A fleeting glimpse...

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here with a pair of tiny hangings offering a fleeting glimpse of the creatures I'm sure are at least partly responsible for all the faerie mythology down the ages (though obviously there are real faeries to be found too, if you look hard enough).

I used some of the backgrounds I created a while back using Dylusions sprays and plain old rock salt and table salt.  If you want to see more about how they were made, you can find out here.

And it wasn't a massive leap of imagination to link the gorgeous images from the Insects and Butterflies plate with the two quotes - each available singly from The Artistic Stamper.

I stamped the butterfly in Olive Archival, and then clear embossed it for that magical shimmer you get when it catches the light.

I used a water brush and some paper towel to lift some of the Dylusions colour away from within the wings, just to make them stand out a little more from the background.

The quote - by Rabindranath Tagore - has long been one of my favourites.  I stamped it on a separate piece of glossy card, that I'd used to mop up some ink at some point, and which toned in rather well with the salty background.  And then I mounted it on some cream mesh to give it a bit of extra definition.

The dragonfly got the same treatment as the butterfly, though I had less luck with lifting the colour away since the webbing on his wings is so dense and intricate.

And this quote, I've just discovered, is from a beautiful sonnet called Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (full poem at the foot of the post - I know I don't usually do quotes other than at Words and Pictures, but this one's irresistible!).

I added some other images from Insects and Butterflies.  I love this snail - almost invisible in the undergrowth...

... and these two grasshoppers, perched and ready for action.  There's also a busy bee, going about his business.

I added little bit of Ivory Frantage embossing powder around the edges for some added sparkle and definition.

And I was happy to find some paper ribbon that matched, so I threaded that through my golden eyelets to join the panels together and to create the hanging mechanism.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Don't forget to come and play in our August Challenge - share your Postcards, Travel and Holiday themed projects to be in with a chance at the prize draw at the end of the month.  See you soon!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Insects and Butterflies, Butterfly Words, Dragonfly Words
Dylusions Sprays: Calypso Teal, Cut Grass, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, Dirty Martini
Manila ATCs
Archival Ink: Olive
Wow Embossing Powder: Clear Gloss Superfine
From stash: Frantage Ivory, Paper Ribbon, Eyelets, Salt

Silent Noon

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, - 
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: 
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. 
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, 
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge 
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. 

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly 
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: - 
So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above. 
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, 
This close-companioned inarticulate hour 
When twofold silence was the song of love.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti