Life is Good!

Hello and welcome!  I'm relieved to be back with a piece I'm wholeheartedly behind today, a tag which was a sheer joy to create from beginning to end...

It was inspired by the gorgeous Artistic Outpost stamps... these are from two sets: Old Grist Mill and Typography.  I was really looking forward to creating something using resist technique for the Frilly and Funkie challenge... it's a technique I love, and use a lot, so it was such fun to play. 

I took a piece of Kaisercraft's Timeless collection with handwriting on - I love any kind of text on papers and stamps.  Initially I used two different resists with the leaf stamp from Old Grist Mill. 

I stamped some with white acrylic paint, and some with Matt Studio Multi Medium.  Then I inked with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on a blending tool, and wiped over the leaf prints with some dampened paper towel. 

It's funny, but when I first got the Old Grist Mill stamps, many weeks ago, my itch with the watermill was that it wanted to be stamped on glassine or tissue paper.  I've experimented with both, but never quite found the place I wanted to use it... until now!

I stamped it in Coffee Archival onto some tissue paper and then, using the Multi Medium, pasted it quite wetly onto the tag, creating some wrinkly texture as I went.  Thankfully, as hoped, the text still shows through in places - very happy!



So, having added some Vintage Photo round the edges, I already really liked the tag.  In a minimalist mood, I might even have kept it like this perhaps!



No... by now I was too enthusiastic about the tissue-stamping game, so I had a play with the leaf again, stamping it onto tissue paper in Archival Sepia and in Coffee, and gluing it wetly and wrinklily (?!) onto the tag.  









I loved how the layers were starting to build up, with all the different versions of the leaf.  And it was getting progressively more autumnal which, though I'm resisting it in real life, is a beautiful place to play crafting-wise.  The colours of Autumn are just gorgeous!







And I was quite simply happy and contented while I was making this tag, so when it came to choosing a sentiment, it wasn't very hard!  I used some of the leftover script paper, partly inked and partly not, and stamped in Coffee Archival.  It's mounted on some of the delicious metal mesh from the Funkie Junkie's Boutique.  






At the foot of the tag I added some natural twine (like this a lot at the moment), and one of the gorgeous rusty hearts also from the FJB.  I stuck to a simple knot rather than a bow, as it feels like such a simple, rustic tag.

It's casually (if carefully) placed so that there's the dark brown of the mill, a light resist leaf, and a sepia tissue leaf all in contact with it... call me a pedant or perfectionist if you like - I'm used to it!

For the top of the tag I used the ribbon which recently made an altered appearance in Sherlock Holtz, but this time I left it unaltered and added some natural raffia.










The heart is made out of some corrugated card which was wrapped around the metal mesh when it arrived from the FJB (thank you, Linda!).  I drew round the rusty one, so as to have the same shape, then gave it a dab of white acrylic and a sweep of Vintage Photo DI.  

And finally I added an extra leaf resist leftover from earlier, but gave it a more intense Vintage Photo background to set it in sharper relief.  

If you look closely, you'll also see a faint echo of the 'good' from the sentiment, which I'd also played with as a resist before deciding I wanted the earthier ink version. They're both attached to the raffia/ribbon with bronze jump rings (TH Idea-ology).  


Thank you so much for taking some time to visit here today.  I feel a real lift of the heart with this tag (perhaps in contrast to the walk on the dark side, which I was not very happy with as a piece, but there you go... it's all about the exploration), so I hope you've enjoyed it too.  Have a great day doing whatever makes you happiest, and I hope to see you again soon - here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland!

I'm entering this in the following:
Frilly and Funkie's challenge this fortnight which is How Can You Resist?
Artistic Outpost's August challenge which is Anything Goes (using AO stamps)
Because it makes me happy, I'd like to put this in as another No Rules entry for Simon Says Stamp and Show
I'd like to make this another entry for the Allsorts challenge this week, Heavy Metal
Another entry for the Anything Goes challenge this week, to Make Your Own Background
And I'm joining the Sunday Share at Frilly and Funkie too, having used heart and mesh (and corrugated card!) from the FJB

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus

If you want to be happy, be.
Leo Tolstoy

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
A.A.Milne