Time to fly...

Hello all, and welcome to October!  It's time for a new theme at Country View Challenges, and the Add Some Texture.
wonderful Jennie would like us to

Well, to be honest, it's a rare project for me which doesn't involve some texture, so I was very happy to see this one come up, even if my tag today has a slightly melancholy air.

I was influenced by that autumnal gathering of the birds, ready to make their way south to warmer climes, leaving behind them only a memory of summer (personally, I'd've gone several months ago if I were a bird).

If you'd like some less sombre inspiration, do hop over to Country View Challenges and see the delights my team-mates have served up for you there.  And don't forget, there's ongoing inspiration throughout the month, so do drop in there occasionally.  For now, let me take you through some of my layers of texture.








I started by putting bright Distress Paints onto a jumbo tag - my colours of the summer, Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron.












I spritzed with water and used my fingers to move the paints around to create some texture even in this first layer (the same process as for the background under my hand-drawn face earlier this week).













But it's no longer summer, so we have to soften those colours into a background memory.  The first cover-up was to brayer on some Chalk Fresco Paint.












Then I did some stamping using the alphabet stamp from Tim's cool Documented set, some in ink and some using the Distress Paints in Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron.








Over that, I stencilled some DecoArt Crackle Paint through the Flourish Layering Stencil and left it to crackle... well, of course there had to be some crackled texture!

We're starting to get a nice decayed look now... the faded grandeur of days gone by.









I did some wrinkle-free distressing with Distress Stains onto a sheet of the Ranger Mixed Media cardstock - there's Ground Espresso in there, Gathered Twigs, some Vintage Photo maybe.

I'm not sure any longer, but I put the result through the BigShot with the wonderful Bird Silhouette.










I had a vibrant red inky tag left over from my Autumn Collection so I cut a couple of maple leaves with the Fall Foliage Thinlits and added them to the mix.

The leaves are starting to turn and fall, so it's time for the bird to be on his way.










Do you think the young birds, making the journey for the first time, have the slightest idea of the extraordinary physical effort which they're about to need to make?  How incredible that instinct keeps them flying thousands of miles twice a year.

He's mounted on padded tape (as are the leaves), and I gave him some Ground Espresso earth so that he has some firm ground for take off.












The Small Talk stickers are providing a bit of a pep talk before the off... a strong piece of advice for life's journey too.











There are a couple of rub-ons... As the bright colours of summer fade into the background, so the musical memory of abundant summer bird song echoes across the tag.

I was trying to get some wide burlap ribbon out of its packet, but it was fraying at the edges.  As I pulled all I got was masses of skinny twine edging…










The wonderful Tracy Evans (now a fellow Creative Guide on the Vintage Journey, lovely to be back on a team with her after all that time at Artistic Outpost!) often tops her tags with extravagant twine bows, so I took a leaf out of her book and decided I might as well just use that.








So that's my textured tag for you - full of the melancholy of an autumnal farewell, but also ready for the journey ahead.

We hope you'll find time to Add Some Texture this month and come and play along with us at Country View Challenges.  As always, there's a randomly drawn prize voucher from our lovely sponsors Country View Crafts on offer, so you might get to stock up for the winter too!

Thanks so much for dropping in today.  I'll be back before you know it… and the migration continues!

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
Lyndon B. Johnson




I'd like to offer up my migrating bird and falling leaves in the Autumn challenge at Try It On Tuesday
And I'd like to join in again at Anything Goes with Autumn Colours at Mixed Media World