Peacock Love

It has been two weeks since I blogged (is this sounding like a confession?! Life is so busy at the moment, especially with the garden, more of that in due course.

Here is another card I made using the lovely Chocolate Baroque Peacock Parade stamps.  

I wanted to use the trio of feathers design to make a simple, but elegant card. The card blank is a gold/beige colour and I embossed directly onto that using Ranger Queen's Gold EP, which is one of my all time favourities. I used the word love from the Artistic Expressions set, currently on sale and so worth getting I use this set so often! I added coloured and heart shaped pearls for highlights and some cream guipre butterflies for a little embellishments. These are cut from some ribbon I bought in the haberdashery department of Liberty in London. Unusually I had my OH and a friend with me, while we were waiting to be served we were observing the wrapping process for the person on front which was getting very elaborate. My OH then proceeded to do a good (quiet, thankfully) impersonation of the scene from Love Actually where Rowan Atkinson is wrapping a gift. Needless to say my friend and I were virtually helpless with laughter by the time we were served. Just looking at that ribbon brings that moment back to mind!

I have been busy in the garden, especially the veg patch where everything is growing fast at last including the weeds. 

 

This is some chard and pak choi for salads and cooking. As you can see there are weeds too, including the one in the middle that is an edible orach which has magenta splashed leaves. I planted it once deliberately and now can't get rid of it, but it is so pretty I hate pulling it up, so it often gets a reprieve!

 



My beloved plume poppies are back in leaf which means I am working on my leafy backgrounds again.

The foxgloves are giving a very welcome splash of brightness and already beginning to drop their fairy bonnets and in the evening the honeysuckle is giving the most heady scent that makes an evening visit to the garden quite intoxicating.

Midsummer is a great time to be enjoying our little patch  of heaven and the sun is out again today, so the weeding in the veg patch is calling me once more.

Elaine x

Indian delights from Chocolate Baroque

There are two new gorgeous sets of stamps just launched from Chocolate Baroque for April, both with Indian themes.

 

The sets are Indian Textiles, that I used for my canvas above:

 

 

and Indian Elephant which is equally inspiring.

 

 

Both are on special offer here and work brilliantly with one of my all time favourite Chocolate Baroque sets Paisley Elephant.

 

For my canvas which is 8 x 20 inches, I was inspired when I saw the Indian Textiles plate to think of Tibetan Prayer flags - a prayer flag is a colourful panel of rectangular material often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas, they are believed to bless the surrounding countryside. Traditionally they are printed with texts and images. You can read about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_flag I love the way the weather makes them faded and tattered, I once saw some hanging outside a tiny wooden chalet in the Alps in Switzerland, sadly I didn't take a picture. I have some to hang outside my shed sometime. I also saw a similarly art inspired set of flags last year on Terri's Artful Affirmations blog (see my side bar) which was part of a swap she was doing with other artists. I loved the idea and as always Terri's work was full of lovely vintage elements. I can't seem to find the link, but if I track it down I will add it! EDIT - I e mailed Terri to ask for the link and here it is! It is lovely to see her flags again.

 

I painted my canvas in different blues acrylics and then made my flags from rainbow dyed mulberry tissue in different colours. I started by stamping the text stamp from the Paisley Elephant plate in paler colours, which doesn't show at all in this pic which was so hard to take due to the size of the canvas! I stamped the textile stamps in black Stazon before adding words from the Artistic Expressions plate. I tore out the flags to get the tattered effect the prayer flags often have in the open air. I added some touches of white tissue to give a cloudy affect between the flags, sticking everything down with matt Mod Podge. I finished off with loads of butterflies which are mostly DoCrafts Flutterdies and some others and the little birds which are cut from serviettes. I wanted the feeling of flight and open air. This is not really my usual style of work, but I did enjoy myself!

 

Hope your Easter is going well. I am in the throes of a massive spring clean in the shed, brought on by the purchase of a brilliant new drawer unit with 33 drawers, as you might imagine I am in heaven filling those up. It should reduce me need to hunt for stuff significantly!

 

Have a great day, the sun is peeping through here and it promises to be another good day!

 

Elaine x

Dreaming spires - Mark 2!

The new Gothic Fragments stamps from Chocolate Baroque are scrummy. I love architectural stamps, so I found them rather inspiring! Sorry it had to be done!

This is a sunset version. I masked a large sun, then inked with Adirondack dye inks in Sunshine Yellow, Watermelon and Cranberry and Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade. I know I am boring in that I often use this ink combo for skies with impact, but it works for me! I embossed the spire,  dome and word in copper metallic EP and added highlights with Derwent Coloursoft pencils.

I have another project to show you soon, using this lovely stamps with some of my holiday pics from France.

Elaine