Thy sweet love remembered...

Hello all!  It's that lovely time of month - a Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey... a chance for the Creative Guides to come out and play with a tag, but with no other rules or constrictions.

I made use of a jumbo tag background made months ago - some Tim Holtz paper stuck onto a piece of recycled cardboard.

I probably had some plan in mind when I started it, but work got in the way, and it has sat there awaiting inspiration ever since.

As it's such a large tag (4 x 8.5inches), I was able to use one of the larger size Paper Dolls couples, and once they were in position everything else sort of gathered around them without too much conscious decision-making.

There was plenty of internal story-telling going on though... I'll leave you to make up your own romantic versions of it.

Here's the background before anything started happening.  I've a feeling it may have been way back in spring that I first stuck the paper onto the cardboard...















.... sanded around the edges, and gave it a few swipes of leftover gesso.














The couple themselves are mounted on a few little wooden alphabet dice, from a pound-store set, which gives them a lovely dimensionality.

(I used the Zs and Xs - I'm unlikely to want them for actual words on future projects.)













I needed the dice because I really wanted the pair of them to perch on this lovely bit of driftwood - always a touch of romance about driftwood, I find.  They're about 3/8 of an inch proud of the tag surface.













There's a scroll tied with twine - a love letter, I'm sure...












... and the little bunch of lavender came from the birthday cake of our 101-year-old neighbour, Rose, at the beginning of August.  I remembered that it was still sitting in the kitchen and thought it would make the perfect romantic keepsake to add to the tag.

(See the 101st birthday present made for Rose by Cestina over at Cestina's Dollshouses - a miniature replica of her living room.)












Lavender is wonderful stuff to put away with your love letters to keep them fragrant, and to keep those carefully preserved fragments of lace safe from the moths.  (Hmm... a slightly less romantic thought there.)













Since I'm just back from working in Stratford upon Avon (more details of that in the next post), what could be more appropriate than a little touch of Shakespeare for the first words?

You can find the sonnet in full at the foot of the post.










The other nostalgic yearnings are also from the wonderful Idea-ology Clippings stickers.  It seems you can always find just the right little broken thought for your artwork.














They've had a little shadowing with pencil and ink - Dusty Concord Distress Ink and Shaded Lilac Oxide to echo the lavender sprigs.

A couple of other Idea-ology pieces - the clock, ticking away the time the lovers have to spend apart...














... the Muse Token which tells you all you need to know about their devotion...














... and the pen nib with which to record every precious moment spent together.













There are some tiny wooden hearts, crackled with DecoArt Media Crackle Paint, with some Pumice Stone Distress Crayon to highlight the cracks.















No need to tell you what they symbolise...














A touch of ribbon, tied with twine at the top, and we're pretty much done.









Thank you for your company today, and do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see what my fellow Creative Guides have created for Tag Friday.  I can hardly believe August is drawing to an end.  The year is flying, and I'll be back before you know it.  Until then, happy crafting all.




When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
   For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
   That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare




With its nostalgic romance of times past, I'd like to share this over at Tag Tuesday, where the theme is Time/Clocks