Beads, Butttons And Bows At Tag Tuesday. . . . .

This week the challenge at Tag Tuesday is to use Beads, Buttons And Bows. The thought of the buttons and bows filled me with horror at first! However, I put the thinking cap on and a little plan began to form.

In my 'bits' box I had an arch shaped tag which I'd made ages ago using a rust technique by Andy Skinner, a stamped lady who just happens to be one of my favourite stamps - from Soul Of The Rose plate by Oxford Impressions, a piece of crackled card and a scrap of a peeled paint technique also learnt from Mr Skinner.

I had some beads from a charity shop buy which I keep taking off a bracelet and using, some cream seam binding and of course, some rusty wire. Here's what I did with these pieces for Tag Tuesday:

Most of the mediums used to make the tag but sorry, no step by step as the tag was made from scraps!

The image was stamped onto card which had been painted with DecoArt Traditions - this makes a lovely surface for stamping on. Some DecoArt Quin Gold was stamped onto the image to give it some age.
An ATC which had been rusted and stencilled with DecoArt Texture Sand (I added a few micro beads to give extra texture before use) was used as the base for the image.

Underneath the rusted ATC is a layer of water colour paper which was coloured with water soluble wax crayons (brushed with a water brush to blend)  and then crackled with DecoArt Two Step Crackle medium. All the little flowers were cut from this crackled water colour paper too. They were punched out, shaped and layered. A little gem was used for the centres.

The words were stamped onto a scrap of card with a peeled paint finish using Versamark. Walnut stain embossing powder was then used. The edges were shaped using an on the edge TH die.

The main tag was cut from corrugated card packaging using a Tando piece as a template. A Skinner rust finish was applied. The beads were attached to rusty wire and used through the tags punched hole.

I found this little pearlised button and aged it with some DecoArt Quin Gold Traditions paint. It was tied to the bow using some natural twine.

The ribbon was coloured using the same water soluble wax crayons as mentioned previously - I wasn't sure it would work but was very pleased with the colour match I achieved. Some 'rust' spots were stamped on the ribbon using the same method as mentioned previously. In the bottom left corner you can see some texture which achieved by tearing off most of the top layer of the corrugated card but then leaving a torn edge here and there. All for free too!

Close up to show the layers - bit blurred I'm afraid!

Thanks for looking at this piece - I really do appreciate the comments you leave. Why not pop over and see what the other talented people at Tag Tuesday have come up with? You'll also find the details for joining in yourself if you want to.