Tags & A Card

One thing I really like about making tags is the size.  Large enough to create an interesting (I hope) design, but small enough to complete without investing an entire day.  First up, a tag with a Paris theme:

Way in the background, almost entirely covered, is a stamp we received in one of our classes on the Tim Holtz/Wendy Vecchi cruise to Mexico.  It's a very cool stamp with room for journaling, the place visited, and little calendars for circling the date visited.  Great for any travel themed project.  I stamped it directly on the tag with archival ink, then sprayed it with some color wash, inked it, and generally distressed it totally.  I added part of a die cut of the Eiffel Tower and then just a collage of french labels and logos.  I LOVE the tiny letters that spell out JOURNEY.  They're from Jenni Bowlin, and I glued them to 1/2" circles of red cardstock, and attached them with pop dots for some dimension.

My next tag combines grunge, steampunk, some recycling,  a little Tim and a little Wendy...wowza!  All my faves rolled into one small tag.

For the background, I sprayed the tag with a couple of earth tone color washes.  While still wet, I sprinkled some salt on it.  That didn't do exactly what I'd hoped, but it did result in a little bit of a pitted look.  I also used Tim's compass mini mask, inked over with vintage photo distress ink, but I think most of that ultimately got covered up.  But it's there somewhere.

The gears.....I glued one of my totally colored paper towels I love to save onto scrap cardstock and used Tim's Gadget Gears die to cut them.  I arranged them on the tag and then wondered what to do next.  I decided that Wendy's art chick stamp would look great, especially if I substituted some more gears and sprockets for the usual flower on her head.  These from Tim's idea-ology line. I stamped her on cardstock with vintage photo distress ink, then added some vintage photo distress embossing powder.   The typewriter key letters were a mad steal I found in one of those bargain stores.  I think I bought every package they had.

I needed an anniversary card and I hate almost every one I see.  They're either too sentimental for my taste, or their "humor" rubs me the wrong way.  I kinda like the one I came up with, and I found yet another non-seasonal use for Stampin' Up's Christmas ornament punch.

I don't know what the background is (besides being gorgeous) because I didn't do it!  My talented friend Nancy sent it to me along with a TON of other goodies, and I thought it was the perfect setting for my kissing fish.   Yep, those fish started out as that ornament punch.  Can you guess what I used for their tails?  Don't hurt yourself thinking.....I used SU's 5-petal flower punch, and just snipped off two of the petals together and glued it right over the little top of the ornament.  Looking at them now, I realize a heart punch would have worked too.

Instead of bubbles, the kissing fish have little sparkly hearts over their heads.  Just my opinion here, of course, but I really don't think this card has totally gone over to the world of cute.  A little cute, maybe.  But not completely over the top cute.  Right?