A Night at the Fair

The theme this week at Simon Says Stamp & Show Monday Challenge is Carnival.  As I thought about possible projects to enter, I immediately thought about nights at the County Fair when I was in college.  We would buy tickets, go on rides, eat lots of food, play games, and look at the festive flashing carnival lights.  This tag attempts to encapsulate the fun of those nights at the fair.

To create the night background, I chose a black corrugated specialty paper that I cut with Tim Holtz's Sizzix Tag and Bookplates die.  I sanded the edges and some places on the surface of the tag to give it more a grunged vintage feel.  

Now for the big challenge ... how do I create a Ferris Wheel (my favorite ride) as the focal point for my tag?  I thought about the various patterns that one can find on the "spokes" of the wheel when it is lit up with lights at night.  Many times, it would have a star shape.  I went immediately to the Americana Star Blueprint stamp from Tim Holtz.  I stamped it twice on black cardstock, once in Picket Fence Distress Paint and once in Wild Honey Distress Paint.  I cut out the stars and attached them through the center with a small brad.  I used a small piece of grungeboard between the two stars as a "separator" to leave some space between the stars to insert the Ferris Wheel base framework pieces.  I then offset the back star (white) a little by rotating it to the left around the brad.

The cars on the Ferris Wheel are made with pink and blue brads that I places at the tips of the stars.  The metal frame and base were created from recycled cardboard packaging that I cut into strips, painted with Silver Adirondack Acrylic paint, "tarnished" with a Black Soot Distress Marker, and sealed with a thick coat of Glossy Accents.  I cut the strips into appropriate lengths to create the base (using Ranger's Inkssentials Black Enamel Accents to create "rivets" to bolt the base together.  I also adhered appropriate lengths of the strips between my "car" brads to create the wheel frame.

Next I attacked the food for my Night at the Fair.  I found the 1937 technical drawing of the original Coca Cola bottle online.  I loved this sketch!  So I cropped part of it on my computer and printed it on shrink plastic.  I cut out the bottle, painted it with an alcohol ink marker, and then stuck it in the toaster oven.  Voila ... vintage cola bottle embellishment for my tag. 

Now for the popcorn.  Here is where I went a little overboard with the whole "scrap" stash idea.  We all keep things that "normal" people throw away to use in our projects.  Many of you know about my chipmunk visitor on July 4th.  Well, I decided I would rather he limit his visits to the exterior of my home.  So I purchased some Great Stuff sealant at the hardware store that creates a foam to fill up the cracks between my wonky floor and walls (so that rodents can't crawl in).  I had some of left over and thought it might come in useful for some project.  I used it here for the popcorn in my box of popcorn :)  I found a printable template for the popcorn box online that I printed on matte photo paper.  I colored it with a Tumbled Glass Distress Marker and grunged it with Old Paper, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I took a craft knife and made a slit in the box's side and bottom, then I inserted the bottom right corner of my tag into this slit.  I filled the box with my Great Stuff "popcorn".

I wanted my FAIR sign to look like it was lighted with light bulbs.  I die cut the letters with Tim Holtz Vintage Market Sizzlet die out of black cardstock.  I then edged the letters with a Gerber Daisy paint pen from Martha Stewart.  I dotted them with Petal Pink Liquid Pearls to create the "lights" around the outside of the letters.

 

I added a couple of baubles as balloons.  I used silver jewelry beading wire for the balloon strings (including cute little bows that I made from the wire). I added a Tim Holtz "Play" tag to the string on one of the balloons to give it a little more presence

I topped the tag off with a stamped Fair ticket and a carnival FUN sign that I colored with Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress Inks as well as Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar and Broken China Distress Markers.  Finally I added the "Night at the" words and a length of black beading wire as a tag tie.

 Thanks for letting me relive some of my college day memories with you through this tag.  I almost forgot how fun the Fair can be.  Maybe it is time for another visit this fall :)  -- Mary Elizabeth