Black and Stencils and it's time to dream with the Dragons!

Hello Followers and Friends and welcome to Magpieheaven. Once again the days have whirled by and it's time to dream with the Dragons. We so enjoyed looking at the tags you created on the theme of blue and words, and the winners will be announced soon. The lovely Helen has chosen the recipe for this fortnight and I found it quite a challenging one: black and stencils! The stencils weren't a problem, as I love working with those; but I realized that I don't use a great deal of black on projects! Once I made a start, though, I decided that I ought to use black more, it creates such a great contrast! Please take a moment to look at the fabulous projects my 'teamies' created here.

Now, I think it best to warn those of you who were a bit scared last time I used these, that I'm giving Sandra Evertson's Relics and Artifacts eyes another outing! I love them, but I realize that they are a little quirky! You could describe them as Marmite embellishments - you either love them or hate them! I thought they would definitely go with a black background, so I decorated one with Sapphire Treasure Gold at the centre and edged around the white with a dry brushing of Old Gold and Toffee Fresco Paints to age it. I sketched in the pupil with a black fine liner. The eye is resting on a rusted Prima embellishment.

My next step was to cover a jumbo tag with some Prima black Gesso and, when this was dry, to stencil using a Prima flourish stencil and some Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste in gold. I also die-cut some black leather flowers because I'm still playing with the idea of flowers with eyes!

I took the same stencil I had used with the paste and used the 'bumping' technique to paint on some card. The colours I used are Smurf, Wisteria, Blue Oyster, Nougat and Toffee Frescos. I stamped this Lynne Perrella lady over the top, painting over the Nougat at the centre of her face with a watery wash of Blush Fresco on the cheeks and some London Bus for her lips. The edges of the card are curled over and covered with Treasure Gold.

I added some more embossing with just a hint of Ranger Worn White EP sprinkled over Versamark pressed through my flourish stencil. I am really enjoying applying crackle to leather at the moment! I painted my leather flowers with a thin coat of Little Black Dress, then a thin coat of PaperArtsy Crackle glaze and finally a thick application of Smurf. All the sections of the flower were then brought together and fixed with heavy gel medium.

All the elements brought together! The text under the glass nugget says 'Believe'!

'Hope' and 'dream' are both from a Sara Nauman set. The finishing touch to my black tag is an edging of Aged Aqua frantage. I love this Lynne Perrella image from PaperArtsy. The lady looks so clever and astute to me. I imagine her organizing the best salon in Paris, gathering about her philosophers, poets, artists and wits. She looks to me as if she could acquit herself well in any discussion on any number of topics - a wise and witty woman with a keen eye that misses nothing. 

Thank You for stopping by Magpieheaven and taking a look at my tag today. I do hope you will get out your stencils; your black ink, paint or gesso and play with the Dragons. Remember to use at least one real stamp on your tag; some stenciling and to allow black to take centre stage. Have a happy and creative day!