Roses....

.....must be the summer but I didn't plan for my book to be rose themed but it decided that's what it wanted to be.
I wanted something that felt good in the hand so I made the cover out of pelmet vilene covered in fabric.  It worked, nice soft feel.

The best thing was I have had all the elements for years, so very satisfying to use them.  Thanks have to go to the girls for suggesting I combined two ribbons when I was dithering over which to use.
These are some of my favourite pages. The paper used here from a find in a charity shop.

 He wonders if they will fall.

 Parchment needs a seal.

 Three three treatments of a scrap of material, part of original scrap,  a digital collage and tag .

 and just a few more

It is an idea that has been done many time, You Tube has hours of videos but I had a great time making it.  As has been said many times it is the doing where the satisfaction lies.

Main event of today is hoping to see Chris Froome carry the yellow jersey all the way to the Champs Elysses. I have loved my annual virtual visit to France, so many good memories.

Reminder to self.......

The Rembrandt, the late works Exhibition at the National Gallery ends on the 18th January and at the National Portrait Gallery there are some of the finalist's work for the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year.
I had a thought a while back that Van Gogh makes me think I can paint and Rembrandt reminds me that I can't.  The Sky Arts programme was made even more entertaining when I recognised two of my friends amongst the "critics". So it looks like a trip to London is required next week.
In the meantime I would like to thank all the people who visit and especially those who leave comments.  Highly valued. I wish you all you wish yourselves for the coming year.  Lots of inspiration and creativity and most of latt lots of fun.
A sample of each month this last year.

Colour.....

Thank you Andy could you please win without giving me a tension headache!
/i have been interested in  a few of the blogs that I follow have been taking part in the Summer of Color challenge.  I didn't really want to join another challenge at the moment but I was fascinated by some of the colour combinations(something I always struggle with), so I decided to try a few of them out, in a forlorn stash busting effort. I went through my various boxes, material, scrim, ribbon, theads, beads etc and then tried to find one of my photographs that could be manipulated to fit the brief.
Here are the first two. Citron Green and Turquoise

 Orange and Hot Pink.

I hope to do some more but you know my butterfly mind......

In my side bar is a link to my Pinterest site, I could'nt work out how to make one of the fancy ones. I succumbed when I realised that they seem to have addressed the problems people had with crediting the original posting.  I have a section for ideas for stasch busting and various techniques, my bookmarks list was getting too long to handle,

U....playing with matches.

gosh these fortnights go quickly.  Craft Barn Challenge time again, this time the letter U.  Well what a negative letter it is, all those "uns". I the dictionary I am using these were only 4 pages of words starting with U that didn't start with UN and 16 pages that did.  Didn't know where to start and then I say "Ustulation"...never heard of it, never seen it. It means, according to my old dictionary, "the act of burning or searing; ....the roasting or drying of moist substances so as to prepare them for pulverising"  Sounds a bit like my cooking.
I was sorting some photo files and came across a picture I took in Autumn 2008 and it occurred that Autumn is a bit like Mother Nature doing a bit of Ustulation. So here it is.

I played with the phot in Paint Shop Pro adding some flames and then I burned the edges with a candle and a lot of blowing out. The background is collaged book pages because I also thought how many times, down through the ages,  books have been burned. Here it is with the dictionary definition tag.

Sorry it's a bit wonky, couldn't get it to scan straight.

R is for....

Rubbish. This was my immediate thought in the Craft Barn Challenge this weekend and once there it wouldn't budge so not being the weather to rush out and pick daisies I went to play.  My first association was with the lovely Eric Morecame,  (One of his catch phrases). How many have happy memories of getting the family around the television to watch the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special? Then as I worked on the page the images I had seen of children searching rubbish tips, trying to find something to sell, became firmly lodged. So this is the finished page.

Gelli background, the word made in Paintshop Pro with lots of layers.  The rubbish made from pieces torn from magazines. The definition from the very old dictionary I am using reads " Rubbish.- fragements of buildings or any structure: ruins: waste matter:anything worthless."
I am sure, by now, many of you will have seen this video but I think it is worth repeating here.

Where does it go?

59 years since these were taken, Coronation Day, June 2nd 1953.

