Stash Shopping - 6 Mixed Media Tags

 So, I did a thing… before I sent some crafty stuff to creative friends (in an effort to declutter).  I decided to create and include a little thank you card which devolved into a mixed media tag frenzy for me. I’ve been coming across a lot of very old stuff in my cleaning efforts, like…

 Old Tuesday Morning finds (from my Tuesday morning Shopping binges… you know…”wow, can’t believe these prices!”, “I’m sure I could find a use for that!”, cheap acrylic and mixed media mediums, or oh, my, retired Tim Holtz stuff!)

Or stuff picked up in mystery boxes from craft stores,

Or from mixed media craft subscription boxes!

 All resulting in a huge compelling urge to throw away, give away or use ASAP, this old stuff!

(And hey… got to make room for some new stuff!)

So, I started by getting out 6 tags, of which I have a ton of, and then proceeded to pull out red and dark green acrylic paints, white gesso, Vicki Boutin printed tissue paper, clear acetate images, clear sticky lace strips, white music paper, preprinted tags, and these 4x6 preprinted black and white cards which looked like seed packets with sentiments on them. Here’s a remnant of the 4x6 cards…

 So, I started by loosely painting and drying parts of the tag. I added white gesso covering over parts of the paint. I then took gel medium and added the Vick Boutin crosshatch and leaf stems tissue, and strips of music paper in the corner spots. I then added clear acetate Kaisercraft lace strips.

Next, I decided to watercolor the flower parts of the preprinted seed papers, thinking I could fussy cut them out and have them be the focal point of the tags. I used watercolor Graphite and Prismacolor watercolor pens to lightly add green and red colors to the flowers. After fussy cutting the flowers and some of the sentiments out, I then started arranging the flowers, picking out the right background for each flower. Then I played some more with each tag, adding randomly more clear acetate images, random Kraft sentiments I had on hand, chipboards, diecuts or stamping and adding more sentiments in spots. I added white and black spatters as needed. Then I added white acrylic paint and pen to little preprinted garden focused tags I thought could be added at the top… his copacetic was that? Here’s the results… each having a different feel and look! 

 

Here’s a more detailed look at these messy, busy, but hopefully fun to look at tags!

So, it felt great to be creative and artsy again… must admit my skills have eroded from lack of use. It also felt good using up bits and pieces of stuff from my stash. I ended up throwing out old dried up mixed media mediums, telling me I have to do another purge of paints, pastes and acylic mediums! 

What do you think… how’d they turn out, do you like these, have a fav? Interested in your thoughts! Thanks for stopping by!

BYSHC Sketch 51 - 2 different takes!

 Tried a couple different styles this month with Sketch 51!

For both cards, I used ephemera and papers from Simple Stories Tis the Season collection. For the first card, I pulled out Unity’s Christmas/Over Again, Magical {Bliss and Wonder} and a retired stamp set, World of Christmas. I started by gold embossing the snowflakes and words on the background paper. I also added swirls using a Studio Light stencil. I then stamped and clear embossed the tag image in coordinating colors by blending the colors with multiple inks. I added watercolor to make the image stand out.  I then spattered it with metallic gold paint. I inked the edges of everything! After gold embossing the sentiment, I added the Unity freebie Yuletide paper, ribbons, ephemera, Crystal dots, and die cut foliage to complete the card! I know…it’s over the top, but I had fun creating it!

For the second card, I used papers and ephemera from the collection, ribbons, dots and a Unity sentiment from …Cherished Holly. Pretty easy to pull this one together! Love how this one turned out! Isn’t it amazing how 2 totally different cards, can be made from the same collection and sketch?

Thanks for stopping by… till next time, happy crafting!

Friends of Unity November Blog Hop

 Wow… it’s November already! This year has just flown by for me! And… it’s time for another blog hop with a most time appropriate theme of… 

I had some fun with this one… some watercoloring, pretty papers and wonderful stamps! Before I start, wanted to remind you that my friends and I offer up every month some giveaways from our own personal stash. This month, I’ll be doing a giveaway and will announce the winner in next month’s blog. A winner will be randomly chosen from the all people who offer up a comment below… btw, constructive criticism is always welcome! So, be sure to offer up your feedback and stop back next month!

So, the first card I created was inspired by an old paper collection from Prima called Amber Moon. I stamped the image onto watercolor paper from a retired Unity Kit called Don’t Be Like the Rest of Them.

I then watercolored it matching up colors to the paper. Before fussy cutting it out, I stamped the super image from Grateful for All over the flower image. I then used oval dies to create a frame and used papers from the collection to pair with the Kraft paper. I stamped a sentiment from the Change and Direction membership kit from October 2022 added coordinating enamel dots and called it done. I like how different this one turned out.

For the second card, I pulled out another Prima pack called Pumpkin and Spice. I stamped the image from Anemone Greetings onto watercolor paper, again. I put a lot more time into watercoloring this one, again matching colors from the paper. I added white pen marks on the flowers and spattered all over with paint and watered down copper Perfect Pearls. I used some Unity frames to cut down all the papers. I ended up embossing an image from September’s 2023 membership kit called, Harvest Hues. Again, I added coordinating enamel dots to this one as well!

Must admit, it’s always good to have some gratitude cards on hand! Let me know what you think about these by commenting below …be sure to add your name so you can be included in the giveaway next month! Thanks for stopping by!

Now, on to the rest of the hop, you may have come here from 

Rachel’s blog

Or you can start from the beginning with

Crystal’s blog