SHE MADE ME DO IT

After receiving that gorgeous tag in the post last Monday, I had to have a go at making something similar myself just to have a go at some of the techniques. This is what I came up with.

I glued a page from an old dictionary to a size 8 tag and spread some traditional tan acrylic paint all over it with a bit of water and a piece of foam. Then I used a pallet knife to add a bit more paint to a few areas plus a smidge of black gesso before drying it all with a heat gun. I then distressed the whole tag with frayed burlap and walnut stain ink before rubbing some gold wax around the edges. When I cut something out of grungepaper, I keep the remaining piece and use it as a stencil which is what I've used to make the leaf.
I mixed some Terra with black gesso and applied it through the 'stencil'. This was left to dry on its own.

I had already stamped some swirls with black Archival on the tag and when the terra mix had dried I rubbed some gold wax over it to highlight the lumpy bits.
The butterflies were a bit of a challenge. I glued some more book pages to a piece of Clearly for Art, stamped a Tim stamp on the page side before colouring them with distress stain. I then cut them out and proceeded to heat them and form their shape. It's a good job the clearly for art is re-heatable because I just couldn't get the shapes right first time. I used Cosmic Shimmer glue to position them on the tag after giving them a good old spritz with some gold perfect pearls spray. A few sticky gems, a brass lady bird and a bit of ribbon finished the tag off.
I enjoyed the inspiration from receiving the tag in the post and am happy with my version.