Knowledge Which Costs Nothing

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is called TAG IT and we would love you to create something using this fantastic shape! Whether it be as a base, maybe a mini book or just incorporate a tag within your project, what about attaching it to a present ~ whatever you choose to create, we hope you'll join us and play along!

For my piece, I chose to use an Etcetera Tag as my base and created a project all about numbers, using quite a few of Tim Holtz's newest products to build up layers and bring this story to life! I combined stamp sets and dies, together with some idea-ology products and all of them blended seamlessly to create my Knowledge Which Costs Nothing tag...

So, let's get started and here's how this tag was created!

As a starting point, I'll talk you through how I created the background for my tag...

To begin with I chose some paper from the Dapper Paper Stash that actually had some calculations as part of the design ~ perfect for what I needed! I covered my tag with the paper, adhering it with Matte Collage Medium and then applied a coat of the medium over the top.

Whilst the medium was drying I took some of the Stencil Chips and placed them side by side to create a random number, 12547. These fit perfectly across the bottom of my tag, I only had to trim away a minute amount.

I popped each chip onto a backing of black card which I'd rubbed with a small amount of gilding wax and then attached the panel across the bottom of my tag, again using Collage Medium to secure it into place.

To add some texture to this piece, I used a palette knife to apply Crackle Paste over the edges of the covered tag, applying it to the paper covered section only, no the Stencil Chips. After allowing the paste to dry and the crackle to appear, I added a light wash of colour by scribbling Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon onto my glass mat and picking up the colour with a water brush before applying it to the crackles, allowing the ink to sink in and removing any excess water with a paper towel.

Using one of the Ruler Pieces from the pack, I inked the wood with some Frayed Burlap Oxide Ink, spritzed it with water and then removed any excess water before leaving it to dry. I then attached the dry ruler piece across my tag, to hide the join of the Stencil Chips and paper.

Setting the tag aside, I moved onto my focal point and the stamped panel. To begin with I cut a panel of watercolour card, slightly larger than the stamp I was using ~ the lightbulbs from the Inventor 7 set. Using a combination of Distress Oxide Inks: Frayed Burlap, Iced Spruce and Old Paper, I smooshed the inks onto my glass mat and spritzed with a light mist of water before dipping the card into the inks, picking up the colour. Heat dry the paper and dip again if you want more colour to the card. Once the card is thoroughly dry, and using the stamp platform, I stamped the image onto the card. At this point I also stamped the image onto a second piece of card which hasn't been inked, as I want to colour and cut out the lightbulbs from this panel.

Taking the unlinked card, I watercoloured the image of the bulbs using Distress Marker Pens and then fussy cut both bulbs and the circular piece at the bottom of the stamped image. I then layered the cut images over the top of the images on the inked card panel, using foam pads to add some dimension.

After machine stitching a border around the outside, I matted the image onto gold metallic kraft stash card and a layer of Black Soot Classic Kraft Stash before mounting the panel onto the right hand side fo the covered tag, using foam pads to secure it into place and slightly overlapping the ruler piece.

The image of the head is taken from the Eclectic Adverts stamp set and stamped onto Mixed Media Heavystock card, in Black Soot Archival Ink. I only added light shading to this image before fussy cutting it from the card and layering it over the top of my lightbulbs using foam pads to add the height and dimension.

On the left hand side of the tag, you'll notice that I added Albert Einstein's relativity equation, E=mc2 and I created this by cutting a small piece of Black Soot Kraft Stash and distressing the edges. I then cut the letters from white card using the Alphanumeric Label die. Now if you're thinking there's no '=" sign on the die, don't worry I used two of the "I's", flipped them horizontally and placed them together to create the sign ~ voilà! I then tucked the equation panel underneath my main stamped panelled attached it with a dab of collage medium to hold it into place.

To complete this section of the tag, I used Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Antiqued Bronze, Picket Fence Distress Paints to create a rusty look to some Mini Sprocket Gears and some of the larger gears before attaching them down the side. I also placed one of the gears in the bottom right hand corner of the stamped panel.

All that's left is to add some embellishments to complete the tag...

Starting with, the Large Hinge Clip attached to the top of the tag and again altered with the same colours of Distress paint as I used on the sprocket gears.

I attached two varying sizes of Star Adornments, also altered with Distress Paint....

...and placed some Hardware Heads onto the two bottom corners of the Stencil Chips and also onto the Sprocket Gears.

In the top left corner, I stamped a date from the Correspondence Stamp set onto one of the new Label Stickers and attached this to my tag....

...and a couple of mini paperclips to the image.

Finally, last but not least because it's all about the details, I added a Clippings Sticker with the quote, Knowledge Which Costs Nothing which I popped into the top right hand corner.

So, that completes my project for this week and I hope as always, I've given you some ideas with the tips and techniques I've used within this piece.

Have fun creating your projects and 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 taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Eclectic Adverts, Inventor 7, Correspondence, Medium Etcetera Tag
Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Alphanumeric Label

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Antiqued Bronze, Picket Fence
Distress Crayons: Gathered Twigs
Distress Oxide Inks: Frayed Burlap, Iced Spruce and Old Paper
Distress Marker Pens

Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Clippings Stickers, Ruler Pieces, Label stickers, Large Hinge Clips, Sprocket Gears, Mini Sprocket Gears, Stencil Chips, Star Adornments

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Crackle Texture Paste, Vintage Gold Alchemy Wax, Gesso, Black Soot Archival Ink
Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stash, Dapper Paper Stash, Classic Kraft Stash, Distress Watercolour Card

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat
Tim Holtz Stamp Platform

Heat Gun
Palette Knife