Good Old Days

Oh, how I wish for the good old days! If I'd been born 150 years ago--
I just may have been happier. I'd be a pioneer woman with lots of kids, have a rifle for hunting and a garden. I'd bake the best bread and pies, go to church every Sunday and sleep soundly at night. I would most certainly appreciate all the little things that make life sweet.

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So to commemorate my blissful thinking, I've linked this tag to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

It was made with a variety of pasted papers including a Tim Holtz "found relative."  Washes of acrylic paint and swipes of distress ink provide the color.

I used stamps to fill in some blank spaces and the flowers were cut from Tim's Wallflower paper stash.

Remember Paris

Inspired by Tim's November tag, I created this one using some of his techniques and also everything but the kitchen sink.

Oh wait! I did use the sink to wash off some ink at one point...

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It all started when I hand-cut a flower shape from corrugated cardboard, filled it in with paste medium and after it dried, added an image transfer on top which was then covered with clear crackle paint.

Ink pens, acrylic paint, oil pastels, and colored pencils were used to add color along with some splatters of gold embossing. The letters were hand-cut and then distressed with paint and crackle.

Tim's tag reminded me of inlaid parquetry and I was inspired to experiment!

Treats

The image I used for this tag shows a little girl dressed up in costume and I'm pretty sure it wasn't for Halloween but instead, illustrates the Victorian obsession with fairies.

The following explanation came from a book review on Amazon:

Clap if you believe in fairies! The Victorians did, writes Carole Silver in Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, but she's not exactly talking about Tinkerbell here. Silver prefers the more gruesome and treacherous species of fay: changelings and vampires, brownies and goblins. The Victorians took these creatures very seriously, indeed, and according to Silver, this belief tapped into some of their society's most fundamental anxieties. Fear of physical deformity, of women's sexual power, of racial or class difference: these were the true bogeymen that haunted the Victorian imagination, and they responded with a flood of art, literature, and theater that portrayed these imaginary creatures with equal measures of fascination and horror.

Now days, Halloween has become an extremely popular holiday and rivals Christmas or Easter with its enthusiastic decoration and celebration. Is it because we suffer from similar anxieties?

About my tag: A cutting from Tim's Wallflower paper stash was used for the background. I love the lithographic quality of this paper and brought out some of the details with Gelly Roll pens.

I further embellished with Stickles which I store upside down to keep the thick solution close to the tip and always ready for use.

A light touch with colored pencils helped to tint the little fairy's dress and provide a shadow for her to stand on.

I'm linking this post to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp where this week's theme is treats. Happy Halloween, everyone--I hope it's full of sweets!