Botanical Tag {with Eclectica³ and Hot Picks Stamps by Brenda Brown}

Hi everyone, my name is Brenda and I have been having great fun creating some of my most favourite makes – I call them extended tags. I love all things vintage and tags for me are the perfect size to create small pieces of art. I also love creating collage and I thought I would share some of what I do when making one.

I have 6 key design factors that I focus on and beside each of them I have put the decisions I made

for this tag-

Theme – Botanical – flowers, nature, warm summer days.

Colour – browns, pinks and greens

Background – textured and layered.

Focal Point – Large stamp – flowering bloom, very dominant.

Collage Elements – butterflies - kept to the rule of 3

Composition – simple, vertical flow, unity of parts.

I started with just one key image which I knew would be the focal point and provide me with a botanical theme and feelings of warm lazy days of summer. I wanted my colour palette to reflect my vintage style as well as the botanical theme.

I first stamped this gorgeous bloom from HP 1111,using plum archival ink and then I set about the painting. 

HP 1111

I love to mix products to create tones and shades of colour and here I have used Rose and Stone Fresco Finish paints and Aged Mahogany distress ink for the bloom. For the stem and leaves I used Hey Pesto, Guacamole and Stone. I cut out the image, edged it with walnut stain to give it that vintage look and stamped over the green areas using the music stamp from ESN07

ESN 07

The last step was to cover it with satin glaze which makes the light shine differently on it, and provides a subtle contrast to the background.

I then prepared the tag, first covering the card with book pages and tissue wrap, drying it off and sanding the edges. With blending foam I layered over Chocolate Pudding, London Night and Nougat Fresco Finish paints and dried it. Over this I dabbed Nougat and Snowflake to lighten it and dried and then dabbed over Rose mixed with Aged Mahogany to get some fabulous pinky tones. 

When this layer was dry I took a babywipe and knocked back some very small areas so that you can see the tissue wrap and lower colours come through, this really helps to create some depth and further interest.

Finally I used the harlequin stamp from Ink and Dog Letters 5 and snowflake paint to start to bring in some pattern and over that I stamped the small numbers (from ESN 07) using black archival ink.

Ink and Dog Letters5

This creates a great multi-layered background and is a fabulous contrast to the large and quite imposing bloom.

To finish I distressed and inked the edges of the tag and gathered three butterflies as collage elements to add to the design but when I put it all together the stalk looked too long so I added the small phrase to bring it back into balance. Where the elements have been placed creates a vertical layout where the eyes are kept within the tag and can move up and down and back to the gorgeous flower head. The paper at the bottom ‘grounds’ the focal image so that it doesn’t look as though it is floating in mid air and I purposefully placed two of the butterflies at different intervals to create more interest.

To create an extended tag I used the new Chatsworth papers and cut a rectangle 9 x 19 cms, I shaped the top to look like a tag and distressed and inked the edges. This gives me additional space at the bottom to add further collage details and I used the lovely Lin Brown quote from ELB 01. 

ELB 01

Finally I positioned one of the butterflies as a bridge taking the eyes from the bottom up the project again.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my offering today. Have fun designing and creating.

Brenda.

A huge thanks to Brenda from all at PaperArtsy, it is so lovely to have you here. This is a truly beautiful tag. I love the 'extended' element, it really gives the tag more impact. The subtle colours and texture of the background are the perfect setting for the large bloom. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 30th March 2014