Thursday, May 13, 2010

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?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely wonderful art... I always love to see what you creae....

Sherry Goodloe said...

That "Time" tag is awesome . . . along with the others :)

Kerry said...

Love them both, but think the Grunge, Steampunk, etc. is my fave! Thanks for sharing! Kerry P.

Lori said...

No, not totally cute, I think the background saves you there. lol. And the sheet music on the fish. Brilliant ideas for the fish, btw. Love the Vecchi/Holtz tag, great idea for the used paper towels, as a matter of fact, I pulled one of those out of the garbage just yesterday...lol. Seriously, I did. What was I thinkin' throwin' that away? And that travel tag, just awesome, now I'm on the hunt for the Sizzix Eiffel Tower die, thank you very much...

Anonymous said...

:) The card is adorable!!!!! and I LOVE your tags as well..the "Time" is my favorite!!!!!

Bethan said...

Fab work as always Eileen! love your little fishes!

inge said...

Hello Eileen,

i like your recycled gears ! It's a great idea for reuse and I like what I see when I take a "close-up" on the background of it.

the cute fishes... it's indeed the background that saves you :)

greetings from belgium
Inge

PS : being cute now and then is not so bad :)

Nancy Lynn said...

Very nice work Eileen. I loved how you used the paper I sent you and thanks for mentioning that and linking to my blog.

katknit said...

I love the tags and the card .... have to say that the tags are my favorite!!! I love coming over to your blog to see what you have created....you are such an inspiration...

Have a great weekend.
Charlene

Kathy2eggs said...

I see the gears!!! Love the steampunk...

Art By Wanda said...

Love the fish card!!! What a great idea!! And, yes, the tags are wonderful too!!

Patzee said...

What amazing tags! You have created such depth and interest in a relatively small space! The anniversary card is on the very edge of being too cute. Your choice of the background keeps it edgy and unopredictable (as does the sheet music in place of fish scales). Very clever!