This morning after I absorbed Tim's tags AND videos I had one of those "duh" moments - LOL! Tissue tape is made of tissue - goodness, gracious I can be blonde sometimes. I had discovered on my own that it tore easily, was easily repositioned once placed, and could be used to cover some pretty odd shapes, such as the large clothespin we carry. I also found out that it had a waxy like coating and that the best way to color it was with alcohol ink, using either an alcohol ink felt applicator or my airbrush system. I didn't realize that Distress Inks would adhere once heat set, so that was a great educational tip. I have also discovered that paint will adhere as well and have aged it using my dabbers. I have a beautiful project that I made in the beginning of October but I just haven't had the time to post it - yikes!
I loved the challenges Tim provided today - using tissue tape to create a flower and collage a background. I could have selected a different die, but I LOVE this little bird. What is it with birds? I am SO very afraid to be contained in a closed environment with them, but I put them on absolutely everything :-D
Tip #1 - When working with the tissue tape, do not let it go back on itself as you work on your project. Why you may ask? Simple... if you are of the age that reading glasses are necessary - it takes FOREVER to find the end again -LOL! Handy tip I'm sure - ha! ha!
Randomly apply your tissue tape to either cardstock, grungeboard or as I did, Craft-a-Board. Again, if you haven't tried Craft-a-Board I encourage you to do so. It is SO affordable and you will be amazed at what you can do with it!!!
As you all know I love my Copics and so I have not invested in yet another set of Alcohol Inks. One of the most popular things you wanted to learn about was how to use Alcohol Inks. I want to share that any method you use for your Copic Alcohol Various Ink Refills can be applied to the Ranger Alcohol Inks. I will continue to try and share information regarding how to use Various ink in other ways once these tags are complete. I would also like to encourage you to try the "search mechanism" in the top right hand corner of our blog. Simply type in the words "Various Ink" and many articles will show up in which Various inks have been talked about.
As you can see I have added the alcohol ink to my applicator in a different way than what is typical. The reason for first dripping it on my non-stick craft sheet was to allow the two colors to mix somewhat before I applied them to the felt. The purple tones in the Copic colors are pretty true in value, or in other words very bright. I wanted the purple that I was using to coordinate with the Graphic 45 christmas papers. By mixing the V17 together with W4 I was able to gray down my color and have it coordinate beautifully.
Don't be afraid to mix colors! If you are afraid of ruining your project apply your applicator to a piece of scrap paper before setting it to your final project.
Dab and swirl, dab and swirl until the entire surface is covered. Then run this piece through your Big Shot using the Caged Bird die. The finished size of the piece above is approx 2 3/4" x 5 3/4". This allows me to cut my bird out with very little waste.
Tim sparkled his birdie up using Rock Candy Stickles. I love the Stickles, but felt that I should try something else to see what would work. My first attempt was to attach Be Creative Tape to the surface before cutting out my bird. That was a bit of an experiment - LOL! Be Creative tape (otherwise known as Sookwang tape) is VERY sticky! When I went to remove the top coat I literally pulled up all the tissue tape leaving my Craft-a-Board bare. Another duh moment because I already knew that tissue tape is easy to remove once applied. So on to experiment #2.
As you will see experiment #2 was successful :-D Covering the bird and wing with a thin coat of Matte Multi-Medium and then...
covering the surface with Ultrafine Warm Highlights created a magical effect! The beautiful thing about the Transparent Highlights is that you can see the imaging from below. The warm golden, sparkly surface is mesmerizing.
I dumped off the excess and then used my finger to gently rub the surface to help the glitter adhere, as well as "sand" off excess to create an absolutely stunning little creature.
I then coated just the tip of the wing with Matte Multi-Medium again and dipped it in the gorgeous Melissa Frances Vintage Shards.
Capturing the beauty in a photograph is nigh to impossible and so I hope that you can get just a hint of what it looks like in real life.
Now on to my tissue tape flower. Tim did a wonderful job explaining the process in his video. I began with a 5/8" circle punch because I wanted a rather petite flower.
