A Romantic Postcard

Hello all, lovely to have your company - and an especially big welcome to the new followers... so happy you decided to join up!


I'm on to tag 8 of the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas.  Every week, Linda Coughlin (yup, that would be the Funkie Junkie herself) is providing an inspirational tag for us to play with... and if you complete all 12 by the 17th of December you'll be entered in a prize draw, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  All the details are here, and there's still time to play...


Since you can take the inspiration in any direction you like, and since we started way back in September, I've so far avoided linking my 12 Tags of Christmas to Christmas and this one's still on that track.


I love Linda's original but it is very Christmassy!  However, I've done what I think is known as "casing" it, borrowing the layout and techniques, but changing the elements and images themselves.


So I too have a large fabric flower, with mesh ribbon at the foot of the tag.  I have a stamped and embossed figure rising out of that flower, and words at the side of the tag.  I have an ink-blended background, with some additional stamping.  I have some die-cut lace and some ribbon trimming at the top of the tag.  But apart from that, it couldn't really be more different.





I've used the delectable damsel from the Graphic 45 Ladies' Diary stamp set.   I love the slightly coy turn of the head, and knowing smile - what on earth has she just read in that Postcard she's received?!

She's stamped and embossed in Detail Black embossing powder over a background of blended Seedless Preserves, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs DIs.

I love any kind of text or script, so this stamp with it built in to the background is right up my street.

The Detail embossing powder really helps with an image this detailed... so they named it well!









For someone who is still a slightly reluctant user of flowers on projects, I really enjoyed making this particular flower - and I love how it looks on the finished piece!

It's cut using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die, and I layered white mesh from the Funkie Junkie Boutique with some creamy crushed silk type material left over from the wedding transformation I created for my brother and sister-in-law this summer.

The decorative brad in the centre is from BoBunny.



The background is packed with stamps I really love... the Postcard stamp is from Tim Holtz's Postcard collection, while the No Charges and the gorgeous Millinery label both come from the Graphic 45 Ladies' Diary set.

The little sprigs of flowers (Tattered Angels) were something of an afterthought, when I found I needed some stamping to lift the rest of the tag towards the bright cream colours of the fabrics.

And oh, how thrilled I am with the impulse addition of a tiny Versamagic Chalk ink to one of my recent purchases - it's like magic, so deliciously opaque and matte in appearance.  It was exactly what was needed for the sprigs, to lighten the tag.

And at around £1 - £1.50 they feel like you're almost not spending money (yes, yes, I know...)!

I love the glossy embossing next to  the chalky white.

The lace across the top is cut with TH's decorative strip die Vintage Lace...









As with my Bewitching Whites the other day, I had to exert considerable self-restraint in order not to start edging it with Vintage Photo DI - but I wanted to let the creams really stand out against the darker background.





At the top of the tag, I used some leftover mesh to create my 'hanger' strip, and then spent a long time fiddling with some seam binding to get a bow I was happy with.  I added one of my mulberry paper roses as a finishing touch instead of Linda's button.  I love that it tones in so perfectly with the tag background - happy chance!



So I've managed to continue my own personal little 'challenge within a challenge' to play the 12 Tags of Christmas without a sign of Christmas... Of course the last couple will happen within December, so I might just allow some Christmas crafting by then, if I haven't already slipped into it long before!

I hope you've enjoyed today's tag - I'd love to hear what you think.  For now, have a great weekend, and I'll see you soon!

I'm entering this as Tag 8 in the 12 Tags of Christmas over at The Funkie Junkie.  Come and play!!

And with the mesh coming from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, I'd like to add it in to the Sunday Share over at Frilly and Funkie too.

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.
George Bernard Shaw

More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
John Donne

Bewitching White

Hello all, delighted to welcome you to Words and Pictures today; it's great to have your company.

I'm sharing a card with you today which is inspired by The Stampsmith Challenge this month, which is to work in Monochromatic White (using at least one Stampsmith stamp).  

