GOTHIC ARCH CHALLENGE ~ FLOWN THE NEST

Ahhh as usual I am running late with another challenge. This time it is Gothic Arch Challenge.  http://gothicarches.blogspot.com/2012/03/sunday-5th-march.html
The challenge is something on an arch shape with wings or birds and/or an empty nest. So with a couple of images from the Graphics Fairy and hunting around in the yard for just the right tree branch for my empty nest, here is my take on the challenge:

Hope you have a great Saturday and God's Blessings on each of you!

Mary 

DRAGON'S DREAM CHALLENGE~ IT'S ALL IN THE NUMBERS

Another day and another challenge.  At Dragonsdream 'tag it on' challenge they want you to use numbers.  I found this picture of 2 birds and a nest and at the bottom of the picture is a nest with 4 pretty eggs.  Too good to resist.  The Graphic's Fairy has some of the best clipart.  I check with her atleast every other day just to see the new pretties she has found.  That is where I found this picture.  I painted the tag with blue pearl paint from Delta Ceramcoat and added some vintage lace, the bird pic and at the bottom I used a leaf punch by EKSucess. I hand lettered the numbers on the leaves and glued them to some purple ribbon. I strung some selvege trimmings with lots of pretty colorful numbers to finish the tag. 
Dragon has some pretty interesting challenges each week.  You can find them at this link: http://dragon-dragonsdream.blogspot.com/2011/06/tio-83-numbers-game.html
Here is my entry.  Hope you will check out the other entries (they are from all around the world). They are worth the time.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Come join the challenge if you have time. 
Hugs
Mary

MORE CHALLENGES & MY VERY FIRST TAG!!

I am really getting into this 'challenge' thing.  I found another one that does a weekly challenge making 'tags'.  Now I have seen all kinds of tags on ETSY and other blogs.  Lots are very elaborate and lots are very simple.  Some use lots of paper, ribbons, yarn, pics, and sometimes lots of lace and beads.  I have looked at lots of tags and decided I wanted to try to make some.  Well, here is my first tag. The challenge over at  http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/ uses a focus word for the theme and you can do anything you like.  Now that is not hard at all. Luck would have it, that I had already been thinking about birds for a 'swap' on another blog (more about that later this week) and had printed some copies of vintage post cards to start playing with.  So this afternoon I got out my box of tags, a bottle of glue, some lace and trims, and started putting my working sketch together.  When I finished the parts I had sketched I decided it need a little bit more and pulled a couple of feathers from an old boa on the shelf.  So here is my entry for Rebecca's challenge at 'Blog challenge Garden' Tag Tuesday. I call it "Bird in a Gilded cage". I used white Ceramcoat 'Pearls' paint for the background,  Aileens 'Twice as Tacky' glue, some gold trim, gold ribbon, a paper bird from a vintage Christmas card, a pink ribbon flower I made, a sharpy pen to draw limbs for the bird to sit on, some old lace, ribbons and of course the recycled feathers. Come and join the fun and create your own tags.
 Please go and check out Rebecca's challenge blog (and check out the past challenge entries) to see some beautiful art work from a bunch of very talented folks.  http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/

Here is my entry: