Ivy Girl

Hello all, and welcome.  Thanks for stopping by today.  After the retrospective, we're moving forwards again, if a little slowly.

I'm in that weird January hibernation phase... sluggish mojo, general sleepiness, and procrastination over the tax return which needs doing.

But I forced myself into the craft room today, which resulted in one complete failure and then there's this tag which I wasn't sure about, but seems to be growing on me.

I was going to call the post "Be fearless" or "Adventure Awaits", but the photo folder is called simply "Ivy Girl", and I decided I liked the simplicity of that better to go with this simple tag.
















The background is a piece of Tim Holtz paper which I softened with some white chalk paint.  You can see the lovely stony effect this gave me compared to the original.















Ivy has always played a big part here at Words and Pictures - very often as the real, living background to my photos.

Sadly, in the dull and damp weather of these winter months I haven't managed as many outdoor photos as I'd like, so I've had to put the ivy on the tag instead.











The Distress Stain-dyed card was left over from some of the pages in my Winter Journal (VIII and XII if you're curious).

According to my notes in those posts, it's a combination of Peeled Paint, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough - lots of holiday greenery names, but it'll do for ivy too.  You can still just see some of the background script through the layers.












The girl is from a new packet of Christmas Paper Dolls.  I used up a lot of the wintry dolls in my Winter Journal, so I grabbed some fresh supplies in the sales, and this new selection has some I've not seen before.  I love her!















The words are a continuation of the positivity from the journal - preparing me for the changes ahead in the coming year.











I borrowed some of the other journal ingredients too - the tangled thread and the dark washi tape for her to stand on.

In fact, I may stick her in to the journal on a page of her own... I'll see how that feels.











There's some Vintage Photo-dyed crinkle ribbon tied up with fine twine at the top...













... and a paint-altered Muse Token at the foot of the tag.  And there are also some butterflies' wings - the butterfly being a symbol of transformation - stamped in Watering Can Archival.

And that's pretty much your lot for now.  I simply must knuckle down to the tax return next, so you won't see me for a couple of days.  Wish me luck!  Thanks so much for your visit, and I'll see you again soon.








The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I'd like to join in at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where they'd like us to Use Something New - my Paper Doll is part of a new (to me) collection, and this is also the first inking up for any of the butterflies from Tim's Flutter stamp set
At Try It On Tuesday they're looking for Something Old, Something New - so the new things are as above, the Paper Doll and the Flutter butterfly, and there's also plenty that's old - the ivy die, the crinkle ribbon and the design paper which, like all my paper, has been waiting to be used forever!