let life surprise you

Hello All!

I hope you are doing well!

Life sure is surprising us all right now, isn’t it? I’m going on day three in yoga pants and no make-up. I’ve cooked dinners 3 nights in a row, and have been blessed to be spending this down time in my studio and with my guys. I gotta tell ya, if anything good is coming out of this crazy time, it is the precious days and nights of time spent in this way. I’m getting really used to it, because even though we are all in a whirlwind of uncertainty, we have to take every GOOD thing that these days bring, and make the most of it.

This bonus time has been awesome to spend in my studio, creating and making things, which always is good therapy for me, as I hope it is for you too. With that, I have a tutorial for you that I hope will bring a little happiness into your day. I pray that you stay well and know that “this too shall pass”. We will make it to the other side of this crazy time and be stronger having gone through it. I also know it will go a little quicker if we stay positive, share kindness and help others to find the good in each day, because…there is good in it, we just have to look for it. ♥️

 This tutorial goes along with a short “demo” that is on Tim Holtz’s Insta-stories. It gives the details on how the daisy was created… you can pop over to his instagram account and flip through the process by clicking HERE. …if it’s not there at the moment, it will be there very soon..

I hope you enjoy!

In this tutorial, I explain how I created the bottle and the process of how the background tag was created.

So, let’s begin…

The bottle…

To create the bottle I used the recently released Bottled Up Bigz die and cut several bottles out of clear acetate from some packaging that I saved from the garbage bin. I knew I was going to only use one for my tag, but decided it was better to make a few ahead for some other projects.

With my finger, I applied a thin coat of Distress Collage Medium to the bottles and then set them aside to dry.

When the bottles were dry, using my finger again, I applied a thin coat of Distress Crackle Clear Rock Candy, then set them aside to dry and crackle.

Wow!! Check out that crackle!!! 🙂

I added a drop of Mushroom Alcohol Ink and a drop of Statue Alcohol Ink Alloy onto the jar and then added a drop of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and a drop of Blending Solution. Using the new Alcohol Ink Blower, I blew the inks around on the bottle and into the crackled areas.

See how the inks and alloys get into the cracks and make it look like crackled vintage glass? I love it!

Here’s another close-up to check out…

The tag…

To create the background of the tag I revisited a technique that I hadn’t done in awhile using Distress Micro Glaze as a resist. This is a technique that I saw Tim demo a few years ago, and it’s been one that I’ve been wanting to try using Distress Spray Stains and Oxide Sprays. By using both types of sprays it makes the layers have depth.

I had so much fun with this technique and created a large variety of backgrounds in one FUN afternoon. You may recognize this photo below that I shared on instagram with my tags all lined up…once you get started, it’s hard to stop!

So here’s how it works…

Gather your supplies, a jar of Distress Micro Glaze and a blending tool and foam, plus a variety of Layering Stencils and a Mixed Media Heavystock tag.

For my tag I used, Evergreen Bough and Broken China Oxide Sprays, Rusty Hinge and Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stains, and three different Layering Stencils (Countdown THS058, Linen THS061 and the mini Rosette stencil)

I know that I have Rusty Hinge Oxide Spray in the photo below, but for this particular tag, I didn’t use it.

I started with the Countdown stencil.

I rubbed a little distress micro glaze onto a blending foam and then rubbed the glaze onto my media mat in a small circle. This gets the glaze thinned out on the foam so that when you rub it onto the tag, it isn’t a clump of glaze.

Rub the blending tool with the glaze randomly onto your tag, through the stencil.

You can see the faint outline of the glaze in the photo below.

Spritz the tag with a light mist of water.

Then spritz the tag with a bit of Gathered Twigs Distress Spray in a few areas of the tag.

Spritz the tag with a little more water and add a bit of the Rusty Hinge Distress Spray, then dry it with a heat tool.

Once the tag is mostly dry, rub some more of the micro glaze through another stencil (mini rosette stencil). You are now creating another area of resist.

FYI: There should be plenty of micro glaze left on your blending foam from the last time you rubbed with the previous stencil. The first amount of micro glaze should be plenty to do the entire tag. 😉

Then I spritzed that area with more of the Rusty Hinge Distress Spray and a bit of water to blend it into the previous colors.

I then spritzed a bit of Broken China Oxide Spray, and spritzed it with some water so that it would blend into the other colors… then I dried the tag with my heat tool again.

Here’s what it looked like after that last layer was almost dry…

Then, I added my final layer of micro glaze through the Linen Layering Stencil.

I spritzed on a little water and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide Spray, plus I added a bit of Gathered Twigs, then dried the area with my heat tool.

To remove some of the drips, I used a cotton towel to daub them up, then continued to dry the tag.

Once the tag was almost dry, I sprinkled on a little bit of Gold Embossing Powder over a couple of the dripped and damp areas, then heat embossed them with a heat tool.

Once the embossing powder was cooled, I rubbed the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Then I began arranging all of the pieces to the tag.

I stamped the Entomology Background stamp onto a piece of scrap vellum paper with Vintage Photo Archival Ink, sprinkled it with Clear Embossing Powder, and heated it up with my heat tool.

I then spritzed the vellum piece with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Spray and then dried it with my heat tool.

I stamped the phrase onto a scrap of paper and trimmed it down to fit the front of the tag.

I stitched the vellum, phrase and scrap of lace onto the tag with my sewing machine and then stitched a few cross-stitches with a needle and some string.

I adhered the flower and bottle and then tied a piece of string at the top of the bottle. I then tied on a small vintage button.

 A piece of jute was strung through the top of the tag and then I attached a piece of fabric.

An idea-ology Trinket Pin was pinned onto the scrap of fabric and a button added.

With that, my tag was complete.

Thanks so much for stopping by today…stay safe, take care and see you soon!

Creatively yours,

Stacy