Tim's Tag Day 2 + Tutorial!

Hi everyone! Today I not only made a tag - I also created a little tutorial. I don't know if any of you saw my tags last year, but there were a few times when I had what I called a 'MacGyver' moment, when I had to create something that would work in place of an item Tim used that I didn't have. I live in the boonies, 40 minutes from the nearest stamp store that carries a lot of the elements that he uses, and I am just too lazy to pop out and get something....so I've become fairly adept at adapting.

This time the element was the rose he created by cutting apart metal flowers. I had just bought a Martha Stewart hydrangea punch last week and the gears started turning......

You will need several colors of metallic embossing powder (I used gold, black, and two kinds of silver), flower punch, VersaMark, heat gun, and tweezers.

Start by punching flowers out of black cardstock and covering with VersaMark. Then sprinkle various metallic embossing powders on flowers. Tap to remove excess.

Heat until embossing powder melts. See how cool the mixed metallics look?! If you're happy, you can move to the next step. If you'd like to add more, just dab on more VersaMark and add more ep.

When you're happy with the finish, bend each petal up and curl as shown. Do this with three flowers.

Cut one flower in half and cut one petal off another. Punch holes in the center of each flower.

Assemble using a hammered brad.

I didn't have the petals Tim used, so I embossed another Marth-punched branch using silver embossing powder. Why have I not done that 'til now? It looks really cool!

Finished tag. The scanner squished my flower a little, but I think you get the general effect. I really wanted to use Grungepaper for this, but the Martha punches are a bit on the puny side. I tried to punch and it didn't want to, so I didn't push it. I think if you have a small flower die, you could use Grungepaper and it would come out even better.

Hope this helps someone else who is embellishment-poor. Oh, and I apologize for some of the blurry pics, it's dark and overcast today so my lighting stunk!

Sentiment is from Artistic Outpost's fantastic Christmas collection.