April Tag.. bitesized.

Can't believe we are nearly one third of the way through the year and i'm here today sharing my April tag following the 12 week Tag challenge instructions.

Here are those how to do's in words and pictures..

I painted a 35 mm  x 70 mm Tando- Creative size 1 Tag in White Gesso
then a layer of IndigoBlu Lime Marmalade.
Covered with IndigoBlu Stroke of Midnight making
squiggly marks whilst the paint was still wet.

I Pressed Decoart Modelling paste through a TCW Stencil, added Lace for Collage
and covered in a layer of DecoArt Transparent Yellow Oxide

Dripped Lime Marmalade paint over the tag and sealed with matte medium when dry.

As this tag is small I thought it would be so quick to follow and administer
all the instructions from the 12 week challenge but how wrong I was.

I realised that it would be an art form in itself to deliver each instruction as my focal image would cover most of the tag up. I decided to forfeit any stamping on the tag as my focal image is stamped using Rubber Dance Textured Flowers stamps.

Doodles have been added to the focal image, wired embellishments, words of wisdom 

and a bulldog clip gives this mini tag a little more height. 

As you can see from the penny beside it the tag is quite small.

This tag now has some magnetic sticky strip added to the back
making a rather nice fridge magnet.

Thank you for popping on over. Have a great weekend and I look forward to sharing some more creativity with you very soon.

Hugs Tracey xx

Crafting Supplies:

Size 1 Tando Creative Tag 
IndigoBlu Lime Marmalade
IndigoBlu Stroke of Midnight
TCW Mini Texturized Stencil
DecoArt Modelling Paste
DecoArt Transparent Yellow Oxide
DecoArt Matte Medium
Rubber Dance Stamps
Rubber Dance Textured Flowers Stamps UK

Snow, Snow, Snow.. January Tag

As promised using the same mini instructions given in a Twelve week tag challenge from last year here is my first Tag of the year. I've used the Theme of Snow which was quite apt as it did actually snow during the making of this tag and as it is using
so many lovely IndigoBlu elements i'm going to enter it in Decembers 
IndigoBlu Blog Challenge Snow, Snow, Snow.

First I painted a 6" Tando Creative  tag with white gesso, then with Indigoblu Frosty Sky acrylic paint, when dry I rollered over with white acrylic paint.
The roller has left plenty of extra marks

Sweet Poppy Pearlescent White Paste was stencilled through a Clarity tree stencil

 one collage piece added from Crafty Individuals Christmas miniatures book

a layer of  (VERY watered down) DecoArt Americana midnight blue paint
to make it translucent. This has really brought out the shape of the tree and added shadow.

Sprayed on Yellow paint left over from previous tag made.

White gesso stencilled through IndigoBlu mini stencil, clear gesso applied when dry.

I stamped Indigoblu Snowflakes stamp with versafine onyx black ink & embossed with stampendous white shabby chic frantage  to expand the fine detail of the stamp.

Focal collage added using an Indigoblu Large Snowflake image which I had previously stamped onto vellum with flitter glue and gilded with sheffied steel gilding flakes.
This was glued  onto the side of the tag with the waste being used on the bottom.

                   

enhanced the large snowflake stamp with doodles & flat back pearls

                                             

Could not decide which word to use so I chose this sentence, from
IndigoBlu Grand Tour 3 A5 stamp set

   

 ... and my Tag is complete    

Thank you for sharing your precious time to take a peek, 

wishing you all a fantastic weekend.

Creative Hugs from Tracey xxx

Twelve week Tag Challenge

A little Social Media Group I am a member of sets challenges and tasks of the *Mini* kind and I've had the great pleasure of sharing in some of their challenges from decorating lollypop sticks to 3" Fabric swatches, At times we swap and sometimes we share but there are times when we just soak up everyone's creative makes if we find life is just a little bit too busy to join in.

In September 2016 a challenge was set to create a Tag from a series of mini instructions. We did not know how long the challenge would last all we were told was once a week we would be give a short instruction and not to spend more than 10 minutes on each.

Each instruction was a guideline and however you interpreted them could be modified depending on readily available resources.

This is what I created during those 12 weeks.. 

I hope you can follow me on my fast track 12 week journey in words and pictures.

Week 1:

Find or create a tag; any colour, texture or size. 

Add one layer of gesso.

when dry add one colour.

*Tando Creative 6" Greyboard Tag painted with white gesso, when the gesso was dry 

DecoArt Dark Grey was applied using a roller*

Week 2:

Add a further paint colour to your tag and while it is still wet, draw or write into it 

with the end of a paintbrush or pencil'.

* DecoArt Quinacridone Gold was again applied using a roller and the words RUSTY 

scribbed into the wet paint*

Week 3:

Press modelling/gel/grunge paste through any stencil of your choice.

*Pressing IndigoBlu Super Thick Slap it on through Andy Skinners Time Warp Stencil*

*This is what it looked like when it had dried*

Week 4:

Add some collage with matte/gloss medium, collage Page or your preferred glue. 

Add a layer of matte medium over the top of the collage piece/pieces.

*I Randomly adhered torn Kaisercraft papers using DecoArt Matte Medium*

Week 5:

Add a layer of translucent paint.

* I just watered down some Yellow acrylic paint*

Week 6:

Spray or drip a contrasting colour of paint or ink across/down your tag.

*I Sprayed Dylusions White Linen Spray*

Week 7:

Add more stencilled layers

*Black Gesso was dabbed through a cogs stencil*.

* Instructions 5, 6 & 7 were completed together hence spray leaking through the gesso*

Week 8:

Use clear gesso to completely cover your tag.

*As you can see the clear gesso has dragged most of the Dylusions spray off the tag*

Week 9:

Stamp one or more images across your tag.

*Industrial Lamps stamped with Town House Teal acrylic paint, both from Indigoblu*

Week 10:

Cut out and adhere a main focal image to your tag. This can be drawn, stamped, collages, downloaded or cut from a book/magazine.

*I used an image I had previously stamped and embossed - a Dragonfly from 

Inky Doodles Time Flies A5 stamp set*

Week 11:

Add doodles, marks and/or embellishments to your tag.

*I added a Butterfly image again from Inky Doodles Time Flies stamp set
and doodled & highlighted using Posca Marker Pens*

...and finally 

Week 12: 

Find a word in a book or magazine to attach to your image.

*Words added from yet again Inky Doodles Time Flies stamp set*



... and the Tag is complete..!

Now the whole experience of being given small instructions once a week may seem simple but I found the whole experience like having a cookie and only being aloud one bite a week. A CRAFTING DIET well... its quite unheard of, but what I did find was when the twelve weeks were over I actually missed these weekly instructions... 

So now the new year has well and truly arrived I have decided that each month I will create a new Tag using the same instructions, there maybe a theme to them as now I know each step that lies ahead but it maybe random.. and of course I don't need to wait one week for the next task as it has already been written.

Thank you to Chris Cresswell for those tasks of wisdom and Thank you to Kaisia from *WanderLust 2016* for encouraging Chris to pass on your inspiration you may have created a mini monster.

*Watch this Space*...I hope you can all share your time with me on my mini adventure..

Creative Hugs from Tracey xxx