TAG TUESDAY - WINTER LANDSCAPE

There’s no snow here in Dorset, just cold and frosty   (but I can dream!)

I used wallpaper as a base – the paper has white grasses and seed heads that look like they have been touched by Jack Frost.  I embossed this with a snowflake frame embossing folder.     I attached a photo of the Oak trees in the field at the end of my garden.  The longvgrass in the shade of the trees is frosty just like the paper. In between the embossed snowflakes I stuck sequins and some snowflake punches.

On the other side I’ve just added a few snowflakes in between  the grasses and then finished the tag with a silver ribbon.

The tree on the left of the photo is the one that Bailey likes to climb up! Every morning she zooms round the field like a Spitfire to see off the crows, then she runs up the tree and barks when she gets to the top to make sure there are no birds or squirrels in her field, then runs down again! What a nutcase!  Here is a photo of her up the tree. 

Bye for now,

Jane xx

TAG TUESDAY - Keeping warm and cosy!

  I hope you are all keeping warm and dry, and are not affected by the floods.

My ‘tag’ this week may seem a little out of season!  Last week I bought a lovely set of vintage irridescent egg cups all in their original box.  As these are going to be a Christmas present, I decided to make a Christmas egg cosy for my KEEPING WARM tag.   

I have used green fabric with stars on for the outside and red fabric with tiny green stars for the lining, with a layer of wadding in between. On the top there is a loop of Merry Christmas ribbon.   This will make sure that eggs for breakfast on Christmas morning will be lovely and warm!  

I was really disappointed with these photos, it has been so dull here today, but too late now for another photo because both egg cups and cosy are already wrapped up! 

Bye for now,

Jane xx

MUSIC TAG

On Tag  Tuesday we have now nearly gone through all the seasons, so it seemed appropriate for this week’s MUSIC theme to choose Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ for my tag. 

In 2010 I went to see ‘The Four Seasons By Candlelight’ performed by The Mozart Festival Orchestra.  They captivate the audience as much with their traditional 18th Century costumes as with their wonderful music.  I love all those wigs, lacy cuffs, velvet tail coats and breeches adorned with braid and lace.  I used a photo of the orchestra on one side of my tag.

On the other side is the title of the show on a background of leaves which seemed to go so well with my tags of recent weeks. I added leaves in various colours ranging from the fresh yellow-green of Spring,  through to a snowflake covered leaf of winter (cut from an old Christmas card).   One leaf is cut from the Four Seasons sheet music!

I have trimmed the tag with some hand embroidered antique broderie anglaise and some braid to echo the trims of the costumes. There is a tie of black and white ribbon which looked a little like musical notes.

I made my tag and started writing this post on Tuesday, but when I was selecting the photographs I realised I wasn’t happy with it and started again this afternoon.  My tag is now eight layers deep in places!  But I think I am happy with it now!

Thank you for looking

Jane xx

BROWN & SEPIA TAGS

For my first tag I took tiny snippets from my brown fabric box,  and stitched them to a fabric tag to make a little sampler of  machine and hand embroidery stitches.  I have added an odd earring and a flower from an old embroidered jumper.  The edge is finished with buttonhole stitch in variegated brown thread.    I enjoyed stitching this tag because the various bits hold such memories! 

 I have photographed my tags against the sepia-coloured silk from a Victorian embroidered parasol.  This was too beautiful to make into a tag, but I am so grateful for the opportunity of rediscovering it in my box of browns.  

 Creepier Sepia!

My second tag was made a few weeks ago using my rusty tie-dyed calico.  This piece looked like a spider’s web; all it needed was a spider!   This one is definitely Brown Bread (Dead)! Unfortunately he is a bit shrivelled up now!   I am a bit of an arachnophobe and this is the closest I have ever been to a spider!   I know friends from hot countries will think this is a pathetic specimen, but he’s big enough for me!

On the back of the tag are some leaves die-cut from the same fabric.

Thank you for looking,

Cheerio for now, Jane xx

CELESTIAL TAG

On the day after Bonfire Night in the UK, my CELESTIAL Tag just had to include Fireworks. 

Using black ‘rub& reveal’ board, I have scratched on the surface to create colourful fireworks in the night sky.  I have also included words that evoke the shouts, sights, sounds and smell of a November sky: flash, boom, whoosh, smokey, fizzle, sparkle, bang, wow,  and whizz.

The tag is trimmed with beaded black ribbon, star charms and a silver tie.

Bye for now

Jane xx

HALLOWEEN it's a kind of magic!

In the chill of a late October morning, my tags remain shrouded in darkness; but hold them in your hands and something magical happens! 

As the tags slowly warm in your hands,   striking contrasts of orange and purple, black and white start to emerge.  Suddenly before your eyes the full moon emerges from the mists of time,  illuminating the sky and pumpkins below.

The tags become fully visible when  brought close to a fire or other heat source, I used a heat tool.  But as the heat fades, so does the magic and the pumpkins return to their twilight world, once more shrouded in darkness.

I’m no scientist,  but I used to work for a pioneering  company in the Research and Development of Thermochromic Liquid Crystals (pigments that change colour with the temperature.)  I was really surprised to find that nowadays you can buy TLC paints on e-bay!!

I made the first two tags by using thick handmade purple paper as a base. I cut a hole for the full moon, with white card behind, then attached die-cut bats, pumpkins, and the word October.  Next I painted over the whole tags with black thermochromic paint (ZuperPaint from KILABITZZZ).  I used silver ink, applied with pen and brush for the writing.  The tags are completed with a silver ribbon tie.  When the tags are heated to 37 degrees the black thermochromic paint slowly changes to transparent, revealing the colours underneath.  As if by magic!

