Neutral Blues III

Today's blue and brown tag is a slight hop out of kin as far as this series of Neutral Blues goes, but I think it's definitely still part of the group.

There's no paper doll involved but we are continuing to play with the Oxides, as well as also using my PaperArtsy quote stamps again.

The nature collector of Neutral Blues I and the many pairings of Neutral Blues II were gently Oxided.  This tag is full on Oxide!

The background was part of some playtime right at the start of my time in New York, and then it sat like that for the whole three months before travelling home again with me.
















I started out just playing with combinations of Distress Oxides and Distress Inks again, layering up a wrinkle-free distress background.
















There's endless delight in the variations you can get from dripping and spritzing and dabbing the inks and water.















I also did some stamping in Walnut Stain DOX - love how the pigment component means it will layer over the top so beautifully.














And then that was that for three months...

It wasn't until I was back at my craft table that I worked out what to do with it next.

The inspiration really came from this Walt Whitman quote from EAB02 Darkness and Light.












There's already lots of light and dark to be found in the inky splotches and splashes, but I thought I could go a step further by adding a more substantial reference to light.
















It took some heavy duty gel medium to get the lightbulbs to stay in place, but I'm very happy now they're there.














As well as artificial light, we have some starlight too... (another connection to the previous pair of tags, with their tiny metal star accents).













And the clock picks up the thought about the hours of light and dark.














I mounted it on some bits of cardboard to give it a bit more dimension and presence.  And it was originally one of the pewter coloured clocks, but I used Mushroom Alcohol Ink to help it tone in with the rest of the tag.












I glued a piece of white-washed vintage book page across the tag (covering up a previous quote-stamping which I decided I didn't really like!), and the quote itself is simply stamped in Potting Soil Archival.













Some rusty mesh (from the new supplies - yay!) sits behind the quote, adding a bit more interest and detail.  I do love my rusty mesh.














And a bit of rusty wire at the top (the rusty wire which was wound round the new rusty mesh as packaging - waste not, want not) finishes the whole thing off.











So that's today's blue and brown tag - I hope it pleases you as much as it pleases me.  Sometimes it's the simple things which make me happy!

Thanks so much for dropping in today.  There's one more tag in this Neutral Blues series (back to the Paper Dolls with the next one) before I offer you something completely different (and I do mean completely!).  Hope you're all enjoying a lovely weekend, and I'll see you again soon.

The dance between darkness and light will always remain— the stars and the moon will always need the darkness to be seen, the darkness will just not be worth having without the moon and the stars.
C. Joybell C.




Since we're still on my much-loved blue and brown combination, I'm going to share this with Tag Tuesday again, where the lovely Chrissie has chosen My Favourite Colour Combination as the theme.
At Mixed Media Monthly they would like to see Altered Embellishments this month.  My bulbs and the clock have all been altered with alcohol ink to get the colours to tone in.
And at Try It On Tuesday they would like us to Let It Shine - lightbulbs and starlight and the magic of light and dark should do the trick, I hope.