Another Funkie Junkie Tag - Number 9 and Frost Fairs!

Hello and Welcome to Magpieheaven where I'm busily working on Linda Coughlin's 12 tags of Christmas. The times they are a-changing, though. Linda has extended the deadline from December 22nd to January 8 and added two extra tags to the challenge. Find out about it here. Take a look at The Funkie Junkie Boutique too, as there is a prize on offer and a 10% discount on products if you meet all the requirements with the 12 tags and  15% discount from the Funkie Junkie shop if you complete the two extra tags that Linda is creating and posting later in December. The tag that has inspired me today is Linda's tag #9, which you can see here. I loved the silky-looking blue roses and the silvery blue background. As I looked and admired the silver snowflakes, I was reminded of the Frost Fairs that used to be held on the River Thames. It's amazing to think that once the River used to freeze over so hard people were able to walk across quite safely. Apparently Queen Elizabeth 1 spent Christmas Day 1564 practising archery on the icy Thames!

As I worked I imagined a story centred on the idea of the Frost Fair. I decided my tag was going to be another two-in-one because at its heart there was going to be a Frost Fair Romance involving two lovers. I cut one tag with die-cut snowflakes. I spritzed it with Distress Stains in Picket Fence, Faded Jeans and Spun Sugar. I embossed silver snowflakes from the Snowy Woods plate by Artistic Outpost and used Shabby Blue Frantage around the edges. I stamped some script from a Crafty Individuals stamp in Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue. I dyed some lace with Faded Jeans and Spun Sugar too. For my lower tag I painted with Paper Artsy Fresco in Antarctic, embossing it with silver musical notes from Sara Nauman's Eclectica Paper Artsy plate. The Paper Artsy hearts and Spellbinders label are also painted with Antarctic, edged with Peeled Paint distress and Shabby Blue Frantage. The podium is Baltic Blue.

Time to embellish and create a story around my two-in-one tag, which I joined with a white eyelet and a Tim Holtz Tattered Pine Cone Rose. In 1607 the Thames froze over from 5th December-February 14th, which resulted in those resourceful Elizabethans creating a fair consisting of all kinds of stalls, activities and entertainment, including cats so musical they played dulcimers! Shakespeare would have been in Southwark then, did he visit the Frost Fair, I wonder? What if he had written a comedy not set in Illyria but on the Thames and concerning two young lovers who meet at a Frost Fair? I wonder what kind of a masterpiece we would have had? I can only imagine a wonderful combination of A Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night with a hint of As You Like it. One of the lovers would definitely be a maiden disguised as a page who gavottes effortlessly across the ice on silver skates and wins the heart of a young English Countess! But what, oh dear - she's not really a boy, what will she do?  Never fear her long-lost twin brother returns from a sea journey to claim the hand of the Countess and the Countess has a noble cousin who falls head over heels for our heroine. For my lovers I used Lynne Perrella's amazing faces from Paper Artsy LPC 012 and 013 stamped in Coffee Archival.

I painted some card with Baltic Blue on one side and embossed it with musical notes in white Wow Embossing powder and then painted the reverse side with Antarctic fresco, which I then glazed with Paper Artsy Metallic Glaze. I was then able to die-cut the rose from this and the sprig on the left as well as punching the snowflakes from it and mixing and matching. I also added a silver skeleton leaf. You can see Linda's influence in the colour scheme, the hearts, the rose and the scattering of diamonds.

I edged the rose with some White Fire Treasure Gold.

Here is the tag closed with the other lover hidden.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and looking at my tag#9, which I should like to enter for The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge. This is my sixth offering for the Challenge, so I'm half way through. I wonder how easy I will find it to create a tag with a story that suggests Christmas to me inspired by each of Linda's beautiful tags? And my two 'Thank You' tags, of course! If I complete all twelve pre- Christmas tags, I shall be photographing them in their vases hanging from my Christmas twigs, so I hope you will be able to drop by for that.