March tags

My goodness, this year's flying past. we are almost at the end of March already - a quarter of the way to Christmas!
This month's tag technique was faux leather. The suggested methods were either to use torn up masking tape or to spray with glycerine and crumple. In all honesty, I don't care much for the masking tape idea and I'd never tried glycerine before, so that's the technique I chose.

Firstly, dilute the glycerine to a concentration of 2 parts glycerine to 5 of water in a spray bottle.

Spray both sides of some 300gsm paper, rubbing in well and crumpling the paper  to help the glycerine absorb into the paper.

Leave to dry and repeat until the paper is soft and pliable.
Mine looked and felt like suede.

I then inked an embossing folder, put a piece of paper in and ran through the cuttlebug to emboss and ink at the same time. It still felt like suede but with a lovely retro design.

At this point you can spray with sparkle and shine and buff to resemble polished leather but I chose to leave mine unpolished.

I mounted a large piece on the tag and then made some in other colours, using the other side of the embossing folder to get a smaller motif which I cut out individually.

I pierced and stuck the shapes together with glue and a brad to get the retro flower which I stuck on with glue gel.

I had to submit 2 tags so did two different colour ways - I thin k the blue one is my favourite.

A great technique which I loved and will definitely do again.

Gina 

February Technique Tags - Distressing

I have to say I don't normally 'do' distressing to the extent I did on these tags, but I was pleasantly surprised - even though the PVA technique didn't work brilliantly for me. This first tag was done using vaseline to create a resist, painting over with acrylic, allowing to dry and then removing a layer of paint by rubbing off the paint and vaseline together.

I was trying for an effect of an old metal tray that had been painted over several times and got damaged over time. I gilded part of the tag and then painted a base coat of acrylic over part of the tag. 

When it was dry, I smeared over lip balm - it was the nearest thing I had to vaseline - and painted over with a second colour. 

I let that dry and repeated the process, finishing with an off white top coat.

Next, I overstamped with a morning glory stamp from Flora and Fauna by Chocolate Baroque and coloured in using promarkers.





My next attempt was using the PVA technique. Here you paint on a base coat of acrylic paint and allow it to dry, followed by a layer of diluted PVA. When dry, overpaint with the second colour of acrylic paint, allow to dry for a little while and then heat with a heat gun. The PVA blisters and cracks to look like old paint.

Mine blistered and cracked a little, but I liked the effect so carried on. This time I stamped with the pelargonium stamp from Flora and Fauna, again colouring with promarkers and a gel pan.

 I think it turned out OK. This one looks like old paint is in the process of being scraped of a metal plate.

March's technique is faux leather - another technique I've not tried - think that one's going to get messy.



Gina 

Technique Tags - January

As last year was so busy with the new job, I had little time for crafting - except for invites and so on for my son's wedding - so I've joined the Chocolate Baroque Technique Tag swap. The idea is that every month, we make two tags which employ a different technique, using products from Chocolate Baroque online store, send them off and then receive two done by another crafter in return. I did the alpha tags the year before last and there really is nothing like a deadline to get you crafting.

This month, the technique is to use a resist - either versamark on gloss card or a clear embossed resist. 

 This one uses white supersmooth card and the border is the part that uses the resist technique.

I stamped the border in versamark using Lace Fragments, embossed with clear EP and then coloured the paper with ink from a 'Peacock' distress ink pad. This is a great colour and a real pity that it was one of the seasonal editions because its not so easy to get hold of.

I thought it was fitting to use one of the stamps from Peacock fan stamp sheet. I've got three co-ordinating sets that came as a multibuy. There are new sets available now, but there are other gorgeous stamps I need before I get them.

The stamp is heat embossed in gold and coloured with promarkers in different shades of aqua.


 





 My second tag is the same design, but stamped onto parchment paper for a different effect. This time, I have used Wild Honey for the border and around the edges.










I enjoyed making this and particularly like the colours on the white card, so I've done another one for myself.

February's tag is 'distress' and I've already made them but I'll blog those in February.

Gina 

New Beginnings

I've decided to try to reawaken my craft blogs and where better to start than my first card of 2014.

I'm entering this for challenge 1 at creative challenges 2 where the theme is 'new'.  I cut the rocker card base out on my new silhoutte cameo and it is for my new daughter-in-law's birthday.

This is one of my favourite Tilda images - very sweet, easy to colour and works for lots of occassions.

Hopefully I'll manage to post more in the coming year now the new job is no longer new and I can manage to find some crafting time at last.

Gina