Flower Tag, Vellum, Thinking Of You

Are you playing along with the current Tag You're It challenge?

If you are you will know that our Featured Artist is a lady by the name of Michelle Short.

Michelle created a tag full of colour, with one single flower that had a lot of petals!

Here's my version of Michelle's tag - made into a card so I can play along at CAS Mix Up, too.

Cards with shiny surfaces are notoriously difficult to photograph, so here's a close up shot that shows the colours in a truer light...

(If you look closely, I think you can even see some sparkle).

When I looked at Michelle's tag, I was struck by the intensity of her bright, bold colour choices.  

Let me show you so you can see for yourself...

To make this design 'me' however, I had to look past those beautifully vivid colours and see what else I could see.

A bold black outlined flower stamp with a coloured centre that draws the eye in, lots of petals, some text...  and a very pretty splodgy/dotty background.  

I can work with those, I told myself...  and set off to create my tag.  

I decided that I wanted to make something that was the 'polar opposite' to Michelle's tag, yet it still holds true to many of her design features.
I knew immediately that I only had one stamp that was similar to Michelle's.  The outline isn't as bold, but good enough for what I wanted to achieve.

Stamping the flower image onto vellum a few times - twice for the bigger flower, once for the first, (plus one bigger flower centre),  gave me my 'multitude of petals' look.  

But can you see that those petals don't really look like vellum?

Here's how I did that...

Use Black Stazon Ink and stamp image directly on to the tag.

Then...

Use Black Stazon Ink to stamp images directly onto vellum.  (Reminder: Two large flowers, one small flower, plus one large flower centre).

Flip vellum over so the stamped images are on the back, tape down (otherwise the vellum will curl like crazy) and apply a few thin layers of White Gesso

Leave to dry.

Then...

Cut out one big flower.

Do the same again, only this time leave out a few petals at random intervals whilst cutting.

Cut out the large flower centre and the smaller flower.

Using a Red Marker Pen, carefully colour all of the centres of the flowers.

Leave to dry.

BEFORE assembling the flowers...  

Colour the flower stem with Green Marker Pens, add splatters of Twinkling H20's to the tag (not a colour lift like Michelle's design, but it still gives a splodgy look - even if mine's much more sparse)...  and add an embossed sentiment.  (I stamped mine in Black Stazon Ink again, but before inking up in Black I inked up in Perfect Medium embossing Ink first.  Just stamp the text as normal, then add a clear embossing powder, shake off the excess and heat set. 

Now to assemble the flowers...

Put a small dot of glue behind the centre of the small flower, align with the stamped image on the tag and glue into place.

Do the same with the large flower, then layer on the flower with partial petals, followed by the flower centre.

Leave to dry, then shape petals on the large flower using the side of a thin paintbrush to curl around.

Mask off both flowers from the rest of the tag by placing scrap paper under the petals.  Make sure that the tag is completely covered by scrap paper and that only the flowers are showing.

Then...

Spray with Glitter Varnish and leave to dry.

(Not only does the Glitter Varnish leave a beautiful finish to the petals, it also acts as a sealant for the water soluble Marker Pen that were used for the flower centres).

Once the main body of the tag was done, I added a ring link.  This was made by gluing three layers of the die cut together (see Supplies Used for the die used), and then adding a layer of Crackle Accents to both sides and allowing to dry.  

Once dry, the link was thread through a Chain die that was treated to a layer of Silver Gilding Wax.  (I had to cut the link to do this, then glued it back together with a spot of Collall Tacky Glue).

All that was left to do was to make a quick background.

I used an Embossing Folder on a piece of Kraft Core Metallic card, sanded it to see some of the core beneath...

...  and then glued everything into place - using 3D Gel to add dimension underneath the tag.

Then I mounted the whole thing onto silver card stock for colour continuity.

It's not as complicated as it all sounds - I promise!
I'm just a very 'wordy' person!

 Why don't you come and join in with us at Tag You're It!?
The current challenge started on Friday so there's plenty of time to play along.
We'd love to see you there. x

Supplies Used:

Stamp:

Uniko 'Pure Florals' - Cosmos

Dies:
Mama Elephant 'Tags A Lot'

Poppystamps 'Delicate Chain'

Poppystamps 'Righteous Rings'

Ink:

Stazon 'Jet Black'

Ranger 'Perfect Medium Embossing Ink'

Marker Pens:

Stampin' Up 'Raspberry Ripple'

Stampin' Up 'Gumball Green'

Tsukineko/Memento 'Bamboo Leaves'

Embossing Folder:

Sizzix/Tim Holtz Texture Fades 'Distressed Frame' 

Other:

Twinkling H20's  - Pearl Blue

Pebeo Gilding Wax - Silver

Tim Holtz Kraft Core - Metallic

Stampendous - Clear Embossing Powder

Collall - 3D Gel Glue

Crafters Companion 'Spray and Sparkle' - Pearl Diamond

Challenges I'm Entering...

CAS Mix Up Challenge
(I chose Stamping, Spray Varnish, Markers and Twinkling H20's 'Splatting')

Simon Says/Wednesday
Make For The Border

Pixies Crafty Snippets Challenge
(The whole tag's made from snippets)!

I hope you had a good weekend and are ready for whatever today brings your way...

'Crafty Hugs' to you...

Donna. x

*

I went out early this morning and came home to be greeted by some lovely Happy Mail...  

My first Pocket Letter from my very lovely craft friend, Hazel Kingvig-Paul.

Thank you so much, Hazel.

You sure did brighten my day.

I couldn't quite fit it all into the one photo, though...

Isn't it amazing?

So much thought and attention to detail...

...  And what a lovely way to use up some of those odds and ends that I know we all have.

Sending you a very big thank you 'hug', Hazel. 

Mwah. x