Friday 24 June 2016

Be Fearless - tag

Hi everyone, it's Brenda here and my turn to share a design with you; I have a masculine tag today.


I began by painting the tag with both black and white gesso to create my own custom dark grey shade and let it dry. Next I gave it several washes of what I would call battleship blue which was water, cerulean blue and phthalo blue mixed together on the spritzed (with water) background. Again when dry it had a couple of washes of quinacridone gold and heat dried. Then I stamped text one of Andy's steampunk stamps in grey media paint and layered on DecoArt transparent crackle glaze and leaving it overnight to dry. You can see where the cracks have appeared .......


.... but look what happens when you paint over with media antiquing cream, leave it for a while then rub over the surface with a wet babywipe and a dry cloth to reveal the cracks even more ......

I used a square of Tando board to create the focus of the tag by adhering some scrunched up tissue paper and giving it a wash of phthalo blue paint, when it was dry I blended neat phthalo blue around the edges and again when dry a little burnt umber. I also sanded the edges and used a small brush to paint on some titanium white.

I decided to use this handsome gentleman from the photo booth collection and thought that maybe he was home from the army and enjoying a Sunday with his family .....


.... so with that as a theme in mind I gathered some embellishments, a heart and wings for courage, a star for the anticipation of being decorated, a clock and spinner to represent the vulnerability of being a soldier and how life is so fragile in wartime, the pen nib, air mail sticker and stamp to write and put on his letters home and I stamped the words 'be fearless' to create a sense of bravery overcoming fear for this young man.


I used champagne ice and iced espresso metallic lustres on the metal pieces to bring the colours of the metal together and give them some uniformity.




Here's the base of the tag with those fabulous cracks showing through.


You can see the title raised bringing it up to the thickness of the chipboard.


Thanks for stopping by today. Have you had a chance to join in the crackle challenge yet? Do pop over if you think it's something you would like to do and remember you could even use a crackle stamp it doesn't have to be a crackle medium.

Have a fabulous week.

hugs Brenda xxx




13 comments:

  1. Fabulous crackle effect and great idea to use both black and white crackle!

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  2. Those mega crackles look fantastic, I love your battleship blue. Great embellishments too! Hugs, Anne xx

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  3. absolutely brilliant Brenda - I adore the scrunched paper - really fabulous! Hugs rachel x

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  4. Amazing crackles Brenda, fabulous background and love the story you have woven with that wonderful picture and your embellishments. Thanks so much for sharing it! Deb xo

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  5. Amazing tag with a favorite color (love that shade of blue!) and my favorite crackles! You've really cracked me up with this one, and I love the story that goes along with this wonderful tag! thank you for sharing all your steps! Hugs!

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  6. Such a great masculine card with amazing huge crackles! I love your blackish blue background!

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  7. A gorgeous card in my favourite colours Brenda. Such awesome crackles...I must get some antiquing cream it really does bring everything out. Enjoy your Sunday....I bet your turfs are growing away with all this rain! Hugs xx

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  8. Wonderful mixed media details on your tag. Thanks for sharing, loving the results.
    Julie x

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  9. An AMAZING make Brenda! Gorgeous!

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  10. Fantastic tag Brenda. Wonderful background and as always a beautiful layering of all the other yummy elements. Have a lovely week. Nicola x

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  11. Gorgeous Brenda, that blue is amazing and love your choice of embellishments. Happy crafting, Angela x

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  12. Superb! Brenda Just love the background and all those lush tones and crackle. Your talent at bringing elements and ephemera together to help tell a story and the way you arrange them so perfectly is fantastic. For me this tag is a first class work of art!
    hugs x

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  13. Brilliant, Brenda! Love the blue and the embellishing!
    xx Evelyn

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