Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 7

A Tale of Two Sticky Back Canvas Flowers

The focal point of Tim's Day 7 tag is a very beautiful poinsettia that he made from Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas.  Beautiful AND labor intensive.  Made even more so for me by a broken hot glue gun.  Oh, this would have gone so much faster with that tool.  But enough whining.
The real star of this tag, though, for me, technique junkie that I am, is what Tim did with his embossing folder.  He inked the folder itself (the side that would be considered the bottom or back), placed the tag in face down and embossed.  What happens is, the color of the ink winds up in the debossed areas instead of the raised areas.  So then you can swipe some color on those parts without affecting the first color.   Clear as mud?   Please visit Tim's blog for the details.  (Actually there is a YouTube video on Tim's blog post from yesterday that explains this technique).

I did make the poinsettia for my Tim tag; I couldn't resist.  There will be something else, however, on my Wendy tag. (If this is your first visit, here, well WELCOME, and to explain, some of we Wendy Vecchi fans are attempting to not only do a Tim tag each day, but also using Tim's techniques as a jumping off point, we're creating tags using the stamps and style of  Wendy ).
So, here is my version:


Tim used his woodgrain folder.  I chose a Cuttlebug folder called holly ribbons.  I inked it with fired brick, which created the red background, and after embossing, used the blending tool to get the pine needles on the raised areas.  Pretty cool, huh?

Tim applied rock candy distress stickles all over his embossed background.  That's great to do when you want to blend the colors you've used, as the stickles will reactivate the inks and move them around.  Not such a good idea if you want to keep the colors separate, as I did, so I eliminated that step.

As I complained mentioned before, no hot glue gun, so I used glossy accents to adhere my poinsettia leaves.  It works, of course, but not nearly as quickly and efficiently as hot glue would have.  I also wound up positioning the flower a bit too high on the tag, so instead of attaching anything to the top, I hung my type charm from a little length of chain in the middle. 

The grungeboard word I  used is different, and I colored my flourishes differently as well. 

My opinion:  the poinsettia is a little cock-eyed but all in all, I'm happy with the tag.

My Wendy version:


Yikes!  My color is a little off.  The word JOY sure looks purple.  It isn't.  It was inked with aged mahogany, so it's really a reddish brown.

The embossing folder I chose here is from Stampin' Up and is called petals-a-plenty.  I've always liked this folder for Christmas projects;  though I'm sure it wasn't meant to be a holiday folder, to me, the flowers resemble little poinsettias, especially if colored the right way.   I inked the folder with worn lipstick, then after embossing, applied peeled paint to the raised areas.

Tim's tattered florals die was used again, but instead of making a poinsettia (once was really enough without a working hot glue gun), I stamped the pieces with some of Wendy's background stamps, curled the petals and put them all together to create the flower (and I used the leftover flower from the Tim tag).
Wendy's stamps were also used on the leaves and flourishes.

Seven down, five to go.  And enough new techniques to last for a good long time.  Thanks,Tim!







22 comments:

Tammy D said...

Love the tags. Really love the Wish tag in particular. Hope you start feeling better.

Helen said...

I had to use glossy accents too..... nuff said!
Love your tags - especially the Wendy one. Still not managed to do one a la Wendy. Still, 5 to go....!!

Mary-Beth said...

Oh Eileen, these are both GORGEOUS!!!! I love the folders you've used for both and great details!

Elaine A said...

Eileen -

These are gorgeous! Both of your tags are outstanding! Excellent job even without the uncooperative hot glue gun!!

Elaine Allen

Becky T. said...

You did excellent with today's tags. I think I like the hangy thingy on Tim's tag better than at the top! Great job! :-)

Jason said...

even though you say your color is off and yes it does look purple in the pic. I love it! and way to be recycling, Tim's droppings.
~Jason

Kathy Eddy said...

Gorgeous tags , both of them. I have to blog mine for today but they are done. I finally got a Wendy one done, though I pretty much made the same thing only with her stamps. She loves flowers so I thought the pointsettia would be good. Hope I can go back and get a few others done her style.

Vic said...

Fantabulous!!

Elaine Akers said...

Eileen...I have really enjoyed all of your tags. Lots of work and so beautiful.
Elaine Akers

Dorothy said...

You do such gorgeous work Eileen!!
I love it when you share!
Do you need a hot glue gun? I may have one here that no one is using.

Marjie in NY said...

Love your tags and your humor cracks me up! This inking the texture fades is addictive... I've been playing and playing with mine, and now I think I need to start looking at other brands with this in mind. The ribbon one you used is gorgeous.

Angie Hall Haviland said...

Oh my Goodness, Eileen!! BEAUTIFUL...love both your tags!! Your backgrounds are STUNNING!!

slbt17 said...

Beautiful!
Sandra

2amscrapper said...

I haven't made mine yet so thanks for the tip that the colors run together if you add the stickles. Great tags, as usual.

Cindy K. said...

Both tags are beautiful! Great job!
Cindy

Diann said...

Your ART work is just lovely...as ususal! I love both the beautiful tags - I can't believe there are just 5 more to come! Diann

Vestochka said...

What a gorgeous tags! I'm waiting for a tag with a flower in the title role, and that's Tim gave me a gift! " Come visit me http://anna-vestochka.blogspot.com/ and also our favorite art site http://narisuem.blogspot.com/, where we show the tags and participate in the daily prize draw. Join now and add your link!
Anna from Russia....

Unknown said...

Beautiful tags! Great job with your backgrounds!

Kerry said...

Eileen, they are beautiful. Hope you feel better.

france papillon said...

girl you rock! i just love what you made of it! and that Wendy Vecchi twist is awesome!

Lori said...

Your flowers turned out great. This tag gave me fits on both counts, first, the SB canvas didn't want to stick to the gp, so had to glue everything and wait for it to dry, then the petals gave me fits, well...you'll read about all this later, I'm sure...Your tags are both awesome, and great minds think alike, because without even seeing your Wendy tag, I used the same flourish stamp on the Wendy version, lol!

Heidi Bound said...

I absolutely LOVE the colors of the Wendy tag! So fun.