Love is in the Air

Another week has whizzed by, in fact another month has whizzed by.  I can't believe we are into February already.  This week, at Our Creative Corner we are welcoming five new designers:

Sue Butler - Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston - The Artful Maven Haven

Marcy Kaminski - En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) - Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu - Simply Paper Crafts

I hope you will stop by their blogs and leave them some love.

I've been super  busy as usual, but I did find time to create a sweet  and slightly shabby Valentine's tag for Our Creative Corner this week.  Sharon Wheet is our hostess and her challenge to us is to create a Valentine's Day project with the colors pink, gray and kraft.  I searched all over my studio but could not find a scrap of Going Gray CS so I improvised and used silver metal instead.  We are also to add some bling and sparkle and also to include a heart.  I use all these colors and items frequently, but apparently not gray.

I began my project by cutting a tag from corrugated cardboard with the Tag and Bookplates die and swiping it with Claudine Hellmuth's Gesso, drying it with my heat tool to speed things up.  Next I stamped the images from Paris Exposition on white CS and sponged them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I also stamped the music from Ephemera Backgrounds onto white CS.  All stamping was done with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink.  I like it because it is a permanent ink that doesn't bleed/run when you sponge or spray it.  I sponged the heart, which was cut with Spellbinders Classic Hearts Nestabilities, with a bit of Vintage Photo DI and then ran it through the Cuttlebug Textile EF.  Then I sponged over the high points again with Vintage Photo DI.  I set the three stamped pieces aside and went to work on creating the other elements.  The metal is Ranger Foil Tape Sheet which was adhered to a piece of white CS and then run through the Moroccan Screen EF and glued to the tag.  Then I glued a narrow strip of lace down with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium Matte to finish off the bottom.  A piece of vellum was cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Banner die and stamped it with the black archival ink using the Valentine's day sentiment from Cutie Pie.  Then Tattered Rose Distress Stain was applied to the back of the vellum.  I dried it with my heat tool and felt it wasn't dark enough so I did that two more times.  It's a little blotchy and runny looking, uneven in color - I love it!  The flower was created by stamping with the music stamp in Sepia archival ink and then applying Tattered Rose Distress Stain.  It was cut with my new Mini Tattered Florals Movers and Shapers die.  I added a piece of netting that is used for ladies hat veils - don't remember what that stuff is called, then topped it with the little flower and a vintage pink button.

Moving along, I ripped the front part off a small glassine bag, crumpled it up, smoothed it out and painted it with a wash of 1 part water and 1 part gesso, dried it with my heat tool and then stippled it with full strength gesso.  Then I applied two coats of Tattered Florals Distress Stain to the back, drying after each coat.  I took the Paris Exposition stamp from the set of the same name and inked only 'Paris', stamping repeatedly on the gesso coated glassine bag.  Again I dried it with my heat tool to set the ink.  When dry, I added some bling by spraying it with Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist (love that stuff!).  A little bauble and a bit of dyed seam binding was added and the tag was done.

Whew, I guess that wasn't really a simple tag this week.  I got pretty artsy with it and had a blast messing around with all the fun stains and goopy stuff.  Now I hope you will stop over to the OCC and be inspired by all the lovely Valentine's art over there.

Most of the products I used can be purchased in my Etsy shop.  Quantities are limited but I have new products coming in every week so if you don't see what you are looking for, check back in a week and see if they are there.  If there is anything you want me to carry, please let me know.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your lovely comments.


The following products were used to create this project:

InLinkz.com