Friday, May 27, 2011

I'm A Tagmaniac!

I'm part of a group called Artistic Portfolios....mainly the women I do collaborative art journals with, and most of whom I get to see in Key Largo at our (now) yearly Keys4Art retreat.  We've been creating backgrounds and journal pages and sending them to everyone in the group.  Our next project is tags, and we're making two for each participant.  Of course we can do whatever we like with them, but the idea is to incorporate them somehow into the journals that we're going to make with all the pages we'll be getting.

I used this as a way to play around with some of the techniques I've been doing lately, some from weekly challenges and some from workshops. 

These use the brushless watercolor technique that has popped up on TWO recent challenges (see prior posts for the details), and I've used Wendy Vecchi stamps (except for the sentiment, which is Stampin' Up):


This next set of tags has the nice and easy color blocking technique by Sir Tim (see last week's Grungy Monday for the deets):


The background stamp is Tim's and of course, umbrella man, who looks great on the colorful base, is a Tim die.

One of my all time favorite techniques (and I don't know who to credit it with because I've seen it in so many different places) is a variation of Joseph's Coat.  You stamp over patterned paper with clear ink, emboss it with clear powder, and then cover the whole thing with dark (usually black) ink.  The embossed areas retain the original pattern, and if you've used colorful paper it really pops.  I did several tags with that method:


I did the technique on 12x12 papers and used very dark blue ink instead of black, then cut the papers up into tag size, which is why each background is slightly different.  They're also all embellished differently.  I've used Spellbinders butterfly and dragonfly dies, Tim's mini butterfly and cage/bird dies, and one more.....


To get that rich deep and very distressed looking blue finish on the butterflies on the ribbon, I stamped the row of butterflies from Tim's Papillon set on black paper with clear ink, and then used blue UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel).  Then I just cut them out and fastened them to the tag with the tiny attacher.

The next few tags gave me the opportunity to play around with the use of stencils over collage. 


Small squares from a previously done collage were glued down on the tag on the left.  The entire tag was covered with adhesive.  After the squares went down, gold UTEE was applied....embossing powder/enamel sticks to glue just as well as to wet ink....which created the mosaic effect.  Final touch:  stenciling in black paint and then some black crystal bling.

On the right, the collage was not cut up, but the same stencils and bling were used.

All of the following started out as collaged pieces, mainly text and patterned tissue paper.  Some had a little embossing added, others received images, and all were stenciled.






25 comments:

Elena said...

OMG!!! Eileen they are all FABULOUS!!!

Art By Wanda said...

Wow!!!!!!!! All your tags are fantastic!!!

Sandy said...

Fantastic! Love your work, always have always will
Huggles
Sandy

Barbara Mason said...

The tags are great Eileen...there is a place you can go to for help...TA-Tagaholics Anonymous!!! LOL!!!

Sherry Goodloe said...

Wow wow wow!!! Just gorgeous my friend!

Unknown said...

Fabulous,can I have umbrella man please I love that stamp!

teri said...

I'm not sure if it is gold on black or black on gold, but I love those particularly. I'm taking notes over here.

Sue Young said...

YOU.HAVE.GOT.TO.STOP!!!!! GEEZ!!!!!!!!!!You're killing me here!!!
These are all just wonderful!!!!!AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

LOL

XO

Lesley said...

Blimey o riley!!......these are all just fab!!!!Oh i haow i wished i had the time to make that many tags......would take me about 2 months!!

Nancy said...

These are ALL wonderful, Eileen!! You've been VERY busy! lol Your Key Largo friends are going to love receiving these!

Vic said...

You have out done youself! They are all fabulous!

Mary-Beth said...

Fabulous Eileen, love 'em all!!

Diann said...

You go girl...wonderful ART tags! I love them all but there are a couple with birds that just stole my heart! Diann

Helen said...

WOW! I love these - all of them - such wonderful patterns that contribute to a whole bunch of fantastic tags.

Tammy D said...

Wow you have been busy. These are all great. I can't pick a favorite!

Valerie Brincheck said...

MY GOODNESS ... you have been a tag making maniac! I love all of them!

Dorothy said...

Eileen, each tag is gorgeous!!!

Patti Angelina said...

WOW! Eileen those are amazing. Each one is more beautiful than the next.

2amscrapper said...

wowzers! all are amazing! I just bought that umbrella man die and love how you used it on your tags.

Marjie Kemper said...

Wow! What a wonderful time you must have had making all these lovelies!

jane said...

Can I come play with you? I love all the things that you do. What an imagination!

Lori said...

Holy crap, they're all so utterly fantastic! Love all the techniques.. well, after all, you are the technique Queen.

inge said...

Hello Eileen,

you are amazing ! What a busy bee :)
You don't only have 13 tags, you even used so many different techniques !

my favorites are the colorblock background ( must look out for this technique) and the embossing with the black backgroud.

I will be on the look out for one of these beauties !
greetings from belgium
Inge

Bearcrazyman said...

Love them all.. This is why you are the Paper Queen.

Friends
Stephen
http://bearcrazyman.blogspot.com/

Kerry said...

Eileen - fantastic! I love tags, love making tags and I loved looking at all your tags! Thanks for sharing. Kerry