I am a huge fan of the 90s TV series "Northern Exposure" and of Canada's wide and endless forests, lakes and wild life in general and I hope to visit this wonderful country some day! And as it happens I have only just finished reading two of German writer A.E. Johann's wonderful novels about a poor German couple who fled to Canada back in 1749 when France and England fought over Nova Scotia. Walther Corssen there becomes a soldier first, then a Ranger, later he establishes one of the first fur trade companies there and is among the first white people who explore far west Native Americans' territories and culture. In his novels A.E. Johann describes the beauty of Canada's nature - so this challenge theme came at exactly the right time for me!
I wanted to capture the image of wide and deep forests and silent lakes at night, only lit by the Northern Lights in a tag, using mainly Emerald Creek embossing powders alongside my favourite Sizzix dies - two "Tree Line" dies (an On the Edge die and a Thinlits die) and the Evergreen Alterations die designed by no other than Tim Holtz. And this is the result:
Emerald Creek products used:
other products used available at Emerald Creek:
Distress Paint - black soot
Distress Stains - vintage photo, tea dye, wild honey
And here's how I did it:
I die cut all the needed shapes (one tree, two tree lines, a deer, two maple leaves, a branch and the tag) from heavy black cardstock. Then I used a very worn and old bristle brush to loosely add strokes of white Gesso to the top area of the tag (to create the aurora borealis).
I made sure the Gesso was really dry, then I used another bristle brush, dabbed it into the emboss it ink pad and added another layer of loose brush strokes over the white area. I sprinkled on my favourite, the awesome Fractured Ice embossing crystals, and melted them with my heat tool.
Next I took my black soot Distress paint dabber and added some vertical brush strokes on top. I wiped off the excess with a baby wipe. Voilá - there was my aurora borealis! All made from embossing powder!
I used more clear embossing ink to stamp the furthes tree line using the lovely Emerald Creek Aldergrove stamp and heat embossed the image with EC Mercury Rising embossing powder.
The bottom area of the tag that was meant to form the lake, got a layer of Fractured Ice crystals directly on the black card (using my embossing dabber).
The Fractured Ice looks so great on plain black card, doesn't it? See the tiny blingy turquoise dots? I love this effect!
I cut the die cut tree in half and heat embossed it with EC Moss Stone Green embossing powder. Then I dabbed on a bit of black soot Distress paint for some texture.
The maple leaf were heat embossed with Charred Gold and the branch and the larger leaf with Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powder. The heart brad and the cute little pine cone charm were a perfect match! The linen ribbon was toned in using wild honey, vintage photo and tea dye Distress Stains.
The stag's antlers were highlighted with Charred Gold as well. The two tree lines were heat embossed with Mercury Rising and Vintage Ivy textured embossing powders before I started to layer them on my tag with black sticky foam pads.
Et voilá!
Happy 150th birthday, Canada!!!!
And if you want to play along and celebrate too, I hope to see you over at Emerald Creek Dares!
You can win a fab $50 voucher to spend at the Emerald Creek online store! How cool is that!
But there's more! The Top3 will get a 20% off discount code for the shop AND everyone who enters the challenge can receive 10% off their order (check out the full info over at the challenge blog)! So don't miss the chance and play along!!!!
Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia
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Amazing tag, Claudia. Techniques are superb, thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove it Claudia. Thanks for sharing the techniques. Happy crafting, Angela xxX
ReplyDeleteI've always loved your projects with trees in them. I think you have a special affinity for trees. This beautiful tag reinforces that belief. Really wonderful tag.
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