Affirmation Tags!

I have seen a lot of personal affirmations posted on Facebook and Pinterest.  That gave me an idea of how to use some of the tags that I have made while trying new inking techniques.  Below are my first three tags.  This is fantastic because now I have a place to practice techniques, lettering, Zentangling, doodling and collaging on a smaller scale.  I had a lot of fun and can't wait to make more of these.  You could even make a small journal with pockets and add these.

Anyway, for now I am off to babysit my grand kids while another one comes into this world!  So much excitement!

Trying New Techniques.....New for me that is.

 I used the acrylic paint resist technique.  I inked a fern stamp with lettuce green acrylic paint and stamped the tag.  I ended up  doing it twice because the first time I did it, I pressed the stamp too hard and smooched the paint.  Then I distressed it with various colors of distress ink using a blending tool.  I cut the bird from Tim Holtz, "Bird And Branch" die and cut off the branch.  I stamped the bird nest with eggs and tried to color them in....it ended up looking very muted and lost its detail.  So I went back in with my micron pen and scratched the detail back.  I added the eggs from some scrap that I had in my stash.  I'm not real impressed with the results.

 This was an emboss resist using Gelato's for the background.  It's pretty simple to do.  I embossed the image and the saying with clear embossing powder.  I rubbed the Gelato's across the background and used a paintbrush and water to spread it evenly over the card.  I guess I should have used a color ink instead of clear embossing ink.  Live and learn.  Still, I think it is cute and has potential.

I love this one but mostly because I love the bird stamp.  I used the ghosting technique with this one.  I covered the tag with distress inks using a blending tool.  I used a background stamp and sprayed it with water.  Then I stamped the card.  I lifted the stamp, let the water sit for a few seconds and then dried it with my heat tool.  If you double click on the picture you can see the results a little better.  Then I stamped the bird and colored it in using my distress markers.  So cute!

This is a tag that I played with a while ago.  I did the background using Gelato's and painting over with water.  Then I used my flourish stamp and rubbed the Gelato's on it, sprayed it with water and stamped the card in various spots.  I took a stencil that had dots or holes on it and ran a green Gelato's over it.  I cut two hearts out of an old dictionary page and colored it with Gelato's and blending it with water.  I glued the hearts on the tag and then to help them stand out a little, I colored around them with a black Gelato and blended it by rubbing it with my finger

Looking forward to Easter.

Awwwww, who doesn't like a little baby peep.  I did the background with Distress ink "Scattered Straw" and "Faded Blue Jeans" reinker.  I put the ink on my craft mat and sprayed lightly with water.  I pressed the tag in and got this beautiful background.  I made the flowers using Tim Holtz " Tattered Floral Garland" die.  I stamped the baby chick on white cardstock with Sepia ink.  I colored it in using my distress markers and my water brush.  when it dried, I went back in and used the fine point of the pens to add detail.  I printed the song lyric, cut it and glued it in place.  Then decided to outline it with a black pen to help it stand out.  I also decided to outline the chick and draw in some of the  detail that I felt got lost after I colored it.  I added the butterfly and called it done

St. Patrick's Day

 

I worked on this little tag today by inking the background with  distress ink "mowed lawn"  I put the ink on my craft mat and sprayed it with water and ran the tag through it.  I dried it and did it a couple more times to build up layers and give it some texture.  Then I put the ink on the mat but did not spray it with water and randomly dabbed the tag into it.  I printed the poem  and distressed it with "scattered straw".  I stamped a flourish design by inking the stamp and pressing it on scrap paper first and stamping a second time on the tag.  This made it so that the stamp didn't overpower the writing and appear as the background.  Then I added the lace, which was white, but I colored it with my distress marker "scattered straw".  I glued two buttons on either side and added a punched butterfly from the Martha Stewart collection.