Natural Oxides

Hello all!  It's been quiet here again at Words and Pictures, but I'm coming to the end of my New York work stint now - exciting and stimulating, but full-on and pretty exhausting - so hopefully things will be back on a more even keel soon.

I'm stopping in today to share a quick pair of tags using a couple of the new Oxide colours... mainly the lovely new natural neutrals so far - the Antique Linen and the Frayed Burlap (already in love), mixed with some Peeled Paint Oxide and a couple of others, as well as a few original Distress Inks.

I was just playing around on my one day off, and ended up with this pair of nature tags.

The leafy one came first.  I started with a dipped and dabbed background using the Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap DOXs and some Walnut Stain DI.













There's endless delight in the effects you can achieve with a few layers and spritzes of water.











I stamped the leafy branch from the latest PaperArtsy Scrapcosy releases, using Wow Bark powder to emboss it, and coloured it in using the DOXs and a waterbrush.

I mixed Peeled Paint on my craft mat with some Iced Spruce and some of the new Lucky Clover to get my various greens on the leaves.












The acorn had layers of Vintage Photo, Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral and Antique Linen until I liked the look of it.  And the branch has some Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo and Antique Linen.











Because of the opaque pigment ink in the magic Oxide formula, you get good coverage even over quite a busy background, as I had here.  And the Bark embossing of the stamping means the detail of the images survives the colouring in.

I used one of my own new PaperArtsy word stamps from EAB01 Trees and Flowers, stamped in black and embossed with Wow Bark embossing powder.

The gloss and dimension of the embossing helps the words stand out against the ink whirls and splotches.











This next one wasn't really intended as a partner tag when I started out, but it travelled in that direction as I went.  I don't seem to have any making-of photos - I was just messing around, really.

This started with a much paler background, mainly Antique Linen DOX, over which I stencilled the brickwork in Frayed Burlap DOX, using Scrapcosy's new stencils.  










You can also see the Scrapcosy stencils in action with Walnut Stain DOX in this lovely PostCard lettering...















... as well as the stamp-edge frames.















The Tim Holtz flower is stamped partly in Peeled Paint DOX, clear-embossed...












... and partly in Antique Linen DOX, which I then embossed in Wow Vanilla White for more definition.

I used a waterbrush to add some Wild Honey DOX to the flower heads...















... and the same waterbrush and Peeled Paint DOX worked well to add some soft mossy/lichen effects to the brickwork.















The sentiment - again one of mine from EAB01 Trees and Flowers - is stamped in Peeled Paint DOX and clear-embossed.

If I were at home, I'd probably have added some die-cut ivy to the wallflower tag to echo the words, and maybe some minimal metalwork to both of them, but that will just have to wait a few more days!

Both tags are finished off with some Idea-ology Linen Ribbon, stained with Walnut Stain DI, and have had some Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and/or Ground Espresso DI inking around the edges for a more aged look.




















Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  I'm working all the way through it and then packing and flying home on Monday, but I hope to be able to do some visiting (and some more crafting) once I've landed and caught up on some much-needed sleep!

Happy crafting all!

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.
Calvin Coolidge