A Magpie Keepsake

 Well, here I am back home to glorious sunshine after a very wet time in Stratford on Avon - typical! The old magpie feathers certainly got water-logged, but Stratford was magical and Anne Hathaway's garden in the rain was actually quite heavenly. Hello to my crafting friends who I really missed while I was away and 'Hello' to my new follower, Felicie. There is always so much to do when you return from a holiday with all the piles of washing and sorting out that just seem to multiply as you look. My answer was to feast my eyes on the Paper Artsy blog http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/ instead. And what incredible projects Darcy had created, so full of intricate detail. I would love to have a go at one of those wonderful bags (one day...), but  I only had time for a small project because all that washing was not going to do itself! I decided to play with the idea of faces and to create a pair of Elizabethans - Orlando and Rosalind from 'As you Like it' inspired by one of the amazing Stratford productions. So here is a little Elizabethan keepsake. I started out by die-cutting two oval shapes from muslin type material and letting my imagination loose creating two Elizabethan faces drawn with a permanent marker and heat-set and painted with Frescos. I made a background from the same fabric painted with Fresco paints in Bora Bora, Beach Hut and streaked with London Bus I then stamped on this with Archival ink on some leaves and stencilled with Treasure Gold in a Crafters' Workshop Harlequin stencil. I managed to borrow my daughter's sewing machine to edge the fabric. Here is what the book-cover looked like to begin with.

I made a fabric rose from a Tim Holtz die painted with Rose Fresco and Snowflake and edged with Treasure Gold and stitched it on. The ruffs I hand stitched on are from an old lace top of my daughter's and I coloured a little of this to make a garland for Rosalind's hair; I decided Orlando looked a little too much like a painted egg so I made him a hat decorated with some Lynne Perrella shells. The decorative script is stamped in Archival from a 'Hot Picks' plate. Here is a close-up of it.

 I decided to give Orlando an earring from a wire with a gem on it and attached a shrink plastic charm of a Lynne Perrella stamp painted with glossy accents and alcohol inks with a jump ring.

I still felt the cover needed something extra so I added some gems and a bright blue feather. I wrote the title 'Rambles' on a fabric label which I edged with some ribbon and accented with some metallic dimensional glue. I glued my cover onto one of Paper Artsy's hard-backed notebooks. 

Here is a view of the back with the same Hot Picks flowers that Darcy used on her bag stamped on to a background painted with Bora Bora, Guacamole and a smidge of London Bus. 

I liked the way the patterns continued over the spine of the notebook.

So 'Thank you, Darcy' for a truly inspirational 3 projects. I'm off to take a look at what other people have been creating - and then do the washing, of course. I've so missed having a good old nose at all your lovely 'makes'!