Friday 3 July 2020

A tag and a box of love

During lock down I have had much more time to play creatively just for me. I genuinely love all my designing and making cards for Dotty's and have no complaints at all but I rarely have time to make for me. Lock down changed all this and over the last 16 weeks I watched the inky genius that is Tim Holtz sharing his creativity on his Facebook lives on a Saturday evening. His most recent lives were on alcohol inks, a medium I love playing with and having found that I had run out of Yupo I reached for some cheap foil card in my stash as I knew that I could also use it for a make.
I used gold and silver and made 3 backgrounds for tags. Today I will share the first which I made with gold foiled card stock, nothing special at all, cheap as chips! 
I got out my botanical 3D embossing folder and die cut  and embossed a tag.
I altered it with some green, red and pink alcohol inks but left the gold background as it was as I loved it.

I wanted to make a special tag with this and when I looked at it it screamed Victoriana to me.
I thought about using one of Tim's paper dolls on it but I wanted something even older and more relevant to me and I remembered that I have some lovely old family photos which I had turned into my own "found relatives" embellishments some years back. I scanned my photos, resized them and printed them on glossy photo card.
Meet Florence Emma Alice Didman, born in 1882 in London. I have put my watermark over her as I don't want this complete photo to be copied on the internet. 
She is my great grandmother. I never knew Florence but her daughter, my darling Nan who lived until 1989, did talk about her to me and even wrote down a short family history on a scrap of paper I still have. Florence married John Walter Jones on 25th December 1902 (yes weddings on Christmas day in the 18th and 19th centuries were quite common occasions). My Nan, who was also called Florence but always known by her 2nd name of Lilian, was born 29th November 1905. Sadly her mother died in her late 20s or early 30s and her husband also 6 months later. My Nan said that it was of a broken heart, how true that is we really don't know, but her parents were very much in love. My Nan and her brother were then brought up by their grandmother Alice. 

When I was around 16 my Nan handed me a little heart box
 When I opened it up I found these tiny ruby and gold earrings.
And written around the edge are the words
"My Mother's, written by my Nan as a child.  They were the only possession she still had of her mother's, Florence Didman, my great grandmother who is in the photo. I really treasure them and used them as a prop for my finished tag. 
Here it is;
I also die cut Tim's Wildflowers 2 in gold card and used alcohol inks on those too. I loved the tarnished effect they gave, 
 I used 2 of my field notes ephemera flowers which I added some distress glazes to, washi tape and also one of my ancient adage "Love" tickets
and one last shot.
I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges;

Sweet stampin 3/3 create your own background
Creative fingers 3/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday bright and cheerful
Crafty sentiments 2/3 anything goes
Cuttlebug mania 2/3 anything goes my flower dies are Tim Holtz thinlits Wildflowers 2 
Crafty cardmakers 2/3 make your own background
Love to craft 1/3 anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by today and meeting my great grandmother. I will also show this to my darling granddaughter Daisy. When I am finally able to have Daisy come to stay again I will also show her the earrings (which will one day be passed down to her) and tell her all about her great, great, great grandmother and great great grandmother who were both called Florence and both very much loved.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

10 comments:

  1. Awe what a lovely story, if a little sad ... gorgeous earrings and such a beautiful tag too!!
    I hope you get to meet up with your grandbabies soon!!
    Happy weekend my dear,
    V x

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  2. Gorgeous tag! I too love to use my own family photos in my art and tell their stories.

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  3. Your tag is stunning Jane. I love that you've used a photo of your great Grandmother and I really enjoyed reading your post. It's so lovely to think of the earrings being passed down through the generations.
    Thank you for sharing with us at Sweet Stampin'
    Chris
    x

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  4. I enjoyed hearing your family stories. I do hope you wear the earrings, they are wonderful. Your daughter will love them and eventually Daisy, too. A beautiful tag, my friend. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  5. Awesome tag and a great way to honour an ancestor. Just love your embossed background. Thanks for sharing with us at Crafty Cardmakers.
    hugs
    Glenda DT

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  6. Wow, stunning tag. I LOVE the effect of the inks on the embossing! Thank you for joining in with my challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this time...

    Jackie

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  7. Stunning!! Just love the design and technique. Thank you for joining us at Crafty Cardmakers this week. Have a creative week. Judy DT

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  8. Awesome story and sweet memories. I love your tag tech. I have that 3D emb. folder and never thought to use foil card and alcohol inks. Love the look. Love your tag and beautiful great grandma. So glad you shared over at Crafty Sentiments.

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  9. Spectacular project and love the vintage look. Thanks so very much for joining us this time at the Creative Fingers Challenge, Elizabeth

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  10. Gorgeous creations! Thank you for sharing with us over at Love To Craft. We hope to see you again.
    ~ DT Sherry xx

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Jane x