Dragons Dream - The King of Hearts!

The weeks fly by here at Magpieheaven and once again it's time to dream with the Dragons! We so loved the great tags you created with stencils and the letter 'N' and the Dream Boats will soon be announced. This week it's the turn of the highly creative Sylvia to set the recipe and she's chosen 'K' and a heart! Do hop over to The Dragons' Dream TIO here and take a look at all the great inspiration the Dragons have dreamed up for you! Then please join us with your own take on the recipe. Remember to include a letter 'K' somewhere on your tag; a heart and at least one real stamped image. I love the shape of hearts, although I'm not a huge fan of the pink, girly variety! For years I've been fascinated by the design of playing cards and the role they play in 'Alice in Wonderland', so for my tag this fortnight I've chosen 'K' for the King of Hearts!

As a child I would hide away in the attic reading  'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'. I loved the humour and the description of an absurd world ruled by a King and Queen who were just part of a pack of cards and where anything might happen. Often the adult world - so logical to the grown-ups around me - seemed every bit as daft as Alice's dream world! Edward Lear and his nonsense poetry also appealed to me. I liked the idea of fantasy creatures who talked and married and sailed off to have adventures. I think what I've created on my tag this time is a kind of blend of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. After walking into a shady wood on a hot day, our heroine hears singing. She looks up to see a curious bird above her  with a heavy, jewel-studded crown upon his human head. Has he been put under a spell; is the wood full of his subjects chirping away or is he just the result of our heroine having eaten too much trifle at lunch and fallen into a disturbed sleep? You, dear Reader, must decide!

I had so much fun with this project! I had a little bird over from my die-cutting for 'Flight from the Dolls' House', so I stamped over it with a PaperArtsy mini and drew stripy socks and little buckle shoes! For the head I used a face from a Lynne Perrella plate. With a doodled mustache and beard he cuts a slightly more masculine figure, although my son reckoned he resembled that rather feminine type of male fashionable at the court of Queen Elizabeth 1! I used my supply of Garden Greens given to me by Lucy Edmondson to create a forest for the King of Hearts who looks a little sad. Could it be that his heart is broken?

The ribbon with its tiny red hearts and cupids might be a clue! I bought this years ago from a gorgeous shop in Marylebone, devoted entirely to ribbon, trims, buttons and feathers. I wasn't crafting then, but I loved the shop so much I just had to buy something! Grunge Paste through a stencil of diamonds reminds me of a pack of cards and that red rose, made from a Tim Holtz tattered pine cone die hints at Alice again and the red roses in the Royal Garden.

The big red heart is die-cut from a PaperArtsy die, painted with London Bus and Brown Shed and edged with Gold UTEE.

It's such a long time since I played with Shrink Plastic, it was really fun to create this little winged 'locket', die-cutting the plastic, stamping on it and then watching the magic as it changed size under my heat-tool! Curiouser and Curiouser! A sprinkling of Aged Green Frantage along the edge of my tag and little spatters of it here and there completed a great afternoon spent going back in time and visiting Wonderland. Thank you for taking a look at my Dragons' Dream tag today! Please do play along if you have the time and enjoy your Summer!