The Last Dregs of Alcohol

Hello all!  Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my Vintage Journey tiny houses - it was really touching to read them.

I've got an unexpected extra for you here that I'm just squeezing in before things kick off big time tomorrow.

I was a little perturbed when I saw that alcohol inks and glossy paper were involved in Tim's September tag.  I use the inks mostly for altering metal bits and bobs, though I do use them a lot for that.

And no bright colours for me - the inks I have are mostly rusty, burnished, autumnal tones, so that's when it clicked for me... leaves!

I missed all of the autumn crafting last year as I was working away from home and my craft table, so maybe that's why I'm leaping in early this year.

I think that this would work better with the Mini Autumn Blueprint leaves - these ones are perhaps a touch too delicate in their line to really hold their own.  But I don't have those, and besides, I quite like the subtlety of it.

As you'll see, it's hard to get a consistent photo when you've got glossiness and frostiness going on on the same tag.  It seems to change at every angle and in every light, but I hope you'll get the general idea.










The techniques are pretty much exactly following Tim's lead, so you'll find all the details over there but, as I said, my colours are way different.  I've got Rust and Ginger and Teakwood and Red Pepper and Currant with Gold Mixative.

I have to confess I wasn't patient enough to wait for the paste to dry, so I helped it along with the heat tool.  There are some tiny blisters and bubbles as a result, but I actually really love them!










The leaves are from the Daydream set, with the mini version from Nature Walk added in to make the third.  Oh, by the way I've no Frosted Sheets, so this is the Frosted Film adhered to Clearly For Art modelling film.











For the background tag I added Ground Espresso to the Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke.  Can't put down the Ground Espresso!













I do love the transparent texture over the background - lovely effect.













I used some Jet Black Archival on the glossy flourish texture as Tim does, but then thought the whole thing needed a bit of a lift in my colour version, so I added some Florentine Treasure Gold too.













And I added a burnishing of Treasure Gold to my leaves too, just around the edges to catch the light.














The delicate line of the leaf image means that you get a real skeleton leaf effect...













... barely there in some lights.














And you do have to look closely to see the stamped images on the panel underneath...













... but I promise you they're there.













I fell head over heels in love with how Tim had fastened his WordBand to the tag.












I haven't got any of that really fine wire - or to tell the truth I think I have, but if you can tell me where in my craft stash it's hiding I'd be really grateful! - but I'm always happy to reach for the rusty wire.

Since that was what I had to hand, that's what I used.












I altered the WordBand itself with Treasure Gold and some Ground Espresso Distress Paint to fill in the lettering.










There's some more rusty wire holding my Ground Espresso-inked linen ribbon in place at the top of the tag.  Can you see how I had to hang it on an ivy twig to catch the last rays of the chilly afternoon sun?  How useful a tag hole is! 

And that's pretty much that...





... except to say again that, with my love of how light plays with us so that things change in front of our eyes, I'm really happy with the many faces of this tag.  In light or in shade it reveals different aspects of itself.





Thank you, Tim, for another adventure - so much on this one that simply wouldn't occur to me to play with, starting with those alcohol inks.







But who knows... they might get to come out for more than altering metal in the future.  I'm going to need new bottles of Ginger and Rust though - I'm down to the last dregs now!

Hope you're enjoying a great weekend.  As I said, there's mighty things afoot starting on Sunday evening, so I hope you'll be able to swing by again soon... happy crafting all!

Nature will bear the closest inspection.  She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

I'd like to enter this as my September tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015.