Playing with myself, …er BY myself

For me making tags is often easier than making a card. I’m not worried about wasting cardstock, which needs to be ordered from far, far away. There is no expectation that something sendable will result from my efforts. I get to just PLAY so it’s more therapeutic and God knows I need that now. Here are the results of my recent play dates with myself.



1) Summerhouse Bliss

Stamps: Garden Silhouette, Word by Word
Inks: Weathered Wood (Tim Holtz Distress Ink), Night of Navy, Garden Green, wash of So Saffron on the printed page.
Extra elements: Chair was cut from a 3x3 note card, Printed page from an old Ellery Queen novel.
Production Notes: Patterns produced by rubbing the distressed ink pad over Punchinello (sequin waste) and then smooshing it with a baby wipe. Same technique used on a plastic screen produced the grid pattern.

2) Flocked Friendship

Stamps:Garden Silhouette, Word by Word
Inks: Basic Brown, More Mustard, Orange Sharpie
Extra elements: Printed page from an old Ellery Queen novel, Flocking in grapefruit
Production Notes: The puzzle piece is from an old Ellery Queen novel. I spritzed it with a mixture of Pearlex and Aquanet hairspray. Ran it through the crimper and then cut it with my newest Cuttlebug die.
The orange splotch on the background was produced by spraying compressed air on the tip of a Sharpie. Woo hoo it works! Then I put down a piece of plastic screen and sprayed through it. I'll have to share the set up on this one so those that can't afford Copics can air brush too. I tried it with a Stampin' Up! marker and got a bit splat of color - see it poking out from behind the puzzle piece.

3) Good Dog

Stamps: Alpha stamps, ink drops
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Tea Stain (Tim Holtz Distress Ink), Real Rust.
Extra elements: Dog on chair from a card front my aunt gave me featuring a tea party. Printed page from an old Ellery Queen novel stained with diluted So Saffron ink.

4) Bloom Bee

Stamps: Bloomin’ Beautiful set, Garden Silhouettes, Polka Dot Background.
Inks: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel, Barely Banana.
Extra elements: none
Production Notes: Stamped flowers and bee then colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. [Click here for technique tutorial]. Masked them and then stamped the leaves behind them and the yellow polka dots.

5) Heartfelft Thanks

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Amazing to Zany
Inks: Always Artichoke, Only Orange, Apricot Appeal
Extra elements: none
Production Notes: Straight forward stamping here.

6) Giant Owl

Stamps: Lovely as a tree
Inks: Chocolate Chip and Garden Green Markers, Weathered Wood (Tim Holtz Distress Ink)
Extra elements: Owl and Airplane (at top) cut from old postage stamps, and adhered with an SU’s Anywhere Glue Stick.
Production Notes: Stamped then colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The sky was sponged in with Weathered Wood using a makeup sponge, which gives a completely different look. Though I think it works best with Distress Inks because they stay wet longer.

7) Hello

Stamps: Priceless, Amazing to Zany
Inks: Cameo Coral, Wild Wasabi
Extra elements: None
Production Notes: The colored background on this tag was created by laying a baby wipe that had been used to clean up an ink mess and had a little bit of ink on it over the tag and running the pair through the Cuttlebug. Did many experiments with this technique and may share more later.

8) Bonjour

Stamps: French Flair, Carte Postale
Inks: Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy
Extra elements: None.
Production Notes: Nothing special here, just straight stamping.

9) Bird Berries

Stamps: Infinite Goodness, Carte Postale, French Flair
Inks: River Rock, Bashful Blue, Going Grey, Basic Grey.
Extra elements: none
Production Notes: Aquapainter with ink from pad lid.

10) Pear Goodness

Stamps: Infinite Goodness, Priceless
Inks: River Rock, Garden Green
Extra elements: none
Production Notes: I stamped the pear from Infinite Goodness then colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. Thought it looked a bit plain so I added the swirls from Priceless and the word goodness from Infinite Goodness.