Red And Green Should Never Be Seen Except Upon A Fairy Queen {tag}

Hi crafty friends!

I wanted to make a St Patrick’s Day tag since it’s next week and I wanted therefore to make something very green. Running through my head is this little rhyme I remember from childhood.

Red and green
should never be seen
except upon a fairy queen

There are a few different versions of this, including “Irish Queen” instead of “Fairy Queen” but it was always fairy queen for us – maybe they were Irish fairies and so they are both true!

Here she is, my fairy queen…

I used this very large tag base because I wanted lots of room for this. I am also using my precious Fresco chalk paints, some of my own stamps and a few different mediums, so here we go…

I like big tags!

I skipped some of the process which included gesso, Tim Holtz tissue paper, texture paste through a stencil, crackle paste and these first layers of Fresco paint.

I took a detour for a minute as I remembered I had this LUCKY stamp and die set from Concord and 9th and considered making a leprechaun tag instead, with some kind of “lucky” sentiment and maybe even a pot of gold… errr no, I don’t think so!

I did add some stamping to the background using my own handmade stamps (more on those later as they were created for and feature strongly on future project) and then added some white splatter for good measure.

And again, another detour as I contemplated using this chipboard with the birds and frames and ivy, but no, again.  I actually felt that it was a waste to use this large chipboard on a tag so I decided to save it for something else which you will see soon.

And so we arrived at Queenie.  I started playing with all these chipboard pieces and took a quick snap so I wouldn’t forget where I wanted everything to go.

Gesso everything!  I did everything that I have planned for forthcoming projects all at once to save me some time.

It was then time to start painting my fairy queen, remembering the rhyme about red and green, so her hair had to be flaming red!

 

Her dress is a lovely dark green.  Everything is painted with Frescos.

I really wanted to put the little rhyme on the tag but even with this large tag, I didn’t feel there was enough room for it to look right.  Not helped by the fact that I kept adding more stuff to Queenie, some fairy wings perhaps?  More foliage?  She is definitely at one with the forest.

I added some more foliage and then painted it using Frescos with metallic glaze mixed in and cut one up so I could use it on the other side of her face.

I thought she looked a bit weird just being a head and shoulders bust floating in the air, or you know, she does have wings so she could be flying, but still looked weird, so I added a lollipop stick to ground her. I inked it up with Ground Espresso Archival.

I used these little, I think they are called, mini bookplates, painted them up and attached them, and because I couldn’t fit the red and green rhyme, I used these Finnabair stickers to convey Queenie’s fairy message to let yourself look for the magic.  I’m sure you will find it if you look hard enough!

 

Oh and one final touch was to add these little Prima crystals as a necklace.

I’m really happy with how she turned out in the end.  I hope you like my St Patrick’s Day themed red and green tag.  Please let me know in the comments and don’t forget to look for the magic!

Challenges

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – A Bit of Green – I made this tag with St Patrick’s Day and “green” in mind, plus the whole Irish/Fairy connection
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Use Some Green – another green challenge that this tag fits into, so I’m entering this tag in this challenge too

PROJECT RECIPE:

GSL Cuts – Tag Set Super X Model: D92C  , Stackable Labels D35H, Blooming Flourish D22P, Acorn Border Set C10E, Flight of Fancy Butterfly Girl D132A, Leaves from Mushroom Shape Set D102B but you could use any chipboard leaves you have
Paperartsy – Fresco Chalk Paints, various
Decoart – White Gesso, Crackle Paste, Texture Paste
Tim Holtz – Ground Espresso Archival Ink, Collage Medium, tissue paper, stencil
Finnabair – word stickers
Prima – crystals
From Stash:  lollipop stick, my handmade stamps,