What A Wonderful World...

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! My weekend was all about the Royal Wedding, celebrating it with family and enjoying every minute of what I thought was a truly fabulous day!

Anyway, with the weekend behind us, it's time for a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week the theme is called ~ Inspired By A Song! When I started thinking about this theme my first choice was choose a song by my favourite band, Duran Duran or maybe create something as a tribute to another favourite of mine, David Bowie but with all the excitement of the last week and the wedding, the one song that kept coming to mind was What A Wonderful World and so, with the lyrics firmly stuck in my head I created a tag combining many new products with a few older favourites by Tim Holtz that would depict the lyrics of the song!

"I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world" ~ Louis Armstrong

So, let's get started because it's time for the new challenge!

To begin with I prepped the surface of my tag using a coat of gesso, followed by a layer of Antique Linen. Once the paint was dry, I then started to apply my Floral Collage Paper, using the areas showing the red roses. For this I use a water brush and apply a very small amount of water around the image I want to remove from the paper. I then tear along the wet line, removing the image from the paper and using Matte Collage Medium, adhere the paper to my painted surface. This will create a seamless finish and you won't get any harsh cut lines to the the image once it's laid down. I added the roses to the top and bottom of the tag, applied a coat of the Collage Medium over the top and then allowed it to dry before using Ground Espresso and Pumice Stone Distress Crayons to create a little more depth of colour to the surface.

To add some more texture to the tag, I applied Grit Paste through the mini Floral Layering Stencil in Set 25 and added this to the top right and bottom left hand corners. Allow the paste to dry before then adding some some more Distress Crayon over the top, blending out the colour with a semi dry baby wipe.

Once I was happy, I ran the darker crayon around the outside of the tag before gently spritzing the tag with some Distress Resist Spray. Working fast with this medium is the key and once the spray hits the surface, I sprinkled Gold Embossing Powder over the top and then heat embossed to create these glorious gold speckles and wonderful texture. I also added a Remnant Rub number in the top left hand corner of the tag and the hole reinforcer, painted with Ground Espresso and Black Soot DP.

Now that I have my tag, I can move onto the embellishments...

...and started with the globe, die cut from silver metallic card and inked with a mixture of Gunmetal and Mushroom Alcohol Inks. I then mounted my globe onto some silver deco sheet for a hint of sparkle behind and attached it to my tag, leaving it to slightly overlap the edge.

I added some shading around the edge of the globe with Black Soot Distress Marker, blended out with my fingertip. At this stage, I also added a Measurement piece, placing it across the bottom section of the globe ~ this will become the base of my little paper doll's seat.

To complete the scene on my tag, I sat my paper doll on a bed of sisal and surrounded him with some die cut foliage cut from Classic Kraft Card. I added some Nuvo Crystal Drop 'berries' to the leaves and allowed them to dry.

As a finishing touch to this wonderful world, I added a couple of butterflies from the Botanical Ephemera set, shaping the wings to appear as they are in flight.

As my finishing touches, I added a clippings sticker, 'a very wonderful place'...

...and attached a quote chip, 'See The World' which I have coloured with Vintage Collage Medium.

I attached some crinkle ribbon dyed with a combination of Bundled Sage and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains and looped it through the hole reinforce on the finished tag.

I hope you've enjoyed the inspiration behind this piece and love how I interpreted the song!

Don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I'll see you very soon!

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Globe, Garden Greens
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Set 25

Distress Paint: Antique Linen, Ground Espresso, Black Soot
Distress Resist Spray
Distress Spray Stain: Bundled Sage, Antique Linen
Distress Marker Pens
Distress Crayons: Black Soot, Ground Espresso
Alcohol Ink: Gunmetal, Mushroom

Idea-ology: Clippings Stickers, Paper Dolls, Collector's Ephemera, Crinkle Ribbon, Floral Collage Paper, Measurements Adornments, Quote Chip, Botanical Ephemera

Mediums: Gesso, Grit Paste, Matte Collage Medium, Gold Embossing Powder, Nuvo Caramel Cream Crystal Drops, Vintage Collage Medium

Surfaces: Etcetera Tag, Deco Sheets, Classic kraft stash, Metallic kraft stash

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat
Big Shot Plus

Heat Gun
Sisal Fibres from my own stash