Wednesday 12 March 2014

Dreaming with the Dragons - it's metal and the letter C!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven where it's time to dream with the Dragons again. This week it's the turn of the very talented Helen to challenge us with the combination of metal and the letter 'C'. The usual rule of at least one real stamped image still applies, so why not take a look here and see what great ideas the rest of the Team have come up with as inspiration? The first thing that sprang into my mind when I read this fortnight's challenge was the word 'crown'. Then I thought of metal frames and looking-glasses, little houses deep in the woods and beautiful but insecure Queens with magic powers, who can turn very nasty!
Is the beautiful lady gazing out at us, Snow-white or the Queen herself, once the fairest in the Land soon to be eclipsed by her young step-daughter's loveliness? Is the tiny metal crown above her head a prediction of Snow-white's marriage to a prince, or a memory of when the Wicked Queen was once the unchallenged Beauty Queen of the Realm? I'll leave it to you to decide, while I explain how I made my tag!
 I love the idea of how fairy-tales often have their roots in the forest. I read a fascinating book about this by Sara Maitland called 'Gossip from the Forest', which always makes me imagine the trees whispering stories to each other. I chose a range of Fresco greens and some Inky Pool Fresco which I have been using in a spray,
I fell in love with this gorgeous stencil of birch woods by Clear Scraps back in December but I haven't used it since Christmas. I decided to create a forest just on the eve of Spring, like now!
I sponged Hey Pesto through my stencil onto my blended background of Honey Dew with  Guacamole over it.
 The next step, after I'd built up layers of different translucent greens, was to die cut a frame from metal covered card and emboss it.
The layers I chose were Chartreuse, Limelight and a touch of Hyde Park around the edge, spraying with blue. I then used Grunge Paste through my stencil, washing it quickly afterwards. When this was dry, I applied Treasure Gold in Green Amber, Aquamarine and White Fire.
For my focal image I die-cut an oval of card that fits with my frame and painted it with the same background and stencil as my tag. I then stamped this Lynne Perrella lady on it in Black Onyx Versafine, heat-set and added some more colour to give depth: Tikka around the contours of the lady's head and some Antarctic over Lake Wanaka on her collar and a little Lake Wanaka around the edge of her face. I added script stamped in Olympia Green and some tiny punched out leaves.
The little metal crown is from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I embedded it in Grunge Paste and Heavy Gel Medium and then stuck the punched out leaves over the top so that it seems to be appearing out of the leaves above the frame . The little tag is one I made from card I had painted and stenciled with Lin Brown's new leafy stencil and stamped with Lynne Perrella crowns, edged with some gold UTEE and finished off with a verdi-gris embossed 'C' from the Tim Holtz Worn Alphabet, which I love.
A Prima Mechanical with an amber gem, painted with some Green Amber Treasure Gold suggested a brooch from the Wicked Queen's treasures.
Thank you so much for stopping by to look at my tag for Dragons Dream TIO. Do pop over and take a look at the great tags the other DTs came up with and see if you can find some metal in your stash and a letter 'C' - you don't even have to think of a word - and play along with the Dragons by adding your link. Maybe your tag will be chosen as one of the Dreamboat Three. Have fun and be careful who you accept apples from!

18 comments:

  1. Fabulous tag. I love the colours. That little crown is fabulous too!

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  2. Love this julie Ann, love the lp image in the frame,

    Lucy x

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  3. Fantastic Tag Julie Ann, great textures and layering:-)

    The Stampotique challenge this week is to use green, just sayin... :-) xxx

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  4. ha ha, brilliant post and brilliant tag, as always, Julie Ann. Love that stencil.

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  5. Wow! Amazing tag, and a fab take on the theme.

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  6. Adore your tag - it's wonderful! I think she rather looks like she's got designs on the stable hand!!!

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  7. Loved reading your blog. The tree stencil is beautiful. Taken on board the extra colour on the stamped image to highlight it. Something that I overlook. Beautiful textures and love the finished piece. Xx

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  8. Wow Wow Wow. This is absolutely stunning. I love how you started with the trees stencil and built your inspirational story of creativity around this piece. Love it.
    Julie x

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  9. That's a wonderful tag with great texture. The frame looks fantastic.

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  10. Sorry I haven't been visiting as much but I am deling wth myltple issues with my laptop - takin on average5 minutes pe visit to a post. You can see certain lett missing from mycomment - sorry for this!
    Gorgeous, sumptuous texure- love this.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  11. Great tag and love the wicked queens treasure xxx

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  12. Hello Miss Julie Ann, I'm so glad we got to see how you created this freaking fabulous tag, eeekkkksss I loooooove how your mind creates, one thought after another , creating a magical story, that frame is superb, I'm crazy about your stencil, you have a great shot of it and I'm going to make myself one, I need it hahaha.. The background is gorgeous, and get even more gorgeous, imagine, love the tiny leaves, shesh so much work on this tag, it's amazing, I loooooove the letter C, the Queen is the fairest in the land, love the background you created behind her, and the tiny crown so cute, and that brooch is brilliant, Miss Magpie you are a MASTER with those paints, it's like going to the theater visiting your nest, thanks for sharing sweety, you do inspire me greatly, have a wonderful day, I'm late too, we are snowed in again, it had almost all gone, I've been making some master boards for atcs, playing with my mask , it's bee big fun playing with you, dreaming with the dragons, I feel like I'm in a fantasy, love it..
    ((( BIG HUGS))) Magpie Cuz...

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  13. What a scrumptious tag - the woodland looks magical, especially with the extra shimmery textured parts, and the ornate embossed frame is perfect for the beautiful LP woman. Gorgeous colours - what a cracking tag. Sorry to be a bad visitor at the moment... looking forward to doing some proper catching up at the weekend.
    Alison xx

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  14. WOW...Love your tag... full of wonderful texture & the colours are so beautiful...Love the fabulous image & woodland scene...Brilliant work... Hugs May x x x

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  15. Gorgeous Tag Julie Ann! Texture and colours are so beautiful. I love your story during work.

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  16. I love your story about this fabulous tag Julie Ann! Wonderful colours & details!
    Alison xxx

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  17. Oh Julie Ann this tag is really gorgeous I love the die cut shape and the tiny leaves at the top it fabulous xxx

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  18. Wow wow wow absolutely gorgeous stunning tag, I have fallen in love with green since your Mr green man, I have got a project half way through that was inspired by him. Hopefully will get it finished next week. Sorry I haven't been in touch, still not 100% sure about Ally Pally, good news is that it's going to be my 40th birthday present with hotel and money and I will be definitely going but it might be the September one. Will you be going to the September one? Will email you later and tell you all. Sorry I haven't been around much, I had a run in with an old inpatient bloke with a trolley who was able to hit my back in the exact spot where my discs have aroded, I'm sure he couldn't have done better if there was an X that marked the spot lol. Back to the gorgeous tag, I love how you have done the trees, and the background is awesome and of course all those little amazing details plus a story makes it unique. Hugs Kezzy:-) xxxxx

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