May Tag!

Hello again!

Once again, the end of the month is looming in front of me, so I spent some time last night working on my May tag!

Materials used:
 - Ranger Inkssentials Manila Craft Tags
 - Ranger Distress Ink: Chipped Sapphire
 - Ranger Distress Stain: Broken China, Bundled Sage, Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac
 - Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
 - Ranger Alcohol Ink: Juniper
 - idea-ology Filmstrip Ribbon
 - idea-ology Words Bands
 - idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon
 - idea-ology Remnant Rubs: Elements, Words
 - idea-ology Enameled Tags
 - Stamps by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous: CMS120, CSS25870, CSS30188, CSS30201, CSS30232
 - Fasteners and tape from my stash

This month's tag really highlights the fun you can have with the remnant rubs.  They resist Distress ink and stain, but you can stamp over them with Archival ink if you heat set it.  While the Archival ink is drying, you can wipe it off of the rubs in any places you want to show through.  This tag is a little "busier" and more cluttered than I usually like, but it was fun to make, and the more I look at it, the more I see things about it that I like.  And hey, the point of doing these is to play, right?  :-)

A couple notes about materials:
 - Tim's blog post referred to the remnant rubs as being "somewhat heat stable".  After using my heat tool to dry the Stains on my tag, I did notice a couple areas where the rubs didn't seem fully attached to the tag.  I'm not sure if I didn't rub them completely, or if they were exposed to too much heat, but it's worth being aware of.
 - Be careful when using alcohol ink to colour the Enameled Tags - the white does not seem fully fixed, particularly around the edges.  My felt was leaving little fuzzies on my tag, and I tried to use a paper towel to wipe them off, and inadvertently wiped some of the white.  I squirted a little blending solution onto the tag, and laid down more of my alcohol ink, and it came out just fine.  But be aware that the alcohol ink may destabilize the white layer on the tag until it's dry.
 - That said, I had a LOT of fun adding rubs to my tag to customize it.  That's a technique I can definitely see using a lot more in the future.  :-)

A couple more pics:

That's it for now!

'Til next time,

BAC