Tim Holtz Tags of 2013 – May submission

I am a little late with my submission this time around.  It is nearing exam time for my students so I have been concentrating on that blog a bit more.  Also, I am a tweaker – I tweak at things until I get them to a point where I am marginally satisfied – I have a problem leaving things alone.  The good news is that I managed to stay somewhat close to the Tim Holtz design this time….with a few tweaks….okay maybe a few good more than a few tweaks. 
Mr Holtz bust out all my favourite colours this time around for his tag. So anyway – here is what Tim Holtz did on the left.  The challenge was to use his line of “Remnant Rubs”.  I loved the look of that tag.  Remember how In the 80’s it was popular to have a white background and then just a few key elements highlighted in neon hues – I love that he reversed that in this – where the key elements remain uncoloured and the background is all coloured up on steroids.  Here below – is my “rendering”.



Now for the tweaking bits.

• I decided to use a Kraft Tag instead of a white one.  I love how Distress ink and stains look on Kraft.  It automatically renders a vintage quality to it. 
• I do actually have the Remnant Rubs, I waited until I got them to even begin the tag.  Once I got them though and began the technique – I felt like, the vision I had in my head for the tag needed larger images than the size of the images on the sheet of remnant rubs.  The larger images like the flourishes didn't quite work with what I was seeing in my head.  So I cheated and used the stamp version of the images that I wanted from the remnant rubs. 
  
  But I still wanted to preserve the integrity of the resist effect that remnant rubs provide – so I decided to do something that I have discovered before when I wanted to create a resist effect.  I stamped the images in archival ink, let it dry thoroughly and then with a fairy sized paint brush – applied clear polyurethane varnish over the bits that I wanted.   I was happy with the look – remnant rub-ish enough!
• I then inked with Distress Inks and Stain.  I wanted a sort of ethereal, glowy bit in the centre where I was going to ghost stamp one of the images from the Photo Set.  So I used some White picket fence distress paint and then stamped the image in Archival Black.  When I flicked water over that bit – it created white glowing star-looking blobs – SERENDIPITOUS!!!
• To recreate the ripped off effect, I tore a piece of a post-it note to mask off a rip line (I am not sure a “rip-line” is a genuinely legitimate artsy term – but just if anybody hears it again – you saw it here first ;) )

• I like busy, floating texture on stuff – and in my opinion, my tag was looking too flat, even though I had ghosts appearing out of the cosmos in the centre of the tag.  I wanted more texture on the side of the tag, So I inked a piece of manila tag that I cut to a shape that I liked and stamped on that with one of the images on the remnant rub (i.e the text from the Visual Artistry Lost and Found Clear Stamp Set) and glued that over most of the Bingo image on the side.
• I felt it needed more interesting bits.  I had to work the filmstrip.  I don't have the Filmstrip roll as in the Idea-ology kind – but what I did have was the filmstrip stamp  (Visual Artistry Lost and Found Clear Stamp Set) and “Clearly for Art” Transparency film.  The moment I stamped the filmstrip on that (which was remarkably difficult to do because it kept sliding all over the place like the 80’s video tracer special FX), I knew that I wanted to roll up the film.  I honestly tried laying it down flat like the original Tim Holtz tag, but I couldn't, I really couldn't – I had to have it curled.  I heated it up and rolled it into a scroll and as we all love it for – Clearly For Art keeps its moulded shape as soon as it cools.  I attached the side scroll to the edge of the card with an Idea-ology hinge-clip.  I punched a hole in the other strip, added a grommet, and positioned it directly over the hole on the tag so that I could thread the fabric strips through it.  To secure it a little more I used some wonder tape on the back – to keep in the perfect angle that I wanted it in. I used a clock face (not a Tim Holtz item though – ssssshhhh – its from Chronology, and a washer and an Idea-ology pen nib because I frickin love those.  I love fountain pens in general.

   

• In my head, I already knew which quote stamp would match the theme of this tag – I wanted to preserve some of the “white background” look that the Remnant Rubs on white cardstock gave but I still wanted the ghostly people cosmos background to still be visible as a layer, so what I ended up doing was stamping the quote on a piece of acetate in Staz-on.  When it dried, I flipped it over and used a white French Manicure Nail Pen to highlight just the stamped text.  I like how that turned out – gotta do that more often.
• The plain acetate looked a bit unfinished so I faux-soldered it with a line of glossy accents around the edges and then when it dried sufficiently to touch – I brushed Pearl-Ex all over it so that it would look like glass that has been gilded.  This turned out to be quite messy and I didn't manage to keep the Pearl-Ex on just the edges of the acetate.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some!
• The left-hand bottom corner was looking a bit bare and it was crying out for something – so I put a splotchy blob of crackle accents on there and you know all the excess Pearl-Ex that was just hanging about the tag doing nothing useful but not exactly dusting off either, I dragged as much of it as I could down to the crackly splotch – that seemed to tie everything in.
• I wasn't done with the texturing yet, it’s like how I tell my students to focus on the key ideas when they are trying to learn something instead of trying to recall every single sentence in the book, we needed a keyword here to create a focal point.  I really love those plastic idea-ology alphaparts – I cant stop myself from buying them and sticking them on everything.  In fact I have a grand plan to label all my cans and storage boxes with them.  So it is only natural that I reached for them to lay down the focal point.  I love how thick and dimensional they are – spiffy dahrlings!

   

• I hammered some gold brads flat and stuck those down on the top left hand corner in a stripe. 
• I cut two strips of calico and length of hessian string.  I distress inked one of the calico strips and left the other plain then I threaded all three lengths of trim through the hole on the top of the tag.

They say you should stop when you feel like you want to do just one more thing.  I ruminated about adding the enamel tag which I copied directly with the appropriate remnant rubs but when I tried to find a place for it – it just didn't seem to fit well with the overall look. 
And there it is – the May tag for the 12 Tags of 2013 Tim Holtz challenge.