Tag Tuesday....books.... pic overload !

There are lots of things i shouldve been doing today on my day off [i have every second friday and sat off and go to work sun afternoon], cleaning, purging, making stuff for the market, working on the quilt.... however i was feeling a bit flat after a long week.........stocktake at work :( and just wanted to make something...

i had so many ideas to be crafting that my brain was going into overload and i thought id better just focus on one :) do you get like that when you havent made anything for a while? ......i was awake at 5.30 thinking about all the projects i wanted to make and the housework didnt stand a chance :)

so thought id spend a couple of hours....yeah yeah ! and make my tag for Tag Tuesday....... i found this tag on the floor while doing a little bit of tidying up and thought what a geat book cover it would make.

so i pulled it apart, gessoed it and covered it in wet teabgs still with lots of tea leaves on them....i was too impatient to wait for them to dry.


i used some paper napkins, gesso and stamping for the inside as well as an 'ode to the tea bag' with the tag off the tea bag collaged inside the cover...


i had some tea bags drying to use for the pages...... absolutely beautiful colors they were from the blackcurrent tea. [ive not used any paint except gesso.] i love dying with colored teas now, id never thought about till i took Caroles class....

i then collaged bits off flowery napkins , some script text and my typo birdie stamps.....use these all time too...perfect for little things....

i used matt medium and the pages are quite leathery. i also love the way the stamps show thru to the back layer...




i then zigzagged the pages together and stitched them into the book.... i had intended to add some writing but i just like looking at it, so its teeny-tiny-tag-picture book....






there are some lovely tags on the Tag Tuesday blog so go check them out...

Tag tuesday. Poetry and Prose...

Practising my white space this week....:) something I'm not good at!! Any way i found this tag with the spilt watercolors and added some ink spray and the tiny lily of the valley paper flowers that i found at work today. computer font is eightfifteen.

i have also been re reading The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and this is one my favorite quotes from them and she has so many.........its hard to describe her books but they are so multi layered and rollicking good fun with lots of romance, drama and history.

i have discovered reading again lately, its like a good movie where you can just escape for a little while...and 10-15 mins at the start and end of day is such good way to escape :) Ive just finished the 6th book and wondered whether there was another one out....id missed it...now how did that happen! i have remedied that by ordering it online and.... she has another one out next year :)

As its still Valentines month i thought what could be more appropriate than a Scottish wedding vow that the two main characters use when they are married.....

Ye are blood of my blood, and bone of my bone,

I give you my body that we two might be one.

i give you my spirit till all our life shall be done....

Diana Gabaldon

Tag Tuesday...Valentine's Day

Hello my loverlies, I'm a day late here for Valentines day but Happy Valentines Day anyway!

Just popping quickly in before i head off to work to post my tag for Tag Tuesday this week.

I just recycled a post bag and slapped a bit of paint around as well as some pretty black roses tissue from one of the lovely ladies at hubbys work. She gave me a heap of pretty napkins :) I found the red doily lying on the table and added a sari silk rose to the centre...




For Valentines Day, i made a few of these pockets for my friends ! i then spent a lovely afternoon at Jenny's after work chatting, drinking tea and stripping lavender from her two bushes. We are into the next market in March and thought we would make some lavender bags...


With regards to the Little Book of Atc Backgrounds swap, everyone should have had an email from me regarding the details. If you havent , please check your junk email or else email me :)

This is my second week back at work after having a lovely break and im still plodding with Charlies quilt, have to say im really happy with how its turning out but it still needs putting together and im hoping it will come together ok...Poor girl, it was her 19th Birthday a couple of weeks ago so its now a WHOLE year late, she has been very patient but it is going to get done soon... it will, it will get done SOON!

Tag Tuesday ....Heart

i spent a relaxing morning on hols just fiddling and playing with faces... i just love mucking about with them and i dont know where this spooky little face came from but i was trying to keep to basically two colors, green and yellow as an experiment... ive used basic kids watercolors and had a play with my new goldens
[you dont need much , they go alongway ..]

Now i know you are saying wheres the heart.... can you spot it...


i got red spot under the eye and thought yes turn it into a heart.... i used a gel pen cos it was so small but had to dab it off as it was so bright and then i dobbed Pattys white painty pen over the top and it made nice little circle around the heart. I love this pen, if its too bright you can dab it off for transparent look...so now im all caught up for another week, im enjoying these challenges....

Tag Tuesday Lace....

well i got a bit behind with last weeks tag tuesday....well, actually a bit confused more like it...i made the heart one for this week instead and then realised last night i still had to make the lace one !
i have been dying to get back to my paint and paper so it was time for change....Blogger is being incredibly slow at posting images tonight....

anyway here tis ...

i found a green tag and gessoed over some plastic lace tablecloth, added some twinks over the top [ love how the gesso resists the twinks] and then cut out a green doily Jan sent me last week as a Thank you :)

i couldnt find anything suitable for the centre but love drawing these little trees and as everybody knows, i just want to pack up and head off ....somewhere, anywhere ..........

closing off atc backgound swap....

hey guys, due to the wonderful response i am closing off the atc backround swap at 15.

I will be in touch with you all over the next few days with more details and it will give a couple of you time to think about what you would like to make :)

thanks again Jen xo

Atc Book Update...

oh wow!! I am really thrilled at how many peeps we have who want to join in the atc technique book......I'm happy to take a couple more but will then have to close this off as the postage gets a bit prohibitive...

One thing though , if you are a no reply blogger you need to leave me an email address so i can contact you...... and if you are no reply blogger the Geri has this great post here on how to change that.

I didn't think i was til she told me i was and it is so much easier to reply to your commenter's straight from your email. I have emailed everybody except Karen [Karen, i cant contact you , please email me :)] and will be in contact with you all with more details soon...

so far we have ...

1 Jenny with Soap resist technique [had a look at this book today with jenny, it looks really good]

2 Vicky with Masking tape , acrylic paint....one of my favorites backgrounds....

3 Kylie ...having a think :)

4 Kathy with Ghost Sharpie, a really fun one....

5 Lesley with FOUR!!!! Burnt glue, colored bleach, distress glue and melted crayons.....cant wait to see all these....Thanks to Les for suggesting the button on my sidebar. please feel fee to grab and put on your blogs...

6 Wendy with Metal Tape Technique...Ive been wanting to play with this myself...

7 Karen with crackle and acrylic paint......another lovely one and different ways to do this...

8 Jan with simple coffee technique...love simple :)

9 Gail ...having a think also :)

10 Sherry with Plastic wrap crinkle....always gives beautiful effects...

11 Ros with fusible film, cant wait to see how this done...

12 marcy with foil ink and transparency , look forward to seeing this one too...

13 Carin with spray webbing......love this too, i tend to have hit and miss results...

14 Shirley with crayon resist ......this will be lovely one :)

15 Jen with gesso resist/ watercolors

We are going to have some great techniques to add to our repertoire!!