I’d swim oceans for you.

I dedicate this tag to my wonderful husband – because  I’d swim oceans for him.

As some of you know (from my last blog post) I had a divil of a job photographing this tag.  (Many thanks go to Kim Styles for her helpful suggestions!).  I’ve chosen a selection of photos from the two and a half million that I took, and hope that they give you even a little ‘feel’ of this tag, which has an under the sea theme to it.  (how strange is it Kim that you and I both chose an under the sea theme for our latest projects?!)

There are various bits and pieces on this tag …

• the fishing net – I made myself out of white string, because I didn’t have any proper net.
• Two metal charms  – the smaller of the two star fish (caught in the fishing net), and the little silver sea-horse.
• The two-tone shell,  purple and silver,  is actually a real shell which I coloured up using Sharpies.
• Sequins – in four colours
• A tiny plastic shell
• The pearl (in the clam shell – bottom left of the tag) – is from a broken necklace.
• The Ammonite, the Anchor, Conch Shell, large silvery Star Fish and the Clam Shell – are all made from die cuts.

I’ve taken photographs using different lighting, or without lighting at all, in order to try to give you a hint of what this tag looks like when seen with the naked eye.

The ammonite (close up in the above photo) was stamped with embossing ink, then embossed with silver powder from Tonic and finally coloured using Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers.  It looks gold in this photograph above – but that’s because (I think) it’s picking up those peach, warm yellow and soft brown colours I used to colour up the ammonite.

The greeny brown looking smudges in the background are actually gold.  I coloured up the tag with the teal you see, then sprayed a little misting spray in gold, to just add a kind of  warm twinkle to the look of the ‘sea’.

The Clam Shell was cut from a die (top photo, above),  backed with some card and then manipulated into the shape I wanted it to be.  I used a variety of different coloured embossing powders then, sprinkled into different places,  to give it that wonderful, ‘mother of pearl’ look to the inside of the shell.

This (in the above photo) shows the original die cut next to the end result – so that you can see how it’s been shaped to look like a ‘real’ clam.

The photo above shows the two different colours of card I used to actually make the base of the shell, along with the finished shell.  The pearl I fixed in place using Glue Gel.

I’ve included this – ↑ – out of focus photo in the hope that you might get a rough idea of what this looks like in ‘real life’.  If you squint at the picture and wait a second until your focus corrects itself through your squinted eyes, you might get a different ‘look’ and show you what I was aiming for.  (if you right-click on the photo, then chose ‘open in new tab’ – you should get a slightly bigger picture to make things easier for you).

You know when you’re stood on a beach and the waves come in and lap round your feet … then just as the water slips back again, there is that magical moment when the wet sand twinkles magically in the sunlight?   Well I was after getting that magical twinkle … and at the same time I wanted things to look like they were floating beneath the sea, being pulled gently by that fishing net.  When you’re holding the tag in your hand you get this sort of fuzziness around the net and because it’s all higgeldy piggeldy, it kinda looks like it’s floating beneath the sea.

The ‘Recipe’:

• Stamps and Dies used on this tag are all by Couture Creations, from their Sea Breeze collection.
• Various colours of Tonic Embossing Powders
• Twinkle Embossing Powder by Personal Impressions, in Turquoise Sparkle
• Colouring Pens used are Spectrum Aqua Artist’s Markers.
• Card stock used for die cuts was all from off-cuts.
• All the rest of the ‘stuff’, is all from stash.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing this tag with me.  I cannot explain how much it means to have you here.  If you’d like to leave a comment, about this tag or anything else: asking a question, to introduce yourself, or even just to say hello – I’d be thrilled to pieces to hear from you.  Comments are such a genuine pleasure to me as I look on them as your way of leaving a footprint behind so that I know who you are, can say hello to you, and it’s just such a lovely way to get us all talking to each other.  So please feel very welcome to say hello.

Well, that’s me done and dusted for another day.  All that’s left for me to say is …  Have a wonderful Monday.  May it be the beginning of a lovely week for you.  Be safe out there and … if you’re old enough to remember Sgt Stan Jablonski:  “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”.  (I know Sgt Jablonski meant something else,  but by that I mean … let’s be nice to other people before they get the chance to be nice to us.  Somehow,  I’ve found,  it makes me feel like I’m walking on air when I’ve made someone else smile.  Try it.  It’s a wonderful feeling).

Have a truly great week all.