Paris - Mon Amour

Hello all, lovely to have your company here today at Words and Pictures.

Parlez-vous Français?  This week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show they're asking for some Inspiration Française, and after musing for a while, I finally came up with some.  And here's the tag I arrived at.

As often happens for me, the inspiration came thanks to a song - one of the lesser known Cole Porter numbers, "Who Said Gay Paree?" from Cancan.  You can hear the man himself playing it here, and the full lyrics are at the foot of the post - I find it achingly lovely, but that's at least partly because this song and I have a history.

I did a lot of shows at university, and one was Cole Porter's Silk Stockings, set in Paris.  The director had always loved this song, and wanted to add it in to the show.  So it was inserted at the point when both lead couples were going through problems before the - inevitably - happy ending.

It was one of many happy summers at university when I played opposite the man who was/is (so far) the great passion of my life.  We seemed constantly to be cast as couples - playing opposite each other in show after show!  








The romance is of course long over, and the song has an added bittersweet touch these days, as he left to go and build his career in France, and lives in Paris to this day.  

(Right about now, any of my family and friends who are reading this are saying: "oh no, not him again" - but I think you never forget your first head-over-heels, love at first sight, earth-shifting romance - or is that just me?!)











So, there's the conventional linking of France with love, romance, and affairs of the heart, and also a very personal connection to that link.  And that's what this tag grew out of...  













I'd just like to say that I think Jill, who sang it in our show, did a better job than CP (I suspect he'd agree he's not the world's greatest singer) - but the verse he plays on the piano is full of exquisite romantic yearning.











The tag itself was relatively simple to make.  I started with a piece of Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby paper, backed it onto chipboard, and added some TH stamps for extra layers.  

The Eiffel Tower was stamped in black and embossed with Clear Detail embossing powder for glossy dimensionality. 














I did the flourish with embossing ink followed by some dark red mica powder, so it has a lovely shimmer - quite hard to photograph, but I think you can get the general idea!












I found the silver hearts on ebay, but I didn't want it silver for this tag.  

Sadly, I'm working away from home at the moment, and the alcohol inks didn't make it into the takeaway stash, so I had to get creative with giving it some colour.











First I tried with Aged Mahogany DI.  I knew that wouldn't work by itself, so I tried clear embossing over the top to keep it in place.  It partly worked, but perhaps I overheated it, because in places it went green!  

Luckily the hearts are two-sided, so I flipped it over and tried again.  This time I used the embossing ink and mica powder again, and I'm really pleased with the subtle, soft, red gleam it now has.

It's topped with an Idea-ology Game Spinner for the arrow piercing the heart!










I dyed some seam binding with Pumice Stone, Aged Mahogany and a combination of the two, dug a hole in my hand-cut tag (I've come away without my punch too - bah!) and completed the trimmings with an Idea-ology trinket pin.

Et voilà, c'est ça,  c'est tout!  Thank you for stopping by, and I look forward to seeing you again soon here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland, but for now, merci beaucoup et au revoir!







I'm entering this in the following:
Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge Inspiration Française
Frilly and Funkie's lovely Tic Tac Toe game, playing the top line of metal, chipboard, lace (it's backed onto chipboard)
Top Tip Tuesday are playing a challenge called We're All Heart, and I'd like to offer this tip:  To colour metal without alcohol inks, and still keeping that metallic sheen, try using embossing ink topped with mica powder, heated to fix it

Who spread the rumour Paris was fun?
Who had such fantasy?
Who never knew Paris minus you?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?

Who said of all towns under the sun
All lovers here should be?
Who failed to add
Paris could be sad?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?

I thought our love so brightly begun
Would burn through eternity;
Who told the lie
Love can never die?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?
Who said 'Gay Paree'?
Cole Porter