Natasha Returns

Meet Natasha. She has returned for another appearance on my blog (see previous post here). She's an image transfer laid on top of a background made from the bricks Mixed Media Thinlit by Tim Holtz.

There's also a scrap of his Tissue Wrap and the butterflies are a stamp from Prima. A bit of embossed polka dots (Tim's Dots & Florals stamp) and a stitched border that was painted and embellished with black Gelly Roll lines complete the look.

I've recently entered the world of die-cutting and I'm learning as I go. As if I didn't collect enough collage "scraps" already, I've got a feeling this new technique will add to my collection exponentially!

Here's what I know now: Tissue paper over die-cuts can work and look OK but I don't care for the appearance of the image transfer over them and won't do this again in the future.

Receipt No. 25

I really like the look of sewing on paper. One artist whose work I greatly admire, Viv (aka Hens Teeth) in Staffordshire, embroiders on vintage envelopes and they are just divine. You can see them here. Her studio is pretty fantastic, too.

Tim Holtz also seems drawn to the look of stitching as several of his monthly tags have featured this technique so it's no surprise that my August tag for the 12 Tags of 2016 has some too.

A Mixed Media Thinlit die-cut, Wallflower paper stash cut-outs (including vellum), some Small Talk stickers and Remnant Rubs were used to complete it.

I wish I'd splattered some flecks of paint here and there as I think it would have been a nice addition. I just didn't have the guts and so I need to work on that.

Firm Heart

My local library has an on-going used book sale and periodically (no pun intended), I rescue a few "picture books" to use in my collages and also seek text for phrases that might add interest to my work.

The essence of this tag is composed of those very same elements: The background is a hand-drawn map of an old city and there is text. A Found Relative was framed inside a vintage cardboard box (the sides were trimmed down to keep it in proportion with the tag) and the owl is one of my own hand-carved stamps. It was embellished with black Scribbles, a paper heart covered with dimensional medium and some Remnant Rubs.

I'm linking it to Simon's Monday challenge blog. The theme this week is Try to Contain Yourself (so funny) and participants have been asked to use some sort of container. I know, putting a container on a tag is kind of goofy but I just can't help myself--I like making tags!