12 tags of 2012 - #2

Hello my friends.  We are getting snow today.  Lots of snow.  Predictions are somewhere between 6-8 inches.  It's so pretty.  But I'm sure we'll be out shoveling tomorrow.

Last night I ordered my copy of Tim's new book, 'Compendium of Curiosities II'.  I didn't order an autographed copy from Tim.  I ordered one at a discount with free shipping.  Saving the money was much more important to me than getting a signed copy.  I can't wait to see what new techniques he has come up with.  

Today I worked on my March tag for Tim's 12 tags of 2012.  And if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I'm a deviator.  Well... why would I want to make an carbon copy of Tim's tag?  I'm an artist and HAVE to make it my own.  Even if I did have all the same products that he used (which I don't), I'd still want to put my own spin on it. 

Starting with the tag itself.  I have a woodgrain background stamp (not Tim's though), but rather than use the one I have, I decided to go with his woodgrain embossing folder instead.  After running it through my cuttlebug twice to cover the length of the tag, I took my vintage photo distress ink pad and rubbed it over the raised areas until it was quite dark.  Then I took a sponge and worked tea dye distress ink down into the recessed areas.  And then I added vintage photo around the edges with a foam ink applicator. 

Next I worked on the butterflies.  I have some 1-1/4" wide tacky tape, which I pieced onto a piece of grungeboard and then die cut the mini butterflies.  I don't have any of Tim's papers, so I used some pieces from Indian Summer DCWV stack.  I really had to cut some tiny pieces.  I have a little trick I learned to pick up those tiny pieces and place them in a specific spot.  I have a curved tip reverse action tweezer, which I just barely wet the tip with my tongue and then touch it to the tiny piece of paper and it picks it right up, so that I can place it where I want to.  You could use a flat toothpick instead of the tweezer.

I don't have the embossing powder that Tim used, so I chose to use white.  And for the next step, I have a love/hate relationship with glossy accents.  I hate waiting for it to dry and I'm a bit messy when trying to put in a tiny area.  So instead of making myself get all frustrated, I coated my butterflies with versamark and embossed with two coats of clear UTEE.  It definitely gives it a different look, but I like it. 

Since the woodgrain background is pretty bold, I needed something with a more solid color to put behind the butterflies.  So I pulled out another piece of paper from the same stack and die cut a stylized label.  I cut another one from some ivory card stock, cut it in half and glued it behind the paper, so that I had another defining layer.  I glued it to the tag and trimmed off the excess and then added some dots with a white gel pen. 

I think it's a given that if you have butterflies, you have to have at least one flower, and since the little metal ones really aren't my thing, I made a flower using my tattered florals die.  I sprayed the flowers with Adirondack color wash in stream and then did some manipulation to form the flowers  It's just two layers with a half pearl in the center.  Now, I don't know if you have this problem, but when I try to put a half pearl in the center of a flower, it always seems to end up upside down.  Since I was going to use my hot glue gun, I didn't want that to happen, so I cut a tiny piece of a post-it note and put the sticky side on top of the pearl, giving me a handle, so it was really easy to put into the glue. 

The leaves are cut freehand with deckle scissors, folded in half and crimped, then sponged.  The die cut mini flourish was colored with dusty concord distress stain and cut into pieces in order to fit. 

I stamped the sentiment and then just cut off the part I wanted to use, added some vintage photo distress ink and there you have it.  All finished. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

12 tags of 2012 - #1

Hello my friends.  I was finally able to get my first Tim tag of the year finished this morning.  I have most definitely deviated from his design and made it my own.  Since my Tim stash is limited, I needed to improvise. 

For the background, I embossed my tag with the woodgrain embossing folder, then used my brayer along with picket fence paint dabber to add paint to the raised areas.  After that was dry, I sponged peeled paint distress ink over the tag, making sure the ink got down into the crevices.  Then I wet a paper towel to gently wipe the ink from the painted areas.  I added some water drops as well. 

I don't have the cupid die or the heart die or any honeycomb paper, and since Valentine's day is past, I chose to do a spring tag instead.  Of course, that requires at least one flower.  This one made from tattered florals die was in my stash, but I wanted the color darker, so I sponged some extra ink on it and added the button.

The leaves are cut with deckle scissors, folded and sponged along the folds.  I've used this method for leaves a couple of times previously and someone asked for instructions.  I will try to come up with some sort of tutorial soon.  Stayed tuned on that...

The letters are from an alphabet that I've had for a long time.  I think it's Hero Arts, but it's not marked.  I just stamped all the letters I needed on some cream card stock with jet black stazon ink, punched them out with a 3/4" square punch, then trimmed off some on the sides.  I used distress inks to sponge each piece with different colors and edged them all with vintage photo.  To define the blocks just a bit more, I used the side of a brush tip black marker and ran it along the edge.  I glued the letters to strips of card stock before attaching them to the tag with dimensional tape. 

The lace trim is hand crocheted and attached with the tiny attacher.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Have a wonder-filled day.