This was a real challenge, and I'm not sure I've cracked it yet - so I hope to play again before the end of the month!  But for now, here's my White Witch...

It's stated in the challenge that of course you will need to stamp in a colour other than white, but I'm not generally inclined to meekly do as I'm told!

So I had a couple of goes at using white embossing powder on the bewitchingly beautiful Serena.  I thought it looked pretty cool, but then of course you need to stand there altering the angle of the card the whole time in order to be able to see it.

In the end I conceded that they were probably right about using a colour to stamp with - and I stamped her using the blue from the  Colorbox Archival Coffee House set.  

Much better - now you get to see her properly.  I find this stamp absolutely enchanting - I'm serious about Serena being bewitching!








The sentiment is stamped in the same ink.  And one of the things I'm really pleased with is the subtle sparkle in the background.

It's a simple spritzing of Tattered Angels Chalkboard Glimmer Mist in Chalk...

... and you'll spot that the Tim Holtz paper distresser has been in action on the edges everywhere!

The next layer up is white card embossed with the Tim Holtz Distressed Frame folder - and here's where my monochromatism started to get in trouble.

I just couldn't make it work in pure white... so I put some of the same ink onto the craft mat and, using a water brush, I added an extremely diluted wash of it onto the frame.  It really is almost white...








I've used the delectably delicate Madera Corner die from Memory Box and glued only in places so that you still get some extra dimensionality from the branches.





Between Serena and the Distressed Frame, there's a little paper doily and some frayed cheesecloth.



Those who know me and my work well will be able to imagine how hard it was to refrain from getting out the Vintage Photo - or at least the Antique Linen - to do some edging on the doily, but I decided to be firm with myself, and left it in pristine white.








I do like what I've ended up with... but I have to admit, I'm not quite sure whether it counts as white on white.  Having really enjoyed the challenge, though, I'm willing to give it another go, and see where it takes me next time!











Thank you so much for stopping by... I hope you've enjoyed my White Witch, and if she's now got you in her thrall too, hop over to The Stampsmith and have a look at all their beautiful stamps.  I promise you'll find plenty for your Christmas wishlist!

I'm entering this in Monochromatic White, using at least one Stampsmith stamp, over at The Stampsmith Challenge.

The first of all single colors is white ... We shall set down white for the representative of light, without which no color can be seen; yellow for the earth; green for water; blue for air; red for fire; and black for total darkness.
Leonardo Da Vinci

White...is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black.
G.K.Chesterton

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
Mae West

WOYWW 180

Hello desk-hoppers... it's lovely to be back!  I missed a couple of weeks, and it felt so weird.  But I'm delighted to join in again with the week's best bloghop, hosted as ever by the lovely Julia Dunnit at the Stamping Ground, as we snoop around visit the craft desks of the world to see WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk this Wednesday).  And not only am I back, but I believe my sister-in-law, Laura, is planning to make her debut, with her one-week-old blog Laurart...


Close readers will have clocked in the last couple of posts that I'm not actually at home at the moment.

I'm working away for three weeks, and having packed more craft stash than clothes (so as not to go into withdrawal), I've set myself up a temporary craft desk to play at, and that's what I'm sharing this week.

On the far left is my Paris tag, and then a canvas which was also headed to France, but lost inspiration part way and is waiting for a top up!

It would have been almost impossible to pack to come away, I think, without my early Christmas present from my mother (yes, she of the dollshouse museum blog), a Tim Holtz cargo case.  You can cram so many pads and bottles and bits and pieces in... and if they're TH/Ranger, it's all designed to fit them perfectly which, of course, delights me!

In front of it you can see the gesso and white acrylic paint I went straight out to buy at The Works upon arrival.  I'd run out of gesso, so had been waiting patiently to get here for that, and I'm afraid my white paint simply wouldn't fit in, but given it costs less than £2, and I go through it very fast, I figured it wasn't the end of the world to buy a new bottle.





