Find Joy in the Ordinary - A Vintage Journey Challenge

I'm excited to be sharing a tag I made for a new mixed media challenge blog I found - A Vintage Journey.

These are the Challenge #4 instructions 

Spring Flowers

We want to see your makes adorned with spring flowers.

You might want to use stamps,  handmade flowers from dies, ideology blooms 

or bought blooms as long as they have been stamped, made or altered 

using a Tim technique or product.

They don't have to be actual spring flowers but let's see the colours of spring!

 I started out my tag by dragging a piece of Specialty Stamping Paper through a puddle of Rubbing Alcohol mixed with a drop of each of three Archival Reinkers - Orange Blossom, Cornflower Blue and Leaf Green.  I forgot to take a picture of the actual piece I used but here is another piece I made using the same 'puddle' of colors, just so you get the idea.

I dried it with my heat gun and cut it with Tim Holtz Alteration Tag & Bookplate die.
I stamped the bird and Fig #'s from Stampers Anonymous Classics #16 Set in Archival Black.  I stamped the building/text stamp from the same set in Archival Tree Branch.

The feather is from the Stampers Anonymous Bird Feather set and the flower is from Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi The Beauty of Art Set - both stamped in Archival Tree Branch.  I colored both the bird and flower with Ranger Distress Markers

I added the Remnant Rubs - Botanical - spread your wings, take flight, and find the joy in the ordinary - the little bee on the flower is also a Remnant Rub.  I sponged the edges with both Scattered Straw and Frayed Burlap Ranger Distress Inks - it only created a subtle shading since this specialty paper is shiny and doesn't absorb the ink as much as cardstock would.

To finish off the edges - I added Industrious Stickers Borders to the top and bottom after I inked them by first rubbing the Archival Leaf Green ink pad over them and drying it with my hot gun- then inking a little more with Archival Orange Blossom.  

 I also layered the tag to a piece of black cardstock to clean up the back and make the tag a little firmer.  I rubbed the wrinkled seam tapes with Ranger Distress Frayed Burlap to grunge them up a bit!

I'm just starting to get into Mixed Media and I'm not comfortable yet with adding layers and layers (and maybe I never will be?!) - so this is still pretty clean and flat - but I'm happy with my Spring Flower Tag!  I love just looking at it - which is how art should be right?

I'm also entering my tag in the Inspiration Emporium Blog challenge -  A Few of my Favorite things -  (that would be birds and flowers for me!)

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous- Classics #16 and Bird Feather, Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi The Beauty of Art.

Paper:  Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper, True Black - Papertrey Ink

Ink:  Archival ink Leaf Green, Jet Black, Orange Blossom and Tree Branch, Archival Reinkers Orange Blossom, Cornflower Blue and Leaf Green, Ranger Distress Scattered Straw and Frayed Burlap.

Accessories:  Tag and Bookplate Die - Tim Holtz Alterations, wrinkled seam tape - Prairie Bird Boutique Etsy Shop, heat gun, rubbing alcohol - CVS, Remnant Rubs/Botanicals and Industrious Stickers/Borders - Tim Holtz Ideology, Ranger Distress Markers - Spiced Marmelade, Iced Spruce, Shabby Shutters and Weathered Wood.