my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Alphatags O and P



Time once again to show you my tags for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag swap. The letters O and P were much easier for me this month as I am a literal thinker rather than a lateral one so I like doing the letters that easily lead the thoughts to a specific subject.


O is for Owl


It wasn't hard for me to choose owl because it gave me the chance to use this lovely Crafty Individuals stamp. I stamped him twice with black ink and coloured one image with coloursoft pencils and cut out the owl and his perch. The other one was coloured around the owl with distress inks, in antique linen and various browns, I'm not certain which ones now.The backing paper I found  in the bottom of one of my odds and ends boxes while looking for something else, and is the result of a long ago play session with some Starburst Stains. I don't think the shimmer shows on this photo but it is a coppery brown colour and had a textured look to it that I believe I had made with cling film. As soon as it caught my eye I thought tree trunk, perfect background for my owl.I cut a piece of this paper to make the tag and used a Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder to add more texture.The leaves were cut from some patterned paper with a Sissix die and then I used some rub on coppery gold to enhance some of the leaves and fixed them to the tag with a large brad. Unfortunately I made a proper bish of it and had to start again which is why this one has a narrow border of card showing as my nice shimmery background paper wasn't quite big enough to cut another tag. The owl image was fixed to the tag with DS tape, the word owl was cut out from the second image and mounted to match the tag and fixed in place with foam pads. The coloured owl was mounted over the image with silicon glue and I also added some glue under some of the leaves to secure them.

P is for Poppy


Poppy wasn't first on my mind for P, but just when I was deciding, Chocolate Baroque released this lovely set of stamps called Pretty Poppies. My regular readers will know that I was singing the praises of this stamp set in my last post.
This is is the other main image in the set, there is also another flower stamp and some sentiments too. Anyway this time I decided to colour them differently and chose this mauve because every year I have lots of poppies this colour growing in my garden. They are only annual plants but I love them so much and they produce so many seeds that I just sprinkle them around all over the place, so that there will be plenty the following year. These were stamped with Memento black ink onto the tag and coloured with Distress Markers and a waterbrush. I then stamped again onto thin copy paper and cut out to make a mask to cover the poppies while I stamped my favourite Crafty Individual crackle background stamp randomly all over the tag with antique linen Distress ink.The shading round the edge was done with dusty concord. The letters were cut from mauve pearlised card using x-cut dies.
Now I am waiting to see what the postman delivers at the end of the month when the tags are swapped and sent out. You can see collage photos of all the tags so far here.

I am going to enter the poppy one at Penny Black and More @ Allsorts; Summer Blooms,
and at Make It Monday; anything Goes.

Thank you to every one who takes the time look and for your lovely comments.



12 comments:

  1. Two beautiful tags, great images on both.
    Yvonne

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  2. I love that tree background for the owl & your lovely leaves. I know only too well the redoing of the whole......but glad you had enough for the second run even if it did require a border.
    The poppy is delightful & I love the Antique Linen in conjunction with the muaves. Lovely finish with the pearly letters too.
    Paula (PEP)

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  3. Hi Jean. I love your owl. It is years ago that we played with those stains and cling film, but I still have a few off-cuts lurking at the bottom of my snippits folder too.
    The poppy is pretty too. It is nice to see one of the other images from the plate being used. I want to give it a bit more vibrant colour, but I know these are like your own flowers. It is just not a colour I connect with poppies. But our Great Creator made them every shade imaginable and some, so good for you, for choosing a less obvious one. I hope you get some lovely tags in exchange. Kate xx

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  4. Hiya Jean, these are beautiful! I like the fact that you've done the poppy in mauve, it looks lovely against the crackle. The owl tag is stunning! I love the background you've done and those leaves are gorgeous against it. The person who receives these will be thrilled.

    Take care

    Maria x

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  5. Hi Jean, Reading your profile reminded me of learning to knit with 2 pencils and a ball of string!. just dropped in from MIM to have a closer look at the Poppy tag, I just think that is soo pretty. It must be the colours that attracts me to it.
    hugs
    Margaret M

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  6. Hello Jean .Two tags are lovely
    Love owls so that one is tops .Love the colouring of poppies tho .
    Thanks for sharing both on Make it Monday

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  7. Good morning Jean,

    To absolutely stunning tags, the owl is very striking the poppies coloured beautifully (they would fit perfectly into the little challenge I have running on my blog with a craft voucher to be one).

    Thank you so much sharing your 'Summer Blooms' with us at Penny Black and More this month.

    B x

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  8. Good morning . . . have popped over using the link from your Sister's blog. Loving these tags. They are very pretty, and soft even though they are detailed.

    xxx

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  9. Hi Jean, Love these tags, especially the poppy. The colours you have used are beautiful, and no doubt the poppies in your garden are too.
    Avril xx

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  10. Hi Jean both of the tags are gorgeous. The one that really caught my eye is the Poppy tag as I saw it on Make It Monday - gorgeous colours and I love the background on the poppy tag too! hugs Karen

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  11. Love both your tags Jean. I love the background on your first tag and I know I have several pieces done in the same way with Starburst Stains in one of my boxes. They're a bit addictive aren't they, lol! The extra texture from the folder is great too. Beautiful colouring of your poppy image. I don't think I've seen a poppy that colour and I bet they look gorgeous in your garden.

    I'm not a lateral thinker either so I think you and I might have a tough time over the next few months, lol! Good luck!

    Hugs
    Lesley Xx

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  12. Two beautiful tags, love the new poppy stamp.
    Thank you for joining the Summer Blooms challenge over at Penny Black and More @ Allsorts and good luck x Susan x

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