Hand made cards

Hello my friends,

It's been quite a while since my last post here. Sometimes life takes you away from the screen. My partner has been in hospital but is now recovering well and we are catching up on all the balls we let fall...

I haven't done much creating, but I have painted our deck and stairs which were sadly in need of repair. These cards are ones I did a while ago...

 The bird's egg and nest is a serviette which I tore. I added an egg tag which fits into the front pocket, and finished with a paper flower and a netting piece of a lace doiley. Very quick and simple, it was a last minute rush.

This image of Maud Fealy is stitched onto hand-made paper layers over a scrapbooking paper, embellished with a lace scrap, daisies and pink butterfly.

The cardboard frame was perfect for this beautiful baby, layered over hand made paper, an embossed texture, stamped script and a snippet of lace, and finished with a satin ribbon.

Next, a baby card suitable for a boy. Over a grey-blue scrapbook paper background I added a leafy wreath, white butterfly wings, a tiny flower and seam binding bow, an embossed gold crown and some buttons.

I like this cheeky boy's smile.

I have been doing some photography when I can, and I edited this image of Willow in photoshop. She has the most beautiful eye colour.

Here's Willow again...

Here are pictures of our deck before and after I painted it... what a huge job! It took about two weeks to do three sets of stairs, two small decks and the main deck.

I think I'm just in time - a couple of boards will need to be replaced, but when T is quite recovered...

What a sucker for punishment I am - no sooner did I finish painting the deck, I started the next garden project - putting in rocks to hold back the soil and mulch... luckily I just finished these projects before the cold change hit us. Now I can be cosy and do indoor stuff.

Despite the lack of rain since January, my roses are still blooming in June, along with hibiscuses...

I wish you a happy Summer if that's where you are. We are now in Winter, having our first rain in months and our first cold weather. Here, we are cold when it gets down to below 15 degrees Celcius during the day. I love the cosiness of being indoors during wind and cold rain. No excuses for creative output now! And time to catch up and be inspired by my blogging friends too.

Welcome Baby Card

Hello friends,

This week I made a baby card for a friend with a new arrival - a boy. 

A cuttlebug was used to make the embossed background, which I swiped with blue and brown ink, added butterfly wings to the baby from an old cabinet card,  with a small gold wreath behind him like a halo.

Butterfly wings for me symbolise freedom, soaring above, enjoying the view below, and a sign of Spring. So I thought I'd share a couple of butterfly giveaways I have 'worked on' in Photoshop to emphasize or change colours. Perhaps they will find their way into some of your artworks...

I'm joining up with Wen and her followers for her Simply Neutrals Tuesday party at her Blog, Apple Apricot. Come over to see more gorgeous neutral artworks...

It's Autumn here in Australia, and a perfect day for a swim at the beach...30 degrees Celcius. so I'd better get some work done first!

Happy Spring and Autumn to us all.

Love,

Jesse 

Shabby Book Cover Collages and Other Neutral Joys...

Hello friends,

Here's a large nest from my collection, displayed with wooden eggs (silky oak), and a piece of wrinkled bark I picked up on a walk...

Above is a card I threw together in haste - using a beautiful tag from Megan Berry. You can download them here: 

https://lilac-n-lavender.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/vintage-bird-inspired-tags.html

These are the set of tags available for free. Aren't they gorgeous? Thanks, Megan!

Some shells, sea urchin shells and stones I've collected...

Here's my little friend, Jasper. Every day he settles himself near my computer to snooze beside me...

He's growing so fast! Here he is with his siblings before we took him home. So sweet! I wish we could have taken his black and white brother, too!!!

The tree design on the old book cover below attracted my eye at a garage sale, so I decided to honour it with a few bits and pieces - a

skeleton leaf found on a walk, and part of the worn spine of the book, and a beautiful moth picture. There wasn't room for much. I took the back cover too, and did another collage. I love the worn old look to these canvas covers.

Maybe this is cheating, but I've tinted the colour of the collages so they'd fit into Simply Neutrals Tuesday over at Wen's blog, Appleapricot , where you will find a collection of neutral coloured artworks on display. I'll show you the true colours soon...

Wishing you a creative week appreciating the beauty around you....

Jesse

A 50th wedding anniversary wall hanging

My dear friends Bob and Mary recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Here they are as beautiful children...

Beautiful children

Bob and Mary were my neighbours for a few years, and we miss them heaps! Over the years I've made them some cards for their birthdays. These were inspired by their gorgeous childhood pictures:

For their 50th Wedding Anniversary I made them a collaged wall hanging in a vintage theme, on an old worn book cover. I love those cheap old books with hard covers tattered and stained! The feature image is a vintage bride

Spring is almost here. It's been a balmy day for gardening. I've been pruning my roses this week.  I'm very late - they are starting to shoot new leaves. Here's a photo I call 'Rose Essence'. It's called 'Julia's Rose', and Bob and Mary gave it to me when they lived here.

Thanks for dropping by to look.

Jesse

Vintage Style Mother's Day Card

A Mother's Day card I made to celebrate my Mum...

“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”

                                                                                                   Richard L. Evans  

Wedding Card and 'for the love of bees'...

It's so good to have some creative time again. This is my response to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday prompt:

for the love of.....

bees
those small furry honey-makers
roaming the world from flower to flower,
spreading pollen
keeping nature growing....

I processed the image colour in Radlab. In this image I used several of Kim's textures - Cherish Scripted, Inked and Tea-stained, plus one of her masks (New Mask 1, I think). I used my new macro lens, a Nikon 200mm f4 on my Nikon D90.

I've been having some fun making a wedding card for my niece using old coffee-stained lace.