I hope you are all taking good care of yourselves today and being taken good care of whether you're a mother to children, pets, your plants, whatever. It's YOUR day!
As is our custom, my daughter and I are spending the weekend at my mother's house (remember the wonderful English cottage garden? You can see it here.) and are having a wonderful time. We went "thrifting" and antiquing yesterday (jackpot!), and then last night we saw Johnny Rodriguez in concert. This little town sure has some big names coming through. Granted, he's from a different era (my generation as opposed to the NOW generation), but nevertheless, he's one of the biggies.
And now to the project at hand, the one I couldn't share any earlier because my mother reads my blog every day. Sorry, Mom. :)
There is a lot of symbolism on this piece, starting with the music notes I stamped onto the colored base layer (I used Neocolors this time). They're ever so faint, but music is a big part of my mother's life. Country music from the good old days, not that modern stuff that passes for "country" nowadays. It plays all day in her house.
Flowers are another biggie as evidenced by her fabulous garden. She grows so many kinds of roses, both modern hybrid teas and fragrant antiques. I have normally given her plants every year for Mother's Day - it was a big tradition for me while she was building her garden. Roses, hostas, you name it, I probably gave it to her; however, she doesn't do the heavy, hard planting anymore and instead is directing her attentions towards her art, so this year will be the first without a live plant. Instead, she gets the painted rose which will bloom forever.
As a side note, I used to grow a very similar rose. It was a modern hybrid tea and I don't remember the name, but here is a picture which looks exactly like it. Alas, it was too finicky and no longer resides in my garden.
I added a bit of blush and lipstick with Copics as my mother never EVER leaves the house without her makeup on. I should be so dedicated. And the wooden butterfly was painted with shimmer paints to match the rose. Butterflies are thick as thieves in her gardens.
By the way, all images were printed onto tissue paper for that soft, see-through effect. I love how you can see some of the background stamping through them. Card stock is just too thick and heavy for my purposes.
The words "my friend" were printed from my computer, also on tissue paper, and edged with Stickles.
And of course a heart. She puts at least one heart on every single project she makes, whether it's quilts, mosaics, paintings, etc. I don't think I've ever seen her make something that didn't contain at least one heart, if not more. Because of her, I ♥ hearts.
I will be entering this piece in the Gecko Galz challenge which is all about Mother's Day, and also in the Frilly and Funky challenge which is to use a single word as a focal point. Hopefully this one qualifies!
So thank you for joining me today - it was long but, well, that's how I roll. I'm chatty. And I like lots of pictures. Here's wishing all you moms out there the most wonderful day that's focused on YOU! And for my own mother?
I ♥ you, Mom.
Happy Mother's Day!
P.S. I was on a rose painting roll, and I had a tiny 1" wooden heart, so I painted it for my daughter. It looked fine until I saw the close up photo. Clearly I need to work on my vine painting. I know she'll love it regardless.
