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