Hi everybody! it's Tag Friday over on the
A Vintage Journey blog, and that means that we Creative Guides, get to have a lot of old school fun! Ever since Tim Holtz Started his annual Twelve Tags Challenges, many years ago, tag making has become an art in it's self. By hopping over to the A Vintage Journey blog and seeing the Creative Guides beautiful selection of tags, you'll understand exactly what I mean! I've chosen a 'Day of the Dead' theme for my tag. The festival of Los Dia De Los Muertos, occurs on the 2nd of November, and celebrates both life and death. Sugar skulls are an important part of the celebrations. They may represent departed loved ones and are also used as offerings for the departed to enjoy when they return home.
I coloured the background of my tag with Distress Crayons. I really like these but have found that I haven't really used them enough. I created patches of each colour, and then lightly spritzed the surface, I then blended the colours with my finger, applying more of each colour to add depth. I then used my heat gun to dry the surface and finally, used a soft cloth to buff up the colour. This added a slight sheen.
I then used a Tim Holtz flourish embossing folder to add texture to the tag. I highlighted the pattern by rubbing gilding wax into the raised surface. I also used Black Soot Distress ink around the edges and heat embossed with clear embossing powder, applied lightly.
I stamped out the sugar skulls with black Versa Mark Ink and heat embossed them. I used felt pens to colour in the flowers and applied a little Antique Linen Distress ink to tone down the very white surface......
I used a ball tool with a foam mat to add dimension to the sugar skulls, before adhering to the tag.
To finish off I added a Dymo label ' Los Dia De Los Muertos' translated as The Day of The Dead and an extravagant bunch of Distress Ink dyed ribbons. I also found a cute piece of bobbly braid in my ribbon stash and attached this to the bottom of the tag. I hope my colourful tag reflects some of the joyousness of the festival, which is as much about the living, as it is about our cherished and dearly departed loved ones.
If you would like to see what the other Creative Guides have been up to for our Tag Friday, hop over to the A Vintage Journey blog with this
link, grab a cuppa and enjoy !