I've also augmented the stash since arriving here in Stratford upon Avon, as I went to the last day of the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC on Sunday.  I had an absolutely wonderful time - mainly because I'd arranged to meet up with the fantastically talented Buttons... who, it turns out, is just as lovely in real life as she is online.  It was a real delight to make a face-to-face crafty connection with one of my favourite bloggers.


We were fairly restrained in our spending, but one of my main reasons for going was to see some of the PaperArtsy stuff in person, and I knew I wanted to get some Fresco paints (to add to the one I own).

I was so inspired by the demos Leandra was doing, that I also succumbed to some Ferro modelling paste, and some boards to create on.  Buttons also introduced me to the MDF Man, and I'm really looking forward to playing with these hearts, which were only 35p each! And I needed some new clear embossing powder, so was very pleased with this bargain jumbo WOW pot.



Sadly, we're in technical rehearsals and then previews for a new show, which means I'm in the theatre for upwards of 12 hours a day, and don't then have much creative energy leftover... but I'm really looking forward to Sunday!!




Lastly (sorry, Julia, I know you like us to keep it short), I mentioned in a previous post that the view from my living room where I'm staying is pretty special.









From the craft table, I look right out onto the River Avon and the weir, so I just want to leave you with a couple of pictures.








They were taken on Sunday morning - at the start of a glorious day. If you're feeling envious, comfort yourself with the thought that it's been pretty constant grey drizzle or worse ever since!





So, that's me.  As you'll have gleaned, I will have to fit my hopping into lunch and supper breaks over the next few days, but I hope to get round to see as many of you as possible. 

In the meantime, thanks so much for stopping by, and happy WOYWW to you!!

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Walt Whitman

Don't trouble yourself with looking at the view... I've already composed it.
Gustav Mahler (evidently a man with very few self-esteem issues)

eclectic Paperie

Hello all - a very brief, but very exciting post today... I'm very happy and proud to share with you the news that I've been selected to join the Design Team at eclectic Paperie (and yes, that is a little e and big P deliberately!).

For those who don't already know eclectic Paperie, it's a lovely online store, filled with fabulous stash goodies and kits.  They also have a great blog, packed with inspirational ideas, projects and tutorials created by an amazing Design Team.  And - oh boy! - now I get to join the gang... 

I literally gasped when I got the news, and have now definitely got butterflies in my tummy.  I hope they'll settle down once I've got the first project under way!  Ah well, as Helen Keller would tell me: It's okay to have butterflies in your stomach; the key is to make them fly in formation.

I'm beyond grateful to all of you for your support and positive feedback - that's what's really helped me take this leap... and I'm so excited to have this new opportunity to play, learn and experiment alongside such fantastic artists.  I'm so looking forward to this new challenge, and it will be wonderful to have your company on the adventure.

One way to get the most out of life is to look at it as an adventure.
William Feather

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.
Amelia Earhart

A work of art is, above all, an adventure of the mind.
Eugene Ionesco

Dancing Leaves

Hi everyone, and a warm welcome to Words and Pictures - so happy you've dropped in.

I've a quick tag to share with you today, catching the very last tumbling leaves before the trees enter their stark, bare, winter state (also beautiful of course - silhouetted tree branches against the sky... wow, well done Nature!).

I've got an amazing view out of my (temporary) living room window, straight on to the River Avon, with a tree just outside, bravely clinging on to its last few yellowed leaves.

There's a definite melancholia to this stage, though with yesterday's bright blue skies, the crispness in the air was wonderfully invigorating.  And rather than falling, the leaves really did seem to flutter their way to the ground with one final flourish.

Today, in grey drizzle, it's sadly not the same story!  But this tag celebrates the final flourish, nonetheless...











