I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Summer Songbird

Hello all, Alison here with an early summer tag to share with you, inspired by some of Artistic Outpost's lovely stamps.  (It's from a couple of months back now, but we got interrupted by the fabulous Boardwalk release.)  I'm very happy with how it's captured those vivid greens you get at that time of year when the trees are working their way towards their full summer glory.


It uses the lovely stamp from the Serenity set, which incorporates one of my favourite sentiments.




Lots of inky loveliness for the background, and some background stamping using the music manuscript from the Ephemera Backgrounds with Olive Archival ink, and the flourish from the Serenity set stamped in distress paint.












I stamped the main image in Olive Archival and used Detail Clear powder to emboss it - it has such a lovely shimmer when the sun hits it!











I gathered lots of mulberry paper flowers, and die-cut the Memory Box treble clef out of a stamped tag I had lying around and had decided I didn't want to continue with.












And the white gauzy, satiny ribbon is tied with some seam binding dyed with Distress Inks to tone in.

I hope that's given you a taste of summer - it's still being slightly reluctant round our way... I was back on two hot water bottles a couple of nights ago, and I think I'm off to get one ready now too...

Hope you're getting to enjoy some sunshine, or at least some crafting wherever you are.





Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.
Alma Gluck

57 comments:

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Beautiful Alison, the green is particularly eye catching and I love the sentiment and embossing it adds wonderful dimension and texture. Love the background stamping too, very subtle but effective. Beautiful design, so fresh. Tracy x

Von said...

What a lovely and fresh tag Alison :) the flowers are perfect :)
Von ♥

mark gould said...

Beautiful, I love those warm greens, certainly puts you in mond of the summer greenery x. love the music running behind x

Monique said...

This is such a beautiful tag. Love that green color. It does bring a bit of summery sunshine to these dreary days. A water bottle sounds like a great idea to me now. I'm back in my winter clothes as summer doesn't want to start here at all.....
xx

Brenda Brown said...

Beautiful, the greens are very reminiscent of early summer and are perfect for the time of year.
hugs Brenda xxx

Ink Art Designs said...

So beautiful...
Dot x

Chrissy said...

Fantastic colours Alison and love that sentiment, how pretty..gorgeous tag.

Luv CHRISSYxx

barbarayaya62 said...

really wonderful! This is a summer tag! colors are so bright! Love it! BArbarayaya

Inkypinkycraft said...

It looked fab then and now ..I too love the embossed sentiment...catching the light x hugs x

Anke said...

Wonderful Alison, so lovely and beautiful colors.

Hugs
Anke

brenda said...

Those vivid greens work very well for me Alison, such a beautiful tag.

B x

chrissie said...

Wonderful summer colours Alison.

Amazing embossing.

Love Chrissie x

Helen said...

Stunning! I love the greens but the stamping is gorgeous.

Kezzy said...

Wow wow wow gorgeous tag, I am so loving the vibrant green, and I love the flowers. As always I love it all lol. Happy Crafting :-) hugs Kezzy xxx

Unknown said...

Once again, completely beautiful! Love, love, love the colours!!

Anita x

sally said...

This really captures all the loveliness of the fresh greens that we get here in Scotland when the beech, in particular, comes out to show its glory!

Sally

Astrid Maclean said...

Gorgeous Alison, love that fresh green colour and beautiful stamping!

Rita said...

Good Morning Alison. Magnificent colour. I love the stamp and the sentiment you have used. Hugs Rita xxx

Carol Q said...

beautiful tag Alison and a gorgeous shade of green. this stamp has always been a fave of mine though not used for a long time (you know how it is... other stamps come along too!)

Netty said...

I love everything about your gorgeous tag Alison, especially those fab words. Oooh it does sound cold up there, its about 11 degrees at night here in middle England. Stay warm. Hugs Annette x

http://nettysartadventures.blogspot.co.uk/

Annie said...

Gorgeous colours and lots of stunning details Alison. Love all the elements x

Just put the heating on as its cold and miserable here

Crafty hugs

Annie x

Deborah said...

A beauty!

The House of Bears said...

This is beautiful, lots of green gorgeousness and your usual attention to detail with the tag ties. We love the sentiment too,

Francesca said...

Love the green, well green is one of my favourite colours. Great tag. Xxx

Claudia N. said...

Absolutely beautiful, Alison!

It is sooo difficult to work with shades of green, but you really did a masterpiece using them in all their lovely vibrant spring green-ishness!

