Ornate Ovate Ornithology Alphatag

Collages of Alphatags to date can be viewed HERE.

As I've been  interested in birds ever since childhood & Chocolate Baroque have some delightful bird images, ornithology seemed a logical choice for my "O" Baroque Guild Alphatag. I'm particularly drawn to the stamps of patterned birds (like those I have used) so ornate was easy to incorporate & eggs are ovate. The idea of an orchard is implied by the leaves in the patterned paper & my top right leaf cluster.

front of tag

close-up of upper section 

close-up of lower section

angled  view to show dimensional shaping of bird,
brick wall & leaf cluster

close-up showing dimension & shine of wet embossed letter
plus some brick detail

back of tag

close-up showing paper pierced scallops of theme
panel, tone on tone stamping & pearlescence of cardstock

The brick wall was created by sponging Distress Ink through a template, misting & drying the panel. It was then cut out & the individual bricks were defined & shaped using various sizes of ball tool. The  shaping of the large bird was also achieved using a ball tool.

Recipe

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA5SP0256 Fly Away With Me (large & small ornate birds), UDLGW0093 Ornate Alphabet (letter "O"), UA4SP0385 Baroque Eggs (eggs), UDLSP0301 Bird Song (tone on tone stamping).

Inks Memento Tuxedo Black (patterned birds) & Grape Jelly (tone on tone stamping); Dusty Concord Distress Ink (stencil sponging & inking various cardstock edges); Creamy Brown, Chestnut Roan & Dark Brown ColorBox Fluid Chalk Inkpads (eggs); Emboss Tinted Stamp Pad with Stampendous Detail Black Embossing Powder (letter "O").

Markers etc... Dusty Concord Distress Marker, Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker, Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, Copic Ciao Markers.

Cardstock White & an assortment of mauves in various finishes from stash.

Paper Graphicus Guild Membership Pack.

Die Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates.

Punches Woodware (scalloped circle & leaf shapes).

Template Crafter's Workshop Mini Bricks.
The gem & ribbon are from stash.

Challenges Entered

Stampalot July Challenge - What's your Crafty Passion?  I love using the techniques of paper piercing & tone on tone stamping. I also like to add dimension by shaping elements using a ball tool on an embossing mat as I did here with the large bird, the brickwork & the leaf cluster.
Judith's Forgotten Friday 60 The patterned birds stamp set Fly Away With Me has never been used since it was purchased in November 2011.

Cross-referencing PEP tangles Posts

Some concern has arisen over my inactivity on PEP & Paper so in future I shall be cross-referencing this blog with my PEP tangles posts.

To date (in reverse order) I have posted the following on PEP tangles:

Auraknot Twinchie
Tangled Twinchie
A New Notebook

A New Notebook & Zentangle Blog

I have started a blog - PEP tangles for my experiences with the Zentangle art form. There is a wealth of information available & I felt it was worth starting a separate blog to document my findings.

Nuptial Notes Alphatag

The last of my tags for the Baroque Guild Alphatag Swap this month. The remaining 6 months each have two tags allocated to them so we've just crossed the midpoint & not one person who originally signed up for the swap has dropped out. 

Edited 22/6

Why I didn't think of this before I don't know but better late than never. There is a section on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog which is for public view & devoted to the Alphatag Swap.

front of tag

close-up of upper section

close-up of lower section

close-up of focal image showing iridescence
of paper used for her dress

close-up to show sparkly tiara & translucence of parchment
veil plus the 'creamy' nature of the iridescent paper dress

close-up to show pink sheen of wet embossed letter,  floral
dress decoration & textured cardstock

back of tag

close=up showing paper pierced scallops & inked edges
of theme panel plus background stamping

I had to rethink my initial idea of nautical navigation as it just looked like a jumble. I'm very much an evolving kind of crafter - I have to start & see how an idea develops & looks as I go along. With this project I had a cream tag with a black die-cut behind the image & toyed with using pale blue instead of the soft rose. The musical notes & the outer heart are actually a very deep pearlescent dusky pink though they appear red in my photos.

Since the musical note punch may have been used once since it was bought several years ago & none of these stamps have been inked since purchasing them in 2011 I am joining Judith's Forgotten Friday 57 with this tag.

Recipe

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA5SP0359 Wedding Belle (bride) & UA5SP0363 Musical Fanfare (music & treble clef).

Inks Brilliance Graphite Black (image); Tattered Rose Distress Ink (background stamping on reverse & inking various cardstock edges); VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Craft-ease Pearlite Gossamer Pink Embossing Powder (letter "N").

Pencils/Markers etc... Faber-Castell Polychromos & Lyra Skin Tones Pencils with paper stumps & Sansodor, Sakura Gelly Roll Pen (tiara), Tattered Rose Distress Marker.

Cardstock White, soft rose in both smooth pearlescent & textured pearlescent finishes, plus dusky pink pearlescent all from stash.

Paper Iridiscent cream & parchment from stash.

Dies Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Booklplates; Spellbinders Shapeabilities Ironwork Motifs.

Punches Woodware (musical note, heart, scalloped heart, scalloped circle).

The pearl hearts, floral ribbon & cream ribbon are all from stash.

