A chance to play

I love Wednesdays. It's my day off and sometimes I get the chance to play. After spending a good portion of the other day watching videos of Tim Holtz demonstrating the new Distress Stains; I had to get one of every color to play with!

My first attempt was not impressive. I tried to improvise by using a file folder to cut a tag and found that didn't work so well. The Ranger Tags have a much smoother surface. The file folders sucked up the stain so quick I got a very streaky look. When I tried to wet it to blend the paper just soaked up the water- no blending. So I grabbed my Ranger Tags and tried again. The results were much better.
So for those of you who want to know how I made this tag, here's the scoop:
I stamped the Hero Arts Butterfly (F5158) on to the blank tag using Matte Multi Medium - Another tip I learned from Tim; it acts as a resist. Then I used the Distress Stains in Antique Linen, Wild Honey, Fired Brick, and Broken China and sprayed it with water. I used a heat tool to dry it then I ran it through the Brick Wall Texture Fade. I stamped Hero Arts Friendship Definition stamp with Walnut Stain Distress ink. I used the blending tool to add Wild Honey and Walnut Stain Distress ink to the edges. The sentiment is from JustRite Stamps and is cut with a Spellbinders Die that is made for JustRite.

Now for my favorite part - The flower. It started as three layers of Color Me Crazy flowers from Petaloo. The bottom layer I colored with Spun Sugar Stain, touched the edges with Fired Brick Stain and sprayed with water. The top Layer I colored with Wild Honey Distress ink then sprayed it with water to blend it. While it was wet I lightly touched the center with the Wild Honey Stain. The leaves are actually two petals cut from a large Petaloo flower that I colored with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss stain.

Please note: The Petaloo flowers are paper and they lose their shape and texture when you wet them. I found best results by drying them using and iron and putting them between to paper towels. Make sure you use the paper towels because the stain did transfer when I ironed them. Once they were dry I just scrunched them up to shape them. I put a small pearl and some Scattered Straw Distress Stickles in the center. The ribbon is just a piece of seam binding I colored with Spun Sugar and Fired Brick Stains.