Courage Tag

Tim Holtz, the Creative Director for Ranger Industries, is challenging his blog readers to participate in the "12 tags of 2012" and create a new tag every month using some of the techniques he introduces.  His first challenge in this series was in February, so of course I made a "Love Tag."  This month he introduced a paper mosaic technique in his 12 tags of 2012 - March post.  It can be a little time consuming, but it's easy to do and the results are spectacular.  Since the theme was Spring, I designed a cross and surrounded it with flowers.

I live in a remote area, so I don't have easy access to all the materials he used.  Therefore, I was a little creative and substituted materials as needed.  I used a cross looking flower I had from a set of BasicGrey self-adhesive chipboard shapes.  Since I didn't have grey embossing powder, I mixed some black and white embossing powders.  It didn't work, so I ended up with a stained glass look instead of the mosaic look.  However, I liked it!  I used glossy accents on the papered areas as per his instructions.  As a finishing touch to my cross, I added a rhinestone piece to the center.  I used an Inkadinkado vintage photograph stamp for my tag's background, stained it, scraped the edges, and used an ink pad to edge it.  Next, I attached an MT tape tag to the bottom, and wrote the word "Courage" with a Micron pen.  Then, I arranged and sewed three fabric flowers using vintage brass beads for the centers.  I attached my cross over the flowers with foam pads for additional dimension.  Finally, I stained a piece of ribbon, tied it to the top, and added a brass safety pin as an embellishment.

Tim Holtz's March Inspiration Tag

As always, I love the different designs that evolve in creative challenges, so I can't wait to see the other entries.  I also love to give and receive feedback, so please leave a comment letting me know what you think.  Blessings!