The Dragons' Dream - Lace and Wonder

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven. Today I'm dreaming with the Dragons again and this time the very talented Helen has chosen our theme. Please do take a look at the amazing collection of tags the Dragon design team, including our lovely GD, Deborah, have created  here! I was really excited and eager to play when I saw Helen's challenge this fortnight and her interpretation of it is gorgeous! She would like us to use lace on our tags; the letter 'W' and - of course - at least one stamped image. Here is my take on 'Lace and W'.

I started with a jumbo manila tag, painted with PaperArtsy Fresco in Chalk and a little Haystack. I then swiped three different colours of distress ink over my craft mat: Broken China, Peacock Feathers and Evergreen Bough - and spritzed with water. Normally I would have dragged my tag through the misted colours, but I decided to try a little something new that I had seen somewhere in Blogland. I like to credit my inspiration, but this time I can't remember where I saw this technique, so if it was you, please put up your hand! And forgive me for not acknowledging your technique! I pressed a Prima flourish stencil into the inks and then transferred to my tag. This is the background it gave me.

I loved the marbled effect so whoever you are Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! You can probably see that I distressed the edges using a Prima tool and some Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Now it was time to add more layers - Script from PaperArtsy LPC028 in Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival and some gold embossing.

Crafty Individuals have a lovely plate of different lace designs, which is great for backgrounds. I stamped this onto the tag, using Wendy Vecchi's Potting Shed Archival to give a vintage look. As I created the tag, I began to think about my chosen word, 'Wonder', and how childhood is a time of wonder at the smallest everyday things.

I stamped the little girl from Artistic Outpost's Think and Wonder plate onto spritzed and lightly stamped and stencilled card. I had also stamped the back and coloured it for interest when the corners were curled. After painting the tiny Prima wooden scissors I added a miniature pearl as a faux hinge.

 I wanted to give the impression of stamped lace becoming real so I added some scraps of lace stiffened with Heavy Gel Medium. Is that a butterfly or a lace bow in the little girl's hair? Tickets to shows, the cinema and the panto were so much a part of childhood wonder and excitement! I die-cut these with a Spell-binder metal die and used Inky Pool and Chalk Frescos with a little Florentine Treasure Gold stencilling over the top. They are fastened with an eyelet and ribbon.

A happy childhood memory for me is being curled up small under my Grandma's chair, listening to the steady clatter of the treadle of her ancient Singer sewing machine. She made bridal dresses and I loved to play with the scraps of lace and silk and tiny covered buttons, and wonder at the intricate metal work on the treadle. Above my head was the dangerous part of the machine, which I must never play with. My mum had hurt her finger on the needle when she was a little girl so BE CAREFUL! Somehow this long ago accident mingled in my imagination with the story of Sleeping Beautiful, a fairy tale that I found both enchanting and very, very scary!

Our thoughts in childhood are so often woven with wonder and - however difficult, however happy - that is what makes a childhood magical. Thank you for dropping by Magpieheaven today. I hope that in the coming days you will find something wondrous in the world around you and that you will want to make a tag including lace and a letter W and link it up HERE.