Believe in Adventure

Hello all!  I'm sorry I'm so quiet at the moment.  As I mentioned, there's a lot going on behind the scenes - not only craft-wise but with real world admin and planning.  January always seems to be a bit of a crazy month!  But I managed to grab some crafting time at the table, and finally used up a piece of scrap card which has been floating around for months... in fact, almost exactly a year it turns out.

I've created a pair of jumbo tags, 8.5 x 4.25 inches, all in my favourite colour combination and using some of the largest Paper Dolls.  Plenty of pictures today, but I've tried to keep the words to a minimum!

I had a piece of white card from which I'd cut the circles and coffee rings for the journal spread A Harlequin Infusion a year ago.  Yes, the not-being-able-to-throw-stuff-away maybe needs dealing with, but occasionally it pays off.  I forgot to take a picture of just the card, sadly.








I thought I'd stick the card down over a tag to make a cool background.  But then I realised that if I first used it as a stencil, I'd get two cool backgrounds!














I spread some thick gesso through the rings onto one large tag, and then glued the gesso'd card onto a second tag.

Once the gesso was dry, I spritzed and smooshed both tags with Distress Sprays - Stormy Sky, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone and Walnut Stain.













So you have one tag where the coffee rings are raised from the surface...














... and one where they are sunk down into the surface.















Then I added lots of lovely background stamping.

There's some architectural detailing in Watering Can Archival.















And some numbers and gears done in Potting Soil.
















The two large boys - the largest of the Paper Dolls - demanded to be included.














They're each five-and-a-half inches from top to bottom.

I like working with oppositions and pairings, as regulars know...















... so the one in the darker suit is over the lighter background...
















... and the one in the lighter suit goes over the darker background.














Then it was a question of selecting a Quote Chip to go with each boy.












They both have such confident expressions and body language... so they definitely needed some positive phrases to go with them.















I also added some pieces of Design Tape to each tag.  There's some nice vintage print...














... and I found a need for butterflies too.  This narrow strip tape is amazing with the finely detailed butterfly images.















I grabbed some gears and Typed Tokens to add metal accents.
















Again, picking the right words didn't take long.
















They're strong and positive.
















I do love these number brads too.















They have such a lovely vintage font for the numbers.















A scrap of linen ribbon tops them both off in a nice simple way.

















I hope you like them.  Of course, each tag can stand alone...










But I really like the contrasts and oppositions when you see them together... especially in those backgrounds.  I can't quite decide whether I like them with the two boys close together as in the photo here, or at opposite sides, as in the photo at the start of the post.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm away for a few days, but now that the tax (yuck!) is done, I should have a bit more time on my hands for some visiting once I return.   Happy crafting all!

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I'd love to share this in the Winter Blues theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
And I'm also playing along at That's Crafty Challenges where they are Feeling Blue this month