Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tag Tuesday - Monogram

This morning a friend emailed me a link to the Ten Seconds Studio blog where they had the coolest video demo of the 'Controlled Squish' technique. The minute I saw the results, I knew I had to try it out! Of course, did I have any of the 'right' tools or supplies? No! It seems like I never do. So I did my best to improvise....

My friend Cyndi had told me long ago (and even sent me a card w/the technique!) that I could adhere aluminum foil to cardstock and it would be a cheap and easy stand-in for more expensive sheets of metal. So, that is what I did for my tag. It's colored with a combination of alcohol inks, Stazon, and acrylic paint. Be careful when you're sanding this! The foil doesn't stand up to a lot of abuse.

The bird is made from Grungeboard that's been stamped with a raven from Oxford Impressions' Haunted stamp collection. The sentiment is from one of Tim Holtz's clear stamp sets.

The texture on the top is created by heating various acrylic paints. Most I used were cheap craft paint, but the gold Lumiere worked the best of all of them. The samples they showed used a special German paint, but since it's not like we can run out and get that here, I think plain old cheap stuff works just fine.

I added a foil-covered and embossed chipboard 'B' and voila - perfect for today's Tag Tuesday challenge!

UPDATE!  I just came across a link to Lin's blog where she gives step by step instructions for her tag. I totally misunderstood the paint part, but I'm still glad I experimented!

29 comments:

  1. Love it! You so rock!! good thing Cyndi was at work so that she couldn't beat up to doing this cool tech.

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  2. I am so bummed that I am at work and can't do this cool tech yet. But I will when I get home, and I hope mine looks HALF as good as yours, Shelly. It turned out really cool!

    Cyndi

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  3. Whow Shelly...what a very great background.
    Your Tag is amazing. Love it.

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  4. Beautiful!! Gorgeous!! I love all the metal! Fantastic tag!

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  5. What fabulous results! I love the whole idea of using household items and can't wait to try this out. Thank you.

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  6. I am going to check this out! This is one fantastic creation, Shelly!

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  7. This is really great Shelly! Lin is such a fabulous artist, I love their stuff, too bad they're across the pond. So, heating acrylic paint gives it bubbles, huh? I wondered what I would substitute for the Terra and Ferro paint. I love all the metal and mixing of textures.

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  8. Just stunning! love the background. Beautiful job!
    Jacque

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  9. Wow - just incredible! I love the pounded metal look!

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  10. What a cool looking tag! That metal effect is just wonderful.

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  11. Nice job and boy you're fast. That video just went up today. You really should try some of our colored metal as foil is so....foiley! But seriuosly, you did a great job. Love your other posts. Keep up the beautiful work.
    Cheryl
    Ten Seconds Studio

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  12. Shelly this is beautiful - it's amazing how you made aluminum foil and acrylic paint looks so interesting - I'm going to have to give this a try!

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  13. You were certainly adventurous and creative this morning! I like the look!

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  14. Your tag is so so gorgeous. Fantastic background and colors you achieved. Thank you for the tutorial link

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  15. V-e-r-y cool tag. You did a great job recreating her technique!

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  16. Love all the texture going on here! Awesome, I'll have to go check out the video, Thanks for the link!

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  17. Beautiful textured tag Shelly, so clever!

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  18. Shelly, this looks amazing. All that texture going on really grabs attention. Thanks for posting what you did in ATT :)

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  19. Oh, wow! I must give this technique a try because your piece is brilliant and oh so moody. Love the texture and the colours that you've used. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  20. love your tag I also use aluminium tape over card as the metal is just too expensive..like the bubbly paints and thanks for visiting my blog today

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  21. Shelly, your tag is gorgeous!!! I just watched that video earlier this afternoon and am looking forward to playing myself :-)) Gotta love all that texture!!!!!

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  22. Your tag is darkly lovely... Love the raven and the textures.

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  23. Very cool metal look, Shelly. I'm glad you tried it too! Thanks for the details on how you created your tag.

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  24. Wow, great tag, with beautiful techniques! I'll definitely have to try embossing with aluminum foil on cardstock... sounds like fun.

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  25. I love this "controlled squish" technique and it looks like you have perfected it. Beautiful tag, Shelly!!

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  26. Terrific tag, Shelly - you're so inventive when you don't have all you need!! Love your results!

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  27. Very cool tag! Now I'm anxious to try out the technique and watch the video (probably in that order too, lol), so thanks for the tips!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts. I appreciate your comments so much!