Brown and Crackle - Dreaming with the Dragons!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven, where it's not only time to dream with the Dragons; but also my turn to set the recipe for this fortnight! I've chosen brown and crackle. If you pop over to the Dragons Dream TIO here, you will see the great inspiration from the team!  At this time of year I love to visit beautiful old gardens, to sit in the sun and enjoy the roses and the honeysuckle and to imagine the Lords and Ladies, maid-servants, butlers and grooms whose footsteps once rang out over the cobbled courtyards. Usually there's an old, sun-baked wall all crackled and pitted by time, encrusted with moss and touched with the tendrils of clematis, ivy and ancient vines. This is what I wanted to evoke in my tag!

I began by just brayering a jumbo tag with some Cheesecake Fresco paint by PaperArtsy and some Taupe.

In places I added splodges of Chocolate Pudding. Sad to say, I didn't photograph the next stages of the process because I got very carried away and very messy! I squeezed Grunge Paste tinted with a little Brown Shed Fresco through a brick stencil and then, when this was dry, I applied Crackle Glaze over the areas of dark paint, not worrying too much if it went over onto my bricks. Keeping it thin was my main concern! I had two little die-cut arches made from card and I painted these with more Brown Shed, added a layer of Crackle Glaze and then, when this was dry, painted over them with Cheesecake. I also wanted to play with adding some fabric pieces to the tag, so I think I'll show you the finished tag and take you through some of the details.

As you can see I highlighted my background bricks with Treasure Golds and stamped the medieval text from a PaperArtsy mini in places, using paint rather than ink. There's a fair sprinkling of Frantage in Aged Copper too!

The ivy leaves (from a PaperArtsy Ink and the Dog plate) around the arched windows were stamped using Toad Hall, onto card painted with Toffee Fresco and they were then cut out and edged with green Frantage and Treasure Gold. On the lower window, I painted some lining fabric with Smurf Fresco mixed with a little Ranger Fabric Medium and I then stamped the script over with Stazon.

I hope you can see the crackly texture of my background and the different layers and colours. The face is one that I drew myself and scanned and printed onto fabric. I did this by ironing a piece of lining fabric onto some A4 Freezer paper and then running it through the printer. I touched up the face a little with some more Frescos once it was fixed in place and added dimension with some pearl pen blobs and a little lace. I wanted to create the impression of this lady of the manor materialising from the bricks of the old wall.

The sentiment is from an Ink and the Dog plate and the flower is an Eclectica one by Darcy Wilkinson. It's embossed half with clear and half with white embossing powder on toffee tinted card with touches of London Bus and spatters of gold UTEE.

I like to use heavy gel medium to stick down wisps of lace. Then when it's dry I rub over a little Treasure Gold to accentuate the texture. Here you can see that I dry-brushed the edges of my arched window with some Toffee Fresco and doodled just the hint of a vine over the crackle. I liked the way that the card ivy leaves looked almost as if they were made from metal with the addition of the Treasure Gold and Frantage.
Thank you so much for looking at my Dragons Dream tag today. Please do link up, if you can. Remember to use at least one real stamp on your tag; some crackle and the colour brown.