Favourite Things...

...blimey! Cor blimey in fact! It be Friday already!  Where did this week go to huh?  Well, my week has been spent mainly lounging around feeling a smidge sorry for meself because the old war wound has well and truly flared up again... so I have done the sum total of naff all... all week!  Well, until yesterday when I dragged my pained carcass, kicking and screaming, from its torpor on the sofa and forced meself into the Room of Stash.  Oh yes, the tidy *for a change!* but badly neglected Room of Stash!   Yes, it is tidy, thanks to some industrious activity last week but alas, the severity of this flare up has stopped me from even entertaining the idea of picking up a blending tool!  Oh ho, yes, I have been feeling well and truly sorry for meself I can tell you. 

So, how to get oneself feeling happy again?  Well, in my case it is simples!  Wave a few Distress Inks at me and a fistful of 490 and I am a happy bunny indeedily.  I decided on a "quick make" as I knew if I got involved in a big project, I wouldn't want to leave it be and then I would over do it and end up with even worse pain.  Setting myself a time limit usually helps the old Mojo kick start... and I was really strict with the ingredients for my tag too.  I was only allowed to use certain stamps and certain colours too.  Always pick your fave colours when you are doing a kick start, if you pick ones that clash with your brain, you will never like what you made.  Anyways, one hour later and I was happily covered in Broken China, Antique Linen and Salty Ocean Distress Inks... and I cheated a smidge too cos I added a bit of Forest Moss for the leaves too... well, cheating is allowed... isn't it?

The base of the tag had the Wrinkle Free Distress technique to apply the inks, I go back to this technique time and again, it is quick and it is also easy on the old arms and shoulders as there's not much blending to be done.   I overstamped the base with Antique Linen DI and the large background from Heirloom Art for a subtle pattern and then set about stamping a pop out background, this time using Jet Black Archival ink and the sprigs from Art Comforts.  A waterbrush assisted with the colourations of the sprigs, scooching DI onto the craft sheet and picking up the colour with the waterbrush.  Next up I stamped the large flower, from Forever Art, five times onto cream card.  The first image had the leaves stamped in Fern Green Archival Ink and the other four, I just stamped the flower head.  I cut them out in decreasing layers to get some decoupage layering going on and then coloured with Broken China and Salty Ocean DI's.  I grabbed a Paper Stump to puff the layers up so the finished effect, once assembled with the assistance of PinFlair glue, is a nice big blousy flower.  I then decided the leaves needed a bit of dimension too, so I stamped them again using Fern Green, cut them out and then coloured with Forest Moss, curling them slightly to make them pop too.  The sentiment is from The Purpose of Art, stamped onto a smaller piece of card I coloured the same way as the base tag.  A good old blend of Gathered Twigs around the edge of the tag and sentiment framed the design (yes, cheating with the colours again... ooopsies!)  Finishing touches were a bit of ribbon for the top of the tag and a little bit of Glossy Accents to highlight the flower... oh and the ickle butterfly - he is from Art For You and he is my most stamped stamp!  He is the one that I use all the time for arty kits for classes, the last class I did using him I had stamped him over 400 times just for that class, so yes, most stamped :O))  He is stamped with Jet Black Archival onto Clearly For Art modelling film and then heated up and shaped and a little dot of a pearl to finish him up nicely.

Today I am planning more gentle recouperations in the Room of Stash, I have some more Crackled Texture Paste to play with and some new Kaisercraft papers that I bought a couple of weeks ago and they are singing to me to cut them!  Fancy that!  Whatever you have planned today... hope it is a good one!  Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x