So Much Fun!

 

As soon as I saw Tim's tag for this month, I couldn't wait to make it and knew it would be my favorite.  For those of you who live in a cave and don't know what I'm talking about, it's Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 and you can see his April tag and get all the instructions here.

I usually make the tags with my friend, Grace, but poor Gracie has been dealing with a lot of crap and overtime at her job this month, and we could never get together.  I realized it was the end of the month, so I had to make this one without her.  :-(

 

I started by making the background for the tag using Tim's Distress Paints with the new metallics.  So awesome!  I usually just wipe up any excess ink/paint on my craft sheet, but I wanted to save this goodness, so I swiped a 2nd tag in...

And a 3rd.  I had to stop myself at this point, cause now I was adding more paint, and was having so much fun, I could've kept covering until all my blank tags were done!

Since I was adding paint to finish covering this one, some of the paint was a little thick.  Tim suggested dabbing up excess paint with a towel, but I kept it.  The thick areas bubbled up when I used my heat gun and left some really cool textured areas.

I had to make a tough decision and choose one for my tag, and I'll save the other 2 for another day.

Next, I chose some Idea-ology and a plastic number to do faux patina on.  While drying these with the heat gun, I realized the metal gets HOT!  Yikes!

Like I said, I loved Tim's tag so much, I wanted to do everything he did.  But, I decided to use a 3 instead of a 4 so I'd be a little different.  lol

Edges were distressed and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I really love this tag, and I had the most fun creating it!  Here are some close-ups ...

I used Tim's Texture Hammer to bang up the brads in the centers of the gears.

Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art is so much fun to play with and mold.  Very easy too!  It just takes a little patience and practice.

I rubbed some Broken China paint in the crevices of all the text and wiped off with a towel before adding the other colors of paint to the top & edges.

And, those pen nibs are really sharp!  I like the little touch this added to the tag, and I'll be using more of these in my projects in the future.  And, my plastic number 3 came out better than expected.  Love it!