Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome! We are celebrating having a fifth week in the month with a Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey. It's a chance for the Creative Guides to get to play with new techniques and products and this time there's also an opportunity for you to join in the fun. I have not one, not two, but three tags for you this time! And there's a peek at the much larger project they form part of, one which will be revealed in full very soon.

I can't say enough about these new Distress Oxides. The colours are soft and muted, and their ability to layer without muddying is sublime. I used a combination of Iced Spruce, Broken China and Vintage Photo with water to cover the base of each three tags (the new Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock tags) dipping and drying between each layer (the drying is the important bit). Then each one had a combination of stencilling applied over the top.

For this first romantic one I used the Tim Holtz 'Heartstruck' Layering Stencil with Picket Fence Distress Paint, adding some extra detailing with a silver pen. Next came a scattering of flowers using the Tim Holtz 'Roses' Layering Stencil and Fired Brick Distress Oxide, making it a little more aged by dripping water onto the ink before drying. Some splatters of Tumbled Glass Distress Paint completed the perfect background for this romantic couple from Tim Holtz Paper Dolls pack. You'll notice they've been touched up a little with dilute Candied Apple and Chipped Sapphire Distress Paints. And the Metallic Sticker was coloured with the Tumbled Glass version.

This second more whimsical tag was embossed with the Tim Holtz 'Ornate' Layering Stencil before I brayered over it with the Picket Fence Distress Paint to reveal the pattern. I also blended Fired Brick Distress Oxide through the Tim Holtz 'Wildflower' Layering Stencil and splattered a little Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint before adding more Paper Dolls and Brushed Pewter die cut Wildflowers. Again the girls were painted with Candied Apple, Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire.

This third and final tag is something of an ode to the value of education, with an initial Brushed Pewter layer using the Tim Holtz 'Numeric' Layering Stencil. With Tumbled Glass Distress Paint stamping of the Ledger Script design, drips of Picket Fence Distress Paint and Fired Brick Distress Oxide blended through the Tim Holtz 'Typo' Layering Stencil, all that remained was to pick out a few of the numbers with a silver pen for added impact. The little boys would have been lost on the background without a patchwork of Ephemera behind them and again I painted their clothing with Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire to make them stand out more.

And here's a peek at the project they form part of - a Midori/Travelers Notebook sized junk journal, the cover of which I revealed a little while back on Instagram/Facebook. Now it's ready to open, but you'll have to wait a little longer for that...

That's it from me for this Tag Friday - I do encourage you to hop on over to A Vintage Journey to see what my fellow Creative Guides have been up to with their tags, and remember, there's that opportunity to join in too for this one!

It's going to be a busy weekend for me with a trip up to Carnforth in Lancashire for a Rowan Tree Crafts 'Demo Day' this Saturday, 1st April. My buddy Elizabeth Robinson will be there too and Sharon Quinn always organises fun stuff to see, do and buy, so if you're in the area I look forward to seeing you! Whatever you're up to take care of yourselves and have fun xxx