It came together out of some discards and leftovers that were lying around on the craft table.  The kraft luggage label had been used to wipe a gesso-y brush on a couple of times, and the leaves are cut from one of my discarded Fashion ATCs!

The whole thing was based on a calico background, but in the end the fabric was a bit too floppy for my liking, so I backed it onto another layer of firm kraft card.

You can see those layers here...

The luggage label had taken on a slightly crumpled look, so I intensified that, scrunching it up and distressing the edges.

And then I had an absolute ball with some paints, inks, stamps and stencils to create the background.

I'm really happy with the leaves.  In pursuit of a Fashion ATC for the challenge over at Fun With ATCs (still plenty of time to play... we'd love to have your company), one attempt started with an ATC background on which I'd done the Tim Holtz Enamelled Stamping technique (from Compendium of Curiosities II)

I stamped some flourishes in Seedless Preserves DI and embossed them with clear embossing powder, then inked the background with the same colour and embossed again.




I completely loved the look - so much, in fact, that anything I put over it to build the Fashion theme didn't please me as much as the background itself - and believe me, I tried!

But what a delight when the idea struck for this tag to use that discarded ATC with the Tim Holtz Autumn Garland decorative strip die to cut myself some beautiful leaves.

I love how they catch the sunlight at certain angles, and at others reveal more of their flourishes.  

So really, it's a tag of two backgrounds - not only the tag itself, but also the not-quite-an-ATC background!

I added the sentiment that came to my lips, stamped onto some another gesso-painted kraft label (this time deliberately painted!), torn and edged with Gathered Twigs for extra definition, and assembled my pieces trying to leave plenty of  background on display.  

When I glued the leaves, I kept the glue just to the centre of each leaf, so that they could flick or curl up at the edges for extra movement.

I added some of the trimmed off calico as my ribbon at the top, and that was pretty much that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to drop by.  I'll be back very soon with a very special announcement... oh, the suspense!... so I'll hope perhaps to see you again, if not here then elsewhere in Craftyblogland.



I'm entering this in the following:
Artful Times would like us to share a Fabric Tag
Our Creative Corner are asking us to Make Our Own Background
Crafts 4 Eternity are looking for Terrific Tags

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
William Cullen Bryant

Autumn wins you best by this, its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Robert Browning

Paris - Mon Amour

Hello all, lovely to have your company here today at Words and Pictures.

Parlez-vous Français?  This week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show they're asking for some Inspiration Française, and after musing for a while, I finally came up with some.  And here's the tag I arrived at.

As often happens for me, the inspiration came thanks to a song - one of the lesser known Cole Porter numbers, "Who Said Gay Paree?" from Cancan.  You can hear the man himself playing it here, and the full lyrics are at the foot of the post - I find it achingly lovely, but that's at least partly because this song and I have a history.

I did a lot of shows at university, and one was Cole Porter's Silk Stockings, set in Paris.  The director had always loved this song, and wanted to add it in to the show.  So it was inserted at the point when both lead couples were going through problems before the - inevitably - happy ending.

It was one of many happy summers at university when I played opposite the man who was/is (so far) the great passion of my life.  We seemed constantly to be cast as couples - playing opposite each other in show after show!  








The romance is of course long over, and the song has an added bittersweet touch these days, as he left to go and build his career in France, and lives in Paris to this day.  

(Right about now, any of my family and friends who are reading this are saying: "oh no, not him again" - but I think you never forget your first head-over-heels, love at first sight, earth-shifting romance - or is that just me?!)











So, there's the conventional linking of France with love, romance, and affairs of the heart, and also a very personal connection to that link.  And that's what this tag grew out of...  













I'd just like to say that I think Jill, who sang it in our show, did a better job than CP (I suspect he'd agree he's not the world's greatest singer) - but the verse he plays on the piano is full of exquisite romantic yearning.











The tag itself was relatively simple to make.  I started with a piece of Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby paper, backed it onto chipboard, and added some TH stamps for extra layers.  

