Confines of the heart tag......

I'd like to share the third of my three themed tags. .....  

To be honest I finished it a couple of days ago and its been sitting on the desk in my craft room... Is anyone else like me, leaving their work sat to one side for a day or two whilst they "live with it"?  Sometimes when I find a piece doesn't seem quite finished and I'm not sure what it needs, I leave it to one side for a couple of days and it generally comes to me as I wander past.  In this case it was the little black brad in the corner... that's all it was.... but it seemed to "feel" better for adding it.  Crazy ah!

Here are a couple of close ups and details along the way:-

This is my background.... cream water colour card-stock layered with a page from The Promise (First Edition 12x12 paper pad.... gorgeous!)  inked with Black Soot  and Picket Fence Distress Ink.  I added some straw-blown black Indian Ink and then topped with a coat of Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze.  As you can see I've already added a SU jumbo eyelet and backed the tag with black card-stock to frame it and neaten the back.

Behind the heart is a piece of muslin that was left over from the seahorse tag I made earlier this month..... a little random machine sticking in black thread tied it in with the background (which seemed to have a slight blue tinge to it despite the fact that I didn't use any blue ink!!!)

I also used this label, left over from a new throw that I bought and cut up to make cushions for my new sofa..... I just loved the swirlly shape of the trade mark and couldn't bare to throw it out... again, some random machine sticking in black thread thanks to my ol' treadle machine. 

Next up was to ink a couple of cream coloured flower heads from my stash.... again working on the slight blue tinge to the background I inked the edges of each petal in blue Distress Ink. The bleed of the blue ink into the cream was a happy accident but I liked it!

This is the heart...... drawn freehand onto watercolour card then coloured with Barn Door, Fired Brick  and Black Soot Distress Ink. Out came my Crackled Paint Rock Candy (a couple of coats, air dried between each coat).  The wire is pewter coloured floristry wire which I wrapped round the heart and secured in place, on the back, with double sided red tape.  The arrow....  a trusty Tim Holtz Idea-ology arrow.... was used unadorned, apart from a small piece of thicker grade silver wire and a touch of hot glue to secure it in place on the floristry wire/heart.

Here are all my pieces in place on the tag with the aid of red double sided tape and hot glue..... I circled the loose ends of thread to emulate the swirls on the Bronte label and picked this theme up again with some circles using black Indian Ink and a bottle cap.

Next was the wording.... I generated these on the computer, inked them with SU grey ink and then backed with black card stock.

I added a black star from my stash (sure these things breed once the box is closed, as I've had them for years and they never seem to go down!).... why?  Well, because I didn't like the way I'd stitch the corner, if I'm honest.

And this is the little black brad that I waited two days to realise the tag needed to finish it off.

A couple more close ups.......

Flowers in situ... Not quite in focus (sorry).....but look at that lovely crackle on the heart behind (have I mentioned I adore crackle paint).

Slightly better picture for you....

It's so amazing how the paint just seems to bleed/blend into the other colours to give the illusion of depth.  In hindsight I think I should have given the arrow a hint of Black Soot to have distressed it a little but I can live with the look.

As I mentioned, I finished this tag a couple of days ago and peeking from the corner of the first photo was my next project......  Tammy Tutterow (a very lovely talented lady) made a journal some time ago using Tim Holtz's Eclectic Elements fabric and I've been itching to have a go ever since I saw it.  Tammy kindly gives step by step instructions on her blog (tutorials for inky hands http://tammytutterow.com/2013/05/tuesday-tutorial-fabric-joy-journal/)  but here are a couple of early pictures of my two journals.....

This is some fabric from John Lewis' that I fell in love with and wanted to use for a travel journal.... I'm going to use distressed atlas and road map paper inside........

   
I've joined the fabric to the cotton batting backing by stitching along the longitude and latitude lines in black thread. It gives it a slight quilted effect and was very quick and easy to do.... my ol'trusty treadle helped out again.

You'll no doubt recognise this Tim Holtz fabric that I decided to use on my second journal. It's gorgeous but certainly wasn't a good choice for quilting though.  It's soooooo  detailed it took forever. (my legs were tuckered out !)

And...... there were a million and one ends to tie off! Did I hear someone say you must suffer for your art ?

That's as far as I've got on these journals for now... I'll keep you posted.

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking time to read my blog. I hope you liked it.

Thank you too for the very lovely comments I received lately (I really never thought I'd get comments on my blog, so I was chuffed as little mint balls to receive them... you made my day. Thank you sooooo much)

Happy crafting

Carol xx