The flowers appear on the earth

Hello all and a very happy first of May!  It's time for a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, and our host this month is the lovely Jennie, who is looking for Beautiful Blooms.

As always, the Creative Guides have made some glorious projects to inspire you.  And it's a time of year when Nature puts on one of her finest shows of spring flowers, and heading into early summer, so hopefully this is well timed for her to add her inspiration to ours.

I've certainly borrowed more than just inspiration from Nature for this tag... those are real lavender stems there!  We've taken a bit of detour away from nature and springtime in the last couple of posts (with the Birthday Blues and Browns taking a grungy turn, and the unusual-for-me theme of sewing for Sew Far, Sew Good), but we're firmly back to business as usual here.

Do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see what the others have been up to, but before you go, let me share some close-ups and details of how my flowers appeared on the tag.

The background has been sitting around since the beginning of March - it was pretty much the first of my springtime moments.  And it was certainly a first inking for my then brand-new Field Notes stamps.

You may remember that this pair of tags almost made it on to my Spring Greens page, but got rejected in the end.  This one now finally has its moment in the sun.














And now I think about it, the other tag did in fact appear on that page spread... it got cut up into wildflower stems and then got painted over to make the flowers white.  Ah well, at least one of them survived!













In any case, when Jennie was looking for "beautiful blooms", I thought this remaining tag would make a good starting point.

I added some of the Rubber Dance Weed Love vines in Olive Archival - already beautiful blooms, in my opinion.  As you saw when I was Catching up, they're everywhere at the moment!













I'd had the idea that I wanted to use the lovely picket fence of the On the Edge die in the foreground, but I ground to a halt while I tried to work out what flowers would go on the far side of it.






Not more Wildflower stems - if coloured, they got lost against the background, if plain they just didn't look quite right.  I played with some paper flowers, but they weren't right for the meadow-flower look.  And then I remembered the dried lavender stems left from my neighbour's 102nd birthday cake decorations last summer.

Some of them already put in a crafty appearance shortly after the birthday last August in my ATC, A little lavender with a touch of rust, one of my all-time favourite creations.






They're really looking a little the worse for wear now, so I zhuzhed them up with a tiny touch of paint.  You can see the difference it makes - but I think they still look pretty natural.













I mixed some Fresco Lavender (of course) and Forget-me-not with matte medium, and brushed it on very gently.  I'm hoping that the medium will also seal and protect the delicate flowers to make them last a little longer.















The paler Forget-me-not is the main colour in most places, and the darker Lavender adds shadowy depths.













The fence was cut from kraft card, and I originally planned to have it as a wood look, but in the end I preferred the weathered painted look.  It's all done with DecoArt chalk paints and crackle glaze.











I glued it down with a curve to it, so that there's room for the stems behind, but it also gives a lovely bit of dimension to the tag.

I was really pleased when I remembered the moss tucked away in the stash - I love the grounding it gives to the fence, which was otherwise floating somewhat freely in mid-air!










Given that this is Words and Pictures, there had to be some words and these stickers from one of the Idea-ology Clippings sets simply demanded to be included.













I love that you can still see all that inky goodness in the background, and I think the pen and ink borders do a subtle job of framing the tag to draw your eye inwards.














And the other trick to catch the eye are these tiny gemstones dotted around to capture the light, and therefore the attention.  There are three of them - the rule of three works in visual design as well as in rhetoric.














I'm not much of a one for using "bling" in the ordinary way of things - though I do enjoy it when I see it on others' creations - but when it's a question of capturing sunlight I'll try anything!












The Field Notes stamping is still there to be found when you look closely...













And the loops of fine twine at the top are intricate without detracting too much from the main focus of the tag...














... those gorgeous lavender stems.  You can't really beat Mother Nature at her own game, can you?!















Even the butterfly clearly finds them irresistible.  (He's from the Idea-ology Transparent Wings, but has had a little wash of gesso to the back of the wings to give him a bit more presence.)

By the way, I do realise I'm writing quite long blogposts at the moment, even on the tags.

I suppose it's partly because I have the time to do it, but I also think there's something about losing yourself in the creative process and also in paying attention to tiny details which can distract you from everything which is going on.

Well, it does for me - I hope maybe a visit here does something similar for you... a few moments of light and beauty in a difficult world.

I also feel as though I'm chatting to all of you as I write, so it is a way of staying connected too!



Thank you so much for stopping by today.  There's a whole wealth of floral inspiration over at A Vintage Journey where my fellow Creative Guides have also been travelling amidst the flowers.  We hope you'll be inspired to share some Beautiful Blooms with us this month.  It's always wonderful to meet you somewhere along the way.

Take care, stay safe, stay well, and I'll see you all again soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

Where flowers bloom so does hope.
Ladybird Johnson

The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life.
Ken Watanabe

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is to make something which is Not A Card
Anything Goes over at Tag Tuesday this fortnight - I seem to be on a tag streak so they're seeing lots of me this week!
At the Bleeding Art Challenge it's Anything Mixed Media Goes all the time
The Creative Artiste Challenge are celebrating their 60th anniversary with the usual Anything Mixed Media Goes