Sunflower Mixed Media Tag

 

The prompt called for a sunflower tag. I decided to go with 2" x 6" figuring that was a good tag size in general. The only requirement was there had to be a sunflower on it somewhere. Let me show you what I did. 

I began with a gelli print I made sometime ago trying out a new stencil I had. Yes, I know, stencils are kind of my thing! Hahahaha! I cut a 2" x 6" strip from the gelli print and put the rest back in the collage drawer for later use. The first thing I noticed were those little flecks of grey color. Those are bits and remnants of previous gelli pulls that remained on my gelli plate. I love how those little reminders show up and thought maybe I would play those up a bit.

I grabbed my bottle of white Winsor & Newton acrylic ink and a bottle of black Daler Rowney acrylic ink and made splatters. I do realize the white does not look white here. That's because I did the black splatters first and did not wash out the brush before I did the white ones. This way those splatters fit in better with the leftover gelli dust from previous prints. 

I brought out various elements I thought might work with my tag and began with this strip of alcohol ink art. The texture of the tag itself is rough, white art paper. The alcohol ink piece was made on Yupo paper which is glossy and slick. Contrasting textures work great together! I adhered it in place and chopped off the ends to make it fit on my tag. 

I knew I wanted to use this round piece from a different gelli print. It is one of my favorite pulls. I punched out a circle and inked the edges - and the sides of the tag - with my black Archival ink pad. 

And I started adding in other elements as well. That yellow section is also part of an earlier gelli print. Save those leftovers. Don't throw them away. They will come in handy when you need something small. And another stencil gave more texture along the bottom sides and at the top. I used the cattail color of Dyestress Ink Pads for those using my dab and stab technique. 

This word block is leftover from my scrapbooking days. Talking probably ten years ago. This tag was going to be heading to a friend in a swap and I thought maybe with all we have going on in our world these days - this sentiment might just be perfect. 

And then I found the perfect place for the circle print. The sunflower came from a Tim Holtz set of memorabilia. I loved how the tag was looking but knew it needed something more. 

Can you spot the additions? That little paperclip at the top is fun and different! I popped a little Zots Dot under it so the clip would remain in place. The little sunflower at the bottom is a brad. You know. From scrapbook days. I liked how the yellow of the brad picked up the yellow in various places across the tag and tied the whole piece together. Easy to do. Quick to put together and it went out in the mail that same day. 

Please consider subscribing to my blog. If you are on a computer, there is a link in the left sidebar, at the top of the page. On a cellphone? Or a tablet of iPad? At the top of the page, just above the name of the blog in the color photo you will see three little white bars. Click on those. The thought is if you subscribe - the posts will come to you automatically in your email. If you follow - you will not get notifications of each post but will be able to find them on your read list in Blogger. At least that's what I think I understand. Either way, thanks for being here!