May 2014 Tag - Sailing along with the Tim Holtz tags of 2014

I had so much fun making this project based on the Tim Holtz tags of 2014 for May. It's always hard to part with those embellishments but I did it!!! I have been feeling a little like sailing away across the ocean blue so I thought I could use some of my sea-faring embellishments and charms that I use to make charm bracelets. I also had a few fish stamps that I never use.

Instead of making a tag, I made a "Huge" tag, more like wall art. It's about 10 inches tall. I just cut out a piece of manilla folder for my enormous tag. I mounted the "huge tag" on some wood after it was finished. On the wood I used the technique where you paint acrylic and heat it up to make "blisters". I saw the technique in the latest "Craft Stamper" magazine. (June 2014 issue). It works. I put a little silver rub-n-buff on my finger to accentuate the "waves".

I worked hard to make "water" swirls using distress ink, but I covered them all up. Darn. Next time I'll take a photo first. I used paper from 7-gypsies called "Mariner". I found the image of the woman sailer on the internet somewhere and added the words with photoshop. It's from a T Earl Christy vintage postcard. I didn't have the shadowpress folders so I faked it in photoshop using a drop-shadow and clipping mask. The rest is just like the tutorial!

It was so much fun to make!

I'm not that great at stamping, but I stamped with ranger embossing ink and embossed the turquoise fish with embossing powder and distress powder. The crown fish is a cool stamp. I stamped with the coffee archival ink, with clear embossing powder. Then I used distress ink over it.

The seahorse is a stamp that I stamped with ranger embossing ink, and black fine embossing powder. Then I cut it out and stuck it on with foam dots. The seahorse folliage is from the Tim Holtz pinecone die, leftovers from the pinecone roses in the April tag tutorial.

The glittered shells are from the little pack of plastic button embellishments at the craft store.

Excellent tutorial and a very fun project. No stress when you get to play with treasure. Smooth Sailing!