The only problem I had was trying to adhere my tissue tape to my cardstock dot without it coming back up again. Being solution driven I ended up plastering the surface with glue dots. It worked GREAT!
As you can see I went around a little over two times. I then followed Tim's lead and lifted the center piece up just a little to lay down some hot glue. Yes, my trusty old hot glue gun is being utilized more than usual with some of these new products. I highly recommend the glue gun to secure your rosettes (created using Tim's fab new rosette die) as well.
To bring my flower into balance with the remainder of the tag I edged it using alcohol ink.
I next rolled it on the Embossing Ink pad and then in Tarnished Gold embossing powder (LOVE this stuff!)
Just a little more sparkle to balance out my birds wing! Once again I used Matte Multi-Medium randomly applied with a paint brush and topped the flower with a sparkly Webster's button.
A little more sparkly Webster's ribbon was position beneath the button, a gorgeous little accent piece from the 8x8 paper pad clipped to the tag and the bird popped off the surface in a triagular shape to create my focal point. One little design tip I would like to suggest is that when positioning your elements on a small surface like this you will want to overlap the pieces that are your focal point to create balance and draw your eye to one place. It also enhances the piece to let these elements float off the edge of your tag.
To add the final balance of my purple element I put just a little bit of purple paper on my to/from tags and added some purple twine. The little "believe" sentiment, a pearl and some gorgeous metal foliage were the finishing touches.
Once again I would like to encourage you to try one of these techniques using tissue tape. I know that a LOT of you already own some, so I hope you will join in the fun and please don't be sad if you don't have everything - just make do with what you do have and improvise. How about pulling out that trusty old masking tape?!? AND if you can't make an entire tag, just make an element and save it for use on a tag or card later :-D
Thank you for stopping in again today and for keeping the encouragement coming with your comments. I must admit I am tired and have a lot on my plate right now, but doing these tags is SO much fun, so I'm commited :-D I'll be coming back into the office again tomorrow and on Sunday so that I can try to continue to inspire you and share in the fun. Have an awesome weekend and enjoy a few creative moments!
stamps: Hero Arts to/from
ink: Various Ink Refills - V17 and W4, Archival Coffee, Distress Antique Linen, Distress Embossing Ink
paper: Graphic 45 Christmas Past Deluxe Edition 8x8 Pad, Craft-a-Board
accessories: Tim Holtz Caged Bird Die, Tidings and Nostalgic Tissue Tape, Foliage, Baubles, Alcohol Ink Felt Applicator Tool; Martha Stewart PATP Vintage Lace, Melissa Frances Tarnished Silver Glass Glitter, Tarnished Gold Embossing Powder, Matte Multi-Medium, Warm Highlights Ultrafine Glitter, Believe Vintaj Tag, Ivory Silk Ribbon, Webster's Pages Scalloped Sparklers, Webster's Pages Waiting for Santa Trim
WOW - thank you to everyone who visited today and left a comment - I am using the love you shared to get me through the day today :-)! It has been a hectic and exhausting week after the snowstorm we had last week, a long road-trip to visit my Mom through the Rocky Mountains for Thanksgiving (worth every minute of the 30+ hours on the road) and enjoying the companionship of my dog and daughter here at work. I'm READY to sleep in in the morning!
A huge congratulations goes to Patti! Thank you for your comment and questions yesterday Patti - you helped me to realize that I really needed to add more information to my explanation. I hope that you have had the opportunity to go back and reread the information. I have your Typepad message flagged in hopes of getting back to you today - I didn't even have a chance to check with Erica to see if she was able to let you know that I tried to add more information :-D
Please send your snail mail address to us at [email protected] and we will get these fun toys out to you and you can give this technique a try!
Today our prize is inspired by Tim's Tag - how about a stamp set and some tissue tape everyone! We have Winter's Sketchbook and Tidings Tissue Tape for today's goodies!
Simply posting a comment below will enter you in this random drawing - you have until tomorrow evening as I write my post to enter. You can post a comment each day on the current post for a chance to win some fun goodies, so be certain to stay tuned for another 9 days :-D
Thank you for joining me here in the CLASSroom!
