Wallflowers

Hello all!

It's a Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey today - that extra Friday in the month when the Creative Guides get to just play with a tag, and here's mine.

I actually made it more than a month ago, when spring was still just a dream... and I think that's what I was dreaming of.

In fact, the making-of went back even further than that.

I stamped the flower heads in a watercolour journal some time last year, so that I could practise some watercolouring with them during my travels.
















In the end, I didn't get around to colouring them in until January when I used them to explore some of my new watercolour paints bought in the sales.














And then I didn't think of putting them on a tag until February... so it seems right after all that time that they had to wait that little bit longer before appearing on the blog!














The background is one of my brick walls... getting in training for some more dollshouse work, I suppose, though really I'm supposed to be trying to tackle dollshouse dolls for the Tudor Tavern this time around.















Personally, I'd rather be making brick walls and wooden beams and floors than dolls, I think... we'll see.  I'll be sure to update you with any progress I make.















This wall is made with texture paste through a stencil, with some weathered areas of book page text.














I gesso'd over the whole thing and then set to with some paint layers to build up depth and texture.













I wanted to keep to a pale stone look so that my reddish-tinted flowers would stand out nicely against it.















Yup, not quite sure where the urge for the warm peachy reds came from - it's a rare colour around here at Words and Pictures.














I was just experimenting with some of my new colours - taking them out for a spin.














They were just flower heads on a notebook page, so no harm in a bit of red, eh?















Who knew they'd end up taking pride of place on a tag?!















Thank goodness for the Thinlits dies... you'd never catch me doing all this fussy-cutting I'm afraid.














I do find it pretty amazing that you can even cut the stems.  Technology is a wonder!













I love the poppy, but the coneflower remains my favourite of these flowers, I think.
















It's certainly the one I've played with most often.















And there's another trio of them here...















I kept the rest of the tag pretty simple.  An Idea-ology QuoteBand provides the words...














... attached with twine, both regular and fine.

And of course there are some more words hovering in those book pages in the weathered wall.















There's some more twine at the top to complement it.








But really, it's those watercolour blooms taking centre stage, all layered up with foam tape for plenty of dimension...

... though I will admit to being rather fond of my wall too.  And you'll have spotted that I was unable to resist adding some of my favourite dried flowers to the bouquet.




I hope you like my wallflowers, and I hope you'll find time to hop over to A Vintage Journey and see the fabulous time my team-mates have been having with their Tag Friday creations too.

You've just got a few more days to join in with our anything goes 3rd birthday challenge, so "All Aboard" everybody.  Hope to see you somewhere en route.





Romance and poetry, ivy, lichens and wallflowers need ruin to make them grow.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

It's ages since I've played along with the Stampotique Designers Challenge.  They're looking for a Text Background this week, so with my subtle book text wall, I'd like to share this there
Another place where I've missed being able to play is Try It On Tuesday.  The current theme is Botanical - how perfect
And they're looking for Foliage and Flowers at That's Crafty Challenges - well timed!
And with my well-splattered wall, I'd like to play along one last time with Splatter Some Fun at Emerald Creek
As usual, Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes over at the Love2Create challenge blog