12 TAGS OF 2013 – June Edition

Wow, it took me just about forever to decide on what I was going to do for this month’s Tim Holtz 12 Tags challenge.  The odd thing is that this time around I really had everything that was needed for the tag which quite wonderfully consisted of Distress Markers, Tag stock and little Stampology.  I think that this might have been the problem for me.  You see I rarely have all the supplies on hand and I usually have to find some creative solution to compensate for the lack thereof.  This time I had EVERYTHING which may have translated into mega-epic-proportion stamper block! 

Eventually though, fate cut me a break. Scrapworx in Richards Bay got a horde of cool new dies, and I bought the mini filmstrip and ticket die.  I was really keen on trying that out. I cut the tickets out and loved them, I mean – who doesn’t right?  Well now that I have them blank tickets – what should I do with them….hmmmm they look about the same size as the mini-tickets from the stampology Visual artistry sets.  Well what do you know – they are!  I played around with that for a while meaning that I stamped the ticket stamp in every Archival colour that I own, and then I got bored.  So then I thought – let me stamp some images on them and see how that works out.  I liked it but it was too 1820’s schoolbook looking, so I decided to liven up the monochrome with Distress Markers.  TIGERBLOOD WIN!!!!  I had so much fun, I distress markered like Charlie Sheen’s sobriety depended on it.

In the middle of that particular brand of mayhem I had a moment of epiphanic genius.  All the June Challenge calls for is distress markering a stamped image and then layering that on a distress painted tag. TIGERBLOOD WIN #2 – I could totally stick all my coloured tickets on a tag – and solve the stamper’s block dilemma!  And that folks, is the way the cookie crumbled.

Now, if you are familiar with my style at all, you know that I cant handle non-texture. I didn’t love just the pasted tickets even though they were pretty cool to do and they had a little something-something going on texture wise. 

But it really wasn’t hitting the spot for me so then I wrapped hessian/burlap string all around the tag.

 

I still thought that it needed something else.  I used some Barn door and Wild honey distress paint and added a few here-and-there swipes of rusty hinge ink with and an over-wash of the coppery distress stain to a bunch of tickets.  Then I dipped my brush in some Perfect Pearls to nail that rusty look down.

 

Oh yeah – I also painted on some Fired Earth Rust Medium for the gritty rust- but apart from providing the grit – it didn't really work out so well.  So my recommendation is to forego the Fried Earth brand of Rust agent if you are hoping that it will give you a rust effect.  You could just as easily buy sand and add it to paint and get the same effect.  I am nursing serious buyers remorse abut that (particularly since it was about R200-00 ($20).I stuck on a word band on that and threaded some hessian string through that.  Still not feeling the love though.

The other day I salvaged a bunch of bottle caps that would’ve ended up as garbage otherwise.

The rescued the bottle caps got flattened with my pliers.  I stamped one of the ADMIT ONE ticket stamps as the focal image and glossy accented over it. 

This seemed to pull the things together a little more.

(EEKS about the reflection of the lamp there)

At this point, I was almost happy and Charlie Sheen was a few steps away from being okay.

Next I stamped on the wrong side of Calico Fabric that I pre-starched – LOOOOVVVVVVEDD how this turned out and I think I am going to love the Eclectic Elements Fabric when it arrives in South Africa.  I also stamped the teeny collection of mini- tickets from one of the acrylic clear Visual Artistry Stamp sets. I distress markered those as well and glossy accented (as if you didn’t know that I was going to that).  I cut that in half abouts – and alternated the fabric tags with the paper ones and stuck them on a popsicle stick painted with Brushed pewter Distress Paint.

I am now happy with what I am going to enter – and Charlie is on his way to being relatively sober!!!