Hopes of Spring

Hello all!  I'm still in slightly rusty mode after my Rusted Hope tag the other day.  And I couldn't resist having another play with the chicken wire die - this time rusted slightly differently.

I made this tag to celebrate having completed my tax return.  It really was just a chance to play after sorting through invoices and receipts all day.

(Yes, I know, if I were more organised through the year, it would all be much simpler at this point... but that's just not how I work I'm afraid.  I'd rather restrict the financial admin to a couple of days each year than think about it all year long!)



















Like Rusted Hope, this tag plays with the contrast between the rusted "manmade" elements and the forces of nature. 















And it's well worth encouraging your hopes not your fears here, because nature definitely seems to be winning out this time round!














The background on this tag is really rather full on.  It started with some wrinkle-free-distressing with Broken China, Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks.















Over that I stamped the teeny tiny text from Tim Holtz's Entomology stamp set and embossed it in bright white.

I then did some multiple stamping of two of the insects from the same set in Pumice Stone Distress Ink and embossed those in clear.













As always, I love how the glossy embossing captures light.














The chicken wire (or honeycomb, whichever way you want to think of it), cut from card, has had a coat of Finnabair's Art Extravagance Brown Rust Paste (grabbed in the sales).














Such a simple way to get a rusty texture... and I added some variation in colour with other paints and mediums.













The two delicate grass stems are cut from the mop-up tag created in the wrinkle-free-distressing earlier.  I brayered white paint over the top of my blues and greens, so the stems are lighter in tone than the vivid inks in the background.















This Paper Doll has been hovering on the desk for a while.















I'm worried about how serious he looks... as though he's wary about what life is going to throw at him next.













So I've grounded him on some tape to give him a safer standing in the world.














And I thought he could do with the reassurance provided by this particular Word Band.














If you read my previous post, you'll know that I'm feeling the need of the same advice.

I've been feeling very gloomy about the state of the world, but I have to stay hopeful that the power of nature will triumph in the end over all our attempts to destroy her. 













The butterflies are carrying my hopes on their fragile wings...













... as they hover over the lush greenery, and point us in the direction we need to go if we're to save this miraculous planet of ours.














Some simple rustic garden twine tops the whole thing off...
















... and I mounted the tag on some thick waste cardboard before inking the edges with Vintage Photo.  It gives it a really pleasing sturdiness.

That'll do for today.  I hope you're all enjoying a lovely weekend, and I look forward to doing some hopping to catch up with you all now that the tax return is done and dusted... yay!!  Happy crafting all!

One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.
Leo Tolstoy