Challenges Entered

My Time To Craft 182 - Weddings

Simon Says..... Anything BUT a Card

Moonlit Miniature Meadow in Monochrome Alphatag

It was whilst working on the recent anniversary card that the idea of using moonlight, meadow & monochrome for my Baroque Guild "M" Alphatag came about. The miniature element evolved when I came across the miniature meadow scene in the Eastern Grasses stamp set whilst looking for some suitable grass stamps to use.

front of tag 

close-up of upper section 

close-up of miniature meadow scene 

close-up of lower section showing die-cut
& heat embossed 'm' detail 

back of tag

close-up showing paper pierced scallops
of theme panel plus tone on tone stamping

Recipe

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0291 Eastern Grasses (meadow scene & tone on tone stamping) & UA6GW0211 Celebrations Alphabet (letter 'm').

Inks ColorBox Petal Point Pigment Arboretum & Tuscany sets (sponging); Memories Dye Artprint Brown (image plus inking paper & some cardstock edges); Encore Champagne (inking some cardstock edges); VersaMark watermark stamp pad with Stampendous Penny Copper Embossing Powder (letter 'm').

Pens etc... Staedtler Triplus Fineliner.

Cardstock White, cream & an assortment of browns in various finishes from stash. 

Paper Graphicus Guild Membership Pack.

Dies Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates; Spellbinders Shapeabilities Ironwork Motifs.

Punches EK Success (small circles), Woodware (leaves & scalloped oval).

The gems are Kanban & the ribbon is from stash.

Challenges Entered
PanPastel UK Challenge 23 - Summertime (my meadow of grasses by moonlight reminds me of warm balmy summer nights)
Simon Says Stamp & Show a Bit of Brown!

Leaves & Ladybirds Alphatag

I find ladybirds & beetles absolutely intriguing & was delighted when I discovered that I had 3 different ladybird stamps amongst my Chocolate Baroque sets which I could use for my Baroque Guild "L" Alphatg. With a little tweaking of the stamps I could even colour the images authentically  (using information from the UK Ladybird Survey to identify the different species). The recent release of Sunny Sunflowers stamps gave me the perfect leaf images for a background.

front of tag 

close-up of upper section

close-up of lower section

close-up photos to show the shaping & glossiness of each individual ladybird            

 

back of tag

side view showing effect of light on the leaves
 stamped with Encore Champagne ink

close-up showing paper pierced scallops
of theme panel

Each ladybird was stamped twice so that the body itself could be cut out & shaped (using a ball tool) after colouring with Copic Markers. The glossy surface was achieved by heat/wet embossing with clear embossing powder & each body was then attached to its respective legs & head. The metallic backing of the 'Crystal Effects' sticker is a piece of aluminium foil.

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0200 Lily (pine ladybird), UA5SP0380 Fragrant Honeysuckle (7-spot ladybird), UA5SP0381 The Rose Tree (2-spot ladybird),  & UA4SP0390 Sunny Sunflowers (leaves).
Inks Memento Tuxedo Black & Bamboo Leaves, Encore Champagne, VersaMarker pen with Stewart Gill Ultrafine Clear Embossing Powder.
Colouring Copic Ciao & Sketch Markers (ladybirds); Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils with paper stumps & Sansodor (leaves); Inkssentials Black Enamel Accents (detail of ladybird heads).
Pens etc... Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker, Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, Black Pilot V5 Grip Rollerball.
Cardstock Whites, yellow & Moondust gold from stash.
Paper Graphicus Guild Membership Pack.
Die Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates.
Punches Woodware (circles & scalloped circle).
The 'Crystal Effects' sticker is Dovecraft; the ribbon & gems are from stash.

Challenge Entered
Simon Says.... Joy's Summer Inspiration
I was really struck by how the colours of Joy's Inspiration Board matched those that I used for my tag. Also the fact that the theme suggested by her board is 'Summer' which is really the only time of year that ladybirds (I believe they are called ladybugs in the US) are about.
Joy's Inspiration matches my tag though the former did not  inspire the latter but I shall enter my tag into the challenge & just request that I be advised if it is ineligible.

Tackling Sponging & Minimal Clutter

I have never been terribly successful with sponging techniques & settled for using Distress Inks with Sponge Daubers or the Ink Blending Tool but inspired by Heather Telford's card on Tuesday's Penny Black post I decided to have another go.

my inexpensive organizing for
sponging

There are times when I need to make a card without embellishments or clutter &, as it happened, I had an anniversary card to make for today - for a gentleman with conservative taste. Interrupted by several migraines & some unplanned plus incorrect furniture deliveries I finally managed to finish the card last night & I'm daftly thrilled at having produced something that might pass for Clean & Simple yet still satisfies my desire for layers, plus the sponging was far more successful than it has ever been. I thought about why & came to the conclusion that it was a combination of practice, organizing a separate sponge for each colour of ink & using the longer drying pigment inks on cardstock that they seemed to 'like' (surprisingly the relatively inexpensive 220 gsm white card available from  WHSmith in the UK). It also seemed to me that by removing the decision making of what corners to round & which pearls/gems/flowers to add where, I was dithering about less & that the straight mat & layering enhances the sponging & stamping.

front of card - the glittery flecks in the gold matting
layer can be seen by clicking on the image

close-up 

inside of card

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0339 Essence of Nature (flowers), UA5SP0356 Floral Bouquet (sentiment) & UA5SP0252 Tall Trees (leaves inside).
Inks ColorBox Petal Point Pigment (Arboretum & Tuscany sets).
Cardstock An assortment of whites, browns & cream plus gold with glitter flecks from stash.

As I've rarely used the Petal Point Pigment sets & the sentiment stamp has not been used since it was purchased (May 2011) I shall join in Judith's Forgotten Friday with this card.