The Eiffel Tower was stamped in black and embossed with Clear Detail embossing powder for glossy dimensionality. 














I did the flourish with embossing ink followed by some dark red mica powder, so it has a lovely shimmer - quite hard to photograph, but I think you can get the general idea!












I found the silver hearts on ebay, but I didn't want it silver for this tag.  

Sadly, I'm working away from home at the moment, and the alcohol inks didn't make it into the takeaway stash, so I had to get creative with giving it some colour.











First I tried with Aged Mahogany DI.  I knew that wouldn't work by itself, so I tried clear embossing over the top to keep it in place.  It partly worked, but perhaps I overheated it, because in places it went green!  

Luckily the hearts are two-sided, so I flipped it over and tried again.  This time I used the embossing ink and mica powder again, and I'm really pleased with the subtle, soft, red gleam it now has.

It's topped with an Idea-ology Game Spinner for the arrow piercing the heart!










I dyed some seam binding with Pumice Stone, Aged Mahogany and a combination of the two, dug a hole in my hand-cut tag (I've come away without my punch too - bah!) and completed the trimmings with an Idea-ology trinket pin.

Et voilà, c'est ça,  c'est tout!  Thank you for stopping by, and I look forward to seeing you again soon here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland, but for now, merci beaucoup et au revoir!







I'm entering this in the following:
Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge Inspiration Française
Frilly and Funkie's lovely Tic Tac Toe game, playing the top line of metal, chipboard, lace (it's backed onto chipboard)
Top Tip Tuesday are playing a challenge called We're All Heart, and I'd like to offer this tip:  To colour metal without alcohol inks, and still keeping that metallic sheen, try using embossing ink topped with mica powder, heated to fix it

Who spread the rumour Paris was fun?
Who had such fantasy?
Who never knew Paris minus you?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?

Who said of all towns under the sun
All lovers here should be?
Who failed to add
Paris could be sad?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?

I thought our love so brightly begun
Would burn through eternity;
Who told the lie
Love can never die?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?
Cole Porter

Musical Tic Tac Toe

Hello all, a warm welcome to you all on what is, for me at the moment, a very chilly evening!  So happy to have your company for a while...


I'm sharing a tag with you today which was inspired by a couple of challenges going on, and which I had such fun making.

At the Fashionable Stamping Challenge they've come over all Musical (well, you knew I'd be playing along with that one, then!); and at Frilly and Funkie they've got a fantastic Tic Tac Toe board (yes, okay, Noughts and Crosses for the Brits amongst us) offering up delicious combinations of possibilities.  You need to "play" a winning line, straight or diagonal.

Mine's the diagonal of Metal, Metallic Distress Stains and Buttons, though it takes in a number of the others too... for a while I was headed for a full-house!




So let's get to it - here's the tag:


The central picture is of Lily Elsie, a huge star of Edwardian operetta and musical theatre, and for whom I've long had a definite soft spot.  The sharper-eyed and longer-memoried amongst you may remember I've used this image before.


I first discovered her when I was writing content for the Theatre Museum website.  (It doesn't exist as that any more, but my work is still there as part of the Victoria and Albert archive online.)  I was lucky enough to get to root around in the archives, looking at programmes, playscripts and other theatre ephemera from the last several hundred years - what bliss...


One of the photographs I had to "animate" with a story or anecdote was of Lily Elsie in The Merry Widow.  You can see it below... and you'll understand that the hat, as well as her general fabulousness, has stayed with me ever since!

So, as I started to play around with elements for this tag, one of my Lily Elsie pictures (picked up on a Google image trawl, and printed out) rose to the surface and demanded a starring role in it.  From there, things just sort of fell into place.

I love the background, which I made using the wrinkle-free distress technique ('Whose technique is that?', I hear you cry... well, there's this guy called Tim Holtz...), but with a few sprinkles of mica powder added, so that you get these fabulous spots of glamour within the texture.

