Using Embossing Folders At Artful Times. . . .

Firstly, Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a wonderful break and that you enjoyed the festive season. I feel as if I haven't blogged for ages but it's good to be back!

Well before Christmas, I had the pleasure of attending a class with the lovely Von from Artful Times. Later, I received an email asking me to be a guest designer for the new challenge at Artful Times. I was delighted to oblige as I have followed this challenge blog from the start.

Here's the tag I made using two embossing folders, stamping, crackle, distress inks, acrylic paint and some handmade flowers (the pink ones, not the white!) amongst other things:

The finished work which used two embossing folders: one for the leaves and another at the top and lower end of the tag. The white flowers are purchased mulberry paper blooms and the pink flowers were made from a TH strip die.

The flowers were die cut from white card and coloured with two shades of distress ink. Once manipulated into shape and layered together, each flower was sponged with a little versamark and embossed on the petal edges in a random fashion. I added the white blooms to balance the layout of the tag.

The leaves were die cut, coloured with distress and embossed in a paisley design folder. Crackle was then used to create texture and an aged look. Acrylic paint was used once the crackle was dry.

The thick grey board tag was coated with gesso and acrylic. Areas at the top and bottom of the tag were embossed with a TH folder. The raised sections were coloured with gold paste and like the leaves, crackle was applied to suggest an aged piece.

My beautiful stamped image image is from Crafty Individuals. She was stamped with archival and some distress ink was used to colour her flowers the same pink as the roses I made. Other shades were used in the background and for the masonary around her. Crackle was applied to some areas of the stamped image.

A TH chit chat sticker was used for the sentiment with some powder embossing around the edges to finish. The beads were some of my charity shop find (still got loads left!) and I felt they were perfect to embellish this tag. You can see some script stamped onto the background to create depth and the crackle is more easily seen here.

Thank so much to Von and Neet for allowing me to guest at Artful Times for this challenge, it's a wonderful opportunity to make something containing lots of my favourite things!

I will be back visiting you all very soon, just as soon as I catch up with the entries at Anything But A Card!

I'm going to link my tag up at the Fashionable Stamping challenge blog for the first time ever. They have a wonderful challenge theme this time: 'Surprise Us' (Anything Goes). If, like me, you've never entered here, you should hop over and have a look at the pieces made by the design team - inspiration in bucket loads, believe me!