 Here’s Bailey relaxing with our pumpkin harvest that we picked in October!  Can you spot what might be the smallest pumpkin in the world?

Bye for now,

Jane xx

TAG TUESDAY SEED HEADS

For This week’s tag, I have used some more of my rusty tie-dye fabric.  This piece seemed to echo the wispy umbrella-like frame of a cow parsley or hogweed seed head.   

 As I wanted to keep this naturally beautiful pattern, I have just embroidered a simple seed head in gold.

  

Till next week, bye for now,

Jane xx

TAG TUESDAY - RUST

I started my RUST tags a few weeks ago when I did some tie-dyeing with some rusty old screws, nuts and bolts from the shed. 

 

I wrapped little bundles of rusty bits in calico and secured with rubber bands.  I soaked the bundle in vinegar for 24 hours and then left it in the greenhouse for a week.  It smelled disgusting!

 

After I had removed the rubber bands and washed and ironed the calico I began to look closely at the resulting marks to see if there were any interesting pictures in the rust.  To start with, as Halloween is coming up,  I was looking for monsters, were-wolves and gargoyles.  I wasn’t expecting to find roses and diamonds! 

My first tag started like this: This rusty image is just how it came out of the tied bundle, it has not been touched up in any way to look more like a rosebud. 

I used the rest of the rusty calico to make leaves and 2 3D roses.  The rose stem is a dried leaf stem.

For my second tag I found a diamond solitaire etched into the rust.  I added a ring of gold wire and some more rusty leaves.

Even the waste fabric from the leaves is beautiful.  

 Who said romance is dead?!

 I also found cobwebs and spooks in my rusty images, but I’m keeping those for Halloween!

Bye for now,

Jane xx

TAG TUESDAY - RAINY DAY

Rainy Day

Well, it’s definitely a rainy day in Bournemouth today!! As I made this week’s tag I was thinking of my two lovely daughters and the time we went to Oxford Street in June, a couple of years ago, for some shopping.     It was hot and humid and the girls were wearing flip flops and Summer clothes.  Suddenly, while we were in-between shops, the heavens opened and we were caught in a really heavy thunder storm.  Rosie had a big yellow umbrella and together the two teenagers danced arm in arm up Oxford Street,  singing and dancing in the rain.   It was all I could do to keep up with the yellow umbrella!  They really brightened up London that day, putting a smile on the faces of shoppers coming the other way!!

I started my rainy day tag by making some tag size silk paper with silk throwsters,  colour – 'storm clouds'.  

 To this I stitched on some antique glass bugle beads and other clear beads and sequins using Madeira 'Rainbow' metallic thread.   

I tried to keep the beads all going the same direction whilst at the same time keeping the threads on the back vertical.

Next I wrote on some vellum with black ink: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass,   it’s about learning to Dance in the Rain”.  This was then trimmed to tag size.  The tags are joined together with a silver satin ribbon.

 

Take Care, and bye for now,

Jane xx

TAG TUESDAY - AUTUMN LEAVES

Hello my fellow taggers!  I got a bit carried away this week with the Autumn leaves theme – I have made a tag tree with a total of 13 Autumn leaf tags!

Most have been inspired by chance finds, gifts, or experiments!  It has taken me all afternoon and evening to photograph them. I will start with my favourite tags:

Yesterday Paul and Bailey brought me back some amazing red and green leaves from their walk through the Arboretum . . . I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them

I pressed them overnight and wrote on them this morning.  I had been thinking of the song “Forever Autumn” firstly because it has been on the radio a lot, but also because the lyrics go so well with this theme; the first couple of lines go perfectly with my End of British Summer-Time Tag last week:

 “The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,

And darker days are drawing near,”   and . . .

Like the sun through the trees you came to love me,

“Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away,”

I had been doing some calligraphy for another project, so I wrote these words straight onto the leaves with a Berol Itallic marker pen.  It was not the ideal writing surface, and I wanted to use gold, but the result was not too bad – it’ll be interesting to see how the writing changes as the leaves dry.  I have pressed some more leaves so will try this experiment again on properly pressed leaves (maybe next year!).

For this tag I used two leaves that I pressed last year, they are stuck onto some of my tie-dye fabric and outlined with tiny beads, (86 I think) all sewn on by hand.  I embossed the stiffened fabric first and made tiny stitches so it looks just as neat on the back!  You can just make out the outline of 2 leaves in tiny metallic stitches.

The next tag is made completely from scraps from previous experiments which were still on my table!   I wrote the words “Wisdom is in the trees” two weeks ago while making my owl tag – I was just testing my gold pen!.

 

 
On the back I was testing the glitter paint and drew a leaf.  There are other scribbles and marks too!  The oak leaves were a gift from Paul and Bailey last week.  I had a thick sediment of gold ink at the bottom of my water pot so used it to paint the leaves and acorns.  My scrap of fabric didn’t quite fit all round the tag,  so I filled the gap with a scrap of red.  The “October” was made with my new calendar die set which arrived yesterday!

This tag is made from the waste of the October die cut.  The letters are covered with skeleton leaves from my stash.

These tags are made with the same method, this time I have stuck pressed leaves behind.  They look really effective when held against the light but it doesn’t work in a photo.

These leaves are painted onto silk, cut out and stuck to brown paper (which I then painted with glitter)

I hope I haven’t bored you with this extra long post!  I would love to know which is your favourite.  I really appreciate all your kind comments.  

Enjoy rustling through the leaves, acorns and conkers this week!

Bye for now.

Jane xx