Decluttering The Garden

My Dragonsdream blog friend Frankie invited me to look at her slide show of her beautiful garden last week. I had a lovely time browsing and was very envious of the order and space she has created, which shows her stunning bamboos, maples and wisteria, all my favourites. It looks a serene and calming garden, unlike my own jungle stuffed with as many plants as possible.

Why am I telling you this, you might ask, well I went into the garden on Saturday afternoon, very dischuffed with what I saw and decided to go a bit mad and actually take out some rather large overgrown plants so that I can actually see what is flowering and looking beautiful. By Sunday teatime, a very large honeysuckle smothering a lovely red climbing rose had gone (I still have one up another archway) and replaced with a pale pink climbing rose and a lovely but totally unpratical golden hop up an obelisk had also bitten the dust. Other plants have been dug up and divided and everything cut back and tidied up. My brown bin is full to overflowing but the difference is amazing.

After digging, climbing ladders and heaving out giant roots I had not an ounce of strength left after tea to lift any craft tools until tonight so my tag for Frankie's Tag It On challenge has been very last minute this week.


Her theme is Passion so I have done my take on it and my tag represents my passion for life. Lovely fresh, bright colours and dragonflies which somehow seem magical when you see them hovering in thin air in their brilliant suit of clothes.

I've used some Elusive design stamps and distress inks which have been applied to the stamp randomly. I stamped onto some spare paper first, spritzed the stamp with water and then stamped on the tag and I love the watercolour effect you end up with. Some Kay Carley swirls were stamped round the edge with whispers blue ink and then the dragonflies were stamped onto vellum, cut out and painted with glimmer mists, which makes them curl beautifully (thank you Brenda for this tip, I love the effect). I applied a bit of diamond stickles to their wings for a bit of bling. The wording was done on the computer.


I really will try to be a better crafter this week. I have several teachers Thank you cards to do, so no excuses!!!!