Free as a Bird - Dragons Dream Tag it on Challenge

Welcome to Magpieheaven. This week there's a new challenge over at the Dragons' Dream and the very creative May has come up with the recipe of Green and the letter 'F' with - of course - one real stamped image. This is just the time of year to start thinking about all things green, to look for green shoots pushing their way up into the light and new leaves unfurling. I decided to play with the idea of different shades of green and leaves. Here is where I began...

I took a manila tag and swiped it through watered down blobs of Fresco Paint on my craft mat. I used Guacamole, Hey Pesto and Green Olives Fresco Paints by Paper Artsy. I also used a little watered down Chocolate Pudding in some areas and around the edge of my tag. When I had dried all this with my trusty heat-gun, I coloured some Grunge Paste with Guacamole and used a palette knife to push it through a Stencil Girl leaf stencil, leaving the centre of the tag free.

 I decided to give myself a little more tag to play with by adding pediments to the top and bottom. I used card stencilled with the leaf pattern, this time using Antarctic Fresco over Guacamole and some Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I painted some of my leaves with Green Amber Treasure Gold and went around the edge of others with a fine brush and some Limelight Fresco. You may also see that I used some punched out leaves from the painted card. On some curled card that I had moulded using a mister I painted Guacamole as a base and then added Limelight and stamped in Wendy Vecchi Fern Green Archival the letters 'F R E E' from the Tim Holtz Worn Letters Alphabet.

 I clear embossed two of my letters and embossed the others with Verdi-Gris EP. As you can see, I added a little key charm, a gift from my crafting friend, Kerry. This brought back memories of one of my favourite childhood books, 'The Secret Garden' in which three children make a garden together. In a sense unlocking the heavy old door to the rose garden, frees Mary and Colin, two of the characters in Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel. Mary learns to love nature and to forget her cross and arrogant disposition, Colin forgets that he is supposed to be a delicate invalid who nobody believes will live for long. And who leads them to find the key to this paradise?

It's a robin! I chose this lovely stamp from the Artistic Outpost plate 'Birds of a Feather' as my main stamped image. I used Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil to stamp him onto card painted with a blend of Antarctic and Hey Pesto and then clear embossed him. His red breast is blended Aged Mahogany and Festive Berries Distress Inks. I sprinkled a little gold UTEE over him and gave him a tiny, green gem eye. I then had him emerging from the punched out leaves! The script stamped at the edges of the tag is Fern Green and the stamp is Paper Artsy mini 75.

Here is the whole tag! I was pleased with the effect of the Treasure Gold and the different shades of green. Green seam-binding with some touches of Aged Mahogany finished off this Secret Garden tag. I do hope you will feel able to join in with your take on Green, the Letter 'F' and at least one stamped image. Let's hope we don't have too much more of the winter to endure before we can see ever more of those green shoots.