Dragon's Dream: Paint, Stencil, Ribbon

Hi and welcome to anyone who is dropping by Magpieheaven and to my lovely new followers. I feel really privileged that you're joining me: I really appreciate all the kind and talented followers who drop by to look or comment, it means a lot. Today I wanted to use some very special stamps by Lynne Perrella, which I won in the Paper Artsy Draw recently. I thought they would be ideal to explore Helen's recipe of Paint, Stencil, Ribbon over at the Dragon's Dream. Dragon's Dream Tag it on Challenge is a great opportunity to play; to see  other crafters' interpretations and to be challenged too, so click HERE if you would like to dream with the dragons!

It's my step-sister's birthday this month, so I decided to fix my tag to a card for her. Please click on the images if you would like to see in a little more detail. My step-sister, Merle has always been a great traveller unlike stay-at-home me; she now lives in Switzerland, but she has worked in the US and in Russia so my tag has bit of a travel theme - that could be the Kremlin on the lady's hat, couldn't it? Merle also loves to play Bridge so some vintage playing cards have found their way onto the tag! Now for the recipe!

1. Paint. I love Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints so I really went to town with these, as I think they go so well with the Lynne Perrella images. I used Snowflake and then blended Sage, Mermaid and just a touch of Elephant to create a vintage look on the tag background. I attached my central stamped image on a piece of torn card, painting her with the same colour scheme except for her collar, which I painted with Claret. When all the paint was dry, I distressed the edges with Distress Ink in Soot and applied some Treasure Gold to the curled corners of the image. I attached some torn pieces of script from another PA plate, a Hot Picks one. I added a pediment to my tag, Crackle Glazing it and painting over with a strong contrasting shade - Bora Bora.

2. Stencil. I used the Crafters' Workshop stencil with a harlequin pattern and used Leandra's bumping technique - do take a look at this on the Paper Artsy video - to create diamonds on the background, carrying on the playing card theme.

3. Ribbon. I used two kinds of ribbon from my stash. There is a narrow strip of a goldy-bronze colour along my pediment, which echoes the colour of the Graphic 45 butterfly. I have started to put scissors to this gorgeous paper but every cut hurts me deeply!

And then - hope you can see it - I threaded some distressed seam binder coloured with Peacock Feathers and Shaded Lilac through the hole in the tag before I fixed it. I punched a hole in a tattered floral die cut from Graphic 45 - ouch - it so hurts to use that lovely paper! I don't have any charms of my own, but since discovering Polyshrink, shrink plastic I can make them. I made the cage and little bird by die-cutting then shrinking a TH bird cage and a Paper Artsy bird!

Thanks for dropping by at this busy time of the year and Thank You Dragons for letting me dream with you!  Now I must get to the post with Merle's tag it-on card!