Alcoholic Butterfly

Hello everyone!  No, no, don't panic, this isn't some kind of soul-baring post... it's not me but the butterfly on the tag who's an alcoholic - made with alcohol ink, that is to say!

It's a long month this month, so we've time to squeeze in a Tag Friday of inspiration for you over at A Vintage Journey.  You'll find a wealth of Tim Holtz-inspired tags created by my amazing team-mates if you hop over there, but before you go here's what I'm offering up for you.

You'll notice it carries on the variations on a theme which I was obsessed with a few weeks back.  Well, given a bit of free playtime, it turns out I'm still obsessed!  I really didn't plan on the tag going in this direction, but suddenly there I was.

It's those Harlequins that get me - and the blue green shades of course - can't seem to get off that particular ride, unless it's to go neutral.

(I am starting to be tempted out of my comfort zones though - as you'll see if you check out my new Colour board on Pinterest.  It gives me huge delight just to scroll up and down through the rainbow of possibilities there... maybe one day!)












And I find myself heading for translucence and reflectivity too - there's something about how things catch the light that I find endlessly mesmerising (witness my new Glass board on Pinterest too!), so there is plenty of clear-embossing involved, as well as Glossy Accents to highlight some of the Harlequins.











In fact, clear-embossing was almost the first layer.  I sponged Versamark ink through the new Tim Holtz Typo stencil (love this grungy alphabet) onto some Distress-inked watercolour paper and used clear embossing powder.

Then I gave the whole thing a wash of white paint, wiping the clear resist letters clean as I went.

When I cut it with the tag die I was a bit careless about the positioning of the die, so I ended up with a slightly off-centre alphabet.











No problem - I grabbed the tiny hearts from the Watercolour set and inked them up for the first time.

I used blue and green Distress Ink shades and again clear-embossed them for a touch of sparkle.










I created a second tag in colours to complement the first so that I'd have something to play with when I got to the Harlequin cutting, and eventually layered the two together.











I cut some extra diamonds out of the bit of the underneath tag that you can't see, so that I could layer additional pieces in the gaps.  And then, as I say, I got busy with the Glossy Accents.

So, the tags were going well, but I needed a focal point... so here comes the butterfly.











I cut and embossed the Butterfly Duo in Clearly for Art Whiteout, and then had great fun dripping alcohol inks onto the surface.  (I cut both butterflies, so I had one to practice on.)












This is definitely one of the most psychedelic butterflies I've ever created, but I do think he's rather splendid!  Love how the alcohol inks pool and resist and blend... great fun.











And he gleams rather nicely in the sunlight too.














I can't think what we did before these wonderful Thinlit word dies came along - they're just perfect to add a word or two to a tag.  (These are cut out of a bit of card leftover from some previous blue-green project.)










I wanted a touch more stamping detail so I added some ornate flourishes, just to give the sense of a swirl of movement, maybe from the butterfly alighting.

Plus you have the gleam reflecting off the original stencilled, clear-embossed lettering, which means everything shimmers as you move the tag around.












Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for all your lovely comments on the sudden flurry of projects over the last week or so... it's certainly been busy here at Words and Pictures.  Do go for a quick scroll as some of it was a bit "blink and you'll miss it"!








And do hop over and check out the fabulous tags created for this Tag Friday by my team-mates at A Vintage Journey.  We hope you'll enjoy all the extra inspiration.

I'm about to head into technical rehearsals for the show I'm working on, so I'll be inside the theatre pretty much all hours of the day (I expect that means the rest of you are due some gloriously sunny weather - sod's law!), but I'll hope to do some visiting now and then.  In the meantime, have a lovely weekend and I'll see you soon.



In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.
John Archibald Wheeler

When she turned into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty, but of her weirdness.  They wanted her to change back into what she always had been.  But she had wings.
Dean Jackson