12 Tags of August 2015 - September; and a bonus...

Tim set forth real challenge this time in his 12 Tags of September, for me at least!  First, I use smaller tags than he does so trying to fit everything on meant I had to go smaller with stamps and embellishments which, for my klutsy fingers, meant some really tedious fussy cutting and heating and some not-so-successful attempts with Idea-ology’s “Frosted” medium. Second — of all the gel and texture media I have acquired since getting addicted to all things Ranger, the one I did NOT have was Texture Medium Transparent (neither gloss nor matte!)!, so I had to order it (them — might as well cover all bases while I was at it!) and hope it (they) arrived within the month. Luckily, it was (they were) in stock and came before the Labor Day weekend shut down postal service for four agonizing days!

So I set forth, step by step… with a few changes along the way to acommodate my small tag size and my need, right now, for autumnal colors!

First I created a background using Ranger’s Alcohol Ink yardstick (glossy side), seven alcohol inks (“Citrus”, “Cool Peri”, “Pink Sherbet”, “Sunset Orange”, “Peach Bellini”, “Cloudy Blue”, “Poppy Field”), Gold Fixative and Blending Solution. I swiped several sheets through my ink mixture and this is the one I chose for the tag (another I used a for a card I will describe later in this post):

One of these days I will get the color balance right because, as you can see, the “Poppy Field” and “Sunset Orange” tended to overwhelm my other color choices…but  a few did appear and I trimmed the piece to fit my tag (in my case, that was to something in the order of 2.25” x 4.5”). Then I stamped three dragonflies (All Night Media #508F) in Archival “Jet Black” on the background piece:

and on a sheet of Idea-ology “Frosted”:

I took a white tag (2.5/8” x 5.14”) and sprayed it with “Peeled Paint” Distress Spray Stain and water:

I searched my paper scraps file and found a piece of green cardstock almost the same color as “Peeled Paint:, tore off a strip, “distressed” the card with more “Peeled Paint” Distress Ink and mounted an Idea-ology Word Band (“Observations” with two HOTP brads (Hot of the Press Autumn Brad Pack, 81134). I  dulled down the green color of the brads with “Vintage Photo” Distress Paint:

When the stamped dragonflies had dried (and the Texture Paste had arrived), I applied the medium through the “Flourish” Layering Stencil (THS 0032):

It did indeed look a little scary, all white and runny looking but I waited overnight and, the next morning, the tag had dried clear:

I used a blending tool and Archival Ink (“Vermilion”) to lightly touch the tops of the stenciled pattern:

and also to blend around the edges of the background.

Now to the “frosted” dragonflies. I cut the sheet apart and fussy cut them out:

and then heated them with my heat tool and attempted to bend them to my will. Either I didn’t heat them enough or my fingers were too klutzy because there was a clear indication of a fold in the wings at the body, a whitish line that looked like embossed vellum — a white line. AAACK! I didn’t want to curl my dragonfly wings — I wanted them to stand up so I tried again. Not a lot of luck but I wasn’t going to cut more of the little buggers out so…

Time for final assembly!

I attached the background and the word band to the tag with red-line tape. I carefully applied Glossy Accents to the dragonfly bodies and applied them to the stamped images, making sure that the body of the lowest dragonfly slid under the word band but over the green cardstock…

I then used a Distress Marker (“Black Soot”) and a Distress Marker Spritzer to add a little texture to the tag:

and added a piece of seam tape, dyed red (from a Funkie Junkie shipment) for my final tag:

I started out thinking autumnal and ended up at Christmas! Oh well, I like it anyway, even if dragonflies aren't traditional Christmas symbols!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for that bonus...

Not one to let all that alcohol ink and mixative go to waste, I had swiped a second piece of alcohol ink cardstock over my craft sheet and came up with this, which I mounted on a scrap piece of Lasting Impressions paper (“Lily Pond Solid” which was surprisingly close to the “Citrus” color in the corner of the card):

This color combination looked Chistmassy to me so I stamped an image and a sentiment from the “Deco Christmas” set (CMS176) in Archival “Jet Black”:

mounted the layers to a folded piece of ivory card from The Write Stack:

and then edged the green layer with a permanent black pen for a finished card.

My first handmade Christmas card of 2015! I’m linking it to the Tim Holtz Exclusive  post  for  the Simon Says Stamp’s STAMPtember®…

Products used in the making of this tag and card were (not necessarily in order):

• Inks: Ranger’s Alcohol Ink (“Citrus”, “Cool Peri”, “Pink Sherbet”, “Sunset Orange”, “Peach Bellini”, “Cloudy Blue” and “Poppy Field”); “Gold Fixative; Alcohol Ink Blending Solution: Archival “jet Black” and “Vermillion”; Distress Spray Stain “Peeled Paint”; Distress Ink “Peeled Paint”; Distress Paint “Vintage Photo”, Bic Grip Permanent Pen “Black”
• Stamps: All Night Media 508F, CMS176 “Deco Christmas”
• Papers: Alcohol Ink Cardstock; small white tag; Idea-ology “Frosted” sheet; Lasting Impressions “Lily Pad Solid” paper, The Write Stack pressured ivory card base; and scrap cardstock (green)
• Embellishments: Idea-ology Word Bands “Observations”; Hot Off the Press Autumn Brad Pack *81134); Seam Binding

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. I was so thrilled that my August tag won and I want to thank Mario Tim and Joy from Inspiration Emporium for the selection and the wonderful gift! And to everyone who commented on my tag, thank you very much! I would reply to all of you personally if I could...