"Behind Closed Doors"

...is the current challenge at DragonsDream Tag It On and they want to see a door, a lock and a key.

I am also entering Fashionable Stamping Challenges with this tag as this fortnight "Anything Goes".

I did my very first of the Tim Holtz "12 tags of 2013" yesterday (which you can see here) and that made me browse through Tim's tags from last year, where he shows some great techniques. One of them (the September tag) was the faux riveting using self adhesive metal foil and a retractable pen to create rivets. (Go check it out - it's really worth seeing). Well - I have no self adhesive metal foil, but I do have that fab embossing folder...but I really wanted to try that alcohol inking and sanding with steel wool he shows in his tutorial!

Looks great, doesn't it?

I tried to express my thoughts about our dreams we so often do not dare to live... as if we kept them locked behind safely closed doors so we would not have to face the opportunity of them being shattered... but on the other hand they remain unfulfilled opportunities we might have missed. It's not at all easy having dreams and dealing with them the right way.

And maybe there is something waiting behind these closed doors we only yet did not think about? Wouldn't it then be worth looking?

Back to the tag: I embossed some silver metal foil with the Sizzix "Texture Fades" Riveted Metal embossing folder and then gave it a treat with Alcohol inks. I removed most of them using steel wool (love the traces of the scratches rough steel wool creates!) and glued the silver foil onto some cardboard and punched a hole for the ribbon.

Lock and key were made with the "Alterations" cutting dies. I coloured them with the metallic Distress stains and sprinkled some Fran-tage embossing enamels on them to achieve some texture. After heat embossing I inked the edges using black ink and a small piece of a rough kitchen sponge.

For the background of the stamped door image (from Darkroom Door - another of my awesome X-mas presents!!!) I stamped some script using Distress ink "vintage photo" and tore the card to size instead of cutting it. Some more stamping, glueing and distressing, some embellishments (a castle, where our dreams are kept safe or a castle built on air e.g.) - wallaah!

Hope you like it!
Hugs,

die amelie xx

I tried to take a picture showing the metal... not so sure about that... hope you can see what I wanted to show. xx