Journey to the bright side

Hi everyone!

      A few days ago I went to Ally Pally and came back with so much crafting goodies - I had been a bit mojo-less the last few weeks...no ideas were coming to me - I had been trying to make things but they hadn't been going right and I was not liking what I was doing....It might look like I wasn't mojo-less....but I work ahead of time (I am currently working on November projects), so those creations that were a huge struggle will appear at some point in the next month (If I can bear to include them!) - but I will leave you to decide for yourself if you like them - I won't be mentioning which ones I struggled with!

     After I had packed my stuff away I decided to have a play with some new items - so I decided to have a go at making a tag....with Dylusions.....what do you do though when they are so bright they are scary and anyway you haven't a clue how to use them? - You go to YOUTUBE!!!!

     I found a demo - by Dyan Reaveley - explaining some techniques. And I had a go...

    This creation took form from her explaining about not wasting the inks - she makes doubles of things - triples even. As she uses the ink, if there is some on the stencil or the mat then she uses another piece to mop it up. This is something I have never done before - I really must do this with Distress inks...I am afraid I am very guilty of just mopping up the excess pools of ink with a tissue (such a waste!)

          I decided to make 'Twin Tags'.

I had no idea where I was going with this - but I loved the Tim Tag I made last month and that was a successful 'non thinking' craft play so I figured this "Not got a clue state" actually works for me!

    I now have four Dylusion sprays - Melted Chocolate, Vibrant Turquoise, Dirty Martini and White Linen. I already owned the White Linen when I went to the show - but I must have picked three good colours because the woman at the till said "Those will look gorgeous together!"....I figured she was right and decided to use all three on this tag.

    I followed Dyan's instructions...I had two tags ready and sprayed one with water. Then I just randomly sprayed the three colours....Woweeee...these inks are BRIGHT!. These sprays can never be described as delicate! Ok....Well, she did say muted effects can be achieved. I pressed the other tag down on the intensely coloured one and lifted it up.....Now I had two very bright tags. I dabbed with tissue as instructed and the colours were still vibrant but not as shocking. Nice!...I am now liking how this is going.

      I dabbed some excess ink up off the mat as in wrinkle free distress but instead of drying it with the heat gun I dabbed it with tissue...getting a much more muted speckled effect. Then I dried it with the heat gun.

   I wanted a more rustic look...so placing the tags in the 'Spray box' I sprayed from a distance with all three colours....giving very tiny specks of ink.

    Now onto stencils - I like using stencils with Distress inks, and I adore using texture paste with them but they have never worked for me with sprays. I think I spray too much...It is never a very good image, in fact sometimes it is no image at all - just a pool of colour!...I used the new brick stencil with the Melted Chocolate spray and I mopped up the excess ink with the other tag. I did the same with the turquoise and white using the roman letters stencil. Not very clear images but it did give a lovely delicate layered effect....I was very happy!

Then the stamps. I wanted a delicate flourish around the corners and used Wendi Vecchi Archival ink in Fern Green.

I used Black Archival instead of my favourite Potting Soil for the main images because it needed a vivid colour here against the bright colours. I used Tim Holtz stamps and the theme  of 'Journey' began to happen.

Because the tags are 'Twins' I decided to take the imaging across them - so they can work as separate tags or make a whole image when placed together.

    I wanted to add some tissue tape so I made my own using Micropore tape stained with the green spray and stamped with the word 'Journey'...

I couldn't resist adding a hand coloured Turquiose pointing to the other tag!

     I didn't have any ribbon I liked for these tags so I used some tape which had destinations on them, stained them with the Green and Turquoise and tied them to the top of the tags.

 A spray of my new Cosmic Shimmer copper spray (Gorgeous!) across each tag added a hint of shimmer and I blended a bit of Black Soot DI around the edge of the tag to add a grungey look.....and I was done.............and it feels like Mojo might be back!!!!

      

             Hope you like the twins! Thanks so much for visiting!