Hats Off to Distress Oxides!

Hello all and a very happy March to you!

As promised, and squeezed in between lots of other stuff, here's the Distress Oxide tag I teased you with the other day.

In between watercolours and Infusions and Destination Inspirations (Destinations Inspiration?) and I don't know what all, I shared some results from my first Distress Oxide playtime in XOX Oxides.

There's no accident in that title... I do love them, and I'm really excited to keep exploring their possibilities.

And today's title is not just about that fabulous bowler hat, but a big, congratulatory "Hats Off!" (or "Chapeau!" as the French have it, or "Klobouk dolů!" from the Czechs) to Tim Holtz for this newly developed dye/pigment fusion.
















For the central panel of this tag I used the middle background from the first photo in that post, and inked up some of the stamps I bought last year and never had time to play with during my year of many travellings.














The gears are clear embossed over Potting Soil Archival ink.

With a background like this, the clear embossing helps give the image extra definition against all the detail.













The inks in that background are a combination of Distress Oxides and Distress Stains, so that you get the opacity from the Oxides and the translucence of the Distress dye inks playing off each other.













The not-there-man is stamped in VersaMark and embossed in Bark powder by Wow.
















If you get the angle right, he shimmers delightfully in the light (a real now-you-see-him, now-you-really-don't which I like a lot).















The text stamping is just plain Potting Soil - that's fine as it belongs in the background.

I love these stamps of vintage advertisements and bits of ephemera and always, of course, text and lettering and fonts.













The "Repairs Receive Constant Attention" along the bottom definitely tickles me!  














Once I had my panel done, I decided I wanted to set it on a tag, so I created the large tag also seen in XOX Oxides.  I deliberately kept a lot more white space so that there would be a contrast between the tag and the central panel.














Then I had a lovely time playing with arranging my cogs and gears to echo those in the stamped image.  Some of them are Idea-ology; some are from a cheap job lot from China.















I used alcohol inks and Distress Paints to alter some of them for a verdigris distressed look to echo the inky panel and tag.











I used a Small Talk sticker inside my Idea-ology Label Pull.  It's been slightly stained with Pumice Stone Distress Stain so that it wouldn't be too glaringly white inside there.












I enjoyed creating a little chainful of adornments to hang from the Hitch Fastener.

I usually use these as doorknobs or folder fasteners, so it's fun to do something different.














I love how it looks layered over the cog.













Again, the alcohol inks and Distress Paints came in handy to create the weathered metal look on the numbers, whether it's on the figure 3...














... or the smaller figure 2 (I mean it's smaller in size as well as in value - it's one of the Idea-ology Mini Numerals, as opposed to the larger Numerals which have those helpful holes pre-drilled).












So that's one of my first little plays with Distress Oxides turned into a tag.  And it was such fun playing with all those Tim Holtz stamps and bits and bobs.

Tim and his Distress Inks really were at the heart of the start of my crafty journey, so it's really exciting having new Distress ingredients to add to the mix.

There's a new and very special challenge due to start at A Vintage Journey on Friday, so I'll hope to see you again soon.  Happy crafting all!






There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.
Rene Magritte (talking about his painting The Son of Man which features a man in a bowler hat with his face hidden by an apple)

The timing is just too perfect, so I'd like to play along at my old stamping ground Country View Challenges where the theme is Inspired by Tim Holtz