Tattered And Torn. . . . .

This week's challenge at Tag Tuesday has the wonderful title of 'Tattered and Torn' which conjures up all kinds of lovely messy fun.

I've been looking for sometime now at vintage images online and I recently found some amazing pictures from the east end of London at somewhere near the turn of the century (1898-1900). Why am I telling you this, well, one of those images inspired me for my Tag Tuesday piece today. It depicts a young girl sat probably on a windowsill, playing with her pet rabbit. The curtain in the window is full of holes and the little girl herself is very crumpled and unkempt looking. I printed out the picture hoping to do an image transfer but sadly, I've got hardly any ink left, it didn't work and I had to print another copy which is probably lighter than the first - grrrr!

Not to worry, I still used this poignant image and here's the tag to show you how:

More corrugated card simply because it's free and I can't resist it for texture and versatility!

A tag shape was die cut from old packaging and the top layer ripped off in various areas. DecoArt Traditions were then applied in the colours shown until I was happy with the result.

A wash of Quinacridone Gold was added - very heavy with paint and allowed to dry. Some lightening of areas took place and once happy, everything was dried  The two flat areas of the tag were stamped with a Tim stamp and coffee archival ink. Before it dried, embossing powder  in frosted crystal was applied to give it a worn finish and to enhance the stamping.

An oval was cut from scrap packaging to mount the image on. This was given two coats of DecoArt Traditions (med beige) to help the image stand out well and to smooth and seal the surface. Some lace was coloured with a watery mixture of the medium beige Traditions along with some burnt umber from the same range. Considering the lace was pink to begin with, I was very happy with the results and pleased how well the paint worked.

The middle layer is made from embossed packing card which was given a  Timeworn treatment with DecoArt Traditions paints again - it didn't work very well but I thought I'd keep it and found it came to good use on this tag!

The words were printed out on a label maker, stuck onto card and muddied with the same colour Tradition paints as used for the lace.

I couldn't resist this picture! Clearly the curtains have seen better days but it evokes many thoughts of bygone times and how they compare to our lives now.

Another small section of lace was added at the top of the tag just to ring the changes and to match the edging at the bottom.

So, that's my offering this week for Tag Tuesday, why not pop over and see what the other talented artists have come up with? The tags produced take many forms and use a wide range of media - right up my street!

Other news: we have now exchanged contracts on our house and have a fixed moving day - YAY!! Now the fun begins in earnest!

Thanks for looking at my work and I hope you enjoyed the details of how I achieved the end result.