'Tis the Season

Hi folks, welcome to my blog and thank you for visiting.  I really appreciate that you've chosen to take a look at what I've been doing.  Today it's my effort for The Artful Times blog challenge, which is to make a fabric tag. 

Up till now I've resisted doing anything with a Yuletide theme, for a couple of reasons, one being that I can't really to begin to think about it until after my son's birthday in the middle of November.  However, I think it's about time, so here it is!

The background is white cotton fabric, coloured with Adirondack inks in Red Pepper, Cranberry and Wild Plum and then sprayed with red Radiant Rain and gold Sprinkies.  While it was drying, I stuck green organza to actetate using double-sided adhesive sheet and cut the swirls from the adhesive sheet (the dies is a Sizzix Tm Holtz Alterations die - Elegant Swirls).  I stamped the organza using gold Brilliance ink (stamp from The Artisic Stamper), and cut the leaves with the Holly Branch Alterations die.

Once the background was dry, I stamped the harlequin pattern (another Artistic Stamper stamp) in  gold Brilliance and brushed gold Perfect Pearls where I wanted the pattern to stand out. I stuck the adhesive swirls down onto the background and glittered them with Old Gold Art Institute glitter.  Finally, I arranged the holly leaves on the tag ( I stuck them down with offcuts of the adhesive sheet left over from cutting the swirl - thrifty, eh?)

And there we have it.  In the flesh, the red and gold are very vibrant and I am thinking of developing the theme for one of the pages in the mini-album I began earlier this week.  Could be good!

A crown, golden in show



The quote is from John Milton, which makes me look a lot cleverer than I am (we did read some of his poems when I was in school - he wasn't my favourite.  I think my opinion was coloured by his attitude to the women in his life;  in fact he was a real MCP!)

This week Hels has set the theme of "Shiny" for the Sunday Stampers challenge.  I had lots of ideas for shiny things...but none of them included stamping so didn't meet the challenge criteria.  Then I remembered the Flitterglu and the Kanban Steampunk stamps and the Problem Was Solved!

The large crowns were cut with Spellbinders dies.  The tag is actually greener than it looks in the picture, being coloured with Peeled Paint, Pine Needles and Evergreen Bough DI's - the gilding flakes I used were from Crafy Notions (Variegated Green) and I wanted to pick up the green tints. 

Thanks for visiting - I hope you liked the tag.

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Golden Slumbers

"Golden Slumbers kiss your eyes, Smiles awake you when you rise;  Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry, And I will sing a lullaby"

Hands up if you remember the BBC Schools Radio programme "Singing Together"?  As a schoolchild I learned lots of great songs that I've remembered the rest of my life, and when Hels Sheridan set "Gold" as the theme for Sunday Stampers I found my inspiration in one of those songs I learned all those years ago.

I intended to add all sorts of embellishments and sentiments to this but honestly, I like it as it is.  The mother and baby stamp is by Magenta;  because I wanted the faded, vintage look I inked up the stamp in VIntage Photo DI, took some of the ink off the edges with a paper towel,  and then put the tag on top of it and brayered the back.  The harlequin design is a texture mat and I just rolled in onto the tag.  The background is coloured with Butterscotch Adirondack  and you can just see where I rubbed a tiny bit of Rich Gold Gilder's paste around the edges.

While I'm talking about Gilder's Paste, I spent the best part of half an hour trying to open the tin before the Love Of My Life noticed the words"Press here" on the lid...D'Oh!