WOYWW #473: Peeled paint gelli prints and some tags

Hello again for another round of WOYWW.  Come join the fun over on the Stamping Ground where we snoop around our fellow crafters' messy desks. Here's mine as it was over the weekend:

Those of you who have seen the latest video by Birgit Koopsen for Gelli Arts will recognize this as my attempt at producing a peeled paint effect by using sellotape on the gelli plate. I had lots of fun playing with this technique and managed to get some good results, though not all the prints came out as well as I had hoped. Here are some of the best ones and some close-up to show the textures better:

The tapes coated with paint are the by-product of this technique and I used them on these colourful tags, which I then further embellished with old postage stamps, die-cuts, an ink stained doily, ribbon and book text. 

I received some happy mail last week from Annie, who'd sent me all these beautiful ephemera and napkins. Those playing cards are from a Hungarian deck of cards that I remember so well from my childhood as well as the book pages from Hungarian children's books. Thanks Annie for bringing back a glimpse of my childhood!

I'm also very excited about my avocado sprouting - this is the first time I've managed to achieve this. You can see the roots beginning to grow and the stem will soon split the stone and emerge on top. I'll have to wait until the roots are more established before transplanting it into a pot. I'll keep you posted about the developments! 

I've also got a pot of dahlias for the front garden from B&Q when we went to pick up some compost. It was love at first sight - literally - I glanced at it, I picked it up and I couldn't put it down. It's got at least a dozen buds on it - I might keep it in the house for now to admire it and maybe try to save it over the winter for next year. 

Well, my plant babies took over Oreo's place this week. He's been enjoying the warm weather outside and I completely forgot to take photos of him, but he'll be back next week, no doubt! Happy #473!