Inspiration!

Hello and welcome to my fabulous followers and friends! The skies just turned pitch black and now it's pouring down here in Magpieheaven; but I do love the sound of the rain on the roof and the garden will be grateful for the downpour! That rain reminded me of inspiration! Last night I stayed up until 2.00am working on a tiny canvas because I just had to express - well, what exactly? I think it was the joy that creating and getting to know so many amazing and imaginative people in Blogland brings me! Whenever I feel down or uninspired I can spread my wings and visit incredible blogs all over the Globe and I come away as refreshed as I hope my garden is going to be soon! Yesterday it was a Facebook post from the incredibly creative and inspiring Patty Szymkowicz. She had discovered some Borage growing in her window box. Now this is the favourite salad herb of one of my oldest and dearest friends so I was really excited to see it growing there in Virginia! Patty told me about a story she read as a girl of a Knight whose lady embroidered him a silk favour with a design of Borage flowers to wear in battle. 'Borage for Courage' Patty told me! That in turn reminded me of my favourite necklace, bought for my birthday some years ago by Mr Magpie. It's exactly like a simple sprig of Rosemary, for remembrance. Here is the canvas I spent the night creating - with my Rosemary necklace.

There was no definite reason for creating it, just the sheer joy of flying on the wings of imagination, and what could be a better reason? I thought of Patty's knight, dreaming - and dreams were very significant in Medieval romance - that he comes to a clearing in the forest, led by small birds and butterflies to a flower that has his beloved lady's face, encouraging him to go on although he feels tired and lonely.

I wanted to create the idea of fragments of writing from a medieval manuscript and for this I used torn pieces of Baby Wipe I had used for mopping up! I have a huge collection of these that I have been waiting to use on a project! I no longer throw away anything, thanks to the inspiration of artists like Dianne Marcoux (incidentally it was Dianne who introduced me to Patty in the first place!)  and Darcy Wilkinson who both set a great example for creating from what others might discard!

All my favourite blues and greens were used on this project! PaperArtsy Antarctic, Beach Hut, Hey Pesto and Inky Pool; Wendy Vecchi Archival in Cobalt and Distress Inks from Tim Holtz in Broken China and Peacock Feathers - my two favourite colours! A Shrink Plastic Lynne Perrella lady who looks very Medieval, I think peeps from a waxed paper flower, painted and then rubbed with Sapphire and Aquamarine Treasure Gold. The Garden Greens are still there courtesy of my inspirational friend, Lucy Edmondson who die-cut lots for me. The little birds are are Treasure Gold through a Stencil Girl stencil of birds in a wood.

I had lots of fun with Frantage in Aged Green. I find that if I use Versamark and heat from underneath, the Frantage doesn't blow away all over the room.

I stamped straight onto the canvas, using Lynne Perrella feather stamps and the Sunflower from LPC028 by PaperArtsy. I could have stamped them onto tissue but I preferred to just let them look aged and a little worn (Oh, dear, sound like me!) I stamped and then overstamped the feathers in Antarctic, then Snowflake and finally Wendy Vecchi Cobalt. Thank you so much for stopping by today. Thank you also to all the wonderful crafters out there who share their creativity so generously! I wish I had time to name you all, but this blog post has already gone on far too long probably! What a chattering Magpie I am! The sun is out now, glistening on all those raindrops! Have a great weekend, whatever the weather where you are!