Make A Lucky Wish...

Happy Monday and hello everyone...

It's a brand new week over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week we are challenging you to USE SOMETHING GREEN!

So with St Patrick's Day just around the corner, I chose to celebrate the colour green and create a tag, full of dimension using the Lucky Love 3D Impresslits Cut & Emboss Folder, which is just one of the new Sizzix Chapter 1 products from Tim Holtz, that were released at the beginning of the year!

These cut and emboss folders are such a simple, yet beautiful way of creating texture on your projects and they create such realistic look to the leaves and with just a few clever cuts and a little shaping, you can add even more dimension to the die cuts. So if you haven't tried the folders yet, what's stopping you? And I hope this tag will give you the inspiration to pop one into your basket...

So, let's get started and here's how I created my tag project.

  

I started by creating the background for my piece and for this I used a Size 8 tag and Distress Spray Stains, and Oxide Sprays. The colours of sprays I chose were Peeled Paint, Broken China and Twisted Citron and I combined these with Bundled Sage, Frayed Burlap and Speckled Egg Oxide Sprays.

I lightly misted water onto my tag and then added my colours. Once I was happy with the blend, I heat dried the surface, inked the edge with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then stamped some script detail in Black Soot Archival Ink, using the script stamp from the Tiny Toadstools stamp set.

I wanted to add some texture to the tag, and for this I used Translucent Grit Paste, applied through the Stars Shifter Layering Stencil. You can't actually see much of this in the finished tag, (in the photo below, you can see a tiny bit peeking out) but I added the paste along the bottom section of the tag, and whilst the paste was still wet, I sprinkled Speckled Egg Embossing Glaze over the top. After leaving the paste to dry, I heat embossed the glaze until molten.

To complete the tag background, I used the Flourish Swirl from the Poinsettia stamp set, stamped this onto the background with clear embossing ink and then heat embossed it with Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder.

The background is now complete and after machine stitching a border around the outside, I adhered it to a Size 8 Etcetera Tag using Matte Collage Medium.

Moving onto the beautiful four leaf clovers and these are so simple to create but make a real impact and this is a technique I've used in the past to create dimension baubles for Christmas cards, on flowers and on hearts. The best thing about it, it's so easy to do and achieve!

I used Distress watercolour card for my clover leaves and cut 8 separate leaves for this piece. When using these cut and emboss folders, I recommend that you mist the card with water before cutting as this will help to stop the card tearing or ripping because of the intricate detail. I then placed the leaves onto my glass mat and using Rustic Wilderness Distress Spray, I spritzed each leaf with the colour and then misted some more water over the top. After heat drying them thoroughly, I then inked the edges with some Walnut Stain and added a touch of Vintage Gold Alchemy gilding wax from Prima, just rubbing it gently over the surface to accentuate the detail.

Taking four of the die cut clovers, I snipped between each of the leaves, cutting approx 2/3rds of the way towards the centre but not cutting them all the way. I then lifted the leaves slightly and shaped them to create some dimension. Layer each of the cut leaves over the top of the other four die cuts, attaching them with a dab of hot glue in the centre of each.

I now have my dimensional four leaf clovers ready for the tag.

But before that, I created my plaque and using the Bold Alphanumeric Thinlits die set, I cut the word "Lucky" from gold metallic kraft card and then attached each letter onto a panel of silver metallic kraft card, which is slightly longer than the width of the tag.

I then took a small amount of Black Soot Distress Paint and applied this over the top of the panel. After leaving this to go slightly tacky but not dry, I wiped away the excess to reveal the metal underneath. To add more of a rusty look to the plaque, I used Vintage Photo Distress Crayon and just applied this over the surface, blending it with my fingertip.

I matted the metallic plaque onto a further piece of the gold metallic kraft stash, followed by a layer of green kraft card, taken from the brand new Kraft Stock Stash in my favourite colourway, Cool. If you haven't seen these kraft stashes yet, then you have to check them out ~ there are three new colour choices, Cool, Warm and Neutral and they're all a must have for your collection!

Back to my tag and I attached the plaque across my tag, using foam pads for height and leaving the edges to overhang. I added a Star Adornment to each side. Both stars have been altered with Rust and Pitch Black Alcohol Ink to create more of a vintage, rusty feel to the metal.

I arranged the four leaf clovers to cascade down the tag and then added a few gold stars to the background. These were left over from a previous project and cut using the Tim Holtz Falling Stars Thinlits die set.

I also used the No.7 Remnant Rub from the Specimen set and placed this on the left hand side, underneath the plaque.

At the top of the tag, I added a red felt Stitched Scrap ~ I machine stitched a loop in the scrap and then attached it with collage medium. I then attached a mini pin, just as a little added detail.

All that's left is the finishing touches...

I added an offcut of embossed metal to the bottom edge of the tag. This again is a leftover from a previous project and cut from a bigger piece that I embossed using the Foundry 3D Embossing Folder. I just wrapped it around the edge of the tag and then placed a Hardware Head onto it, to appear as if it's riveted onto the tag.

Finally, my little cluster of idea-ology! I used a four leaf clover and a gorgeous heart adornment complete with four leaf clover, both of which are from the new 2021 idea-ology release from Tim Holtz and attached them to jump rings and onto a Swivel Clasp, together with a Typed Token, with the word wish. All the metal is altered with Distress Paint, Evergreen Bough, Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze and Picket Fence. Once I'd got the gorgeous rusty, verdigris look to the metal, I attached the swivel clasp to a Hinge Clip that I clipped onto the side of the tag.

I really hope you've loved this piece and enjoyed the creative process and the ideas I've used to make it. As always, if you've been inspired by anything that you see here on my blog, please just tag me on my social media or leave a message so I can pop by to take a look ~ I always love to see your work!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. 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 ~ stay safe and keep well.

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Lucky Love 3D Cut & Emboss Folder, Bold Alphanumeric, Falling Stars and Foundry 3D Embossing Texture Fade

Stampers Anonymous: The Poinsettia, Tiny Toadstools, Size 8 Etcetera Tag, Stars Shifter Layering Stencil

Distress Paint: Evergreen Bough, Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze and Picket Fence

Distress Crayons: Vintage Photo

Distress Spray Stain: Rustic Wilderness, Peeled Paint, Broken China and Twisted Citron

 Distress Oxide Sprays: Bundled Sage, Frayed Burlap and Speckled Egg

Distress Inks: Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Cool Kraft Stock Stash, Stitched Scraps, Specimen Remnant Rubs, Mini Pins, Star Adornments, Swivel Clasp, Typed Token, Hearts Adornments, Lucky Adornments, Hinge Clips, Hardware Head

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Versamark Ink Pad, Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder, Vintage Gold Alchemy Wax, Tim Holtz Distress Translucent Grit Paste, Speckled Egg Distress Glaze

Surfaces: Size 8 Tag, Metallic Kraft Stash, 

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun