Last Days of Summer

I always need to be part of Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey.

It's that lovely extra Friday in a challenge month when the Creative Guides are free to play any way they want, as long as it's on a tag.

I usually take the chance to return to basics with some fairly straightforward inking and stamping, remembering that uncomplicated joy I found right at the start of this crafting journey.

Although I love the complex mixed media assemblage pieces in 3D like this week's Stargazing Skeleton, sometimes it's nice to keep things simple (and it makes for shorter blogposts too!).

















It's another smooshing extravaganza in the background.  There are Distress Inks and Oxides in various shades involved.

















I know there's some Broken China, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, and I think some Salty Ocean maybe.
















I stamped a couple of my all-time favourite Tim Holtz images - and they're both ones I have on wood mounts.  I have very few wood-mounted stamps, but those I have are special to me.














The meadow grasses are stamped in Olive Archival, and the birds are in Watering Can. 

And then all that stamping is clear-embossed.











It's one of my favourite things to do for a number of reasons...

It helps an image stand out against a busy background.













It captures the light so beautifully - something I'm always trying to do - as well as giving a little bit of texture.














It has a wonderful effect of shimmering almost out of view at some angles.  So those migrating birds are here... and then they're gone.  It's a kind of magic!















There are some of my favourite dried flower stems...
















... adding dimension to my meadow.














And the words are from my own PaperArtsy EAB01 Trees & Flowers stamp set.

They're stamped in Broken China Distress Oxide, and they've been clear-embossed too.













The tag is mounted on some white card, inked at the edges naturally, and some simple twine finishes everything off.












It's definitely all about the light here at Words and Pictures at the moment... we've had moonlight, then starlight by candlelight, and now we're soaking up those last few rays of summer sunlight, captured in the gleam of the clear-embossing.

I hope you've enjoyed taking a walk in my late summer garden.  Check out the tag playtime all the other Creative Guides have been enjoying over at A Vintage Journey.







When summer gathers up her robes of glory, And, like a dream, glides away.
Sarah Helen Whitman

I'd love to join in at Try It On Tuesday where they have the lovely theme of In my garden there is... the last of the meadow flowers and a flock of departing birds
Addicted to Stamps and More are having an Anything Goes challenge
And at Let's Craft and Create it's also Anything Goes with an optional twist of EnTWINEd - well I've a little piece of twine topping things off
At More Mixed Media it's Anything Goes with Optional Bright - this is about as bright as I get!