Happy in her Heart

Hello all, and welcome.  I hope you are all doing okay.  My mojo is still up and down - both creatively and for anything much really.

I've been pouring my creative energy into the Zoom sessions with actors from around the globe, and really enjoying sharing the virtual voicework, but that seems to leave me without much space for other things.

However, I'll always make an exception for a Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey.  There are no rules... just to use a tag and follow your heart, and I suspect that I'm not the only one of the Creative Guides for whom it's a favourite task.

On this occasion, my heart seems to have been ahead of the game colour-wise.  The photos of the background are dated 13th May, a whole week before the brand new Distress Colour was revealed, but somehow I seem to have tuned in to the Speckled Egg vibe a bit early.  There's no actual Speckled Egg involved here... though I do have some on order - irresistible!!










As you'll see, the colours changed from their original look as I was working on the tag... it wasn't really Speckled Eggy to start with, but it all faded to this beautiful shade by the end.













There are plenty of layers to this background, starting with some Fresco chalk paints and Crackle Glaze.  There's Lawn and Beanstalk as the underlayer - here already coated with the Crackle Glaze which has dried, hence the slight sheen.













I painted a combination of Snowflake and Hint of Mint over the top, allowing them to mix on the brush and the tag...













... and let the crackle magic happen.  Somehow, I just never tire of it, whether it's a top glaze crackle or one of these between-paint-layers types.  It's just so satisfying.










Over that I did some dipping and smooshing with various Distress Inks and Oxides in blues and greens.

Tough to say which now - Stormy Sky is in there, and Bundled Sage, but beyond that... your guess is as good as mine!  Maybe Old Paper?









As I mentioned, you can see that the individual colours are quite distinct at this point but as they dried fully later, they ended up in paler tones.















I added some clear embossing powder in places, randomly allowing it to cling to any ink which was still wet enough.













And the last main background layer was a bit of stamping - some Field Notes labels and numbers stamped in Watering Can Archival.
















I fell in love with this Paper Doll the moment I saw her, and I couldn't wait to give her a rope swing to sit on.














It's something I did a couple of years ago with one of my favourite tags - Secret Things  - and I was happy to have the chance to revisit the idea.













She's already got some flowers in the original photograph, but I decided to give her an even better bunch to hold - one of the Field Notes ephemera snippets.













There's lots more ephemera from the Field Notes packs layered up behind the girl...
















... along with some of the delicate wooden grasses by Scrapiniec.













You'll notice there are some butterflies dotted around... three, to be precise.  The rule of three is a good one in visual design as well as verbal rhetoric.













Two of them are in her sketchbook notes, and one is perched in all its delicate beauty, ready to take flight.  (As I usually do, I put a light coat of gesso on the reverse to give it a bit more presence.)













You can be sure she's taking good note of the magic of nature.  Clearly it makes her so happy that she imagines she can hear music as she gazes around her.














All the word stickers are from the Idea-ology Clippings - somehow the right words always seem to bob to the surface just as you need them.













I love that in places you can still get a glimpse of all the scrumptious inky painty crackly layers in the background.

And yes, we're now fully in Speckled Egg territory - that delightful ambivalence between blue and green with a touch of grey to keep things gently wistful.













The twine which provides the girl with her seat is echoed up at the top of the tag for a simple rustic finish.














Distressed edges and some white card behind to create a frame and we're done.















Just look how the embossing on this tag captures the light... and you know that makes me happy in my heart!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I'm determined to repay some visits this coming weekend, and I'm looking forward to catching up with how you are all finding ways to be creative or simply stay sane at the moment.

One thing sure to inspire you would be a trip over to A Vintage Journey to see what the other Creative Guides have been making for their Tag Friday contributions. 

And if you've been making any tags this month, we'd love you to share them in our Tag Friday link party there too.

Stay safe, stay well, and I'll see you again soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

Nature's music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.
Mary Webb






At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week, they are Going Around in Circles - they're subtle, but they're there... in the background stamping and echoed in the metal token
At Crafty Cardmakers they are looking for Butterflies
There's the tiniest delicate blush of pink on those flowers she's holding for the Anything Mixed Media Goes + Optional Pink theme at the More Mixed Media Challenge
At Tag Tuesday the theme is Animals - I'm never sure whether insects count as animals, but I'm sharing this trio of butterflies nonetheless