Friday 29 April 2016

April Tag Friday for AVJ

Well it's taken me a week since I have been back from holiday to get my head back into crafting and this is my offering for our Tag Friday post at A Vintage Journey.


I began by choosing the largest tag size I have which is a giant #12 knowing that I wanted to use a layered butterfly that was coloured up when teaching my reverse canvas (Here if you missed it). First I scraped over white gesso and heat dried it and then scraped over white crackle paint and left it to dry naturally.


Whikst the crackles were beginning to appear I started to gather all the elements together that I thought I would use for the focal point and collaged background. The butterfly was embossed with distress embossing powders and had paints dripped into the recesses before being sealed with Americana gloss varnish spray.


The wooden boards were left over from experiments or demos with my wooden board technique. A tutorial can be found on AVJ here.


I decided to give this mini tag the same treatment as the giant one with the gesso and crackle paint then blended it with peacock feathers and broken china distress inks, distressed and inked the edges with ground espresso and finally dipped and dried using evergreen bough, stormy sky and broken china DIs.


When the giant one was dry I dipped it in cadmium red, hansa yellow and titanium white media acrlic paints spritzed with water and spritzed them on the tag too to create this mottled effect.


Using Tim Holtz dies I cut various flowers and the words from mop up and discarded painty papers, added some remnant rubs .....


... and you can also see how the crackle came out with the blended and dipped paints over the top.


I also used the tiny tattered florals to add more dimension .....


... alongside the butterfly.



This really is a huge tag measuring 10 1/2 inches tall.


Thanks to everyone who visited and left comments whilst I was away, I now need to get back into a routine of keeping in touch with you all so I will be visiting asap.

Please pop over to AVJ to see all the other amazing tags from the team.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx



All products are available at Country View Crafts

23 comments:

S@ndy Diller said...

Beautiful tag Brenda - yay for summer. We are having a lovely spring here. I love the crackle on your tag, something that so far has alluded me. Your colors are delightful. S@ndy xx

experiments in paper said...

Wow, Brenda - absolutely love this!! Fabulous texture and techniques - love learning from you! xxx Lynn

Dortesjs said...

whiii this is awsome, love it ;O))

Susanne said...

Awesome tag! Love the texture and the colours!

pearshapedcrafting said...

Wow! What a wonderful layered tag! Great colours and textures! Hugs, Chrisx

Astrid Maclean said...

Fantastic techniques on all the layers of this tag Brenda, love the bright and fresh effect of the use of complementary colours, and I have to say, the effect of the embossing powder on the butterfly is just amazing! Love, love love!!

Oh and welcome back to chilly UK, snow again here this morning...

Redanne said...

With the wonderful warm colours you nearly transported me to Lanzarote too Brenda! I just love all the gorgeous textures and beautiful colours you achieved on this truly stunning tag!

Yes, welcome back to the cold, snowy spring!! Hugs, Anne xx

Suzanne C said...

Fabulous! I love the warm colors on the background and the pops of blue. That butterfly is gorgeous!

Anne (cornucopia) said...

This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing the steps for how you created it.

Patty O'Malley said...

Wonderful tag, Brenda! Love all the texture.

Gina said...

Very pretty ta...bet you wish you could fly away again with this messy weather lol XXX

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Gorgeous crackle Brenda and I adore your wood boards, both combine to make a wonderful backdrop for your butterfly. Tracy x

Jennie Atkinson said...

Well your head is still in colourful holiday mode Brenda! What a fabulously sunny and lifting tag - those backgrounds with the crackle and colours are just amazing and the butterfly and embellishments just add to the wonderful happy colourful feel of the tag. Just fabulous! Have a lovely weekend ! xxxx

Meggymay said...

An awesome tag Brenda, the textures and layers are fantastic .
Yvonne xx

Julia Aston said...

I can see the beach influence in the beautiful colors you used on your lovely tag Brenda - wonderful crackle on this too! Julia xx

Deb said...

Wow, what a gorgeous tag Brenda, love the fab textured background and the butterfly is glorious, thanks so much for sharing it! Deb xo

Words and Pictures said...

Yes, there's definitely a holiday feel about this stunning tag... from the sun-bleached crackle to the weathered boards to the warmth glowing from the flowers and that fabulous butterfly. Glorious!
Alison x

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

PINNED! Need I say more! Gorgeous texture!

Jackie PN said...

Gorgeous tag and i just adore that butterfly- he is beautiful!!
Jackie ")

Pamellia said...

Wow Brenda, this is just stunning! Your wood panels are incredible, I need to go and check out that tutorial for sure! Love the colour combo, just amazing! hugs :)

A Pink said...

Fantastic tag! Brenda. LOVE the weathered board panel and the crackle on both tags (the mini blue one really grabbed my eye). Like others have said already it has the essence of summer running thro it .
hugs x

Paper Profusion said...

Still catching up! This is truly gorgeous Brenda! Nicola x

Marjie Kemper said...

What a beautiful tag, Brenda! Love all the layering and the luscious color choices.