Shine On . . . . . . . . . . At ABAC

The challenge for the next fortnight at ABAC is to add some form of shine to your projects. You can be over the top with full on shine, sparkle and bling or just add a little gentle sheen somewhere on your project. Make anything except a card, add in the theme somewhere and then link up your work at ABAC so that we can come and visit you all! Remember: we like comments too so do visit the DT members and leave them a word or two.

I haven't managed to join in the Sunday Stampers for a little while. The theme Hels has chosen this week is 'What Makes You Happy'. The answer to that is: making inky backgrounds, metal flowers and creating texture so, I hope she thinks that this tag fits the bill! Don't know Hels? You MUST go and visit her and be prepared for some amazing crafting and some of the funniest and interesting posts you could wish for. (Gushing over - I promise!).

I'm not an overly shiny, bling girl but I do like a touch of glossy accents, some mica spray, embossing enamels with metallic tones and of course some gorgeous metal tape (er, lots of gold and diamonds too but sadly my husband thinks I've got the set!). I've used all of these on my tag so see if you can spot each one:

This tag was really hard to photograph with the large flower and the metallic distress stain  in the background but hopefully you get the general idea! The sentiment links to the challenge theme but I kept thinking of the Pink Floyd song 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' and that's how this tag was 'born'. (That shows my age doesn't? They were the first group I ever saw at age 14 in the 70's. . . . ).

The flower was made by covering white card with metal tape, cutting some tattered florals and colouring with alcohol inks & gold mixative. Next stage was to stamp them with script using versa mark and then emboss with distress powder. The die cuts were shaped and layered before adding some jute thread to represent stamens.

An inky background was made with metallic distress stains and inks. Stamping used the same distress inks. A mask was used with distress ink to add depth. Now here's the problem for me: the metallic distress stain just makes the background look a little grey here but in real life it adds a gentle pearly sheen which is really attractive - I'm not convinced about them but I won't give up yet. . . . . .
The little bee charm was coloured with gold mixative, covered with Duncan Z which was dried and then partly removed with a baby wipe. A quick spray of matt sealer ensures the black won't rub off - using Duncan Z is another Andy Skinner trick, don't you just love his talent?! You could do this just as easily with black acrylic paint but I wanted a dirty, matt look.

The letters were cut from textured grunge paper, inked and coated with glossy accents and I LOVE how they turned out!! To grunge them a little and add some different shine, I swiped some gold rub & buff over some of the edges. The flourishes were made in the same way but no rub & buff was applied. Their shine is better seen in one of the following photos.
You can also see some green ribbon here. This was gathered by hand and attached behind the corrugated card. I liked the soft feminine touch it added to the grungy background.

The stamped bees link to the little charm - why? I don't know really, I just like them!

The flower and flourishes sit on a piece of inked kraft corrugated card with torn edges. Some of the edges of the card have embossing enamel applied in a very random way. I love the texture this provides. I think these flourishes would work well on a Christmas tag too!

Hope you like this tag; it was great fun to make and contains many of the things that I love in crafting. 

You may find that this post is a little earlier than the ABAC challenge goes live but we're out this afternoon and I still haven't mastered the art of scheduling. . . . . . one day perhaps??