And the lovely roses are the perfect contrast, highlighting the fabulous greens even more! I LOVE your tag!

Hugs,
Claudia x

Candy C said...

Alison...your work is so amazing. This tag is gorgeous. I really love the background color and the gorgeous white flowers and random stamping you've done on it. The sentiment embossed in green is so pretty, too. I also love the treble clef. Perfect for the sentiment! <3 Candy

Terry said...

This is a lovely tag and those greens scream summer! The embossing adds such nice texture! Hugs!

Judy Biggerstaff said...

Beautiful Alison, love the fresh green color for summer.

Neet said...

Love the citrus colours on your tag. Gorgeous tag and so lovely crisp and clean looking.
Hugs, Neet xx

Krisha said...

MMMMMMM just beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

I like the dashes of cream that bring balance and contrast.
The green is so vibrant it certainly evokes spring and cut grass (does that sound silly?)
Wishes
Lynne

cathylynn said...

I love this Alison. Those greens are gorgeous as well as your embossing! I also love how you did the ribbons. Fabulous!!!
Hugs, Cathy-Lynn

Chris Stern / CS Designs said...

Beautiful art tag Alison, love the wonderful summer colors and the great background.
:) Chris / CS Designs

sam21ski said...

Lovely tag Alison, great colour set

Sam xxx

Paper Profusion said...

These greens are very well timed for Wimbledon lawns Alison! Brilliantly fresh and as others have said made all the more vibrant by the contrasting creams/whites. Beautiful inking as always. Nicola x

Dorthe said...

Dear Alison, I love how the embossed sentiments so brightly shines there, with the white stamped flourish!! and the beautiful mulberry flowers- a very sweet and beautiful summerly tag!!
xo,Dorthe

Debi said...

Alison, this really shouts Summer :-) love it, the texture so subtle and pretty, Debi x

Alie Hoogenboezem-de Vries said...

Such bright colours Alison...real nature feel! And of course lovely details on this tag.

kind regards, Alie :-)

May said...

Gorgeous Greens Alison.Love the stamping & fabulous sentiment... Hugs May x x x

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Alison this tag is outstanding, I really love love love it. The fresh green, the wonderful quote and the flowers - just a dream.

Kelly said...

Oh I do love your embossing with the scrolling leaves and birds. Beautiful greens and texture in the colors.
Hugs Kelly

Hettie said...

Wow Alison! This is gorgeous and so springey. Beautiful greens there. Love it!
xx

Karen Schroeder said...

Absolutely beautiful! Love your tag!!!

Sandy said...

Hey Alison -- I do think these shades of green are wonderful and now the deeper greens of summer are taking over. Beautiful tag!
sandy

Mary Elizabeth said...

Absolutely gorgeous. Love the greens and the embossing. Makes this tag shine and sing:)

--Mary Elizabeth

Alexa said...

Lovely Alison - the shades are beautiful and I love the graduated colours of the ribbon - gorgeous! x

Jane Wetzel said...

your blog is fabulous and this tag has Summer written all over it! :)

Lucy Edmondson said...

Gorgeous, Alison, love how you do your glossy emobssed words; so effective. Dying to know what you bought in the HD sale!

Lucy x

Martina said...

Beautiful new creations, dear Alison! I especially love the green and the dragonfly tag! Just great! Thanks for sharing.
I wish you a wonderful weekend my dear.

craftimamma said...

Oh this is wonderful Alison. Green is my favourite colour and the shades you've used here look as though they've just had the freshening summer rain that we've had here all day. I have the lovely Serenity set of stamps too so it's great to see how you've used them.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Linda Coughlin, the funkie junkie said...

Wow, this is absolutely gorgeous. LOVE the greens! Lovely background patterns and stamping. Now I want to play with greens.

Hugs,
Linda

Unknown said...

Fresh, vibrant, beautiful! Chris xxx

Maria said...

Such gorgeous shades of greens, and definitely a taste of summer (although it's disappeared from Manchester now!) - the flowers complement the greens so well. I love the main image, it's beautifully detailed.

Maria xx

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE the green! Beautiful color! The AO sentiment is perfect too!

hazel said...

This is such a beautiful tag Alison, the greens are lovley.
xxx Hazel.

Margaret said...

Oh, this is so pretty! I love the shades of green and the embossing looks wonderful!

Marjie Kemper said...

How gorgeous! Love the greens and the addition of the music note.