Collage Tag Challenge

This week for my collage challenge, I did 3 tags all with an Asian theme.  All use a variety of hand made and vintage papers. I dyed the string a muted peach.

Tag 10

Tag 11

Tag 12

Pysanky

The Spoonflower design challenge this week is Pysanky - Ukrainian decorated Easter eggs. Using wax-resist to create the folk art based patterns, each egg is an intricate work of art

Decorated eggs can be found all over Europe.  I visited Budapest, Hungary and purchased some eggs as gifts. A Polish friend made me this one many years ago.

Hand made decorated egg from a Polish friend

For my Spoonflower pattern, I intended to paint a variety of eggs but completely ran out of time. So I decided I didn't have to be so literal and painted folk art inspired designs that might be found on the eggs. I used one of my books, Folk Art of Europe (by Helmuth Bossert) for inspiration. So while my designs may not be traditional Ukrainian designs, I tried to give them a folklore feel.

Art painted in gouache

I painted in gouache on Bristol board, then scanned to my computer to put together the repeat pattern. I added eggs in the background, as though the birds and flowers had popped off them. 

My final design

The voting ends tomorrow, February 19. You can see all the submissions (and vote) here.

Tag Collage Challenge

I am so behind on posting my tags! So here are 2 for this week.

First is Tag 8, a Love themed tag that was intended for Valentine's Day. I used a vintage postcard to make a tag and then added a Japanese washi paper heart, the word "Love" stamped on an antique document and a cute red vintage label with XO.

Tag 8 - Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Last weekend, I exhibited at a paper show and purchased some cool tags from one of the other vendors, A Stamp in the Hand. (I would link but their website is down). The tags are made to look like old postcard backs and are larger than my usual hang tags. For Tag 9, I used some vintage wallpaper, a fortune from a fortune cookie, a print of a bird and an old postage stamp with a kiwi bird from New Zealand.

Tag 9 - sending good fortune