/* */ Beulah Bee

June 27, 2014

Resting Place

I sometimes think my tags are more like journal pages and I certainly seem to approach them that way. This one is a good example of what I mean.

I wondered what would happen if I used black acrylic paint and my tree stencil (Crafter's Workshop) over a piece of very tiny sheet music (Vintage Finds by Theresa Collins). But the contrast of black and white was pretty stark, so I decided it needed leaves.

I put small drops of three shades of green acrylic paint here and there and covered it with a piece of scrap paper that I pressed down and lifted off. There was too much coverage so I used a sheet of hand sanitizer (don't have baby wipes) to take off most of it.

What if I tried to make it look like the sky was peaking through? Out came a few shades of blue paint that I applied with a brush, feathering a bit with my fingers and wipes.

Next? Birds, of course! So I used black archival ink to stamp them and found book text that seemed appropriate. But the overall design was still just a little monotonous. Then I remembered a tool which I should use more often (the prompt this week at the SSS Monday blog challenge).

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It's a tracing wheel used in sewing to transfer pattern markings to cloth. You run it through paint and then on your surface and it leaves tiny little dots all in a row. It's a technique that was probably invented by Lynn Whipple and I used it here to complete the tag.

So, whether it's a tag or a journal page, it doesn't really matter.

 It began as an experiment, one step led to another, it was satisfying, I had fun, and I learned something along the way. And that is why I do it! (Stamp credit: Stamping Bella)

I'm linking to Craft Horders Anonymous Challenge #10 Spray It! Ink It! Paint It! Smear It! Emboss It!

June 24, 2014

Cat Bird

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I must credit Julie J. who posted this image from a school reader published in 1896 called Our Little Book for Little Folks. I found the link on Pinterest and it was just what I needed to complete this tag.

It began with this week's theme at Simon's Monday blog challenge where participants were asked to dust-off those craft products that haven't been used in awhile and put them to work.

I was very inspired by Design Team member Andrea Ockey Parr, who used Glossy Accents as a faux resin to create a lovely charm bracelet, and decided to use my bottle of Crackle Accents (provided it hadn't dried up) and one of the first stamps I purchased when I began my journey into paper crafting, a very large flourish from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection. It's one of my favorites and, yes, I really should use it more!


I stamped the flourish on to a page from a old book, used watercolor to fill it in, covered it with Crackle Accents (still good!) and after it dried I knocked-back some of the text with acrylic paint then tinted the background with Faded Jeans, Broken China, and Bundled Sage distress inks. After I found the kitty, he was cut-out and pasted along with some tiny stamped butterflies.

The Crackle Accents helped to pop the stamped image and while the cracks are there, they are very fine and didn't show up in my photograph.

This was another great challenge and a good reminder to revisit some old favorites and give them new life.

I'm also linking to a craft challenge called Try It On Tuesday's where the theme is Just a Tag.

June 20, 2014

Faith


This is the fifth tag made in my Civil War series and there are lots of layers here. I fiddled with this one quite a bit but the good thing about collage is--if something doesn't work, you can just cover it up with something else!

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The first layer (now almost invisible) is book paper cut in strips with washi tape along some edges.

It wasn't working so I covered everything with plain tissue paper and deli wrap stamped with acrylic paint. To lighten it up and unify the colors, I applied Picket Fence distress stain all over and used Broken China and Vintage Photo distress inks here and there.

I added the mirror, lady, and text, applied Tim's tissue tape on the top and left edge, sanded some edges to expose the first layer of washi tape and used Walnut Stain distress ink along the edges for framing.

I'm linking it to Simon's Monday blog challenge where the theme is anything goes.