Artist's Choice

I'm in a small online group for sharing art, sometimes trading, and just hanging out with like minded people.  Membership is by invitation only, and not to sound snobbish, the point was to gather together some folks who have a good track record for quality work and responsible swapping.  Since we're not affiliated with any person, product, or store we're free to create whatever we want without constraints.  All we've agreed to is to always do our best work.

After a couple of weeks of getting to know one another, we've embarked on our first swap, and made it a simple one.  A tag.  Any theme.  Anything goes.  Artist's choice.  Works for me!

I actually completed my tag long before I knew who I'd be sending it to.  As it turns out, I'm mailing it to one of my cruise pals, Stephanie.  So, Steph, if you need to be surprised, stop now and go away!

I feel like this tag is a good example of my true style.  A little bit of grunge, a little bit of steampunk, a little bit of humor,  and a whole lot of texture and layering.

The background was done with lots of sprays, inks, paints, and stencils.  I'm not sure if it shows up in the photos, but I applied some light modeling paste through the harlequin stencil to raise it up and add some texture.

Hanging out around the clock, (Tim Holtz's weathered clock die) some stenciled people.

Does that little guy hanging onto the clock for dear life look familiar?

Well, he started out in life as a Wendy Vecchi stamp (from the gentlemen art set), about 4" high.  He was just what I wanted, but obviously way too big.  I stamped him, scanned the image and reduced it in size.  He was cut out, then completely covered with black ink, followed by a coat of glossy accents. 

Instead of using the usual clock hands I used two old keys, a rusty washer and a beat up brad.

And, since this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is 'anything goes,' I guess I have another twofer.