That's Life: Flight of the Bumblebee...

Hello everyone and Happy Monday...

Today, we have a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week, our theme is called TAG IT! We'd love for you to join us and play along and all the details for the challenge are at the end of this post...so, good luck!

For my make, I chose to create an Etcetera Tag and used some older Sizzix dies by Tim Holtz including the Funky Insects and the beautiful Wildflowers die sets. These dies are such classics and it's always nice to revisit some of the old favourites and make something new ~ I don't think I will ever tire of using these dies because they really do create such an impact on any project.

So, let's get started and it's time to share all the details of how I made this week's project!

For this make, I used a Size 8 Etcetera Tag and a Mixed Media Heavystock Tag.

TAG BACKGROUND

To create the background on the Heavystock Tag, I used a combination of Distress spray Stains, Oxide Sprays and Mica Sprays. I spritzed the tag with a light mist of water before applying the sprays in the following colours:

DISTRESS SPRAY STAIN: Crackling Campfire, Ground Espresso, Antique Linen, Speckled Egg

OXIDE SPRAY: Speckled Egg

MICA SPRAY: Crooked Broomsticks, Unravelled

Firstly, I applied each of the Distress Spray Stains to the tag building up the colour and then misted the surface with water to blend. Once I was happy, I applied the remaining Oxide and Mica Sprays to add some different tones.

After heat drying the tag, I then moved onto adding some texture and applied Translucent Texture Paste though the Halftone Mini Layering Stencil from Set 48. I added the paste to the majority of the tag, only leaving some of the background untouched, allowing that to shine through.

Once I'd removed the stencil, I worked quickly to add Rusty Hinge Distress Glaze over the pasted areas and tapped away the excess before setting the tag to one side, so that the paste sets.

When the paste is touch dry, I used my heat gun to melt the powder and create a molten, enamelled effect to the stencilled areas.

I machine stitched a border round the edge of the tag before attaching it to a Size 8 Etcetera Tag with Matte Collage Medium.

To add some more texture and layers to my tag, I cut one of the film strips from the Picture Show die set by Sizzix/Tim Holtz. I cut the strip twice from black card and then layered one of the die cuts over the top of the other. Once dry, I added some gilding wax from my stash to the surface before attaching this across my tag, snipping away the excess.

To complete the tag, I added the letter 'b' Type Chip in the top right hand corner, which I stapled before attaching to the tag itself...

...and then adhered a Curator Ephemera piece to the right hand side of the tag.

BOUQUET OF WILDFLOWERS

Moving onto the flowers and for this I cut a selection of stems from Distress Watercolour Card using the Sizzix Wildflowers Die Sets, 1, 2 and 3, all by Tim Holtz.

I then watercolored each stem using Distress Inks. You can use the pencils if you prefer, but I went for the inks on this one, as I wanted a little more intensity of colour. I used a combination of colours, and went for a glorious vintage colour palette in pinks, blues, lilac and apricot, with some green foliage behind and some bursts of gold.

Once all my stems were painted and dry, I arranged them into a bouquet and stuck them to the tag, placing some foam pads behind the stems to add dimension to the arrangement.

I then cut a few of the stems from Kraft card and after inking them with clear embossing ink, I sprinkled gold embossing powder over the top, tapped away the excess and heat embossed the powder until molten. I then tucked 3 of these stems into the arrangement.

The floral arrangement is now ready for it's busy little visitor....

FUNKY INSECT

Once again, the bee is a die cut and taken from the Sizzix Funky Insects Die Set by Tim.

For the tutorial of how to create the faux enamelling effect that I used on the bee, created with Distress Glazes, just click HERE.

Once all the pieces of the bee were layered, I attached it to my stems using hot glue to hold it in place.

We're nearly there and all that's left is some finishing touches....

I added a quote sentiment, "Explore, Dream, Discover" from the Metallic Sticker book and attached this to the tag with foam pads....

...before completing the tag with some rope threaded through the hole at the top, and secured with a mini pin.

So that's my tag complete and I hope you love what I've made.

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

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 next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....