Tag time!

Today I spent part of the day trying to get back in the creative groove, and finish up some swaps.

I tried REALLY HARD to focus on ONE thing! So it was TAGS and the theme was a favorite quote. The plan was to use Einstein's "Imagination is more important than knowledge" quote, but the inspiration that came was actually from this one by Stella Adler.

"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."





What's funny is how this tag came about. I began with the first tag on the left (shown below). I did the tag on the right, and then worked on the middle tag. I typically will work several backgrounds at once. As long as I'm 'making a mess...."

Well Tag in the middle was becoming it's own disaster. By the time I got to that tag, the stencil was wet, the acrylic black was bleeding ( watered down by cleaning off the stencil, the green/teal circles were a nightmare.... THEN I used the DOTS stencil from Dylusions... Oh that did not make it all better I guarantee you..... I just KNEW at the time I should have taken a picture! I always tell people the beauty of collage is that you can usually cover or hide your mistakes. This one is proof. The background is very similar to the tag on the right, but think MORE train wreck....












As I worked layers of teal acrylic, and rehydrated the Dylusions spays it really came to life. The woman stencil is from The Crafters Workshop, and I used it to preserve some of the 'good' part of the train wreck by masking it off & going around it with acrylic black. When I removed it, I used a white Sharpie Poster Paint pen to highlight inside the black line.



I made a necklace from yellow brads to add a pop of another color. The hand is a masonite cut out from Michaels. The flower is a paper type, sprayed with Dylusions. in sunshine yellow and the new pink.


There's some washi tape that adds to the yellow accents as well. On the hand, I used the small flower boarder from the Dylusions DOTS stencil with my white Sharpie. I had painted the hand with Snow cap white Dabber, then let the pink spray run down it spritz with water to lighten.  I dapped it in the end in extra puddles on the craft sheet.


I have to admit, I LOVE how the tag turned out. But I am still going to send it out. I'll know it's journey, and hope it's new home will appreciate it's transformation into art.

So my lesson to remember today, is things aren't always as they appear.

With art as with life, you need to push past the bad and keep at it. Sometimes a train wreck isn't a train wreck after all...
(yes I made that up. I better not see that wise-ness show up on a stamp... LOL!)


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