Encore Post - Live Gently

Encore Post - see the foot of the post if you don't know what I'm talking about!

Hello all and happy Sunday!  I had hoped to share some more of my new stamp samples with you, but there just hasn't been time to write the blogpost.  I'm still busy with Julius Caesar here in New York - full days in the theatre, with the first audience preview this evening (yes, Sunday - theatres here play on Sundays, with Monday as the day off, unlike in the UK).  But I didn't want to neglect the blog completely, so here's an Encore tag with a little touch of springtime for you in the meantime.  It's something of a favourite of mine, I must confess, so I'm happy to be sharing the full post here at Words and Pictures at last.

It was made back in August 2016 for one of the Vintage Journey Destination Inspiration posts, so there were certain elements which had to be included.  But, as you'll see, this list really wasn't a stretch for me!  Here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all, it's Alison here arriving at Terminal 3 of Destination Inspiration.  We've already seen wonderful projects from Anne and Deb, and now it's my turn to create with the contents of the travel bag this month.  Just as a reminder, this is what's in the suitcase:

Product - Paint

Substrate - Tag

Colour - Smoky Grey Blue (think Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood)

Technique - Resist (paint, embossing or mediums)

And here's the tag I came up with...

I started by putting a coat of PaperArtsy Chalk Fresco Paint onto a plain manila tag, and then stamping Tim Holtz's Cracks background in Versamark and clear-embossing it.

So that was my paint and my resist - now for something for it to resist!  I used Distress Stains in Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke to create the almost stained glass look.

Having the coat of paint underneath means the Stains don't soak into the tag in the same way - they sit on the surface a little and create lovely effects as you dry them.  And you can see the grain of the paint brush strokes too, which I really like.

By now I'd covered all the travel bag contents requirements, so I was free to go in any direction with what to put over my background.  Whatever I did next, I would still have my lovely light-catching resist mosaic.

The gorgeous Bird Silhouette is a favourite die of mine so I cut him from some Tim Holtz paper and inked the edges with Ground Espresso DI.

Some more paper scraps provide the "ground" for him to stand on.  He's mounted on padded tape, by the way, to get a touch more dimension.

I was in a gentle frame of mind, so I cut some soft neutral Wildflower die-cuts to go behind him (also inked with Ground Espresso)...

... and I added some actual dried Wildflower stems to the mix.  I love the fragile dimensionality - not one for sending through the post, this!

Adding the lower parts of the stems was an afterthought.  They're just tucked in, but I think they're positioned about right to create the illusion that they're all attached somewhere behind his back.

Obviously I needed some words - Small Talk stickers to the rescue, as so often.  I can't think what I did before these little phrases were released.

So that's my Destination Inspiration tag for you.  I hope you like it.

Thanks so much for stopping at Destination Inspiration with me today.  See you again soon.

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I'm happy to say that there is finally a touch of spring in the air here, so this seemed like the right time for this tag.  I hope you're all enjoying a gentle weekend full of things which give you joy, and I'll hope to be back soon with something a little newer to share.  Many thanks for stopping by and happy crafting all!

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.
Saint Francis de Sales

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm away.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!