Tagged Expressions...

Hello!
Monday musings are in the house as a new Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge theme hits town. Time for some Tagology this week...with well, yes, a tag! Or two or three then...

The perfect sized canvas for a miniature work of art and coincidentally a fabulous chance to show off your Tim tags if you're on the school bus with Creative Chemistry 101! l was well pleased with the tag theme as my whole house and moreover, my crafty zone, are but chaotic dust dunes. The makeover endureth...

There's seems to be so many changes going on at the moment - in both my house and my life as baby day races towards me. Eeeek!

l've always been a  real "Do what I want, go go go!" type of gal, so I'm on a very steep learning curve indeed.

I've never done any art journalling but love the expressive nature of it so I decided to lay down my thoughts in a triptych of inky tags aided by the company of my favourite Wendy Vecchi stamps...

The story line is Stop and Listen, Become and finally Live...and I think it's fair to say that's probably the order that things need to happen in - for many of us. I'm not always such a fan of the 'stop' bit, but sometimes a new start begins with a stop!

Only then can you actually really listen. I've also come to the conclusion that "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable and valid answer to many of life's questions...

l enjoyed a real free 'go with the flow' session using a variety of Distress Stains and Distress Inks  to create my back ground.

 I began with a mix of Distress Stains on my craft sheet and then dragged my tags through them. I dried them, spritzing on a little water to help them blend and then carried on building up the layers by pressing the tag down into the remaining stains.

This achieves more of a blotchy, dappled effect which I like a lot.

l added more colour by blending Distress Inks onto each tag and then I think I pulled out every Wendy background stamp I own! I used lots of Monarch Orange, Vermillion and Plum Archival inks to stamp just sections of the tags. Then I went in with more detail including flowers, leaves, numbers and here the fabulous Wrought Iron border.

I chose a stamp to be the focal point of each tag. The Art Girl for the first, the dress-form for the second and finally the Peeking In Eyes. The Girl and Eyes were stamped directly onto the tag in Cobalt ink whilst the dress form was stamped in Plum onto inky card and then cut out.

l used a Signo white gel pen to pick out some of the stamped details, shapes and lines as well as adding a bit of contrast. Lines, dots, circles -  or just refining and  retracing the shapes - whatever I fancied!

Once I was happy with that I stamped a Wendy saying and played around with some of the words. I think they are great phrases to play with and would be fabulous in on a real journal page...

Just a quick close-up. I luuuurve how the circles, stripes and leaves work together...

So there you go... A bit of tag journalling and inky food for thought from me. If, maybe like me, you're not ready for a full on Art journal, let your fingers and thoughts run wild on a tag....! Do take a look at the other fabulous creations from the Design Team. I think they're all so amazing and different.

Don't forget the generous $50 prize on offer too! Your imagination and an empty tag awaits you... and a dishevelled craft room awaits me....
I've got my work cut out today so I'm off into the inky beyond.

Many thanks for stopping by,
Sarah.