Around the World in 80 Years

Ok ... so my mom really has not been around the world in her 80 years, but I bet she feels likes she has run around the world a few times chasing her four kids during those years.  My Mom celebrated her 80th birthday in February and I made this seriously grunged tag to commemorate the monumental occasion.

I tried a new technique on this tag.  I started with a manilla tag.  I stamped the balloon from Tim Holtz's Remnant set with Black Soot Distress Ink and heat embossed the image with black embossing powder.  Next, I covered the entire tag with a thin coat of slow-drying multimedium.  I took a piece of Tim's Terminology Tissue Wrap (a piece bigger than the entire tag) and laid it gently over the entire tag.  I smoothed it out so there were no bumps, wrinkles or bubbles.   I was thrilled to see that my image showed through the tissue paper!! The edges of the tissue wrap were trimmed around my tag and the hole was punched out at the top of the tag. 

After the multimedium dried, I used Distress Markers and a water brush to add color to the tag.  Shading the image was pretty easy because the embossed image is still raised through the tissue wrap and I just followed the contours of the image.  It's so great to still be able to see the words on the tissue as well as the balloon through the watercolored ink.  I distressed the tag's edges and inked them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and Distress Stain. I love the effect!!

On the  bottom of my tag, I used Rangers Sepia archival ink to stamp the checkerboard pattern.  I had some die cuts left over from previous project (a Sizzix button, some of Tim's flowers out of an old book page from his tattered floral decorative strip, and branch out of cardstock from another Sizzix decorative strip).  I colored the flowers and branch with Distress Markers and added some white dots on whim on the flower with a Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque pen.  A couple of strips of patterned paper were used to create a grungy sentiment banner.  I stamped "just celebrate" from Tim's "Just Sayings" stamp set on the banner.  I put together the flower with a jeweled brad and stitched the button onto the sentiment banner with embroidery floss.  I layered flower, button, branch and sentiment together at the bottom of the tag with Glossy Accents.

While that dried, I grabbed some 7 Gypsies Chipboard numbers and partially painted them with some Brushed Pewter Distress Crackle Paint.  I let them dry over night to get the most out the crackle process.  I adhered them to my tag with Glossy Accents and used a Black Soot Distress Marker and Walnut Stain Distress Stain on a small paint brush to add some shading to the tag around the numbers.  I saturated the top of the numbers with Walnut Stain Distress Stain to bring out all the crackles in the paint.

The tag tie is a piece of Tim's ruffled trimming topped with a pink ribbon.  I painted a wooden button with Peeled Paint Distress Paint, grunged it with Walnut Stain Distress Stain and stitched it to the ribbon.

 

Well, that's it for now.  I shall now close with a belated birthday wish to my best friend ... my Mom.  Love you Mom!!!  -- Mary Elizabeth

Summertime Frappuccino with Tim ... Holtz 12 Tags of 2015 for June

Hello to all of you my wonderful, creative friends!  It has been way too long since I have been to crafty blogland.  I must confess to just being too tired to do anything but physical therapy and work.  My bedtime was often before the sun went down in the evening.  I am glad to say that I am much better for it though and now I am able to return to crafting.  I can't tell you how wonderful it has been to have inky fingers again :)

I thought it would be nice to celebrate with my version of Tim Holtz's June Tag for 2015.  Please check out his blog for details on how he created his marvelous tag.  This has to be one of my favorites simply because of Tim's "fresh brewed" Sizzix die.  I also share Tim's love of Starbucks and I am thrilled to make a tag that celebrates my Frappuccino Fascination.

We are in the middle of our summer here in the United States and it's time for all sorts of outdoor fun and summer celebrations.   Next weekend will be our Independence Day (July 4th) and with summer temperatures soaring above normal, even here in the mountains of North Carolina, I am definitely going to be celebrating with a Venti Mocha Frappuccino.  So here is my tag that combines my love of all things vintage, patriotic and coffee.

I started this tag with trying different backgrounds using Tim's stripes stenciling technique.  You can see some of my trials along with the one I chose for my background.  Like the technique illustrated on Tim's blog, I used three colors of Distress Ink (Barn Door, Chipped Sapphire and Aged Mahogany) for the middle background in the image below.  Although I love this idea, I ended up choosing a background for this tag that had just one color, Barn Door, on the vertical stripes and another color, Chipped Sapphire, on the horizontal stripes.  Never worry ... the middle background is already being transformed into a birthday card.  Ah ... don't you just love the creative process?!

Here are a few other details about my tag.  To go along with my patriotic theme, I pulled out some of Tim's Natural Red and Cream Trimmings to create the tie around the cup and tag tie.  I frayed the ends of both and added some stamped stars on the tag tie.  I was trying to think of an appropriate sentiment for the tag.  As soon as I saw the "hello friend" stamp in Tim's "Simple Sayings" stamps, I knew I had found a winner.  That is exactly what I say when they hand me my ice cold Frappuccino!!!  (Either that or "my precious!" when I'm channeling my inner Tolkien).  The sentiment is backed with a great denim banner that I found at my local Michaels.

I wanted to give a shout out and sincere thank you to the lovely Linda Coughlin over at the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  She gave me this amazing Statue of Liberty button in a recent shipment of some backordered stamps.  It was absolutely perfect for this tag.  Thanks Linda ... you are the best.  Also ... I want to point out the authentic green Starbucks straw below.  Yes, I just had to go buy another Frappucino this week to get that straw.  It was such a difficult task and I just couldn't burden anyone else with it :)

Well, I leave you with one last view of my entire tag and a big smile.  It's great to be back.  Hugs to you all -- Mary Elizabeth