the sewn one is hand made felt. The felt cat looks a bit sad. The stampbord cat can't entice the mouse out of it's hole so looks somewhat fed up.

On line art course

Again this year I am doing not one but two on line art courses. Whether I will be able to keep up is a different story. Some of the lessons I just watch and don't actually do the art, as it's perhaps not my thing. I will try to have a go at most of them though. The two below are the warm up exercise and the final piece called Light Girl, where the basket contains hearts with what I want to take with me from 2016 into 2017. I haven't drawn whimsical girls before, so that was a bit of a challenge to start with. The backgrounds are both collaged and then painted

Go Tag Thursday -- Alphabet/letters

On Go Tag Thursday the theme is alphabet/letters, which gives us bags of ideas. I used some calligraphy paper with the alphabet on for the background, and a picture of Shakespeare on top of that. I did a bit of stamping and added three letters and a pen nib.

Tag Tuesday -- Paper lace and doilies

All my doilies came out, some were stuck on the tag, out came the die cut teapot and cup, and out came the bin, and in it went.
So, much happier with sewing stuff, so I went with the paper lace, some bought, some die cut. I will soon have enough sewing tags to make a thick book. I'll put it on the list.

Thursday Journal with Neet

This week we had to include a flower. As a young woman in the 60's I thought of flowers in your hair and going off to San Fransisco for the music and drugs. I was about the complete opposite of this and was far too sensible with a fairly strict father. I think my parents would have thought I was joking if I had even mentioned it.
So here is my page. I used an already inked page, and used Dyan's stamps for the leaves and girl. Sometimes having the pages already coloured gives us another challenge as you have to find a page that is suitable for the subject. If we ever do this again I think I would still get a lot of pages coloured first, as I seem to leave doing them until the last minute.

Go Tag Thursday -- Haberdashery

On Go Tag Thursday the theme is Haberdashery, and this is my second tag.

Every Inchie Monday -- Hamster

I know hamsters are very small, but they are still difficult to fit on an inch. I drew the one on the stampbord and with great difficulty made the sewn one with some felt and hand stitching.

Art Journal Journey

For this double page in my journal for Art Journal Journey, I have jumped back to August when we went to the Highlands of Scotland and went on a day trip to the Isle of Skye. We went to the Waternish peninsular, a part I had never been to before.  We travelled as far as we could get and came upon the churchyard at Trumpan. The ruins of the church are a grim reminder that the resident MacLeods were there worshipping on a Sunday in May 1578. A raiding party of MacDonalds set the thatch alight and all but one young girl were burnt to death. It was in revenge of an atrocity done to them by the MacLeods on the Isle of Eigg where they were taking refuge in a cave from a raiding party. The MacLeods set a fire at the entrance of the cave in an effort to force them to come out. All 395 MacDonald died- the whole population of the island.
The rest of the story is on the page

I inked a vague background with distress inks and then cut out and adhered the photographs and information.  For some of the gravestones I used dictionary definitions and I ripped up some grey paper for the others. I adde some stamping and texture paste as it was looking a bit flat.
The churchyard looks out over to the Western Isles, Harris, Lewis and Uist, it's a beautiful spot, and this year we are having a week on Skye to explore a bit more.

The double top picture was taken in very poor light, the scans are the true colour.

Go Tag Thursday -- Haberdashery

The theme on Go Tag Thursday is haberdashery which is a coincidence as sewing was also the theme on my Thursday Journal page. I found the tags a lot easier and have made several which will be in  later posts. I plan on making all my sewing tags into a book eventually.

Fabric postcard -- Circles

The theme for the December fabric postcard with my friend is circles. I felted the background and then cut out circles from felt, silk paper and fabric paper, all of which are home made.
I hand stitched the circles on and added some beads.

Thursday Journal with Neet

My choice this week with the theme of sewing. Now I love sewing and have plenty of stamps etc to use, but did I find this easy, no I didn't. I think it was a case of having too much and then using a double page and not being able to use bulky things. So my pages are somewhat messy, with too many small bits on a busy background. It has no resemblance to Dyan style journalling at all. The top one has been photographed in natural light and the other two are scanned. The real colour is more like the top one of the double page.

Tag Tuesday -- Silver

I covered a tag with silver tape and embossed it. I then adhered some silver hearts that I had cut out and embossed. Some accent beads and brads have been added to give some texture. Not very easy to scan with all the shiney surfaces.

Every Inchie Monday - Rabbit

This year on Every Inchie Monday all the themes are animals, insects, birds, and sea creatures. Certainly very different from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the galaxy, but although it sounds easier I think some of them might be quite difficult to get on an inch. There won't be the opportunity to think outside the box either.
The first one is rabbit. The stampbord one is a small wooden rabbit, and the sewn one is felted. (nearly drove me mad trying to get the ears right, shame I didn't manage it.