Echoes of summer (by Jo)

When Judith chose our project this month I knew straight away that my piece would feature trees. The tree pictures in the Crafty Individuals Nature’s Beauty book are some of my favourites and I had used winter trees in the piece I made in Jean Hardy’s class at the Graphicus retreat last month. I thought an autumn theme would be good and prepared my collection of bare trees for this box. But my mind was still on another jaunt from the end of the summer and some of you will spot that straight away. That is how my box became a little ‘cottage’. Crafty Individuals also make chipboard trees, houses and fences but these were a bit too small for what I wanted so I made my own larger tree and fence in the style of the CI ones.

I covered them in papers I received as part of my Graphicus Guild membership. These might possibly be on the latest Essence of Nature CD but I can’t be sure as I don’t have that one yet. At this point the bare tree images were cast aside as this tree is most definitely not a autumn one. I replaced the pictures with another echo of my summer - the bluebells.

 It took a very long time to choose a colour for my box. I toyed with the idea of making it lilac as there is purple in the tree. But I wanted something that looked like part of the woodland. It started out beige but I didn’t like that so I repainted it in sage green.

I dressed my cottage with some pieces of ribbon edged with tiny leaves. I bought this ribbon with Elaine in mind really and it comes in several colours. I had expected to be using the autumn coloured one but here it is in glorious summer green!

You have to look very hard to spot the stamping on my cottage. But it is there. It’s a beautiful leaf stamp from the Elusive Images Fantasy Floral plate. I have used a tiny version of the same stamp in the background of the text (computer generated) and it also ties in with the leaves on the tree.

In her original, Isabelle Norris used Cuttlebug embossing on some of her backgrounds. I love my Cuttlebug and didn’t wanted to miss the chance to use it here so I used the script folder to make a background for the bluebells and also for my roof tiles. Like Isa’s these are made with Pearl TSS metal which has been aged with Terracotta and Gold alcohol inks. The metal was too delicate (and probably too sharp) to use on its own for the roof so each piece is backed with corrugated card which I left exposed at the edges as I think it makes it look more rustic. The eaves are made with bronze pearl card cut with a Fiskars embossing border punch (Punched Lace, I think). I was worried that with all the extra weight of the roof, the cottage wouldn’t stand up on its own as I’d originally intended so I was delighted it still works as a free-standing piece.

The fence was made in two pieces. I coloured it with Antique Linen DI and overstamped with the CI crackle stamp (CI – 116) in Vintage Photo DI. I couldn’t resist adding a butterfly. This is another CI image from the Nature’s Beauty Book. I deliberately chose one with quite neutral colours. The punched fern leaves at the base of the fence came about just because I thought they helped make the words look more at home on the fence.

The summer was not at all sad for me this year but I felt compelled to include the word as that is how I feel looking back at the summer in autumn time. I have come to a point in my crafting where the things I make evoke memories of places, people or events. I have high hopes of getting some journalling off the ground but in the meantime, this cottage on my mantelpiece will hold my memories of summer places.