Me and my little brother, the dress had was white with red and whie piping, I loved the collar. 

Happy Jubilee weekend to one and all.  (I told you I would play with those flags).

The right way......

I find Blogger has a thing about photographs taken in portarit mode.  It refuses to post them the right way up.  My solution is to go into My Pictures and rotate them to the left, Blogger will them reporduce them the right way up.  Weird but true.  Of course I then have to remember to turn them back again in MP otherwise they are wrong in slide shows.

 Original

 Turned to left.

Seagulls....

 "Does my bum look big in this?" was my daughter's caption for this. 

and I am liking this.

and this handsome pair.

Happy Easter,everyone, has anyone noticed how it has rained every day since the hose pipe ban came in? 

And then....

I played some more.

Thanks to the Graphics Fairy for the clip art.

Insy winsy spider......

I do hope  I have the opportunity to see the Golden Spider Silk Cape at the V& A, there till June so I might make it but in the meanwhile you can watch here. Just amazing. Thank you to Mary Corbet for the heads up. I always hate it if I have to break a web, you know when they build one right across the path. This one was caught when the greenhouse heater backfired.

I played a bit

and then a bit more.....

Christmas.....

.....was a little late(or early) this year.  Because our daughter was working in Canada we waited until she was able to join us (our son's idea), so for us Friday 13th was Christmas Day and a jolly good day it was.  Well worth waiting for. I was too late for Fortnum and Mason's Christmas windows but at the moment they are going with a show girl theme.  I didn't have my camera with me but I took this on my i Pod and then I played.

Daughter is off on her travels again so now, unfortunately,  I have no excuse for putting off all those jobs I have been thinking about. Tidy workroom,....... turn out some cupboards, .....watch the NFL playoff games.....start new cloth......start new fabric book.....play with new toys......decisions, decisions.

Just my luck...

Ever since I read about it some years ago I have been wanting to try Citra solv.  A couple of weeks ago I found it was available through Amazon so I ordered a small bottle and bought myself a copy of the National Geographic magazine. i was delighted with the results and immediately ordered a large bottle only to find that the suppliers Ecohip were out stock so I will have to wait before I can experiment further but this is a sample so far.

 I loved this one

and played with it in PSP. and liked it even more.

I then took a selection from it and it became this

A sort of Tolkien landscape, I think.

I hope the new stock comes in soon.

Inspiration...

I have just posted my contribution to this months theme of "crescents" over on the Ideas of Inspiration blog. It was a photohraph I took some years ago at the Millenium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place.

 and of course I had to have a little play.

February grey.....

...again. Wet too. Yesterday I received a comment from a name I didn't recognise so I followed the link   Elfi Cella has two blogs, one elf2main is where she shows her  minatures for famous painting and the other elf2mani which has her other painting and photographs. Both are well worth a visit and made me open of Paint Shop Pro to play.

I turned this

 

into this

and then into this

Hopefully Mother Nature will soon change it back again.

Juggling.....

things are a bit hectic here at the moment, our Youth Theatre production of "Nine" is racing towards us, so lots of long rehearsals.  Equally our Tenth Anniversary of Sevenoaks EG is also coming soon, (April) and prjects have to be finished.  Eeeek! However the last issue of Cloth,Paper, Scissors(34) made me put all that aside while I tried out the article by Wen Redmond, "Fabric collage Mail Art". Here are four of the eight I made all in one go.  Mass production, marvellous.

 

  I also managed to put my Ideas of Inspiration post up this morning, the theme this month is Square. This is a church window in Ravenna, Italy, I played with it a little(PSP)  and love the effect on the glass.

Here we go....

 a new year. No lists of resolutions but a firm resolve to clear my workroom in the hope that I might be able to get in there and actually produce something. It is going to takes some time as this time...... things are going to be ejected!

In the meantime I have been having  little digital play. The first two are from my holiday.

and a London statue placed in a sky

The sky was actually an underwater photograph taken by my daughter and regarded, by her, as a dud!!!! 

                                                          I now pass it on for you to play.

I would like to thank everyone who left a comment and stuck with me through 2010.  I am going to send my wishes for 2011 in the words of Neil Gaiman

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. Neil Gaiman