Wednesday 19 November 2014

Purple and the Letter 'X'

A warm welcome to Magpieheaven! I hope those friends experiencing wintry weather at the moment are managing to stay warm while crafting to keep their spirits up! This week it's time to dream with the Dragons again and we're nearing the end of the alphabet challenge. It's my turn to choose the recipe this fortnight - it's to use the colour purple and the letter 'X'. Do take a look at the great inspiration over at the Dragons' Dream TIO, including the lovely work of our Guest Designer for this fortnight, Deborah Wainwright! I don't often find myself reaching for purple so I decided to challenge myself to use this dramatic colour!
I wanted to see what purple would look like used with lots of different texture, so I started by adding Prima, clear Crackle Paste and PaperArtsy Grunge Paste to a manila tag!
This what the clear Crackle Paste looks like before it is dry. The Grunge Paste was pushed through a Prima stencil of flourishes that I use lots! I had an idea forming of what my 'X' word would be. As the tag only has to feature the letter, I decided to to go for a word that has an 'X' in it; as words beginning with that letter are rare! Mind you, my ingenious 'teamies' have come up with some brilliant 'X' words! My word was to be 'Text', as words on the page have played such an important part in my life.
I used a blend of different shades of PaperArtsy Fresco paints in various purples: London Night, Pansy, Very Berry, Plum and Eggplant! For somebody who didn't use purple shades often I seemed to have acquired quite a few purples! I even had some purple Treasure Gold, which I rubbed into the cracks along with White Fire!
This image, stamped on tissue is one of the few wood mounted stamps I own and it's a Wendy Vecchi design. I bought it when I first started to gather a collection of rubber stamps, before I had really discovered the huge range of unmounted stamps. I love the face and the way that it appears on a background of text. My word is made using the Tim Holtz 'Worn Alphabet' and embossed with Verdi-gris EP. For detail I added a glass nugget over book text, a shrink plastic leaf with some Lynne Perrella text on it and resin roses.
The reflection makes it difficult to see, but it does say 'text' under the nugget!
 I used some script from a PaperArtsy 'Hot Picks' plate and an 'Ink and the Dog' mini over the Crackle and on the word tiles.
When I am lost in a good book it seems as if the text takes flight! On this tag I used a Karen Burniston butterfly die, using the bigger butterfly as wings and the smaller one as an embellishment on the tag. It has a covering of clear UTEE and Frantage  and the antennae are little flower centres with a blob of purple at the tip.
Thank you so much for stopping by today. Please do link up with the Dragons this fortnight and see what you can create with purple and the letter 'X'. You could make something Christmassy or take a break from the Christmas rush: the choice is yours. Remember that your project must be a tag of some kind and that there must be at least one stamped image on it. Happy Creating!

15 comments:

  1. I can't believe you cheated!! It was fiendishly hard to think of something other than Xmas (which I hate) and by chance I had the new stamps with the skeleton... however, your tag is gorgeous, as always!

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  2. Well aren't you the Brilliant Magpie, Squawk, this is a purple extravaganza, Oh I think you do like purple Miss Julie Ann, you just needed to get your feet wet, then you dove in and created such a detailed orientated tag, your letter are pure bliss, all that texture just makes this Magpie want feel it, really, when I first saw this, I thought you had layered lovely lace on it, wonderful texture you created, the tiny SP is so lovely,LOVE the glass bead over the word ,yup, yup, yup, I think this is one of my favorite tag,, Thanks for ALL the inspiration to dream along, will fly over to see what the other Dragons are creating, Cold and snowy here, trying to stay warm. Hope you have a wonderful week. ((( BIG HUGS )))..

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  3. Love this tag fab colour, gorgeous layers all brought together by the use of your feature word love it xx

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  4. Love that crackle!! And that flourish stencil is one of my favs too!!
    Beautifully done tag with all the different pastes! I love that you combine-them all- such interest and variety- just beautiful~Julie Ann!

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  5. Beautiful mix of colors, I do love purple and your Tag as always is awesome with some great details:-)xxx

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  6. Such wonderful elements and effects! Your tag is gorgeous Julie Ann! xxx

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  7. Gasp!! This is a stunner! There's nothing I can pick out, as every single thing you've done here has just gone on to make one of the wonderful tags I've seen! Off to get my head around 'x' now! Big hugs, Chrisx

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  8. Gorgeous Tag Julie Ann!! I love the soft colours and fab cracked. Also I've seen this tag's detail many times, It's a wonderful xxx

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  9. So pretty, Julie--the texture and colors are gorgeous.

    :)trisha

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  10. I like purple (more violet than purple really) but don't use it very often either, not an easy colour really! Your tag is full of scrumptious details, in particular the butterfly is just out of this world. I want to try that Clear/Frantage/stamping technique ASAP!

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  11. Ooh fab tag Julie Ann, it seems very mystical to me - gorgeous xxx

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  12. Julie Ann, I have so missed my visits to your blog, it is probably only 7-10 days yet it seems so much longer.
    Like you, I rarely use purple in fact I am not sure I own any Fresco paints in this colour family, do I need to remedy this?! You could not have picked a more sympathetic colour family for your tag, it brings another essence, for me a sense of melancholy. Gorgeous composition and I adore the way you have perched the beautiful butterfly atop the first letter.
    Hope life is being kind to you and before I finish I want to add a heartfelt thank you for taking the time to visit my blog when I have not been able to reciprocate.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  13. So beautiful and very mysterious I might add!
    Sandy xx

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  14. :D X in the middle of a word :D ... A fabulous take. I'm a bit late in commenting, just catching up.

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  15. Wow such a dramatic stunning tag, I really have fell in love with the colours you have used, I struggle with pinks but mixing the pinks with the purples look totally awesome and I really feel inspired to grab all my fresco pinks out lol. Gorgeous handmade embellishments and the cracks and texture look fab. Kezzy :-) xxx

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