Fall Textures

I love fall.  I created a tag to try to capture just a fraction of the beautiful colors and textures of this wonderful season.

The background of my tag is a #12 Ranger Manila Tag.  This was colored with Frayed Burlap and Tarnished Brass Distress Stain spritzed with water to spread the color.  Ground Espresso Distress Ink was used to go around the edges of the tag and  filigree metal corner stickers were added to give the background more of a frame.

 

I had the pleasure of catching up with our favorite crafting butterfly, Alison Bomber, in New York this summer.  As you can imagine, our conversation turned to inks, paints, and paper.  At the time, I did not have a great deal of time to keep up with all the new techniques and tools.   Alison was playing with Distress Oxide Inks.  I asked her what she thought was so special about them.  Although they are amazing in their own new properties, Alison said that she thought they would show how incredible they are when we start integrating them with other Distress products.  So ... that is what I used to get the gorgeous fall colors on the next layer of my tag. 

I began with applying Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, and Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide Ink on a craft sheet.  I spritzed it with water and started dipping my heavy mixed media paper into it in layers (spritzing and drying in between layers). You can see the Scrap Time video where Tim does this technique at Creativation.    Next I blended some regular Wild Honey Distress Ink over the entire Distress Oxide creation. (I wish I had thought to take pics at each stage!)  I spritzed that with water and dried it with a heat tool.  The edges were then inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I added some script stamping in Ground Espresso Archival Ink.  I thought I might add more imagery with additional stamping, but remembered that I had some of Tim Holtz's Vellum Ephemera (I think from the Thrift Shop pack).  The vellum pieces were adhered to my inked panel with Matte Distress Collage Medium.  I wasn't sure what would happen if I added a coat of Distress Collage Medium over the entire panel, but I said "what the heck" and experimented.  Wow!  It really brought out the incredible color.  So gorgeous!!!!

My next layer was a kraft paper doily that I think I found at Hobby Lobby.  I gave it a thick coat of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  When the crackle was dry, I inked it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink (on a blending foam) and then Spritzed it with water.  The color seeped into the cracks!  Really lovely.  I adore what it looks like in the sun!  Another Filigree metal sticker went on top the doily.   It gave it added some additional color with a Spiced Marmalade Distress Crayon.  Yellow and orange alcohol ink gave autumnal hues to one of Tim's Ideaology roses as well.  That went on top of the filigree metal embellishment.

 My final layer is a natural canvas tag that I got at Michaels.  I stamped Tim's Mini Blueprint Pumpkin on it in Coffee archival ink.  I colored it with Distress Crayons and a water brush. Some fall vines were stamped around the edges.  The edges of the fabric tag were grunged with some Old Paper Distress Stain.  The tag was embellished with a jute bow (held to the tag with an alcohol-inked Halloween fastener), some fall-colored trim, and one of Tim's word bands (alcohol-inked and Black Soot Distress Crayon used on the word "REMNANTS").

 Before I assembled all the layers of my tag, I attached a burlap ribbon. Tim's Tattered Leaves, die cut from mixed media paper, were covered in Wendy Vecchi Crackle Paste and spritzed with Ground Expresso and Black Soot Distress Stain Sprays.   The color was diluted with water and left to dry.   The leaves were adhered with Matte Multi Medium.  Finally all of my layers were assembled and more trimmings were used a tag tie.

 I am entering this in

A Vintage Journey's: Crazy for Autumn Color Challenge
Country View Challenges: Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues
Words 2 Craft By: Autumn Challenge
Let's Craft and Create Anything Goes with Witchy/Autumn Colors Challenge 

I thought I had better get this homage to fall posted soon.  We had our first snow flurries flying today.  Brr ... winter's chill is here.  Warm wishes to you all! -- Mary Elizabeth