Thursday, March 10, 2011

It's gonna be a muddy spring

by the looks of my last tag for the CCC challenge.  My Espresso Color Wash Sprayer was blocked but I didn't know it...that stuff goes everywhere if you're not careful (*1)!  Hence, almost all my components got splashed.  (Heavy sigh.)

First I colorized the tag with lots of yellow, orange and brown distress inks.  Plopped on some water droplets then that ECW thing happened.  I cut one of the seed packets from Tim's Seasonal Stash, distressed the edges then crumpled it before doing the technique that can be found on page 67...Design Details.  Say it isn't so...the last technique in the book!!!! 

What do you think of my faux hydrangea flowers?  They started out as a tea-stained coffee filter (*2).  Hmm, but more oranges, browns and some purple distress inks were added for color variation.  Wetted, wadded up and dried numerous TH Tattered Flowers (the smaller 2 sizes).  If you stack the layers off-kilter then hold them down with a skewer, the heat gun will automatically curl them upwards.  Cool!  Of course, I had to further crumple them for more lift.  I tried to color some purple gems with a brown marker to get them to be a plum color...nope, you get a lovely shade of garnet (*3).  Not going to work with these flowers so I raided my brad drawer and popped in some tiny ones as well as a larger one with a washer.

A M(artha) S(tewart) punch and a Sizzix die created the greenery.  Yup, more ECW, distress inks, wetted, wadded and dried.  Like the faux enamel tag?  Sure matches the tag background better than I could have ever expected; it started out white.  That's some MS silk ribbon that I stamped some text with Black Archival Ink, wetted, wadded and dried.  Down at the bottom I stamped the sentiment in BAI.  It's from a larger piece that I found on Tim's 'Just Thoughts' set.

So, 3 important things I learned while making today's art...(1) use a very large spray box with the Color Wash sprays and wear plenty of protective covering, (2) coffee filters make wonderful flowers and (3) brown + red = garnet .

Guess I'll pause now as I wait for the rains to stop, the sun to come out, and the gardens to dry.

10 comments:

  1. love your tag and... your humor! that last paragraph (in italic) had me roling !

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  2. lol! Must be the week, because I squeezed too hard on my snow cap paint dabber and the top and all the paint barfed all over...lol... Your tag turned out really lovely, I absolutely LOVE those flowers!

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  3. Great tag, love all that brown going on; even if you got more than you intended! Your flowers are great, too.

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  4. Fabulous tag Susan, I love those flowers! x

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  5. Beautiful tag! Reminds me of a leather pouch I used to have. That happened to one of my sprayer too. Annoying and very messy. Cheers...Donna

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  6. I think your tag is fabulous!!!! Wonderful colors and flowers and details!!

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  7. LOL! Someone said as long as we learn something every day, its a good day! I think your tag came out beautifully! I'll have to try those flowers now that I have coffee filters to spare (hello K-cups! LOL). I've loved following your blog during the challenge-can't wait to see what comes next.

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  8. Terrific grunge design tag Susan, and the filter flower is great. Loving the background as well. A great end to a great challenge. Annette x

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  9. Would like to have watched this process--sounds like quite an experience! Maybe not as bad as a shot of glue to the hair, though! I love flowers made from coffee filters.

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  10. Wow, this is botanical perfection, Susan! What a gorgeous, earthy and (I'll say it again) GORGEOUS tag! I love the soft, understated colors and the beautiful use of the Design Details techniques! The soft look you created with the water droplets is perfect for this gentle work of art, and the flowers and seed packet graphic are wonderful.

    The hydrangea flowers are ingenious! I love everything about this!

    Thank you enormously for being part of the CCC! It's been a joy visiting your blog and admiring your work, and I very much hope you'll be back for the next chapter!

    (By the way, I use a big, deep Rubbermaid bin for my Colorwash work. I learned the hard way... ) ;-)

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