Side tracked...

I'm back.... :)  Oh my, where do the days go?  I have just started getting back to work a couple of weeks ago and with that and other things on the go I haven't had nearly the time to get into my craft space and do my thing.  So needless to say, I've been working on my personal chipboard album on an inner growth journey and wanting to use my Brene' Brown course as an inspiration for my album pages.  However, with that being said, my time crafting has been doing my art journal pages which is part of the course with my SIL and I haven't taken that inspiration over to my chipboard album yet.  COMING SOON, to a blog near you... LOL  Sorry, couldn't help myself. 

The last week or so I've been watching CHA 2014 videos and became fascinated with one of Wendy Vecchi reinker and alcohol techniques and so was itching to try it.  I ran out to the dollar store to grab my rubbing alcohol, and loaded up on all the colors of reinkers I could get my hands on, waiting for the store to get in the rest of the colors I don't have yet, and off to the races...

I love making tags so I pulled out my manila tags and got started.  :(  Note to self... the technique does not work on manila tags.  Wendy uses specialty stamping paper.  So, how does one improvise?  I decided to try using gesso on the tag first to seal it so that the ink wouldn't just absorb into the paper.  It worked like a charm!!!  Yehhhh... off to the races!  ;)  And I have to honestly say that the finish is amazing!  Even the feel of the paper with the gesso has this soft feel to it.  I spread the gesso on very thinly and evenly with a palette knife and then heat dried it.  Took seconds to dry.  :) 

I'll try to remember everything I did because I just started to play and it all came together in my tags.  It was afterwards when I thought to myself... I should have taken photos during the process and keep track of what I did but I'll try to share with you as best as I can.  :)  

Here is my first tag:

 

 

 

I love this tag!  It's so full of stuff and quite cluttered looking but I like it!  LOL 

I used Archival reinkers fern green, cornflower blue and gold mixative.  Distress inks faded jeans.  Archival ink pads black, watering can, potting soil, orange blossom, fern green.  Embossing paste white.  Alteration sizzlits Spring Greenery.  Kaiser stamp flutter and butterflies.  TH stencils in bubble and rays, and a Crafters Workshop brick wall.  Prima flowers and dollar store butterflies. 

Once I had the tag prepped with gesso and dried, I did Wendy's marbling using cornflower blue and fern green reinkers,  gold mixative and rubbing alcohol.  Sweet!  I took some fern green ink and sponged it around parts of the outer edge of the tag and because I do not yet have the cornflower blue ink pad, I opted to use the Distress ink in faded jeans and did other parts of the tag and blending inwards in some areas as well to intensify the blue that I wanted more of. 

Next, I pulled my stencils and took white embossing paste with the brick stencil to make a stone wall and heat set it to dry.  Then I stenciled the bubble dots in watering can, the ray in orange blossom.  I went back to the bricks when I was sure it was completely dry and used my small finger thimble sponges from CTMH to color the wall using Archival inks in potting soil, orange blossom and watering can to create a stone wall look.  It turned out soooo good! 

I added the Kaiser flutter stamp and the butterfly in random areas. 

Next I die cut Spring Greenery from a soft green textured cardstock and used archival inks fern green and potting soil and color inked the leaves and stems.  I glued them into place.  Lastly, I added my prima flowers and my butterflies.  Whalla!  An amazing tag.  :)  I love the intensity and depth of the archival inks.  Super wow. 

Next up...

 

 

This is just a soft pretty tag. 

I used gesso, Archival reinkers in cornflower blue, coffee and gold mixative.  Archival inks in red geranium, potting soil, black, orange blossom, coffee. Kaiser stamp bird cage.  Heidi swap stencil.  TH bird cage die, embossing paste white and black.  Distress stains crushed olive and forest moss.  Washi tape.  Crafters Workshop stencil chicken wire, mini texture tile and dylusion diamond border.

I marbled the tag with the reinkers and dried it.  I random stenciled the chicken wire in potting soil ink.  The mini texture tile in red geranium.  The diamond border in orange blossom.  I put down some washi tape that I had cut tails into.  Then I stamped the bird cage over top.  Next, I took the bird stencil and stenciled the leaves with white embossing paste and set to dry.  While that was drying, I cut the bird from TH birdcage die.  I used black embossing paste and spread it across the branch for some dimension and did the same using white embossing paste and a  palette knife and covered the bird trying to shape texture into the bird to mimic the feathers.  I went back to the leaves and heat set it for a bit then used the two green distress inks listed and colored the leaves with a watercolor brush.  Heat set again.  Once the bird was dry, I used Archival inks red geranium, orange blossom and coffee and my thimble sponges from CTMH and colored the bird.  Heat set the color and glued him into place. 

Last but not least...

 

This one I'm going to have to completely wing it because I was working on it with my gf here visiting me and I gave it to her to take home so I'm going on memory alone since I don't have tag in front of me to refer to.  Shrug... Alright, lets try to recall...

I used gesso to seal the tag, Archival reinkers coffee and cornflower blue and gold mixative.  Archival inks in coffee, red geranium, black.  Distress ink vintage photo.  Alcohol inks, caramel, ginger, cranberry and some golden ochre color that came in the sets that doesn't have a color name on it.  Kaiser stamps rocks and alphabet. TH stencil stripes.  Alterations die vintage globe, grunge paper and foil tape sheet.  Dylusions Quintessential quotes.  (I love these, some of them crack me up)

I marbled the tag in coffee, cornflower blue and gold mixative.  I distress inked the edges in vintage photo.  I stamped the rock stamp in coffee, the alphabet in red geranium and stenciled the striped in vintage photo for a softer stripe look.  I took grunge paper and added the foil sheet overtop,  smoothed it with a brayer and then run it thru the die cut machine.  I used the alcohol inks with the gold mixative over top.  I inked the quote in black archival and cut out the words individually and then colored them with red geranium and potting soil lightly with a sponge tapping color on and blending.  I glued all my elements in place. 

Bedeep bedeep...That's all folks!  :)   I hope you enjoy my tags that I made.  I had so much fun making these.  Look forward to hearing what you think.  :)  See you soon.  :)