/* */ Beulah Bee: Freestyle

April 17, 2015

Freestyle


I have finally tried out the last of the six flowers you get in the Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set. I think it's another Peony and it's been altered somewhat (more about this later).

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I call this tag Freestyle because that was the attitude I had while making it. I had no plan--I just starting doing stuff.

A bigger bottle would've been better (to keep the proportions right) but it was the only one I had and, anyway, a bigger bottle might mean a bigger tag and then where would it end?

I rather like the overall appearance though and discovered some interesting techniques that are sure to be useful in another project.

I thought I'd share exactly what I did so fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

  1. I covered the tag with a page from an old dictionary.
  2. I stamped the bottle, flower and stem with black archival ink keeping ink off one of the large petals near the base to make the flower smaller.
  3. I used colored pencils to create a rainbow-effect in the background.
  4. I used off-white to paint over the text inside the flower petals with a tiny brush.
  5. I stenciled some large script on a piece of deli-paper with black paint.
  6. I laid the deli-paper over the tag, traced the outline of the bottle and flower, cut it out, then pasted the remainder on the tag (leaving the bottle, etc., exposed).
  7. I used a harlequin stamp and archival ink on the background by using the cut-out scraps from my deli paper as a mask.
  8. I softened the edges of the impression with a bit of hand-sanitizer (which works great as an archival ink eraser on non-porous surfaces).
  9. I tinted the flower with dye ink and a water brush and added a light wash of white to the bottle and stem.
  10. I used black and white gel pens to make dots for accent. The black ones didn't dry so I used clear embossing power on them to speed things up and keep them permanent.
  11. I used my Exacto-knife to scrape the edges of the tag, wet them with a brush and then applied black dye ink.
Perhaps a word about deli-paper is in order. I use it for all kinds of things and it makes great paper for collages because it is thin and durable. It reminds me a lot of the same type of paper Tim uses for his tissue wrap.

Now that I've used all the Flower Garden stamps individually, I guess it's time to plant a garden but I'll definitely need to use something larger than a tag. I think I see a journal page in my future!

I'm linking to the Wednesday blog challenge at SSS where this week's theme is make your own background.