A Lesson in Perseverance

Today is a beautiful day here - a cold front came through and, in Mississippi, that's always a good thing! I decided it was the perfect day to play around with my new Inkssentials Kraft tags and Picket Fence Distress Stain. I dabbed some of the Picket Fence stain onto my craft sheet and then added a few blotches of Worn Lipstick and Wild Honey and swiped my tag through the ink. It looked really cool! Then I embossed it using Tim Holtz's Floral Frame Texture Fade. Very cool! Then I sanded it with my Idea-ology Sanding Grip and added more Picket Fence stain. Suddenly, it was looking like a total mess! I added more stain and arrrrrgggghhhhhh....it looked horrible! I was about 10 seconds from chucking it when I decided to try and salvage it.

I have learned that there is nothing a gesso-covered brayer can't fix! What's nice is that the Distress Stain will bleed through a little, so you get a great texture. Once I was happy with the tag, I stamped the little shrine frame from Artistic Outpost's new Whimsical Melange collection onto a vintage book page. I decided to dab a little Picket Fence Distress Stain over the stamped area to tone it down. Horrible idea! The ink I used smeared all over and looked dingy and...ick! This time is was my Snow Cap Adirondack Paint Dabber to the rescue!. I finally cleaned it up, but it was obvious I was going to have to choose a new focal point (originally I was going to use a little girl stamp). I thought this little Idea-ology Fractured Doll was the perfect solution! I mounted her on top of a chipboard frame that was cut using Tim's Tag and Bookplates die. She has little mica wings that were stamped using the butterfly stamp from Tim Holtz's Papillon stamp collection. I added a little 'love' for today's Sunday Stampers challenge by stamping a portion of the sentiment from Artistic Outpost's Country Life stamp collection and adhering it to her tummy.

When I first saw the clock face in the Whimsical Melange set, I (of course) was dying to try my Faux Crazed Porcelain technique on it. I LOVE how it turned out!! It's secured to the top of the frame using an Idea-ology
Mini Fastener.

Finally, I added some twine to the bottom and popped on a banner cut using Tim's Tattered Banners die. The sentiment is from another new Artistic Outpost stamp release: Typography.

I'm so glad I didn't throw the tag away! I had no idea that this is what I would end up with, but I really love it. Simon Says Stamp and Show's theme this week is 'Anything Goes' so this is also my submission for that challenge!