52 Tags : Week 17

I'm participating in Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. You can view her demo each week on Youtube #52tagshannemade. Anne challenged us to look at all our tags so far and use a colour we haven't used yet. 

If you are at all familiar with my work, you will know that I love Paua colours (turquoise, green, blue, purple, pink) and they are reflected in my collection so far. I like the appearance of yellow here too. I haven't used orange and not much red - I went back and looked at Tag 6 and it's actually more of a gold/butterscotch/mustard background rather than orange. I could also stand to use more purple - one of my favourites. Both colours are noted for being used soon in future challenges.

Week 17 : Couching. Not my favourite tag but I am loving all the texture. I've couched down ribbons, silk thread, and fabric. 

A Year of Mary : I want to be light and frolicsome

I've got behind with these wonderful lessons but they're not going anywhere and I'm going to do them in order for the year. This is February's lesson inspired by Mary Oliver's poem Starlings in Winter. Decided to include a fantail since they epitomise "light and frolicsome" for me. My spread was inspired by these words from the poem :

I want to be light and frolicsome.

I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,

as though I had wings.

My fantail block stamp and pretty scrapbook paper to inform my colour choices

Began with metallic watercolours and then added some collage of both sides of that paper. 

Face using another watersoluble pencil but not the usual Stabilo black so it's softer

She is silver and light 💜

The wooden block stamps can be tricky to stamp directly into the journal (especially with collage elements already there) so I stamped with black staz-on ink onto white tissue resting on an old mouse pad to get good contact, then tore around it before gluing in with gel medium.

Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" as a monthly lesson exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. Lessons are released mid-month. See all my art from this class HERE. 

52 Tags : Week 16

I'm participating in Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. You can view her demo each week on Youtube #52tagshannemade. Week 16 :  Seed stitch. I shared my gatherings in my previous post. This one was more about the rhythm of the stitching as a process. I am so glad I used this variegated thread. 

April news and another free class.

I am grateful to be on school holidays. Yesterday was a milestone for me. It was my last visit to the oncology day ward for my final herceptin treatment. I have been going every 3 weeks since my chemo started last February. Grateful for the wonderful support of my beautiful family and friends. I feel very lucky 💜

I am scheduled for a full hysterectomy (fibroid - not cancer related) next month, so I am making sure I have lots of coffee and dinner catch ups with girlfriends before I am home-bound for some weeks. I am focussing on the blessing of some more quiet creative time ahead. I am making good progress on my secret quilt project (will be revealed at the end of this month) and also in progress with another art journal spread.

I am going to stay with my lovely mum tonight and will be stitching my next tag.

There's also another free online event happening this weekend

Jenny Grant has been very careful to make sure things are available in different time zones. I think the content is available for a week to play with - great timing for me. Might see you there...

Wanderlust : Spirit tree

The theme for the classes for April in Wanderlust 2021 is Silhouette. I've got a bit behind with these lessons. I've been stitching a secret thing, and had a wonderful Easter that was focused on family activities. I've continued with my weekly tag challenge, but I figured I would just give myself permission to wait until school holidays to do some more Wanderlust lessons. I'm also giving myself permission to not do every lesson if it doesn't inspire me. Week 14 was a lesson with Nicole Warrington about a spirit tree. I spent far too long thinking about which tree I would do. I wanted to do something with a New Zealand reference - pohutukawa or nikau palm perhaps. I wasted {too much} time on my computer looking up different trees before I caught myself and decided I just had to start my background. Watercolour and drips of isopropyl alcohol. Love how it looks like water and then some gold splatters...will I want to put a tree over and cover this up?! 

I used these watercolour dyes and very happy with how they reacted with the dylusions journal paper. 

I decided on a nikau palm in the end - tall, strong, elegant, always reaching and resilient. Although Nicole drew her tree freehand with a white pen, I adore stencils so thought I'd do that first with pen added after. 

Very happy...sometimes less is more. The finishing touch = found words.

Every time I looked at this I felt it wasn't quite the right words. I am more than surviving but I am having trouble shining lately. This feels more true for me : 

All Occasion Cards

I needed to make some more birthday cards and I had this wonderful piece of watercolour paper which I had used to clean my stencils when I taught a class a couple of years ago.

I decided that I would cut this piece down randomly to fit my card fronts when stitched on - and suddenly I have really cool unexpected backgrounds to use. 

My dragonfly from my gelli journal collage fodder play looks great on this piece

And here's the completed card 

I saw this sticker book on a post the other day and decided it would be useful for me to own...

They make nice easy additions to these backgrounds for future cards. 

Did you spot the hot tip I learned recently about separating serviettes by using tape?!

I have shared before that you can isolate images by drawing around them with a damp brush.

I really love serviette images on cards

And here's the whole collection from what started as random pieces. They just need some found words added as the occasion arises.

Now happy to say that today is the start of 2 weeks of school holidays. Hopefully lots of creativity will be happening around here to share with you.

52 Tags : Week 15

Although I haven't been doing much creatively that can be shared this past couple of weeks, I am thrilled to be keeping up with Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. You can view her demo each week on Youtube #52tagshannemade. Week 15 : Tiny landscape. A great opportunity to use sari ribbon, lovely dyed scrim, beads, lace and some stitches from previous weeks.

Noting here that there is another stitched project that I am working on, but it is secret until the end of the month. I began it over Easter at a sewing day with a couple of girlfriends. Can't wait to share more than this sneak peek. 

52 Tags : Week 14

I'm participating in Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. You can view her demo each week on Youtube #52tagshannemade. Week 14 : A treasure and a pocket. We're to be inspired by a place this week and Anne encouraged us to do a flat lay of our collection before we start so here's mine. 

Always inspired by the beach - it's my happy place. Although Week 12 also had this theme for me, this week's tag is going to be much softer colours. My pocket size was determined by the length of my fabric - happily I had a selvedge that I could use for the edge.

Straight away I decided a pocket is an opportunity for another tag! I glued a piece of an atlas page featuring my ocean and added the trimmings from the edge of my main fabric for the tag ribbon before gluing on some shells with E6000 glue. It's supposed to be tough stuff and they won't be getting rough treatment. Left to dry over night to be sure they're properly fixed.

I love Seahorses so added one from my new sticker book to the back, over paint applied with a natural sea sponge! Having fun with how far I can push this 😀

That's the treasure done. Then it was time to complete my main tag with pocket. I used both hand and machine stitching because that makes me happy. And metallic thread 💜 Made sure the pocket had a bit of room in it for my shells and very happy with this result

The pause between Summer and Autumn

Decided I would like to do a lesson from Effy Wild this past weekend featuring a Hare. Didn't get to do it as part of the Moonshine Lite lesson in March, but felt appropriate for Easter. Begun with festive colours.

I had wiped off dark paint on the right page previously, but it will be fine I think. Stencils, stamps, a mask and glazes : 

Then a delay due to a couple of very social days with friends and family ♥  It's no longer Easter, but I wanted to celebrate the pause between Summer and Autumn - we are still enjoying lovely warm weather, with just the occasional rainy cooler day, but daylight savings is over so the nights are coming earlier. I glued some gelli printed paper to a carrier sheet and printed my words through my printer.

I get Moonshine Lite lessons as part of my Patreon membership which also includes A Year of Mary. You can sign up any time.