Nothing rhymes with Orange!

Orange?  Yes, Flaming Orange... that's the challenge the fabulous Julia has set us to play with this month over at Our Creative Corner.  Well, no actually it's called Flaming June, and Julia has provided some beautiful picture inspiration too but, for me, it's about the most challenging colour she could have offered up!

Before we get into all that - if you're only just up, you might have missed my earlier post today, with my very exciting Country View Challenges news and a very masculine metallic tag... I'd love it if you had time to check that out too!

So, back to flaming orange...  Having struggled with the idea, I found that once I started, I actually had a really lovely time with it, and this is the tag which arrived on the craft table.

Of course, I was also inspired by the painting Julia provided for us (check out her challenge guidelines here, and be sure to follow closely if you want to qualify for the prize draw).





This is Flaming June, painted by Sir Frederic Leighton in 1895.

There's something about how she's thrown herself down that makes me feel she simply doesn't want to be awake... that she's curled up there in order to hide in some way.  Sleeping is a refuge.

So my tag became a sort of reassurance that there is beauty and joy and love to be found in being awake.













She's stamped in Sepia, and her face is softly tinted - with mop-up paint, and an orange blush of pleasure!













This is the tag I used to mop up my Distress Paint marbling when I was making butterflies for Fly Away, and since it had hints of orange, I pressed it into service here.












The book page clouds striped across the "sky" were dipped in melted beeswax and stuck on with the same.  It gives a lovely translucence to the text, and a really interesting texture.

Julia wants to see orange as the main colour, so I needed more of it.  Using the Latticework stencil and a mask I added lots of Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge to the background around the woman.

I also stamped one of the glorious new flourishes in Spiced Marmalade, just around her face, to add extra detail and texture.  I also love how it really brings her face into the foreground - I never tire of how using a mask does that!

I think my subconscious must have picked up on the small vase in the corner of the painting.  It became a lot more prominent in my response.

If you buy the "story" of the poisonous oleander branch in Leighton's portrait, there could be an even more ominous touch of death about her sleeping.

But my flowers are a contradiction of that, bursting with life and colour.









Some have been altered with just a touch of Distress Ink - same colours again, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge.












Others seemed to work well straight from the packet - Wild Orchid, I think the large ones of both sorts are; the little ones are maybe Petaloo?












And they're tumbling out of an ancient stone urn.  Well, no, they're tumbling out of a UTEE urn, made with one of my Katy Sue Designs moulds from Artistic Stamper.  

Once it was out of the mould, I messed around with some paint until I liked the look of it.








And I couldn't have an urn without some ivy, now could I?  

So it was out with the Spring Greenery decorative strip die again, cut in kraft core, sanded and given a rub down with some Spiced Marmalade to warm up the green so that it would tone in with the rest of the tag.











I'm so delighted by this froth of ribbons at the top!  Same Distress colours again, applied to some seam binding and doubled over to create lots of lovely soft ripples of colour.







And that, I think, is pretty much that... and I'm amazed to find I really like it - despite it being orange!!  It makes me unexpectedly happy.

So thank you, Julia, for taking me out of my comfort zone.  I've had a lovely time!  Do hop over to Our Creative Corner to see what my fabulous team mates - including three brilliant crafters new to the team - have created to inspire you.  Hope to see you playing along in Flaming June soon.

And if all that is just too orange and flowery for you, don't forget you can find me in a more usual colour palette with my earlier post - my steely blue Manly tag for Country View Challenges!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

There is no blue without yellow, and without orange.
Vincent Van Gogh

Orange is the happiest colour.
Frank Sinatra

I'd like to make this my second entry in the Florals challenge over at Pan Pastel UK.
I think the beautiful woman qualifies as an Artsy Stamp so I'd also like to play along at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.
At Live and Love Crafts the June Challenge is Summer Garden.
And I think I'm just in time to play along with Ribbons and Bows at the Vintage Stamping Challenges.