Being a Boy

Hello all!  So happy you enjoyed yesterday's melancholy musical creation.

I've a tag slightly out of my usual style for you today.  I've been really enjoying the Stampotique Designers Challenge themes lately, and am so honoured by being picked as a favourite too.

But I am slightly ashamed that none of my projects has used a Stampotique stamp (though it's not compulsory)... well, here's one that does!

The theme this week is Masculine.  I suppose this tag probably lies towards the gentle end of the testosterone spectrum, but I really wanted to take this little boy out for a spin.

I was so excited recently to win some fabulous blog candy from the brilliant and lovely Kay Wallace, and this Daniel Torrente stamp, Heart Boy, was part of it - so he needed inking!













For the background I spread some texture paste onto a tag, then laid another tag over the top and pressed them together firmly before peeling them apart to get this lovely textured look.













I inked over the top with various Distress Inks - Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters, I think.











I love the variegated tones you get as the ink takes differently according to whether it's over the paste or direct onto the card.













Heart Boy was stamped on a separate piece of card, then stamped again and cut out as a mask.  I inked around him with the same colours, and used my (very few) Copic Markers to colour him in.












I stamped the "recipe", adapted from the nursery rhyme (it's down below, with some extra verses I never knew existed), on some more leftover card.











I inked the words, sky and grass, top and bottom, and mounted both them and Heart Boy on padded tape.













I used one of Darcy's new PaperArtsy border stamps around the edges - it seemed just right for this tag.













(Oh, and those tiny red spatters you can see... an oversight on my part.  He was lying too near something else that was going on!)












It's all topped off with some dyed seam binding and curled paper string - keeping things simple, for once.











As it's Tuesday, you'll find me over at Artistic Outpost today too... with my tag using real life fir fronds - so if you missed it last time around, do check it out.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you soon either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.











What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails,
And that are little boys made of.

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice,
And that are little girls made of.

What are young men made of?
What are young men made of?
Sighs and leers, and crocodile tears,
And that are young men made of.

What are young women made of?
What are young women made of?
Ribbons and laces, and sweet pretty faces,
And that are young women made of.
Traditional

Originally by Robert Southey, but with many alternative versions down the years, including some with even more verses!

I'm entering this highly Masculine tag (!) over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge