Romantic Memories Tag - by Alison

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures, with a bit of nostalgic romance for you today on a tag.  I'd been wanting to use one of the fabulously elegant Calico Craft Parts lampposts for a while, and I finally set about creating a home for one of them.

I started with some torn book pages, one segment tea and coffee-stained, one not, and gesso'd lightly over them, stippling for texture.

After applying DecoArt crackle paint through a harlequin stencil, I did a bit of wrinkle free distress inking, first with browns...

... and then adding some blues for more of a lamplit night time ambience.  I also added some strips of torn book page, tiny clouds scudding across the sky, and layered the whole tag onto a pale background.

The lamppost itself I pressed into Versamark ink and then embossed with black embossing powder.  You get both shine and dimension, which I think gives it a lovely cast iron look.  This one is from the Mini Street Lights and Lamp Posts Style 3 plate, but there are several sets to choose from.

The song wandering through my head as I was making this was Lili Marlene - an old German love song about a girl waiting for a soldier under a lamppost.  It was made popular (with soldiers on both sides of the conflict) during World War II in a version sung by Marlene Dietrich (a favourite of mine).  It was also recorded by Vera Lynn.

So I needed a Lili Marlene to go "unter der Laterne" - under the lamp - even if there's only a snapshot left to remember her by.  And I think that's probably the number of the house at the street corner where she's waiting "vor dem grossen Tor" - in front of the large gate.

In the soldier's memory, cracked and partial now, she's like a moth or butterfly drawn to the light (yes, there's another Marlene song creeping in there for those in the know!).  The Mini Butterflies come from the Style 5 sheet, but there are many others to suit every project.

And I used some trimmings from some of the fabulous Borders, Flourishes and Ornaments available at Calico Craft Parts.  I gave them a light wash of black ink and water for extra depth.

There are so many beautiful styles and designs - I'd be hard put to identify which ones these pieces came from, but they were certainly from one of the Wood Flourish Designs, and I think probably from one or other of the Curled Vines.  They add just a touch of elegant decoration.

The topping is light and feminine to suit her lover's memory of Lili Marlene, and that's your bit of long lost romance for today!

If you'd like to go shopping you can click on any of the links in the text and you'll be taken straight to Calico Craft Parts.  For now, I'll love you and leave you (yes, you see, Lili Marlene and I are very alike!), and thank you so much for stopping by today.

Alison xx