Dreaming with the Dragons - it's metal and the letter C!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven where it's time to dream with the Dragons again. This week it's the turn of the very talented Helen to challenge us with the combination of metal and the letter 'C'. The usual rule of at least one real stamped image still applies, so why not take a look here and see what great ideas the rest of the Team have come up with as inspiration? The first thing that sprang into my mind when I read this fortnight's challenge was the word 'crown'. Then I thought of metal frames and looking-glasses, little houses deep in the woods and beautiful but insecure Queens with magic powers, who can turn very nasty!

Is the beautiful lady gazing out at us, Snow-white or the Queen herself, once the fairest in the Land soon to be eclipsed by her young step-daughter's loveliness? Is the tiny metal crown above her head a prediction of Snow-white's marriage to a prince, or a memory of when the Wicked Queen was once the unchallenged Beauty Queen of the Realm? I'll leave it to you to decide, while I explain how I made my tag!

 I love the idea of how fairy-tales often have their roots in the forest. I read a fascinating book about this by Sara Maitland called 'Gossip from the Forest', which always makes me imagine the trees whispering stories to each other. I chose a range of Fresco greens and some Inky Pool Fresco which I have been using in a spray,

I fell in love with this gorgeous stencil of birch woods by Clear Scraps back in December but I haven't used it since Christmas. I decided to create a forest just on the eve of Spring, like now!

I sponged Hey Pesto through my stencil onto my blended background of Honey Dew with  Guacamole over it.

 The next step, after I'd built up layers of different translucent greens, was to die cut a frame from metal covered card and emboss it.

The layers I chose were Chartreuse, Limelight and a touch of Hyde Park around the edge, spraying with blue. I then used Grunge Paste through my stencil, washing it quickly afterwards. When this was dry, I applied Treasure Gold in Green Amber, Aquamarine and White Fire.

For my focal image I die-cut an oval of card that fits with my frame and painted it with the same background and stencil as my tag. I then stamped this Lynne Perrella lady on it in Black Onyx Versafine, heat-set and added some more colour to give depth: Tikka around the contours of the lady's head and some Antarctic over Lake Wanaka on her collar and a little Lake Wanaka around the edge of her face. I added script stamped in Olympia Green and some tiny punched out leaves.

The little metal crown is from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I embedded it in Grunge Paste and Heavy Gel Medium and then stuck the punched out leaves over the top so that it seems to be appearing out of the leaves above the frame . The little tag is one I made from card I had painted and stenciled with Lin Brown's new leafy stencil and stamped with Lynne Perrella crowns, edged with some gold UTEE and finished off with a verdi-gris embossed 'C' from the Tim Holtz Worn Alphabet, which I love.

A Prima Mechanical with an amber gem, painted with some Green Amber Treasure Gold suggested a brooch from the Wicked Queen's treasures.

Thank you so much for stopping by to look at my tag for Dragons Dream TIO. Do pop over and take a look at the great tags the other DTs came up with and see if you can find some metal in your stash and a letter 'C' - you don't even have to think of a word - and play along with the Dragons by adding your link. Maybe your tag will be chosen as one of the Dreamboat Three. Have fun and be careful who you accept apples from!