Dream, Trust, Create, Inspire!

Servus, dear followers old and especially those anew! So glad that you stop by my little creative spot!

The April tag over at Tim Holtz' "12 tags of 2014" really is my absolute favourite so far. I really LOVE that trellis die! And - as some of you might already know and have noticed - I am not very much into flowers (too lovely, too fiddly, too bulky, too whatsoever)...but the flowers Tim creates using the pinecone die are just THE perfect paper flowers for me! Finally I found "my" paper flowers...who would have thought ;)
 

The play with the trellis die and using it with various surfaces for the tiles and the frames finally led to a series of 4 tags that are connected to each other as all the elements/materials/techniques used on them appear in a variation on the other tags.

I admit my first attempts on making the roses failed as I tore the die cut while trying to wrap it around the tooth pick (there are three spots where the single "leaves" are connected by a rather narrow  piece and obviously I treated them like rated break points ;)...but after some tries I had learned where to pay attention and be careful,  I finally succeeded and even managed to create three more. Phew! ;)

I used Kraft Glasseine for one tag, which I stapled over a stamped tag and treated with alcohol inks afterwards. For  one tag I used brown kraft cardboard, for another a sheet from a Tim Holtz paper stash and for the fourth tag I used Kraft Core, which I sanded down a bit after I had die cut the tag (using the Sizzix "Tag and Book Plates" die).

I even used some scrap from cutting the trellis frames for borders and additional embellishing. I cut the trellis tiles and frames from card which I glued some sticky foil onto and ran some of the tiles throught my Sizzix using an embossing folder. Then I rubbed in some black acrylic paint and wiped off the excess using some soft cloth. The made the embossed texture pop even more! I also dry embossed some of the card tiles for more texture.

Some of the tiles that had the sticky foil on them were given a treatment with alcohol inks - as was the frame (which you can see in the image above)!

I did a lot of stapling, distressing, tearing and puzzling with the various tiles and frames and enjoyed this a lot!  I also varied the ribbons I used with the tops of my tags and tried to find the perfect matches for each tag.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing all my variations and tries with all the various surfaces, textures and colours! My personal favourite is the tag with the Kraft Glasseine background...but I love looking at all four lying side by side... seeing the elements that connect them but create totally different effects on each tag - depending on what they are combined with.

Thank you for stopping by! Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia x