X is for

When I first talked about writing this alpha tag series two questions were top of the list 'What are you going to do for 'X'? and of course 'Have you any ideas about 'Z'?  Well I'll leave 'Z' for another couple of days but here we go with possibly the hardest letter.

For me 'X' is for 'Xanadu', the definition of which is 'a place of great beauty, luxury, and contentment'. And I am not talking about the movie with Olivia Newtron Bomb! Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the poem 'Kubla Khan' in 1797 (published 1812) which begins 

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 

           A stately pleasure-dome decree..." :

Although this is a mythical name it is believed that it may refer to Shang-tu, an actual place that existed in South East Mongolia in the 17th century. Whatever the story I like the idea of some beautiful, magical place far away. And isn't this where we all want to go sometimes? Not physically, although that would be wonderful to find such a place, but to venture there in our minds. We all go through periods in our life when, for all sorts of reasons,  it is difficult to live with the reality of our surroundings. And we need some kind of 'safe' haven we can run to. I think that somewhere like Xanadu seems the ideal place; it costs nothing to get there, you don't have to pack a suitcase and you can visit it whenever you want.

There are times when we need this space in our creativity too; when we lose our mojo, when the muse temporarily leaves us, when we are not in a happy place. Just somewhere to rekindle inspiration and relight creative passion. 

Here is my tag for today, another one that I created yesterday.

I started with an acrylic block background using Broken China, Faded Jeans and Evergreen Bough. I then stamped over it with several randomly chosen stamps including the music sheet from Music Fanfare and the Once Upon a Time clear single stamp. I used complementary inks including Adirondak Clover and Versafine Deep Lagoon.

I stamped the Julie Nutting Ruffle Dress onto a single self-adhesive label sheet using Versafine Onyx Black and used Aquarelle pencils to colour the image, blending them with a waterbrush to achieve the shading.

Finally I cut her out, peeled the back off the label and stuck her in place. I do like using self-adhesive labels you can get them in all sorts of sizes and they are a good cheat over masking your images.

So there you have it, I hope you feel I have done justice to the most difficult letter in this alpha series. And although Xanadu may not actually exist if you can envisage somewhere that is beautiful and comforting, where your imagination can fly, then you have found your healing place, your own personal Xanadu.

See you tomorrow

PS Look out for a mixed pack of useful sized labels on the Chocolate Baroque website - coming soon.