Up At Dawn

Hello all!  For a while there it looked as though we might only get one post for the whole of March here at Words and Pictures - eeek!

But I don't think I've missed a Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey since the very beginning, so I wasn't about to let that change, and Tag Friday it is today.

Unfortunately, I've been up at dawn all too frequently recently... and not with the rapture or miraculous sensations celebrated on this tag, but rather because I've simply been awake all night.

It's been a pretty stressful couple of months work-wise, but I can feel that there's sunshine around the corner and more playtime very soon, so it is definitely worth celebrating now, I think.












On the crafting front, it's been all I could manage to get a few Oxide backgrounds done for almost my whole time here in New York City.

You may remember this background from this post back in February.  With Tag Friday for encouragement, it finally got developed into a finished tag, and it's a happy one!













So, just another Oxide + Distress Ink smooshed and spritzed background, layered until I liked the look of it - and some splatters of white gesso too, I think.













I stamped Dina Wakley's delightful Scribbly Birds on some watercolour paper and painted them with Distress Paints before cutting them out.















They're perched on some torn strips of design paper from Tim Holtz's Dapper stash - any old paper would do though.















And I've added some snippets from a longer Louisa May Alcott quote which appears on my PaperArtsy Eclectica EAB02 stamp set, Darkness and Light.













The quote goes on to say how the wonders of dawn "set her heart in tune"... sadly, that's not quite the effect dawn has been having on me lately!













But even here in Brooklyn, where I'm staying, you do still get to enjoy the birdsong in the mornings.  The words are stamped in Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide.













The ribbon at the top came ready-dyed with my Funkie Junkie Boutique order (it's always handy when a work trip to the States times nicely with the new Creativation releases!), and I brought some of this fine twine with me as part of my travelling stash. 

I added a little white pen doodled frame and then mounted the tag onto some spare paper, just so that the border echoes the stamped quote.













I hope you'll hop over to A Vintage Journey and check out the tags created by the other Creative Guides.  And, as part of this year's new look Journey, we're also inviting you to share your favourite March tags with us... just for fun, no prizes - but who doesn't love a tag, so do come and link yours up and join the Tag Friday party.






Now, don't be too surprised, but there are some more posts lined up over the next week or so... Yes, we're creaking back into action here, and I hope I might even manage some blog visiting too - it seems like an age since I've managed to dip in to Craftyblogland and see you all.  In the meantime, happy crafting all, and I'll see you soon.

Morning is the best of all times in the garden.  The sun is not yet hot.  Sweet vapours rise from the earth.  Night dew clings to the soil and makes plants glisten.  Birds call to one another.  Bees are already at work.
William Longgood