Twigs and Owl Tag Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you had a nice weekend! We went on an outing to a castle yesterday, where there is also a second hand shop, playground and great places to have lunch. And lots of autumn trees. I found a fun little wooden box to alter in the second hand shop, and didn't even have to pay for it.

It is a new month, and on the first Monday of a new month, the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge  team showcases a specific company/designer. This week it is the very creative and innovative Tim Holtz. You don't have to use Tim's products to join in the challenge, but it is always fun if you do. His fantastic range of products can be found here. Our theme for this week is Tag It. Don't miss the first project from our October guest designer Tenia Nelson with her blog Jazzy Paper Designs. I hope you will stop by her blog and enjoy all the inspiration.

Tags are such a great surface to work on and they are perfect for trying out new techniques. I also really like the size and shape of a tag, and I keep many of my tags on display for quick technique or color inspiration. For this week, I made a Halloween tag, with a fun double tag background. 

Start by die cutting the Tangled Twigs die from a Heavystock tag. I used the Sizzix Chrome Precision Base Plate, to make sure all the details were die cut perfectly. Doesn't it look cool?

Color the twigs by smearing various brown Distress Crayons, blending with your finger. I also wiped over the surface with a slightly moist cloth.

Take another tag and paint it with Distress Paint. I used Mermaid Lagoon on the top two-thirds, and Broken China on the bottom.

When dry, smear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint on the tag with a palette knife, varying the thickness.

When the tag is dry, accentuate the cracks by smearing a brown Distress Crayon into them.

I love this stamp from Tim's new Mr Bones set and stamped it on Specialty Stamping Paper with Jet Black Archival Ink. I die cut it with one of the Stitched Circles dies and tore off the outer circle to get a jagged edge.

I forgot to take a step photo for the coloring of the tag. I used Pergamano Blending Pen Craft Nib Holder and Blending Pen Nibs, for all the details, picking up Distress Ink with it's fine tip. It was the first time I used this tool and I thought it worked really great. The edges were inked with Mermaid Lagoon and a Mini Ink Blending tool and the textured look of the Black Soot ink was done with a Tim Holtz Blending Brush.

I stapled the twigs tag to the blue tag. The ribbon was done by folding over a piece of design ribbon.

The Distress Crayon will be thicker in some areas on the twigs, which adds to the look.

The title was die cut from black cardstock and from a paper inked with Spiced Marmalade. I also used some Clippings Stickers.

Here's another look at the textured effect of the crackled background and the detailed twigs.

There is a cheese cloth spiderweb under the owl circle and I added two spiders and an owl Adornment, distressing them with black paint.

I hope you will join us this week in our Tag It challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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