Monday 9 September 2013

Blue, Music, Tissue!

I've been wanting to dream along with the Dragons for some time, but the days and weeks just keep running away with me! This time I was determined to try my hand at the latest challenge, which is to use the recipe Blue, Music and Tissue so I am entering this tag. If you would like to find out more just click HERE. I found that I was having so much fun adding layers that I have also decided to enter this tag for The Country View Crafts Challenge too, where the theme is 'Layers'.
I started by die-cutting two tags, one from corrugated card and one from white card. I then tore the white card one and layered it onto the corrugated card one.
To begin with I painted my tag with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish in Snowflake so that it had a good foundation for me to work on. Then it was time to add more layers!
I sponged my tag with first the opaque blues like Bora Bora and Sky. Next I went for translucents like Inky Pool and South Pacific. At the same time I sponged some card with blues and just a touch of Butternut and put this aside for stamping on and adding at a later stage. When my Fresco background was dry, I went into the corrugated sections with Treasure Gold in White Fire, Green Amber and Classic. I still have some lovely tissue from my crafting friend, Kezzy, so I tore strips of this - the musical notes and a lovely shell, the significance of which I'll explain later, and stuck the top layer only onto the tag with Claudine Hellmuth Mult-Medium.
Now, I know I should have taken pictures as I went along, but I became so absorbed, adding my layers and thinking of what would go with what that I just forged ahead! I will try to break down what I did by looking at some detail pictures. Apologies to Dianne and Sandy who have asked if I could video my process. I am looking into doing this, honestly! Here's the first detail...
I decided to make a frame for my tag so I die-cut a Spell-binders frame from card, which I cut in half so that I could put one piece framing the top and one framing the bottom. I painted this with French Roast and then Crackle Glazed it and painted it with Bora Bora. If you click on the photos you might be able to see this in a little more detail. I edged my frames with Treasure Gold. I added a Tim Holtz tattered pine cone rose made from the card I had painted with some musical notes stamped onto it. This I also edged with Treasure Gold. In the picture you can see a paper-cut of a bird's egg, which I cut to look as if it has cracked open. There is also an old part of a broken earring like a skeleton leaf, rubbed with Treasure Gold. I used the lovely wood-mounted stamp my son, Isaac gave me last Christmas: I am sorry I don't know who the artist is or who the manufacturer is, as it was a gift.
 I stamped with black Archival onto a die-cut oval, heat set and then hand-painted this and added accents with gold pen and Posca white gel pen. The butterfly from the stamp, I cut out again after stamping it on tissue and painting the back. There is some foliage from the tattered pine-cone and a twig painted blue and gold over this. I added dimension to the picture of Saint Matilde by adding tiny pearls.
Here is my frame at the bottom. I didn't have a sentiment that seemed appropriate, so I made my own, writing it onto some distressed card - I used Tim Holtz Broken China and Soot Distress Ink pads. You can see the shell layered over the musical notes here. The shell is the emblem of pilgrims since the Middle Ages. One of my dear friends walks the pilgrimage to Santiago from her home near Brussels every year and the route is marked at intervals by little metal cockle shells embedded in the road. In the past the pilgrims would sing beautifully as they went, so this is the reason for my including the shell. The key, which I made from Shrink Plastic and clear embossed, adding tiny pearls, is a bit of a pun - musical keys?
Here is the tag on its little easel. Thank you so much for stopping by today to look at it. Thank you Dragons for inspiring me to dream along with you and thank you Country View Crafts for all the inspired layered pieces on your challenge page that filled me with the enthusiasm to enter a second project!

20 comments:

  1. WOW fabulous tag and all those wonderful layers. Loving that shade of blue too!!

    Sam xxx

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  2. Amazing tag, gorgeous colours and layers, love most shades of blue so really beautiful:-)

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  3. Just gorgeous, Julie Ann, i love it - so many layers. Do you have enough blue Frescos do you think?! Thanks for dreaming with us at TIO, hope you get time to play along again.

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  4. F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! What more can I say? Love the layers, the colours and the embellishments! Chrisx

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  5. Stunning tag, really beautiful.

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  6. Utterly fantastic, Julie Ann - the colours, layers, gilding, amazing composition - and of course the wonderful corrugated texture!! Brilliant make altogether!
    Alison x

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  7. OOWW I'm loving the comments the parliaments all puffed up. It was the perfect time to dream along with the dragon, just the moment it was suppose to be and eekks your taking us along in your dreams, how LOVELY.. Oh you squeezed my heart with that corrugate, right out the post. Okay I have figured out a way to see,read and comment on this post, yes I'm a crazy magpie ^-^, I have too see it in all its glorious details. What a brilliant little magpie your are, cutting up the die cut to fit on the top and bottom,looks fabulous then the beautiful crackling, I'm loving the touches of the shiny gold, oh my and the precious broken egg,bless, oh love the broken jewel too, that image is fabulous no matter who its by.. Using the twig and tattered pine cone, that's a lovely touch of nature for us birds,love the pearls added to her habit. Your sentiment you wrote yourself beautiful, love writing with a calligraphy pen, I haven't used one mine in yrs, I'll have to dust them off :). Oh my the story about the shell is wonderful, and wouldn't that be lovely. Your signature piece, brilliant, musical keys...
    Well my dear Magpie cousin,it's been lovely visiting, having a cup of tea and I thank the Dragons for inspiring you to make the Utterly fantastic as Miss Butterfly said, the parliament is very proud, you make us Magpies shine. Hope you have a wonderful week, (((( BIG HUGS))))
    Sorry about the long comment' I know you understand us chatty birds :O)...

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  8. Wow wow wow Julie Ann your always amazing me, this is truly beautifully unique, elegant and absolutely stunning. I have had that tissue out last night for a canvas I'm making and I also started a tag for dragons dream tag lol. I have started to look into doing videos, my daughter is going to teach me. I love doing photos step by step but it's quite scary to think I could be doing it lol, a bit like my first ever post, but in the end it was so easy lol. I have caught up, it's been really nice chilling and going through all your wonderful pieces of art. Lots of hugs :-) Kezzy xxxxxx

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  9. Wow! Your tag is stunning Julie Ann, & very inspiring! I love it! xxx

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  10. Awesome! Love your colors, layering and selection of images and materials.

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  11. Wow, there are so many fantastic layers and details. Such an amazing tag, love it. Thanks for dreaming with us at Dragons Dream Tag It On.

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  12. Gorgeous tag fab layers and what a gorgeous image. Thanks for sharing with us at Dragons Dream. Elizabeth xx

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  13. WOW Julie Ann this is beautiful!! Fabulous images and all the gorgeous blues work so well together xx

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  14. this is superb...why not send it off to Stampington magazines to have it published perhaps!

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  15. wow! Your tag is stunning. love it :)

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  16. Stunning piece of work ! :)
    Von ☺

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  17. this is stunning and I love this make x great layers and a gorgeous tag x thanks for joining us at Country View Crafts Challenge, hope to see you next month x trace x

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  18. Hey Julie Ann, just seen you got chosen to get the country crafts merit award for this tag! Well done - it is totally fab :)

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