tattered chic botanical distressed tag

When I get a new supply I like to work out whether it plays well with others. There’s always great excitement when a new Distress colour is released, see below, and I wanted to put it through it’s paces and see how it fitted into my colour palette.

new distress colour – saltwater taffy

Firstly, can we just celebrate such a fabulous name! Saltwater Taffy brings to me memories of seaside trips, rock pooling, sandy hair and salty skin with a sweet treat on the way home. And as for the colour, it is a beautiful coral pink which very much fits into my colour wheelhouse. Grab your selections from the whole range here!

I’m just watching Tim Holtz reveal the new colour live on YouTube – check it out here. Tim always goes right into all about the new colour, how the colour compares to other in the Distress line and the Distress line properties as a whole. The sessions are packed with information.

I took two Tim Holtz tags and experimented with a mix of Saltwater Taffy, Speckled Egg and Rusty Hinge Spray Stains. I spritzed the tags and then dipped them into the stains. With one tag, I went for a lighter, softer look and with the other  I went much richer and with depth of colour.

The colours played so nicely together! The Speckled Egg and Rusty Hinge combined to create lovely shades of green in places and the Saltwater Taffy added a wamth to all and took the colour range from the orange of Rusty Hinge to a much more coral colour.

I reserved the lighter tag to be the base and then die cut the Chinese Lantern Stem dies from the more colourful tag. Chinese Lantern flowers are supposed to symbolise protection and with the events of the world weighing heavy on my mind I thought the idea of protection particularly appropriate. To add depth and dimension, I pushed some of the die cut pieces into Versamark ink and then sprinkled Saltwater Taffy Embossing Glaze over the top. I kept dipping into the glaze and reheating until I had lovely, glossy areas on parts of the die cuts.

Here you can see the light catching those glossy areas.

In other areas I rubbed Ranger Multi Medium Matte and dunked into Rock Candy Distress Glitter for my favourite way of adding more texture and a subtle sparkle.

Here you can see just the hints of glaze on the lantern and the sparkle on the leaf. 

I loved the look of the Saltwater Taffy Embossing Glaze so much that I splattered a little water in places and sprinkled the glaze on top, quickly heat setting it in place. It adds a lovely organic splash of colour to the background.

For the sentiment, I took a greeting from the Well Wishes set and white heat embossed it onto a scrap of the left overs.

I trimmed it out and added it with foam tape over the edge of the tag. I tore the end of the strip and emphasised the torn edge by rubbing Frayed Burlap over the end.

Here you can see everything coming together. The background tag has stitching for extra interet and a piece of torn off the darker tag and attached to the edge. I rubbed Waltnut  Stain and Black Soot Distress Oxides over this piece annd over the corner of the base tag in the top left. I’m always looking as to how I can add some dark areas for contrast. I also softened the edges of the tag with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide. I splattered of course with white gouache and also combined some of the gouache with Speckled Egg Spray Stain to give a more opaque blue splatter in places. 

I dug around in my ribbon scraps and found a piece of white lacy trim along with a pink wool and toffee coloured cord. I looped a piece of the lacy trim though the tag hole and then tied with the other two. I embellished with a few matte gold sequins held in place with Gina K Connect glue. 

All people affected by war and the horrific scenes I see unfolding. You, you are on my heart. 

Well that’s me for today. Catch up soon.

supplies

You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! Items marked with an asterisk (*) provided by a store or the manufacturer. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely appreciate your support.