Then I stamped the gorgeous music advert from the Pink Paislee London Market set, using the Tarnished Brass Metallic Distress Stain... I love its sheen.  I also added the music stamp from that same set, as well as the Kaisercraft music manuscript stamp, both done in Coffee Archival.








I used the concert advertisement again to create a piece of 'memorabilia', crumpling and distressing it, to get that vintage look.

And I used Gold and Ginger alcohol inks on one of Tim Holtz's word sticks to get a look that toned in with the warm golden background.











Once that had dried (almost immediately, in other words), I smeared some raw umber acrylic paint onto it with my finger to get it into the recessed letters, then wiped the surface clear to reveal the burnished metal once again.

Now the idea is to have a "musical" tag, so what could be better than adding a couple of the Funkie Junkie's deliciously rusted bells to the trimmings - now "she shall have music wherever she goes".





There's more music in the shape (literally) of the lovely treble clef die from Memory Box, cut from some music paper.  These dies are so delicate - they really delight me.

And this picture also gives quite a good chance to see the stamped metallic distress stains glowing in the (thank you, Universe) late Autumn sunlight.










Mulberry paper roses form another little memento - a bouquet once delivered to the fragrant Miss Elsie?

And the metal button came out of the (seldom-opened) sewing box.  Its provenance and vintage are uncertain, but it must be at least 30 years old, and very probably double that.  To be honest, it was looking a little dull, so it got a little touch of the same alcohol inks as the word stick, and in my head, it came from one of Lily's favourite costumes - perhaps designed by 'Lucile' (see the quote at the end).






I played one of my favourite games with this piece of paper with the Pink Paislee music stamp on - just taking a piece of wooden dowelling and rolling it this way and that to get the lovely dimensional scrolling effect.

Another pen nib is at the ready to jot down any musical or lyrical thoughts which might be inspired by the presence of the muse.

I dyed some seam binding using various combinations of Distress Inks and Stains, including metallic on the darkest of the ribbons.












I'm not sure whether you can see the metallic sheen much, but they certainly seem to glow in the sunshine!

Miss Elsie, it's time for your close-up...  Your close-up, please, Miss Elsie!









I love taking these photographs out of the printer here in 2012, and getting to work to take them back a century or so: Vintage Photo DI (never so aptly used as in distressing 'vintage photos'), creasing, tearing - it gives me a real thrill to be able to create 'character' in a piece of paper this way.









So, I'm very grateful to my musical muse, Lily Elsie, as I think she's come up trumps - this tag really pleases me.  And I'm so delighted that we caught the sun this afternoon, so that I can share its warm golden glow of memory with you in all its proper glory!

Thank you so much for dropping in today.  I'm due a blog visiting catch up, so I hope I'll be dropping in on you in the next couple of days.  See you soon!

I have never known any woman who had the power of turning men's heads in the way that Lily Elsie did. During the years I knew her she had a perfect galaxy of suitors who used to shower presents upon her and wait at the stage door for hours on the chance of a few words from her before she left the theatre.  

She used to keep millionaires and foreign princes hanging about in the cold, draughty passages at Daly's while she and her mother shared a picnic supper of ham in her dressing room. She honestly preferred it to champagne at the Ritz.

From Discretions and Indiscretions by Lucy Duff Gordon (the theatrical costume designer known as Lucile, who dressed and coached Lily Elsie for her role in The Merry Widow)



I'm entering this in the following:
The Fashionable Stamping Challenge where they are inspiring us to get Musical
Frilly and Funkie's game of Tic Tac Toe - I'm playing metal, metallic distress stains, button(s)
With all the mementoes of an Edwardian career, I'm entering this in Try It On Tuesday's current challenge Memories
And with the rusty jingle bells from The Funkie Junkie Boutique (as well, I think, as my metallic distress stains, though I'd have to check that), I'm adding it to the Sunday Share at Frilly and Funkie as well