February tag

Hello all,

Last night I put the finishing touches on my February tag, and here it is!

Once again, I took the example from Tim's blog, and put my own spin on it.  I had a lot of fun playing around with my waterbrush and Distress markers (for the first time since I got them, actually!), and tried two different color schemes for my conversation heart:

For my tag, I settled on the purple, but I may use the blue for another project.  :-)

My biggest frustration out of the whole project was in the final step: the tissue tape ribbon!  I bought some tissue tape last month in a sale, but this was my first time working with it.  I had so much trouble getting a long enough length to work with, without the tape shredding as I pulled it from the roll.  I wound up wasting about 3 feet, while trying to get a single 18" length I could work with!  I hope I just had something from a bad batch, because I really like the look of tissue tape, and had been looking forward to incorporating it into more projects.  :-/  (FWIW, what finally worked for me was to gently rock the tape from side to side as I pulled it from the roll.  Obviously, this won't work if you have it mounted in the dispenser, but if your tissue tape is shredding, give this a shot.)

Materials used:
 - Ranger Inkssentials Manila Craft Tags
 - Ranger Distress Inks: Black Soot, Frayed Burlap
 - Ranger Distress Stains: Festive Berries, Fired Brick
 - Ranger Distress Markers: Dusty Concord, Victorian Velvet, Fired Brick
 - Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
 - Ranger Glossy Accents
 - Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core #24
 - The Paper Studio Love Love Love Embossing Folder
 - Sizzix Valentine Set Embossing Folders - "Be Mine"
 - idea-ology Cash Keys
 - idea-ology Seasonal Chit Chat
 - idea-ology Jump Rings
 - idea-ology Nostalgic Tissue Tape
 - idea-ology Vial Labels
 - Maya Road Twine Cording: Blackberry
 - Stampin' Up Small Oval Punch
 - Stamps by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous: CMS143 & CSS25900
 - Cold-press watercolour paper
 - Foam tape, double-stick tape from my stash

I should note that I had a lot of fun learning about how to make custom cash keys with the Stampin' Up punch (my first SU product!).  I already have a few ideas for custom pendants using this technique!  :-)

Well, that's it for now.  Can't wait to see what March brings, tag-wise.  (In the meantime, I have some other new discoveries to share, so keep an eye out for those in the next few days.)

BAC