Thursday, June 17, 2010

I'm A Glutton For Chaos

Creative chaos, that is.  Everyone involved was so in love with the Chaos project at ATT, that it didn't take long for someone to suggest doing it at EWV, this time using mostly Wendy's stamps and her style.  So, of course, I signed up.
This time I was assigned a small tag...only 2 3/4" x 1 3/8".  I love a good challenge, and this was one in the sense that though I do own many Wendy stamp sets, most have images way too large to use on such a small tag.  Ultimately I wound up using one of her background stamps and a border stamp.  Everything else I did falls under the Wendy style category.
Above, my pile of 12 finished tags.  I'm very happy with the way they turned out.  Here are the deets for the tag:
  • tag inked with wild honey distress ink, then run through my big kick in the victoria cuttlebug folder.
  • hit the raised areas with stormy sky distress ink, which came out looking green instead of blue.  duh!  yellow(wild honey) + blue(stormy sky) = green.
  • stamped the left side with the flower border from Wendy's art rules set, and the right side with one of the tiny design elements from Tim's mini cirque alphabet, both with black archival ink.
  • filled in the center of the flowers with broken china distress stickles.
  • drew some dashes next to the floral border with a dark blue glaze pen.
As for the star of the tag, the cheerful little birdie:


  • he was cut with a stampin' up punch from some of the manila paper left over after cutting the tag down to size; believe it or not, no grungepaper was used in this project.
  • the birds were stamped with the herringbone background stamp from Wendy's well worn art set, using black archival ink, then inked all over with broken china distress ink.
  • the wing was inked with faded jeans distress ink, and both the body and wing were edged with black soot distress ink.
  • the wing was attached to the body with a Tim snap, and the eye is one of Tim's mini fasteners (AKA, a brad).
OK...drumroll please.....what tickles me most, what I am most proud of....what sits atop said birdie's head.  I really wanted him to have a crown, but alas, none of my blingy crowns, grungeboard crowns, chipboard crowns, die cut crowns, or rubber stamp crowns were small enough.  Even the maya road mini crowns weren't mini enough.  Can you guess what I used?  Take a look:
That tacky little sun charm sitting next to the penny to show scale became my bird's top feathers.  First I flattened the charms in my big kick, then I cut them in half (with a plain old scissors -- they are cheap and thin in addition to being tacky).  I put a little bit of wadded up super sticky tape on the face part of the charm half and positioned it behind the bird's head.  It's OK if you're not as impressed with this as I am.  Cause I am impressed enough for all of us.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your tags are wonderful and wonderful idea how to make a crown...

Ruth Bonar said...

Your tags are fabulous. I'm so glad the raised area came out a bit on the green side. I absolutely love your color combinations. And the birdie is so "tweet."

Helen said...

It's ok, I'm impressed!! Also with the speed at which you've done these tags!

Lori said...

Oh, I'm impressed, all right, no worries about that. These turned out absolutely FABULOUS, with a capital "F". But, gol darn it, I was going to put a bird on my small tag, now I have to think of something different. And you're the second person I've seen use that Victoria CB folder, now I have to get one of those. I need some clothes for the cruise, now I'm in a pickle, clothes, stash, clothes, stash...oh, the choices we must make...

Tammy D said...

Very cool. I love the ingenious use of the sun.

Martha said...

Wow! You are so fast :) And the tags are beautiful !!!

ellen vargo designs said...

I love the way your tag turned out! I just joined the EWV group and will be working on mine soon - I cut my tags down to size today - I got a medium size assigned to me. Can't wait to see the final results!

Art By Wanda said...

Eileen, these are wonderful!!! and I am impressed with your "crown"... too cool!!!!

Kerry said...

Oh, they are wonderful! I love them, the color and I love, love, the little bird! Just wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

lovetostamp said...

Eileen - To say I'm impressed would be an understatement! Love your tag - everything about it. Your idea on the crown was awesome - what you did I like better than a crown - it's an original!

Nancy Lynn said...

Well I will chime in with everyone else, I love how you used that charm for the crown of the bird. Very nice tag.

Vic said...

Wonderful tag! You're a genius.

SusanK said...

You've got a winner, Eileen! Love everything about it!

Chris said...

Now that's my kind of thinking!

Dorothy said...

Love the tags!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty impressed with them ALL especially your crown!!! Love the way the tags turned out....everything about them!!! I just love coming to see what you create!!!!

Carol's Crafts said...

Your tags are sooooo beautiful, Eileen. I am impressed with your tiny crowns too. LOL

sue Young said...

Eileen...you are too funny!Although i must say...I AM impressed!!!:>:>: Sue PS REALLY cute tags!

Helena said...

Beautiful tags, Eileen and what a clever found about the "sun crowns"!!

Kathy Eddy said...

Great tags Eileen! Love the colors you used and that "Royal Bird" is just too cute and very Wendyish! I love the Victorian folder. of course my Granddaughter's name is Victoria, so I had to have it. LOL

Jason said...

Love the crown. . . Creative Thinking, I'd say!!!
~Jason

Bethan said...

my goodness, you don't hang around!! Love your tag, really cute!

Angie Hall Haviland said...

OH Eileen!!! LOVE these tags!!! Those little blue birds are PRECIOUS!!! I have some of those TACKY SUNS...what a FABULOUS idea...cause I absolutely don't see myself using them as charms :)

MarleneMAZ said...

Gorgeous tags! I love the colour combination you used and brilliant idea for their crowns :)

Patzee said...

All of this on a tiny tag?? You deserve to wear the crown!! Hail Queen Eileen! Thanks for all the deets. I feel I was looking over your shoulder while you were creating these beauties.

Anonymous said...

Eileen you are my inspiration! What a great tag and using the sun charm just takes the cake. Can't wait to see you in September on the cruise.
Lois Bell

patricia smith said...

I am impressed! Love that bird punch, and the way you did him. Great job as always.
Hugs, pat

Nancy said...

Great tag - and the 'crown' is truly an inspiration!