Dare to dream...

Hello all.  Thanks so much for dropping in, and thank you for all the amazing feedback on my rusty rosy tags.  After that huge post, I'm really going to try to be quick today!

I've an Artistic Outpost tag to share with you, using my much loved little brother and sister from the Think and Wonder stamp plate.  

There's just something magical about the stamps on this plate for me.  This time, I've split the brother and sister up, but don't worry... they're still not far apart.

The background words are done with a stencil from Red Lead Paperworks.  I first met their stencils in the fabulous work of Claudia - a.k.a. Von Pappe II, and I succumbed immediately - but so far I don't think anything I've created while playing with them has made it as far as the blog.

I used a palette knife to smear Grunge Paste through the stencil onto an already painted tag, letting the words drift down diagonally.  At that point, I'd made no decisions about images or other words for the tag.












I suppose it was the alphabet in their own background which drew me to the brother and sister when it came to deciding on a stamp.  

It seems these decisions are made by the subconscious - and you only work out that there are good reasons later... happens to me all the time when I'm crafting!  












I realised they would just fit, but only if I stamped them individually.

The texture within the image is from the paint in the background.  You can see how I created the texture in my little Being A Boy tag.











I used various inks to tint the stencilled words, some Distress and some Archival, building up light and dark colour around and on the letters until I liked the effect.














The sentiment is from the Kudzu Kafe set, stamped in black and clear embossed, and then mounted on padded tape to make it stand proud.

And then because we're dealing in dreams, I thought the topping ought to be nice and ethereal... so I tied lots of gauzy ribbon into multiple bows and secured it with tiny staples using my TH Tiny Attacher.







That's me for today - see, I told you I was going to be quick (if you're new round here, believe me, this was quick!).  Don't miss the new challenge starting today at A Vintage Journey.  I'm not along for this leg of the journey, but my team-mates have created some really fabulous projects to inspire you.  Have a fabulous weekend everyone... I'm hoping to come visiting in Craftyblogland at some point, so I'll see you soon.

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily.  Not to dare is to lose oneself.
Søren Kierkegaard

With the wonderful Artistic Outpost brother and sister, all that lettering, and the colours blue and brown, I think we can safely say there are A Few Of My Favourite Things involved here, so I'd like to enter this over at the Inspiration Journal, sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium.