Winter Morning

The weather has been a little dicey over the past couple of weeks, however that has been how February in Indiana has been for the past several years. Ground Hog Day brings bad news and bad weather. Over the past two weeks we've had at least two major snows, and tonight we're in the danger zone for receiving another snow storm. I stopped watching the weather, because I didn't want the bad news...but I know that we're in the "Warning" zone. Maybe we'll be lucky and only getting a dusting of the white stuff.

As you can see from the picture, the "white stuff" is covering us quite nicely. No grass blades in sight. This view is part of the property we share with my parents. The fence has been built and re-built a couple of times. My sister and I built it one summer for our horses. I think I was 16 and she was 15. Behind that fence and just down the hill from that is a rather large creek that runs next to our property. The water brings us a fantastic variety of birds. Over the years we've seen some birds that are unusual to our area, and have only stopped over because we have water, food, and lots of trees.

The wonderful thing about winter is that I get to take some awesome pictures of the snow.

Copper Triptych

This is my Copper Tag Triptych that I made for a Paper Whimsy swap. I've never made one before, but I've seen them and thought they were very neat. I set out today to work on another project, but while it was drying...I decided to work on this one. A little more time consuming, but the finished product I was very pleased with.

While you could use one larger sized tag in the middle and two slightly smaller ones on either side...I went with all three the same.

A friend of mine was over last weekend and had some sheets of copper with her. I had an embosser with several embossing patterns, so she borrowed them and rolled us each a set of the patterns. They were still laying out on my desk...and because I'm quite partial to copper, I decided to try to make the center tag copper. I did lots of planning and laying out, and switching around this afternoon.

The copper tag in the middle was cut to size and I adhered it to the tag by running the copper sheet through the Xyron machine. Worked beautifully! After I was satisfied with the lay-out of everything, I decided that I was going to try out the Alcohol Inks I've had for a very long time and never tried. Guess I was too chicken. I practiced on a small piece of copper and found that they were pretty easy to use. While the ink I added is subtle, I'll maybe try to be a little more bold next time. I used the colors Mushroom & Eggplant.

Most of the flowers were attached with copper colored rivets...just to keep that touch of copper going throughout the Triptych. Added several other little touches of copper to bring the three tags together. Even though this piece is not monochromatic...it's the same family of colors. I REALLY love playing with colors, and have found by experimenting this year...that I must have an eye for color combinations. Things that I wouldn't have normally put together, I'm finding I rather like.

I attached the three tags together at the sides by putting in copper rivets, and then using contrasting ribbon to tie them together.

I hope whoever ends up getting this will like it...because right now, I'd like to keep it!