Don't Fear. . . . . . . . .

The challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On this time is 'Don't Fear '. The following 'ingredients' are to be included in the 'recipe':
A scary image; a crowd of purple and some texture.

A very interesting proposition this one! I decided to think about things that used to scare me when I was younger in order to find some inspiration. Most of these I now 'don't fear' simply because with age comes tolerance, acceptance and the fear of being ridiculed if you let people know what scares you! My family will understand why I haven't used anything to do with spiders - I'm STILL scared stiff of them even though I know I shouldn't be!

So what used to scare me? Usually images, anything with a dark, mysterious appearance, clowns, church yards, crows, bats and Nuns! Nothing to do with real Nuns I assure you. I once saw an old 1947 day time film called 'The Black Narcissus'. I don't really remember the story very well but it involved some Nuns and what happened to them when they went off to live somewhere. My lasting memory is of a clip showing the eyes of one of the 'nuns'as she manically rang a bell (an actress I now realise!) and I couldn't watch any more of the film. It took years for me to accept that it was only a film and that not all Nuns were scary - how strange are the fears of childhood?


 I chose to work with an image of Whitby Abbey (which is amazing - if you haven't been, go!); a bird, some barbed wire, a female image which could be a nun and a winged creature similar to a bat. No clown? Mmm, I'm still not very keen on them I'm afraid!

Here's the tag I came up:

The finished tag. I do think it's scary so perhaps it's 'do' fear not 'don't ' fear?!

The background was made using a mix of dylusion sprays, distress inks and script stamping. The abbey was stamped with versafine as was the barbed wire and the 'bat'. The trees were double stamped in two toning shades in order to achieve depth and atmosphere. The edges of the tag were inked with black soot distress ink. The 'bat' is made up from two different stamp images which involved some masking to develop them into one image. Some black stick on gems give the illusion of a headdress and adds texture.

The bird was stamped onto acetate, cut out and applied. This gives sheen and makes the image stand out and lends a sinister air - I hope! The splatter stamp image adds to the sinister quality of the scene. At the lower edge of the tag some die cut lace was applied. The die cut was embossed with enamel then stamped whilst still molten to add more texture and give it a rather distressed, Gothic feel. Some more black gem stones complete the look.

A die cut flourish received the same treatment as the lace at the bottom before being applied. The word 'fear' was added - perhaps I should have added a question mark? Purple wired ribbon completes the look - it looks rather blue in the photo but it is certainly a gorgeous shade of purple!

The eyes were coloured with a white pen and the pupils were made with a small dot of acrylic paint. The eyes really are odd in the original image! I find this element the most unsettling I think - what do you think?